Chapter 8 - Dabo Mainland

“What sorcery is this?”

“Am I hallucinating?”

“Is this a new technology?”

“Mass hysteria! It should be mass hysteria!”

“I’m high.”

“Someone slapped me.”

A commotion of voices rioted inside the room, waking up those others who were still in their sleep.

The two women in the middle tried to calm them down but their voices were only drowned out by the hysterical and panicked voice of the people surrounding them.

Mill stayed at his bed calm.

The sun beamed directly all over him, but instead of warming him up, little shivers fluctuated all over his body. But he was calm.

He was unfazed by the information that he was in a new world, no matter how hard it was still to believe. But he believed it.

The universe was so vast that he always believed there were countless planets out there existing with life and civilization in it. They just happened to be beyond humans' reach. But he never expected to ever reach it. The technology was still far behind, and even if the technology was present, it was not like a poor student like him could ever ride on one.

But sorcery? Or magic? He never expected them to exist. He was an open minded person, but he was a believer of science. In fact, in the field of science itself, magic and the likes were just unexplained science. Just like how fire was thought to be sorcery millenia ago, all because no one knew the concepts behind it.

But talking rocks who could summon rocks, giant octopus, a magical tree and these magical humans in front of him were still a feat that he had to process.

The hardest part was at least half of them were out to get him, and he did not know why. What he experienced on that day was horrifying, he didn’t want it to happen to him again. It was only a pure miracle that he survived that. But miracles wouldn’t happen everyday.

“Me,” Mill said while he raised his hands, “ I want to learn.”

His voice, though, was drowned out by the commotion in the room, but he did not lower his arms.

He was still raising his arms when Senhora controlled her staff again and the same wave of light pulsed inside the room and immobilized everyone, including their voices. Mill was left there with his arms raised and saw Senhora’s expression turned serious.

“That was a waste of satna.” She said while maintaining her grip on the staff. “I don’t care if you believe me or not. You are free to go outside,” she gestured outside, “and see for yourself. I don’t care. The Dabomen don’t care. Every second mattered in this world, to us. But here’s something I need to tell you. This world is dangerous, very dangerous. But if you still won’t listen to me, then someone here will lead you outside. Those who wanted to stay,” she nodded in Mill's direction, “stay.”

After she said that, everyone in the room got freed from their immobilization.

Uncertain gazes fluttered in the faces of the people inside the room and despite her warning, several of them still decided to go outside. Some of those wearing business attires who made a ruckus a while ago also chose to go outside huffily.

While those who chose to go outside lined up and went out. Those who were left, which was the majority of the crowd, waited at their beds for Senhora’s instruction.

“Is this really true?” Someone sobbed somewhere in the room.

Senhora turned in her direction. “Yes.”

“This can’t be happening. I have a wedding next week,” someone said.

Similar concerns echoed in the room. Adults who shared concerns about their family, especially those who have kids. A pet they left on their own. An event they needed to attend and even someone’s plastic surgery appointment.

Mill did not share the same concern.

How could he come back to Earsan? Would he be safe there? Someone was trying to kill him. What if they were still there looking for him? He had just escaped death. He was alive for a moment and someone just offered him something that would increase his survivability. It might be out of desperation, and everything might be just an elaborate hoax, but at the least he wanted to stay here for some time.

He also had to look for his family, especially his grandfather and make sense of his situation. He would have to go back to his grandmother’s house eventually but before it, if somehow he could also summon rocks or immobilize someone with a staff, he would take it.

The most concerning to him was that If he could travel in this world or wherever he was now, what were the chances that they had followed him here? What if they were also taken by what took him in this world?

He might not be fully sure that this was another world but he would bank on what he saw. These people could wield staff to immobilize a person and control water — and they were offering him the chance to be like them. He would take it.

Senhora raised her arms and everyone quieted. “You are what we call Altaworlders, humans who are from another world transported to this world. No, we did not know the nature of how you got here. In this world, from time to time, the crystal bars of most mainlands would summon people from another world. It was the same in this mainland. But for tens or even hundred of years, there's been at least one altaworlders per summoning. But this time, we did not know what happened, but more than a hundred of you were transported here.

“That — is to explain your situation. We don’t know how you were transported here. But what we knew was that no altaworlders had ever come back to their world. There could be ways but you can’t find it in this mainland or any mainland in the south. Maybe in the north, but if ever there was one, we would have heard it.” She gave off a soft sigh. “Heck, rather than stay in this world, we would love to live in another world if we could. We heard about your worlds, it sounds like a perfect place to live. But you are stuck here now. And this world is not a safe place. To live in this world, you need to be stronger. But don’t worry, each of you is special.

