Gacha Addict in a Matriarchal World

Chapter 126: Runaway, Or…. (3)

The book I pulled out by stepping on Benibeni.

For some reason, Benny, who still had a flushed face, started flipping through the pages here and there, and stopped at a certain part.

“It’s this.”

“Did you find it?”

I peeked over Benny’s shoulder to steal a look at the book.

A distance so close that our cheeks could almost touch. But they didn’t really touch, only the tickling sensation of fine hairs and the warm body heat was conveyed.

“…!”

Benny stiffened like a startled goat, but I ignored it and examined the contents.

“Let’s see… A crystal imbued with special light?”

There were numerous illustrations of crystals similar to my Moonlight-infused cCystal, but with lights of entirely different colors.

…The problem is that I can only see the pictures, and none of the text registers in my eyes.

Buy bestselling books online

That’s strange. Thanks to the auto-translation that kicked in when I transmigrated, I should be able to read everything, even if I can’t understand it.

While I tilted my head in confusion, Benny finally came to her senses, quickly moved away, and let out a deep sigh.

“Phew…”

“Benny, I can’t read this. What is it?”

“…What else? It’s a security spell made for people like you, Jonah! If you can’t input the pre-registered magic pattern, a cognitive decline spell prevents you from reading it.”

“Why go through such troublesome measures…?”

“Ask the guy who made this book.”

“…? Didn’t you buy it somewhere?”

“I found it in a dead mage’s belongings in a dungeon.”

Oh.

Buy bestselling books online

Well, Benny has spent quite some time as an adventurer, so it’s no wonder she picks up items from other adventurers’ corpses.

“…Human farming is indeed more efficient than monster farming.”

“What do you take me for?! They were already dead when I found them!”

“Sure, sure. Officially, that’s what happened, right? I’ll answer like that if anyone asks.”

“I’m telling you, it’s true! Do you think I’m some kind of looter?!”

“While Benny wouldn’t be the first to loot, it does seem like she’d be frequently targeted by looters because she usually has many enemies.”

“…I can’t deny that. Until I teamed up with Lydia, something really did happen every day.”

Benny sighed again and started grumbling. Mostly about how all the major clans are full of idiots.

Looks like she had some kind of trouble with those major clans in the past.

After chewing on the matter for a while, Benny finally wrapped up her boasting about being the strongest and got back to the main point.

“Anyway, about the Moonlight-infused Crystal. Actually, the Crystal itself isn’t that rare. When an ordinary crystal is influenced by a densely concentrated energy, like divine power, it develops a property to store a specific kind of power. And the Labyrinth…”

“It’s the largest scar left by the War of the Fallen Gods.”

“Right. The upper levels don’t show much, but as soon as you get to the middle levels, traces of the War of the Fallen Gods start to appear. In the deep levels, there are places that almost bring the battlefield back to life.”

“The 7th floor, right?”

“Yeah. That damn 7th floor.”

The current frontline is the 7th floor. It seems like significant progress to have reached the 7th floor out of 12…but we mustn’t forget that it took a thousand years to get there.

And out of these 1,000 years, 200 have been spent solely on the 7th floor.

Even though the deeper you go, the harder it gets to conquer, 200 years of stagnation seems excessive…

Both the Guild and the high-ranking adventurers have their reasons for this.

It’s because the 7th floor is the domain of the God of War.

True to his name, the God of War was one of the most active deities in the War of the Fallen Gods.

Though he wasn’t the God of Victory, and couldn’t win every time, he constantly drew power from the ceaseless wars rampant in the world.

However, the long and fierce wars wore down the spirits of his followers.

No matter how much one enjoys and worships war, if all of life is marked by constant strife, the mind is bound to crumble.

In the end, his followers became increasingly desolate, and the God of War, prioritizing his followers over his role in war, began to care for them belatedly…

At that moment, the God of Madness perished and cast a curse of madness upon the entire world.

The God of War’s followers, already mentally shredded, could not resist the encroaching madness.

Ultimately, the completely deranged followers turned into a group of murderers, wholly dedicated to slaughter.

The God of War did not abandon those followers. How could he forsake his children and comrades?

Eventually, the God of War chose to end the war as quickly as possible to completely burn away the madness.

He began to annihilate the other gods one by one with an even more aggressive stance than before, solely for the sake of his followers.

However, at the War’s end, when only about ten gods remained, he realized something.

Even if the God of War were to win and become the sole deity of the Pan Continent, the flames of madness that had ignited would never be extinguished.

