Became a stagnant person in a squalid prison cell

Chapter 29:

It wasn’t that hard.

“You were born with talent in two types of Kia.”

“Huh?”

Just tell them what their talent is, and give them the right environment to use it.

See? Easy.

“Uwaaah… sob, sniff, h-huuh…”

I sat leaning on my elbow on a tree stump. Then I glanced at Ged, who was standing nearby.

“Hey.”

“Y-yes! Boss! You called?”

“Does he always cry that much?”

“Ah…”

Ged looked over at Seth, who was squatting next to a tree, sobbing loudly, and gave a slightly awkward smile.

“H-he’s kind of a sensitive kid.”

“Really?”

Ged hurried back to his place, which was in front of a tree wrapped in iron. For the record, I wrapped that iron around it.

Ged frowned and started punching the iron.

It must have hurt. Still…

Clang! Clang! Clang!

‘Huh, sounds nice and sharp.’

As I yawned, I heard a quiet whisper near my ear.

It was Ged whispering to Helios nearby.

‘They do know I can hear everything, right?’

I pretended to close my eyes.

“Hey, Helios.”

“What?”

Ged’s deep voice and Helios’s smoother voice came one after the other.

“About that training… Is it always like this?”

“Like what?”

“I mean… the way you awakened Seth’s powers!”

Helios exhaled with a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sigh.

“Oh, that cruel method?”

I tilted my head.

‘Cruel?’

I thought back to the moment I helped Seth awaken his healing Kia.

“I need a volunteer.”

“A volunteer? To help Seth? I’ll do it, boss!”

Since I had decided to train Ged’s group properly, going to the 23rd floor right away was out of the question.

If I didn’t help them improve their powers, we wouldn’t be able to climb the tower much longer.

Luckily, Ged volunteered quickly, so I took him aside and explained the plan.

“W-we’re really doing this? Seriously? For real?”

“Don’t worry. Nothing will go wrong, and I’ll take full responsibility.”

“Ugh…”

Then I brought Ged in front of Seth and made him bleed a little.

Drops of red blood fell, and Seth’s eyes widened in shock.

“Kia works best when you’re desperate.”

“W-wait…”

“And just so you know—if you don’t heal him, your friend might die.”

Of course, that was an exaggeration. Ged wasn’t actually hurt that badly.

I just made it look worse, tricking Seth into thinking the bleeding was serious, making Ged turn pale.

And that’s when Seth started crying—and awakened his healing Kia.

His ability was to summon living creatures that could heal wounds.

It was a very rare power.

‘Even the temple with the female lead probably has someone like this.’

But it didn’t stop with awakening—we immediately moved to the next phase of training.

You have to push forward fast when a Kia awakens.

“Next, a broken bone.”

“Uwaaaaah!”

“Now a burn.”

“Aaaagh!!”

“Next up, frostbite.”

“Hhhggh… sniff…”

That’s how we boosted Seth’s power.

“So Helios, you’ve been going through training like this alone all this time? Unbelievable…”

“Don’t get close. That’s gross.”

“Haha! I almost cried like a girl!”

“You did cry.”

“That wasn’t crying! That was… brotherly love. Can’t you feel my affection?”

“No thanks.”

Listening to Helios and Ged talk felt strange.

Only the first injury had been done using Ged. The rest—I hurt my own arm for it.

Training a Kia is kind of like learning a skill in a game.

If you learn how to “slash” with a sword, then you can also learn to “stab.”

So if you can heal cuts, you can also heal burns, frostbite, and so on.

That’s why it’s best to get used to all of them at once.

“Stop it. What are you even doing?”

“Hm? Yeah, I’m done anyway.”

“……”

By today, Seth successfully learned to heal all kinds of injuries. He got used to it. Even though he was still sniffling today too.

A few days ago, when Seth awakened his power, I took everyone to the 23rd floor.

And I left Seth behind, drained from healing, while telling the others to protect him.

‘This is how you teach teamwork.’

People grow stronger in a crisis.

And they did overcome it. So what was so “cruel” about it?

“Hey Seth, you okay?”

“Y-yeah… sniff… I’m okay…”

“Hang in there! Let’s survive this as men! Tell me if it gets too hard!”

“N-no… If getting stronger through this cruel method helps us… then I’ll do it…”

And somehow, it seemed like a bond had formed between Helios and Ged’s group.

Though… it seemed like they all saw me as the villain bringing them together.

‘Isn’t this what they call “ungrateful”?’

Oh well. As long as their skills improve, I don’t care.

The stronger Helios’s teammates are, the faster and more likely he is to reach the top and become the leader.

“Opening!”

While training with a spear, Helios suddenly dodged to the side.

A dagger made of Kia landed where he had just been—and melted into the ground.

It was Brett’s shadow, jumping down from a tree.

“Haha! That was a miss, huh? I thought that would be my perfect sneak attack.”

Brett approached with a smile and reached out to shake hands.

As Helios reached out too—a sharp spike flashed toward him.

Helios’s spear reacted instantly, stabbing toward Brett.

Before Brett knew it, he was on the ground with Helios pointing the spear at him.

‘He’s good with a spear—even though it’s not his specialty.’

Brett’s power was similar to Helios’s—a material-based ability to create weapons.

But he had a bit of talent in elemental powers, so he fused it into an ability to create weapons from shadows.

Yes, I taught him that too.

I narrowed my eyes slightly as I looked at Brett.

“You’re pretty amazing. I didn’t think you awakened your Kia that long ago. Hahaha!”

Brett grabbed Helios’s hand and stood up.

Brett’s powers were close to those of an assassin.

So I trained him to aim for Helios’s weak spots.

And Helios was trained to block or counter those strikes.

By the way—on the day we sent a tired Seth to the 23rd floor, Helios and the others did manage to clear it.

‘Who knew Helios would be good at leading too?’

Actually, I didn’t teach them anything about teamwork, so they almost got wiped out—but I helped a bit at the end.

Still, 80% of the success was their own effort.

And yesterday, they cleared the 24th floor too.

Tomorrow is the 25th.

‘But… the 25th floor…’

As I was thinking, I felt a small tingling sensation near my temple.

“You’re weak, Haila.”

“……”

Haila’s ability was in the mental Kia category, so she couldn’t train with others easily.

‘If you lose control, it’s a one-way ticket to madness.’

So I had to personally train with her.

‘I also want to ask her someday about Ramona and Mr. Deril…’

We had left them behind, but something still nagged at me. I looked up at the sky.

A huge tower pierced the sky.

Starting from the 25th floor, things wouldn’t be so easy.

Later that evening…

Only bed checks and sleep were left on the schedule after dinner and rest.

When I looked up, Helios was holding out his hand to me.

His silver-white hair was dripping wet—he must’ve just washed up.

He had a towel over his shoulders, and the buttons of his prison uniform were partly undone.

It was a different look from his usual neat, obsessive style.

Instead of taking his hand, I tilted my head.

Three droplets clung to his eyelashes, catching the light. It looked… oddly attractive.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you wash.”

“Oh, I go when you’re sleeping. I am a guard, after all.”

“More nonsense.”

Honestly, I didn’t need to wash. I could keep myself clean using Kia.

And I didn’t want to use the shared facilities for men anyway.

“Oh, is it because I’m the only one getting wet? Were you upset you stayed dry?”

“What are you even saying…”

Before he could finish, water dripped from my own hair.

I had summoned water above my head.

“Hmm, feels wet.”

“Of course it does. Dry off already…”

“Yeah, I will.”

Acting on a whim, I pushed my wet hair back with one hand, and started unbuttoning my damp shirt with the other.