The Legendary F Rank

'What is it now? I thought they were notified about me being on my way here. What with all this hostility?' Haru thought as he looked down the barrels of their magic rifle from a distance. The light from the spotlight illuminated the whole road, and it looked as though they were on high alert for some reason. 

A few minutes went by as dozens of soldiers gathered at the entrance to the base with all sorts of weapons in their hands and pointed them at Haru. 

"State your name and intention!" The one who had told him to stop shouted out once again now that they had gotten more manpower to the gate. 

'Name and intention? What kind of weird comedy show is this?' Haru smiled before giving a sigh and doing what was asked of him. 

"Haru Kitagawa and soldiering?" He sounded confused as he thought about what he had just said. He didn't believe that soldiering was even a word, but there was no other word that described why he was there. A few moments went by as the soldiers all looked at each other until one of them lowered their gun and stepped out from the crowd. 

"Haru?! What are you doing here?" Jake's voice called out as he pushed his way past the other soldiers and stepped out into the street. 

"Get back here, Corporal Ainsworth! It's not safe out there at night!" The man who was shining the spotlight at Haru shouted out once more as Jake walked out to meet him, but he wasn't listening to anything that the man had to say. 

"I saw your message when I woke up, and when I signed up to join the army, they asked me where I wanted to be stationed, so I told them that I wanted to be here. I thought it would be nice to have at least one person I know with me if I am going to be in another city." Haru smiled as he replied. 

"Wait, You joined the army? Why did you do that? I thought you couldn't perform magic anymore. There's no way that they would let you join if you couldn't cast even the most basic of spells." Jake said as he got closer to Haru.

"Unless you told them about your cultivation and they are trying to make you fight as a secret weapon. Is that what's happening? If it is, then I can let my grandfather know. He is pretty high ranking in the army, after all. I bet he could raise a case with the government about it." Jake whispered to not let anyone else know that Haru was a cultivator, but he seemed to have misunderstood. 

"Your grandfather was the one who recruited me, actually. I was surprised when I saw him, to be honest. But I was even more surprised to find out that when I woke up, I was able to use magic again." Haru said casually, as though it was an everyday occurrence, but that couldn't be further from reality. 

The strange turn of events that seemed to loom over Haru like a thunder cloud never ceased to amaze Jake. It seemed like no matter how bad the situation was, Haru would consistently profit from his suffering, but the same couldn't be said about himself.

"What?! Can you use magic again? But I thought that it was either cultivation or magic? I didn't think that you would be able to use both of them." Jake said with shock as he thought about how unfair it would be if someone could use both. 

Not only was Haru a strong mage before he started cultivating. But he was an even stronger cultivator. He didn't even want to imagine what kind of level he had reached while using both of them at the same time, and even Haru had yet to find out how strong he was. 

"Yeah, it turns out that they go hand in hand with each other. Magic is just another form of cultivation. Since mana is made from both Qi and imagination, it's strange, isn't it? There were so many things that we learnt at school about magic, but now they all seem useless." Haru didn't mind sharing that information with Jake since he knew that he could trust him. But if anyone else found out, it might have thrown the world into an even more chaotic state than it was already in. 

"You've gotta be kidding me. How did you find out about that?" Jake was intrigued by the knowledge that Haru had on the subject since he thought that there might be a chance that he too could learn it and become stronger. But that was nearly impossible for him since he didn't have the foundation for cultivation, and it would take years to master for a regular person. But just as he began to talk, the man with the spotlight shouted out again.

"You insolent little bastard. I ought to take you out back and beat you for disobeying a direct order." The man shouted and then began to march towards them with a wooden stick by his side. 

"Corporal Ainsworth. I will give you five seconds to get back to the line before I shove this cane so far up you-" The man shouted out, but just as he did, another person interrupted. 

"What is all this about?" A woman's voice called out from the crowd of people.

"Captain Logan?" The man who had threatened Jake immediately turned around and faced the line of soldiers to see a middle-aged woman with dark brown hair and eyes that matched. 

"Is this your way of welcoming our new recruit? Because I don't think it makes a good impression at all. What do you think Major Samson would make of this?" The woman asked with a smile as she looked at Haru and waved her hand. 

"Hi there." Haru smiled and waved back. He didn't know who she was, but she seemed friendly enough, so he greeted her like he would with someone he had known for years. 

"Ne recruit? Do you mean this scrawny looking boy? I thought that the test was put in place to keep away people like this?" The man said with a look of confusion. He thought that Haru was just a regular mage, and it made both Jake and Haru laugh. 

"What's so funny, huh?" The man turned around and asked but as soon as he did, another giggle came from behind him. 

"Who did that!?" He shouted before stopping as he saw Captain Liegan covering her mouth with her hand. 

"You think that he is scrawny? You should see his body. It's actually rather muscular. Sure he might be pretty lean, but something tells me that he could wipe the floor with half the muscle heads here." She laughed, which caught Haru's attention. 

'I'm concealing both my Qi and mana. How is she able to sense anything from me? That shouldn't be the case, right?' Haru thought as he looked at her with a confused expression before channelling Qi into his eyes as he used his spiritual sense. 

He looked at her for a few moments to see that she had an unusually large amount of Qi running through her body. Usually, mages would only hold a small amount of Qi within their dantian and a large amount within their mana stores. But for Captain Liegan, the Qi seemed to flow around her whole body as though she was actively using magic. 

If it wasn't for his spiritual sense, then he wouldn't have noticed the faint yellow glow emerge from her eyes as a slight trace of Qi emerged from them. 

'She's a body enhancing mage? I know I lied about being one, but they are still pretty rare. If anyone reads the report of my recruitment, then she would be the first one to find out that I lied.' Haru complained to himself as he noticed her using an eye-enhancing spell. He felt guilty about claiming that his natural strength was due to enhancing his body. 

He had lied about something, and now he was put before someone who could easily find out the truth, but as she looked at him, the man asked a question. 

"Oh, and how would you know that? What kind of relationship do you have with that man?" He shouted out, thinking that Captain Liegan's comment about Haru's body meant that she had seen it, but she simply turned away. 

"He's a body enhancing mage like me. Of course, I would be told a lot about him. There aren't many of us left after all." Captain Logan announced before walking back into the crowd. 

"Oh, and Haru. I heard that the major is looking for you. Have someone show you to his office. I'm too lazy for something as trivial as that." She laughed before entering the building. 

As she disappeared, tension filled the air as the soldiers watched on to see what was going to happen. The man that had shouted was known to them as the "Bloody Sergeant" for his lack of restraint when punishing people. He would often beat them within an inch of their life and leave pools of blood to be cleaned by other soldiers so they would learn not to disobey him.

And that is what they thought would happen since Jake had disobeyed a direct order from him. But as he looked at Jake, to see a look of anger in his eyes. The bloody sergeant gulped before proceeding. 

"Well, since you know him, then how about you take the new recruit to speak to the major?" He said before turning around to see all of the shocked faces of the soldiers he had tortured. 

"Get back to work and stop gawking." He shouted as Haru and Jake looked at each other and laughed. It was as though they had the same sense of humour since they found the awkwardness funny, and both laughed together. But time was of the essence, so Jake immediately showed him the way to the Major's office.