F-Rank Frank: Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 2

A daze, that was the only way Frank could describe the emotions that came next to him and coated his mind.

He felt lost.

For a moment, he had witnessed everything, he felt the call of something greater than himself. He felt the thrum and pull of power, and then he awoke to find that he would never be able to taste that power again.

Frustration, anger, rage, loss, and countless other emotions raced through his mind. Until finally he came to the conclusion that he should have expected. The conclusion that everyone around him had expected of him all along, the fact that he was worthless. That he was born to a F Rank trash family, and that he would never be able to leave the slums.

To make matters worse, was the way his eyes betrayed him. All around he saw faint glowing lights of energy, similar to the little photon bursts he had always been able to see out of the corner of his eyes, but now they were there, stagnant and just beyond the normal reach of people.

Occasionally one or two little sparks would fall down and drop onto the heads of people where there would be a slight flash, before they ultimately disappeared.

Off in the distance, he saw the person that he dreaded most, Mr. Xiao, the career advisor for the school. Now that Frank had awoken his talent and was considered to be useless by society. Or at least the society that would allow him to leave this pit of despair that now comprised his whole life, and served as a universal graveyard for him and all his family members, he felt trapped.

After a few minutes, one of the guards came over to Frank. For a moment, he almost expected there to be compassion, or maybe something about how the equipment had a misconfiguration, as it did run out of power there at the end. Anything, but reality quickly settled in when he learned the truth of the situation he was in.

“Hey, I get that you need a moment to regain yourself, Awakening is always tough. But I will need you to move to the side and wait over there.” The guard with a giant ‘B’ on his chest said, as he pointed to a small black alcove.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The Alcove lit up with residual flecks of golden energy. A quick glance showed that this was where the soldiers that came had apparently placed all their equipment before staging them for this process.

Realizing it was either go to the brightly lit corner, or face his career advisor, Frank decided to choose the latter.

“Thank you,” Frank said as he nodded.

As he got closer to the corner, his vision began to blur as the enormity of the moment was suddenly hitting him. He one chance, one miserable chance to leave this gods-forsaken hole in the ground and he blew it. No, that’s not entirely true, he never had a chance to blow it, as his family was just a bunch of F-Rank nothings, with no chance of ever advancing.

The Camellos by contrast, Luther’s family were all C-Rankers. It was clear that given enough time and focus they would all rise up from here, eventually.

The Fotos on the other hand were all F-Rankers, as Frank’s parent’s were F-Rankers, their parents were F-Rankers, their parents’ parents, all the way back to the time of the great upheaval that destroyed the world and sent humanity towards the depths of the Earth for safety.

Still, even now, Frank felt disgusted with himself, as he hated appearing weak before others. Yet, right now, that was all he could do, was feel weak, and helpless.

There was still one chance, the pipedream. The dream for him to be able to cultivate his way out of this Hellhole, but that was impossible. He was only an F-Rank, which meant that he couldn’t even rent out the equipment needed to cultivate properly.

Verrt.

Just as he had this thought, he saw Charles Upton trying on the Occultivator equipment, and being offered a free demo.

Jealously, Frank looked on, and saw the way the sales people practically threw the equipment at him, which he readily accepted. Even after the ten hours of courses designed to show everyone the dangers of wearing an Occultivator, and how to use an Occultivator safely. Here in a confined building, with a salesperson and others nearby, it was clearly as safe as an environment to try out the equipment as possible.

Frank watched as Charles using the equipment looked stunned for a moment, then began clumsily moving around while carrying the bulky equipment.

Inwardly Frank chuckled to himself. He heard rumors that the only sets of Occultivator equipment provided down here were the oldest of the old, things that would be considered trash by normal people on the surface and mid-tiers. Yet, even knowing this did little to soothe the jealousy that was rising in Frank’s heart.

“Haha, look at that.” One of the military personnel that had been station towards the side of the venue to observe everything began laughing with his friend as he pointed out Charles and his clumsy attempts to move.

“Haha, he looks like he is trying to walk on the moon.” The friend responded.

Hearing that Frank could see the contempt that most surface dwellers had for the people of the slums, people like him. It was clear from their mannerisms and gestures that most thought this was the equivalent of seeing a lost civilization, despite the lower levels being responsible for producing most of the metals, coal, and other rarer resources that those on the upper levels desperately needed.

In fact, the lower levels were capable of producing enough food to feed every person living in the slums for the entirety of their lives and beyond. Of course, that self-sustained food supply was mostly edible moss, different variations of fungi, and other food sources that didn’t require the light of day to survive.

Frank watched as Charles made his way around, blindly groping at odd objects floating in the air. Then to Frank’s surprise, he saw something odd.

Charles wasn’t just moving around awkwardly, he had a precise movement or goal for each movement as he found himself going around and grabbing at all of the glowing balls of energy that seemed to hang in the air.

