F-Rank Secretly Becomes Stronger - Chapter 10

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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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10

Grrrrowl!

A mutant orc swinging its sword beneath the sunset-lit forest.

His eyes busily scan the opponent’s shoulders to grasp the sword path.

Clang!

Considering the difference in strength with the orc, meeting it head-on could break his sword or cause him to lose balance from being overpowered.

The force of parrying with perfect timing to deflect the attack.

If he moved even slightly too late or too early, it was a precarious standoff where he might suffer fatal injuries immediately.

Grrrrak!

The difference in skill.

Unable to land consecutive attacks successfully, frustration shows on the creature’s face as if it’s getting annoyed.

While it wasn’t a bad method when facing monsters with larger builds than himself, dragging out time like this wasn’t what he wanted either.

‘I’m not confident enough to lead this into a war of attrition.’

Jung Juhyeok had fought countless battles against dolls similar to his size and human opponents.

It was fortunate that it used a sword, but if it had been a mutant wielding a different weapon, it would have certainly been much more difficult to face.

‘It doesn’t have systematic swordsmanship, but that reflexes and strength are the problem…’

Clang!

His mind works ceaselessly as he swiftly deflects attacks.

In the midst of this, he catches sight of the orc’s expression showing irritation at its missed attacks.

“…You have intelligence.”

Ordinary orcs have very low intelligence.

Unless it’s an obviously visible trap, they fall for most tricks.

They have the characteristic of powerful strength, but they’re equally brutish, making countermeasures simple.

But the one in front of him possesses intelligence.

The meticulousness of leaving behind incapacitated prey and searching for the disappeared individual.

That mutant orc has imagination.

It comes to mind.

The behaviors of dolls that possessed intelligence like the orc.

The methods he had devised to defeat such dolls.

Clang!

Jung Juhyeok formulated a plan in his head and struck the clashing blade upward.

An action differentiated from deflecting to either side as he had been doing until now.

The force deflected in an unexpected direction causes it to lose balance slightly.

“Head!”

The target of his attack accompanied by a loud shout.

The attack aimed obviously at the orc’s eyes came close to its face, but it didn’t fall for it easily.

Clank!

The creature demonstrates its reflexes, regaining balance and defending its head.

Even when he first attempted a surprise attack, he thought it was quite agile for not allowing it easily, but seeing it quickly block the sword even while off-balance confirmed its exceptional reflexes.

Grrrrowl!

A larger opening than before as the opponent who had only been defending launched an attack.

The mutant orc wasn’t foolish enough to miss this opportunity.

Clang!

The orc successfully defends and then swings its sword again, going on the counterattack instead.

Jung Juhyeok met the sword head-on honestly, contrary to his previous defensive approach of deflecting attacks.

‘Ugh… damn thing’s strong.’

He was prepared, but the power was stronger than expected.

The intimidating presence felt just from the sword’s brutish size was definitely proportional to the creature’s strength.

Ignoring his tingling palms, he moved forward again and swung.

“Head!”

The eyes of the Orc attacking again.

Feeling threatened by the voice echoing through the forest, the Orc immediately takes a defensive stance and blocks.

Due to the absurd difference in strength, the attack is futilely blocked.

Kurururuk!

A power difference as vast as heaven and earth.

The creature lightly sneered as if asking whether this was all I could manage.

Attacks are exchanged once more.

The creature swings its sword, and after blocking, I shout again and attack its head.

A fierce exchange of offense and defense.

Gradually my strength drains and my breathing becomes labored.

The Mutant Orc notices this situation and presses its attack even more fiercely.

The advantage already tilted.

Predicting victory, the creature’s face, previously painted with irritation, now showed the corners of its mouth rising.

Carelessness.

Yes, the creature had become careless.

The opponent’s simple pattern.

The obvious difference in strength.

Seeing the opponent whose stamina was already being depleted, it was already raising a toast in celebration.

Thung!

A heavy sound from the delayed defense.

Jung Juhyeok frowned, and simultaneously his stance became disrupted.

Kurururak!

It was an opening.

An opening sufficient to deal a fatal blow to the creature that had been annoyingly deflecting all attacks.

“Head!”

Jung Juhyeok jumping high again, showing the same voice and language structure.

I can feel it.

This is the creature’s final struggle.

The Orc calmly, as it had been doing, naturally raised its sword to protect its eyes, trying to block the attack as usual.

However.

“Huh.”

The sword did not clash.

The attack that should have headed precisely for the head did not reach.

Kururuk?

Sensing something was wrong, the Orc lowers its sword to secure its vision.

“Too late.”

What appears before its eyes in that instant is a sword being swung from below at its feet.

Jung Juhyeok smiled as he aimed for the defenseless exposed ankle, and the sword definitely carved through flesh.

Kuiiik!

The Mutant Orc collapses with pain.

Having severed the Achilles tendon area, it can no longer support its massive body and immediately crumbles.

“Being too smart is also a problem. Isn’t it?”

A strategy that wouldn’t have easily worked on an ordinary Orc.

They don’t bother analyzing languages they don’t understand and only think about what they can see.

But this mutant creature was definitely different.

Since I attacked the eyes every time I shouted “head,” it grasped the language structure and gradually began acting first in response to the sound.

“It’s a trap that even an ordinary Orc would fall for easily enough, but since you’re a creature with intelligence, it was even easier.”

Kururrak!

A shriek of rage, unable to accept the current situation even if it couldn’t understand what was being said.

Though it flails around with its arms in pain, a monster that has already lost its mobility wasn’t scary at all.

“Ah, so noisy.”

It was already exhausting enough having to forcefully counter that monster’s brute strength, and now having to listen to ear-splitting screams on top of it made everything even more tiresome.

