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

Chapter 527: First Day - Gathering information

A day passed after Allen's group were tasked with solving the Spirit Paradise's problem.

"Allen, get up. Breakfast is ready!"

Allen's group spent the night inside a tent magic device, which allowed them to sleep comfortably no matter where they were.

They had 10 days to solve the Spirit Paradise's problem, and Rosen was related to it somehow.

Allen was the last one to get up that morning. Their breakfast was a fragrant porridge with vegetables, so elves like Sophie could eat it too.

"Oh! This is actually good! You did well Graham!!"

'Hm, I appreciate that. I picked up that skill a long time ago.'

Graham had stayed up keeping guard during the night, and prepared breakfast in the morning, which was praised by Luck. Even though he died as a knight, he was born as a peasant, so he had to learn a lot to get by at first. He also cooked in the army for other knights in the field.

Luck quickly ate the food he made.

"Here's your plate, Allen."

Cecile gave him a bowl of porridge, which he ate with a wooden spoon.

"Master Allen, sorry you had to stay up working so late into the night."

Sophie apologized. Since they only had 10 days, Allen had summoned a large number of Bird D summons, which were owls that could see in the dark, to investigate the Spirit Paradise.

(Well, the problem could be something that shows up at night.)

Some games had events that only activated at night, so Allen watched late into the night, trying to avoid repeating a bad experience from back then, but he did not find anything.

"Allen, did you find anything?"

"Nothing so far. I don't think it'll be too hard to figure out what the problem is, though."

"Oh, you think so?"

Fabre was gone from Luck's side, so the Great Spirit Mouton was there instead.

Hearing Allen's reply, Luck's face lit up.

"If something is troubling the spirits, we can just ask around. It sounded like something major."

Allen knew talking to everyone in a city was important to solve quests, so he would do that.

(There's Spirit Kings and Spirit Gods around here too, and they haven't been able to solve the problem yet. A problem…I can't do anything about it without knowing what it is either.)

He also did not know why the Great Spirit God had tasked him with solving the problem.

"I see, that's a good idea. Let's eat and head out then."

Cecile agreed with the idea. They would eat and then go out to ask questions to spirits.

"Maybe we don't have to leave just yet. There's a lot of spirits here already."

"Huh? Ahh."

Cecile quickly realized what Allen meant.

"Don't just hide and watch from there, why don't you join us and eat too?"

Allen spoke to the spirits that looked like little spirits watching from a distance.

'...That looks tasty.'

The spirits were still shy, but one that looked like a mouse scurried up to them.

"You can eat this. There's also a lot of bread."

'Give me!'

The spirit raised its hands as high as it could, taking Allen's bread and eating it quickly.

(This one looks like a Young Spirits from the stats. At least I got to see what spirits like in Peromus' wedding.)

Allen had plenty of food that spirits liked in his Grimoire and magic bag, and as he took it out, more spirits came to eat. The rest of the party also noticed that and began bringing out food.

"There's quite a lot of them now."

They were like a swarm, taking over the bread and Mormo fruits they took out.

"Oh, this frog one looks like a water spirit. He looks like a Young Spirit from his stats though."

Allen checked the stats of that spirit.

"Allen, you're also trying to find a Great Spirit for Lady Sophiarone to form a pact with?"

"Yes, Formar. The Great Spirit King gave them permission to form pacts after all."

Allen felt like letting Sophie and Luck form pacts while saving Rosen and Fabre at the same time would let them kill two birds with one stone.

Both of them could form 4 pacts at most, and Sophie needed to form one with a water Great Spirit to increase her Skill Level, and then she would know which one would come next.

"I should also look for an Acid Spirit then."

"Yes."

Luck needed to form a pact with an Acid Spirit first.

"Sophie, do you see any Great Spirits? I can't even see a Spirit…"

"They all seem to be Young Spirits, Master Allen…"

All the spirits lured by the food were Young Spirits. As they ate, their movements became more sluggish, and eventually they fell on their sides while still holding onto the food.

'...'

'...'

'...'

"Hey! They're all asleep now!!"

