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

Allen's group left the God of Trading Marne's market and returned to the S Rank Dungeon.
The magic ship was still traveling through the divine realm, but they could just teleport back in.

"They actually defeated him. I guess it's not just Allen now…"

Cecile was impressed by the fight she had just witnessed.

"Mhm, the 3 of them can defeat Gordino now."

Sophie, Luck, and Formar were in front of them, taking deep breaths as they recovered from the fight. Since they were done, Sophie and Luck sent away their spirits.
A distance away was Gordino's battered body, sprawled on the ground.
The three of them had been defeating Iron Golems for a few days, so their Levels had reached 89, and they fought Gordino to measure how much stronger they were now.

"We got him without the help of your summons! I wonder if we got stronger than Kurena."

Luck looked happy with the result.

"Maybe. But fights can vary a lot, a fight with only 3 rear liners could get tricky."

(Gordino is a really good training dummy. We already know his strength so we can measure how much everyone grows.)

Allen had tried letting Kurena, Dogora, and Shea do that before, as they were also in Extra Mode.

They had fought Gordino many times before, so they knew how strong each of the 3 phases were, and they defeated him nearly daily so they knew his patterns really well too.
Dogora, Kurena, and Shea had struggled a lot in the first phase alone.
The first phase had Gordino, a Mithril Golem, 2 Iron Golems, and a Bronze Golem, so they were too many targets for the three of them to handle at once without help from Allen's summons and buffs from other allies.
They were powerful, but their attacks could not keep up with the healing from the 2 Iron Golems.
But Sophie, Luck, and Formar had gone through all 3 phases without any help from Allen.

"Allen could defeat him alone though. We still have a long time to go."

"You're right, Formar."

"My summons give me a lot more ways to attack after all. You just entered Extra Mode, so I'm looking forward to how much stronger you can become."

"Me too."

Formar was sounding a lot more confident than before.
Cecile was impressed by their growth, but it was true that only Allen could defeat Gordino alone.
After obtaining the Wraith S summon, Allen's means to attack grew considerably.

The fight was over, so they headed to the place where the 4 reward chests appeared.
There were 2 silver chests and 2 golden chests.

"Oh! There's orichalcum in the golden chest!!"

"More fakes? I really feel like they're just throwing them at us lately."

"How long are you going to sulk about that?"

Luck sounded happy, but Allen seemed disgusted by it, and Cecile sighed hearing that.

"There's also a Magic Core."

"Larappa said she has enough Magic Cores for now. You keep that one, Formar."

"Alright."

"Anyway, I guess that's enough warming up? The actual test comes in 6 hours."

Now that the fight was over, Allen made everyone wear bracelets that halved cooldowns.
That way Skills with 1 day cooldowns would become available in 6 hours.

"Alright! Can we fight that one just the 3 of us again?"

"Of course. I'll give you a hand if it gets dangerous though."

Gordino had just been practice for them. Their actual target was something else.
They went to a large island floating around in the divine realm.
It was around 10 kilometers wide, made of stone, and a Demigod Rank ghost was there.
Allen had finally found one while they traveled from Marne's Temple to the Divine Arena.
The divine realm was so vast that finding one felt like searching for a gold coin in a desert.

(But they're worth defeating.)

The Sky Ship gently landed on the island.

"Larappa and Piyon, try to stay away from the island after we disembark."

"Sure, I don't want to be caught up in the fight."

Larappa replied instantly, she was not really interested in being part of a fight.
Piyon also looked more serious, noticing how everyone else was ready to fight.
Meanwhile Allen observed the ghost with Kuwatoro's [Thousand-mile Eyes].
They disembarked, then the magic ship carefully left, making sure to not rouse the ghost.

(That's the oldest ghost I've Appraised so far. It looks like a crab.)

[Name] Ganira
[Age] 240280
[Species] Spirit
[Strength] 127000
[Mana] 119000
[Spiritual Power] 125000
[Attack] 138000
[Endurance] 195600
[Agility] 78000
[Intelligence] 122000
[Luck] 2000
[Attack Element] None
[Endurance Element] None, Water, Physical (Strong)

It looked similar to a crab. Its body was made of blue flames, 15 meters tall, and 30 meters wide. It had 3 pairs of legs, two heads on its carapace, and a set of claws for each head.
It seemed to have some sensing Skill, as it quickly noticed Allen and the rest.

"Sophie and Luck use the Blessings from Great Spirits."

The ghost would attack at any moment.

"Yes, Master Allen. I'll do that."

"Alright! Let's do it everyone!!"

(The fight has started. Considering its Endurance and Agility it seems to be more of a tank than a mobile enemy. Luck seems a bit too excited…this thing has like 3 times the stats of Gordino though, are they going to be alright?)

Formar was in his element, completely calm, while Luck looked really excited.
Allen really wanted to tell him to calm down, but he promised to let them try alone first.
He would only intervene if things went south.

"Spring of Life!"

Sophie used her Divine Technique [Spring of Life] first.
She already knew that it was best to use all buffs right before a fight started.
Then she and Luck manifested all the Great Spirits they had, empowering their stats.
They had 4 Great Spirits each, which increased the stats of everyone, Allen included.

[Sophie's Great Spirits' elements and Blessings]
-Water Great Spirit Tonies: Intelligence +10000, 100 Mana Regeneration per second (not active in the divine realm)
-Thunder Great Spirit Jin: Agility +10000, Strong Resistance to Paralyzation
-Space Great Spirit Jigen: Endurance +10000, Enemy Critical Chance halved
-Light Great Spirit Light: Strength +10000, Attack +10000, Additional Light Element

[Luck's Great Spirits' elements and Blessings]
-Fire Great Spirit Kaka: Attack +10000, Damage Increase 10%
-Poison Swamp Great Spirit Mouton: Strength +10000, Strong Resistance to Poison
-Time Spirit Quick: Agility +10000, Duration of Effects Doubled
-Darkness Great Spirit Dark: Mana +10000, Intelligence +10000, Additional Darkness Element

Those were considerable buffs, but it took a while since they could only manifest one Great Spirit at a time, and there was a considerable delay every time one was sent away.
That was not a big issue when fighting a C or B Rank monster, but they were against a Demigod Rank ghost, which had more than 10000 Agility allowing it to move nearly at the speed of sound.

Different spirits offered different buffs. A spirit master had to choose which would help more in a fight, since it was hard to get all of them out.
Even if they forcefully manifested many at the same time, it would cost too much Mana and make the spirits weaker.

Sophie's Divine Technique [Spring of Life] fixed that issue.
That allowed Sophie and Luck to manifest 2 Great Spirits at once.

'Hmph! That annoying guy is coming!!'

The Fire Great Spirit Kaka, who looked like a red haired girl in bikini armor, shouted loudly.

(They're different from summons like that. And the ghost noticed we're getting ready to fight.)

Spirits had certain advantages over summons. Spirits could feel the flow of Mana and gentle changes in the wind, letting them understand the enemy's intentions a lot better.
They could not see an enemy's stats, but they could sense a lot of other things.
The Demigod Rank ghost could do the same though. It noticed the spirits were using their Blessings, so it became hostile, its 2 heads looking at them and running quickly.
The ground began to shake as it ran with its 6 legs.

'Aauaaaaaahhh!!'
'Aauaaaaaahhh!!'

The fight against the ghost Ganira started.