F-Rank Frank: Chapter 22 (Patreon)

Chapter 22

“No, that’s not it. He simply stated with a cold glare, ‘are you done creep?’” A tall slender male student with an ‘A-Rank’ tab on his uniform stated.

“That’s not true at all. He didn’t say anything. He just glared at Gallagher, before disappearing like a blur only to reappear a moment later, where he proceeded to backhanded Gallagher like he was owed protection money.”  A slightly wider ‘B-Rank’ student corrected.

Two friends spoke animatedly to a third who had not been at the scene at all. Informing their friend of the action that they had apparently missed.

“What? To third year Gallagher? What did Gallagher do after that?” The third friend, asked.

“Gallagher, nothing. When he was done tumbling and stumbling around he had a giant pimp hand stain on his face.” The second student added.

“It wasn’t a handprint, though it did turn into a bruise rather quickly.” The first student corrected.

“One that the doctor’s couldn’t even fix.” The second student added.

“Wow, so did anyone get written up?” The third student asked.

“No, as it turns out the new kid, the one that karate chopped the Wind Strike in half was in fact a powerful Re-Awakened. As far as the school was concerned instant justice was upheld due to the one side smack-down of the instigating Gallagher against a superior. The only thing that would have been left was if the superior still wanted to press charges, but as it turned out they were okay with just putting Gallagher in their place.” The second student added.

“It’s a good thing that the superior was okay with just the one strike. Otherwise, he would have been in a world of hurting.” The first student added.

“What did he look like?” The third student asked.

“Gallagher, he looked like he had half his face rotted off after the strike.” The second student added helpfully.

“No, not him, the cadre member.” The third student asked.

“Oh him. He looked young, though deceptively young. He likely had one of those breakthroughs that lets you age backwards to an optimal age, as he looked young. Gallagher told others, well wrote to them that he thought the man was a candidate for stolen valor. That’s when he tried to strike. Though I think you would know him when you see him. Just look for the young F-Ranker who has so many muscles that they even bulge out from under his uniform.” The second boy stated.

These were among many conversations that Frank heard around campus. The entire time he found himself sticking to shadows or avoiding people.

Looking down at his hand, he looked on in fear at the hand that showed no markings on it, even after striking the S-Rank Gallagher down to the ground so violently.

Honestly, the entire moment had been a blur to him. All he saw was the initial attack, then the fact that the boy was apparently gathering enough energy for a second strike, then he was upon the kid and gently tried to knock the kid down to disrupt his new casting.

To have the story make the rounds so quickly, Frank realized a few things. First information at the Academy traveled faster than the rumor mills of his previous institutions, and secondly from what he could tell, there was nothing that awaited him punishment wise.

In fact, from everything he heard and observed, everyone knew that Frank was the victim in this exchange and had gone light on the possible punishment that the S-Ranker could have received.

While walking around a few others on campus seemed to notice him, but this time rather than talking about him with disgust, they seemed a bit more animated when talking about him.

“Is that him?” A female asked.

“Yeah.” A second female who apparently had seen or heard about the altercation responded.

“He looks a lot smaller than I thought he would be.” The first female cadet replied.

“Yeah, but look at those muscles, and that hair. You know he is powerful.” The second cadet replied.

“Do you think Gallagher will try again?” The first cadet asked.

“If he wants to live, probably not. In addition to having a cracked jaw and orbital bone, Gallagher clearly broke something in that exchange.” The second cadet replied.

“Oh really, what?”

“His pride.”

Then with that both girls proceeded to cackle.

Having heard all this, Frank himself was still a little on edge, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Finally, he got the clarification that he expected when he happened to run across one of the senior administrators for campus. This was the one that took his blood and affinity ratings. Seeing her, their eyes met and he could almost see a slight smirk appear on her face.

To Frank’s surprise, the administrator actually altered her course slightly, going from straight forward, to slightly to her right. Going in a direction that would make it so she would pass a little closer to Frank. Then while moving a tuft of hair behind her ear, she said something that caught Frank completely off guard.

“Good job,” the administrator said while giving an embarrassed smile before quickening her pace as she left.

Hearing that, Frank could only pause, wondering what that was all about.

As he made his way to the location of his housing, the thought finally came to him. One that sent shivers of regret and doubt into his mind, as it implied something far too sinister. It implied the very fact that first got Frank into this situation to begin with, was the same one that was now keeping him from receiving punishment for his actions.

For now that he had time to think about everything, he realized the golden rule of the Academy and one that had apparently trickled down to almost every fiber of humanity that still managed to survive to this point. That rule was that Might makes right.

