Chapter 11 - Title Bars
After the swordsman and the guy with the earth ability finished, they were followed by a plethora of magical dance performances.
A female dancer came next who waved her hands upwards and balls of water floated to the sky, then they burst into tiny droplets around her. Another dancer jumped towards the woman and used the spear that she was holding and turned it into a fan, flinging the water out of her.
One guy came in front, shot his arrow in the sky and it burst into different colors.
An old woman shouted and birds came out of nowhere circling her head.
There was a middle aged man who threw knives in the air so fast that Mill would not have known he’d thrown knives if not for them hitting back on the ground and forming a symbol around the middle aged man.
Then came an old man with a hammer and pieces of wood. He threw the pieces of wood in the air, raised his hammer and nailed nails in it midair. He then slapped the still falling nailed wood into an area a meter from him till it transformed into a stable looking chair.
One second, wood pieces were floating in the air, the next, they became a chair.
Mill was still greatly impressed by the old man with the hammer when another old woman who was holding a pot of plant replaced him. She put the pot in the ground and made an awkward dance in front of it. She waved her hands and the flower buds in the plant bloomed fully one after another. It brought a sweet floral scent around that even Mill who was ten meters away could smell. It made him relax and before he knew it, another dancer, a woman with a broom, replaced the old woman.
Mill was anticipating what magic she could do, but she just swept her broom on the floor accompanied with an awkward swaying of her body that was supposed to be dancing—and that's it.
She stopped dancing midway before she could sweep to the other side and ran with tears in her eyes.
Mill was confused about what that was.
He saw some Dabomen face palming and figured the woman must have made a mistake.
It was somewhat banal after that.
A woman with a trowel dug on the ground and planted a sapling, it grew a little bit and that was it.
There was a dancing man who had a bucket of fish with him and he danced rather well even with fishes in his arms. He was followed by a woman dancing with books in both her arms and head. Then a dancing duo of a young man and a pig. And finally a man with huge cleavers who expertly chopped meat in a stone chopping board then stir fried it with a prepared cookware beside him in front of everyone.
A lamenting female voice finished the song then followed by a loud silence.
The whole performance was bizarre and weird for Mill but strangely he felt synchronicity from it. Even with the weird dancing and the awkward performances in the last part, the singing made it right. The changing tone of both sadness and happiness. The longing, gratitude, and serenity tones which were an odd mix of tones, combined surprisingly into a clever music.
What artist made it, Mill wanted to know.
A clap went from somewhere in the altaworlders area and the rest of the altaworlders followed.
Mill did not clap as he felt it was not a performance to be evaluated but more like an offering. Like him, the Dabomens did not clap and only looked at the altawordler, their faces non-judging. They let the altaworders clap and did not stop them.
The clap died when the johaman went back to the center and faced the altaworlders. “Hello friends from another world. I welcome you again in this world and to the Dabo Mainland. I apologize for giving you all less preparation and little explanation for what will happen tonight.
“You see, we are pressed for time as something terrible will arrive tomorrow. I was forced by the circumstances to make a decision to include everyone of you in the Titling ceremony tonight. We don’t know what the future will bring. We feared that tomorrow’s Scourge might bring a problem to the crystal altar—let the God of Crystal prevent it—and prevent you from having your title for at least a month. For both of our interests, we don’t want that happening. I know you are confused about the Titling, having your titles, and what it entails, but I will explain it to everyone as clearly as I can.
“In this world, people lived on islands or what we mostly call as mainlands. This very island is one of them. Thousands of years ago, this mainland was a hundred times bigger than what it is now. Full of life, of nature, animals and plants—and peace. But one day, the Scourge arrived, bringing forth creatures from another world determined to force our world to end, and everytime they came, and defeated us, the more the land we lived lessened, till it was only as small as this island, bereft of life and only hanging by a thread
“In this world, it was important for everyone to know how to fight. We—” the johaman spread his arms, “—are not forcing you to fight. But if you chose to join us, you will do so as it was what the Dabomens are required to do. To protect the land we lived.
