Chapter 7 - Opportunity
When Kyle asked that, Dodo did not answer him. Even when he ordered Dodo to answer the question, Dodo remained silent. That silence gave Kyle his answer and he felt guilty towards Dodo.
Since his parents passed away, Dodo was the only one closest to him. They were not chummy with each other but Kyle appreciated Dodo's presence because he would not feel lonely especially when Dodo usually acted like a child. He used to throw tantrums when he was angry and Kyle sometimes treated Dodo as if he was his younger brother.
He had been suspicious about it for a long time and did not dare to ask it because he was afraid to feel guilty but he could not pretend like he did not know anything forever. Thus, he asked because Dodo's mistake was too much.
"Then…" Kyle said and he paused for a few seconds before he continued, "Can you get better later?" Kyle wanted to know if the side effects could be healed. He asked that not because he was afraid that Dodo would make a lot of mistakes (he made a lot too) but because he felt guilty being the cause of the side effects though he did not do it voluntarily.
[Yes, I can but it depends on you] said Dodo and he continued, [As long as you rank up your magician power and my system level, I will slowly heal. However, Kyle, you don't need to worry about the side effects because it did not affect my power, only my personality] Dodo said to reassure Kyle. Dodo was inside Kyle and it was not a surprise for him to know what Kyle was feeling.
[I might need your help once in a while and it is better that you ask me a lot of things so that we will not miss anything] Dodo added and Kyle nodded. Once Kyle knew that Dodo would be fine, he became more determined to become a magician.
"Have you ordered the materials?" Kyle asked. The computer had been moving without stopping for a while and Kyle never thought that Dodo would need that long to order the materials.
[I am sorry, Kyle. I forgot something else and decided to order the materials for another machine too] said Dodo and Kyle nodded. He was not angry with Dodo's mistake anymore because he knew the reason.
"What is this other machine you want to make?" Kyle asked. He knew it would be something important or else, Dodo would not think of making it. "Will we have enough money for the soul later?" Kyle was slightly worried that they would not have enough money.
[This shop will need to use a lot of energy to operate and I don't want to use electricity for the energy because it will make our bill go through the roof. The truth is, before the upgrade happens, this dojo will use money as the energy to keep going] said Dodo, and Kyle was surprised.
"Can money be used as energy?" Kyle had no clue if it was possible. It might be possible to use the money to pay electricity bills but to use money directly as energy was unheard of.
[You know, nothing is impossible with the system. Yes, money can be used as energy using the system but I think it will be a lot of waste and so, I decided to change it during the upgrade. We now have two choices of energy. First is electricity and second is mana] said Dodo and Kyle nodded as he knew where this was going.
"You want to use mana as our dojo's energy because it is renewable and abundant," said Kyle and he agreed that using mana was better because comparing mana and electricity, mana was much more powerful.
"Even so, the mana generator is expensive and you want to build it yourself?" Kyle asked. That was the only way if they wanted to use mana as the dojo's power source because they did not have the budget to buy the mana generator.
[My mana generator will be better than those. It is an improved version. However, I can only make the inferior version of the improved version because of our budget. That inferior version will be enough for now. Once we get more money, I will upgrade it myself] said Dodo, and Kyle nodded.
"Well then, I guess we finish with everything now?" Kyle asked as he was sure there was nothing left to do at the moment other than buying the artificial eagle soul and waiting for the machine's material to arrive and built them.
[Yes. That is all] said Dodo before he remembered something else and said, [Will we need to prepare to promote the dojo too?]
"There is no need because we have a lot of people in this area and they will try it themselves once the dojo is open," said Kyle. He did not seem to worry about promotion because he knew that once the dojo was opened, his neighbors would help to promote it.
"I will need to visit the neighbors soon to tell them about this," said Kyle and he waited for Dodo to finish ordering the materials. While he was waiting, he wondered something and asked Dodo.
"Dodo, is it possible for me to use both the fox and the eagle?" Kyle wanted to know. As a Dojo master, it would be best if he was unique as to attract more customers.
[There are a few methods from my data you can use to use both the eagle and fox] said Dodo and Kyle's eye brightened and Dodo continued, [However, there is no one in the multiverse… from my data that have more than one soul in their body. If by chance you use two souls, it is possible to attract customers but also enemies]
[You know what I mean right? They will want to know your secret and you will be hunted every time you go out of the dojo. It is fine if you are inside the dojo but outside, you will need to fend for yourself] said Dodo seriously and Kyle knew it would not be that easy.
