Chapter 1 – The White
"Teet! Teet! Teet! Teet!" Kyle's alarm clock rang but Kyle was not on his bed. He had woken up much earlier that morning because he slept late that night. He was at the kitchen preparing his breakfast for the day.
"Okay. Thanks, Okev," Kyle was on his phone while he made a fried egg. "When will I come back? I think it will be this weekend. I am not sure yet because there are so many things to do here," said Kyle. He flipped the egg in the pan and sprinkled some black pepper on it.
"I know I am missing many classes but there are indeed many things I need to do here," said Kyle while he nudged the fried egg with the saucer to see if it was done. Once he saw that the egg was done, he extended his arm and reached for a plate to put the egg on.
"Okay, okay, we will talk later," said Kyle and he hung up the phone. "Hah~" Kyle sighed and he stared outside the house for a few seconds before he picked up two slices of bread and put the fried egg between them.
Kyle sat on the dining table and ate his breakfast. The house was quiet and only Kyle's munching sound could be heard. "I miss them already," mumbled Kyle.
Two weeks ago, Kyle's parents died in an accident. Once he got the news, he rushed home from his college. He never thought that he would lose his parents overnight. He talked to his parents the night before the accident and never thought that that would be the last time he heard their voice.
He was a single child and he was now alone by himself. His parents were orphans and thus, they did not have any family on their side. Without anyone to turn to, Kyle needed to continue living by himself. He needed to start relying on himself and his parents would not be able to help him anymore if he created trouble.
His parents own a small skill book shop. Kyle wanted to continue taking care of the shop but, he decided to finish his college first. Money was not a problem for him to finish his studies because he had been saving for college since he was small. He had more than enough for the fee and everyday uses.
Some people asked him if he wanted to sell the shop but he refused to do that because his house and the shop were in the same building. If he sold the shop, he would need to sell the house too.
The building was the only thing left by his parents and he refused to sell it. He grew up in that building since he was a baby and there were many memories of him and his family there.
However, since there was no one to take care of the shop, he decided to close it until he graduated. He had thought this through and thought that education was the most important. If by chance the shop failed from his management, he could use the degree he had to search for a better job.
Even so, the shop was not doing well for the past few years. There were many better skill book shops in the city and that caused the sale of skill books in the shop to decline. Even if he were to continue the business at the moment, nothing would change because his knowledge was shallow.
Since Kyle had made his decision to close the shop, he went straight downstairs to the shop to start cleaning the shop. Their house was above the shop. It was a two-story building where the first floor was the shop while the second floor was their house.
"Time to continue cleaning the shop," said Kyle and he took out a box and went to a bookshelf. He picked up the skill books and arranged them properly in the box.
Fireball skill books, wind blade skill books, water blade skill books, plant growth skill books, and many more skill books in the shop were the low tier skill books.
His parents created those skill books themselves based on other skill books available on the market. However, their ability to create higher tier skill books was limited. They were not a high-rank magician as they did not become a magician to kill monsters but to open the skill book shop.
Due to their low rank as magician, they could not create higher tier skill books. At the current times, more and more powerful magicians appeared in the universe, and thus, the competition to create better skill books rose as the demand increased.
Kyle looked at the title of all the skill books he took and he frowned. "I wonder if I will succeed even after I graduate since I am not a magician?" Kyle realized something. If he wanted to manage the shop in the future, he needed to become a magician too.
Magician was the common term used to describe people that could use magic skills. There were more titles that were specific to the type of magician someone chose to be such as a Healer, Fire Mage, Sword Mage, Gun Mage, Necromancer, and many more.
Kyle's parents were just a common magician. They did not specialize in anything. They could become a Scholar Mage but their knowledge was too limited to be called a scholar and thus, they were normal magicians.
For someone to become a magician, they needed to consume a monster's soul. Monster's soul could be found by killing monsters but they were quite rare. With the recent technology, the monster's soul could be artificially created but they were not as good as the natural monster's soul and they were expensive too.
To consume a monster's soul, compatibility was a factor. Everyone had a certain compatibility to a certain monster. If they consumed a monster's soul with high compatibility, they would receive a lot of benefits. If they consumed a monster's soul with low compatibility, they might lose their life.
At the beginning of the magic age, determining compatibility was purely based on luck. However, in the current times, everyone could test their compatibility. Even so, they were expensive. The more accurate the techs, the more expensive it would be. The cheapest one would usually be around 500 thousand credits.
