I placed both hands on my waist and focused my eyes intensely.
“Really… Ellie. Why didn’t you sneak into my room last night? I even left the door open on purpose!”
“Jonah, what do you take me for…?”
“A cowardly wolf, maybe?”
With a pouty reply, Ellie let out a deep sigh.
“Today is the first day entering the labyrinth, and you’re making jokes? You might ruin your condition and get into danger. Can’t you be a little more tense?”
“Tsk tsk. Quite the opposite, Ellie.”
I clicked my tongue and wiggled my extended finger back and forth. Then, boldly pointing my finger at Ellie, I declared.
“We should live each day with no regrets since we don’t know what might happen in the labyrinth!”
“…And yet you haven’t even defeated a single monster. But your mindset is that of a great adventurer?”
After a moment of blankness, Ellie giggled and lightly tapped my head.
After laughing for a while, she carefully adjusted my clothes.
“Since Lydia will be with you, you probably won’t get hurt too badly… but still, a labyrinth is a labyrinth. You need to return with all your limbs intact, alright?”
Ellie, focusing intently on my clothes without looking at me, seemed slow and awkward since she only had one hand.
Her voice was filled with affection and worry. Even considering that beastfolk tend to have a soft spot for kids, Ellie’s demeanor was unusual.
Of course, I understood the reason for this behavior.
After briefly staring at Ellie’s empty sleeve, I suddenly took her hand.
“Ellie….”
“Yeah?”
The hands of a warrior that were once calloused had softened over the time she put down her spear.
I absentmindedly fiddled with Ellie’s palm and continued.
“If you’re going to keep groping while adjusting my clothes, at least you should charge a fee.”
“…N-no! It’s just that I only have one hand, so it can’t be helped!”
“Haah. If you just want to touch, you can just say so.”
I pulled Ellie’s hand toward my belly. For some reason, in this reverse-gender world, a man’s belly is considered a lewd area.
A slight glimpse is fine, but if it’s fully visible or touched, it feels prohibited.
Yeah. It’s kind of like how women’s breasts are viewed back on Earth, wouldn’t you say?
Gulp.
Ellie swallowed hard enough for me to notice. As her hand drew closer to my belly, the tension thickened.
Just before Ellie’s fingertips touched my belly, I slowed my guiding hand and tiptoed slightly.
Our faces naturally drew closer, almost close enough for our breaths to mingle. Noticing how tense Ellie was, I whispered in a teasingly ticklish voice.
“If you touch over the clothes, it’s 1 silver. If you touch inside, it’s 10 silver. What will you do?”
“…….”
Ellie’s eyes visibly flickered.
I received 10 silver that day.
*
The place I agreed to meet Lydia was none other than the Fairy and Silver Coin.
But since Lydia hadn’t arrived yet, I decided to take advantage of this time and roll the gacha with the money I just earned.
Just like Ellie, who was still dazedly staring at her own hand, Lydia was indeed there, but we never know what might happen in the dungeon.
“Ellie, I’ll be right back. I left something in my room.”
“Okay….”
“You can’t peep this time, alright?”
“Okay….”
I passed by the glitchy Ellie and headed toward the corner upstairs. Naturally, there was nothing I left behind; I was just planning to roll the gacha without anyone knowing.
Without a temporary deposit box, everything I earned from the gacha ends up scattered on the floor.
Click.
“Phew.”
I locked the door and took a deep breath.
The cost for gacha is 1 silver for a single roll. A consecutive gacha of 10 rolls allows for an additional bonus roll.
Of course, it’s more beneficial to roll with the consecutive gacha since you get one extra for free… but to be honest, I’m a bit dissatisfied.
Instead of adding one more roll, I’d prefer a bonus that guarantees at least an N-star item.
I wonder about the odds of this gacha system; after the free consecutive gacha, I rolled the paid one three times, and all I got were 1-star items.
1-star items are the lowest grade that barely sell for 3 silver if I were to re-sell all 11 of them.
If I think of it as mileage, it’s a decent exchange rate, but there’s no ceiling, and you can’t make guaranteed purchases with mileage; what’s the point? All I can do is use it to roll the gacha again.
That said, thinking about the usefulness of the pickpocket skill I got from the first free gacha, if I get 2 stars, it’ll at least cover my costs; 3 stars would definitely yield a profit.
In that light, I can sort of understand the despairing odds.
After all, you shouldn’t expect to profit from gacha, right? You’re just rolling for things you can only get exclusively through gacha…
For instance, if 3-stars are like this, what about the 4 and 5-stars above it?
The Meteor, symbol of the Red Mage Tower? The hidden skills of the Sword King? Perhaps a national treasure artifact, or even an elixir that can bring the dead back to life might drop.
No matter how much money I save or how great of a person I become, those are things you simply can’t obtain through normal means.
“Urgh…”
Just imagining it sends dopamine rushing, and my entire body begins to tingle with excitement.
With the 10 silver I just received firmly gripped in my hand, I activated the gacha system.
Ding!
