Chapter 13 - Mill’s Title Bar

It felt like a long time before Mill felt his hand dislodged from the crystal. The rainbow lights in the bar crystals winked out the same time he was released from it.

He staggered back and someone held his shoulder preventing him from falling to the ground.

He blinked his eyes, trying to clear the black spots in it, and when it cleared he saw the johaman beside him.

He had no time to acknowledge the shock and fascination in the johaman’s face as his attention was then caught by a floating circle of blue light above him.

It was beautiful.

It was glowing so brightly like a sun, but instead of yellow—it had an inner royal blue color pulsing inside it—ringed with white border lights dancing like sound waves.

And it was calling for him.

He took a step forward and raised his right hand to touch it and he felt the light transform in his hands. The light vanished but in its stead, an imperial blue title bar appeared in his hand, It had silver lines pulsing in it, dancing in movements he could only call as sharp.

Aside from it, It had patterns moving in its surface that seemed familiar to Mill. He felt he had seen it before, but he could not recall where.

“Now, touch the crystal altar,” the johaman urged him with obvious excitement in his voice.

Mill swallowed, then touched the crystal altar with his left hand. The next thing he knew, everything was blue.

The title bar he was holding glowed so brightly that he could see the whole plateau enveloped in blue light. Even though it was so bright, it was not blinding.

He was not the only one who was also shocked. Almost everyone, even the altaworlders, were looking at his title bar with amazement.

Mill dropped his hand from the altar and the title bar stopped glowing. Even so, his heart was still beating fast.

Before he could inspect the title bar, someone went in front of him and grabbed the title bar with their shaking hands.

It was Sociana. She then let go of it and appeared embarrassed. Despite this, she continued standing in front of him, staring at the title bar with fascination.

“Oh my,” she muttered. “Oh my. Is this what it is? Can I touch it? Please, let me read it.”

Mill had barely nodded when the bar was already out of his hands. Sociana, though, did not take it anywhere and stayed in front of him. She then focused her eyes on the title bar, and he saw her eyes brighten with white light.

Mill followed through and stared at the title bar too.

It was not the same with the other title bars that Mill had read. The others, it was instant and images immediately popped in his mind. But when he read the title bar, there was some delay and before he knew it, his surroundings faded and he felt his vision enveloped by a blue light.

He closed his eyes and when he opened it, he found himself in a blue space where countless bars of images floated in it. They were shaped like the bars that Senhora and Mishka had shown before, but instead of moving words and symbols like with the translation bar, the bars around him had holograms of people inside, like a video but in 3D.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed how all of them had the same subject inside. A man in blue armor with an intricate blue sword beside him.

The bars of images rotated around Mill—some fast, some slow—making it harder for him to focus on one, but it did not hinder him to see what the man in those bars was doing. Most of the bars had him swinging his sword on someone or some creatures but there were also quite a lot of bars that the man was doing mundane things like drinking water, eating, sleeping and sitting.

He also noticed how there were younger versions of the blue armored man in it, as well as an adult and old.

Without anything to do, Mill stretched his hands on a passing bar, but before he realized that he had no hands with him, his vision narrowed then he found himself standing on a beach, surrounded by coconut trees.

He looked down to look for his body but his sight only saw the sand on the beach, sans his feet or lower body. His body was missing.

It became apparent to Mill that he was only here with his consciousness. Confused as he was, he focused instead on the blue armored man who was in front of him, swords drawn and pointed on a group of people who were also pointing their swords at him.

The blue armored man held the sword in his both hands then he thrust it to the ground.

It penetrated wholey to the ground then the ground started to crack and a second later, the crack went too wide and in so many directions that the whole beach was divided into two with a huge chasm in between it.

Mill did not know what happened next as a sharp pain attacked his head.

His surroundings started to shake and he was ejected from the beach back into the blue space. The tunnel though was also fading at the same time Mill’s headache lessened in pain. Mill tried to stay in the tunnel but the moment he resist, his headache increased its pain. He let go and the pressure in his head lessened but the his surroundings faded more.

Before the blue space faded, Mill saw something shining in the distance surrounded by a dense amount of video bars. He squinted his eyes to get a glimpse of it but then he saw an intricate pommel jutting out from the moving video bars, then for a second, the video bars moved in a way that cleared a space for him to see clearly what was the object.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It was the sword. The blue armored man’s sword.

Then he was back on his body which was still standing in front of the crystal altar.

His body swayed as a headache attacked his head, but he caught himself.

A word was ringing in Mill’s head—Halouise— somehow he knew it was the name of the blue armored man.

Someone screamed in pain and Mill looked at Sociana’s direction. She was down on her knees, clutching the title bar in her hands.

The johaman helped her stand up and ordered Mill to take the title bar in her hands.

Mill took it and Sociana opened her eyes.

She smiled brightly and looked at the title bar with worship.

“I-its a named bar,” she said in a weak but determined voice. “It is a combat named bar related to swords!”

A huge clamor went out after that announcement.

“A name bar!”

“I thought they were only a myth!”

“—and it’s a sword combat title.”

Mill looked at the Dabomen around him as they bombarded him with various envious gazes. Some gawk and some licked their lips for some reason.

But Mill could not care, as he felt something was going wrong.

“And—” Sociana continued and the surrounding people immediately quieted. “And… it had a bar weapon attached to it!”

Her words garnered an even more intense reaction from the crowd.

“God of Bars! A weapon! It should be a sword.”

“I never thought I would live to see this day.”