The universe was filled with dangers. Natural disasters, monsters, and most glaring of all, human greed. If by chance he showed that he could use two souls, he would be the target of every magician in the multiverse.
[Also, the risk of my plan for the dojo's specialty is huge too. This specialty itself will cause us a lot of trouble] said Dodo and Kyle frowned. He had only thought on how to establish the dojo but he did not think of the effect it would give and Kyle hesitated a bit to even open the dojo publicly like that.
[There is no need to worry about that. I get that all handled. To prevent anything bad from happening, I have my measure plan long ago and one of those is the membership service of our dojo. If they want to get our specialty, they will need to pay for it] said Dodo.
[Also, I am not that stupid to let them get the real specialty of our dojo. They will only get the really small taste of the specialty. Even the core members will not get the full specialty of our dojo. The full extent of our dojo will be given to you only, the holder of the dojo system. Even your future descendants will only get about 80% of the specialty] said Dodo and Kyle wondered how deep and big was the specialty that Dodo was so proud of.
[You will know about it when you become a magician. I can proudly tell that you will be above everyone else in the multiverse. Even the other system users might be below you. Besides, just imagine how much I was able to make with only the information we found on this planet, and in the future when you can go to other places outside this planet, this specialty of ours will be more refined and powerful] said Dodo.
"… You are quite the ambitious one," said Kyle and he wondered if this was part of the side effects. It looked like Dodo wanted to conquer the multiverse rather than opening the dojo to train people or make money.
[There is nothing wrong to be ambitious as long as you can back up the ambition and we can certainly do it] said Dodo confidently and he added, [As long as the other system users don't try to mess with us, nothing will go wrong]
"…" Kyle was silent and he had a bad feeling about that last sentence, "You know, you just give us the flag yourself," Kyle got a headache and he sighed. Since Dodo had said that, the system users would without doubt mess with them in the future. They were without a doubt the real threat to them.
Kyle once asked Dodo about the other systems but Dodo did not know any of them because he was a newborn. He asked once just in case if they could be hostile and Dodo said some of them might be as long as their master wanted them to be. With that answer, Kyle knew that the system users would be formidable and dangerous. It would be better if he did not mingle with them.
[…] Dodo realized his mistake and said, [Sorry Master, I got too excited]
"… Are you done yet?" Kyle asked and Dodo said he had done it a while ago but the conversation was going without stopping and he forgot to tell Kyle about it. "Well then, we will go to the town center and get myself an eagle soul. Anyway, when will the materials arrive?"
[I ask for the fastest delivery. Everything will arrive today or tomorrow] said Dodo and Kyle nodded. [Also, I did as you said earlier to use the internet to get more data. I am currently learning to hack. Once I am proficient enough, I will try to steal data from other companies in this city] said Dodo, and Kyle felt like they were a villain… but he did not mind that because the world was a place where the strong ones rule. All those data would be useful to him to become stronger.
"Anyway, always hone your hacking skill and make sure you learn everything and to not leave any trace when you do the hacking. It will be bad if they found out it was us," Kyle warned Dodo and he said yes. He would surely be careful because his master's safety was his priority.
Kyle walked out of the building and he wanted to lock the door but Dodo said he would take care of the security himself because he was connected to the building. Once Kyle got out of the building, he went towards the bus stop. While walking there he greeted his neighbor and was nice to them.
Relationship with his neighbors was important because it would determine the success of his dojo. He would need them to spread the words about his dojo so he decided to be good to them. Always smiling and talking with them.
Once he was done talking to everyone he met along the way, he arrived at the bus stop. In the age of magic and technology, waiting for the bus did not take long. Kyle sat at the bus stop and other people were waiting for the bus too. While waiting for the bus, Kyle reflected on what he did just now.
"I didn't know I could be that pretentious," thought Kyle. He never thought he would do the business smile towards others.
[You have always been like that] Dodo said without restraint. Kyle pouted. The bus came a minute later and they rode the bus to the city center. Along the way, the screen on the bus was showing the latest news.
'It is official now that Planet Mykon has its crown holder! Magician Dionel is officially the holder of the Sword Crown. Our Planet will now be able to stand on top with the other top planets in the universe!" The reporter said excitedly and the footage of Magician Dionel donning the Sword Crown was shown but Kyle frowned when he heard the news. Not only him but everyone on the bus too.
"That is not good news," said Kyle and Dodo agreed.
