F-Rank Secretly Becomes Stronger - Chapter 18

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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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18

“A trap?”

“There’s no time to dawdle right now.”

The trap had already been triggered.

A hair-trigger situation where anything could happen at any moment.

“Where are the Neural Disruption Suppressants?”

He needed to immediately consume medicine that could counter hallucinations.

A question thrown out with quick judgment.

The Leader looked at him with a blank expression for a moment before answering.

“Neural Disruption Suppressants, what we have right now is one, two…”

His words trailed off.

It was the complete opposite of how he always finished his sentences clearly.

An atmosphere that seemed somehow hesitant.

And then a slurred voice flowed out.

“H-how many?”

The Leader asking back while looking at Jung Juhyeok.

He spoke with sweat dripping down from his forehead.

“How many was it…?”

Is it already too late?

Juhyeok appears in their foolish eyes as if he’s become the neighborhood idiot.

Even as the situation was spiraling toward the worst possible outcome, there was no time for lamenting.

Smack!

Juhyeok slapped the leader hard across the face.

“Ugh!”

The body collapses with an unseemly moan.

It was such a pathetic move that it was hard to believe he was a veteran hunter.

“We’ve fallen into a trap. Unless you’re immune to Mental Attacks, tie up your own body right now.”

“It’s a trap. Unless you’re immune to mental attacks, tie yourself up right now.”

“What…?”

The murmuring surroundings.

It might have been different if it were just words spoken without any evidence, but after seeing a party member shouting at empty air and swinging his sword around, there was no way not to believe it.

The hunters were stunned by the sudden turn of events.

Frustrated by that exasperating sight, Juhyeok shouted again.

“…”

A forceful shout from a Rookie Hunter.

Though all the Party Members were confused by the situation that was hard to accept, they eventually took rope from their bags and began tying each other up.

“That guy, didn’t he say this was his second Gate?”

Murmuring circulating among the Party Members.

No matter how much of a rising star he was, his practical ability was so unbelievable that the Party Members followed him as if enchanted.

“But isn’t that F-rank Hunter guy the most vulnerable?”

“But isn’t that F-rank hunter the most vulnerable one?”

“…Do you still think I’m F-rank after seeing that?”

A remark made while looking at the party member who triggered the trap.

The support-type hunter tightened his rope securely and continued speaking.

“Besides, hallucinations are a matter of mental strength.”

An illusion trap that depends not on an individual’s magical power, but on their own mental fortitude.

Because of the rumors he had already heard, he didn’t think the guy was F-rank, but even if he really was F-rank, it was right for Juhyeok to stay.

“That new guy staying behind makes more sense than us who were just floundering around without knowing anything.”

A response delivered without the slightest hesitation in a situation where any normal newcomer would have been at a complete loss, just stamping their feet in confusion.

“…So it really was a trap.”

“If we get out of here safely, I’ll show you, I’ll show you something good. Kheuk!”

“…It really was a trap.”

The Supporter who bursts into crazy laughter in the middle of speaking.

While one or two people were gradually experiencing hallucination symptoms.

Jung Juhyeok grabbed the fallen Leader by the collar and asked.

“Get a grip and tell me where the neural disruption suppressant is.”

“Ne, neural disruption…”

Eyes shaking violently.

Due to the strong shock, a sharp light returned to his eyes.

A mind somewhat recovered from the regressed state.

The Leader suddenly raised his left arm and drew a dagger.

“Ha.”

The moment a party member in a hallucinatory state drew a weapon.

Jung Juhyeok naturally thought he would take an aggressive stance toward him and stepped back.

However, the sword he drew wasn’t aimed at Jung Juhyeok.

Stab!

“Grrgh!”

The Leader stabbed his own right arm.

Blood gushing out.

His outer clothes turned black as sticky liquid flowed down to the floor.

‘Self-harm?’

Could it be self-harming behavior due to mental breakdown?