Listening from his alcove, Frank heard the salesperson speak, as he looked at a digital readout.

“Good, Mr. Upton. That is two. Now it says that your Power level is an impressive Ten, meaning you would just need to collect eight more wisps of power, in order to break into the first layer of the Body Refinement layer. Not bad for only wearing the machine for two minutes.” The salesperson said loudly, clearly trying to give a sales pitch to both Charles and anyone else who might be nearby.

The salesperson said everything that Frank had already been told before. That Power level was very important, as it required ten points of the Power Attribute to be considered to have the ability to cultivate. Power also noted just how much energy your body could contain before you were forced to do something with it. The best and most effective way of cultivating, and the way that was sworn to lead to the path of Immortality was by gaining your body’s maximum ranking of power, then using that to force your Power Attribute to increase, which would then force your Body Cultivation level to increase by one layer.

In Frank’s case, this meant that his Power Attribute of 12 was both a blessing and a curse. Maybe more of a curse, as it meant that he would need to gather twelve of the little floating balls of energy that Charles had absorbed, in order to fill his body up so he could increase his cultivation level.

Sitting in his little hole, Frank almost thought about leaving, as he felt calmer. Maybe he still didn’t accept everything that was happening to him, but he had calmed down enough to at least walk out of the converted gymnasium with his head held high.

But first, he wanted to test out something.

Seeing as the entire world was filled with glowing balls of energy, and that they seemed to be the same balls of energy that Charles had been using to increase his cultivation, Frank tried to do the same. Reaching out, he touched the glowing balls of energy that had built up over time in the small corner that only a malnourished child like Frank could get into.

As he touched the first ball of energy, he felt a slight tingle. Then he felt the hairs on his arms begin to rise, a sign of static electricity. Before his awakening static electricity like this was always painful, as his body was unable to channel the energy of a wild spark accurately.

Now that his body had been awakened, he felt the energy flow into him.

By focusing on the energy, he instinctively began to meditate, though this was a regular calming method and way to slow down his heart rate.

Over time the tingling sensation that he felt by touching the orb of power eventually lessened, though it never fully went away. In fact, even now he could still feel the energy warmly filling him more than any bowl of mushroom soup he had ever could.

Feeling the pulse of energy, he felt warm, no longer feeling the almost empty coldness of the void that had filled his body for so long.

“Freaking snake oil salesman.” The first guard whispered to his friend as Charles signed up for a contract to use the Occultivator. Then after he left with the equipment, a giant smile filled the man’s face as he opened up a bag and let loose a few more floating balls of energy into the air right in front of him.

“What is that?” The second guard asked.

“Oldest trick in the books. The salesperson goes and releases highly condensed low tier stone dust into the air. Then offers to show off the Occultivator to a newly awakened individual, like these neanderthals here. The lower class comes, sees the instant effect of the Occultivator and immediately signs up, realizing that at the rate they just had, they could cultivate their way up to the fifth tier in a month if they tried.”

“Low tier shard dust? Isn’t that illegal?” The second guard asked.

“No, they claim it is for demonstration purposes only, and is only meant to show how to use the Occultivator.” The first guard explained.

“But aren’t those older models dangerous and illegal to use any more?”

“Only on the surface and mid-tiers, which is why they are all being brought down here by these charlatans wishing to make one quick buck. Tying the fate of the user and the user’s family to a contract that cannot be fulfilled.” The first guard replied.

“Still, why do we even let them come with us?” The second guard asked.

“Isn’t it obvious, half of their sales revenue goes to the military unit that supported them. As such, the cost of traveling with them here is deemed as an overall bonus for the unit.” The first guard replied.

Their conversation went on, but after hearing that much, Frank was done listening. It was clear to the people of the upper levels that they were little more than degenerate creatures that were beneath them. Only coming down as a mandate to find those worth salvaging from the rubble and then moving on.

Realizing this, Frank realized that the only way he could succeed in this world, was by relying on himself.

Though he did feel better knowing that he could, or at least he thought he could cultivate with his F-Rank eyes, as it seemed to show him the same layout and imagery that Charles had while using an Occultivator.

With that in mind, Frank went about finding and absorbing each and every mote of energy he saw in the dark tunnels. He even found a small passage that led under the bleachers. Normally this place was off limits, and it still was, but the entire area seemed to glow with residual energy. It was clear that the janitorial staff did nothing to clean up under the bleachers, a fact that Frank was now thankful for, as he found ample supplies of energy glowing and lighting up a path deep under the bleachers.

As he moved, his feet landed in an inch thick cushion of dust bunny fur that had been woven into a seemingly semi-permanent layer. Still, being of the slums such conditions were sadly to be expected. Which was why Frank found himself going deeper and deeper into the stands, before he finally stopped himself after grabbing a few handfuls of energy, at which point his body suddenly felt warm.

