Chapter 25 - The Asixta Mainland

Time passed by and it has been three months since Millinus started living with the Floating Orphanage.

After that night, Ainuya, the stout man, gave him the chance to live with them for a few days then he had to look for his accommodation later.

Even if it was too much for him to ask, he begged them to check the Dabo Mainland to check for the others but before they could even reach the island, they met some Dabomens escaping from it, as scourgers—who people always expected to be gone whenever the pillars disappeared—had now instead stayed and inhabited the island, attacking anyone they saw.

“Hundreds or thousands of years ago,” Ainuya, who happened to be a Teacher, told him about the history of the scourge as the Dabomen sailed away while Millinus hid himself inside a piece of cloth, “these scourgers, who no one knows where they originated, used to come every five to ten years, and everytime they came, they always went straight to the island’s crystal bar to eat its bar energy. When they take all of the energy, they'll go back to those pillars and whatever place they came from, and the island would then lose a crystal and submerge for around a mile in all directions. But as time passes, their visiting time increases, until it becomes a year, then half a year and now every thirty days. But it increased yesterday. The scourge was supposed to come today.”

They look around the island using a telescope but they never saw anyone in it, not a Dabomen or any altaworlders. The island though was crawling with scourgers, and the sight of it made the others want to vacate the premises immediately.

Millinus went with them as they went back to their mainland.

He then met their way of travel from island to island, the current highways, a fast running current that would take someone swimming or sailing in it from one place to another at a rapid pace.

As he traveled with them, he learned that they usually stayed at their island and only traveled out in their ship when scourge arrived. Most islands like the Dabomens would have fighters that would hunt the scourgers preventing them from harvesting the island’s bar energy, but the Floating Orphanage had no fighters, they couldn’t even fend off a single scourger.

Even the huge man who bravely entered the island during a scourge was a barless person, someone who did not have a supernatural ability.

As they traveled along the current highway leading to their island, they met a puzzling scene.

They passed islands and islands—in different sizes, all circular in shape—that had scourge pillars still circling it. What worried the others was that it was different from the Dabo Mainland. It was also a close Pillar, a newly made pillar that no scourgers had come out yet, and would open after at least six to twelve hours.

They arrived at their island, a small barren space of land, around a mile or so across, with a single scourge pillar standing in it.

“Nuya, what’s happening?” Tlina asked, her voice trembling. “Why did the island where the alta come from had their scourge early?”

“I also don’t know,” Ainuya replied.

Millinus later understood that all scourge happened at the same time and in the Dabo Mainland, theirs came early.

Tlina was right to worry, it had been everyone’s advantage to know when the scourge would appear. For those who couldn’t defend their island, they could always vacate it a day earlier and be safe. The prospect of a scourge arriving without warning, when the inhabitants were still on the island, was a terrifying thought for anyone.

The island’s scourge happened for almost a day, a tad different from the Dabo Mainland. From their words, it was how scourge usually happened. The single pillar stayed closed for almost twelve hours and it opened for another twelve hours.

Usually scourgers would come out of the pillars to harvest the island’s bar energy and would go back in when the pillar was about to close. But no one came out from the sole pillar in the Floating Orpahanage’s island, which made all of the Floating Orphanage, eight of them, to celebrate.

They explained that the mainland's size would determine how many pillars and how many scourgers would come out of it.

The smaller the island the lesser the number of the scourge pillars and scourgers that would come.

An eleven pillars like what the Dabo Mainland used to be were called mobei mainlands, now that it had been scourged, it only had ten pillars and would then be classified as a cohei mainlands.

The Floating Orphanage’s mainland, Asixta Mainland, only had a single pillar and was classified as an ihie mainland. Ihies were the smallest type of mainland as they only have a single bar crystal to support it.

They would still be visited with scourgers but the scourgers would only be able to take a part of the bar cyrstal at a time. Eventually they would consume all of the island’s single bar crystal till it was gone and when it happened the island would cease to exist by submerging to the seas.

But ihie mainlands were different, sometimes scourge pillars would come but no scourger would come out. They did not know why, but whenever it happened, it meant that they could still live for an additional month.

“Our mainland only has eight parts of our sole bar crystal,” Ainuya shared, “Eight scourge out and our island will be completely submerged. Any scourge day that no scourgers visit is an additional time for us to continue living on our island. But it will only be a matter of time.”

Life in the Floating Orphanage was simple. The five orphans were managed by three adults. Ainuya, who had the title of Teacher, was the head. Tlina, the short muscular woman, a Fisherwoman, was one of the main providers of food for the orphanage. The other adult was called Chalks, a lanky smoker middle aged man who happened to be a Farmer. He grew crops for the orphanage but he mostly cultivated tobacco plants that he would sell in other mainlands.

