F-Rank Secretly Becomes Stronger - Chapter 40

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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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40

A-rank Gate.

A name that carries a different weight from B-rank.

For an ordinary Hunter, it would naturally be difficult to walk toward such a place with ease.

“I’ll be back. Keep the door locked until Yena arrives.”

“Got it. Don’t worry and come back soon.”

Juhyeok was different.

Light steps as if he was just heading out for training.

Just because it was an A-rank Gate didn’t mean he felt any particular tension.

‘I’ve already fought Cerberus, so an A-rank is nothing.’

He had engaged in a life-or-death battle with an S-rank Cerberus.

Now entering an A-rank Gate with a body much stronger than before, there was no reason to be nervous.

If anyone heard this, they might describe him with the word arrogance, but.

‘My preparation is solid.’

Being prepared for any contingency.

This wasn’t arrogance but confidence.

An eternity of time that no one could even imagine.

The Dream Herb he had consumed afterward, risking death.

He had shown skill comparable to the Association President, who was evaluated at S-rank Hunter level.

All of that was the result of countless efforts.

That’s why Juhyeok had no worries.

‘The Hunters going with me will all be A-rank or higher, so there shouldn’t be any problems.’

A-rank Gates are named for difficulty levels that two A-rank Hunters can clear.

For such an A-rank Gate, they receive support of at least four A-rank Hunters for safety, making it even less dangerous… but.

“It’s been a while. Hunter Jung Juhyeok.”

“….”

In front of the A-rank Gate right now, excluding the soldier, there was exactly one person.

“Hunter Park Hanseong?”

“No need to add the honorific. Just calling me Hunter like yourself is fine.”

“…Understood.”

It was still difficult to drop the honorifics with an industry senior who had over 10 years of experience.

Setting that problem aside for now, he looked around.

“Where are the other party members?”

“Today we’re entering the Gate just the two of us.”

“Just the two of us?”

“S-ranks sometimes enter A-rank Gates alone anyway.”

As he said, S-ranks possessed sufficient capability to clear A-rank Gates solo.

Of course, it might be slightly difficult for supporter classes, but since he wasn’t a supporter class, there would be no problem.

“I happened to have nothing to do when I heard Juhyeok was entering a Gate.”

The problem here was why this person had specifically volunteered to enter the Gate that I was going into, just the two of us.

‘Surely when an S-rank Hunter comes to an A-rank Gate, people would try to attach themselves to make connections somehow.’

Seeing that there wasn’t a single such person, he probably deliberately pulled some strings.

There wasn’t any particular evidence, but judging from his words, he was fairly certain.

“You’re not joining a Guild.”

“Haha, I figured that out when you stubbornly refused last time.”

Hanseong laughed heartily at the suspicious look.

“Today was just curiosity.”

“Curiosity?”

“An F-rank Hunter not only cleared B-rank but is now going to A-rank – wouldn’t anyone be curious?”

It was worth being curious about.

No, beyond curious, it would naturally arouse curiosity in any human living in this world.

Naturally, those words weren’t entirely without credibility, but.

“If you’re only going to make such nice-sounding excuses, I’ll be leaving.”

Would a busy S-rank who gets called everywhere really pull strings at an A-rank Gate and come looking just to satisfy personal curiosity?

No matter how eccentric, if an S-rank Hunter casually engaged in such conspicuous behavior, rumors about being that kind of person would already be abundant.

The Park Hanseong Hunter he knew was someone who never caused such problems.

“…You’re quite perceptive.”

That guess was definitely on target.

“The Association President asked me to.”

“The Association President?”

“Yes, he said there would be guys eyeing Jung Juhyeok.”

At those words, he immediately recalled what happened a week ago.

[…Keep that in mind.]

The man who suddenly pulled out a gun and shot the trash can.

“Legal guilds are one thing, but when you’re young, you might fall for strange temptations.”

The strange temptations he was talking about were surely referring to illegal hunter organizations like that.

In reality, there were quite a few cases of rookie hunters who knew nothing getting lured in by promises of big money and vain fantasies about the back alley world.

It was a problem that constantly occurred because hunters received special treatment compared to ordinary people.

“So the Association President asked me to keep an eye on you for a while.”

“I see.”

It didn’t seem like he was in a position where he needed protection from anyone, but from the Hunter Association’s perspective, it was natural to worry about a promising talent showing sudden significant growth.

‘If I had known this would happen, maybe I should have told the Hunter Association instead of Yena.’

He had deliberately asked only Yena for help because telling the Hunter Association would likely create a lot of troublesome situations.

If he had known someone would be following him like this, he thought he might as well have just told the Association.

“Still, don’t worry too much. I was only asked to monitor you inside the Gate.”

“The most concerning part is that no one told me about this beforehand… Well, whatever.”

What could someone who came because they were asked to do if he kept questioning things like this.

Rather, the opportunity to enter a Gate with an S-rank wasn’t that common, so he thought of it positively.

“Then as someone being monitored, can I ask for one favor?”

“I’ll think about it after hearing what kind of favor it is.”

Jung Juhyeok asked without batting an eye.

“Can I sweep through this Gate all by myself too?”

He needed magic stones.

A lot of them.

‘The artifact has been acting strange since I ate the Dream Herb.’

Clearly, one B-rank magic stone should be more than enough for an upgrade.

But after eating the Dream Herb, the mana required for artifact upgrades had increased exponentially.

