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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Scouting Season
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Meanwhile, Helios narrowed his eyes. Before him stood a massive man with a bag over his head.
Helios felt a sense of familiarity.
No, was it déjà vu?
“You…”
Before he could say anything more, the killer moved his hand.
Though he was bare-handed, the pitch-black light emanating from his hand made him a threat.
It was a powerful Kia.
*Clang!*
The moment his fist collided with the spear once more, Helios felt a chill run down his spine.
‘It’s breaking…!’
This Kia spear had been reliable on every floor. *Crack.* The impact sent spiderweb-like fissures through it.
*Shatter!*
The delayed sound rang deafeningly in his ears.
But this was no time to get lost in thought. His opponent’s fist was coming!
Ducking to avoid the punch, Helios extended his hand. Blue Kia coalesced.
“Ugh…!”
He needed another weapon.
In that instant, Helios recalled the sight of Mint’s back.
The powerful strike that had sliced through the giant serpent. That’s what he needed.
Yes, a sword.
The sword that formed in Helios’s hand shot straight toward the killer’s face.
*Screeeech!*
The killer dodged, but the paper bag tore with a loud rip.
“Hah, hah.”
Though it differed in power, the sword strike the killer had dodged was astonishingly similar to the one Mint had used.
Even if the killer had managed to avoid it.
Helios, though panting for breath, did not attack again.
“We did it! We did it!”
He heard Seth shouting triumphantly from behind. In his hand was a candelabra.
The space surrounding Helios and Ged’s party began to melt away.
Even the killer who had been chasing them the whole time was screaming at the basement entrance as he faded away.
But strangely, the killer in front of Helios didn’t blur in the slightest.
Of course not.
He wasn’t a being that belonged to this floor, after all.
Helios, who had been observing him, spoke, his breath ragged.
“Master.”
The eyes inside the paper bag faintly curved. The killer’s pitch-black, glossy pupils slowly returned to a color he knew.
Teal. The color of Garet’s eyes.
Moreover, his massive physique shrank until he was even smaller than Helios.
“Well now, calling me so politely. I like it.”
When he took off the paper bag, the face of the master Helios knew was revealed.
Without showing any surprise, Helios asked.
“…What was that all about?”
“Playing the final boss?”
Helios furrowed his brow at the nonchalant reply.
“But how did you know? That it was me? When did you figure it out?”
It was a natural question for Mint.
‘I didn’t think he’d notice.’
There had been another killer in this basement. And like the serpent on the 29th floor, it was on a level that Helios’s party couldn’t handle right now.
Why on earth did these irregular entities only appear on the floors Helios entered?
If the same thing happens twice, it’s no longer a coincidence.
‘There’s a high probability it’s because of me.’
If they were created in proportion to my Kia, then there was nothing I could do about it.
In any case, I had defeated the killer, then used Kia to disguise myself as him.
‘This is also a form of training.’
Crisis fosters growth. Or so I had thought.
“I knew from the beginning.”
The moment Helios saw the killer’s eyes, he had realized. He knew the being before him was Mint.
It was only natural.
His master was the only person he saw with a woman’s silhouette superimposed over them.
The woman with long, straight hair, who had once appeared as a faint glimmer, now manifested naturally.
At this rate, he’d be able to recognize Mint no matter what form she took.
Helios kept this fact to himself.
“Really? You must have good instincts.”
Mint brushed it off as nothing.
He was the owner of an insane talent, capable of perfectly mimicking a sword attack he had only been shown once.
“Why on earth would you do something like this?”
“Well, I was curious to see how much my disciple has accomplished.”
“You beat me up every day as it is…”
“Hey, that’s not the same as seeing it in a real fight.”
Mint shrugged.
“Congratulations. You cleared it.”
Helios subtly covered his face with his hand. He wanted to hide his flushing cheeks.
“You did a good job leading your comrades on your own.”
He didn’t want to foolishly show how happy he was over a single compliment.
“Let’s go back. The red lighting hurts my eyes.”
