I Became a Leader in a Wretched Prison - Chapter 20

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 20

“Why does your face look like that? Are you sick?”

I should tell her to let go…

For some reason, Helios couldn’t bring himself to tell her to let go of his hand.

“Don’t be sick.”

Because it brought just the right amount of pleasant coolness to his body that had developed a slight fever from lack of sleep.

Her voice was emotionless and indifferent, so why did he feel tenderness in it?

Above all, he hadn’t experienced much human warmth before.

The sensation was awkward yet he didn’t want to shake it off—both feelings coexisted. His back naturally stiffened.

“The Tower…”

Isn’t she going to go?

“We have to go. Hurry up and get up.”

“…”

Helios knocked away Mint’s hand with a coldly hardened expression.

Mint cried out frivolously, “Ow, my disciple is hitting his master~” but he didn’t even listen as he walked out through the open door.

He felt foolish for paying too much attention to such a master, even for just a moment.

* * *

The 20th Floor of the Tower.

The place where Lower Grade 3 and above could enter. Helios looked up at the ceiling with tension.

He had cleared up to the 8th Floor.

The interior structure of the 20th Floor was completely different from the 8th Floor he had last seen.

“A field…?”

It wasn’t just Helios who felt this way, as similar impressions could be heard from around him.

Just as the impression suggested, what appeared before their eyes was a massive dirt field.

They could tell it was a field because of the wheat visible at the far end.

Golden wheat inside a prison?

It was truly an incongruous combination.

The walls were made in the form of rock walls, with holes drilled at various points throughout them.

Helios focused on the holes.

‘From the 1st Floor onward, animals poured out of holes like those.’

“You shouldn’t look at it that way for now.”

Helios turned his head.

“Yaaawn.”

Mint was leisurely yawning. Helios felt a bit incredulous.

Did she have no sense of tension at all?

Even if she was a guard, she only knew about the Tower theoretically and had never actually experienced the trials herself, so why was she so calm?

‘Is it confidence that comes from power?’

Helios soon recalled the image of Mint blowing away the high-grade prisoner ‘Grogi’.

Honestly, the appearance she was showing now was completely unbelievable.

But her appearance back then was truly incredible. Enough to push away this languid appearance that seemed like laziness.

“Relax, relax.”

“…You don’t need to say it twice.”

Though he didn’t want to admit it, his tension eased slightly at Mint’s attitude.

It was a strange thing. The belief that somehow everything would work out just by having her beside him.

Was it because she had defeated a high-grade prisoner?

For him, who had suffered from anxiety his whole life under his father and the retainers who targeted him, this was an unfamiliar experience.

Thanks to that, Helios was able to look around his surroundings.

The 20th floor was set up so you could choose weapons before entering the Tower.

He was holding a spear in his hand like on the 8th floor, and just in case, he had spare weapons on his back as well.

‘There are quite a lot of people.’

By rough estimate, about forty people had gathered.

According to Mint, there were two more trial grounds like this on the 20th floor.

The reactions of the gathered people were divided into two types.

People with tense expressions like Helios.

And people who showed some composure, though not as much as Mint.

There were more of the latter than the former.

“…Do the numbers increase starting from the lower grades?”

“That’s right, well.”

Mint answered in an indifferent voice.

“There would be ‘re-challengers’ too.”

Re-challengers? It was an unfamiliar term.

And for good reason – how could ‘re-challenging’ be possible in this Tower’s trials?

If you failed, you died.

While climbing to the 8th floor, all those who had been eliminated had died.

Questions arose, but Helios couldn’t continue speaking.

Mint’s expression had changed in an instant, and she was wearing a sharp look.

‘What is it?’

Mint looked around her surroundings.

There were quite a lot of people for the 20th floor. But compared to when she was on the 20th floor, it was only slightly more, so it wasn’t a big concern.

However, she had felt killing intent just a moment ago.

Moreover, it was killing intent strong enough to bother someone of Mint’s caliber.

‘Was it directed at Helios?’

It was a deep-seated aura that someone with the skill to reach the 20th floor would never be able to sense.

‘Or some other grudge relationship?’

This was a place with countless criminals.

The grudges from the outside world often continued here, so assassinations and murder contracts were common everyday occurrences.

‘But our cute pretty one shouldn’t get caught up in someone else’s murder contract.’

