Chapter 16 – First Customer
"You need a name," said Kyle and he thought of a good name for the eagle soul. He could just let it be but the eagle had consciousness and his intelligence was on par with Kyle due to Kyle's memories. So, it was weird if the eagle soul had no name.
Kyle was thinking for a few minutes and the eagle soul looked excited. However, Dodo said to the eagle, [Don't trust his naming sense. You will get betrayed] said Dodo still bitter with his name.
"Let's call you Glen," said Kyle while smiling. The eagle soul seemed to love that name and he bowed to Kyle as thanks. Dodo was shocked because the name sounded normal and human but he got a bird name.
Once Kyle finished with the name, he opened his status menu to check on his skill. Dodo mentioned earlier that he would get free monster skills. Kyle had no idea what skill he would get but he was excited.
Kyle checked on his skill list and to his surprise, he got six eagle skills. However, he soon frowned because out of six of those skills, only the first skill was lit up but the other five was greyed out. Kyle had no idea what the skill was but there was a condition for him to be able to learn them.
"Why is there a condition to use the skill?" Kyle was unsatisfied. He thought he would be able to use all the skills immediately but he felt cheated.
[All skills have certain conditions to be met if someone wants to use them. That is why you cannot find someone low rank able to learn mythical grade skill. If by chance they can learn it, there will be a huge backlash on their body] said Dodo calmly.
[Anyway, since I make your skill to be able to grow stronger, there will be no rank for our skill but they will all have certain conditions to be met if you want to use them. If you cannot meet the condition, then, don't even think about using them] said Dodo.
Kyle frowned. He looked at the skill list and he sighed. Out of the six, he met the condition of the first skill, eagle eye. The eagle eye skill enhanced his vision to be able to see something far away from him. At the moment, he could only get a clear view of 200 meters away from him. It was a passive skill and thus, Kyle got the skill immediately after he absorbed Glen.
As for the other skills, they all needed him to have a certain base status to be able to use them. From the looks of it, the base status of the skill mentioned was the status of his own body without any supplement from the soul and equipment. In other words, the status with the bracket was not counted.
"… So, I need to train my body if I want to use the skills? I need to exercise?" Kyle asked.
[Yes. You need to exercise. Also, all the skills you will be constructed after this will have certain conditions too] said Dodo and Kyle sighed.
"I guess nothing is easy," said Kyle.
"Master, do you want to see the skill constructs?" Glen asked and Kyle nodded. Glen led the way and he followed him towards the top of the mountain on the island. Once they got to the top, Kyle could see six different magic constructs floating in the air. Out of the six, five were chained meaning Kyle could not use them.
"Glen, how many skills can I learn at the moment?" Kyle asked. Since he could not use the free skills, he would just ask Dodo to create a skill he could use and he needed to know how many skills he could learn.
"At the moment, if the skill is normal, you can construct about 50 of them in this place. However, since the skill will be a growing skill, at most, you can construct about 10 of them," said Glen, and Kyle was shocked. He did not know that the growing skill would take that much space.
[The growing skill is powerful. So, it will need many spaces. However, I advise you to not ask me to make a new skill for you now because no matter which skill you learn, you will not be able to use them because of your physical limitations] said Dodo, and Kyle was disappointed.
"Is there a way to increase my status without exercising? It is not like I don't want to exercise but I know that exercise will need a lot of time to raise my status. Furthermore, how in the world can I increase my magic status with exercise?" One of the skill's conditions was to have a base magic of 10.
[There are two ways. At the moment, one of them is impossible to implement because we don't have any money. As for the other method, it will be based on luck and also money] said Dodo and Kyle frowned. He knew what Dodo meant with the second method. Food treasure.
Food treasure was a precious material to make many types of special potions. Other than that, if eaten raw like that, anyone could strengthen their body easily. In Dodo's term, his status would increase if he ate the food treasure.
Low-grade food treasure was not rare but it was searched by many people. At Kyle's current condition, if he went to the wild and searched for the food treasure, there would be a lot of competition. If he wanted to buy them, it would cost Kyle a lot of money.
"Then, training my body is the only way," Kyle sighed. "Can you create me a skill I can use? It is better if it is a passive skill or dagger skill," said Kyle as he had decided to use a dagger as his main weapon.
[I will try but I cannot guarantee anything] said Dodo and he added, [As for the food treasure, it is possible for us to get them for free because we planted a lot of things and the mana in our universe is thick. I will tell you if a treasure appears] said Dodo and Kyle nodded.