The monster's soul was needed because the soul would be the medium for humans to use mana which was the source of energy for magic. The concept of mana had been created since long ago but it could be proved when the monster started appearing on Earth.
Becoming a magician was sought after by many people but due to the rarity of the monster soul as well as the high fee to test compatibility, most people gave up and decided to become a normal human. Kyle was the same too.
"Do I need to become a magician to be able to open the skill book shop?" Kyle was thinking. He finally realized the problem if he wanted to continue selling skill books. Since his parent's shop was far behind the other competitor's shop, he would not be able to make any changes if he was not a magician.
"Hah~" Kyle sighed and he continued packing the skill book. He was cleaning while thinking of what he could do.
A few hours later, Kyle finished packing the skill books. He lifted all the boxes with the skill book inside and put it in the basement. The basement was made as the storage space to store all the shop's items.
While putting all the boxes, Kyle saw a white book in the middle of the floor. "What the? Since when did that book get there?" Kyle found it weird. He remembered that there was nothing there earlier since he walked past that area.
"Did the book fall from the box?" Kyle thought but he realized something. He opened up one of the boxes containing the skill books and saw that it looked entirely different than the white book. The skill book was as thick as a 100 pages book but the white book was as thin a piece of paper.
Skill books usually had more than 50 pages because they had much information about the skill. Usually, the higher the tier of the skill, the thicker the skill book.
The information inside the skill book was usually the theory behind the skill, the complex calculations and formula of the skill, the schematic diagram of the skill, the effect and the description of the skill and also, the do's and don't to learn the skill.
"I don't think I ever saw that book when I packed the skill books earlier? Also, is that even a book?" Kyle put back the skill book inside the box and went to pick up the supposedly 'fell from the box, white book'.
Kyle picked up the white book and said, "A hardcover. A book indeed but why is this so thin?" Kyle checked the front and back of the book but there was nothing written on it. "I wonder what kind of technology to use to make a book this thin?" Kyle frowned.
He knew that technology had advanced more than before the start of the magic age. Humans' intelligence and creativity had made it possible to fuse technology with magic. Nowadays, everything uses mana as the source of energy.
Petroleum, electricity, nuclear energy, solar energy was the story of the past. Mana was abundant and they were renewable just like water. Mana was purer and contained more energy than other renewable energy and thus, it was widely used at the current times.
Television, computer, handphone, bulb, car, spaceship, modern weapons all used mana as their energy. Even meat and plants contained mana. Mana existed everywhere since the appearance of the monsters.
However, Kyle had never heard of a book that thin on the internet. "Is this a magic book?" Kyle wondered and he opened the white book. Once he opened on the first page of the white book, he saw words of unknown language written with white ink on the white paper of the white book.
"What language is this?" Kyle squinted his eyes as it was hard to see the words due to the use of too many white. Though he could not understand any of it, Kyle read it until the last page. There were only five pages and it took him less than 5 minutes to read it.
"Hmm~ There are no words that I can understand," Kyle pursed his lips and closed the white book. However, once the book was closed, black words appeared at the front cover of the white book.
"What the?" Kyle was shocked and he read the title of the white book. "Dojo… System?" Kyle read the book title and suddenly, a floating screen appeared in front of him and a mechanical voice rang inside his head.
[Condition met. Dojo system activate] appeared on the floating screen and a mechanical voice reading the sentence rang inside his head.
Kyle was stunned and before he could think of anything, the white book shone and it melted. "WAH!!" Kyle was shocked and he tried to let go of the white book but he could not. The white book melted and the melting white liquid flowed towards Kyle's arm.
"Wait! Wait! Stop!!" Kyle panicked and tried to stop what was happening with his mouth when he could not let go of the melting white book. Be that as it may, it was useless. The white book continued melting and the liquid flowed and covered Kyle's arm.
After that, it continued towards his body, legs, and head. When the white liquid covered his arm, Kyle could not move his arm at all. It stood still like a statue. The same happened to his body and leg. They all turned to a statue.
The white liquid continued flowing towards Kyle's head and he started sweating. "If that thing covered my head… I will not be able to breathe!" Kyle exerted everything he had to move his body. He was afraid that he would suffocate.
"It's here," Kyle failed to do anything and the white liquid started covering his head from the back of his head to his face. Kyle took a deep breath, closed his mouth, and tried to hold his breath. He did not want to die in vain and would do everything he could to survive longer.