“What’s the title bar’s name?” someone asked in the crowd.

“Yeah, what’s its name?” others also asked it.

Sociana took a step towards Mill and held his arms, “Congratulations. I—” then she passed out.

The johaman grabbed her by the side, pulled her towards other Dabomen and ordered then to take her away.

The johaman came back and patted Mill’s back. “What’s your name?”

“Mill,” Mill whispered. He couldn’t focus much on the johaman as he was feeling a little bit confused.

He felt something was growing inside him, a feeling. He felt uncomfortable and his instinct kept telling him that he had just done something, a mistake.

“Congratulations. As named title bar is something that is complex to read, we’ll let Sociana read it later with the help of others. For the meantime, just wait. After the Title Incorporation, we’ll talk.” The johaman gave him a smile and led Mill to the side.

He hardly registered what the johaman has said and he let himself be pushed to the side. He was still sporting a headache when he realized what he was feeling. It was dread.

He tried to deny it, but the more seconds passed the more the feeling became apparent. It was the same feeling he felt when he was at the Oxygen High, when rocks were falling in the sky and when he saw the giant octopus. It was lesser compared to what he felt back then but it was still there, growing.

Mill realized he was in danger. But with what, he didn’t know.

He looked around him and the envious gazes following his moves. Were they the source of his dread?

Clarese, who waited for him at the side, took a hold of him when she saw that he was not fine.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Mill nodded.

The other Sinilians who also waited for him congratulated him and then they walked together back towards where they stood before.

They passed people who congratulated Mill—their smiles and envious gazes following him—and despite the danger he felt, it dawned on him that he had just done something amazing.

He felt exhilarated. He couldn’t believe something extraordinary just happened to him.

He had a title bar, and it was good.

For the first time in years, he felt that something was going well for him.

But he sobered up real quick.

Amidst the harmless smiles around him, he could feel gazes of people who his instinct was telling him not to ignore.

He realized though that it had nothing to do with the dread he felt, it was just his pure observation as someone who used to live in a world where people kill for a piece of food in the trash.

He turned towards their direction, and saw a group of Dabomen looking at him with eyes full of unconcealed greed.

Mill recognized some of them. He recognized the two Dabomens he met in the bathroom this afternoon; there was also the guy who sliced up Seant’s gun whose name he remembered was Korsner; and the young man who was Mishka’s fiance.

They were looking at him as if he was a piece of food.

Mishka’s fiance even gave him a knowing smirk.

He tried to pinpoint where the dread he was feeling was coming but they were not in the direction of those group of people, in fact, the dread he felt was not coming in one direction, it was everywhere.

But he did not disregard their looks. Even without them watching him, he knew the title bar in his hands was a hot bomb. He knew greed, he had seen what it could do to a person, and right now he was the perfect victim for it. He had something that perfectly provoked that feeling.

He only hoped it was harmless greed.

They finally reached the place where they stood before and the altaworlders around them glanced at Mill from time to time but he ignored them. Some tried to talk to him, but he acted like he did not understand their language, which they did not know anyway.

The title bar manifestation ceremony continued and another Reader replaced Sociana. He was a young man who looked too thrilled and jerky for his benefit.

The other altaworlders continued getting title bars, some cool sounding while some weird, but none of them ever gotten the same degree as Mill did.

They could only light up some part of the crystal and their title bars’ lights varied only for a few meters in diameter.

Finally, the final altaworlder had gotten her title bar.

“Now,” the Johaman said to the altaworlders. “Let’s incorporate your title and make you all bar humans. For the Dabo—”

“Wait a minute, Tikon,” a voice interrupted the johaman.

It was coming from the left side of the encirclement, and it came from one of the Dabomen who looked at Mill greedily a while ago. It was one of the Dabomen Mill saw in the bathroom. He had long blonde hair in a ponytail and he’s sporting a strong bulky body.

The blonde man approached the johaman in the center and his companions followed behind him.

“Delra Zomeng. What is it?” the johaman said without emotion in his voice, his face calm.

“I still have something to say Tikon.”

“Delra Zomeng!” a female voice shouted.

It came from Mishka who also came forward towards his father, looking very pissed. There was a group of Dabomens, mostly females, following behind her.

She stopped when he reached Zomeng, and gave him a glare. “You are not allowed to be disrespectful by calling the johaman by his name!”

Zomeng only smiled at her then he turned toward the altaworlders. “Our dear guest. I would like to inform you that you have already overstayed your welcome on our island.” His smiling face then turned serious. “It’s time to pay. Handle your title bars to us.”

“What are you doing?!” Mishka looked flabbergasted. “Have you gone crazy?”

The johaman also had his brows furrowed. “What is this Zomeng!”

Instead of answering, Zomeng signaled a Dabomen beside him and the Dabomen took a box of something then smashed it in his two hands.

Someone shouted ‘No!’ and then a huge smoke exploded swiftly out from it and blew in all directions.

It blew so fast that Mill did not have time to react before smoke blocked his vision.

Shouts of alarm and help rang out from everywhere and there was a moment where all Mill could hear were shouts of help and confusion.

Then it became quiet—as if someone turned a notch down to the volume—and Mill could not hear any voices around him.

The smoke slowly thinned out and Mill started to see his surroundings again.

Strangely, the people around him were still standing but they were not moving.

He was about to call out Clarese beside him when she dropped suddenly to the ground.

Like an uncoordinated domino, everyone around him also started dropping to the floor.

He was the only one standing after a few seconds.