“Here’s your option. You can either stay here on our mainland, and become a Dabomen. Or — look what’s beyond the windows.” Everyone scuttled to the neck-high windows and looked outside and saw a long expanse of brown land cascading into undulated terrain with only a few specks of greenery and trees from some areas. It ended after a few miles and continued into a beautiful wide sea, shining with yellow light from the midday sun.

They were indeed on an island and Mill noticed no nearby islands in the horizon.

“That,” Senhora continued, “is your only way out of this island. If you choose not to join our people, then we would provide you with a boat and let you sail away from this island unhindered. But let me give you a warning, the nearest mainland here was at least a day of boat ride. That, if you are a Sailman and you know where to go, and — if you know how to paddle one. We can’t provide you with anything — food, water or supplies other than the boat You will be on your own.” Her stern face looked at everyone in the room. “So what’s it gotta be? Will you join us or will you join us?”

A cry in the room answered her first. A middle aged woman sobbed on the other side of the room, hugging a woman beside her. “H-how could this b-be?” She said, gasping.

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“How could you expect us to answer your question easily?” a man wearing officer clothes voiced out on the other side of the room. “Let’s say you are telling the truth. That this is not… our world. Is it harsh for you to send us out if we don’t join whatever group you are in? You can’t just expect us to abandon our lives that easily. Is there really no other option?”

Senhora shook her head. “I’m afraid we don’t. We are only a small nation trying to survive. The least that we could do was assist you with your Titling regardless if you join us or not. It will at least help your situation. But we can’t do more than that. Now, you can ask any questions you want?”

“What are you?” someone asked.

“What am I? I am human. I am no different than you all.”

“But you have that magic staff, You couldn’t be human?”

“Ah. Actually I was once like you, someone with no abilities. But in this world we have something called bars.” Senhora cupped her right hand in front of her and a transparent box appeared in her hand, it was the one with words and symbols floating inside it. “This is a bar. As I mentioned a while ago, this is a Language Translation Bar, a type of language bar. Each one of you speaks different languages, but how can I speak to all of you at the same time when I don’t know anything about your language? This is what helped me.” She lowered her hand and the bar vanished. “In this world, there are bars of different types that can do different things. Some are innate that your body gives you while some can be found or more like earn. “ She looked at them meaningfully. “They could also give abilities. Abilities as simple as speaking language you don’t know, to killing a giant Island monster with just a flick of your hands. Bars is a complicated and vast subject. If you decide to join us, we will teach you all the knowledge you need to learn about bars and their powers. Other questions?”

“Can we do that too?”

“Yes.”

Excited expressions appeared on some faces in the room, especially the younger ones. Even Mill felt a little anticipation about it too though he kept inside and maintained a neutral expression.

“That is so cool,” a kid who looked like in the age of ten said a few beds away from Mill.

“Anything is possible?” a middle aged woman asked. “Then what about a bar that could take us back home?”

Senhora laughed. “A bar that could take you to your world? In theory yes, but I haven’t heard of a bar like this existing.”

“It doesn’t mean that it does not exist?”

“You’ll understand later, but you are right. It could exist.”

Mill was going to ask about the ‘titling’ Senhora mentioned but several people asked their questions at the same time, making the room loud for some time.

Senhora did not answer anyone’s questions this time. “Your questions will be answered later,” she informed instead. “For a moment I will leave you. Someone will come here later and lead you to the feast chamber, you can ask your questions then. Goodbye.” Just like that, Senhora exited the room together with her entourage without even heading the protest of some people who still have questions.

A buzz of conversation followed in the room, people talking to each other, mostly someone looking for those who spoke the same language as them.

That’s when Mill started to find something baffling. He did not notice it before as he was still confused by his situation but the people around him were talking in language he should not have understood. He heard snippets of conversation around him in language he never heard of but in his head, he understood what they meant.

Confused if this was a lingering power of Senhora, he called out to the woman in the nurse outfit beside him, “Umm. Hey,” the woman looked at him. “Can you understand what the others were saying?”

The nurse woman shook her head. “No, foreign language. But you can understand them right?”

Mill nodded. If the woman could not understand it then why could he? He only knew one language but somehow he could understand everyone around. He also noticed the people in the room having problems talking to those with different languages.

“Woah, a polyglot,” the nurse woman said, intrigue covering her eyes. Mill did not correct her. “You speak Shinelian though, in a different accent. You must be a Sinilian right? Where’ you from?”

Mill nodded. Shinelian was a common language in his continent, Sinil. So the woman must be a Sinilian too if she could speak it, but from her accent, she should be from another country than Mill.

“I’m Aranese,” Mill told her his nationality.

“I’m from Soco! Though my father was half Aranase. I’m Clarese by the way.”

“Mill.”

They talked about their country after that and Mill found out Clarese just woke up here after she dozed off in the hospital she worked at. Mill did not plan to tell her about his story, and he never had the chance to, as Clarese went off talking about random things, never talking about the implications of what their futures would be.