Canto, a tall muscular man that Millinus initially thought was in mid-twenties, was a seventeen year old young man who was still raised by the orphanage. There were four others like him that the orphanage raised, two teenagers and two toddlers.

Millinus was only given a few days or a week in the orphanage, just enough for him to heal and be able to survive. But to the surprise of everyone, and especially Millinus, he healed to almost full health the next few days. Even the next day, he was up and ready to work. The injury he had in his left shoulder that Ainuya had deemed would need healing from a Doctor or Healers healed in a week.

The moment he was able to move, he showed his gratitude to them by helping around. Working was his specialty, as he worked almost every hour of the day since he was 12, with only a few hours of sleep as a rest. He had experienced a lot of jobs before, especially farming, as he used to have a vegetable lot in their house and he usually worked as a farmer during summer breaks. He helped Chalks with raising their crops, mostly crops that could be harvested in a few weeks or crops that were underground.

He also showcased one of his talents, cooking. The inhabitants of the orphanage might know how to cook but not as talented like Mill, who had experimented with food since he was young.

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Cooking simple foods and making a variety of dishes out of it, with only the minimum of ingredients and spices, was something he was good at

He remembered the times when he had to eat cabbage and eggplants everyday when he was at his grandmother's house. There was so much a person could eat a single type of food everyday till they became done with it, even someone like Mill who were living in poverty. Cooking it in any ways he could had become a hobby of his, creating dishes just to spice out their palate. And he showed this to the orphanage.

He also happened to be good at kids, as he once raised a bunch of them, and dealing with the mischievous eleven year old Klathy; the curious and sensitive seven year old Itank; the active five year old Rovus; as well as the simple Canto, was easy for him.

The adults were always not on the island as Ainuya had to work on another mainland sometimes, while Tlina would fish in the sea and Chalks, who only had to farm beside the small makeshift orphanage house, was not close with the kids and only let them be.

It was Canto’s job to take care of them but the only thing Canto had in mind was working out everyday and food. Canto even quarreled with the young kids for the simplest things. Millinus could only intervene and offer his help in taking care of the kids.

The only person that Millinus was not close with was a fourteen year old kid with a ponytail in his hair, Capriel. Capriel didn’t interact much with him and as he disliked Canto, of whom was always with Millinus. It made it hard for Millinus to interact with him.

Living with the orphanage for that one week was peaceful for Millinus. The life was simple and monotonous but at least he was safe. He wanted to stay, as he did not know how to navigate this new world with people having supernatural abilities, but he did not want to impose.

When he mentioned his departure to them—as he was already healed and able—it was Canto who objected vehemently.

Ainuya and the others, especially the kids, did not object to Canto's request, even Capriel. That day, he became an official member of the orphanage, not as an orphan but as a worker just like with the adults.

That night he was taken by Ainuya to his room and explained his situation.

“Millinus, I’ve heard some news from other mainlands. Most of the mainlands who were able to summon altaworlders were sent with hundreds of altaworlders from different worlds like what happened to you in the Dabo Mainland. Sadly, just like with the Dabo Mainland, they also took their title bars and killed most of them. Some had been sold for slavery, but an altaworlder’s organization saved some of them. You told me that they were looking for you as you haven’t relinquished your rights to it, right?”

Millinus nodded.

“I just have to tell you that once someone was to look for you here, I will choose to tell them about you over the safety of the orphanage. If you can understand that, and if you still wanted to stay in the orphanage then I will let you. What are your decision?”

“I understand… I like… to… stay.” Millinus said slowly.

Millinus understood the orphanage situation. He was not someone they could shelter. But if he could stay with them then he would try his best not to be a burden. From what he heard from the others, there’s no way he could live on another mainland. He was barless and that was the equivalent of a person who didn’t have an education degree. This was a world where land was limited, no one would want to take him to shelter just like what the Floating Orphanage generously did.

“Good. Don’t worry, I’ve looked into the Dabo Mainland’s situation and they were busy at the moment hiring high bar islanders to exterminate the scourgers in their island. From what they’re offering, it will be hard for them to hire one. I also heard people giving an eye for those mainlands who have large amounts of rare title bars. They probably won’t use their newly acquired title bars as a bargain material. If they’re smart, they should kept quiet about their title bar plundering.

“As long as you don’t appear in front of them, they probably will assume you were killed during the scourge just like the other altas. If somehow they happen to look for you, don’t worry, I will give you enough time to run. Just contribute to the orphanage, don’t be a burden, and never betray us. That’s all. Welcome to the Floating Orphanage.” Ainuya offered his hands and Millinus took it gratefully.

Life in the orphanage continued and Millinus started to learn the world he lived in.

