The Saiyan Gamer


Chapter 39: The Beginning

The stench of death and destruction was the first thing that Wood noticed when he arrived above what remained of Omato Village.

The village was completely destroyed and scattered everywhere were dead bodies, but not nearly as many as he'd expected. When he looked to his left, out into the distance he could see a massive crater. Bodies, both Tuffle and Saiyan, lay in the space between it and the village. The urge to throw up made him gag, but with a click of his fingers, the feeling subsided.

"I can't believe she went ahead and did this," Wood spoke aloud. Behind him, Oak slipped through a hole in time and space to float next to him. Wood willed the magical portal to close, before turning in the air to face the Sergeant Major.

"Your sister is passionate but impulsive," Oak's face held no visible reaction as he scanned the field. Tuffle soldiers were still walking around below.

"Foolish, if you ask me," Wood sighed. "The war was coming regardless, she's just made it so we aren't as prepared as we wanted to be."

They stayed silent for a few seconds as they watched, only for Wood's eyes to narrow in confusion. "What are those things?"

Neither had an answer to the strange, half-dead-looking Saiyans that were walking around in a haze. Oak tilted his head as he examined them. In all of his years, he hadn't seen anything like it, but the strange nature of it led his mind back to one person. "No idea, but if I had to guess, your sister got some help from Dr Myuu."

Wood was about to reply when he saw a squad of Tuffles lifting up some rock, where they found a bloodied and unconscious Saiyan child. Before he could think beyond that, a hail of bullet fire made sure that the Saiyan wouldn't wake up again. His blood boiled in his chest and immediately his eyes began burning with cerulean arcane magic.

"LISTEN ALL!" His voice carried itself like a tidal wave over the village. There was no doubt that every soul there would hear him. "THIS IS PRINCE WOOD, GENERAL OF THE TUFFLE ARMY AND SON OF THE KING! YOU WILL STOP KILLING THE SAIYANS IMMEDIATELY AND BEGIN DETAINING THEM!"

He could feel their emotions through his magic, mostly confusion, and some annoyance, but regardless, they would listen. Oak looked down at the enraged Prince but didn't say a word. They had opposing views on dealing with Saiyans, but Oak didn't want to get on the young Prince's bad side, especially not today.

Before much else could happen, a chorus of ungodly screaming echoed below them. Wood threw up a shield of mana just in time to block one of the strange zombified Saiyans from crashing right into them. Several more came crashing into the shield, before falling back to the ground. It was by the third when they both realized that they weren't aiming for Wood at all, but at Oak.

"Sergeant Oak..." Bloom's voice called out to them from below. They watched with narrowed eyes as she floated up to their level, her propellers keeping her in midair. Her armor looked damaged in places, but she was fine overall. Her eyes flickered to Wood and she bowed slightly. "Prince Wood."

"I'm not surprised that you'd follow the princess into treason, but it is still disappointing to see," Oak shook his head at the young woman. "Launching an attack like this is irreversible."

"Am I to be arrested?" Bloom asked. As she did, the armor on her face retreated, revealing her bloodied face. Whoever she'd been fighting had managed to somehow slice through her armor and cut a line through her left eye.

"That's not a call that I can make," Oak said. "But you'll be lucky to be spared. Princess Azalea was just arrested before we arrived."

Bloom's working eyes opened significantly, before returning to normal. "I will accept whatever punishment awaits me."

Oak stared her down for a few seconds, before looking away and down at the monsters that were still slamming into the mana shields. "What are those... Things?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself," She admitted as he straightened herself out. "Princess Azalea and my brother caused it, but I'm not sure where they got the tool. It is a virus that..."

Wood tuned out the rest of her explanation and instead decided to do the thing on the top of his to-do list. Plucking a hair out of his head, he set it in front of him in the air and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, the hair began to glow and spin on the spot. He frowned when the hair strand, after spiraling out of control for a few seconds, exploded into nothingness.

"Where is he?" Wood asked, cutting off their conversation. His anger began building quickly and he immediately followed it up. "Sprout. The white-haired Saiyan. Where is he?"