No, that wouldn’t be it.

If someone took self-harming actions in a hallucinatory state, they would usually harm areas directly connected to the host’s life.

The fact that he stabbed his arm with a dagger, not any other vital spot.

“Bag left pocket…”

His will.

“There are two Neural Disruption Suppressants… bag left pocket…”

It was the Leader’s desperate struggle to hold onto his sanity.

He pointed to his bag with his finger, then shortly after rolled on the floor screaming loudly.

“Kyaaaah! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!”

“….”

The Leader’s appearance from just now disappeared, showing disgraceful behavior again.

Though he was momentarily flustered and hesitated, he couldn’t let the hint the Leader left by stabbing even his thigh go to waste.

Jung Juhyeok immediately ran to the bag he had pointed to and searched the left pocket.

“Two of them.”

The Neural Disruption Suppressant he found quickly.

Usually it would be good to bring them according to the number of people, but probably due to the quite expensive price, they couldn’t prepare them properly.

He found himself at a new crossroads.

‘Who should I inject?’

First, one must definitely go to the Leader.

Because Detection-Type Skills were absolutely necessary to escape from the maze.

‘The remaining one is…’

Jung Juhyeok turned his head from the Leader to check the party members.

Then he saw Jihoon running toward him.

“Hyaaaah!”

Loose rope wrapped around his body.

Saliva dripping from his mouth.

‘Did he fall into a hallucinatory state while being tied up?’

A sword quickly drawn.

When he lightly deflected Jihoon’s charging attack to the side, he lost his balance and tumbled sideways.

Jung Juhyeok didn’t miss the opportunity and stomped hard on his shin.

“Kyaaah!”

“Get a grip.”

Jihoon writhing in extreme pain.

He thought maybe Jihoon would regain his senses momentarily like the leader, but the guy couldn’t easily come to his senses and kept moving around erratically.

‘Everyone else is securely tied up.’

Except for the leader and Jihoon, everyone was definitely neutralized.

He thought about knocking out Jihoon, tying him up, and moving the party members together with the leader, but that was impossible.

‘There are 7 party members total. The leader is currently injured up to her arm, making it difficult to move more than one person.’

If only he and the leader remained, they would have to wait for the hallucinations to disappear in an immobilized state, not knowing when it would end.

And that would be inside the Gate where they had caused quite a commotion.

‘To get out of here even one second faster, I need more able-bodied personnel.’

It was a situation where monsters could come charging at them at any moment.

After hesitating briefly, Jung Juhyeok eventually picked up the Neural Disruption Suppressant and injected it into Jihoon’s forearm.

His body stiffened and his movements stopped.

Before long, a clear voice could be heard.

“…Jung Juhyeok?”

“If you’ve come to your senses, get up and knock out the people caught in the hallucination state.”

Leaving those words behind, Jung Juhyeok walked toward the leader with the remaining Neural Disruption Suppressant.

He injected the leader’s forearm without hesitation.

“You said there were only two of those—”

“Right, I used both of them on you and the leader.”

“But then, that means you…”

Would soon lose your mind to the hallucination trap.

Just as he was about to say that, Jung Juhyeok cut him off.

“I’m still fine. So let’s move quickly.”

For some reason, Jung Juhyeok still showed no abnormal symptoms whatsoever.

However, as he said, this wasn’t a situation to just stand around worrying foolishly.

“…Got it.”

*

“Is the bleeding okay?”

“I avoided the artery, so it’s fine.”

The wound area bound with emergency treatment.

Unfortunately, her left arm was difficult to move easily, but she moved while carrying one person with her other arm.

“That aside, you handled that very well. If you had been even a little late, the party would have been wiped out right there.”

The leader admired his quick response ability in the emergency situation.

She naturally thought he would be a burden since he was F-rank.

Thanks to his perfect response, everyone was safe despite falling into the trap.

