Chapter 20 - Evolution

…

Yamcha felt skittish, and he didn't know why. But with such a high Perception, he would damn trust those instincts. Not knowing why he feelt like this didn't help the situation at all. But he was still on guard against any unseen threats.

"So, as I was saying, the gravity can go up to ten times. But after that, the whole thing crashes on itself. There needs to be stronger material to handle the pressure." Bulma explained as she showed Yamcha her new Gravity Machine.

It was coffin-shaped and a little too small to be called a room. The first thought Yamcha had about it was, he wouldn't be able to train in there. "You know I was going to use this for training, right?"

"Higher gravity as training?" She asked, confused. "Wouldn't that just turn your organs into mush?"

"Are you trying to use logic in this?" Yamcha responded with a playful smirk. He then flickered her forehead lightly. "I can shoot nuclear-level beams, where math or anything else doesn't make sense. So don't try looking too deep into these things."

"Obviously, I'm going to use logic." She pouted, rubbing her forehead. "I'm a scientist."

Yamcha looked at her and tried not to crack a smile. This was the first time Bulma had refuted his words or gone against him in any way. She usually was a yes-woman that went along with whatever he did and never offered better solutions.

Maybe she assumed he would always be right? Sometimes that can happen with authority figures, and she was at an age where she could look at him in that way.

"You know how it is. The strongest fighters in the universe aren't always the smartest." Yamcha reasoned with her. Once Goku becomes the strongest, that will ring out true more than ever, he thought.

"I need to find a material strong enough to handle the increase in gravity. It would take others years or decades to figure out. Can you guess how long it will take me?" Bulma beamed with confidence. "In around two or three months, I will figure something out."

If it was anyone else, that would have been undeserved, and Yamcha might have called them arrogant.

But this was Bulma, the woman with enough brains to make even the Gods baffled at what she could create.

"By the way, those robots you brought me were ancient. But they were pretty strong. Whoever made them must have been pretty good for their time. I've made some stronger prototypes as a side project, but I have in mind something even cooler," she chuckled with a devilish glint in her eyes.

"Those robots would be good to use as sparring partners in my new Martial Arts School," Yamcha agreed, staring at the prototype gravity machine. He would have used a wish if Bulma wasn't sure she could build something like this.

There are many things he was uncertain about in this world. Omega Shenron could exist, from what Yamcha remembered, Omega Shenron was born during the wish made to bring back the Namekians during the Frieza Saga, and its strength came from the scale of the wish.

Dragon Ball was a confusing show at times, where unprecedented threats could appear at any time if one wasn't careful. If, by some dumb miracle, a Frieza Soldier with a Power Level of one thousand came through, he would be able to annihilate every living human on earth in a month.

Though he knew a lot, Yamcha also understood there were things in this world he didn't know. Like why are the Namekians not the strongest race around and ruling the universe? With their Dragon Balls, they should be able to do something like that easily.

Or maybe they didn't use the Dragon Balls because they knew about their darkness if used too much?

Well, that wasn't going to stop him from using the dragon balls a couple more times, at least, as he knew from the original show that nothing like the Omega Shenron would appear during the Saiyan Saga. Unless he over-used the dragon balls every year.

Still, he will keep an eye on these things, he wanted to know before causing some catastrophic change or danger.

"By the way, when you're finished with the Gravity Machine, can you create a fake one-star dragon ball? One that feels somewhat similar to the real one?"

"Sure, that's easy," Bulma answered. By how nonchalant she was, Yamcha assumed this must be an easy side-project for her.

Yamcha hoped he wouldn't need to use the fake dragon ball. But that's how life was sometimes, and only when opportunity meets preparation can somebody get something out of it. Like someone trying to rob you with a knife, but you have a gun. People will always say that it's unnecesary, or you're being paranoid, until you aren't.

After some small talk with Bulma, Yamcha set off from Capsule Corp. He had a schedule to keep up with.

…

Days passed by quickly, and Nam's tribe moved to the island. They had accommodated to the living place and built their own small village at the foot of the biggest mountain on the island, just under where the school would be. Anyone who wanted to join his marial arts school would have to climb up the mountain.

In the newly made village, Nam was training some of the Youngsters while Yamcha flew above and used Observe on every single one of them.

Though the Observe skill had leveled up to 49, it only discreetly shows talents with phrases like 'this kid could be a future baseball star' or some other vague line.

Yamcha wasn't here to find baseball stars but to fight hundreds of them who would protect the earth from being destroyed by some mook while he was away in space. But while observing one of the kids, a sudden notification came up.

[Observe Leveled up to 50!]

[Kam (Power Level: 7/130)]

Huh?

Yamcha stared like an owl as a smile slowly made its way onto his face. This was what he had been waiting for months now! Something to tell which people were worth training and which weren't.