Bloom's face had a visible reaction, but not one that they'd expected. She didn't look ashamed, but angry. Her fingers clenched into fists, and she looked up. "Don't worry about him, Prince Wood. He's alive."

"How can you be sure?" He pressed, eyes narrowed.

"When we were forced to surrender, he walked out with The Prince of Death and the rest of the villagers," She explained, much to both of their confusion.

"You surrendered?" Oak was the first to speak, confused. It didn't look like a surrender to him, not even close.

"Didn't have a choice," She gritted her teeth at the memory. "We made preparations to make sure that Bardock wasn't in the village at the time of the attack. Unfortunately, something must have tipped him off, because he came back right as we had them cornered. He shattered our ships like butter and then threatened to transform all of the survivors into their bastard ape form if we didn't allow them all to leave."

Oak wasn't surprised. Back at the beginning of the war, The Demon would have likely slaughtered the army as soon as he arrived, not caring about the rest of his fellow Saiyans. But he changed over the course of the war, or so he'd heard from reports. While he still would slaughter Tuffles like flies, he was a lot more of a leader. If he'd gone headlong into the battle against Bloom and the remainder of their army, he'd likely have won, but he would have been the only survivor.

"Good move," Oak complimented her. But that was when he noticed something was off. "Where's Blerry? I was sure he'd have come up here by now."

Bloom's eyes dropped and her fist tightened. "He... Blerry's gone."

Now, both Oak and Wood were surprised. Blerry wasn't by any means a pushover. Oak frowned. "I'm sorry for your loss... I'm assuming that this was by the Butcher or the Prince of Death's hand?"

Her head snapped up and her blue eyes stared directly into Wood's. "No. He was killed by the one he was sent to capture. A certain white-haired Saiyan."

Wood's eyes widened, as his mind raced. "That's not possible. Sprout's power level was barely 1000 back in Mossgrove. Blerry's equivalent was 10,500; even more, if he used his over-drive."

"It shouldn't have been possible, but it's the truth. When I scanned his power level as they were leaving, it was far above 1000. He's approaching elite status," She explained. "How he managed to get so much stronger since we saw them in Mossgrove, I have no idea."

Oak tried to hide his shock, as he said, "That shouldn't be possible... Unless the Saiyans now know about physical training."

"Unlikely," Blerry said. "The Butcher had the same power level as the end of the war."

"Whatever the case, this isn't good. We need to find him as soon as possible. Any Saiyan that can grow in strength so quickly needs to be contained," Oak said, mirroring their thoughts.

"Again, I'm sorry for your loss," Wood said, a frown on his face. He didn't know Blerry very well, except for the fact she he was in his sister's Elite squad, and that they were dating. Wood had met him numerous times, of course, but they hadn't become anything other than acquaintances.

Azalaea would not be pleased about this.

"What I don't understand is, even if Sprout was approaching Elite status, Blerry would have still been stronger than him. That isn't even including his overdrive," Wood said, looking back up at the woman.

"I'm not sure myself. Either he didn't use the overdrive because he didn't want to accidentally kill the boy or the boy was so strong that overdrive didn't matter," She explained, and the implication was felt. They all shared a glance before a small chime caused Bloom to put a hand to her ear. After whispering into her com, she sighed and looked at the two, briefly bowing.

"Allow me to excuse myself. The soldiers are reporting something strange that may need my attention," She said.

"You're excused, for now," Oak said, and not a second later, she was gone. He turned to Wood, with a deep look of concentration on his face.

"I will work with the soldiers to detain the downed Saiyans. What will you do?" Oak asked the Prince.

"I will help you. The faster we get done here, the faster we can get home," Wood sighed. "Oak. Do you think there's a chance that this will end quickly?"

The older half-Tuffle could only frown.

"Not a chance in hell."


Sprout POV

It took a day and a half of slow flying to get to a city that Bardock deemed 'safe' enough for us. We passed dozens of other cities on the way, where some of the group broke off to seek medical attention. Thankfully for my sanity, Brussel left us in the first city we came across, so I no longer had to worry about her. Unfortunately, Leeku went with her. By the time we arrived, there were only 200 of us left.

