The Saiyan Gamer
Chapter 25: Omato Village
The exit to the city was packed with the survivors of the first trial. Waiting for us were crowds of people who seemed to be collecting their family members and congratulating them. Several booths were set up where people were counting flags and officially clearing us to pass. Once Kakarot and Leeku left their booth, I went up.
"How many flags do you have?" The guy at the table asked, eyeing me as he looked for my flags.
"Eighteen," I sighed, disappointed. "I would have had twenty, but my last two targets got away."
"Where are th-" He paused midsentence when I seemingly pulled them right out of my sleeve and placed them on the table. He continued to stare in shock. "T-That's the most we've gotten back. And you're not even injured..."
"Is that all? Or is there something else I need to do?" I asked although I couldn't help but smirk at the praise.
"No, that's it," He continued after a pause. "But what's your name and who are your parents?"
"Sprout, son of Omato," I told him, and immediately his shock dissipated into understanding.
"Ah, now it makes sense," He shook his head and sat back in his chair. "All of you guys are monsters, huh? Your sister... Well, I feel sorry for the people who are participating in her tournament."
"Oh?" I asked, looking back into the city behind me. "What do you mean?"
"Well," He nervously scratched the back of his head. "Not to talk badly of your sister, but she's a bit of a bitch."
I rolled my eyes. "You're telling me."
"Yeah," He laughed nervously. "Almost every year, she takes out all of the people that she doesn't like in the first trial."
"Almost every year?"
"Well, sometimes she skips the tournament all together if she's off-world."
"Oh, I see," I said, looking over at him again. "Why didn't you join the tournament?"
His expression immediately shifted and he looked down. "You're probably just going to laugh at me."
"Why would I?" I asked. "I'm just not sure why you'd want to skip out on something so fun."
He was silent for a few more seconds, before looking up with a frown on his face. "Have you ever been in a fight against someone so strong that fighting back was just pointless?"
My mind went back to the 'fight' with Brussel and I nodded. "Yeah."
"Well, that's how every fight is for me," He continued. "It sucks the fun right out of it. If I went in there, I'd just be a bug to most of you."
I frowned as I listened. When he was done, I used Observe on him.
Level 1
Rue
Species - Saiyan
Gender - Male
Age - 17
HP - 384
Ki - 288
Reputation - Neutral
Power Level - 96
Rue is a Saiyan teen who has somehow managed to stay alive despite the odds. The only reason he was able to survive on his purge was because the full moon came up often, so he was able to gain full control of his Oozaru form. Upon his return, his parents didn't accept him back because of his power level and he was forced to become a servant.
He is impressed by the number of flags you were able to get during the tournament and is glad that someone actually stopped to speak with him. He is slightly worried you'll turn out like your siblings and hurt him.
He is currently glad you haven't hurt him yet.
His power level is basically the same as mine when I came back. I frowned as I read. "I see..."
I would have been glad to continue the conversation, but one look to my left and I saw quite a few people waiting for me. I turned back to him and said, "Well, I'll be going. Maybe we'll run into each other again."
The first to greet me was Bardock's family. Gine's hands were glowing bright green as she frantically hovered over Kakarot, healing his wounds. They said their congratulations, and by the end of it, a large grin felt permanent on my face.
Omato had an almost matching grin on his face, and one look at his character sheet showed me that he'd been watching the entire time and was extremely proud. My reputation with him skyrocketed to 'Heavily Liked", and something about that made me feel even better.
Root didn't have much of an expression on his face, but his sheet revealed that my reputation with him had increased too, and he was very curious about me now. I floated up to them, unable to remove the smile from my face.
"Well, how'd you do?" Root asked, his eyes roaming over me looking for injuries. "Besides the rips in your clothes, it doesn't look like you've even been in a fight at all."
"I passed," I revealed to him. "I collected eighteen flags."
His eyes widened immensely as he studied me. "Eighteen? Liar."
I could already see my reputation with him increasing more when Omato added, "He also beat Thorn."
"Really?" He questioned in shock, his eyes bouncing from me, to Omato and back. "How could the scouter have gotten his power level so wrong before?"
Omato threw his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in, and while my instinct screamed at me to resist, the feeling it gave me was… Strange. I felt happier than I'd felt in a long time, the resentment that I'd felt towards him disappearing; at least temporarily.