“I know you don’t have a guild affiliation yet… How about joining our guild?”

“I’m sorry. I have no intention of joining a guild.”

“Haha, you can think about it slowly. The door is always open for talented people.”

The leader laughed heartily and walked ahead.

Jihoon, who was helping move personnel from behind, also chimed in as a fellow guild member with the leader.

“I hope you join our guild. I was lonely since I don’t have any classmates.”

“You can get close with the seniors.”

“Are classmates and seniors the same? Our guild is still a major guild, so think about it carefully.”

A guild recruitment offer delivered with a smile while limping due to his shin that got trampled earlier.

Jung Juhyeok naturally put up an iron wall and deflected them all.

“But to still show no abnormal symptoms, do you perhaps have a Mental Attack immunity skill?”

“No. I don’t have any immunity skills.”

To have such a skill, you’d need to be at least C-rank, but he was merely F-rank.

There was no way he could have an immunity skill.

“Then you’re saying you endured the Mental Attack with pure mental strength… Huh.”

An expression of disbelief.

She was sufficiently surprised when she heard he had defeated a Mutant Orc alone, but the more time she spent with him, the more amazing aspects he showed.

“During his Academy days, this guy would swing his sword for over 10 hours every single day without rest. His mental strength is probably stronger than most veteran seniors, right?”

“Even so, Mental Attack isn’t that weak…”

Mental strength so strong that ordinary Mental Attacks could barely scratch it.

Moreover, though the two didn’t know it, Juhyeok was already a human who had cleared the Training Room twice—a place that ordinary humans could never endure.

A realm that couldn’t be expressed with ordinary words like “strong mental fortitude.”

Not knowing this, the Leader could only find it puzzling that Juhyeok had withstood the mental attack.

“Just turn this corner and we’ll be out.”

The final crossroads they had barely reached.

After walking for hours to return to the Gate they had started from, they were finally facing escape.

“Keheheuk!”

“Here we go again.”

The party member who had been carried beside them regained consciousness and let out a hollow laugh.

The trap had been so powerful that even after several hours, there was no sign of him regaining his senses.

Thwack—!

“Ugh….”

The party member fell silent after being punched hard in the jaw.

Leading him along, it wasn’t long before they could see the door with the lion’s face painted on it that they had seen when they first entered the gate.

‘In the end, there was no gain at all.’

A raid where they struggled for a long time without even encountering any monsters, barely managing to survive.

Unfortunately, it was unavoidable since forcing a breakthrough here would have been too much.

“Let’s go in.”

The group opens the door and goes inside.

They tried to open the huge doors from both sides and enter to meet the gate.

“…Why is there no gate?”

Bang!

The iron door that had been pushed open closes by itself.

A space where there should be a gate but nothing exists, a space plunged into complete darkness without a single light.

Jihoon asked the leader in confusion.

“….”

A moment of silence flowed.

Then he stammered out a voice.

“I, I….”

He turned around.

He spoke.

“I don’t knowww….”

Flash!

With those words, the ceiling inside brightened brilliantly.

Chandelier.

Stained glass.

The splendid interior of a cathedral was illuminated, and at its end stood a single coffin.

“Tsk.”

Just when he thought they would return with no gains and felt disappointed, to think it would show such consideration.

Juhyeok struck the Leader’s jaw hard, knocking him unconscious.

“Kup!”

The Leader collapsed to the floor with a death rattle.

Along with that, choir music echoed throughout the cathedral interior.

“Jihoon.”

“Gather the people in a corner and draw your sword.”

The coffin lid opened and a skeleton’s gaunt bones propped itself up and emerged.

It wasn’t an ordinary skeleton.

[Soft lumps of flesh have come.]

Telepathy echoing throughout the interior.

The skeleton revealed itself.

The skeleton revealed itself.

A crown on its head and a staff adorned with dazzling jewels in its hand.

“It’s the Lich King.”

The boss had appeared.

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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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