[All the more reason you need to become powerful fast. The war is coming to this planet] said Dodo seriously, [I don't know if our planet's broadcast company is an idiot or doing this to warn everyone on the planet]
[When a crown holder appeared, a big war would usually happen. All the other magicians and creatures will come here to take the crown away until someone becomes the true owner of the crown. From the footage, it looked like he has the crown but the crown has yet to choose him as the owner. What a choosy crown. Just choose the damn guy and stop this war from happening] Dodo was a bit pissed at the Sword Crown.
"Hmm~," Kyle thought of something and he smiled, "It might not be that bad actually. Don't you think this will be an opportunity for our dojo?" Dodo was listening.
"When the threat is this big, everyone will want to become stronger. Not to protect the crown or the planet but to protect themselves and their family. How can they become stronger? Becoming a magician and grinding at the wild area," said Kyle, and Dodo understood what Kyle meant.
"You can analyze me and know my compatibility. I bet you have a way to appraise others too," said Kyle while smiling. Dodo was smiling too though Kyle could not see it, he could feel it.
[That is part of our dojo's initial function] Dodo confirmed Kyle's assumption.
"As long as we have the data of the structure and composition of the soul, we can make our artificial soul with the machine you are going to make. With these two things, we can offer a service to make any normal humans a magician," said Kyle and he smiled happily.
[Whoa~ that is a good idea. If we can make more magicians, there will be more of them that will frequent our dojo to train. With the current threat coming, the traffic will be huge and we will be rich!] said Dodo excitedly.
"Hmm~ My target is indeed the money but not because I want to become rich, but I need them to upgrade you. You said that every machine you make inside the shop will be part of your power. With the money, we will buy many materials and you can create many machines to upgrade yourself," Kyle said and Dodo's eyes brightened.
[Master! You are a genius!] Dodo got excited, [With that machines, I don't need to rely on the law's power to level up and becoming stronger]
"Anyway, will this way of upgrading help to heal you?" Kyle asked. Unfortunately, Dodo said no because only the law's power could heal him and that was by leveling up normally. The way to strengthen Dodo by making those machines were similar to humans who wore powerful weapons and armor when they fought.
Kyle was a bit disappointed but it was fine as the upgrades could help heal Dodo differently. Kyle had yet to know the method to level up Dodo but from his experience of reading novels about systems, it would be related to the power the system possessed.
Usually, those with offensive systems such as the sword system, the spear system, or something similar would need the user to kill more enemies for experience to level up. As for those with management systems like the dojo system (which Kyle assumed to be a management system because its power was to open a dojo and train people) it would usually be achieving some kind of target for example the number of customers.
If by chance it was related to the number of customers, upgrading Dodo with the machines would be a good way to attract people as more services would be available and more people would visit his dojo and that would increase Dodo's level.
"Well, we better hurry up to open our dojo," thought Kyle and the bus arrived at the city center. When they got off the bus, the electronic billboard all over the city center was showing the news about Magician Dionel.
"It looks like they want to tell people about this to prepare themselves," said Kyle and he glanced around to see that everyone was tense. Everyone knew the danger that was coming and Kyle overheard some people on the phone suggesting their family to move away from the solar system, not the planet but the solar system.
The reason would be not only Planet Mykon, the neighboring planet in the solar system would get involved with the war. That was how big the matter regarding the crown was. Fifteen years ago, a war for the ownership of the Silver Crown almost destroyed ten planets in the 15th solar system.
All these wars because of a single small crown was with a reason. The crown was one of the most powerful treasures in the multiverse. The power it wielded depended on the type of the crown but a crown holder could easily destroy a planet.
However, the crown holder was not the aim for the ownership of the crown but it was when the holder completed the crown. How to complete the crown was not a knowledge Kyle had but he knew that in the multiverse, out of thousands crown holders, only five managed to complete the crown.
What those five could do with a complete crown was unknown to Kyle but rumors on the internet said that they could turn a planet to dust with a single flick. However, all of those were rumors. The truth was that not even once that one of the five showed their powers to the public.
Weirdly, after they completed the crown, they did not try to conquer the universe or something similar to that. One of the five was well known to be vicious and loved to expand his territory when he was a crown holder and everyone expected him to use the completed crown power to rule the universe but weirdly, he stayed quiet.
Kyle left the area and headed towards a shop selling the artificial soul. "Well, the war will not be happening in a week or month. The fastest will be the next 5 years. We have more than enough time to prepare."