They went mad to the point where, if they had no one else to fight, they would fight among themselves, and if that wasn’t enough, they would wage war against the God of War.

The flames of madness consumed not desire but the soul, and ashes could never revert to trees.

In the end, the God of War, regretting his folly, declared defeat by his own will for the first time since his birth.

He decided to bury himself in Pangrave, sacrificing himself along with the other gods.

Thus, the God of War entered eternal rest…and the mad devotees were entombed with their God.

As a result, the field of the 7th floor became a brutal battleground with mountains of corpses and rivers of blood. The monsters appearing were the devotees of the God of War, the most notorious organization during the War of the Fallen Gods.

Until now, adventurers who meticulously disarmed the Labyrinth’s traps and exploited the monsters’ weaknesses face a completely new phase on the 7th floor.

War.

To conquer the 7th floor, what was required was not excellent hunting skills but the ability to conduct warfare.

It was natural for the existing adventurers, who had a mix of explorer and hunter traits, to struggle.

Moreover, the number of high-ranking adventurers who reached the 7th floor was quite few.

Already conquered floors could be advanced by accumulating a certain level of specs or defeating the Floor Guardian to gain the right to move to the next floor.

However, in unconquered floors, there are clear conditions to be met.

If these are not achieved, no matter how much specs are accumulated or the Floor Guardian is defeated, one cannot advance to the next floor.

And the clear condition for the 7th floor is to win in a war.

Individual skills, tactics, numbers, state of armament, and so on.

In every aspect, the adventurers were inevitably inferior to the war-crazed devotees of the God of War.

At least through past records, they managed to barely hold on by identifying the characteristics and weaknesses of the God of War’s devotees, each of whom was a hero.

However, considering that it was previously impossible to leave the Safe Zone, the situation has improved significantly.

The number of high-ranking adventurers has increased, their skills have rapidly advanced, and they have armed themselves with stronger equipment. Long-term research has also led to the development of tactics against the God of War’s devotees.

In other words, if up until now, a few outstanding adventurers had paved the way to the next floor…

From now on, the overall level of adventurers must rise to venture deeper.

“It’s a bit of a long story, but in any case, this type of storage crystal can store more power, in a purer form, the deeper it’s found in the Labyrinth.”

“Ooh…! So, what level is this one at?”

Benny, who was looking at the pale light crystal I held out, nodded.

“We should leave the detailed analysis to the experts…but the Moonlight contained within, in this case, is the moon’s magic. Anyway, just looking at the total amount and purity of that power, it’s believable even if you said you picked it up on the 7th floor.”

“…What? That much?”

Three stars is a high rating, but to think it’s a material of the content that drops in high level…

No, wait. This is only possible because the standard is the Goddess of Love.

From our mortal perspective, the 7th floor has been the unchanging front line for the past 200 years…but from the Goddess of Love’s point of view, isn’t it just the 7th out of 12 floors?

Considering that it becomes more difficult to conquer as you go further, it’s somewhat natural for a 3-star item to be on the level of the 7th floor.

Anyway, I looked at Benny with a pounding heart because it was an incredibly good item…but the following words were a bit disappointing.

“But one disappointing point is that the power contained inside is ordinary. Moonlight… To be precise, it’s the magic of the moon? This is a very common energy.”

“…What effect does it have?”

“It will enhance things like cold, darkness, water, and stillness.”

To put it in a martial arts context, it feels like it amplifies Yin energy.

“Oh, there is one exception.”

“What is it?”

“If processed appropriately, it will enhance the physical abilities of a lycanthrope or a wolf hybrid.”

“Wolf hybrid? Could it possibly have an effect on Ellie as well?”

“Yes. From the beginning, Ellie has had a lot of equipment like that, right? Although nothing quite like this.”

So, it’s decided. This Crystal should be used to make something for Ellie and me.

The Crystal is quite large, so it should be enough to make something for both of us.

After a moment of contemplation, I spoke.

“I’d like to make two rings with this. Could you perhaps introduce me to a good craftsman?”

“R-rings… Hmph. I knew it. Alright. If Jonah wants it that much. Ah, since we have to decide on finger sizes and designs anyway, should we go to the artisan district together? Our finger thickness looks similar, but you never know.”

Benny suddenly seemed happy and started talking more. Tilting my head, I said.

“One of these is for Ellie, though?”

“……”

The light vanished from Benny’s eyes.