Luna and her Meta-Wolves followed behind at a distance.

A lot of us were still injured, including Kakarot, who hadn't woken up from his unconsciousness. He was still alive, if barely, so that was good for now.

When we arrived at the city, we were met at the front gates by a dozen Saiyans, all of whom looked displeased to see us. None of them looked particularly interesting until my eyes fell upon one in particular. His hair was bright red, and I immediately recognized him as one of the Aka family heads.

Level ?

Aka Family Head

Rucco

Species - Saiyan

Gender - Male

Age - 27

HP - 162,000

KI- 121,500

Reputation - Liked

Power Level - 5400

Rucco is one of the heads of the Aka family and a younger brother of Omato. While younger and less powerful than his brother, he used his connections and status as an Elite Saiyan to take over as leader of Sildoon City. He isn't particularly good with any weapon, using just his raw strength to win fights with people weaker than himself.

He doesn't know you well but was impressed with your performance at the initiation. He doesn't know that you're in the crowd.

He is currently nervous and annoyed about Bardock showing up at his door.

"Ah, if it isn't Bardock," Rucco said as we all began to touch down. He didn't look at all pleased. "Never thought you'd come down from that hiding place of yours."

I stood a decent ways away, not wanting to approach Bardock and his family for obvious reasons, but I could still hear them. As they spoke, I pushed my way through the crowd, trying to get in.

"I'm sure that you heard what happened," Bardock replied.

"I heard something, but there's no way it could be true," Rucco said mockingly, "I heard that your city got attacked and you spared your enemies. That couldn't be right, though, could it?"

The men behind him chuckled, but his face stayed deathly still. "And to believe they used to call you the Prince of Death."

"I don't have time for this," Bardock said impatiently. "These people need entrance into your city. We have injured people with us."

"That sounds like your problem," Rucco spat at Bardock's feet. "You passed plenty of cities on the way here, why didn't you stop at those? Instead, you flew to a city far, far away. Don't tell me you're planning on hiding away here doing nothing while our people die! I won't allow it!"

Bardock stayed silent for a few seconds, their staring match continuing. Slowly his aura began to leak out of his body, and he handed Kakarot to Turles. Despite the look of steel on Rucco's face, I knew that he was nervous, possibly even afraid.

"I wasn't giving you a choice, kid," Bardock said, as his aura continued to grow. "You will let us in."

The message was clear.

"Y-You wouldn't," Rucco took a small step back and bared his teeth.

"Try me," Bardock lowered his body into a fighting stance, and we all held our breaths.

Rucco did too, but after a few tense seconds, he moved. If he hadn't attacked Bardock, he would have looked like a chicken in front of his people, and us. At least this way, he still kept some sort of pride.

It was hardly a fight. Bardock had him on the ground within ten seconds. In response, Rucco's men looked around at each other, before parting ways and revealing the gate. I watched the situation with keen interest. If talking doesn't work, Saiyans will bow to power.

Our group started to enter the city, with Bardock staying near Bucco. I tried to sneak past, but when he saw me, he flagged me down. I grumbled under my breath and briefly turned to Zaria, Rue, and Root, who'd been by myself for most of the journey. Zaria gave me a brief reassuring smile, before pushing me towards Bardock. Root followed me as I reluctantly went.

"Bardock," I regarded him once I got to his side. Rucco looked up at me, and then at Root, before smirking.

"Ah, my nephews. It's good to see that you two survived. Your mother was inquiring about your survival, but of course, we had no idea," He said.

I froze temporarily, confused. My mom was here? I turned to Root, who looked back at me just as puzzled. He shrugged his shoulders, before turning back to Rucco and asking, "I thought she was off-world?"

"Well, she only got here about a week ago, wherever she was before that I have no idea," He replied, before looking back up at Bardock. "Alright, now let go of me. You've got what you wanted."

Bardock stared down at the redhead, before slowly stepping off of his back and crossing his arms. Rucco stood up and dusted himself off, before taking a deep breath and looking down at me. "Where's your sister?"