The world he lived in now was so big that no map actually existed to depict the whole world. Islands come and go literally so having a map was useless. It also had no name. He did not know why but it might be related to how the world was never explored fully.

The world was divided into two areas, the Calm Seas and the Violent Seas. They have their own names in Counan but that was the direct translation. The Calm Seas were the areas where the known islands existed and that included the Southern Abandoned Islands, where the Asixta Mainland was a part of. The other one was the Violent seas, where from its name, known to be violent and deadly. No one really stepped on it and came back. What beyonds it, no one knew.

And there was the important part of everyone living in this world, the titles.

“What do you think I will be when I grow up?” Itank asked as they watched Chalks expertly used a hoe to dig perfect holes in the ground. Millinus learned it was his skill called Farm Tools Expertise, a common titled skill for farmers, making him exceptionally good in handling farm tools.

“What do you… want to be?” he asked.

“I want like Baba Nuya, to teach someone with one touch, or like Nana Tlina, she feel the fish and catch them, but I hate fish.”

“That’s so simple,” said Klathy’s high pitched voice. “There are many titles. You can be a Death Witch, and you’ll marry a skeleton and you'll sleep together.” She snickered.

“Is this skeleton big and tall?” Canto asked.

“Yes,” Klathy answered. “They’re big as a house,” she turned to Itank, “and they will be forever with you.”

Itank pursed his lips and stared at Klathy, tears beading in her eyes.

While she was aggrieved, Canto was grinning in excitement. “Then I want to be one! I will be a Death Witch!”

Millinus shook his head and he saw Capriel, who was sketching something on another table beside them, shook his head too.

“Baba Linus! Baba Linus!”

“Yes,” Millinus looked at Rovus who stopped playing with stones at his feet and now looking at him.

“What’s you-r title?”

He smiled at him sadly, “I lost mine.”

“Lost?”

The other kids also looked at him.

“Yes, lost. It’s when you forget something… where you put it. Like… when you couldn't find… your slipper yesterday.”

“Then you find it!” Rovus innocently said.

“Yeah,” Millinus nodded and smiled. “I should.”

“Seriously.” Capriel put down his pencil on the table and looked at him with a serious face. “You should look for it. You can’t be a barless human your entire life.”

“What’s wrong… with being barless?” He asked genuinely.

Not that he wanted to be barless forever but he was curious why being barless was not ideal. Everyone in his former world had no title bars and they lived just fine, he couldn’t see why titles could change one’s life attainment.

Capriel's face turned acidic from his question, he picked up all his meager art supplies, stood up and looked at him. “Barless humans are only useful for some type of people, as food.” Then he walked out.

Even Klathy looked at him seriously. “You should find a title, Baba Linus. It’s bad if you don’t have one.”

Canto on the side also nodded.

He later learned that they were right. Being barless was equivalent to a worm. No one would give you jobs, your family would disown you and everyone would think of you as a failure. In a hindsight, it was even better to be a worm.

It would not matter if only some people believed this, but it was a widely known belief. Even those with disabilities—both physical or mental—could have titles. Slavers would even decline to enslave you or buy you if you were barless.

Being a barless human was rare, because in this world, everyone had three chances to receive a title bar. But altaworlders only have one, the one they brought to this world, and Millinus had lost his.

“For one to have a title bar, they have to enter the Zero Island.” Ainuya explained to him when he asked him about his situation after their dinner. “When a person turned 15, they would then be able to enter the Zero Island.”

“Zero Island?”

“It is a wandering island that would pop up randomly in the world, when one entered it, they would then be assessed by the island and after surviving for three days, you will be ejected with a title mark, Canto show yours.”

Canto, who was told to follow them, showed a mark on his chest. It was a black mark like what Millinus had before.

“You have something like this one right?”

Millinus nodded.

“Here comes the difference with altaworlders and the natives in this world. You can only enter the Zero Island if you are fifteen and not eighteen, sometimes there were exceptions, people entering even if they are younger than fifteen. Canto had already entered the Zero Island twice and he is still allowed to enter it for the third time as long as he is still not eighteen, and if he did not incorporate the mark into a title. It will serve as his pass to enter the island again and find a replacement. But altaworlder’s mark is different. Some say it was because it was a different mark than the Zero Island gives that’s why it can’t be used to enter the Zero Island. Their marks restricted them from entering it. But you, Millinus, is not just an altaworlder but also older than 17.”

Canto patted him on the shoulders, “Don’t worry Millinus, when I enter the bar islands, I will give you the first title bar I find.”

“Bar islands?”

“Those are islands that give you bars when you conquer it.”

Millinus perked up from those words. Those words sounded familiar to him.

“The Thousand Islands?!”