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

Chapter 366: Talent Change Dungeon (2)

"This room is pretty big."

"Look Allen, I think there's something over there."

They had been transported to the first floor of the Talent Change Dungeon, where they would receive their first assignment.

It started inside a rather large room.

A cubic object floated in the center of the room.

Allen figured that the cube had something to do with their first assignment, so he and his group approached it.

'Welcome, Abandoned Gamers. I'm the Talent Change Dungeon's assignment issuer T 10235. I'll give you a question shortly, then you may approach the door with what you believe is the correct solution.'

(T? Is it the T from Talent Change Dungeon?)

"A question?"

Allen was curious about T's name, but he had to focus on the assignments as well.

'Yes. This is your question, which of the following Talents doesn't have healing abilities?'

"Woah! Something is glowing!!"

Glowing letters appeared in mid-air in front of them.

Merle was a bit shocked, but even more excited.

<ol role="list" class="css-13a5a39">Holy KnightPaladinMonkMage KnightSaint

"Hmm, I'm pretty sure it's 4, Mage Knight. Right?"

"Yeah, I think so too."

Cecile was the first one to answer, and Sophie agreed with her.

Cecile had found the answer.

She remembered that Mage Knights were a hybrid of mages and knights, neither of which had any healing abilities.

(I see, this could be a bit complicated for someone who didn't study Talents like us.)

Allen wrote down the question and answers in his notes.

He was planning on letting everyone in Allen's Army know about it too.

Considering how this world did not have a reliable network of information, it was hard for most people to research such questions.

Further inside the room, five doors appeared.

"There's doors too now! And there's something written on them!!"

Seeing how excited Merle was about everything, Allen felt like Digragni's efforts had paid off.

The doors that Merle pointed at were numerated 1 through 5.

They had to cross through the respective door to their answer.

"Alright, I'll be going through door 3, you should all go to door 4."

Allen picked the obviously wrong door, the one for Monk, while telling the rest to go through the correct door.

"Huh? Are you going to be alright though?"

"Well, I doubt there are any traps that would kill me instantly."

(I hope.)

Saying that, Allen went on the separate door.

It was Allen doing that, so the rest did not have much reason to worry.

Allen opened the 3 door, finding a long and straight corridor behind it.

He summoned a Beast A and Wraith A summons to walk alongside him before venturing inside.

After walking for what felt like an eternity, he reached a door at the end of the corridor.

(Hm? That's it?)

He barely had any time to look at that door though.

<em class="chakra-text css-0">Pahh!!

"Hm?"

'Grrrr!!'

An enormous tiger-like monster appeared out of the blue.

It quickly lunged towards Allen.

"Hayate!"

'Yessir!!'

The Beast A summon jumped next to Allen, catching the tiger's throat in mid-air and tearing it open.

(Hmhmm, Strengthening is at Level 9 already, but that still took some effort. I guess that's an A Rank monster then.)

Allen's two summons had easily taken down the enemy, but considering the monster's strength he felt like that had to be an A Rank monster.

He was not using Kingship here.

Merus and those hunting Iron Golems in the S Rank Dungeon were using Kingship already.

Only one A Rank summon of a specific type could be under Kingship.

Allen's Strengthening had reached Level 9.

Strengthening allowed two stats boosted by Blessings to increase by 5000.

He had been farming Skill Experience ever since the defeat of Gushara, which had allowed the Skill to reach Level 9.

While he was explaining his objectives and giving advice to Allen's Army, he had also made Cecile and Sophie travel around a lot, which was how he obtained that Skill Experience.

Everyone in his party understood that increasing the level of Allen's Summoner Skills was their strongest weapon against the Demon King's Army.

'You've defeated 1 Tiger Lord. Experience gained: 1500'000.'

Obtaining more than a million points of Experience also pointed at the monster being A Rank.

And a rather strong one amongst A Rank monsters.

Even a large group of warriors without Talents would be unable to defeat it, and even if they had Talents it was hard to say whether they had any chances.

If they won, it would only be after a long and grueling fight.

(This didn't really feel like a trap though. I guess if you give the wrong reply then a monster appears in the corridor?)

Having killed the monster, Allen walked out of the corridor and found Cecile waiting for him.

"Hm? So the exits are all connected?"

"Oh, you're here too. How was it?"

"It was okay, a monster appeared. I guess you have to fight if you make a mistake."

Apparently the only penalty for making mistakes was having to fight a monster.

At the end of the corridor, there was a room similar to the first, with a cube floating in the center.

He explained to the rest how an A Rank monster appeared in the corridor.

Cecile wanted to move on to the next question, but the corridor was still open, so Allen told her to wait while he went back and tried the other doors.

<ol role="list" class="css-13a5a39">C Rank monsterC Rank monsterA Rank monsterEmptyB Rank monster

Those were the results after going through all of them.