Ignoring Helios completely, Mint walked past him.
“Master.”
“Hm?”
Mint turned her head.
“I knew because you’re my master. I recognized you the moment I saw you.”
“Is that so?”
Helios bit his lip.
His pale cheeks flushed red, then redder still, like a camellia.
*Because you’re special to me.*
He couldn’t bring himself to say such embarrassing words, not even if he died.
* * *
Just like on the 29th floor, the prisoners emerging from the 30th floor were all screaming their heads off.
“Fuck!! I’m never going back! Never, you sons of bitches! Just kill me!!”
“Hah… Hah… Haaah!”
Others were completely out of their minds.
From the prisoners’ conversations and ramblings, I could tell the floor Helios and Ged’s party had experienced was on another level of difficulty.
It really must be because of me. I was sure of it.
‘By the way… if I don’t do something about this difficulty, all the prisoners are going to end up in the psychiatric ward.’
If all the horror-themed floors from 30 to 39 were like this, the mental toll on the prisoners would be immense.
“Sob, I-I’m sorry… Haira. N-Noona. I’m sorry!”
Hearing crying nearby, I turned to see Seth sniffling as he used healing Kia on Haira.
And Haira, offering her knee, had a look of resignation on her face.
“What happened?”
“Ah, um. It’s nothing.”
Apparently, after Seth had chanted the spell at the altar and the floor was cleared, he’d been so happy that he started jumping up and down. He fell over, taking Haira, who was trying to steady him, down with him.
Since they were injured after the trial had ended, the wounds didn’t just disappear, so he was healing her himself.
After he finished the treatment, Seth eagerly tried to show me how he had mastered a new use for his telekinesis.
I gave a half-hearted nod and paid him no mind.
“Big Bro, that was too much. How could you take on such a monstrous form and hit me so hard…!”
“You should have dodged.”
“What?! What are you talking about? This Ged must face an attack head-on like a man! How could I possibly dodge?”
“Oh, really? Then how about you don’t dodge and take a few more hits right now?”
“Ahem! Indeed, a true man must also know when to dodge!”
After voicing his grievance about the attack in the basement, Ged discreetly slipped away.
“All prisoners, return to your cell blocks!”
As we moved according to the guard’s instructions, I spotted a large group of people standing not too far away.
Quite a few of the returning low-level prisoners ran over to the group and started talking.
The guards accompanying us looked displeased.
However, when a few from the standing group smiled obsequiously, rubbing their hands together and handing something over, the guards discreetly stepped aside.
Seeing this, I realized.
‘Ah, it’s already that time. Is it scouting season?’
Niflheim, a place isolated from the rest of the country, existing in its own unique space.
This prison had groups called ‘Families,’ or ‘Fams’ for short.
Simply put, they were factions.
‘Factions where like-minded guys gather for hobbies or to engage in thuggish acts.’
From the 30th floor onward were the low-level/rank 1 prisoners. The next rank up was mid-level.
Because from the mid-levels onward, they were considered quite useful within the tower.
Fams composed of mid-level and high-level prisoners would send people to loiter around here, starting from the 30th floor.
They were looking for promising prospects to drag into their Fams.
‘Of course, it’s not ‘scouting’ in the ordinary sense of the word.’
Once they set their sights on someone, they didn’t hesitate to drag them in by force.
The guards? Of course, they turned a blind eye.
Whether the prisoners beat each other up, killed each other, or formed factions, it was none of their business.
And it was a common occurrence for them to brutally torture or kill low-level prisoners in retaliation for refusing their offers.
‘I told them not to do that.’
Now that I wasn’t the boss anymore, it must have started up again.
Somehow, the aura emanating from that group felt unusually like that of beasts let off the leash.
Recruitment offers were made to prisoners on the 20th floor and below, or to those climbing to the 20th, but those offers usually came from mid-level Fams or those of lower quality.
The scouting that happened on this floor was what you could call the real deal.
Looking around, I saw that Ged’s party was already being questioned by one of the groups.