"Back in one of the other cities," I answered, forcing myself to continue the conversation. I had a deep dislike for him, considering that he was one of the ones who tried to rip off Chile's tail.

"I see," He nodded his head. "It's a shame, about your father. He was a good Saiyan and the strongest Aka for decades. At least he died in combat, like a true Saiyan."

Bardock ignored the glare that Rucco shot his way after the statement. I just nodded my head in response, hoping that the conversation wouldn't last much longer. I hadn't gotten much sleep since leaving the remains of Omato Village and all I wanted at the moment was a bed.

"Listen, Bardock," Rucco turned back to Bardock. "I'm allowing you to stay here for now, but there's one small issue. We don't have anywhere for your people to stay, so it looks like they'll have to sleep outside on the floor."

He seemed smug about this, but Bardock just turned to me. "We've got that covered."

Looks like I won't get to sleep anytime soon.


"Alright. That should be enough trees."

I looked out at a massive empty space in front of me, along with the dozens of downed trees in it. Rucco didn't order any of his men to help us collect, but Bardock was able to ask a few others who weren't injured to help. Bardock and Turles had then left to bring Kakarot to the hospital, and they hadn't returned.

"So, how exactly does this work again?" Rue asked from next to me. He helped the entire way and looked absolutely exhausted, his low power level making this work much harder on him than others.

"It's complicated," I said, before taking a few steps and turning around. Behind me, quite a few people from Omato Village watched me curiously.

"Well then…" I took a deep breath, before turning back and slipping into Builder Mode. It felt nice to enter this form of existence, all of my physical ailments leaving me. I no longer felt tired. Instead, I was full of ideas and immediately got to work.

Rucco city was much larger than Omato village, housing closer to 100,000 Saiyans. Its history went back far, and it was extremely lucky to not get destroyed during the Great Cataclysm. The citizens built it up very well, in Saiyan standard. The roads were paved with concrete, and most houses were made of it too.

These houses were also bigger than the houses In Omato village. Instead of the majority of them being one story with the occasional second story, these were all consistently two-story houses.

With the limited space I was granted, I had to take it a step further. Modeling these houses after mine in Omato Village, all of them were three stories. Multiple people would have to share a house, but I made each floor large enough to compensate. The only thing that I decided to remove was the training room, seeing as they wouldn't have any need for one.

I then made the final house; the one I'd be staying in. It had four stories rather than three, making it the tallest in the city. I also made sure to add the training room to mine, but put it on the top floor, as that was where I'd be.

By the time all of the houses were placed and fully furnished (to the best of my ability with the materials), I realized that I had spare material. Right in the middle of the new establishment, I put a two-story building. It was about the same length and width as a house, but instead of wood, I used the remainder of the concrete that I had saved from the abandoned Tuffle City near Omato Village. I floated into the building and began my work.

A few minutes later, all of the walls of the first floor were covered in weapons and armor. From swords to flails, to chains. Any weapon and armor that I could imagine. I only stopped when I ran out of Meta-Wolf metal. I then went to the second floor and made various different clothes. Admittingly, I stole some designs from the Tuffle clothes I saw in Mossgrove.

Money wasn't an issue yet, but it would be eventually. Using my crafting abilities, I could work hundreds of times faster than any ordinary blacksmith. I hadn't seen one in the city so far, but even if there was, it didn't matter.

When I felt I was finished, I fell out of builders mode.

"Wow!"

"How did he do that?!"

"What even is he?!"

I took a breath as my exhaustion hit me, before turning back to the shocked group. There were mixed expressions on their faces, but the majority were pure shock and confusion. I noticed briefly that my reputation with most of them increased dramatically too.

"One family per floor of a house. Choose whatever one you want, I don't care. Just don't touch that big one; that's mine" I yawned and stretched out. "Don't just stand there."

The crowd eventually began to scatter and claim their houses. I watched until Zaria and Rue approached me.

"I'm still amazed by that," Zaria said, concerning my building.

"I wish I could see it from all of your points of view," I replied. "For me, that was quite a long time."

She scanned the area for a few seconds, before saying, "Do you plan on doing anything else for the day?"

