Chapter 5 – Dojo System
"Finally, I graduated successfully," Kyle stretched his arms upwards and looked at the sky. Around him were other students with their parents taking pictures and everything else. Kyle was an orphan, so, other than his college friends he took pictures with earlier, there was no one else he would take pictures with.
"Kyle!" A familiar voice called out to Kyle. Kyle looked in the voice's direction and saw a silver-haired man walking towards him. That man was Okev, Kyle's childhood friend, classmate as well as his best friends.
"Where are uncle and aunt?" Kyle asked as he saw Okev with his parents earlier. He did not want to disturb their family time, so he left them alone.
"They went to the café. They are hungry. I am here to ask you to have lunch with us," Okev invited Kyle but Kyle shook his head.
"It is fine. I need to go home now. I have left my home for two years and I miss them," said Kyle while smiling. He had indeed never once went home since he came back to college. During the semester break, he would go to some other city and work part-time there all to collect data.
He once found it weird that the all-powerful system needed to collect data but Dodo said that the system's power at the beginning was limited. For the system power to become stronger, it needed other methods to do so.
A teacher needed knowledge to teach their students. As a dojo system where one of its objectives was teaching, it needed a lot of knowledge or in the system language, the data. Without the data, it could not strengthen itself to a stronger version. They were called a system for a reason because it needed to update itself to a stronger version just like the OS of a computer.
The knowledge was essential to the dojo system and thus, it has the ability, hyper brain, in his repertoire. Depending on what the systems could do, they would need different methods to strengthen themselves. For example, the sword system would need something related to the sword, the fire system was fire and the doctor system was doctor stuff.
During the past two years, Kyle had also found out that the system could be possessed by anyone. Humans, monsters, or any other races, anyone could possess the system power. Even normal humans could get the system and that example was Kyle. The condition was the same as Dodo had said two years ago, reading the white book. That was it.
"Okay then, I guess I will visit you at home then," said Okev. He paused for a few seconds while staring at Kyle and asked, "I overheard the professors say that you haven't accepted any offers to work at any of those big companies. Why aren't you accepting anything? You need to grab this chance fast or you will lose that spot."
Kyle looked at Okev and he knew that his best friend was worried about him. Due to Kyle always being number one in all the exams for the past two years, he became the no 1 student to get many offers to work at the big companies.
The college he attended was a small college in the city, however, Kyle's achievement had elevated the name of the college lot on Planet Mykon. Due to that, he got a lot of attention and care from the professors. They all wanted Kyle to accept any of the offers but Kyle had yet to make any decision.
"If I get those kinds of offers, I will choose one of them without hesitation," said Okev.
"I am not going to accept anything. I already told the professors about this because I plan to open my own business," said Kyle while smiling.
"You mean, you are going to continue your parents' business?" Since Okev and Kyle were living in the same neighborhood, he knew about Kyle's family business all too well. He also knew that the business was not doing well. "Are you going to make the business prosper again? But you are not a magician like your parents."
"It will be slightly different. I want to open a dojo," said Kyle.
"Dojo? You know martial arts?" Okev found it weird because he knew Kyle since they were children and Kyle had never once shown he loved martial arts. "Wait! Is it possible that you are hiding your martial arts talent too, like how you hide your intelligence?"
There was a bit of a story that happened before. Since Kyle entered the college, he had never once shown to be good at study. He was not the worst student but never showed any promises. Even so, once he got the dojo system, he suddenly rose in rank in all the subjects where the professors thought that Kyle was cheating.
However, upon many investigations and letting Kyle take test after test, they found out that Kyle was not cheating at all. When asked how he could suddenly become smart, Kyle said he was hiding what he could do all this time. He decided to not hide it anymore after his parents' death because he needed them to continue his life.
Everyone bought that story except Okev because he knew Kyle since they were children. He tried time and time again to find out the truth from Kyle but he found nothing. In the end, he accepted the story. He thought that maybe Kyle was too genius that he was hiding it too well all this time.
"I am opening a magician's dojo," said Kyle and Okev was stunned.
"You are not even a magician, why are you opening a magician's dojo?"
"I have my way, you don't need to worry about me," said Kyle nonchalantly and he thought of something, "Do you want to work with me? I promise you that it is worth it," said Kyle.
Okev stared at Kyle with a blank face, 'What in the world is this guy thinking? Opening a magician's dojo when he is not a magician and asking me to doom together with him? He is a genius and even if he fails his business, many people will take him later but I am not like him at all,' thought Okev.
