F-Rank Secretly Becomes Stronger - Chapter 31

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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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31

“Now, everyone please listen.”

The city outskirts of Gangwon Province where a perimeter had been established.

It was a road far from the downtown district where not many people passed by.

“Since it’s a B-rank Gate, everyone keep your wits about you as we go in. Got it?”

A fresh B-rank Gate that Yena had found.

The Party Leader gathered the people who had assembled from here and there and prepared to enter the Gate.

“If you’re ready, let’s go in.”

The Gate they entered following his signal.

A familiar sensation enveloped their bodies, and before long they could feel the dramatically different air temperature.

‘It’s suffocating.’

Looking around, it was a region where lava was boiling.

A backdrop that seemed like the inside of a volcano greeted the party.

“Looks like Hell. The monsters will all have intelligence, so let’s be especially careful.”

The Party Leader who said to be especially careful while giving me a meaningful look.

Even though Jung Juhyeok had become quite famous, the label of F-rank was still attached to him, so distrust still lingered.

And for good reason – no matter how much someone was called an Irregular, they were usually only one level higher than their actual rank.

The fact that an F-rank Irregular had come along to a B-rank Gate must have seemed quite unreliable.

‘They’re still arguing about whether the video was manipulated or not. They probably don’t believe it.’

A person who couldn’t believe anything unless they saw it with their own eyes.

I had no desire to blame him for that.

It was understandable enough, and I was already used to such looks anyway.

“Let’s advance while maintaining positions.”

Two Vanguards including Jung Juhyeok.

The Leader was a Supporter, so he quietly watched from the rear.

I could almost hear the sound of gears turning in his head from back there.

But I had no intention of watching him look anxious like that forever.

“Imp ahead!”

A demon monster less than a third the size of a human body.

The Imp appeared from somewhere and immediately lunged at the Vanguard.

Kiyaak―!

The Imp flying forward with sharp claws extended.

Jung Juhyeok lightly blocked the attack with his sword and then counterattacked.

Kreak―!

The enemies cleanly split in half.

He handled them as easily as cutting tofu.

After simply dealing with the three or four Imps that had rushed at him like that, the expected gazes flew his way.

“Jung Juhyeok! You’re pretty good with that sword!”

“Thank you.”

The Party Members he looked around at along with praise from the fellow Vanguard Hunter.

Not only the others, but even the Leader who had been doubtful now had an expression of shock.

‘Now they’ll worry a bit less, right?’

Since I’d shown that I could do more than my share, what remained was to slaughter monsters without worrying about the gazes from behind.

I thought I’d finish this decisively and collect materials for the next Training Room.

But something was strange that day.

Kieek―!

The same Imps I had just dealt with.

Human―! Kill―!

Pigmen that walked on two legs like humans.

Grruk―! Gguruk―!

Even the Hell Slimes we encountered while passing by.

They all completely ignored the other party members and only attacked Jung Juhyeok.

“His mana really must be F-rank.”

“Pardon?”

“The kids are all targeting only Jung Juhyeok.”

When he was thinking something was strange, the same vanguard uncle offered an explanation.

He explained the reason why all monsters were targeting Jung Juhyeok.

“Most hell monsters have excellent mana detection sense, so they probably try to prey on the one with the lowest mana first.”

“So that’s why the monsters only target me?”

“That’s right. Since you said F-rank, from their perspective you probably look like food walking right up to them.”

Monsters flocking to him because of his low mana.

Thanks to that, he was unintentionally defeating the most monsters in the party.

“That aside, you’re amazing. I was really surprised when you handled three Pigmen by yourself earlier.”

“It was only possible because they let their guard down seeing my mana level.”

Monsters who became careless due to the measly amount of mana that a mere F-rank gave off.

Thanks to that, their movements became larger and he exploited those openings to strike their weak points and kill them.

His senses, already sharpened from the Training Room, had become even keener than before, and he had reached the point where he could catch B-rank monsters with his eyes closed.

‘The problem is I’m not confident I can kill A-rank ones even like this.’

B-rank to A-rank was a world of difference.

Monsters became exponentially stronger and all knew how to use human language.

They could use deception like humans and were on a different level in terms of force as well.

‘Honestly, I think I could kill one or two, but when you enter a Gate, that level won’t be enough.’

Still insufficient.

He needed to become stronger.

Due to his lacking mana and talent, the difficulty curve was steeper than for others.

Even entering and exiting the Training Room several times wasn’t enough.

‘Then I’ll just enter and exit hundreds of times.’

There was still plenty of time.

Just continuing to run B-rank dungeons would make upgrading the Training Room possible, so he could just continue as he had been doing.

Just as he was thinking that and continuing to hunt monsters.

The leader in the rear stopped everyone in front of a hill.

“Wait, from here up the mana concentration gets thicker.”

