F-Rank Secretly Becomes Stronger - Chapter 33

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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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33

“First, eat this. The bones crushed by our Jinky will heal in no time.”

A potion she approached and handed over.

It was bright red, looking like a potion that would appear in a game.

Since it was an item given by a demon, its effects would surely be direct, but Jung Juhyeok didn’t accept it easily.

“I was taught never to accept items from demons without any price.”

“You got hurt because of our child, so I can at least give you this much.”

She smiled while petting Cerberus.

Soon she threw the bottle to Jung Juhyeok and said.

“Drink it. I’ll stake my name on it. I absolutely won’t demand any price, and no effects other than recovery will appear on your body.”

“….”

A demon strong enough to keep Cerberus as a pet had sworn while staking her name.

Since she went this far, there was no need to be more suspicious.

Jung Juhyeok opened the bottle cap and swallowed it all in one gulp.

“So what’s the name you just staked?”

“Mephisto. Is it a name you know?”

She mentioned a demon name from classical novels.

It was already famous that some monsters from classical novels, which were considered fantasy, were actually real beings.

It wouldn’t be strange if her identity was Mephisto.

“There probably isn’t a human who doesn’t know your name.”

“That’s right. Actually, I asked even though I knew, because I wanted to feel whether my name still holds its value.”

She showed a captivating smile and turned her gaze to Jung Juhyeok.

“What’s your name?”

“Jung Juhyeok.”

“Jung Juhyeok, Jung Juhyeok….”

Mephisto slowly approached while savoring the name.

The scent of roses gradually drew closer and stung his nose.

She approached close enough that their noses would touch if he fell, observed him intently, then spoke.

“I’ll ask directly… How are you so strong?”

How am I so strong, she asks.

Leaving a few scratches on the Cerberus she raised was the best I could do.

Of course, from an ordinary human’s perspective, one could say I was strong enough, but it didn’t seem like something she, who raised Cerberus, should say.

When I fell silent for a moment, having nothing to say, she asked again.

“No, more precisely, by what means did you become strong?”

“I became strong through training.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

Mephisto answered firmly.

“Considering the amount of mana you currently have and the combat you just showed, no matter how I look at it, things don’t add up.”

She muttered to herself, lost in something.

It felt like she wasn’t looking at Jung Juhyeok in front of her, but was alone, lost in another world.

“Are you perhaps a half-blood with a demon who’s lived over 500 years? If so, there’s no way you’d have such a tiny amount of mana, right?”

She poured out questions.

Her curiosity was stimulated as she threw questions at herself and repeatedly denied them.

“Half-blood with an Orc? If so, your strength couldn’t be this weak. Or are you hiding your mana? You absolutely couldn’t hide it in front of me, right?”

Mephisto deduced answers through self-questioning without even listening to responses.

Seeing such a reaction, fortunately it seemed she hadn’t noticed the artifact engraved on my arm.

How long had she been talking to herself like that?

Suddenly, she seemed to realize she had been lost in her own world for too long and showed an “oops” expression.

“Sorry. This is my first time in such a situation, so I got a little excited.”

“…That can happen.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

She smiled brightly.

They say demons bewitch humans through all sorts of means.

She was beautiful enough to bewitch any man with just her face alone.

“Your wounds seem to have healed completely, so shall we sit and have a conversation for a while?”

At those words, the background changed simultaneously.

The lava zone under the red moon disappeared without a trace, and in the blink of an eye, we arrived at a place that looked like a library.

“Sit over there, there are refreshments too so eat as much as you want.”

“….”

A wooden chair that moved at her single gesture.

Since my whole body was full of fatigue from fighting Cerberus, I sat down first.

“So what’s the reason you brought me here.”

“It’s not exactly that I invited you. A kid who does errands under me found an interesting human and brought you to me.”

“And you unleashed that shit dog to see how interesting I was?”

“That’s how it turned out.”

A reaction as if nothing happened despite almost killing someone.

I thought that being a demon, she naturally wouldn’t have any guilt, but I couldn’t hide my displeasure.

Perhaps noticing such signs immediately, she pondered for a moment then continued speaking.

“Did I commit a discourtesy? Some compensation seems necessary.”

She opened a gothic cabinet next to the library and took out a ring, placing it on the desk.

“How about this ring? It’ll increase your mana amount by more than 10 times.”

“I don’t need items tainted by demon hands.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

She flicked the ring she had placed on the desk into the air, caught it like playing with a ball, then asked.

“Then what do you need that made you break through this suspicious Gate alone?”

“Knowledge.”

There was no need to hesitate.

Knowledge about the Training Room.

That was the only reason Jung Juhyeok had risked danger to enter the Gate invited by a demon alone.

“I need knowledge about artifacts.”

“Not that you want artifacts, but knowledge about artifacts?”

A question appeared on her face.

Mephisto looked at Jung Juhyeok’s face then soon wore a meaningful smile.

“Hmm~ You got caught up in something.”

As expected of a demon, her intuition was quite sharp.

It was fine. I had anticipated that she would notice to some extent.

She wore an expression of finally understanding somewhat and continued speaking.