There were times when people could break through their limits, but not everyone was like Goku.

Looking around, most of the kids from Nam's tribe could reach a power level of 50, which was quite impressive when one took into consideration the power level of the average human.

Only three could surpass amongst the kids surpassed a limit of a power level of one-hundred. That wasn't a lot, but this world's population was similar to those in his past life, and with Observe, Yamcha understood he would have to find those geniuses.

He flew down, and the kids looked at him with stars in their eyes. Kids were always easy to impress, thought Yamcha.

"Nam, take those three and train them hard, they will become my first students."

Nam nodded and didn't ask questions. Yamcha liked that; he needed more people like Nam, he was a genuine guy, and those were a very rare breed of people in both his worlds. As long as he didn't cross Nam's moral line, he would go along with whatever he said.

[You have gained a New Quest: Be recognized as the strongest Martial Arts School on Earth]

A new Quest, Yamcha read it carefully and labored out the details. He speculated this Quest would have some good rewards, but it didn't have any direct specifics of what he should do. So in these situations, he just lets the Quest sit there and do what he usually does and checks in on it every now and then.

While rewards were very enticing, Yamcha didn't want his Gamer Interface interrupting his plans. He wasn't some monk who had just deleted his attachments to the world. Yamcha was greedy too. But the key was to control that greed and not let his life become just doing what the Gamer Interface says, like those System Stories he used to read in his last life.

Yamcha decided to go for a swim around the island while thinking of the future. This served as a method to relax and see if these waters were dangerous.

Ki Sensing could only help so much with these things, for example, a fish could have a power level of 2, but another fish with the same power level could be even more dangerous just because he was poisonous.

Everything was coming along so well, but Yamcha didn't know why he felt an anxiousness in the back of his mind. Every time he tried to think about it, his heart beat faster and felt like it had an anchor.

[Swimming leveled up to 50]

The notification woke him from his thoughts.

[Swimming Skill has reached Max Level]

[Swimming Skill ready for Evolution]

Yamcha stared at the notifications in front of his eyes wide open like an owl. "Skill Evolution?"

He hadn't thought about it and always assumed that the Max Level was just a limiter to his skills. Maybe that assumption was unconsciously made because he was always thinking of his Gamer Interface as one of those Gamer stories he had read in his last life.

[Swimming Skill Tree: (chose one)]

[Solid Swimming]

[Can swim through inorganic surfaces.]

[Faster Swimming]

[Can swim faster, as if you were born in water.]

[Elegant Swimming]

[Your swimming is attractive to all sea creatures.]

[Fishman Karate]

[Can use water in your attacks]

The skills descriptions were very brief, thought Yamcha. Their titles were the one thing that said most of what they could do. The first thing he did was dismiss Faster Swimming and Elegant Swimming. The former was to swim quicker, which he didn't need as he could create a barrier around himself and fly through the water faster than anyone could swim.

Also, Elegant Swimming… What was he going to do with it? Attract fish? He could attract a mermaid, but he didn't need some fancy swimming to attract a woman. Trading efficiency for some fish sex sounded like an illogical decision someone would make with their lower head.

Fishman Karate was an option too, but with the fighting style becoming beams destroying planets, in the later stages, it wouldn't be that useful.

Maybe it would get stronger as he did and raised its level, but the technique didn't have a place in his arsenal as he had some other ideas to max level his Wolf Fang Fist that he had been ignoring until now.

[You have picked: Solid Swimming]

[Solid Swimming - Lvl 1/100]

[A skill that surrounds the user's body in magic power and allows them to swim on solid surfaces. The higher the level, the stronger the ability is.]

Yamcha flew back to a secluded part of his island. He activated Solid Swimming, and Magic Power immediately formed a thin coat around him. It felt like a membrane of mucus had surrounded him

The ground below his feet rippled like water, and he immediately fell into it.

Darkness, he only saw darkness circling him.

Moving his arms around, Yamcha felt like he was on heavier water and swam up. It took a great deal of power, and the average man wouldn't have been able to do so. Once his head was above ground (water?), he looked around and started swimming.

His previous swimming skill hadn't disappeared as he swam faster than most motorboats, even though the water was quite heavy, as while the ground turned into liquid, its weight didn't seem to have disappeared.

The solid land behind him turned from rippling like water back to normal. Only the solid ground around him changed to have liquid-like properties.

Yamcha stopped, flew up, and deactivated his skill. Then crouched down on the ground and activated Solid Swimming through only one arm.

He put the limb on the ground, which rippled like water again as soon as his finger touched it, and then deactivated his skill. He wanted to test what would happen if he ran out of MP or something during swimming.

Immediately, pain, like anything he had ever felt before, assaulted his hand. Flesh melded, twisted, and turned. Veins were cut, burst, and crippled up his arm before settling down. It was a strange ticklish sensation that was blended with the pain of having your hand crushed and burst at the same time.