Jung Juhyeok climbed onto the back of the creature that had pathetically collapsed on the ground.

Kurrrrrk! Kurrik!

“If you lost, then quietly hand over your magic stone.”

Lightly savoring victory as he stabbed its neck.

The creature’s entire body, which had been screaming loud enough to bring down the forest, stiffened once before going completely limp.

“Phew… that was tough.”

Jung Juhyeok sat down on the massive back after finally defeating the Mutant Orc.

His arms were trembling from having forcefully countered its attacks.

‘Who would’ve thought I’d fight a sword-wielding orc in an F-rank dungeon.’

A completely unexpected situation.

I’d occasionally seen news about mutants appearing like this, but I never dreamed it would happen during my very first gate raid.

‘Let me quickly extract the magic stone.’

Until now, Jung Juhyeok had left all the magic stone extraction from corpses to Yena, but since he had learned everything at the Academy, he could handle it without difficulty.

Using his slightly dulled sword to easily pierce through the tough hide and rummaging below the solar plexus, he felt something foreign.

When he reached in and pulled out the stone-like object, a magic stone emerged that was on a completely different level from F-rank magic stones in terms of the intensity of its radiant light.

“This size would be right between D-rank and C-rank.”

The magic stone was definitely large, probably because it was from a mutant.

As he held it in his hand and examined it from various angles, a message suddenly appeared before his eyes.

[Consume the magic stone to absorb mana.]

“…What?”

His hand movements paused for a moment.

He was surprised that a message appeared without him even touching his tattoo, but the content was even more absurd.

‘It wants me to eat this?’

Something no normal person would ever bring close to their mouth.

If it were a weak magic stone like F-rank, consuming just a tiny amount wouldn’t be a major problem.

However, if someone consumed more magic stones than the human body could handle in terms of mana, they would immediately transform into something no different from the monsters that emerge from gates.

‘Of course, with an artifact already dwelling in my body, I’m not exactly ordinary anymore, but still, this is a bit…’

The magic stone glowed while covered in blood.

The fishy smell characteristic of carnivorous animals alone was enough to kill any desire to swallow it.

‘Isn’t there another way…?’

Maybe if I could safely extract mana from the magic stone and put it into my body, I wouldn’t have to put it in my mouth…

Even as he thought this, he knew he wasn’t in a position with enough options to choose such a convenient method.

‘…I’ll really just close my eyes and eat it.’

Even after wiping off as much blood as possible with his clothes, the smell still vibrated intensely.

Like when he was forced to eat cucumber salad as a child, he plugged his nose and quickly put it in his mouth.

“Kuhup…”

Dry heaving rose up the moment it touched his tongue.

Somehow forcing it down his throat with great effort, small tears formed in his eyes.

[Extracting mana from the consumed magic stone.]

A message appeared as he barely managed to open his eyes.

As he was barely rinsing his mouth with water from his pocket, a new message appeared.

[Mana has been absorbed.]

Successful mana absorption.

The result of encountering a Mutant Orc, achieving a hard-fought victory, and forcing a disgusting magic stone down his throat was now before his eyes—

[Mana replenishment for Training Room upgrade and operation 2/100…]

“…2 percent?”

The mana level had definitely been at only 1 percent.

After eating the D-rank stone, the number that had been written as 1 had only changed to a measly 2.

“I ate a D-rank Magic Stone and only got 1 percent?”

If I had sold that thing, I could have easily made over ten million won even after fees.

And after consuming such a thing, it only went up by a mere 1 percent.

The Training Room artifact clearly had tremendous abilities, but the quota that wouldn’t fill easily made the future look bleak.

“Hah…”

A reality that made him sigh involuntarily.

He had planned to only visit cost-ineffective Unpopular Gates from now on, but he needed to modify his plans a bit.

As he sat alone on the Orc’s corpse, lost in thought for a moment.

“Juhyeok!”

A familiar voice struck his eardrums.

Turning his head, he saw Yena with her eyes wide open and the Soldier he had met at the entrance.

“You came quickly.”

“…Don’t tell me Juhyeok caught this?”

Yena ran over, abandoning all formalities after the Orc appeared.

She carefully examined Juhyeok, who was covered in blood, and asked.

“You caught this? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“It’s all Orc blood, so don’t worry.”

He stepped back, worried that touching his blood-soaked clothes might reveal his Mark.

After confirming that he had no serious visible injuries, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Hah… Thank goodness.”

“…”

He had expected her to make a fuss about how he managed to catch it as soon as they met.

Fortunately, Yena wasn’t tactless enough to bother a Rookie Hunter who had just caught an Orc.

Instead, she showed genuine relief at the fact that Juhyeok was safe.

“Sorry for leaving you alone, Juhyeok.”

“I told you to leave, so what’s there to be sorry about.”

“Still…”

The guilt she still felt for running away and leaving the Rookie Hunter alone.

Even seeing him unharmed, that emotion didn’t easily disappear.

Just as he felt embarrassed by her genuinely apologetic attitude.

[Training Room upgrade and Mana replenishment for operation 2/100…]

“…”

Seeing her blaming herself and the message showing only a 1 percent increase gave him a good idea.

“If you’re that sorry, do me a favor.”

“A favor?”

“I’m tired, so let’s go outside and talk.”

Juhyeok got up and moved away from the Orc’s corpse.

As he approached the Soldier who had come with her, quite different eyes from what he saw at the entrance looked at him.

“Let’s go.”

“…Yes. I’ll guide you.”

A voice filled with military discipline.

The Soldier no longer treated Juhyeok as a Newbie Hunter.

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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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