Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~ 019

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Chapter 19 – Enhance

It was late September, about two months after the knights had visited. Allen was almost six years old. The weather was still hot, and Rodan was out working the fields.

The only thing that had changed was that Theresia was now pregnant with a third child. Since she only found out recently, they would have to wait until after the new year before she gave birth, according to the village midwife who had come over.

That was why Rodan was now working the fields alone. He wanted to give Theresia a chance to rest.

Teresia said she really wanted to name the third child. Rodan had named both Allen and Mash. Apparently, they had a deal that Rodan would name the boys, and Theresia would name the girls. Rodan said that he would like to have a girl. But it sounded like, if they had another boy, he was completely ready to name him after another monster.

Sitting in the shade, with his back leaning on the tree, Allen looked at his grimoire. The tree had been hit tens of thousands of times by hard stones, and the bark had peeled off. 

On the grimoire, there were yellow letters.

『Synthesize is now at 10,000 / 10,000 skill EXP. Synthesize is now level 3. Summon is now Level 3. Expansion is now level 2. You have acquired the Enhance skill. You have 1 message.』

“Hooray, it’s finally here! It’s been a long time coming. In any case, there’s so much information. Let’s see, where should I start?”

The log appeared the moment Synthesize hit 10,000 skill EXP.

(It took quite a while. It’s been 2 years and 11 months since I turned three, when I was finally able to start leveling up Synthesize.)

This was the result of using MP everyday to Create and Synthesize. Since it took 6 hours to fully restore his MP, he was able to gain skill exp 3 times a day, 4 if the timing was right. 

 ・1 year 0 months - Obtained the grimoire, Summon level 1, and H rank summons
 
 ・1 year 10 months - Summon level 2, acquired the Synthesize skill
 
 ・3 years 0 months - First G-rank summon
 
 ・5 years 11 months - Summon level 3, acquired Enhance skill, F-rank summons

There were many words of interest in the log. The first thing to look at was his status. He opened the grimoire and checked the first two pages.

【 NAM 】 Allen
【 AGE 】 5
【 CLS 】 Summoner
【 LVL 】 1
【 H P 】 20 (40) + 26
【 M P 】 0 (20)
【 ATK 】 5 (10) + 26
【 DEF 】 5 (10) + 6
【 AGL 】 12 (25) + 10
【 INT 】 15 (30) + 4
【 LCK 】 12 (25)
【 SKL 】 Summon <3>, Create <3>, Synthesize <3>, Enhance <1>, Expansion <2>, Delete, Swordsmanship <3>, Throwing <3>
【 EXP 】 0 / 1,000

・Skill LVL
【SUMMN】 3
【CREAT】 3
【SYNTH】 3
【ENHNC】 1

・Skill EXP
【CREAT】 8,786 / 100,000
【SYNTH】 0 / 100,000
【ENHNC】 0 / 1,000

・Obtainable Summons
【 BUG 】 F G H
【BEAST】 F G H
【 BRD 】 F G
【  －  】 F
・Holder
【 BUG 】 G 2 cards, H 2 cards
【BEAST】 G 13 cards
【 BRD 】 G 2 cards
【  －  】

(Ohhhh!!! There’s the Enhance skill now!! And I unlocked the F-rank summons! And there’s the blank that I won’t get until I synthesize it, like how it was with Bird G. I wonder what it could be! I want a dragon. Let me summon Shenron!)

Everytime his skill level went up he got more and more excited. But he needed to calm down and think about what to examine next.

(Hmm, I just ran out of MP, so F-rank Create and Synthesize will have to wait for after dinner. Other than that, we have….)

He flipped through the grimoire.

(Whoa! There’s 30 card slots in the holder now!!)

Expansion level 2 brought the holder from a capacity of 20 cards to 30. This would greatly increase his total buffs.

(Well, I guess that’s all we can figure out for now. All that’s left is a message from God. I haven’t heard from them in a long time.)

The final page of the grimoire was glowing. It was a message from God, like the one he received when he was one year old.

(Hmm, I wonder if they’re finally ready to apologize.)

Dear Mr. Allen,

We would like to express our sincere gratitude for your continued patronage.

We apologize for the faulty display of your class during your appraisal ceremony.

Additionally, we are sorry for the delay in our reply.

We have implemented a few fixes. “Summoner” will now be properly displayed as a talent in future appraisal ceremonies. In addition, an oracle has been sent to the pope, informing him that a new class was added. Please note that we did not provide him with details on the specifics of the class, as is the policy with other classes.

Next, regarding your stats, which were all rated E-rank:

As you already know, the ranks are based on both the value of the stat and level up speed. Level ups, which are called Trials of God in this world, are not disclosed to people. Additionally, the difficulty modes, which are the difficulty levels of the trials, are not disclosed.

Therefore, because the system takes into account both the growth rate of the stat and the level up rate, your stats will remain E-rank. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.

However, it is unfair that you are the only person who can’t see the innate growth rate of your stats. 

