Gacha Addict in a Matriarchal World

The guild’s beginner adventurer leather armor set cost 10 silver. The appraisal price for the wrist crossbow was 22 silver.

Even after Vanessa’s generous 2 silver discount, my debt still increased by 30 silver…

I could have spun the gacha 30 times with that money!

“Isn’t that too expensive? You can do so much with 30 silver, yet that’s the cost for just the cheapest armor and one auxiliary weapon.”

Hearing my grumbling that started from the guild all the way to the entrance of the labyrinth, Lydia shook her head.

“No. The equipment sold in the labyrinth city is…”

“Special? Yes, I know that.”

In the distant past, this continent of Pan had enjoyed a peaceful life under the rule of the gods.

The gods cherished their followers, and the followers revered their gods, living for each other in a world close to an ideal paradise.

The War of the Fallen Gods. Its furious flames had engulfed the entirety of the Pan continent.

What had started as only a minor dispute among the followers gradually grew, eventually reaching a level where the gods themselves had to intervene.

Naturally, the ones who suffered the most were in the war between mythological beings.

It was also during this time that the first deniers of gods emerged, and when the gods, who were believed to be eternal rulers, died the most.

However, the real problem was neither the massacres that were too horrific to be captured in writing nor the chaos resulting from the absence of gods.

The world had collapsed. Not as an exaggeration or a metaphor, but literally.

A battlefield where entire mountains disappeared from a single strike, oceans evaporated from meteors, and the concept of death, which was supposed to be an absolute law, lost its meaning.

The world had not been able to withstand the powers of transcendents who each held the ability to turn the heavens and earth upside down.

Through the struggle of the god of light, the time of nightless days continued. The ocean’s waves swallowed an entire country, and deception donned the guise of justice, preventing anyone from trusting anything.

Only after the world was both physically and conceptually half-destroyed did the gods realize that soon, everything on this land would disappear.

Despite what had happened, these were gods who had exerted their power for the sake of the Pan continent and its mortals. No one opposed the idea of stopping the war.

Though the problem was that it was already too late.

One too many gods had died, and those who survived had barely maintained their divinity.

The only god completely unharmed was the Goddess of Love, who, because she loved everyone and was loved by everyone, could not bear to join the war, nor was she attacked by anyone.

The world, already in ruins, could not be restored with the power of the remaining gods. Thus, they made a decision.

The Goddess of Love, who had not participated in the war until the end, would be the only one not to sacrifice her existence.

They each took upon themselves the remnants of war scattered across the world. And then, they quietly perished.

With each god’s slumber, one disaster vanished. Then another god’s corpse would lay above, and another disaster would hide its form.

How many times was this repeated? Once all but the Goddess of Love vanished, peace returned to the continent of Pan.

Of course, it wasn’t entirely as it was before.

For starters, the powers that were once transmitted only to the followers of the God of Magic and the God of Knights, magic and aura, spread widely across the world.

It had become a world where anyone with talent could become a wizard or a knight…

Additionally, because the remains of the god of life were torn and scattered to the extent that they couldn’t even be collected, couples of different races were able to have children.

Races that succumbed to the final curse unleashed by the God of Madness transformed into monsters. In areas deeply influenced by the elemental gods, such as the God of Earth or the God of Fire, spirits came into existence.

This world also became a gender-reversed realm for the same reason.

It’s because the god of lust and the god of chastity annihilated each other, warping the concept of chastity and the sexual desires of men and women.

Nonetheless, although the continent of Pan had regained peace with minor alterations, the most significant change occurred elsewhere.

At the continent’s heart lay the tomb of the gods who had repented for their deeds, and a gravestone where countless disasters and past triumphs were intertwined.

This was the Great Labyrinth, Pangrave.

The war had concluded, but those cast into a desolate wasteland thought to themselves, “Let’s first find something useful in the labyrinth.”

The Goddess of Love, the sole remaining deity, decided to aid these courageous souls.

The order of the Goddess of Love established a guild, and those who identified themselves as adventurers emerged. With their assistance, civilization, which had been reset to a blank slate, began to quickly rejuvenate.

It could be said that the labyrinth was instrumental in enabling civilization to evolve back to the medieval era within just 1,000 years.

However, the labyrinth was far from a benevolent place. After all, the first labyrinth had been the epitome of chaos.

From distortions in space and time to powerful enemies appearing at the entrance while lower-level monsters surfaced in the depths, the difficulty was unpredictable.

Eventually, unable to merely observe any longer, the Goddess of Love started to invest her power into modifying the labyrinth’s structure over an extended period.

Thanks to her, a balance patch was implemented where weaker monsters appeared on the lower levels and stronger monsters on the deeper levels, making the system more intuitive.

However, there was one thing she could only partially correct: the distortion in space and time.

Situations where one would enter the dungeon for a short while only to find out that decades had passed outside, or would become an elder after just a few days inside, disappeared after the early days of the labyrinth.

