Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

The Dragon S summon was large enough that he could serve as a shield even when fighting multiple enemies. But this was also the Dragon King who had tried taking over the world, so Allen would need to make sure to come to a mutual understanding with him eventually.

"Allen, you're not going to sleep yet?"

Cecile spoke with a worried voice, since Allen was still analyzing his new summon.

"I'll go when I'm done."

"That's the Angel S summon, isn't it?"

Sophie was also there, and she would stay until Allen was done.

"Yes. I've gotten the Dragon and Wraith S Rank summons after all."

Allen turned Merus and Magra into cards again.

'[1 S Rank Magic Stone], [Wraith S Summon], [Dragon S Summon], and [49 Sacred Beast Points] needed for an Angel S Summon. Would you like to use Sacred Beast Points?'

The two S Rank sumon cards combined into one, the Sacred Beast Points were used, and a new card appeared in Allen's hands.

The card had [Angel S Summon] written on it.

(Going through such a hard dungeon was worth it, I got a strong sword, Magra, and now even more stuff.)

Allen was so excited he could not contain himself.

"Alright, time to summon him! Woahh! Merus turned into a S Rank summon! …He looks a bit more mature, huh."

'What do you mean, more mature?'

Merus vanished for a moment when he was turned into a card, and then appeared again when Allen summoned him. But he looked slightly different since he came back as an S Rank summon.

Merus was half naked before, but now there was a white cloth covering his upper body too.

His ruffled brown hair had grown longer, reaching his back.

There were 2 stacked rings on his head, and 3 pairs of wings on his back.

His stature went from 178cm to 182cm, and he looked like he aged around 10 years.

Allen was a bit shocked to see more changes than when he used Kingship.

"Merus, I guess you're the only one, the B Rank and S Rank Angels weren't other angels."

'I guess. Let me see the Grimoire.'

Merus wanted to know how strong he was now.

[Species] Angel

[Rank] S

[Name] Merus

[Strength] 50000 + 10000 (Sword and Shield) + 5000 (Command)

[Mana] 50000 + 10000 + 5000

[Divine Power] 65000

[Attack] 50000 + 30000 + 5000

[Endurance] 50000 + 30000 + 5000

[Agility] 50000 + 10000 + 5000

[Intelligence] 50000 + 10000 + 5000

[Luck] 50000 + 10000 + 5000

[Blessing] All stats 10000 + 5000

[Special Skill] Attribute Enhancement, Angel's Ring, Retribution, Plasma Ball, Magic Shield, Swordsmanship (9)

[Awakened Skill] Judgement Thunder, <sealed>, Lightning Slash

(He has the Angel B's Special Skill and Awakened Skill too. His Swordsmanship Skill is also higher than that of the other S Rank summons. But there's an Awakened Skill that's still sealed, I wonder if that will unlock when I have all the S Rank summons together.)

Looking at his stats, he was like the other S Rank summons with 5 Special Skills and 3 Awakened Skills. The Special and Awakened Skills of the Angel B summon were also transferred to the Angel B summon.

But Merus also had a Swordsmanship Skill, which added one more entry compared to the other S Rank summons.

(He doesn't have Sacred Bead Creation though? I thought I'd be able to get a bunch of Sacred Bead Points since he's an angel, but I guess that wouldn't help in battle. It's still a bit underwhelming, but I'll have to experiment to see what he can do. Also, I wonder if I can use Kingship?)

Just in case, Allen used the Skill [Kingship] on Merus.

'The Kingship Skill can't be used on an Angel S summon.'

(I see, it hasn't worked since I got A Rank summons after all. Can I summon an A Rank Merus at the same time then?)

He started Synthesizing summon cards, then made 1 Angel A summon.

'There's already an Angel S summoned, so an Angel A can't be summoned.'

(I guess I can't. But the Angel A Blessings are really good, so I guess I can keep the card.)

He could not summon Merus and the S Rank version at the same time. He could only make 1 card of them, so for now he kept it in storage to summon later.

He turned the S Rank Merus back into a card, summoned the A Rank Merus, and verified that he still had the same memories and behavior.

After more tests, he and his friends went to sleep.

＊＊＊

After sleeping for a long time, Allen woke up and saw that the sky was dark.

He could hear a lot of cheering around the fireplace outside, so they were probably celebrating.

"Wha-?!"

Letting out a shocked voice, Allen jumped out of his bed, equipped his rings and bracelets, and opened his Grimoire in a hurry.

"It's been a while since I've overslept like this. Ultimate Summoner."

Allen activated his Divine Technique to be able to use the Generation Skill, and then began making the Grimoire's pages move by really quickly.

The Divine Technique Activation time was 1 hour, and had a 1 day cooldown.

[Rules of what to shout when activating one's Divine Technique]

-Summoner: Ultimate Summoner

-Dragoon Emperor: Ultimate Dragon Rider

-Beast Fighter Emperor: Ultimate Beast Fighter

-Sorcerer King: Ultimate Magic Sorcerer

-Singer Emperor: Ultimate Singer

-Dragon King: Ultimate Dragon Lord

-The terms like King and Emperor to denote Stars don't change anything

His rings and bracelets reduced cooldowns to a fourth, making it 6 hours.

"Oh no, it's running out already."

(Is Luck out there?)