"Let's celebrate!" Omato threw his free arm in the air as he yelled. "What do you say Bardock?! Gine?! The boys did well; they deserve it!"
Gine was heavily hesitant, but Bardock caved upon seeing the look that his boys gave him. Sighing, and avoiding the glare that Gine was sending him, Bardock said, "Sure. Kakarot will be fine for a few more hours. Take care of your brother, Turles."
"Yes!" Turles threw his fist up.
"Lighten up, Gine," Omato chuckled. "When Bardock and I was Sprout's age, we would celebrate after every fight! We would drink as much as we could and then see who could get the most g-"
"ANYWAYS!" Bardock raised his voice, seeming flustered for the first time since I met him. "Have fun. Be back in the morning, and don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Well, according to my memory y-"
"We're going!" Bardock lifted Gine and flew off before Omato could get another word in. We watched them go before the older man turned to us with a grin on his face.
"Who's ready to party?"
"Ouch…"
I groaned as I rose from my bed. Or rather, a bed. What happened last night?
Alcohol happened. My own voice spoke back to me. I squinted as I tried to look around the room and identify it, only to find out that it wasn't any room I'd ever been in. Through the headache, I saw the room was just a bed and a dresser. A small window illuminated the room, but as soon as I saw it, I hissed and shut my eyes.
He did not tell me all of this. After a few minutes of trying to ignore the throbbing in my head, I threw myself off of the bed and stretched. I can't remember much at all.
In fact, the last thing that I did remember was getting to a large wooden building that had what looked like hundreds of people celebrating. Omato offered us all strange drinks and then challenged us to a contest. If we could outdrink him, he would let us pass the second trial without participating. Root had already wandered off by the time that we go there, so it was only Kakarot, Turles, and I who accepted the challenge
If we won or not, I had no idea. Everything went fuzzy after that.
"You're finally up," A voice came from behind me, and immediately my headache increased.
"What do you want?" I groaned loudly. Turning, I saw Brussel standing in the doorway with her arms crossed and a sly smirk on her face.
"I heard you didn't fuck up the first trial," She said as she watched me. "Not only that, but you did great."
My annoyance at her presence overshadowed any sort of happiness that statement brought about in me. "I did but I don't need you to congratulate me."
"Still feisty, I see," She laughed. "Well, even if you want to act like you don't want it, congratulations."
"I don't want it," I growled at her, only for her to laugh again.
"If that was true you would have fucked off to another town and never came back," She said confidently. "You came back because you want us to acknowledge you. Admit it. Me coming in here and acknowledging your strength feels good."
I growled but didn't respond. She didn't deserve the satisfaction.
"I'm a bit disappointed though," She sighed, a smile still on her face. "You were talking all that game about fighting me, but now you have the chance and you're just lying there."
"I would if I could but-" I winced as I threw my hand back up to my head. "I haven't had a headache this bad in my entire life."
"Dad must have taken you out to celebrate, huh?" She mused. "I remember when he took me out for the first time. I woke up in the middle of the Great Divide with a bunch of dead bodies around me."
"Figures," I grumbled. "Now can you fuck off? You're making my headache worse."
"I could, but then you'd miss out on the information I have for you," She teased. "I mean if that's what you wa-"
"Just tell me and leave!"
"Alright, alright," She smirked. "The second trial begins in a week and six days. It's tournament style and there will be a two-day gap between each fight, continuing until there are only two fighters remaining."
"Is that all?"
"Root will give you a tour of the house and the village when you're up to it," She continued. "If you didn't notice, this is your room. Obviously, you don't have to live here, but Dad built this years ago when we thought you'd be back at a normal time."
I had to take a deep breath to calm myself. She continued, a smile on her face knowing that she was getting to me. "Anyway, stay here, don't stay here, build another house, it doesn't matter to me. But Dad wanted you to know that you're welcome to stay here. You've earned it."
Warmth filled me up once again, but thanks to the messenger, it wasn't hard to keep it contained. Finally, she took a step backward and out of the door. "See ya around, brat."
I shook my head, before slapping the door behind her and jumping back into the bed. I groaned in both pain and discomfort as I hit it. Yeah, this won't do.