However, this was only true for living beings. Inanimate objects like equipment or food still often became unusable in an instant.

There were two solutions to this problem. One was to cast a permanent magic spell to resist the distortion of the labyrinth, and the other was to reuse what originally belonged to the labyrinth.

Therefore, the equipment sold in a labyrinth city was bound to be expensive.

Because it’s either made from materials found in the labyrinth or completed with the help of high-class personnel like magicians.

“Right?”

“Yes. You know well. Jonah, do you happen to be from a temple?”

“I’m not from a temple. I just studied for the bread that the temples occasionally shared.”

“…Ah.”

As if only then recalling my background, Lydia nodded awkwardly, her movements stiff.

There’s no need for her to be like that, really. After all, I hadn’t actually struggled to learn that information for survival. I was just reciting the settings that I had come up with on a particularly good night.

I smiled brightly at Lydia, who had become downcast, and brought up a topic she might like.

“By the way, Miss Lydia. Isn’t the relationship between an adventurer and a porter similar to that of a knight and a squire?”

“…A squire is not a simple errand runner.”

“Hey, I’ve seen enough to know. They seem roughly similar in that they both serve… is it not?”

“They are similar, yet different. Squires do not take money. They follow the knight solely out of respect and faith. The knight, in turn, takes responsibility for the squire…”

Lydia’s face remained expressionless, yet her eyes twinkled. She then continued with a lengthy speech about what knights were and how a squire should serve the knight.

At this rate, she isn’t going to stop talking. I don’t think I have any choice but to interrupt her.

“Aah~ I can’t hear it, I can’t hear anything!”

Seeing me cover my ears and shake my head, Lydia looked incredulous.

“Jonah. Why are you acting childish?”

“Because I am one?”

“Then listen to what the adults have to say.”

“I’m prepared to listen to Miss Lydia more than any other adult I know, but what you just said was a bit too much.”

“…Sigh.”

Once I lowered my hands and resumed walking beside her, Lydia let out a deep sigh.

“Anyway, we’re now heading to the labyrinth. Aren’t you nervous, Jonah?”

“Do I need to be nervous? I’m just the porter, and Lydia is the one who will be fighting, right?”

“……?”

Lydia blinked blankly, then soon opened her mouth with a realization.

“Ah, I was planning to see how far Jonah could get fighting alone. I won’t step in.”

“…I wasn’t informed of this until now?”

“I just told you.”

“So, you’re saying you won’t step in, which means I have to fight alone?”

“I’ll help if you’re in danger.”

“I’m asking just in case, but which floor are we planning to go to? The first floor, right? It has to be the first floor, doesn’t it?! Please tell me it is…!”

“Calm down. We’ll start at the first floor and slowly make our way down. And all the magic stones from the monsters we hunt are yours, Jonah.”

“Thanks for that! But, can we start the test tomorrow?! I thought I was just a porter and didn’t bring any weapons!”

“Too bad. You should have chosen one at the guild’s blacksmith we passed by earlier.”

“I didn’t know I would be fighting then!”

“Going into a labyrinth without a weapon? Are you dumb, Jonah?”

“A crossbow is a good weapon too, you know?”

“Requires reloading after each shot. It’s excellent as a secondary weapon due to its portability and element of surprise… but it has many issues as a primary weapon.”

“Sob…”

It’s not fair to use logic there!

No, but thinking about it, isn’t this a bit strange? I know Lydia isn’t taking me to the labyrinth just to mooch money off me. She’s engaging in a losing business from the start.

If money was her only goal, I could have easily repaid her by taking a stroll through the back alleys or selling something like a daily pass for unlimited stomach kisses to Ellie.

But Lydia wanted to give me a chance.

She seems to want to allow me to gain experience in the labyrinth, to build strength by entering and exiting the labyrinth even as a porter, and to show me that there is also the option of becoming an adventurer in my future, not a criminal.

…Even considering this, the kindness Lydia was showing right now seemed too excessive.

She’s basically saying that she’ll watch my back, so go ahead and fight with ease. Isn’t this similar to how mid-level or higher clans train new adventurers?

Even if she is the Noble Lydia, she wouldn’t just give away her time and effort like this.

“…Is it my body you’re after all, Miss Lydia?”

“No. Senior Ellie will cry if she hears that, so stop assuming.”

Lydia sighs for what seems like the umpteenth time, her face expressionless.

“Sigh…are you really curious about the reason?”

“Yes!”

“It’s a secret from Senior Ellie. Can you promise me?”

“I’m not sure what shocking truth you’re about to confess to me, but the condition is to keep it a secret from Ellie, right? That’s fine. You can trust me; I’m a man of few words!”

Only after I made a zipping motion across my lips did Lydia finally nod and whisper to me softly.

“Senior Ellie submitted an official request to teach you, Jonah. So, taking you as a porter comes after the teaching.”

“E, Ellieeeeeeeee!!!”

I’m going to let her touch my stomach for free when I get back.