Gacha Addict in a Matriarchal World

Chapter 101: Maze

Benny, in confusion, cast countless search spells on her basic magic book and muttered nonsense like, ‘An advanced artifact that even I can’t notice…?’.

Other than that, the Labyrinth exploration was going smoothly.

Ssshhk.

As the Unicorn Dagger swung, a kobold, frantically digging the ground, instantly perished.

“K-kobold?”

The one next to it, startled, straightened its bent back.

“…Intense Flame!”

Whooosh.

“Koooook!”

“Tsk. The power is more subtle than I thought. And they’re too noisy when they die.”

“That Dagger is unusually strong, you know? It’s not that the magical power is lacking. The kobold that just fell is at your level or even higher.”

Benny, watching from afar while riding on Shadow, shook her head.

“Well, thinking about it that way, it’s kind of a finishing move.”

“Yeah. I suppose it’s just a bad matchup. Against creatures whose eyesight has degenerated but have developed hearing and smell, such flashy magic should be avoided.”

The kobold’s screams. The smell of soot on clothes. All these factors make the opponent notice us first, causing a surprise attack.

It’s not a big deal for me since I can even hide smell.

“In that sense, Jonah, your usual style is well-matched for the second floor.”

“Basically, it’s because it’s stealthy.”

I shrugged as I answered, but in fact, when it comes to stealth, Benny is no slouch either.

Shadow can swim through the ground as if gliding while carrying Benny’s shadow. What happens if you ride on Shadow’s back?

It becomes possible not only to reduce footsteps but to completely eliminate them.

An impossible task for Lydia, whose armor clinks no matter how careful she is.

With a smirk, she threw the kobold’s corpse to Shadow. It swallowed it whole and spat out only the drops and Magic Stones.

After picking up the loot and packing it into her backpack, she spoke.

“Let’s go a bit deeper today. Kobolds are quite profitable but…we can’t just keep hunting kobolds.”

“Right. That’s no way to improve our skills. You know? If you only hunt the same monsters, the Labyrinth’s growth rewards decrease exponentially.”

“I know. It’s not just because we hunt the same monsters…it’s because we hunt them easily using predetermined methods. The Goddess favors adventurers who embark on true adventures.”

“I know that well. But be careful. Your life is always the top priority. There were those stronger and more talented than me, but…”

“In the end, Benny is the one who survived, right? Only Benny became a high-ranking adventurer. I know. My survival comes first, of course. After all, the Goddess wouldn’t want me to get hurt or die from overexertion.”

I never asked directly, but it must be so. It’s not like she gave me a 4-star right before the showdown with One Who Devours the Twilight and the King of Thorns for no reason.

If she hadn’t done at least that much, I would have been somewhat in danger, and since the Goddess didn’t want that, she somehow twisted things to make it happen.

…Maybe that’s why I’ve only been getting 1-star or 2-star pulls since then.

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“Anyway, if we go deeper, we’ll need to chart a new route. Let’s see…perhaps the Fallen Gnomes from here?”

“That would be better than the Spider Queen. It seems, Jonah, you’re stronger in one-on-one battles than against multiple enemies.”

All monsters are beings corrupted by madness. In the case of kobolds, they focus obsessively on digging.

There is no particular reason. They just started digging the ground with pickaxes instead of wielding swords to survive.

In fact, most of the second-floor maze was created by kobolds, which says it all.

However, at some point, they started digging not to survive but just for the sake of digging.

They were consumed by madness.

Anyway, they dig. They keep digging. If something gets in their way, they kill it.

That became the sole principle of kobold behavior.

And using these kobolds is exactly what a corrupted gnome does.

If you bring them all kinds of minerals, including iron, they will make you pickaxes and shovels good for digging.

The kobolds, whose sole purpose is to dig, dig silently like slaves, and the gnomes increase their power through the minerals they receive.

This is the form of symbiosis that occurs on the second floor here.

“We should at least take a lot of iron.”

“Take it easy. If you take too much, it’ll be too heavy.”

“…Can’t we leave the load to Shadow?”

“No! According to Lydia, Jonah, you need to grow quickly. Weight management is also a virtue of an adventurer. If you don’t like it, buy a backpack with a lightening spell.”

“Lightening backpacks are expensive and small.”