“Is it the boss?”

“It must be.”

The leader pondered for a moment while using her detection skill.

After a few seconds, she added.

“This level isn’t B-rank. It’s A-rank.”

“Right, since it’s a B-rank Gate boss, A-rank would definitely come out.”

Everyone didn’t seem particularly surprised.

They had expected an A-rank boss to appear when the hell setting came out in the first place.

“Probably a mid-level demon will come out?”

“Since it’s A-rank, that’s likely.”

“I see.”

The vanguard nodded and said.

“There’s no reason to retreat from here since we have sufficient manpower.”

“I’m thinking the same thing. Let’s go in.”

The atmosphere was one where everyone agreed to engage in the boss battle.

Jung Juhyeok, who already had a record of taking down a B-rank boss in one hit, had no reason to refuse and joined them.

“Since everyone seems to agree, let’s go in.”

They resumed their halted steps.

Due to the high temperature, sweat flowed down their cheeks and dripped to the ground.

The party walked steadily up the steep dirt slope.

How long had they walked like that?

When they had climbed high enough to see the hell they had walked through at a glance, a mansion spread wide before them came into view.

“Phew, finally the boss room.”

The party members seemed exhausted, having consumed quite a bit of stamina climbing the high hill.

Juhyeok maintained his vigorous energy even in the midst of all this.

“Aren’t you tired, Juhyeok?”

“It’s a bit tiring, but it’s bearable.”

He spoke with a completely untroubled expression, so they didn’t believe him at all.

The monsters had rushed at him alone, so his stamina consumption should have been the most severe.

Even while climbing the hill, he didn’t let out a single rough breath.

“He’s not called an Irregular for nothing…”

The title of Irregular that one could barely receive only after going through complicated procedures at the Hunter Association.

They had already seen how he earned that title when he easily caught the monster just now, but it showed again.

“I know everyone’s tired, but guard monsters might appear, so let’s hurry inside.”

“Yes, we should.”

If guard monsters appeared and swarmed like bees, stamina consumption would become even more severe.

In times like this, the best strategy was to quickly enter the mansion and defeat the boss.

Since this was common knowledge that the other party members knew well enough, they quickly headed toward the mansion.

A vast mansion that could appear in a comic book.

Pushing through the main gate, they found a sprawling garden and stone path extending ahead.

“Tsk, the demon lives in a better house than me.”

“If you’re jealous, why don’t you go live in hell too.”

The party members walked along, chattering nonsense with each other.

Fortunately, they didn’t encounter a single guard monster and quietly arrived at the mansion’s main entrance.

“Let’s go in.”

The main entrance opened with the leader’s instruction.

The massive wooden door opened with a creaking sound, and once everyone entered, the door they had left open automatically closed.

‘No matter which Gate I go to, the doors automatically closing is always the same.’

Do the monsters perhaps share manuals with each other?

While lost in idle thoughts observing a pattern similar to the previous Lich King, lights came on in the chandelier hanging from the high ceiling.

“Welcome, four guests have come to visit.”

Along with an enchanting voice, a monster revealed itself on the second floor railing above the staircase.

The horns on its forehead and wings spread on both sides of its back made its identity roughly guessable.

“Did a Gate open nearby? I was bored lately, so this works out well.”

A demon with androgynous features.

An appearance that shone like a sculpture with both handsomeness and beauty coexisting.

Showing off clean purple skin, it was about to lower the hand supporting its chin when it suddenly looked toward us and frowned.

“Hm? It’s not four?”

A reaction as if something was wrong.

It straightened its body leaning against the stair railing, jumped, and landed gracefully on the first floor, then asked.

“You, what nerve brought you here?”

A question thrown at Juhyeok.

There was no need to bother answering a monster and giving away information, so he simply drew his sword silently.

The demon looked at Juhyeok like that and wrinkled its face again.

It was a natural reaction since he had blatantly ignored the words of a demon famous for its strong pride.

The creature wrinkled its face for a moment, then instantly extracted its fingernails from hands full of bulging veins.

“Insolent bastard… Right, there’s no point showing interest in someone who’s going to die anyway.”

The creature held the extracted fingernails and spread its wings wide.

Everyone who had been tense at that sight looked at Juhyeok.

They knew instinctively.

The fact that the demon would target Juhyeok first.

“Juhyeok, be careful—”

Before those words could even finish, wings fluttered.

The demon instantly leaped toward Juhyeok.

“Juhyeok!”

Everyone was flustered by the speed that was much faster than expected.

The leader shouted his name as he was at a precarious distance where he could be attacked at any moment.

Thwack―!

“Kugh!”

Juhyeok wasn’t someone who would be taken down so easily.

When the flying fingernails came at him and there wasn’t enough distance to swing his sword after minimal movement, he struck hard with his sword hilt at the jaw.