Clarese then went off about the countries she went to and her future plans to travel. She was telling him about her plans to visit Casola, a continent beside Sinil, when she stopped midway. A look of uncertainty passed on her face.

Mill did not know what to say, he knew she was just mumbling things trying to forget their reality. He instead looked away and stayed quietly in his bed. Clarese did too.

Mill might have been thrilled by the idea of gaining abilities, but he was also unsure of what was in store for him in the future. If Senhora was telling the truth, then he was stuck on this island.

He had no thoughts of sailing away on his own. Despite how his father used to work on a ship company, Mill had never been into one before, not even a small boat. His best bet was to stay with the Dabomens and see how things go.

He shuffled to the top of his bed, stood up and leaned his body to the wall while he looked through the window at the bright sea.

He removed all of his thoughts and reveled on the fact of being able to live for another day.

After a while, Mill sat down and checked his body. He still had an injury in his arm, the graze he had with the stone monster, but it was healing nicely, with a scab covering it already. He had some bruises and small wounds on some part of his body, but nothing serious. He wondered how many days he was sleeping for the wounds to heal this degree.

He was still wearing his yellow scrubs, with a white shirt and black pants inside. He had nothing else except for the necklace in his neck.

He thumbed the green pendant of it and wondered about his newfound grandfather. It came from him so it should be something magical right? His grandfather should be magical. Now that he thought about it, his father had always been talking about the Thousand Islands. He could not remember much but his father did mention how people went to islands to gain power. Was he referring to this land?

Or that was just fantasy. But there was the symbol of the Thousand Island in the magical tree and he was transported in the process here. It should not be a coincidence. Then could it mean his siblings were here too. But how could they send him a letter? He remembered they ‘could’ come back but they did not want to. Did their father take them? Or was it his grandfather? But it did not make sense.

Mill stopped himself as he would only have more questions. There was no use figuring things out when he only had little information. He would try to look at it later, when he was safe and when no one was trying to kill him.

He looked at his right wrist, empty of the magical bracelet that had saved him before, and wondered where it had gone. It must have been lost or broken during the skirmish in the Oxygen High.

He turned his hand skyward and he noticed a dark smudge in his inner wrist. He thought it was dried mud at first but it did not lodge off after he rubbed his hands in it. It looked like it was lodged directly to his skin, like a birthmark, or a tattoo. It had no particular shape and looked like some splattered ink in his hands. He never had this mark before but with all of the weird things he had experienced for the past days, he easily attributed it to when the blade lights attacked him and where the bracelet absorbed the lights, it must have left a dark mark.

Hours passed by, till a Dabomen came inside the room, asking them to follow him to the feast chamber.

They all trickled out in the room, bored from the hours that they spent there. Mill, though, spent it slumbering in his bed. Clarese had gone off talking to people who were also Sinilian in the room and surprisingly there were a handful of people who were from Sinil like them, though none of them were Aranese like Mill. Clarese introduced them to him, but after greeting them he made an excuse of a headache and laid on his bed.

He, Clarese and the other Sinilians, decided to go together and tagged behind the group. They went out of their room into a wide hallway of stones.

Everywhere Mill looked were lightish brown stone surfaces, from the ceiling, the floor, and to the wall. It looked like he was in a house or a cave made of stones or rocks.

His guess was proven right when they passed countless passages of hallways and rooms made of stones or carved from it. It looked like someone carved tunnels on a huge piece of rock and made it their homes. The Dabomens looked civilized enough as they still have normal accomodations like beds, drapes, cabinets, functional clothes, and modern looking things from the room Mill had passed but they still live in the rock. The leftover carvings and gorges on the ceiling were evidence of it.

They continued walking for some time, passing rooms that looked like human quarters and offices with tables in it, till they reached a huge doorway leading into a cavernous room.The room or more like a hall was as big as Mill’s school’s gym.

It had a raised dais on the other end of the room resembling a stage with a throne-like structure in the middle of it. Eight tables laid facing it while another four rows of long tables trailed behind the initial tables, laden with food and utensils.

Mill looked at the food served and he almost heaved to the floor. They were meat dishes. Roasted, fried, grilled, and some even looked raw.

It brought back images of the time he was at Oxygen High’s park. Pieces of the bodies of what used to be his friends came unbidden in his head looking like the meat dishes on the table.

He stumbled out of the line and went out of the room while Clarese and the others called out for him.

He got out to the hallway and leaned his body beside the doorway to get himself settled, but the images refused to leave his mind. The urge to throw up grew and he stumbled to the first room he saw, entered it, went to the nearest open window and threw his stomach out.

He stayed in that position for some time, then he slumped to the floor and breathed hard.

That was when he noticed a young woman sitting at one of the two tables in the room.