“As you can see, this is the only place we could live. It will be gone if we don’t protect it. But don’t worry, you will not fight unarmed. In this world everyone had the chance to acquire title bars, bars that would change your body, into bar humans. It will give you abilities, and enhance your body to protect it from harm, and to fight others.
“Normally, inhabitants of this world will have to acquire their title bars through effort but you altaworlders are special. You don’t need to look for it, you already have it when you arrive in this world.”
A buzz of surprise and confusion went on from the altaworlders and Mill thought this should not be real.
They already have these title bars? Did it mean he already had an ability?
He remembered his newfound ability to understand and read language he never knew before. Was that his?
Suddenly, he felt disappointed.
“Each one of you has the title marks on your body,” the johaman continued. “It was a mark that resembled the title you will receive. Check your body for a new mark that was not there before. Each of you should have it. It could be in any form but it should resemble a black tattoo.”
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Mill remembered the smudge of ink in his arms and immediately raised his arms to check it. It was still there.
Similar discoveries happened with those around him, finding marks from their body which were never there.
Some immediately found it like Clarese who had a black mark in her palm. Some had it in their legs and torso. Some even had to ask for others' help in locating their marks in parts of their body they could not see.
Dabomens assisted them by giving them lights and helped searching for them. It took ten minutes for everyone to find their marks. Mill even noted someone who had it in their butt.
“Now,” the johaman gathered their attention. “What you have to do is let your title marks touch any of the bar crystals in the crystal altar.” He pointed to the crystal formation. “And you will manifest your title bars. Don’t worry, our young Dabomen will show you how it was done.”
He nodded to the excited young Dabomens in black robes who immediately lined up a few meters in front of the crystal altar.
A guy who was first in line took a step forward and approached the crystal altar. The johaman followed beside him.
Mill watched intently as the young Dabomen removed his black robe and tossed it to the side. He was only wearing a sleeveless shirt inside and in his right shoulder showed a conspicuous dark tattoo.
With the johaman guiding him, he slowly touched a bar crystal and with a long breath he nudged his shoulder forward and pressed it to the surface of a bar crystal.
Instantly, a rainbow of colors burst from the area where the shoulder made contact with the bar crystal and after a second, a light blue light separated from that area and levitated a couple of inches from the male Dabomen’s shoulder.
The young Dabomen grabbed it hastily and the light from it vanished. It was replaced by a rectangular object that looked like a tablet computer at far. It was a foot in width and at least more than half a foot in height. It was thin, around half an inch, and aside from its blue color, it looked like a tablet computer but without the screen. Instead, the surface of it was adorned with crisscrossing lines of patterns and symbols, and they were moving all over the whole object.
Mill stared at the rectangular object unconsciously from afar, his eyes and attention caught by the moving symbols in it.
He felt his brain itching, like somehow the image was communicating something with him.
Just like those bathroom signs before, he let himself accept the ‘calling’ of the symbols and instantly, images of swords and people brandishing it flashed in his mind.
Words in various languages that he did not know flowed into his mind until two words in the language he spoke suddenly popped up in his mind, then it stopped and he came back to himself.
SWORD USER.
He could now understand what those symbols mean. They meant ‘Sword User’.
He shook his head, confused about what just happened.
He looked back at the front and the young Dabomen who was shakily holding the rectangular object in his right hand, raised his left hand and touched it to the crystal altar. Immediately, the rectangular object glowed in blue light, enough to light up the face of the male Dabomen a pale blue color.
An old female Dabomen walked towards the young Dabomen and the johaman, and the young Dabomen gave the rectangular object to her.
The old woman took it and looked at it for a few seconds. Her brows furrowed then it cleared. She looked up to the male Dabomen and gave him a smile. “It’s a Swordsman title bar, congratulations.”
A cheer went up from the Dabomens and Mill saw the young Dabomen smiled, albeit a little forced.
He seemed to be a little disappointed.
Mill tracked the male Dabomen as he went to the Dabomen huddle near Mill and stopped towards an older male Dabomen who shared similar resemblance with him.