It almost seemed like a divine twist of fate that the very rule that had held him down for so long, oppressed him at every turn turned out to be the very thing that kept him from evening being stopped as he walked away from a cowering and trembling Gallagher. Despite the boy being older than Frank, he looked so frail in comparison. Even with Frank holding back his full strike, not wanting to shatter bones, not like he had while facing the rats and zombies earlier, he still managed to crack the bones of a cultivator.

Not just any cultivator either, but the bones of an S-Rank cultivator, the ones that were deemed so special that they had to be removed from general society and given a chance to live on the surface.

At least that was what he had been told in the slums. What he had learned since leaving the slums was far different, in that the reason the S-Rankers were removed from the slums was due to their ability to cause widespread destruction being off the charts. That if they weren’t removed then those with S-Rank and higher abilities would never be able to practice effectively. Though Frank took these lessons with a grain of salt, as they all came from Holsy who Frank still had a hard time gauging in terms of reliability. As the man always seemed to have a smile on his face, and was willing to joke at a moment’s notice. Still the man had proven himself to be legitimately interested in earning Frank’s opinion, which was entirely unsettling to the former dreg of society.

Now Frank was experiencing what would be another paradigm shift in his understanding of the world. For here he was, forced to mingle with the S and A Rankers, only to see that they were weak.

At least that is the way they all appeared to Frank’s Energy Sight, the attack waves, the energy that could be gathered and pushed out at a moment’s notice, it was all weak. Even the Wind Cutter that cut through part of the wall behind Frank was weak.

Though seeing the impact of even a relatively weak attack like the Wind Cutter and its impact on the infrastructure around him made Frank reevaluate the information that Holsy had been giving him.

“Hey there he is, the new kid.”

“You hear he’s a murder too?”

More students spoke up, their voices almost mingling into one uncontrolled blob, at least that was what Frank had hoped. Unfortunately, the truth was something far different, as he was able to hear the words clearly, even able to pick out the facial features and energy types of the people talking with but a quick glance around.

Then his mind made a mental connection to the energy signatures, the profile image he had gained, and was now overlapping those two images with the voices he heard, creating a better understanding of who these people were. He didn’t know their names, but that was secondary to what Frank was able to do.

Right now, Frank was taking everything in and remembering it all.

When he first got here, he thought and hoped that this would be his chance to have a good first impression, to start over. Yet, it seemed that even here and now he unable to avoid the fate of being an outcast.

“There’s no way. Unless the charges were dropped.”

“He probably took the plea deal, from my understanding that is offered to all high-ranking cultivators.”

“Sucks to be him, that just means special mission squad, and being forced to go to the front lines for him.”

“I know a shame, right?”

The two girls spoke conspiratorially together, though their voices and profiles were forever etched into his brain.

Frank had almost wanted to correct them both, to say that he was Acquitted, a designation noted by his badge. But instead, he just made his way to his dorm.

Then filled with a stream of restlessness, Frank decided to do something that he had been putting off for a long time.

He sat down in a meditative pose, and then began cycling energy through his core. At first, he kept the two opposing streams separate from each other, cycling first green, then dark, then back to green. Over and over he cycled, until finally his core over burdened by dueling centripetal forces that crashed into one another and finally cracked and then collapsed his very core.

Then when he was building a replacement core, he felt the two forces fighting each other. Green pushing away the darkness, as darkness attempted to devour and convert the green energy. Only through a monumental application of will did the two types of energy manage to remain separated in his mind and body.

Focusing, Frank realized that eventually he would need to form a harmony between the two types of energy, or rather force a harmony over the two powers. Yet, even now he could only manage to do so for short periods of time. This was why in the end Frank ended up with two different, but alternating paths of cultivation.

The idea was simple, cultivate once with dark energy, where a complete loop of energy was created before cycling along. Then have the force of the first cycle, slightly spin the internal and completely separated channels of energy to that of green healing energy. The green energy would cycle through, healing any and all damage sustained from cycling the dark energy, before being cycled around back to cycle dark energy back through his body.

When he was done, Frank felt like he had one of the few gyroscopic cores available, but oddly enough he found that the perpetual motion of the internally changing channels also had a secondary effect of almost artificially continuing the cyclic nature of his cultivation.

The only problem would come if he didn’t have enough ambient energy of one type over the other to sustain an equal cultivation cycle, but that was a future problem.

For now, Frank felt alive. No, better still, he felt almost complete.

Not only had he completed the final layer of Body cultivation, but he could already see the next step. That of mixing the cultivation into his very blood. He already had his muscles, a fact that was confirmed by how much stronger and faster he felt. The way he could move almost instantly, at the speed of thought to attack and strike at someone who wished him harm.