‘I never thought that even consuming all the B-rank magic stones I had wouldn’t be enough for a single upgrade.’

Despite consuming all his stockpiled magic stones, the percentage hadn’t even risen by 20%.

It definitely wasn’t something that could be easily filled with just one or two A-rank stones either.

‘I happened to need a lot of magic stones, so this works out well.’

A hunter who had already entrusted monsters to him once before.

Moreover, the current situation where there were only two of them under the pretext of monitoring.

It was the perfect structure for sweeping up magic stones by himself.

“….”

Hanseong looked at Jung Juhyeok in silence.

He held back a sigh that rose to his throat and spoke.

“Confidence is good, but to others’ eyes, it might look like arrogance.”

“I don’t care how it looks to others.”

If he were the type to live worrying about such things, he would have dropped out of the Academy long ago.

Jung Juhyeok had lived pushing forward with his convictions regardless of others’ gazes, and it was the same now.

“If it seems like it won’t work out, Hunter Park Hanseong can help me, right?”

“You say that quite boldly.”

The corners of his mouth turned up in an incredulous smirk.

Hanseong answered quickly without even thinking for a moment.

“Ha, fine.”

Just how confident was he to make such a request.

Although Jung Juhyeok had denied it earlier, the story about curiosity wasn’t entirely a lie.

“I’m also curious about the skills that the Association President praised so highly his mouth went dry.”

The level of skill that made the Association President ask an S-rank for protection.

His curiosity only grew about just how much Jung Juhyeok had grown for the Association President to nearly lose control of his power.

“Go ahead and rampage to your heart’s content.”

Wouldn’t he quickly call for SOS once he got surrounded by a few A-rank monsters after saying that?

It would be quite entertaining to see such a scene.

*

“…It seems I won’t need to step in.”

Jung Juhyeok truly rampaged to his heart’s content as he had said.

Even though these were clearly A-rank monsters he was seeing for the first time, Jung Juhyeok charged at them without any hesitation.

Whether it was one or a dozen of them.

He rushed in with speed on a completely different dimension than before, slaughtering all the monsters with optimal movement.

“What on earth happened?”

“I killed monsters.”

“Not that.”

Hanseong objected to the obvious answer.

There was one thing he was curious about.

“Your mana amount looks the same as last time, so how did your physical abilities improve?”

A similar amount of mana as when he saw him last time.

It was so faint that there was barely any difference felt from an ordinary person.

Yet somehow his physical abilities had changed noticeably enough to catch the eye.

“Isn’t my age originally when physical abilities grow rapidly?”

“Do you think that excuse works?”

“It was the best answer I could give.”

Jung Juhyeok very politely indicated he had no intention of revealing the answer.

Hanseong considered asking more questions given his firm attitude, but quickly gave up.

If his mana amount had increased drastically, one could think he had taken some strange drug, but getting stronger without any increase in mana was truly a stage where the body had purely grown stronger.

With Hanseong’s common sense, he could only conclude that his body had simply grown as he said.

Though he couldn’t understand if that was really possible, that very thing was actually happening before his eyes.

“Are you really not thinking of joining a guild? I’m including other places besides our guild.”

There was a reason the Association President had tried so hard to protect him.

If someone like this developed bad intentions, that itself would be a huge headache.

He was absolutely someone they didn’t want as an enemy.

“No, I’m not.”

And such a person had no intention of joining any guild.

How much of a headache must the Association be having?

It wasn’t for nothing that they had asked someone who was S-rank to keep watch.

“Still, joining a guild would be more helpful for you.”

“I wonder. I don’t like belonging somewhere.”

Fortunately, he seemed to have no interest in illegal hunter organizations.

Jung Juhyeok casually wiped the blood off his sword as he spoke.

“But because of that, I keep hearing things from here and there, which is annoying.”

The constant contacts coming from everywhere were bothersome.

When training with Sui, he had to be mindful of staff members who would casually approach and strike up conversations to gauge recruitment possibilities.

There were quite a few troublesome things about not having a guild.

Just as he was frowning while recalling those headache-inducing days, Hanseong spoke.

“Then how about Hunter Juhyeok just creates his own guild?”

“….”

Creating his own guild.

Then he could probably handle things like physical examinations on his own somehow.

He had thought about it before, but had dismissed it as too unrealistic a dream.

‘Wouldn’t it be possible now?’

He could quickly gather funds by selling magic stones, and since he had no desire to grow the guild, he just needed to meet the conditions for establishment.

If he could just create one like that, there would be no more people bothering him in the future.

Just as he was falling into the thought that there was no reason not to do it, Hanseong threw cold water on the idea.

“I’m joking. Do you know how complicated it is to create a guild?”

“…Is it that difficult?”

“Funding aside, the conditions aren’t exactly easy ones… It won’t be simple, right?”

A guild that must be created after passing through all the conditions set forth by the Association.

Since a guild itself is a company that does business with Hunters, it absolutely wasn’t something that could be made so easily.

“Why? Are you seriously thinking of making one?”

“….”

Jung Juhyeok fell into contemplation for a moment.

Actually, he was just pretending to be lost in thought.

‘Let’s just make one.’

Rather than hoping not to have his artifacts discovered and be ostracized by humans, creating a guild himself was a more realistic story.

He had already decided everything in his mind.

“Well, I’m not sure.”

To create his own guild.

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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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