The older guy received him with a smile and patted him on the back, “It’s okay Grake, Swordsman is a good title bar.”
“But… it's a common one,” the young male Dabomen grumbled, almost whispering the last part. Seeing that those around him were mostly altaworders, he raised his voice’s volume. “I just… hoped it was a rare title.”
The older guy sighed. “At the least, it's a combat title. You could have gotten a Farmer or Fisherman.”
Grake looked chasticed. “Yeah— you're right.”
“Will you incorporate it?”
“Yes,” Grake nodded.
Mill thought of what he overheard. That rectangular object must be the title bar. And by now, he had a little guess what this title bar was.
Title bar from the word itself should be related to titling. He guessed it gave people titles like Swordsman and these titles gave people abilities.
Staff Priestess should be related to staff magic; Waterwoman should be related to water; and Swordsman should be the ability to use sword abilities like he had witnessed before.
Farmer and Fisherman should be a title too, But they were not combat titles. He guessed they were not used for combat.
He then turned his attention back to the johaman in front who was now assisting a blond haired boy. This time, the boy’s mark was on his palm and when it touched the crystal, the same rainbow of lights flashed on that area and a brown light went out from it and rose above the blonde boy.
The boy took a staggered step back and at the same time disappointed expressions and exclamations came out from the Dabomens around.
“Go on, take it,” the johaman urged the boy.
The boy grabbed the light reluctantly and it transformed into a brown title bar in his hands.
He paused, looking really disappointed at the title bar, then took a deep breath and with his unoccupied hand, touched a bar crystal in the crystal altar. The brown title bar glowed a brown light but compared to the previous title bar it was noticeably dimmer.
Mill was curious if something was wrong with the brown title bar to garner this kind of reaction. His gaze went to it and instantly he felt the illegible symbols and patterns in it transformed into images of soil, plants and leaves, then various words in foreign language flowed again in his head till the word ‘farmer’ popped in last.
It happened again. He could definitely understand those random symbols in the title bar.
He waited for the female Dabomen to take the title bar from the boy’s hand and after a second of looking at it, the female Dabomen announced, “Farmer.”
“It’s a Farmer title bar,” the johaman announced in translated language.
Mill lightly poke Clarese beside him and asked, “Did those rectangular objects give you some visions or something when you stare at it?”
Clarese looked at him, confused. “Uh… no.”
“What do you see when you stare at it?”
“I’m not sure, I can’t even see it clearly. Why?”
“I— nothing.”
Clarese blinked at him once, shrugged, and then turned back to the front. Mill did too and saw the disappointed boy leave the line, holding his brown title bar.
“Tsk. Tsk. That was his third time,” someone murmured in the crowd.
“Be a farmer his whole life…” A woman shook her head in pity.
After that, the rest of the young Dabomen obtained their title bar one by one. Most of them got a title called Faith Priest or Faith Priestess, while there were other two who got Swordsman and Swordswoman.
There were new titles too like Lancer, Shielder and Staff Fighter, that received praise and claps from the crowd of Dabomen.
There were also those who had titles like Fisherman, Carpenter and Farmer that received mild and disappointed responses from the crowd.
All throughout them receiving their title bars, Mill also attempted to read what their bars were before it was announced.
Even if he had some slight difference in wording with what the female Dabomen’s announcement said, it was more or less the same.
The last Dabomen received his title of Faith Priest and the johaman was now the only one left near the crystal altar.
He then looked towards the altaworlders.
“What you have witnessed now was the Title Bar Manifestation process where you will obtain your title bars—those rectangular objects they obtained from the crystal. They will use it again during Title Incorporation which we will do after this. After that, they will then alter their body and receive three skills and abilities related to the title.
“Normally, in order to receive a title mark, a person had to earn it in the Zero Island like with these young Dabomens of ours. But you altaworlders are different.
“You, traveling in this world is a feat enough that the God of Bars has already provided you with your titles. But compared to what you have seen now, your titles are special.
“There are two types of titles: common, which you have seen now, and rare titles. You all have rare titles. Now, let’s see what your titles are.”