Thinking back, the memory of the altercation from earlier filled his mind. Memories of how the world blurred around him, as he found himself appearing before his would be attacker. Then the way he reached back and deciding not to strike, instead just wished to push the boy away. Though the push was a lot harder and faster than he imagined it would be. To Frank’s defense he had expected the boy to flinch away, to try to deflect in some way, but the boy didn’t even seem to realize where Frank was. At least not until contact was made, and by then any attempt to move or mitigate the strike was futile.

Frank was just about ready to collapse for the night and force himself to grab some sleep, when he heard the sounds that spoke to his night of sleep ending quickly.

Four Chimes.

Frank paused, realizing that something was wrong. For a moment he wondered what was off about the sound.

Then almost as if awakening from a deep slumber, the realization of what was off finally hit him as he realized that the four chimes meant it was now four AM and time for his morning cultivation class.

Though that was impossible, as he still had all evening, right?

Looking quickly, Frank first glanced outside realizing that it was now dark out, meaning that it was either late at night or early in the morning. Then had a moment of clarity as he realized that his cultivation breakthrough and the time it took to create a spinning core that was both smoothly balanced and helped perpetuate his cultivation took longer than expected.

A quick glance outside showed his thoughts of a night spent creating a new cultivation core were accurate as he could now see other students getting up and leaving their buildings.

Then focusing, he could hear the sound of other cadets all around him getting up, slamming locker doors and otherwise preparing for the day.

Pausing, Frank looked down to see that he was still in his Class B uniform, the one that he was to wear daily, unless going to a military part or other sanctioned event. Then with a start, Frank realized he was completely out of uniform for his morning cultivating.

Working quickly, Frank began taking off his uniform.

Crr-rip.

Just as he moved his arms out trying to remove both arms from his sleeves that the same time, he heard the fabric of the uniform begin to rip and tear from under the sudden strain. Pausing for a moment he stopped himself, and then made a conscious effort to go slower, so as not to ruin his uniform.

Pausing for a moment, he looked at the jacket that he had worn all night and tried to see if there were any signs of damage to the article. Exhaling slightly, Frank relaxed as he didn’t see any immediate damage to the uniform. Then taking care to move slightly slower, he wrestled his way into his now much tighter cotton shirt, and tight Lycra shorts that both had the Academy’s name and logo pressed into them.

Then with his uniform on, he put on his running shoes and headed out.

As he moved, he felt odd wearing the light shoes, as they seemed to offer little to no protection whatsoever for his feet, yet he couldn’t help but feel a lot lighter with each step he took.

However his thoughts on the odd shoes provided to him were quickly dismissed as he got closer and found a clearly frustrated Dr. Evans and Major Demoniker standing at his spot, both staring at him as he arrived.

“You’re late.” Dr. Evans stated, as she made a marking in clip board she was holding. Then she paused as she took a moment to truly stare at Frank. “Also did you hit a growth spurt?”

Shaking his head Major Demoniker just looked at Frank, taking in his appearance and the way his clothes now seemed to cling even tighter to him, showing off a bit of toned stomach in the process.

“No, he finally cultivated that energy that was raging in his body.” Major Demoniker said, then seemed to stare at Frank like he was some sort of rare insect.

“He did?” Dr. Evans stated, then almost as if on cue, her eyes began to glow green as she too began to stare at Frank. That’s when Frank watched her features change from cold indifference to almost shock. “You managed to create a bi-centripetal perpetual core?”

Hearing the words, Frank vaguely understood what they were, but it took him a moment to process the gyroscopic core that he had mentally created. Then comparing the words to what he had done, realized that the words provided by the doctor were fairly accurate to what had happened. Which was why he answered.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Huh.” Was all Dr. Evans stated at first, but then after a second, she gave a second glance over Frank’s entire body. This time Frank almost swore that he could feel the energy from her intense stare piercing through her and tingling slightly as she scanned his body.

“Well, I was going to get you do a few cultivation exercises and to hopefully stretch out your meridians, but apparently you will need a lot more energy before we can do any of that. As such, our first order of business will be getting you a healthy supply of light energy.” Dr. Evans finally noted, then after a second of hesitation, she seemed to come to a conclusion.

“Come with me.”

“Wait, where are you taking him?” Demoniker asked.

“To the Healer’s hall, where he can be exposed to life energy, as he needs to fill up his reserves.” Dr. Evans stated.

“No, can’t you see that will cause his core to be at an imbalance of energy pressures. He also needs to cultivate darkness energy.”

“And just where would he do that here?” Dr. Evans asked.

“You know where. It’s the only place with Dark energy around.”

“You can’t mean, it, the pits?” Dr. Evans asked, her voice cracking at the end as she thought about the place.

Major Demoniker could only nod knowingly.

“But he needs exposure to life energy as well.”

“That’s why we take him to the forbidden tunnels.” Major Demoniker answered.

Hearing this, Frank could only groan knowing that this was going to be the start of a long morning.