Chapter 15 – Perfect Eagle Soul
Day 6, Month 1, Fall, Year 3022. Apple Forest.
It had been a few days since Kyle and Dodo started frequenting the Apple Forest to hunt monsters for their data. At the beginning of their hunting, Kyle had a hard time hunting monster. He knew he was weak and inexperienced and thus, he put in a bit more work to remember and learned some techniques to fight the monsters.
Thanks to Dodo altering his body, his ability to learn fighting techniques increased. Dodo did not want to help him in learning how to fight and Kyle had to search online about fighting techniques or martial arts he could learn. Kyle did find some basic dagger technique he could use and he decided to learn all of them.
Thanks to all of those techniques he learned online, Kyle's fighting ability increased. The hunting in the Apple Forest went smoother as time went on.
For the past few days, Kyle managed to get complete data on many species of monsters. From the rabbits to the birds, Kyle managed to get the complete data of 70% of monsters in Apple Forest.
However, all he got was the common monsters and some uncommon ones. As for the rare and dangerous monsters like the winged bear and apple deer, Kyle either avoided them or never met even one of them.
Dodo had succeeded in making the perfect eagle soul for Kyle but Kyle wanted to get used to fighting using the dagger without relying on the perfect eagle soul. Thus, Kyle was still using his inferior artificial eagle soul.
It was noon and Kyle decided to stop hunting because they had already produced about 20 species of monsters in their private universe. That was more than enough for the opening of their dojo. Kyle teleported back to their dojo. Once he got back, he had his lunch and went to check on the planets producing the 20 species of monsters.
Although he got 20 species of monsters, most of them were part of the same family. For example, the slime. There were many different colors of slime. There were blue, black, red, yellow and a few other colors. The horned rabbit also had many variations from one to two horns, normal pointy horn to goat horn, and many different types of horns.
Since Kyle did not fight any bear monsters, he did not get any of their data. However, he did find uncommon and quite rare monsters like the rock tortoise and black python. These two monsters were common in other areas but not the Apple Forest. It was surprising that Kyle met a few of them and succeeded in getting 100% of their data.
The hardest monster Kyle had fought in the Apple Forest was the native monster of the forest, the apple monkey. The monkey was agile and strong that made it difficult for Kyle to kill them.
Kyle went to the slime planet, rabbit planet, python planet, tortoise planet, and the monkey planet. From the looks of it, most of them were ready to be killed by his customers. "I think we can finally open our dojo," said Kyle while smiling.
After that, Dodo transported him to a special room that was part of the dojo. Once he got inside the room, he saw a lot of huge tubes arranged inside the room, and inside the tube was a monster soul. Most of them were imperfect natural souls which he had collected while hunting the wild monsters.
"Whoa~ The dojo system power is too powerful," said Kyle. He knew about the previous function of catching the monsters as a whole. After Dodo upgraded it, he ditched the easy capture function to the function to catch the monster soul.
Although the previous function could capture the whole monster, it did not have the function to capture the soul. To Dodo and Kyle, the soul was more important due to their rarity and decided to exchange the easy capture function to the soul capture function.
[Anyway, your eagle soul is here] said Dodo and he led the way to the perfect eagle soul. Passing through the many tubes, Kyle could see the many lifeless monster souls. There were many normal animal monster souls too. All those animals were found in the Apple Forest. They killed whatever they found including animals.
Not only animal souls, plant souls were available too, shocking Kyle a lot. He never thought that the plant soul could be used to become a magician too. [The plants are monsters too. I told you that even humans are monster] said Dodo.
Then they stopped in front of a huge tube containing the perfect eagle soul. Around the perfect eagle soul were a few more eagle souls. Kyle gasped looking at the perfect eagle soul.
"Is this the perfect eagle soul?" Kyle asked. Looking at the other eagle soul available there, Kyle was shocked. The other eagle soul he could see looked lifeless and only took the shape of the eagle.
However, the perfect eagle soul looked like a living eagle. The soul took the exact shape of the living eagle to the finite detail. The feathers, the beak, the claw, the eyes, everything was as detailed as the living eagle. The color of the soul was different too. Most natural souls were faded white but the perfect eagle soul in front of Kyle was faded green.
Not only that, the eyes of the eagle soul were staring fiercely at Kyle. Kyle could feel a lot of power coming from the eagle soul. "Is this soul at 100%?" Kyle asked.
[No, this soul is at 150%] said Dodo and Kyle was confused. [The 100% soul will look exactly like this but I alter this one to 150% to become our dojo's secret. This soul is packed with the power that our dojo will wield] said Dodo proudly.