Warm like magma was rolling around in his veins.

Normally a cultivator would have an instrument panel that could show the exact amount of energy consumed, and what to expect and most importantly how to properly cultivate the energy into a more stable form.

Frank being who he was, had none of these benefits. Instead, all he had were his insights, a brief mental marker that noted that he was either at or just over twelve motes of energy absorbed into his body and countless lessons on what to do to cultivate flooding through his mind.

For a moment he thought about darting, about getting out of the dirty underbelly of his school’s bleachers, but instead realized that he was at a breakthrough point. At least that is what every fiber in his body was now screaming at him, that he was nearing a bottleneck point.

He also knew that an improper breakthrough, particularly at the initial stages could be costly. Not stopping to immediately cultivate properly was also tantamount to forever ending the cultivator’s path to Immortality.

Not having enough time to get to a better location, and not wanting to waste this golden opportunity, Frank dropped down onto the dirt and grime covered floor and began to focus.

In his mind, he mentally held the image of his body during his awakening. Since the exact time of his awakening was less than an hour ago, the image of his body’s cultivation path was clearly burned into his mind.

Better still, he had not had enough time to eat or drink anything that would cause his body to have impurities while making this breakthrough. Meaning that the quicker he cultivated and applied these changes to his body, the more impactful they would be.

Focus.

Feel the rush of energy, and let it flow into and through you. Let your skin, muscles, and tendons absorb the free floating energy. Furthermore, he wanted to focus on increasing the core of his body, the place where ambient energy can be stored while awaiting the moment when he could gain enough energy to go through this process again.

These were the thoughts that he held at first, especially as the flow of energy began to cycle and flow throughout his body.

Then after a few moments, even those thoughts ceased to be as all he could think about was his body and the way it was turning into nothingness.

All around him, was darkness, but unlike normally this time the darkness was calming. This time the darkness signified the fact that he was in control of what he saw, felt, and experienced around him. This and the rising surge of energy within his body were the only things that his mind felt, until finally it happened.

Cracking.

First the void around him began to break and tear, as the energy within his body was compressing inward. As the energy compressed inward, he felt air and other unimportant corrosive materials being forcefully expelled from his body.

Woosh!

There was a circle in the dirt and debris that lined the underside of the bleachers, along with a cloud of dust that suddenly seemed to have been kicked up and provide a semi-protective bubble of falling dirt around him.

Wheeze.

Frank watched the dust in awe for what felt like an eternity, until finally his lungs that had been squeezed tight and deprived of oxygen suddenly inhaled the air around him, forcing his mind and body to awaken.

As he breathed, his body felt lighter, his muscles felt stronger, and even his movements felt easier to perform. While he had sat down quickly, Frank had assumed that getting up would be tricky, particularly with trying to move his head around the various seats that were present and providing random hazards to avoid. While he still required a moment to be safe, and moved slowly at points, getting out from his spot under the bleachers felt slightly easier than they did while going in.

Gurgle.

His stomach grumbled slightly, a sudden reminder that the energy he had been using to stave off hunger was now missing. With a sigh, he realized that a final school meal would be waiting for him once he left. He was just about to leave, when something caught his attention.

Glimmer.

As he was about to move out from behind the bleachers, his eyes, his F-Rank eyes caught the sparkle of something shiny off in the distance.

A quick glance showed that still more motes of energy remained to be claimed. Not knowing when, or even if Frank would have another chance to come back here, Frank decided to get the remaining motes of energy.

This time Frank noticed that the energy came a little bit easier into his body, and that the act of pulling the energy from the outside and into his center was slightly easier than before.

While there wasn’t enough energy down in the dark crevasses to fill up his body again, he did feel that it was enough for him to continue to practice at least circulating his energy with.

Also, once again, the feel of energy within his body helped to subside the hunger pains that were a near constant reminder of not only the fact that he was living, but the fact of his place within the slums.

There was of course one problem. Once all the motes of energy that Frank had hunted to get safely under the bleachers were gone, his eyes were back to seeing the world in the darkness that seemed to permeate the underground layers.

Fortunately for Frank, he both had a hard head, and was used to making his way around almost blindly, feeling for the walls and slowly moving his way forward.

Thump.

Of course, just because he moved slowly didn’t stop his head, or other random body part from strafing into the random metal beam that jutted out from the wall and provided support to the vast bleacher system.

Once out, Frank took a quick second to wipe off his pants, trying to and mostly failing at removing most of the dirt that now covered his best pair of pants from when he first entered the bleachers.

Frank was about to leave the little hiding spot, when he was suddenly spotted by one of the two talking guards from earlier.

“What are you doing back there!” The B-Ranked guard said, and instantly an aura of power seemed to surge around the giant man.

Panicked, Frank backed up, and was about to head for cover, clearly seeing the ebb and flow of power being generated by the frightened guard.