Turles POV
Turles wasn't sure if he'd ever felt anything like the pain pounding in his head when he woke up that morning. Still, he sat up through it and tried to get a bearing of his surroundings. He wasn't home, that much was obvious by the immense quiet and the fact that this room was far different than his.
"I didn't think he'd give us alcohol that strong," Turles groaned into his hands. It wasn't his first time trying alcohol, having stolen some from his Dad a few times just to try it out; but his Dad's alcohol was nothing like the one Sprout's Dad had given us yesterday.
"The Chief doesn't drink anything less than mind-numbing," A voice startled Turles, not just because it was another guy's voice, but because it came from somewhere in the room.
Turles looked down at the floor and came face to face with someone who stared back at him with an amused curiosity.
"Who?! What?!" Turles jumped out of the bed in a confused panic, realizing quickly that he was lacking a shirt. "Who are you!?"
"You didn't seem that drunk when we met," The guy said as he sat up. "I mean, to be fair, you did drink quite a lot after that."
"Wait, slow down," Turles paused, his mind going a million miles an hour. "What happened? And where's my brother?"
"You really don't remember, huh?" He frowned as he watched Turles. "Take a breath dude."
"I need to find my brother! My mom's going to kill me!" Turles paced around the room, eyes wide and frantic. The stranger sighed, before pointing to a lump underneath the covers next to where Turles had been sleeping. Turles carefully lifted the covers and sighed in relief when he found a Kakarot.
"Unless you have another brother, crisis averted," He chuckled dryly to the still very confused Turles.
"Uh... What happened last night?" Turles asked, most of the night still a blank slate in his head. He sat down on the edge of the bed as he actively looked for his shirt around the room.
"You guys came into the bar last night with Chief Omato. Your white-haired friend got completely toasted after one drink, and your little brother somehow got even more hyper," He explained. "You were somewhere in the middle. We met when I caught your brother and handed him back to you. You then proceeded to drink some more, until you passed out."
"I-" Turles began to reply but stopped himself. "Then why-"
"Why did I bring you guys here? Why not? Who knows what could have happened if I left you there," He shrugged. "This house only has three beds, and the rest are taken, so I let you both have mine. I didn't want to leave you outside on the floor so..."
Turles nodded his head slowly before he looked down at his bare chest. The other guy was quick to answer the question brewing in his head, saying, "You threw up all over yourself, there was no salvaging that shirt."
"Oh."
"Yeah, I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no," He said, an amused smirk on his face. "You covered in throw-up is not particularly attractive."
Turles face burned rose red, and he chose not to respond to that. "We'll be going. Thanks for keeping us safe?"
"You may as well stay until he wakes up. Breakfast on me?" He suggested, raising an eyebrow. Turles thought for a second, his eyes scanning the mysterious guy before he sighed.
"Alright."
"Uhh.. What the fuck are you doing in my house?!" Leeku's voice came from the doorway to Turles surprise. Their eyes met before she looked down at the guy on the floor and her eyes widened even more. "Ah, the softy strikes again. You have a thing with catching strays, don't you?"
"Umm, are you-?" Turles pointed between the two, trying to piece together the puzzle. It clicked a few seconds later. "You're Leeku's brother?"
"Yep," He revealed. "You can call me Jitsuki."
"Alright, Jitsuki," Turles said, before shaking his head and picking up a random shirt off the floor. "What's for breakfast?"
Sprout POV
"So, that's the end of the tour."
The tour of the village was… Interesting to say the least. It wasn't like the village was impressive, in fact, the opposite was true. Compared to Mossgrove, it all seemed dull. The buildings were smaller and not all of them were made of concrete and metal. There was no concrete on the ground either, leaving just dirt. Most of the houses were made of wood, actually, with the exception being the houses that Root pointed out as being for "stronger people".
This was explained further when we'd gotten to our first location, the mission hub. It was a small circular building that was on the east end of the village, where you could get 'missions' for a reward. This ranged from simple things such as killing and bringing back a specific type of animal for someone, to going off-world to other planets for one reason or the other.
The harder the mission, the better the reward. That reward was typically money, but sometimes it was land, and to my surprise, people. It had shocked me at first, and my mind went immediately to Zaria's experience as a slave. Root was quick to correct me though, informing me that there was a difference between slaves and servants.