“Right, otherwise being this strong wouldn’t make sense.”

“Do your deductions alone later, there’s something else to discuss now.”

Jung Juhyeok placed his hands on the desk and said to her.

“A place where I can find information about artifacts. Let me use it.”

“My, how bold.”

“I almost died because of someone, so you should be able to do at least this much, right?”

Having risked my life and provided plenty of entertainment, it seemed I had paid the price in advance.

Having done this much, couldn’t she at least let me use the library at home?

Mephisto rested her chin on her hand at Jung Juhyeok’s compensation negotiation conditions.

“Well… it’s somewhat lacking.”

Still not enough.

While it was interesting to see someone with mana that could barely kill a slime leave wounds on Jinky, that wasn’t satisfying enough to let him use the library.

“Though it was fun watching you scuffle with Jinky, that’s not worth letting you use my library.”

She said that and raised the corner of her mouth in a smirk as she made a new proposal.

“How about if you tell me about the incident you experienced, I’ll let you use the library?”

“No.”

I had absolutely no intention of telling anyone.

If she found out that an artifact was engraved on my body, she would surely offer temptations that couldn’t be easily brushed off.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust my mental strength, but there was no harm in being careful in front of a demon.

Mephisto let out a deep sigh at the firm answer.

“Then what to do…”

She seemed rather pleased despite the difficult negotiation.

She appeared to perceive this situation itself as an amusing game.

Before long, Mephisto presented another condition.

“Then shall we play a game?”

“A game?”

“It’s simple. If you don’t fall for the temptation in the illusion I show you, you win. You can freely use my library, which contains thousands of years of perfect history, for the rest of your life.”

Something I’d heard somewhere before.

As expected of Mephisto, she proposed a bet similar to the content from the novel.

“If you fall for the temptation, you’ll tell me everything about how you became strong, leaving nothing out.”

“Didn’t you already do that hundreds of years ago?”

“There’s nothing as fun and certain as this.”

She looked at Juhyeok through the ring in her hand as she spoke.

“So, will you do it?”

“….”

Could I really withstand Mephisto’s temptation?

I prided myself on having mental strength that wouldn’t lose to anyone, but could I really overcome temptation and win even against a great demon’s illusion?

Juhyeok continued pondering for several seconds.

Actually, the answer had already been decided from the moment he crossed through the gate.

“Fine. Let’s do it.”

What kind of amazing temptation would she offer?

When he answered boldly, Mephisto smiled grotesquely with her mouth splitting wide, contrary to her noble face.

“That’s how you should respond.”

Then she created paper in empty air and thrust it in front of me.

After carefully checking the contract contents inside, erasing several unreasonable clauses, thoroughly checking ten times, and completing the signature.

“How meticulous. Shall we begin then?”

“Let’s go right in.”

There was no time to waste.

The game that began with her while holding slight tension inside.

“Let’s face each other fair and square.”

She spoke words unbefitting of a demon, and shortly after, my vision became blurry.

*

“….”

“….”

Mephisto awkwardly looked down.

Juhyeok asked her with a somewhat deflated tone.

“Is it over?”

“…Yes, you won.”

I won.

Without needing to discuss the judgment deeply.

Even if Jinky from the front yard came to see, it was at a level where they could only say it was Juhyeok’s victory.

“What kind of human are you to completely reject all my temptations?”

“Well, just… when I focus on the sword, I can’t really see other things.”

Various trials were given within the illusion.

A woman who perfectly matched Juhyeok’s taste.

Scenes of grasping wealth and honor that any human would want even if they threw away their lives.

It felt like an illusion that he could obtain immediately just by touching it.

However, none of it caught his eye.

As soon as Juhyeok entered the illusion, he immediately looked for a sword and immersed himself in training.

Mephisto tried every scheme possible within the training ground to somehow seduce Juhyeok, but the result was a complete defeat.

Juhyeok didn’t give even a glance to her temptations, and eventually all the time passed and the game ended.

“Ugh… this doesn’t make sense. Did you hit your head badly somewhere? Or do you have no desires?”

“I have desires too.”

Sexual desire, appetite, desire for sleep.

Juhyeok was one of the ordinary humans who had all of those.

Nevertheless, there was one reason why Juhyeok didn’t lose to Mephisto.

“But there’s something important enough to make me forget those desires.”

When playing games, there are people who become so immersed they stay up all night, refuse to sleep with women, and don’t even eat proper meals.

An analogy he had given to classmates who couldn’t understand Juhyeok’s behavior, to help them understand easily.

For him, the sword was something he could immerse himself in deeply, like a game.

It’s just that his level of immersion was at an unparalleled degree.

“…Good grief, this isn’t even funny.”

Mephisto let out a deep sigh.

She still seemed to have difficulty accepting the fact that she had lost, but in the end, a defeat was a defeat.

Reluctantly, she threw the key to Jung Juhyeok and said.

“Look through the library as much as you want. With just that key, you’ll be able to come and go from this mansion, so if you need to, you can go out and come back.”

A somewhat anticlimactic victory.

Thanks to this, Jung Juhyeok had obtained access rights to the great demon Mephisto’s library.

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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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