In his mind, he mentally calculated the distance between the two of them, and suddenly he felt like he could almost see the radius of effect that the guard had for his power. As a B-Rank cultivator, his power had a maximum manifestation range of twenty-five feet away, though given the current view of what Frank was now seeing, the range seemed to be a lot shorter than twenty-five feet. That or Frank was already more than twenty-five feet away.

Seeing the spike and sudden surge of energy, Frank panicked, once again heading back to the entrance to the bleachers. This time however, rather than heading left to the already depleted area of the bleachers, Frank headed to the right side. The side that was lit up like it was main street. This time Frank avoided his earlier flaw of grabbing every mote of energy on his way to the back, and instead use the ambient energy around him to guide him and help him find a spot that was off in the back and hidden by a random pillar that jutted up. Seeing the pillar and the fact that the space between the pillar and the far wall was small, likely too small for the larger and fully grown adult guards to get through Frank ran and hid.

“Hey! Get back here or I’ll Shoot!” The guard said, as a giant burst of flame erupted from his hands and reached out, illuminating the entire bleacher complex.

“There he is!” The second guard said, which sort of confirmed Frank’s thoughts that these people could not see energy. At least not in the way that Frank could, otherwise they would be able to easily identify him as he was all but traveling down the path with the most motes of energy that helped illuminate his entire path.

Finally, he got to his cut off section, then ducked and hid.

Silence.

Frank waited and found himself looking out from around the pillar.

“Come on kid, come out. I was just kidding.” The fire hurling guard said.

“What did he do Mel?”

“The kid spooked me okay. Creepy kid coming from the shadows moving silently in the dark and all.” The first guard, Mel replied.

“Well, looks like you spooked him off.” The second, more reserved guard said.

“Yeah, likely had some rat tunnel that he took to get to the surface.” Mel responded.

“You know those tunnels are myths right?”

“How do you know?”

“I know, because I know, okay.” The second guard answered.

With that it seemed like both guards had apparently gone to search for Frank, and then subsequently quit their search, just as quickly as it began.

With that Frank let out a long sigh of relief, and then paused for a moment, before moving out from behind his pillar and realizing that there was yet more dirt, grime, and most importantly unclaimed energy that existed down here than was previously thought.

Of course, thinking about it, this place was a hot bed for energy cultivation. No one with an Occultivator unit on could enter here, as the straps and components would make the user too bulky to move around effectively. Then added to that is the fact that only those with Occultivators on could effectively cultivate and it was clear why these sections of the lower levels were perfect for someone like Frank. Someone with nowhere to go, no true prospects for a career path, as all that would be offered to someone like him would be a dead end job like junk collector, or a janitor.

Then looking at the state of this area, Frank realized that maybe being a janitor wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen, as it would mean he would be in more places like this. More places that should be cleaned, but aren’t due to the perceived lack of fame and attention they get. Also, with a job like a Janitor, so long as he managed to clean up the area in question, no one would care what else he did down there, even if it was nothing more than cultivating.

With that, Frank felt slightly better about his path going forward. Like so many other denizens of the slums, he was finally accepting his fate and trying to find the job that would be best for what he wanted to do with his life.

What he wanted was obvious, he intended to cultivate his way out of the slums. Making sure to take his family with him. To do that, he would need to achieve the ninth state of the Body Cleansing realm, and be on the verge of entering the Blood cleansing realm. That was of course a long way away, but he now felt he had a path forward that would help achieve his goal.

Being a janitor who was not afraid of going to the deepest and darkest parts of society, even if it was to ultimately cultivate his way out of poverty.

Fueled by this sudden goal, Frank set about absorbing each and every mote of energy that remained in this path.

As he touched what he felt to be his thirteenth mote of energy, he felt the sudden surge of energy once more, as a smile filled his lips. This time he didn’t hesitate, and instantly dropped to the ground and began cycling the energy in the way that was almost permanently burned into his mind. Now he was so used to the sensation of cultivating with energy that even if he closed his eyes, he swore he could see the energy surging throughout his body, almost as if his eyes being opened was an unnecessary component to this process.

Then finally after what felt like an hour of focusing his mind and body to feel the void around him, he felt the moment when the energy stuck. When his core tightened by compressing the energy within his body, then suddenly a burst of air and any lingering impurities were expelled from his body and set loose into the open air.

Whoosh!

Then, like that, Frank once again felt more powerful and more ready to move about freely. This time the change to his body was noticeable, as his muscles seemed to ripple and bulge beneath his strengthened skin. Once again his body felt lighter and more agile, a fact that made weaving his way from under the bleachers that much easier.

This time when he emerged, he made sure to climb his way out, climbing up the various rails and beams that lined the bleachers, a feat that would have been impossible earlier today, before he had awoken his powers and abilities.

This time when he emerged, things were different, as he was different.