[Dodo Nest]
After welcoming me in their family, Sugar talked to me a lot more about everything, from history to predictions of the future, or the difference about the society of the dodos and that of the humans.
I don't know why, but this woman seems to be very excited every time that she talked with me, and she is always with me, even during the night, I only need to say a word and her hologram would come out of thin air with a radiant smile on her face.
Also, she knows a lot of things about almost everything and she answered always all of my questions.
When I asked her what she is, she told me about artificial intelligence and other things like that, unfortunately, more she explained about what she is, more I thought that she is wrong.
After hearing her, I started thinking that she is a lot more "human" than me, but every time I pointed that out, she would comfort me saying things like "don't worry, I am sure that you will be fine" and other things like that.
When I asked, she also told me about my past, and seemed to be in pain every time she talked about it, as if expecting me to burst out crying at any moment… Well… she was wrong, I don't feel anything about my so-called-parents.
Not that I'm not grateful for everything they have done, but I simply don't understand what would I gain by crying or feeling bad for them, I mean, if they were like she described them to me, I think that they would be happy to know that I am not torturing myself after what happened to them.
The Matriarch instead, treat me like a son and pretend that I call her mother, not that I care, if she is happy when I call her mother, then, so be it.
When we meet, she always wants to teach me something, but the majority of the time, she seems disappointed by how I behave and mumble something like "shouldn't he be five years old?".
The other dodos looked at me as if am some kind of exotic animal, they are worried about how to talk with me, they don't want to do a bad first impression on me or have an awkward conversation.
Until now, the only dodo who talked with me has been White, he's one of the sons of the Matriarch, from how he presented himself, he is a battle-oriented dodo that enjoys seeing his enemies freezing in front of him, however, from how Sugar described him, he seems to have a splitted personality, normally he is quite shy and talks only when necessary, however, when he is on the battlefield, he becomes an unstoppable chatterbox who won't shut up unless you kill him, moreover, he also have a talent for taunting his enemies.
As the name suggests, his feathers are completely white, with blue eyes and a grey beak.
After days of doing nothing but talk with Sugar, and sometimes with the Matriarch or White, the Matriarch discovered something interesting about my soul.
"Kid, you are quite lucky, you know?
It seems that as long as your body grows, your soul will grow as well, maybe, when you will become an adult, you may already be healed"
When she ended the sentence she looked to be quite disappointed.
"Mother, is there no way to heal faster?"
I asked, but even I didn't believe that there would be any shortcut
"I already told you last time, didn't I?
We can't mess up with a soul, one little misstep and you are as good as dead"
[Wait, you said that his soul will heal as long as his body grows, right? What would happen if we strengthen his body or if we give him some drug to grow faster?]
"This… I think that is worth giving it a try"
The Matriarch said after some thoughts.
"Indeed, it's better to give it a try, worst-case scenario, nothing will change, right?" I asked since they seem to be happy when talking about healing my soul and let me try to feel some emotions.
'Besides, becoming stronger will be useful in the future'
"Annoying dodo, I will leave the boring explanations to you, I have other matters who require my presence elsewhere"
She said while leaving the room
[Don't worry, I will tell him everything he will need to know]
She said while looking at me with a radiant smile.
After some awkward seconds were she did nothing but looking at me I couldn't help but ask directly
"So, How can I get stronger?"
[First, sit down, it will take a lot of time]
She said while pointing at an armchair.
After sitting in a comfortable armchair, she started speaking
[There are two ways that you can choose to become stronger :
The first option, you learn how to manipulate the mana around us and learn how to cast the most complicated spells, that requires talent, but, more importantly, that requires time and efforts to learn from other who already experienced it before, you are lucky, the dodo family has a lot of books about "how to manipulate mana" and things like that.
Unfortunately, to see changes on your body, a lot of time and efforts are needed, so, if the objective is to strengthen your body and heal your soul, it would be quite inefficient, besides, following this method, your combat strength will always be proportionate with the mana density of the area where you are fighting.]
After telling all of this, she stopped for a moment, looking at me with a sad smile as if to prepare to talk about something sad.
[The second option, you must build your own Celestial core, so that when you will need to fight, you will take the power from your core and use it during the battle.
This method requires a lot of resources and time, you will need to absorb a lot of Celestial crystals to build, and upgrade your core.
You can also absorb the mana around you, but doing so will require a lot of time, and higher the density of the mana is, the better.
These crystals are very rare, they are solidified mana, the higher the density of the mana is when the crystal form, the higher its quality is.
Unfortunately, we have little-to-none Celestial crystals, not to mention the high-quality ones.]
She stopped talking as if thinking about something else.
"Didn't you look for them while waiting for the return of the dragons?"
[Yes… My father is searching for them, he will definitely return soon…]
She answered talking more to herself, rather than to me
"I am sorry"
'Usually, this should make her feel better, right?'
When she heard my voice, she looked at me surprised that I was there, as if recalling what happened, she returned talking to me embarrassed.
[Ah… yes, the quality of the core is differentiated by its color, black, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, and white.
These are all the colors that we know, the white isn't even confirmed, since the last time that we sew him, our strongest dodo's core was purple.
When your core became stronger, your body will be straightened too.
That is all, I will take my leave, see you tomorrow]
She said while her hologram disappeared
'Strange, it's the first time that she leaves like this…'
*****. *****
[While Sugar ended her conversation with Icefire - In the monitoring room]
Within the capsule at the center of the room, there is a woman sitting on the floor of the capsule while hugging her legs and crying.
Her voice could be heard between a sob and another.
[Connecting with the main fleet… Failure…
Connecting with the main fleet… Failure…
Connecting with the main fleet… Failure…
Where the hell are you?]