The white liquid finished covering his whole face but suddenly, the white liquid squirmed and forced open Kyle's mouth. Kyle was shocked. He was cursing in his mind that the white liquid could do something like that.
"NO!!!!" Kyle screamed internally as the white liquid entered his body. "Why in the world do you use my mouth? You can use my nose or my butthole…" As if understanding everything Kyle said in his mind, the white liquid did the exact thing as that.
"WAIT!!! NO!!!! Don't enter through any of that!!!" However, it was too late and the white liquid entered through all the holes it could find on his body. Kyle was crying internally.
Though he could not feel any pain or something similar, he could feel something slithered through that and it was the worst experience he had ever had in his life. He regretted thinking of that.
As though that was not bad enough, he started feeling the slithering of the white liquid inside his body. His stomach, intestine, throat, lungs, heart, liver, brain, bones, he could feel the white liquid moved inside his body.
"What the? How in the world can I feel all of that?" Kyle wondered. The only thing he knew could be felt when it involved his organs was a pain. Stomachache, muscle sore, headache, heartburn, and many more.
However, the feeling was different. It was not pain or pleasure. He did not feel good or bad but only slightly uncomfortable. The feeling continued for a few minutes before it stopped. However, nothing else happened after that.
Kyle's body was now fully white and the white book was completely gone. It had melted completely and the white liquid had covered Kyle inside and outside. Kyle was still motionless as a statue. He could not move at all.
"Will I be like this forever?" thought Kyle as he got worried and continued, "I hope someone finds me here…"
"I don't think I can hold my breath longer…" Kyle suddenly stopped as he realized something, "Wait! I can breathe!" He had been breathing normally since the white liquid forced open his mouth.
Since he was too focused on the white liquid, he did not realize that he was breathing normally. His mind was in chaos that he could not think straight.
"I guess I will not die due to suffocation," Kyle was relieved. "But, what now? Do I stay like this until someone finds me? Food is fine. I can survive without food for a week at least but water… and also the bathroom," Kyle felt stress.
After that, he tried everything he could for a few hours but all of them failed. Nothing he did worked and he gave up. He decided to make peace with what happened. He would just wait until someone realized he had disappeared.
"My friends might call me and when they cannot connect to me, they will get worried and report this to the police. The police will come and free me from this white thing," Kyle was thinking of the possible scenario that could happen.
"Or maybe my neighbor will realize that I am gone and check inside the shop and find me in this basement," thought Kyle and he felt like the second scenario was the most possible to happen because his parents were closed to his neighbor and they helped him out a lot when he was dealing with his parents' death.
"Aunt Claudia said that he will give me the chicken curry for lunch today! That's right! It is noon now and Aunt Claudia will be here soon! Lucky!!!" Kyle felt happy that he remembered that Aunt Claudia was coming and she would help him.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming from the shop. "That sounds!!! Aunt Claudia!!!" Kyle was screaming internally asking for help. He hoped that Aunt Claudia could hear him. Suddenly, the footsteps got nearer and someone was coming toward the basement.
"Yes!!! Aunt Claudia is here!" Kyle was elated. "I am safe! I am safe!" Kyle was crying internally. He was happy that his savior was getting closer to his location. Someone indeed came to the basement but when Kyle saw that person, he was stunned.
That person was not Aunt Claudia and that was a man. He was not his friend or his neighbor. He was none of them but Kyle was familiar with this person because he saw him in the mirror this morning when he was brushing his teeth.
That person was Kyle. No, another him, and he was shocked, stunned, shook, speechless beyond words. He was standing there like a statue but he saw another him walking normally towards him.
"Who are you?" Kyle asked in his mind. He knew that it was impossible for 'that Kyle' to hear him but he wanted to ask. However, to his surprise, 'that Kyle' looked at him and smiled.
'That Kyle' put his hand on his chest and he bowed towards Kyle. "??? What the? What is this person doing? Is this a shapeshifting skill??" Kyle was confused.
"Master, don't worry, I will handle the shop until the dojo system finishes integrating with master. It will take a while but please be patient. I know you have many questions, especially about me but you will know who I am after the dojo system finishes," said 'that Kyle' but his mouth was not moving and the voice was abnormal. 'That Kyle' had a mechanical voice.
Kyle remembered this voice. It was the same mechanical voice he heard earlier when he read the title of the white book. "You are the white book!" Kyle was shocked and that Kyle was smiling. After that, 'that Kyle' walked out of the basement towards the first floor leaving him alone in the basement.
"That bastard!!!" Kyle was cursing in his mind.