"How about you tell me what is this 'secret' of our dojo you have been talking about all this time? I know the system itself is the secret, our private universe, our monsters and plants farm, and the perfect soul is the secret. However, it looks like there is a more specific 'secret' you have made and this secret will be fully available to our core members," said Kyle.
[Well then, I guess there is no need to keep this a secret from you anymore] said Dodo and he continued [First of all, the 'secret' of our dojo or to be more exact, the specialty of our dojo will originate from the soul we will provide] Kyle listened calmly.
[Let's start with the monster soul. I told you many times before that the natural soul is incomplete and it is only at 20%. When the soul is at 20%, it can increase two different statuses. When the percentage of the soul is increased, the magician will get more status increase. Based on the soul, they might get three or four more status increases than the previous two] said Dodo.
[When the soul is at 80%, not only will the stat increase but the magician will also be able to inherit the monster's skills. All the monster skills will be available for them for free. At 90%, not only the skill, but the magician will also get a special art from the monster. At 100%, the magician can pass on the bloodline of the soul to their descendant. In other words, without even acquiring any soul from the monster, the magician's descendant will get a free soul in their body] said Dodo and Kyle gasped.
"Monster skill? Special art? Bloodline? For real??" Kyle was shocked. He understood the bloodline part but he wondered what the special art was.
[The special art is a set of moves derived from all the skills the monster has. You can consider it the same as those martial art moves you read in many cultivation novels. The monster can use the arts but they are too stupid to know about it. They also did not know the full set of skills they have] said Dodo and Kyle was shocked again.
"Do you mean the special art is something like the long name technique mentioned in novels? Something like the moon devouring the sun, the phoenix dancing, lotus waltz, or many other long name techniques?" Kyle asked.
[… Yes, it is similar to that] said Dodo, and Kyle gasped.
Kyle was silent for a few seconds before he said, "Isn't those arts common? Many magicians have their arts." Kyle was a bit skeptical to call the set of moves a special art because there were many of the same kinds of things in the universe. Many magicians used the skill they had in a combo and named them their exclusive arts.
[The special art is different. It is indeed the combo of the moves the monsters had. However, the special art has their own magic construct. You can say that the special art is a separate magic skill. You can even say that the special art is the ultimate skill of the monster] said Dodo.
[You know the magic construct I used to produce monsters? The special art's magic construct is as complicated, complex, and amazing as that magic construct] said Dodo and Kyle nodded.
"Then, are we really offering these powerful souls to our customers?" Kyle asked. He thought that it might be a problem if they sold the perfect soul nonchalantly like that.
[Obviously not. For our normal customer, we will only offer them the soul up to 40% completion. If they want the 100% soul, they will need to pay for membership. Also, I will get rid of the monster skills, arts, and bloodline inheritance from the soul. We will sell the monster skills and bloodline inheritance separately] said Dodo and Kyle could feel that Dodo was smiling sinisterly.
[As for the special arts, that will be our dojo's secret specialty that will only be available to our core members. We cannot let the special arts fall to the hand of others because the special arts are seriously strong. Also, once they are chosen as our core members, we will give them the true 100% soul] said Dodo.
"Oh, okay. How about the 150% soul you said earlier?" Kyle asked.
[This soul will only be available to our dojo's pillar members and your future close family. This soul is special because everything about the soul can grow stronger] said Dodo proudly.
"??? Grow stronger? What do you mean?" Kyle was confused.
[I will tell you about the skill first. As you already know, the skill is divided into many tiers. The higher the tiers, the better the skills. So, magicians will usually spend a lot of money and time to obtain the higher tiers of skills because they are stronger] said Dodo.
He paused for a second and continued, [The skill inside the 150% soul is different. They can grow stronger. You can upgrade the skill anyway you like once you meet certain conditions. You can say the skill can level up] said Dodo and Kyle's mouth was wide opened.
The concept of making skills stronger was not new but no one had ever been able to make a skill book with the skill that can grow stronger. No matter how many things humans try, they never once are able to make a skill that can grow stronger.
Even so, Dodo said he did it and that shocked Kyle a lot. [I am not done, not only the skill, the special arts, and the soul itself can grow stronger. This ability will also be available to the core members but we will put some conditions for them to be able to use them] said Dodo.
"…" Kyle was speechless. He finally knew the reason Dodo wanted him to use the eagle soul. Since the eagle was the most basic monster, it would have a lot of potential to grow stronger or go through upgrades. Though Kyle was not sure how the upgrade worked, he had a feeling it would be something awesome.
"Let's start absorbing this eagle soul," said Kyle, and Dodo did his work and destroyed the artificial eagle soul inside Kyle's body. The process of destroying the soul was easy but the backlash was strong too. Kyle fell on the floor and vomited blood.