I paused, briefly remembering what Rucco had said about my Mom being here, but I quickly shut that idea down. "No way. I'm going to sleep."

She seconded that idea, before heading to our new house. I watched as she went, glad that she was alive. The last few days were something, and losing Gine and Raditz was hard enough. My heart hurt just thinking about them, so I put them out of my mind. As if to put salt on the wound, from the corner of my eye I saw Turles and Bardock returning from the hospital.

They passed by a few feet to my left, but when I turned to face them I was met with a harsh glare from Turles. I frowned, watching as he turned away from me.

"Good job, Sprout," Bardock thanked me as he approached me alone. "I appreciate your help here. I'm sure everyone else does too."

I shrugged. "It was the least I could do."

I was sure he understood the underlying message. He frowned, before reaching out and ruffling my hair. A mixture between warmth and disgust filled me, but I resisted the urge to flinch away. I didn't deserve his affection. I let Gine die.

"How's Kakarot doing?" I asked once he finally removed his hand from my now messy hair.

"He'll be okay. This city has some of the best healers on the planet. I'm not sure when he'll wake up, but he'll live," He informed me to my relief.

"Good… Can I visit him?" I asked, uncertain.

"He'd probably like that," Bardock said before he looked over his shoulder at Turles, who was still facing away. "Just make sure that it's when Turles isn't around. He's… Angier than I thought."

I frowned at the thought, afraid to look at my reputation with Turles. I wasn't sure what I expected his reaction to me saving his life would be, but it wasn't this.

"Do you think he'll talk to me again?" I asked after a second of silence.

"Just give him some time. You're more than a friend to him, he'll come around," Bardock said confidently, which made me feel a little better. "Have a good rest, Sprout. You too, Rue."

And with that, he left with Turles. I watched them walk away until they entered their new home and shut the door behind them.

"Well…" I turned to face Rue, the last person. He seemed lost, so I said, "You're welcome to stay on the floor below Zaria and I if you'd like. If not, that's fine too. You're free to do whatever you want."

He seemed to think about it for a few seconds, before nodding, "Thank you"

But he still seemed lost, so I raised an eyebrow. "Is everything alright?"

He stared at me for a few seconds, as if he was debating asking me something. Finally, he gave in. "I've noticed that you've been getting stronger."

"You have?" I asked although I wasn't surprised. In the tournament alone my power level rose by over 1500 points. That wasn't including the four levels I'd received from the moment the bomb exploded to me killing Blerry.

"Yes. Not just you though. Zaria got stronger too," He said. When I gestured for him to continue, he asked, "How?"

I hesitated to reveal my secret, and he caught on. After a brief silence, he said, "So there is a way to get stronger then…"

I didn't respond, half expecting him to get angry at me. Instead, his face turned serious and he bowed to me, which both surprised and irritated me.

"However it is that you're getting stronger, please consider teaching me."

The emotion in his voice was something that I hadn't expected to hear. It was akin to how he sounded when he found out that I'd freed him from my parents. I still wasn't sure, though, until he looked back up at me.

"Back in Omato Village when everything turned to shit, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even save my own life," He said, his eyes staring into mine. "It was horrible. I never want to feel like that again Sprout. So weak that all I could do was watch as my friends fought and my city burned. So if there is a way for me to get stronger, I want… No need to learn it. Please."

I felt for him, completely understanding how he felt. Could I trust him though? I thought so at least. My reputation with him was extremely high, in the same territory as Zaria's, and I didn't have a reason to think otherwise. Another part of me argued that he was my friend, and leaving him weak would also be leaving him to die, and just the idea of that sent an unease through me.

"Alright. I'll teach you," I decided, causing his face to light up. "But you can't teach anyone else. I can't allow something like this to spread, understand?"

"I understand! I won't tell a soul!" He promised, once again bowing to me. "Thank you!"

I smiled down at him, feeling good about my decision. "I'm not sure when training will begin. Right now all I'm thinking about is sleeping."

With a promise of future training, we parted ways. I looked forward to a good night's sleep.

I wasn't so lucky.