Taking the direct hit, the demon spilled a few drops of blood from its mouth and staggered backward.

“What, how…?”

An opponent whose mana amount was difficult to even categorize by human standards.

Yet this guy had easily deflected his attack and even delivered a counter attack.

A situation that couldn’t be explained by luck alone.

The demon grabbed his shaking head, assessed the situation briefly, then spread his wings and climbed back onto the railing.

“I was careless. Right, there’s no way humans would send someone with such little mana into a Gate.”

After muttering to himself, he tilted his head in confusion.

With his beautiful appearance, he smiled eerily as he looked at Juhyeok.

“But it’s fascinating. How did you deflect my attack with that body?”

Questions filled his mind.

How could someone with such little mana counter his attack?

Occasionally there were guys who showed greater power despite having low basic mana, but this was the first individual to overcome such a mana gap.

“Now that I smell you up close, your blood scent is the strongest.”

The demon realized that Juhyeok alone had dealt with the most monsters.

He fell into thought by himself, then soon smiled an eerie grin that seemed to tear at the corners of his mouth.

“He’s been bored all this time, but this should please him greatly.”

With those words, his sharp fingernails became visible again.

Everyone was on guard, wondering if he would attack again.

But his fingernails were aimed at his own neck.

“Kuhah!”

The guy raised his hand and pierced straight through his own neck.

Blood poured out like a fountain as he collapsed limply on the railing.

“Wh-what!”

“….”

Everyone was stunned by the shocking scene.

Was this perhaps a trick?

Thinking that a monster would never choose self-destruction on its own, they didn’t lower their guard, but before long, an exit gate opened in the center of the mansion interior.

“Did it really die?”

The exit gate that only opens when the boss dies.

Its opening meant that the demon up there had truly met its end.

“What happened exactly…?”

Everyone was confused by the situation.

But that was brief too – since the escape gate had opened, there was nothing to do but exit.

“Shall we go out?”

“…Let’s do that.”

The party members tried to enter the escape gate with an uneasy feeling.

Everyone glanced at the corpse once or twice thinking just in case, but it showed no signs of movement.

“This should be fine, right? It’s not like some trap that guy made…?”

“It’s not a trap gate. The gate’s appearance is definitely an escape gate.”

“….”

“Let’s get out quickly. We don’t know what might happen. Let’s give up on magic stone collection due to self-explosion risk.”

The party members followed the leader into the escape gate.

After everyone had entered and not much time had passed, just as Juhyeok was about to enter the gate last.

He unconsciously stopped his steps and looked back at the corpse.

“….”

The corpse still collapsed limply.

Even staring intently at it, the thing didn’t move at all and just kept bleeding.

It was definitely dead, but perhaps because of the somehow unsettling conclusion.

My gaze kept being drawn to it and wouldn’t look away.

“Yeah, I knew only you would remain.”

The corpse responded by smiling and lifting its head.

Jung Juhyeok immediately raised his sword and took his stance.

“So you weren’t dead.”

“No, I was dead. For about 5 minutes?”

The guy who casually mentions he was dead for about 5 minutes.

The demon delighted in those wary eyes and spoke while resting his chin on both hands against the railing, like a flower in bloom.

“I don’t need to know. Just hand over the Magic Stone.”

“I don’t need it. Just hand over the magic stone.”

“Magic stones? As expected of a human, I suppose you like money….”

The demon pretends to think for a moment, moving his head this way and that, then pulls out a letter from his coat.

“If you want wealth, I can give you a better opportunity than my magic stone.”

Not that, but letters that flutter in the sky and fall at the same time.

It flies slowly like a paper airplane before dropping down in front of Juhyeok.

“Take it. It’s a place where there’s someone who can grant you anything you want, not just magic stones.”

The demon gestured into the air and then spoke in a sweet voice.

“Like hell I’d go get involved with demons.”

“Knowledge, wealth, women… if you’re good enough, you can have anything based on your abilities.”

“Like hell I’m going to get involved with a demon.”

“….”

Secrets of the world I didn’t know about.

As soon as I heard those words, I thought of the Training Room carved on my arm.

‘Could a demon possibly know about it?’

Knowledge about the Training Room that doesn’t yet exist on Earth.

Perhaps among demons, there might be some information, I thought.

“Well then, I’ll be going now. The choice is yours, so do as you please.”

The demon slowly turned to dust and disappeared from the second floor railing.

Only Jung Juhyeok and a single letter at his feet remained in the mansion.

“….”

The mansion became quiet without any voices.

Jung Juhyeok quietly looked back and forth between the letter and where the demon had been, then carefully picked up the letter and left the Gate.

The mansion fell silent without a sound.

Juhyeok quietly looked back and forth between the letter and the place where the demon had been, then carefully picked up the letter and exited the gate.

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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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