The beginner adventurer leather armor set for guild support costs 10 silver. The appraisal price for the wrist crossbow was 22 silver.
Thanks to Vanessa’s generosity, even with a 2 silver discount, my debt increased to 30 silver…
With this money, I could roll a 30-sided die!
“Isn’t this too expensive? There’s so much I could do with 30 silver! Only the cheapest armor and a backup weapon, and that’s it?”
As I grumbled all the way to the entrance of the Labyrinth, Lydia shook her head at my words.
“No, the equipment sold in Labyrinth City…”
“Is special, right? I know that.”
In ancient times, this Pan Continent lived a peaceful life under the rule of the gods.
The gods cherished their followers, and the followers revered the gods, living in a world close to an ideal where everyone lived for each other.
But sadly, that came to an end a thousand years ago.
The War of Divine Extermination. The flames of madness burned the entire Pan Continent.
Surely, the fight, which began as a minor dispute among the followers, grew and eventually escalated to the point where the gods intervened directly.
Naturally, it was the mortals caught in the mythological war who suffered the most.
It was during this time that the first deniers of the gods appeared, and it was also when the gods, once believed to be eternal rulers, faced the most deaths.
However, the real problem was not the unspeakable slaughter or the chaos caused by the absence of the gods.
The world shattered. And I mean that in the literal sense, not as an exaggeration or metaphor.
Mountains were cleaved by single blows, meteors fell and evaporated seas, and the battlefield where death, once a definitive truth, lost all meaning.
The world could not withstand the powers of the transcendents, each one turning the heavens and earth upside down.
Days went on without a setting sun due to the Light God’s last-ditch efforts. A massive tsunami engulfed an entire nation, and lies masked justice, leaving nothing to believe in.
When the world was half-crumbled, both physically and conceptually, the gods realized that everything on this land would soon disappear.
Regardless of anything else, the gods had worked tirelessly for the Pan Continent and its mortals. No one opposed the idea of stopping the war.
The problem was that it was already too late.
Too many gods had died, and those who survived could barely maintain their divine status.
The only stable god was the Goddess of Love, who could not intervene in the war because she loved everyone and was loved by all.
The remaining gods lacked the power to restore the damaged world. Thus, they made a decision.
The Goddess of Love, who had refrained from the war until the end, would be sacrificed along with all the other gods.
One by one, they took on the burdens of the remnants of the war scattered across the world. And then they quietly faded away.
For every god that fell asleep, a disaster disappeared. Yet, another god’s corpse would lay on top, and another catastrophe would vanish as well.
How many times did this happen? The moment every god but the Goddess of Love vanished, peace returned to the Pan Continent.
Of course, it wasn’t exactly the way it used to be.
First, the powers that were only communicated to the followers of the God of Magic and the Knight God spread throughout the world.
Now, anyone with talent could become a Mage or a Knight.
Additionally, due to the lifeless remains of the God of Life, which were too torn to recover, even couples of different races could have children together.
The races that couldn’t resist the final curse left by the God of Madness devolved into monsters, while in places rich with the remnants of elemental gods like the Earth God or the Fire God, spirits were born.
The fact that this world became one that reversed gender roles also stemmed from this reason.
The God of Lust and the God of Purity fell together, twisting concepts of chastity and sexual desire.
So, the Pan Continent regained peace, albeit in a slightly different manner than before. However, the most significant change lay elsewhere.
In the center of the continent, a grave for the gods who repented of their sins, where countless disasters and past glories were intertwined—a monument of sorts.
The Great Labyrinth, Pangrave, was just that.
The war ended, but those thrown into an empty wilderness with nothing left thought: Let’s find something useful in the Labyrinth first.
The only goddess remaining on Earth, the Goddess of Love, decided to help those brave souls.
She established a guild and citizens calling themselves adventurers appeared, and thanks to all this, civilization quickly began to regenerate from the blank slate it had become.
In just 1,000 years, it managed to develop back to a medieval level, all thanks to the Labyrinth.
However, the Labyrinth was not such a gentle place. The first Labyrinth was pure chaos.
Not only was time and space twisted, but also there were extraordinarily strong enemies at the entrance and low-grade monsters deeper down, making the difficulty levels all over the place.
Eventually, the Goddess of Love, unable to stand it any longer, devoted her energy to altering the structure of the Labyrinth over the long term.
Thanks to her efforts, the lower levels had weak monsters and the deeper levels had strong monsters, making for easily understandable balance changes. But…
There was just one thing—she could only correct the time distortion halfway.
The absurdity of entering a dungeon only to find several decades had passed outside, or coming back just days later but being an old man, had disappeared.