Not even Cecile's shout could wake up the spirits that fell asleep.

"...I guess it won't be that easy, huh. We're done too, so let's just head out."

"I guess. I hope the other spirits like talking more."

"I hope so too, Luck. Let's try splitting up."

It would be inefficient for the 5 of them to move together. So they would split into two groups, one would cook food to lure spirits, and the other would go around asking questions.

Luring them with food could prove to be a more efficient way to find answers in the end.

Allen formed the groups.

-Mobile team: Allen, Sophie, Luck

-Cooking team: Cecile, Formar, Graham

"I see, I guess it can't be helped."

"Alright. Please take good care of Lady Sophiarone."

'So I just have to cook, got it.'

Cecile, Formar, and Graham seemed satisfied with the decision.

Allen's team headed out to the forest.

"Alright, now we just have to find troubled spirits somewhere in this huge place."

"Yeah!!"

"Yes, Master Allen."

Allen used [Floating Wings] so they would get less tired, and the 3 began searching.]

(This place is supposed to be bigger than the Central Continent. We need to be efficient if we want to figure it out in less than 10 days.)

Allen searched for spirits with [Thousand-mile Gaze], and when they found them they would ask if they were having any type of issues. But at the end of the day they only got to talk to 10.

They asked all of them if they were having problems, but nothing seemed to be what the Great Spirit God wanted. In the end they learned nothing and it was soon their second day there.

They split into 2 teams again and Allen left their camp before it was swarmed.

"There were a lot of spirits gathering there again."

Sophie said that after they left the camp. Making food did lure spirits in, but none seemed to have problems.

"Yeah. They're still working hard though, so we'll do our best too."

Sophie and Luck were motivated as they headed in a different direction than the day before.

"Oh? There's a rabbit spirit over there."

Tens of kilometers ahead there was a rabbit spirit laying on its back and looking at the clouds.

Allen's team landed a distance away and approached the spirit, which had the Earth Spirit stats.

'What do you want? Stop staring at me.'

When they were 10 steps away, the rabbit glared at them and spoke with a displeased voice.

"Hello, sorry for interrupting your nap."

'You're a human? And an elf and a dark elf… What a strange group.'

The spirits they talked to the day before also mentioned that a lot.

"I'm Allen, the Great Spirit God gave us permission to talk to the spirits here two days ago."

Allen tried his best to sound polite as he spoke to the displeased spirit.

'So what?'

The spirit did not sound interested.

"The Great Spirit God told us to help spirits. Is there anything troubling you?"

Allen did not want to waste time explaining everything, though it was not exactly a lie.

'Huh? Something troubling me… Ahh, yes, there's something troubling me a lot!'

"Oh? And what is that?"

'You came from the surface, right? I heard World Trees grow really tall there. I want to eat one of their fruits so badly it's troubling me.'

"Wha-?! That's…"

Luck was baffled to hear a response like that. But Allen stopped him before he could say more.

Luck knew this was also to save the life of Fabre, so he stepped back.

"Here, this is a fruit from the World Tree. I brought it for the spirits of the divine realm."

Allen took out a World Tree Fruit from his magic bag.

"M-Master Allen?! Wh-when did you…"

Sophie was baffled seeing that. Breaking a branch or taking a fruit from Rosenheim's World Tree was considered a heavy crime.

Spirits loved to eat them though, and sometimes they would let some fall to the ground, which were used by elves for miraculous medicine.

Somehow Allen had multiple of them.

'Woohoo! That looks so good!! So this is a World Tree Fruit from the surface.'

The spirit snatched the fruit from Allen's hand and quickly stuffed his cheeks with it.

Everyone waited until the spirit was done eating.

"How do you feel? Did it solve your troubles?"

(So this isn't it either. Though none of the other spirits asked for something like this.)

None of the other spirits had asked for something to eat like that.

'That really hit the spot… But man, I'm so troubled now.'

The spirit began to grin seeing Allen's reaction.

"Yes, what do you need?"

'Eating something so sweet has left me really thirsty. Could you carry me to the lake over there?'

"Yes, gladly."

Allen's team went to fulfill the spirit's second request.