Therefore, we will send you an appraisal of your stats based only on their growth rate. This will be added to the notes of your grimoire, so that you can check it even after this message is gone. The appraisal does not include the blessings from your summoned creatures.

【NAM】 Allen

【H P】 A

【M P】 S

【ATK】 C

【DEF】 C

【AGL】 A

【INT】 S

【LCK】 A

【CLS】 Summoner

Moving forward, all of the staff here in the god’s realm will continue to work hard to improve our service. Thank you for your continued patronage.

We hope that we have communicated our sincere apologies through this response. 

Please refrain from making similar complaints in the future.

From Elmere, 

The God of the Other World.

When Allen finished reading it, the words disappeared. Like the message said, his stats were indeed in the notes section of the grimoire. 

(Hmm, I requested a bugfix for 5 months and got a reply. It was a very polite reply too. But in the end, my stats will still show up as E-rank. And I’ve never seen anyone use the phrase “oracle” before.)

His appraisal would remain unchanged, with all E’s. However, it was specifically written that an oracle was sent to the pope about the Summoner class.

When Kenichi was in the real world, he remembered once when his equipment in a game had disappeared. He received a similarly polite notice from the game company.

But just because he got a long and polite response, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to keep complaining. The other party was God after all. They could erase his existence, if they wanted to.

(Hmmmm, my stats are kind of like a rear-guard version of Kurena’s sword saint stats. Do we have the same number of each letter? I see.) 

He compared his stats to the notes he had taken on Kurena’s stats. He remembered that, in the real world, the Sword Saint was rated 3-stars. This means that, even without the buffs from his summons, he had the stats of a three-star class.

(And leveling up was called Trials of God?)

He had once asked Rodan, who had been hunting Great Boars for a while, about leveling up. And sure enough, he had said something about overcoming the Trials of God and increasing his power.

He had completed his investigation of the message. So all that was left was Enhance, and F-rank Create and Synthesize. Since his MP had run out, he decided to continue after dinner.

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It was evening, after dinner. In Allen’s house, they started preparing dinner around 4, and they ate before 5. After eating together around the hearth, they relaxed in the children’s room. Because Theresia was pregnant, Allen took the initiative in cleaning up after dinner and washing the dishes.

After that, it was just before 6. Allen went to the children’s room where Mash was playing.

“Brudder! Play!”

Allen played with Mash. They had full stomachs from dinner, so Mash fell asleep after only 30 minutes. He laid a quilt over Mash, who slept like a log.

(Alright, now that Mash is asleep, let’s see what we got.)

Finally, he had time to himself. There was still a little bit of time before the sun set.

(For now, let’s try out Enhance. I’ll probably try out F-rank Create tomorrow.)

Instead of creating F-rank summons, he decided to try out Enhance. There were four F-rank summons, including the unknown type, so he thought that he would analyze Enhance first.

(Enhance!)

First, he tried thinking it. Silver letters appeared on the cover of the grimoire.

『Which card would you like to enhance?』

(Oh? I didn’t get a “not enough MP” message. I didn’t think my 10 MP would be enough.)

He remembered that, although his Create leveled up when he was 1 year and 10 months old, he had to wait until 3 to use it, because his max MP wasn’t high enough.

(Well then, uh, Enhance Bug H!)

Then, one of the Bug H cards from the card holder floated in front of Allen, and began to glow gold. 

(Ohhhh!!!!!)

He desperately covered his mouth to keep his excitement from slipping. The light stopped and the card was a different color. 

(What’s this? Ohh!!!! The card has a golden border!!!)

The area around the grasshopper picture had changed from white to a golden white. And something was written underneath.

『DEF + 10, AGL + 10』

(Does this mean that the summon’s stats have gone up? I see, so Enhance enhances the stats of the summon. So not only can I get higher ranks of summoned creatures, I can also strengthen them.)

The picture of the grasshopper was the same. It didn’t seem like it had changed much.

(Does it make Denka bigger? Let’s try summoning it!!)

Even if it looked the same, maybe it would double in size.

“Oh!? It has a faint glow. Just by looking, you can tell that it’s been Enhanced. But it’s still the same size.”

The grasshopper was just as big as before, but, when enhanced, it shimmered faintly. Allen noticed that the picture on the card also looked slightly different, to match the summon.

“Allen, Mash, it’s time for bed already…”

“Wha!”

Apparently, someone had noticed Allen’s voice. Theresia, who had a hard time sleeping, had entered the children’s room.

Theresia stared at the grasshopper. The grasshopper stared back.

“AAAAAHHHHHH!! A BUGGGG!!!!!! WHY ARE THERE BUGS IN THE KIDS’ ROOM!!!”

The summoned Bug H, whether or not it was enhanced, got stomped and disappeared into glowing bubbles. 

“Uh… good night…”

As if nothing had happened, Allen crawled into his futon, wearing a mask of calm, and went to sleep. 

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