However, this was only the case for living beings; inanimate items like equipment or food could still become useless in an instant.
There were two ways to solve this problem. One was casting fixed magic to resist the distortions of the Labyrinth, and the other was to reuse items that originated from the Labyrinth itself.
Therefore, everything sold in Labyrinth City was bound to be expensive.
They were either made from materials gathered in the Labyrinth or completed with the help of high-caliber personnel like mages.
“Right?”
“Yup. You’re thorough. Are you from the Temple, Jonah?”
“I’m not from the Temple. I just studied hard for the occasional bread distributed from there.”
“…Ah.”
Realizing my background, Lydia awkwardly nodded her head.
There’s no need for her to be like that. I’m not making a desperate effort to survive; I just quickly spouted off a backstory I made up in a burst of inspiration.
Grinning at the sulking Lydia, I brought up a topic she might enjoy.
“By the way, Lydia, the relationship between adventurers and porters kind of resembles that of knights and squires, doesn’t it?”
“…A squire isn’t just a simple errand-runner.”
“Come on. I’ve seen enough of that during my time. They’re kind of similar in that they serve, right… or am I wrong?”
“Similar but different. A squire doesn’t get paid. They follow the knight out of respect and loyalty. The knight does the same. It’s about responsibility…”
Lydia, still expressionless, sparkled her eyes as she rambled off a long speech about what a knight is and how a squire should serve their knight.
At this rate, it seemed like the conversation would never end, so I had to cut in somewhere.
“Ahhh~ I can’t hear you, can’t hear you!”
As I blocked my ears and shook my head, Lydia looked at me in disbelief.
“Jonah. Are you a child?”
“I might be a child, but I’m ready to listen to you, Lydia. What you just said was a bit too much, though.”
“…Haah.”
As she relaxed her hands and started walking beside me again, Lydia let out a deep sigh.
“Anyway, we’re going into the Labyrinth now. Aren’t you nervous, Jonah?”
“Do I need to be? I’m just a porter, and you’re the one fighting, Lydia!”
“……?”
Lydia blinked, blankly staring at me, but soon opened her mouth with a look of realization.
“Oh, I was thinking of checking how well you can fight for a while. I won’t interfere.”
“…I’ve never heard of that plan before?”
“I just said it.”
“That means if you’re not going to help, then I have to fight alone?”
“If it’s dangerous, I’ll help.”
“Just in case, how many floors do you plan on going through? The first one, right? Please say it’s just the first floor!”
“Calm down. I’m thinking of going step by step, starting from the first floor. All the monster cores we hunt will be yours.”
“Thanks for that! But can’t we start the test tomorrow?! I thought I was just a porter and didn’t pack any weapons!”
“Too bad. You could have chosen something at the guild’s blacksmith we just passed.”
“I didn’t know I was going to fight back then?!”
“How could you go to a Labyrinth without a weapon? Jonah, you fool?”
“B-but a crossbow is a good weapon!”
“You need to reload it every shot. While it’s great as a backup for its portability and surprise factor, it has too many issues to be your main weapon.”
“Ugh…”
How cowardly of me to bring up the facts!
Wait, thinking about it, isn’t it a bit strange? I know that Lydia isn’t planning to take my money by dragging me into the Labyrinth. I realize that this whole deal makes no sense.
If money was all she wanted, I could have just taken a walk around the back alley and returned with some pocket change or sold a day pass to Ellie for free access to the ship.
But Lydia was trying to give me a chance.
She was hoping I’d gain experience in the Labyrinth and build up strength as a porter, showing me that there’s a choice to become an adventurer instead of a criminal in the future.
…Even considering that, the kindness Lydia is showing me right now feels excessive.
Is she really going to watch my back and let me fight without worrying? This feels like mentoring a new recruit by a guild of superior rank.
No matter how noble Lydia is, she wouldn’t waste time and effort like this.
“…Is your true objective my body, Lydia?”
“No, don’t misunderstand. Ellie would cry if she heard that.”
With an expressionless face, Lydia let out yet another deep sigh, one of many at this point.
“Haah… are you really curious about the reason?”
“Yes!”
“It’s a secret from Ellie. Can you promise me?”
“I have no idea what shocking truth you’re about to confess, but you mean that it’s a condition to keep it from Ellie, right? That’s fine with me. I’m a man of my word! Don’t worry!”
As I pretended to zip my lips, Lydia nodded and whispered.
“Ellie officially requested it. She asked me to teach you. So, I’m making you a porter after I teach you.”
“E-Ellie!!!!!!”
I’ll have to make her let me touch her free whenever we return.
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