“Then buy one with a spatial magic spell too.”

“…That’s something only high-level adventurers can afford, it’s expensive.”

“If you don’t have money, you have to use your body. Isn’t that what being an adventurer is about?”

“Using my body… Have you been looking at me like that all this time, Benny?”

When I glared at Benny with a look full of disappointment, she flinched and shook her head hastily.

“N-no! I don’t know what you’re thinking, but that’s not it!”

“Yeah. You just don’t want to be the bad gal until the end, right? Fine. Let’s just say this is something I’m doing on my own volition.”

Saying that resignedly, I dropped the backpack I was carrying.

As I then reached for the buttons of my top, Benny screamed and covered her eyes.

“Y-you idiot! What are you doing all of a sudden in the Labyrinth…!”

Even while saying that, Benny slyly peeked through her fingers in this direction. Smiling slyly at her shy yet curious expression, I suddenly threw my backpack at her.

“Take that!”

“Huh…?”

Benny looked bewildered. Meanwhile, Shadow, who was wriggling under her, swiftly extended a tentacle and snatched the backpack. Then, with sharp teeth, it swallowed it whole in one bite.

“Good job! You should only spit it out when I ask you to, okay? Even if Benny asks you to spit it out, don’t listen to her?”

-Grrr.

Shadow growled happily and blinked its eyes. Only then did Benny realize she had been tricked and started hopping up and down in place.

“Hey! That’s not fair!”

“Here it is. And if we’re going to catch gnomes, it’s best to keep metal as far away from our bodies as possible, right?”

I shrugged off Benny’s anger.

Half of it was to pass the buck to Shadow…but the other half was sincere.

Gnomes absorb the earth’s energy from the minerals buried underground to increase their strength.

Since they were originally born from traces where the power of the God of Earth was deeply left, it is an act akin to strengthening their origin.

But we must remember that gnomes have also become monsters.

It’s good that they pile up all kinds of minerals and absorb their power. But monsterized gnomes begin to obsess over the mere act of hoarding minerals.

A gnome’s madness is greed.

If they absorb the earth’s energy from the piled minerals, they will surely grow significantly, but they just keep hoarding. Because if they absorb the earth’s energy, the minerals turn back into soil.

Well. From an adventurer’s point of view, the attitude of living weakly while hugging minerals is something to be welcomed.

Isn’t it a kind of treasure goblin?

But you shouldn’t underestimate it. Spirits are fundamentally different beings from ordinary plants and animals. Their inherent power and their perspective on the world are on a different level.

It’s not about being superior or inferior, but literally, they are heterogeneous.

For example…the mineral detection ability of gnomes.

Gnomes have the usual five senses, but apart from that, they can also sense the earth itself.

Naturally, metal equipment imbued with earth energy can never escape a gnome’s detection.

Perhaps my Sound-Eating Footsteps might be a little different….

From the start, the gnome’s mineral detection is not a search ability, but a natural sense of recognizing a part of its own body. If unlucky, it might not work.

There’s no harm in being careful.

Teasing Benny who felt so wronged, turning every kobold we encountered into a kob/old, and storing the loot we obtained in Shadow’s belly, how many times had we repeated this process?

Before we knew it, the narrow and confined passage ended and a large cavern revealed itself.

However, that did not mean we had reached a Safe Zone.

A space where peculiar moss growing on the walls emitted a bluish light, serving as illumination.

At the center, instead of a small tombstone, there was a heap of mineral ore piled up.

No matter how unrefined the ore was, and even though there were few minerals useful to adventurers among them…

Still, with this quantity, even after filtering, a considerable yield would result.

However, I could not honestly be happy about it. The reason being, there is always a gatekeeper guarding wealth. This is akin to the rules of a Labyrinth.

A small gnome sitting idly on a heap of raw stones.

A body made of earth, not flesh and blood. It has a vaguely human-like shape, but the details are strangely crude.

A form as if a child’s hastily drawn picture were brought to life.

After confirming the creature endlessly caressing the raw stones, I quickly pulled back.

Then I whispered quietly into Benny’s ear.

“Spirits die if their heads are cut off, right?”

“Heeeut…!”

“…???”

No, this isn’t the time to be ticklish from a whisper in the ear.

It’s so awkward.