Yamcha winced as a sensation of pain assaulted his hand. Like needles piercing through every pore below his wrist. Something was also digging inside his hand at the same time. He tried pulling on his arm, but to no avail, only an increasing pain shooting up his arm.

If he didn't have high willpower by now, he would be crying and wailing on the ground like a dog.

"Fuck this shit!" Yamcha tugged harder, and a piece of the ground came together with his arm. He looked closely at what was left of his arm and winced in disgust.

It was a grotesque sight of both raw flesh and dirt. There was even an earthworm poking its head out of the fleshy bits of his arm. So that was where the strange tickling sensation came from? Disgusting, he thought.

"It's fusion. My cells and the ground melded together perfectly,"

What a dangerous ability, he considered. If he had tried doing this while his body was underground, he would have died instantly, as he would fuse with the earth around him. Having dirt and stone enter your brain would kill even someone like him with Gamer's Body.

Yamcha grabbed a sword from his inventory and cut off the now-useless arm. Blood spurted out of his stump, and he curiously looked at his cut bone.

"Fucking gross," he exclaimed.

After that, he munched on a Senzu Bean, and the arm was back to normal. The pain went away in an instant too.

As another test, he turned toward a boulder and charged toward it while activating Solid Swimming. He burst right through the boulder, only a slowing ripple effect disappearing behind him.

Yamcha's face morphed into a smile as his heart started beating faster. His hands shook uncontrollably.

This was so… AMAZING!

This world never stopped being like a never-ending carnival ride. Excitement and new marvelous things were waiting just right around the corner.

Yamcha wanted to max-level all his rows and rows of skills he had. Every time there would be a new sense of excitement.

But such fantasies were cut short by his rational mind.

Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down. Going down that path of just leveling skills madly, while exciting, was counterproductive. The first skill he planned to level up to the max was Wolf Fang Fist since it was already Level 22/30, and in a couple of weeks, he was confident in having the skill evolve.

'What better time to start this process than the present!' He thought excitedly.

…

Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye. For Yamcha, this was quite literally as he enjoyed every second of training. The area around him had ripped apart, and he was inside a giant crater.

[Wolf Fang Fist reached level 30]

[Wolf Fang Fist is ready for Evolution!]

*Drrrring!*

Suddenly his phone rang, breaking down the child-like smile on his face. Yamcha picked it up and saw it was an unknown number. He opened it. "Hello, Yamcha here. Who is this?"

"It's Tights. Yamcha, you won't believe when I'm about to tell you!" Did she yell out in excitement or panic? Yamcha couldn't quite read her tune through the phone.

Right now, he didn't care too much about what was happening in the outside world. He was inside his zone and hadn't even bothered looking at the news. "Yea, what is it?"

"Wait, let me send you a text!" Then Tights closed the call.

If you were gonna send a text, why did you even call me? Yamcha wondered but decided not to get annoyed over small things. He was a little on edge since he wanted to see the evolution choices, but this text might be a cry for help, maybe she couldn't speak as an enemy was close by. Yamcha assumed the worst in this situation, so he controlled his curiosity for now as the text came.

It was… a Comic Website? One of those companies that publish Tights' books. He sighed. "This bitch, I have better things to do!"

But despite his worry melting into annoyance, Yamcha checked out what she was peddling him. Maybe this was a secret cry for help, as her attacker was close by and making sure she didn't send him any warnings or cries for help.

Puar was a nervous wreck, and he sensed his small cat-like heart about to burst out of his chest. Since splitting from Yamcha, he had given out the comic book drafts he had tirelessly worked on.

For the first time in years, Puar was away from Yamcha and felt… nervous at first. The protective presence of his friend around always helped him calm down. But without him around, certain things that Yamcha would tell him not to worry about, now stressed him out.

He was waiting for how well his first comic, Superman, had done during the week. Puar was so afraid he hadn't even had the guts to check the ratings. It was like the results of an exam being given by email and being too afraid to open it.

Puar sat in the waiting room, with the clock clicking on the wall as the only sound of company. Every minute, those sixty seconds, those ten clicks that happened six times felt like an eternity. Time had never passed him slower than now.

The office door opened. His agent came out with a cigarette in his mouth and a stern look on his face.

"Puar," he called his name with deathly calmness.

"H -How were the results?" Puar asked shakingly. What if this had all gone wrong? Would his dream be destroyed? What would he tell Yamcha when they meet again? Explain to him how much of a failure he had been.

Suddenly, the atmosphere relaxed, and the world spewed flowers as the agent's stern look turned to a smile so big that it almost split his face in half. "Superman was an absolute hit!"

Relief washed over Puar in an amazing way.