[Regular Draw]
– Spend cash or equivalent mana stone to randomly obtain items or skills between 1 and 5 stars.
[Single Draw] [10+1 Draw]
A very straightforward interface. There’s an unfriendly vibe where you can’t know what items will appear or what the odds are.
It looks like a golden future to me…!
“5-star, let’s go!!”
I pressed the consecutive draw button without hesitation. At the same time, the weight of the silver in my hand vanished.
There’s no flashy gacha animation since this isn’t a game. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any signals.
Roll…
I heard the dice rolling, only audible to me. After rolling around in disarray for a while, the dice began to settle and eventually became completely quiet.
Not long after, a small hole opened up in the air.
Woom—
A crack in space whose nature I couldn’t discern. Something spilled out from beyond it.
“Oof!”
Instinctively gathering the fallen items into my arms, a list appeared before my eyes.
Ding!
[1-star: Dried Mana Herb]
[1-star: Processed Recovery Herb]
[1-star: Thick Socks]
[1-star: Dried Mana Herb]
[1-star: Dried Mana Herb]
[1-star: Processed Recovery Herb]
[1-star: Dried Mana Herb]
[2-star: Wrist Crossbow]
[1-star: Lowest-grade Recovery Potion]
[1-star: Wooden Arrow]
[1-star: Dried Mana Herb]
“No! My 5-star!!!”
Once again, I was met with a parade of 1-star items, and all the excitement coursing through my body drained away. In its place came anger.
I don’t know who gave me this ability, but if I ever meet them, I’d sincerely want to ask how’s their mother doing because I’m seriously fuming right now.
How much have I spent on this!!!
That’s why it took me a bit to notice.
“Wait… huh?”
Just then, didn’t a 2-star item slip in there?
After throwing the mixed assortment of herbs haphazardly onto the desk, a small crossbow finally came into view.
“Oh?”
Carefully placing the crossbow on the bed, I began sorting out the other items.
I stuffed the inexplicably plentiful Mana Herbs into the first drawer, and the Recovery Herbs into the second.
Since I realized during a previous kidnapping that instead of selling them, I plan to use them myself… but just consuming them won’t yield any effect. They need to be refined first.
So I decided to set aside the Mana Herbs and Recovery Herbs for now and check the rest of the items.
A lowest-grade potion, huh. I’ll need to take this into the labyrinth, so in it goes into my pocket. I casually placed the wooden arrow on the desk, and since the thick socks were… I just put them on. They feel nice and warm.
With that, after organizing all the miscellaneous items, I carefully picked up the crossbow.
It was sturdy in shape, reinforced with iron in places. Although it was small, it was the very form of a crossbow I recognized.
However, there was one peculiar thing: the leather gauntlet that was integrated into the lower part of the crossbow.
Like the name suggests, the wrist crossbow would be worn on the arm.
I firmly secured the gauntlet to my left arm. Surprisingly, the substantial weight felt reassuring. It was a perfect size for my small child body to handle effortlessly.
“Hmm…”
I inspected it while wearing it. It looks cool. …But how does this work?
I looked at the wooden arrow resting on the desk. It seemed too long compared to my crossbow.
“Guess I can just break it.”
Seeing that the arrow was long enough, I broke it to match the length of the crossbow and fitted it onto the string. Looks like it worked for now.
After breaking a few more to fill my pocket, I headed downstairs. There, a expressionless guard was waiting for me.
“Finally down, huh.”
“Lydia? When did you arrive?”
“A minute ago… that thing on your arm?”
“Cool, right? It’s called a wrist crossbow!”
“I know. It’s quite expensive for Jonah. Where did you get it? It definitely wasn’t there yesterday. Could it be…?”
“No way?! I just….”
I can’t exactly say I just got it from the gacha. After all, it wouldn’t do me any good if this ability became known to others.
In the end, I only had one way to deflect.
“I just spotted it earlier and slipped it while escaping the dual dagger clan!”
“…Was that item meant to be mine?”
“Eh?”
“That should be worth about 20 silver. Let’s confirm that at the guild’s blacksmith.”
“Excuse me? Lydia?!”
“Let’s go. Even for a basic model, it’ll take time to adjust it to Jonah’s build.”
“You’re seriously going to take it?! Really?!”
If I had known this would happen, I would have just left it in my room! I didn’t expect to rack up that much debt just because I got a 2-star item…
Despite my protests, Lydia bowed her head to the still dazed Ellie.
“Don’t worry, Ellie-senpai. I’ll be back before nightfall.”
“…Okay.”
Reaching out toward Ellie, who seemed lost in thought like she was grasping at air.
“Ellie…!”
But I was caught by Lydia.
Swish!
“Let’s go.”
“……”
Even if I said I wouldn’t go, the atmosphere forced me to surrender, and I nodded with tears in my eyes.
“I’ll be back, Ellie…”
“…Okay.”
In the end, Ellie still looked dazed. Just how much does she like me, anyway?
At this rate, I could probably charge double from now on.