Okev sighed and said, "No thank you. I have already accepted a job offer from a small tech company."
"Okay then. If by chance you dislike that company and have nowhere else to go, you can come to me," said Kyle sincerely. He did not want to force his friend but he thought that it might not be a bad idea to have someone he could trust by his side.
However, Okev heard that as if Kyle said he made the wrong decision and he would accept him if he failed at his job. 'Look at this guy bragging when he has yet to open his business,' thought Okev.
"Well then, I am going to have lunch with my parents. See you later," Okev left Kyle and Kyle walked away from the venue and took a cab straight home. The trip did not take long, around half an hour. If this was a thousand years ago, it would take at least two hours but at the current age, vehicles had advanced a lot, or else humans would not be able to travel to space.
Once he got out of the cab, the common scene came to his view. [Welcome home, Kyle] Dodo that had been silent all this time said to Kyle. For the past two years, Dodo had learned to read the mood and would not say anything unless he had to. He had grown a lot in personality and not a baby anymore. He would not threaten Kyle with nude pictures anymore as he did before.
"Home sweet home," Kyle smiled. It had been two years since he came home. He was so busy for the past two years that he could not come home.
"Kyle! You are back!" Kyle heard the shout and saw the vegetable shop uncle was waving at him. Kyle waved back and said, "Yes, I am. I am a college graduate now," Kyle raised his arm while holding the college degree. The uncle saw the degree and made the '0' mouth and gave Kyle a thumbs up.
Kyle was laughing at that. The other shop owner nearby did not see Kyle because the layout of the shop area was not the common terrace type building. Each shop had their building on their own land. It looked like a housing area for a bungalow.
There was a reason that kind of arrangement happened. The planet was huge and it was mostly occupied by monsters.
Due to technology, a small city like the grade E city was almost the same as the big city like New York, Tokyo, and other big cities on Earth a thousand years ago. However, that similarity only happened at the center of the city.
Kyle's home was at the outskirts of the city or if there were layers inside the city, he would be at the outermost layer. Past that outermost layer was the massive wall guarded by the city's military from the monster attacks.
Monsters attack was common and it happened many times before that the monsters managed to breach through the wall and attacked the city. To reduce the damage to the city, the outermost layer of the city was constructed as such. Bungalow housing style layout. If people from one thousand years ago came to the area, they would recognize it as the super-rich people housing area.
Kyle entered his passwords and unlocked the side door. Once he got inside, he was welcomed with a dusty home. "I need to clean first… That will be tiring," thought Kyle.
[Kyle, you have yet to activate the dojo system. If you designate this building as the dojo, the dojo system will activate and I can help you with the cleaning] Dodo said and Kyle's face lit up. Dodo told Kyle two years ago that even if Kyle had integrated with the dojo system, he had yet to activate it.
Kyle was confused at that because Dodo was using the Hyper Brain ability every time and that power was part of the dojo system.
The ability was like the passive ability for newborn babies. For example, a newborn baby would be able to breathe normally once they were born and the Hyper Brain ability was similar to that.
Since the dojo system was called that, its real power would show itself when Kyle created a dojo and he needed to find a place to establish his dojo if he wanted to use the dojo system power.
"Is it okay to do it now? You said before that you are upgrading the power from the data we have collected," Kyle asked Dodo. Dodo also admitted something else two years ago.
If by some chance Kyle accepted Dodo's proposal to quit college and immediately opened the dojo, the only difference they would be from other magician's dojo was the service of fighting monsters and increasing their magician cultivation to the next rank.
These two were the only function of the dojo system at the time. If the dojo was opened, with the dojo system power, Kyle could create monsters from the system for the customers to fight. Other dojos also did that but only once in a while because it was a hassle to catch a monster alive.
However, with the system power, using the abundant mana in the surrounding, it could create monsters that the system had their data on. So, Kyle's dojo's specialty would be training by fighting monsters.
Other than that, the other dojos could not increase the cultivation of the magician unless the magician was sparring with other magicians. However, that sparring only raised their cultivation by a super tiny amount.
It was common knowledge for all magicians that if they wanted to increase their power faster, they would need to kill monsters. So, Kyle's dojo with the dojo system power would be able to do just that, by helping the magicians to increase their cultivation faster by fighting the monsters the dojo offered.
However, that was it and once Dodo opened his eyes to all the data they had collected, he found out that the dojo system's original power was lacking a lot. Yes, fighting the monsters to increase the cultivation could be the dojo's specialty but with the current technology, humans could copy that and their dojo's business might go downhill.