"Well then, I will need to go. Glen, if there is anything, you can ask Dodo. Since we will be opening the dojo, I might get busy," said Kyle. Glen nodded. Kyle looked at the beautiful scenery of the island for a few seconds before he left.
After that, Kyle busies himself with the opening preparation of his dojo.
Days 7, Month 1, Fall, Year 3022
Lance had been hunting in the Apple Forest for a suitable soul for the past few days. With the help of powerful equipment, he managed to kill a lot of monsters. However, none of them left a soul. He had not given up yet but he was getting tired physically.
Although Lance could use the equipment, he was still a normal human. Not only was he unable to use the full force of the equipment, he could not use them for a long time or he would kill himself.
Lance decided to take a few days of rest. He needed that rest if he wanted to continue hunting for the monster soul. Since he decided to take it easy for the next few days, he went sightseeing around the city E-47.
There were not many places a tourist would visit in City E-47 because it was a small city. So, Lance wandered around the city to get used to the city layout. While wandering around, he arrived at the far south of the city. "Hoh~ there is a small shopping street here," said Lance while smiling.
Though he was part of a big clan, he was not a stuck-up rich boy. He did not mind wandering and shopping in the low-end area of a city. Each of the shops in the area was separated from each other, so he had to walk a lot to see each of the shops.
There was a vegetable shop, fast food restaurant, noodles restaurant, stationery shop, and many other shops available. There were a lot of people visiting the area too. Lance looked around at each of the shops and he could see the reason why many people were visiting that place.
From what he had observed, the shop owners in all of the shops were friendly. Not the business kind of friendly but genuinely friendly. He could see that people loved coming to shop in the area. He visited all of the shops and made a small talk with the shopkeeper. Talking with them lifted his mood a lot.
Lance continued walking around the shopping street and he was almost at the end of the street when he spotted another shop… not a shop but a dojo. Lance was surprised to see a dojo in a small shopping street.
"Monster Dojo? Why is there a dojo in a small shopping street here?" Lance wondered. There was an electronic board outside the dojo listing the service the dojo offered. Lance was not interested in visiting any of the dojo in the city because he was not a magician at the moment and visiting a dojo was a waste of time.
However, since he was sightseeing, he decided to check on the service the dojo had to offer. He stood in front of the electronic board and read all the services available in the dojo. At the moment there were only four services available.
"Training room. A common service of a dojo…" Lance looked at the small building and he wondered how in the world could it offer a training room, "Did the owner use the space room?" Lance was thinking and he nodded because it was possible.
"Testing compatibility…" Lance was speechless. "Can this dojo really test compatibility?" Lance did not believe it because he knew how expensive the machine was. Even a big clan like the Thunder Roar clan could not have the machine. He felt like the dojo was trying to scam people.
"Fighting monsters? This dojo is a scam. It is not easy to catch a monster and they offer a service of fighting monsters?" Lance shook his head. He looked around and saw that the shopping street was small and thought that the dojo owner was trying to fool the people here.
"Natural soul? They sell natural souls? For real?" Lance smiled while shaking his head. "This dojo is really out of line. That is why no one is interested in this dojo. At the current situation, many magicians will visit a dojo to train but this dojo cannot attract any magician because they all know this dojo is a scam," said Lance.
However, since he had no other places he could visit in the area, he decided to check on the dojo. If the dojo was indeed scamming people, he decided to report it to the authority. The planet was undergoing a critical period at the moment and he did not want the masses to get cheated by this dojo.
Lance pushed open the door and entered the dojo. Once he stepped inside, he was shocked to see the space inside was massive. What he saw when he got inside was a massive area with a lot of comfortable sofas neatly arranged there. The place was clean and he could feel that the air was cleaner too.
"Is this a scam?" Lance started doubting himself. There was no way a scam looked this expensive. "An illusion?" Lance wondered but he always wore a ring that made him immune to illusion.
"Welcome to Monster Dojo~" A happy voice snapped Lance out of his thoughts. Lance looked at his right and there was a counter with a young man behind it. The young man looked like he was around his age. The young man was smiling happily at Lance.
"Do you need an explanation with the dojo first?" Kyle asked while smiling. He knew what Lance was thinking because he knew that many people would think that he was scamming people. The vegetable shop uncle had warned him in the morning.
The vegetable uncle had yet to try the dojo but once he got inside, he immediately believed Kyle, and thus, he told Kyle about his thought.