The artificial eagle soul inside Kyle had not undergone any strengthening (no experience) because Kyle did not absorb any of the energy left by the dead monster to strengthen the eagle soul. Due to that, the backlash was not severe. Kyle was breathing heavily and he took out a potion from his storage and drank it immediately to heal his injury from the backlash.
Once he had healed his body, he tried to enter his mana sea but he could not because he was a normal human now. "Do I need to wait a bit or just take the soul right now?" Kyle asked. Though he had healed his injury, he felt his body was heavy and there was still pain all over his body.
[Better take it now. The pain will disappear immediately once you absorb the soul] said Dodo and he opened the huge tube containing the perfect eagle soul. Kyle stood slowly and extended his hand towards the soul.
The eagle soul's eyes were staring fiercely at Kyle. Kyle looked at the eyes too and he gulped. He could feel the ferocity of the eagle. Kyle took a deep breath and touched the soul. Once he touched the soul, the soul entered his body immediately.
Kyle could feel a surge of energy flowing and growing inside his body. He felt warm all over his body but the feeling was much stronger than when he absorbed the artificial soul. Wind suddenly formed around his body for a few seconds before it disappeared.
Kyle felt extremely different than before. He felt like he was much more powerful than before. The system suddenly gave out a notification with the monotone computerized voice.
[Absorbed the perfect eagle soul. Attack status increased by 15. Speed status increased by 15. Wind status added. Wind status increased by 10. Sight status added. Sight status increased by 10] the notification said.
"Whoa~" Kyle was amazed. The stat increased was much higher than the artificial soul and he had two new statuses too. The wind status and sight status. Kyle could immediately feel the effect of the sight status because he could see better than before. As for the wind status, he could feel the movement of air around him.
[Now you see the benefit of the perfect soul. All the natural soul can only give out two basic status increases but the perfect soul is different. Not only will it give more basic status, but there is also a possibility of getting new status based on the species of the monsters] said Dodo.
[However, you will then have more status you need to fill up the experience to rank up] said Dodo, and Kyle immediately checked his status menu and true to what Dodo said, he needed to get the experience for the wind and sight status too.
"… I will need to kill more than other people…" thought Kyle.
[With the wind and sight status, whenever you use any wind or sight-related skills, they will be stronger than usual] said Dodo, and Kyle knew that because that was how games usually work. [You should check your mana sea and don't get surprised] said Dodo.
Kyle entered his mana sea and what he saw shocked him a lot. There was a small island floating in his mana sea with a small rock mountain in the middle of the island. The island was beautiful and Kyle's mouth was opened wide.
[This is the perfect eagle soul you absorb. Since the soul is at 150%, it formed this island. For your information, I don't know that this will happen. I am shocked too but this is amazing right] said Dodo and he paused for a few seconds before he added [I mean, I am amazing right?] Dodo was proud.
"Kyuu~" Suddenly, Kyle and Dodo could hear an eagle cry and when they could see that something was flying from the top of the mountain towards Kyle. "Is that the eagle soul?" Kyle asked.
[Yes… and I also did not expect that the eagle soul is alive in this island…] said Dodo. A soul absorbed by the magician was not supposed to move around in the mana sea. From the analysis Dodo did to the soul, even if the soul was at 100% it was not supposed to be moving in the mana sea but the soul Kyle absorbed could move freely in the mana sea, specifically inside the island.
Kyle landed on the island and the eagle soul flew and stopped in front of Kyle. Kyle looked at the eagle soul and he could feel that the soul was intelligent. As if it had its own consciousness.
"Greetings, master Kyle," said the eagle soul and it bowed its head towards Kyle. Kyle was stunned and he was speechless. Not only him but Dodo too.
"Do you know about this?" Kyle asked Dodo while staring at the eagle soul.
[…] Dodo was silent because he did not know what was happening. The eagle soul was staring at Kyle and it seemed to know what Kyle was thinking and started talking.
"Master, the reason I get this consciousness is because I am a perfect soul and when a perfect soul is absorbed by someone with perfect compatibility, they will gain a consciousness. As for this island, this is due to Master Dodo giving me a lot of mana that I use to form this place," said the eagle soul and Kyle and Dodo gawked.
[What in the world? How do you know about me??] Dodo was shocked.
"When I get consciousness, I also get every memory of my master. So, naturally, I know the existence of the almighty dojo system, Master Dodo," said the eagle with a respectful voice.
[… Well, I am not almighty but I am strong] said Dodo proudly.
"…" Kyle was speechless with Dodo. He looked at the eagle soul and said, "Well then, let's work together and become the strongest magician in the multiverse."