Even without any technology, dojos were able to get monsters for their customers or apprentices and they only found it a hassle to do it that they did not do. They also thought that it was better for the magicians to search for monsters in the wild by themselves to increase their experience better than fighting them in the dojo. Kyle's dojo needed to do more than just that.
Other than that, the real attraction of the dojos, especially the second type dojos were their magic skills. The dojo system did not have any of that. Dodo admitted that his power was too lacking without much data.
[Yes, I am upgrading that but I cannot do much without you activating the dojo system. I am restricted. Even if you activate the dojo system, I still need time to upgrade the power because I am still too weak. My power relies on you, the more you achieve, the stronger I become and I will be able to do more upgrades]
"If you need more time, I don't mind waiting," said Kyle.
[It is fine. You don't need to worry. I have finished upgrading the essential part of the dojo. Our dojo now has real specialties where none of the other dojos have. You could even say I manage to create something that could change the magician's power completely. No one will be able to copy this and this will be the secret of our dojo] said Dodo excitingly.
[Hehehe, you could even say that we are on the same level as those high-rank magicians who had created their unique magic skills but we are better than that. I must say we made the right decision to collect data first before we opened our dojo] Dodo said smugly.
"Hmm… But, is it okay to teach our secret technique to others this easily? You said before that this dojo will be the fourth type where we combined both the first and second types with something more? Open for money and teaching magician skills?" Kyle asked. If people were paying money to get those secret skills, that would not be a secret anymore.
[No need to worry. Our secret is not one or two, we have many. I already upgrade the system with three tiers of services. The first tier will be for every customer where they can only get something we offer openly. The second tier will be for membership. Those that become a member of our dojo will get some benefit and that is the secret technique] said Dodo.
"How about the third tier?" Kyle asked.
[For the third tier, it will be a secret from all our customers. I call it the core member of our dojo. For the customers to become our core members, they will be chosen by you and me. I will use my power to find the right suitable people to become the core member] said Dodo and he continued.
[The core members will be able to learn all the specialty of our dojo and become the main force of our dojo if people are trying to mess with us] Dodo proudly explained but Kyle frowned.
"… Will the core members even want to work with us?" Kyle was worried. It sounded good but there might be many other problems they could not see at the moment.
[Don't worry about it, Kyle. I got it handled] said Dodo and Kyle slightly nodded. Though Kyle was the no 1 student in his college, that was only applied to the academics. For something like strategy or something similar, he would need Dodo's help because he was not that bright in that area.
[Well then, should I designate this building as the dojo?] Dodo asked and Kyle said yes. Then, a green light spread all around the building including Kyle's home for a minute, and then, it disappeared.
[Designation complete] said Dodo in a mechanical voice, unlike his usual talk.
Kyle was silent after it happened because, "…Why is nothing changing??" Kyle asked Dodo because the shop was still the same shop and the same went to every part of the building.
[I will clean the dust first] said Dodo and the dust immediately disappeared from the shelves, floor, and every inch of the building. However, Kyle felt that something was amiss and Dodo seemed to be hiding something.
"I know something is wrong. Tell me. What is it?" Kyle asked.
[Urm… about that Kyle… I am sorry but there is some problem] said Dodo apologetically and Kyle frowned.
"Is something wrong with the upgrade that it affects your power?" Kyle asked but Dodo was silent for a few seconds.
[The truth is, the problem is not with me but with you] said Dodo and Kyle was shocked.
"Me? What do you mean?" Kyle was confused.
[At the moment, the process of designating this building as the dojo goes on successfully. At the moment, I can control everything in this building like for example, moving that chair] the white plastic chair moved immediately.
[Other than that, this building will have the absolute protection from any attack. In other words, this building is now the safest place in the multiverse where none of the attacks will damage it as well as people living inside it. Just consider this a present from the law of multiverse] explained Dodo.
"Okay then, what is the problem then?" Kyle asked.
[If you want me to redesign the building with my power, I can only do it once, and then, after that, you will need to get the material yourselves to upgrade the dojo] said Dodo and Kyle nodded. He knew about it because Dodo had told him long ago.
[And then, here is the problem. I cannot redesign the building because you are not a magician. To fully unlock the dojo system, not only you need to designate a building but you also need to become a magician because this is a magician's dojo after all] said Dodo.
"…" Kyle was silent for a minute and he said, "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"
[… I am sorry, Master. I miss that information…]