Allen's face was terrifying as he rushed out and began looking around the fireplace.

He waved off everyone greeting him as he ran towards Luck.

"Oh, good morning. What's wrong with your face…"

Almost all of his friends were outside, and Cecile looked baffled seeing Allen's desperate face.

The others also wondered what was happening.

"Sometimes it's fine to take a break and rest."

He was barely wearing anything and his hair was really ruffled, so Sophie used her fingers to straighten it out a bit.

"You, extend the duration of my Skills."

Luck manifested the Time Great Spirit, and extended the duration of Allen's Divine Technique.

"Thanks… I've completely missed 3 cycles of cooldowns."

Allen was almost as desperate as if he had lost his saves in a game.

Allen had always put his soul into raising his Skills.

There were cooldowns in this world, so he would often wake up at night to complete his quota.

But this time he had been awake for too long, so he regretted getting so excited about his rewards, as that had made him oversleep.

"It's barely been a day since we conquered the dungeon, no one will say anything for resting after that. Here, this is for you."

"Thanks…"

(This is too heavy to eat right after waking up.)

While Sophie gently combed his hair with her fingers, Cecile just threw a whole chicken grilled on a skewer into his hands. But he knew to appreciate Cecile's brusque kindness.

The roasted chicken smelled really good, but it was too heavy for something to eat right after waking up. He would be happier with Mormo Fruits, but he knew Cecile would punch him if he rejected it. So he slowly began picking at it, eating the meat from the skewer.

"Morning, Allen. I've never seen you sleep for so long."

Merle had known Allen since they were in the Academy.

Everyone else had already woken up and finished eating, and were drinking in celebration.

"Good morning, Merle."

"When I was the leader we only got to the 62nd floor even though we tried a bunch of times, but in your first time… I guess you're the leader for a reason."

Merle had been the leader of the group when Allen was not there.

Even though Luck, Admiral Galara, Gatoruga, and Merus were also there, Merle was the one assigned to lead them.

Merle piloted the intelligent golem Tam-Tam, so she had easier access to information and could relay instructions better.

"Not really, I've been through dungeons like this tens of thousands of times in my past life. I just have more experience."

He still recalled those games that advertised being replayable for 1000s of times.

"Tens of thousands…incredible."

Merle was shocked.

"I never really played shooters though, so I think you and Admiral Galara did really well."

"Admiral, he praised us!"

"I heard! Ghahahah!"

Allen also included Admiral Galara when praising them.

Since they could rest the day after doing a run of the dungeon, he was really drunk.

So he would just laugh and agree with anything he heard.

Allen was a gamer that loved speedrunning, but there were games he was good at, and games he was bad at, and he had to pick which ones he spent most of the time with during his 35 years of living in his previous world.

There were probably other gamers who would just latch on to whatever the new popular gamer was, but Allen felt like following trends was not something a real gamer should do.

Dungeon crawlers were Allen's favorite, and he had played countless of them.

He only touched a few shooting games, and bullet hell games took too much time to master.

As a summoner he just controlled creatures from far away, keeping his body relatively safe, but Merle and Galara had to pilot their golems to avoid enemy fire, and they did that masterfully, so Allen felt it was right to praise them.

"You've proven your ability time and time again, and yet you remain humble. I guess that's just how you are."

Shea had some fruit wine in a golden cup and drank from it.

"Everyone has things they're good and bad at. Fighting games were awful for me too."

Allen always avoided PvP in MMORPGs and other online games.

Having to read the movements of the enemy and know when to use special abilities was too hard.

"Oh, so there's things I'm better at than you too then."

Shea seemed to be in a good mood, as she stood up like a character in a fighting game.

Hearing all of that, someone else came to join the celebration.

"Alright, give me a drink too."

"Here you go, Habarak."

He had been trying out the Earth Hammer, which was still in his hand, while the cloth around his head was drenched in sweat and oil.

"Thanks… Phewww!!"

Habarak took a mug that would have been called a mega jockey in Allen's past life, which was filled with heavy undiluted alcohol, and downed it all in one go.

Soon after his assistants also came and sat down around the fireplace.

"How does it feel? Do you like your new Divine Artifact?"

(He brought it to eat, so he must really like it.)

Habarak had just stopped testing the Divine Artifact [Earth Hammer] that they had obtained as a reward from the 80th floor of the Earth Labyrinth.

"There's only one way of putting it, it's amazing. I'll craft you the best weapons and armor ever! Thank you!!"

Habarak thanked Allen and everyone else who helped with going through the dungeon.

Hearing that, Allen also began to get excited about testing out his own new sword.

"No need to mention it, it'll help everyone after all. But I'm glad to hear that."

"Yeah, though I still have a feeling that it's not as efficient as it was inside the Earth Labyrinth."

Not even a Divine Artifact was as powerful as the effect the forges in the Earth Labyrinth had.

"Oh come on, forget about work and drink now."

"Right, sorry. Thank you for refilling it."

Admiral Galara interrupted them and poured more alcohol into Habarak's cup.

The contents of the barrel they had were running out extremely quickly.

Habarak then continued drinking and the dwarves celebrated more.

"Well Allen, what should we do next?"

Letting the dwarves drink, Cecile asked Allen what they should do now that they had conquered the Earth Labyrinth.