Chapter 163: Splintered
'The Langost branch, therefore, has been deemed a waste of effort by most of the important merchant and explorer groups. Thus, until a level four or above hub-world is found, it is unlikely that any but the smallest groups continue exploring from its fringes. To those who read this, my advice would be to relocate to the Casadir branch, which is located a mere three-month journey away!
I hope you enjoyed reading about one of the few useless endeavors of our Casadir Merchant group. Sometimes, it's good to remember that even those who are nearly perfect still make mistakes!
-Demnir Uldis Casadir’
Irwin stared at the last page as he closed the book, shaking his head in disgust.
"Seriously… nearly perfect?" he muttered as he tossed the book to the end of his bed and glared at it.
"The Casadir group is mostly comprised of Da'xi, just like our good captain," Daubutim said. "This is just the way they are."
He was sitting on his own bed, staring at the cards sprawled before him. They were the only two in the room, the merchants and Greldo, enjoying the temperature up the deck for as long as it lasted. They had just passed another portal world harbor, and for a few hours, the temperature would remain enjoyable. After that, everyone but Irwin and Greldo would be relegated back to their cabins due to the cold. Daubutim and Irwin had seen it as the perfect time to check Irwin's cards for some that Daubutim would want and discuss the books Irwin had read.
"That makes sense," Irwin muttered as he thought about his few conversations with Captain Xi'kroak. "It didn't say what a level four hub-world is… do you know?"
Daubutim nodded as he reorganized a few of the cards. He began explaining without even looking up.
"Each secondary world connecting to a hubworld makes it more profitable. A world with two or more is deemed a hubworld at level one. Five secondary worlds make it a level two world, and then ten is a level three world. To become level four, the world needs to be connected to twenty or more secondary worlds. Usually, level four worlds are large cities with powerful soul-carded families. Fiverio used to be a level four world, but a few of the secondary worlds that are connected to it have shattered. This caused its rank to drop back down to three. This happens a lot with rank four worlds."
Irwin hummed as he stared at the book. Those worlds had probably shattered because they were used as farming or mining worlds. Harvested for all their resources and then cut off from the hubworld so its shattering doesn't cause problems.
"Does that mean that there are not many older high-level worlds?" he asked, leaning back.