Lance calmed himself and he said, "Sure," Lance walked towards Kyle. Once he got in front of the counter, a floating screen appeared on top of the counter and that shocked the hell out of him. He looked at the surface of the counter but there was no projector for the floating screen to appear. This kind of tech was common but there would be a projector below the screen.
"What a powerful technology…" Lance was speechless. He started to think that the dojo was genuine or maybe this was a high-grade illusion.
"This is all the services we are offering at the moment. In the future, many more services will be available. Try to see this first and I will explain anything you don't understand," said Kyle while smiling.
Lance looked at the list of services and the price Kyle offered. For the training room, he only needed to pay 50 sola per hour if he wanted to use them. The price was much cheaper compared to other dojos. Usually, the dojo would set a price between 500 sola to 1000 sola per hour. The price Kyle offered for a training room was 90% cheaper than the normal price. Lance's doubt increases.
After the training room, the compatibility test. Lance was shocked to see the price. It was cheap that he 100% confirmed that the dojo was a scam. A normal compatibility test would usually charge 1 million sola per monster but the dojo's charge was 500 sola per monster!
Lance did not need to see the other prices because he knew that the dojo was scamming people and he was sure that what he saw at the moment was a super high-grade illusion that his ring could not counter.
Lance wanted to say something when Kyle said while smiling, "I am not scamming you and what you see now is not an illusion." Lance was shocked. How could the young man know what he was thinking about?! Kyle smiled while he pointed at the ring Lance wore.
Dodo told Kyle that the ring Lance wore could counter illusion and based on the face Lance showed, Dodo matched it with a face reading data he had that Lance was doubting everything he was seeing.
Lance was again shocked when Kyle pointed at the ring on his finger. "But the price you are showing is not making any sense," said Lance with a serious face. He also became vigilant. He had a feeling that the young man in front of him was dangerous (though he was not) because the ring he wore was rare and most of the people he knew never once realized about the ring.
Kyle frowned and he sighed, "I know you will not believe whatever I said because the price I put is really low but that is the truth. Do you know that I am one of the top geniuses on this planet?" Kyle asked and Lance was looking at him suspiciously.
"With my ability, I manage to cut costs in many things while building all the techs in this dojo. Due to that, I offer a much cheaper price because my techs are much simpler and cheaper than those expensive techs those capitalists have," said Kyle but Lance was still looking at Kyle suspiciously.
"How about you try searching for my name online and you can find some news about me," said Kyle and he introduced his name, "I am Kyle. You can check the internet outside if you are afraid that I put an illusion on you."
Lance did exactly what Kyle said and went outside. He called his butler and asked him to check on Kyle. He had a feeling that the illusion might still work and decided to ask his old butler to check on Kyle. He went to a small café in the shopping street while waiting for news from his butler.
While he was drinking a cup of juice he bought in the café, he got a call from his butler. "Young Master, the young man Kyle is indeed one of the top geniuses on this planet. Many companies wanted to hire him after he graduated college but he rejected all of them," said the old butler and he added, "I have emailed you all the information I have about him."
"Is there something wrong with that young man?" The old butler asked but Lance said it was nothing and he hung up the phone. He checked the mail he got from the old butler and there was a lot of information about Kyle. For a big clan like the Thunder Roar, it was easy to find information about Kyle. Everything about Kyle was there.
Lance read all of the information and he scratched his head because there was nothing suspicious about Kyle other than him pretending to be stupid most of his life. "If he can fool many people for most of his life, it is possible that he is acting right now to scam people… but with this kind of ability, why will he need to resort to scamming people?"
"Maybe I should give his dojo a chance?" thought Lance and he stayed quiet for a few minutes before he made up his mind to try trusting Kyle. Since Kyle was a genius, he thought that he could rope him into his clan if he was scamming him.
Lance entered the dojo back and he saw Kyle resting his head on the counter with a bored face. "Have you checked everything about me?" said Kyle with his boring face.
"There are not many things suspicious about you but I will judge you based on your dojo's service," said Lance with a serious face. Kyle moved his head with his chin on the counter, he looked at Lance.
"So, there are things suspicious about me?" Kyle frowned. He wondered what was suspicious about his past? Is he perhaps a rich family long lost son? He doubted it because he resembled his parents a lot. Dodo was laughing in Kyle's mind. He met a hard to please first customer.
"Anyway, what service do you want? Since you doubt me, I will not charge you with any money this time. I just hope that you will promote my dojo once you have a taste of my heavenly service," said Kyle lazily and Lance's face twitched looking at the lazy Kyle.
"Test my compatibility," said Lance.