That confirmed the information he had obtained at the start, there were monsters from Ranks C up to A.

Answering Monk led to an A Rank monster, Saint to a B Rank one, basically the monsters were stronger the furthest one was from the correct answer.

Now that he was done exploring, he went with the rest to the next cube.

'Congratulations for passing the first assignment. Do you wish to proceed to the next one? Or would you prefer leaving the Talent Change Dungeon?'

"Do we start from here if we decide to leave?"

'No, you'll have to go from the start again.'

It was possible to leave halfway through, but all progress would be lost.

"Are all the assignments similar?"

'No, the type of assignment, and the questions or tasks within, are essentially countless.'

(I see, so there could be questions completely irrelevant to Talents as well. And it won't always be questions like that either.)

There were countless assignments, and they would always differ in contents, making it hard to find an easy way to get through.

The Dungeon was really well thought out.

"Alright, take us to the next assignment then."

Allen wrote everything in his Grimoire.

He began to wonder how to cheese the Dungeon in the future as he asked to move to the next assignment.

'Let me take you to the second assignment then.'

Their view changed instantly.

They were in a larger space now.

No matter in which direction they looked, they could not see the end of it.

There seemed to be multiple obstacles carefully placed all over the place though.

"Is this the next assignment?"

'Yes, I'm the Talent Change Dungeon's assignment issuer T 20235. Your assignment will be complete when you find and talk to a Teleporter System located somewhere in here.'

Allen nodded and let a Bird E summon fly into the air.

Using its Awakened Skill [Clairvoyance], he searched for other cube devices, finding multiple ones floating kilometers away from the starting point, and a similar distance away from each other.

There were more than one.

"There's one in this direction."

"I feel like being with Allen makes this assignment completely pointless."

Cecile felt like this assignment was a really easy task for Allen to solve.

Allen took the lead, walking towards a cube he selected at random. The obstacles were all rocks strewn in the way there, and they eventually reached a wide canal filled with water.

The water looked rather deep, and they could see the shadows of fish a few meters long in size.

There seemed to be fish-type monsters in the water.

There was a lever placed nearby.

Pulling it changed the flow of water slightly.

"I feel like there are more levers like this one, and we can probably move the rocks around here to create a bridge too."

There seemed to be a way to move the rocks nearby to construct a dry passage across the canal.

"I see, that's an amazing deduction Master Allen."

"I wonder what this has to do with Changing Talents though?"

The answer to the first assignment was something easy to answer if one studied Talents.

But Cecile could not see how pulling levers and shoving rocks like a puzzle to build a bridge could be connected to Changing Talents.

"Huh? I mean, if you don't solve it you don't get to Change Talents."

Allen did not comprehend Cecile's question.

He was used to completing senseless and random questlines in his past life.

Now he did not even question why a fetching quest in one city would increase his levels.

"That's not what I mean, I just want to know what's the point of doing this."

"Like I said, if you don't solve-"

"Shut up already!"

Cecile was no longer in the mood to discuss the assignments.

Sometimes trying to talk with Allen would end like that.

(I feel like moving these rocks would be hard for someone without a Talent and without much strength though.)

After a deep breath, Allen focused on the assignment again.

He could have called a Bird B summon to carry everyone across the water, solving the assignment in just a few minutes, but he had to take things a bit more seriously for everyone in his army.

Looking more closely, he noticed there were treasure chests underwater, which constantly tempted him.

He used his summons to open them, but they were almost always monsters in disguise.

There were B Rank Mimics, and even some A Rank Abyss Boxes.

He could easily see other adventurers losing their lives after being trapped by them.

Allen wrote down the possibility of such booby traps in his notes too.

He had been trying to solve the assignment properly, but he had already obtained the location of the goal with his Bird E summon, so he tried to work the problem backwards to arrive at the correct way to solve it.

Around an hour later the group arrived at the cube device.

"That didn't feel like a challenge at all.."

"I know."

Merle had been walking absentmindedly behind Allen all the way to the end.

'Congratulations for passing the assignment. Do you wish to proceed to the next one? Or would you prefer leaving the Talent Change Dungeon?'

"Hm? Actually, are you the only Teleporter System in here?"

Allen decided to ask that before leaving.

'I can't answer that.'

(Seriously?)

"Wait a moment everyone, I'll try talking to the other cubes."

"Alright, we have to check everything after all."

Cecile did not mind waiting.

Allen summoned a Bird B and went to look for the other cubes he spotted earlier.

They all answered the same way as the first one they encountered.

By the fifth one, Allen felt like there was nothing more to learn there when something unexpected happened.

<em class="chakra-text css-0">Whump

He was not talking to the cube yet, or close enough for that matter, but his view changed.

'''Grawrrr!!'''

"It seems we've been taken to the middle of a pack of monsters."

"...Yep, seems that way."

Wolf-type monsters were surrounding them.

They did not wait to attack the group.