Usually, a servant had a debt to a particular person and that was the reason why they worked for them. Either that or working for someone for a lower price was better than trying to survive otherwise. It didn't surprise me that the majority of servants were third classes. Root explained that it was extremely hard for third-class Saiyans to find work, and they were usually too weak to pick up missions, so working as a servant was usually their best bet. Apparently, we had our own servants, but I hadn't met them yet.
After learning all of that, we went to the Kitchen, which was essentially a large area of many buildings with hundreds of people that were just cooking. The entire area and the space around it smelt amazing, so I didn't hesitate to buy some food. I tried to, at least, but the chefs wouldn't let me pay for the meal. They explained immediately that they wouldn't ever charge a child of the chief. I didn't complain, especially after tasting the food. While it wasn't Gine's food, it was still pretty good.
Being the son of Omato obviously had its perks. Pretty much everywhere we went, we had some sort of automatic respect. While some people still didn't know who I was, I did see a spark of recognition in the eyes of some people when they saw me. Reading some of their descriptions revealed that I'd beaten some of their children in the first trial, and others had heard rumors about me.
I liked the recognition, but only when it came from things I'd done. It didn't feel right to have respect just for being the son of the chief. I wanted to be recognized for my own power. That was why I wanted to do so well in the tournament. It wasn't completely for my family.
After eating, he brought me to the shopping area, which was a large area of shops. To my disappointment, while there was a wide range of random things, there was no library. I knew at that moment that I'd need to return to Mossgrove city at some point. Sooner, rather than later.
Some of the other shops were interesting at least. There were clothing stores, armor shops, a blacksmith, and a shop primarily for Scouters, spaceship parts, and other strange electronic things. I definitely planned on returning to that one to buy a scouter.
After that, he showed me to an area slightly outside of town that he explained was where most fights took place. Non-tournament fights. The type that followed after an insult. It was nothing more than a field of craters.
We then walked past a large building that was by far the most impressive-looking building that I'd seen here. It was made entirely from the crystal material that was inside of Bardock's mountain. It was box-shaped, besides the spires on each corner. I inquired about it but Root said it was far too boring to go to, so I decided to visit it another time.
Finally, we ended up back at the family estate, which was pretty large on its own. Considering the city was built like a stretched-out sausage that wrapped halfway around the base of the mountain, our estate was most of the butt end. Despite its size, though, it was pretty empty. A large house, larger than any other house in the town, sat right in the middle surrounded by grass and the occasional tree. I asked Root why there weren't more trees, but the answer was, 'Because gardening is boring, obviously'.
I decided very quickly that I would build my own house. The cave had been nice, but after seeing how nice houses could be, I wanted to have a shot at making my own. Living with Bardock's family was enjoyable, but I had never planned on living there forever, and there was no way in hell I was going to live in the same house as Brussel.
There were some areas that we didn't go to, but I decided that I'd explore those another time.
"That was pretty underwhelming," I said to the boy, who raised his eyebrow at the response. "What? It wasn't anything super special. Mossgrove City makes this place look like a dump."
Root rolled his eyes and turned to face the house. "So, do we get to fight now?"
"Fight?" I asked, confused. "Why?"
"Why not?" He asked, hands in his pockets. "Come on. I finally have a brother, I want to see how strong you are firsthand."
I tried, unsuccessfully, to read his sheet again, before shrugging my shoulders. After defeating, Thorn, Cauliflo, and Karo, I reached level 20, and after accepting the mission reward of 25,000 EXP, I was now level 21. I needed to test myself too.
"Why not."
Hope you enjoyed the chapter, sorry for the late release. I was very jet-lagged until recently so I didn't release when I intended. But because of that, you'll be getting this chapter today, and one on Friday too. Currently, the gap between the first and second trials will be, I believe, two more chapters. Let me know if you'd like me to combine them into one large chapter or leave it be.
Here's Sprout's current status sheet! Should I post his status sheet at the end of every chapter?
Status Sheet
Level 21
Name: Sprout
Species - Saiyan/?
Age - 15
Gender - Male
Power Level - 1911
HP - 21,658
Ki - 27,231
Strength: 57
Endurance: 34
Intelligence: 24
Unspent Attribute Points: 18