Mint straightened her back slightly.

If her level was 100, this was a place where newbies of at most level 20 played around.

If she wanted to catch them, there was nothing she couldn’t catch.

‘No, wait.’

A good idea came to mind.

‘Why don’t I use this as an opportunity?’

Mint slowly turned her head to look at Helios.

Helios, who had already been on edge around Mint, flinched.

“…What, why are you staring at me like that?”

“…? I was just looking?”

“No, you weren’t. What scheme are you plotting this time? You had that same face when you threw me into that thorn-filled trap.”

“Good boy. That’s what we call ‘persecution complex’ in professional terms.”

“No it’s not!”

Helios held his head once again.

Mint looked at him with satisfaction. Well, she called it satisfaction, but her eyes were almost like those of someone looking at prey.

‘Good, he’s lively enough that I can proceed with this.’

She had been worried because he seemed listless in the morning, but now he appeared to be fine.

Though this was Mint’s common sense-deficient standard that judged someone’s condition as good as long as they could walk.

There was no way Helios could know that.

[Hey there, you little pups! Is everyone gathered?]

Rumble. The giant door closed.

[We’ll begin the 20th Floor trial. Do your best! Muhahaha!]

With that frivolous and rough voice, the arena became slightly darker.

This much was familiar even to Helios, who had climbed up to the 8th Floor.

‘What appears on the 20th Floor?’

The ground shook violently. Then massive earthen walls rose from the floor.

In an instant, the huge space was divided into five sections. Then people began disappearing one by one.

“Don’t be surprised. They’re just moving people to different spaces. From here on, they divide people like that.”

Mint spoke soothingly to the startled Helios.

Around Helios, about eight people gathered, including Mint and himself.

“Yaaawn.”

“Could you stop yawning?”

Helios looked at the people who remained near him. Excluding Mint, there were five men and two women.

Helios checked the changed environment.

Grumble!

Rocks began to emerge from the dirt wall, transforming it to look like the wall they had seen when they first entered.

The rock wall had holes scattered throughout its surface.

That wasn’t all. Several holes had also opened up in the ground floor.

There was no telling what would emerge from them.

‘Hmm, are only first-time challengers gathered here?’

Mint yawned repeatedly as she looked around at the seven people excluding herself.

They all had tense expressions without exception. They reeked of being rookies.

The people who had been maintaining relaxed postures earlier seemed to have all moved to different zones.

‘The guards on this floor do their job well.’

Experienced with experienced, beginners with beginners. A good choice.

Mint was slowly rubbing the back of her neck when she touched Helios’s back.

“Whoa!”

“What the…!”

“You seemed too tense.”

She patted his back gently.

“Telling you to cheer up.”

Then she calmly stared at one spot. It was a hole that had opened in the ground floor.

“They’re coming soon.”

Woof woof woof!

Helios clenched his teeth tightly.

‘Dogs this time.’

Whether he escaped this place through prison break or any other means, Helios felt like he would end up hating all animals once he got to the outside world.

Seeing such a variety of animals swarming in black masses by species like this!

The animals that appeared on the 20th floor were dogs.

The problem was that they weren’t ordinary dogs. They appeared to be twice the size of normal dogs, with teeth that had a double structure like sharks.

“Grrrr! Woof!”

Wouldn’t it be better to consider them monsters in the shape of dogs?

There was no time for such leisurely thoughts.

In Helios’s hand was a spear imbued with Kia’s power, which he had become more familiar with than before.

It was glowing with a blue light, but there was no telling how long it would continue to shine.

Growl!

“Ugh!”

That’s when it happened. A man who had been fighting nearby was pushed toward Helios.

Helios grabbed the man’s arm while thrusting his spear into the head of an attacking dog with his other hand.

Unlike the rats on the 1st floor, it didn’t disappear immediately upon contact, but the critically wounded dog staggered and then vanished into smoke.

“Th-thanks for helping me.”

The rescued man had his hair cut short like a soldier.

Something pure white was protruding from his arm, wrapping around it like a shield.

It had a bone-white color.

Helios, who had already heard Kia Theory lessons from Mint to the point of exhaustion, easily identified the man’s attribute.

‘One who uses the body.’

He was a Musculoskeletal Ability user.

“Rest time is coming soon.”

“Yeah…”

Currently, only six people remained in This Place, including Mint and Helios.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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