Kapitel 4: 1-3 [Wilderness]
Vidar prowled through the forest, careful not to step on anything that would pierce his bare feet. Luck was on his side though as the ground was just loamy enough that he didn't have to worry much.
Adding to his luck, the planet thankfully only held a single sun, the sunlight soaking through the blanket of leaves above and brightening up the day.
If it were a world like Namek, he wouldn't have a clue on how to navigate during daytime.
Every so often there were the sounds of birds chirping, their unfamiliar cries adding to the feeling of being in a foreign world.
The further he walked away from the mountain that held his alcove, the more unsafe he felt. If Vidar was anything, it was cautious.
Thus, he dared not stray too far away.
It couldn't be helped that the wilderness was dangerous. Even ignoring the random bouts of dark energy that infected an animal or two, he had to worry about the naturally scary parts of the wild. Unknown- possibly poisonous plants, weather, natural disasters, and perhaps the odd person if they existed just to name a few.
If his situation was different, he wouldn't hesitate to stay in his cave and train for a few years. Sadly, life didn't work that way.
Though, I'm not in too much of a rush. Even if my body starts to deteriorate, I have a few days to explore. As long as I'm covert, I should be able to find something soon. Vidar nodded to himself, assured in his thoughts.
Gradually, hours passed as the sun rose from the horizon to its peak.
Doubts crept into his mind as Vidar failed to find a single beast worth killing, only finding small animals he could've killed before his training. Creatures that weak wouldn't even provide a Petty Soul, their meager souls unable to cling to life even for a moment.
Petty Souls were the lowest a soul could be without being a mass of intangible mist. They were the equivalent of the strongest predators on Earth, not being considered strong since they usually couldn't control their ki.
It was a miracle that he'd faced that jackalope while it was in an unstable state of being infected. On a pure power scale, the little rabbit was insanely powerful, with the capability to kill him in one hit even now. The reason why it lost so easily was because it was unable to control itself or its power, thrashing about in its mind.
Similar to how Ginyu couldn't use the full power of Goku's body, the jackalope couldn't use its power since the dark energy was ravaging its mental state.
If it had managed to stabilize its condition, he wouldn't have had a chance to react and would simply be dead. However, the likelihood of such a weak creature being able to control dark energy was close to nil.
Yet despite encountering a rare Lesser Soul on his first day, he hadn't managed to find a single beast worth even a Petty Soul.
Perhaps I'm overestimating the power of this planet…? The natural ecosystem seemingly matches Earth besides the random dark energy. It was quite disappointing as he'd been hoping to just kill a few monsters worth Petty Souls.
Petty Souls, despite being even weaker than Lesser Souls, could be combined into a single Lesser Soul if he gathered enough. The downside was that their combination was limited, as they would shatter if he tried to compress them further into a Common Soul.
Petty Souls, despite being the weakest soul possible for him to Harvest, could be refined into a single Lesser Soul if he gathered enough of them. The downside, though, was that souls couldn't be refined twice. Raw Lesser Souls could combine into a refined Common Soul, but refined Lesser Souls could not do the same.
A pity, but at least they had a use.
On the note of usefulness, he found it very odd that the useless creatures of the planet were seemingly much weaker than the random infected one.
From his experience, a planet's strongest tended to have a power level around fifty times the average. Fifty was the maximum of this statistic, as any higher was seen as an anomaly.
While this was false for Earth, it was only false because Earth had been invaded by naturally stronger beings. It would of course be an outlier with beings from other, much stronger planets arriving.
The chances of him being coincidentally transported to a world that was uncannily similar to Earth while also having his Unique Ability miraculously unsealed and encountering a luckily weakened jackalope was so astronomically small it wasn't even funny.
Either someone had interfered in his wish, or the Eternal Dragon itself had chosen this fortuitous fate. Perhaps his current luck was compensation for being unable to fulfill his wishes completely…
Shaking those inconclusive thoughts out of his head, Vidar focused on the task in front of him.
Whether he liked it or not, he wasn't finding anything on the mountain closest to his temporary home. He'd need to keep moving.
Taking a deep breath, he focused his internal energy and forced it to expand, overlapping with the cells in every part of him. Power welled up in his core, spreading out like roots from a tree and impacting the confines of his body.
Letting that breath out, Vidar began to leisurely jog at a speed that would surpass any normal athlete running full speed.
Without Ki Sense to guide him, he dared not sprint through the forest as he left the mountain area. His eyes were only able to pick up small details because he was holding back, using most of his Ki to enhance his vision.
Nearly half an hour passed like this, as he swiftly went miles and miles away from the mountains.
Halfway through his jog, a thought occurred. Wouldn't there be a higher chance to find people if he wasn't near a mountain? The chances of any intelligent species settling near mountains were low, as most civilizations tended to start in plains or near rivers.
But there was nothing he could do about this. It was the unfortunate consequence of life that one had to deal with others eventually.
"Hm," Suddenly, Vidar locked onto a certain part of the ground, the indents in the ground unfamiliar to him. Coming to an abrupt stop, he disregarded the dust he kicked up in his wake and walked over to the point of interest. With how malleable the ground was, finding footprints was rather easy for his enhanced perception.
But while he'd seen plenty of tracks on his jog, these were uncharacteristically large, almost five times the size of the average boar.
"This could prove interesting…" With his interest piqued, Vidar followed the animal's trail, getting even farther from the mountains.
As he'd already spent half the day searching, he was likely going to have to find another place to rest before nightfall. This would be the last thing he looked over before giving up for the day.
Animals fled here and there as he walked, focused solely on the tracks in front of him.
Noon morphed into the evening, the sun still firmly in the sky despite being close to setting. If he had to guess, it was around 6 pm.
Eventually, the traces became more evident, getting Vidar's hopes up more and more as time went on. If he could obtain a Lesser Soul from this, even just one more MP per day would be enough to begin serious training.
This was the turning point; The beginning of the end.
Suddenly, he could hear it. The creature bellowed and moaned, clearly struggling with something. Perhaps it was only recently infected and was fighting it off?
The thought only made Vidar move quicker through the undergrowth.
"Oh? This…" As he split through bushes and crawled his way out, Vidar couldn't help but pause as he saw the situation. Unexpectedly, he'd found what seemed to be a massively oversized stag.
One that was standing tall amid a clearing full of bodies. The ground was littered with gored hyena-like creatures and blood splattered onto the grass and trees. Four of the hyena-like creatures surrounded the stag as it panted desperately in clear exhaustion.
The hyena-like creatures weren't similar to any monster he'd seen before, their backs lined with a series of bony ridges that went down their spine. Their skin was mottled and fur patchy, the nauseating green light they emitted making this as clear as day.
Despite the fact the stag was clearly on its last legs, it was not weak. Although its body was covered in bite marks and cuts oozing vile black blood, it didn't falter when faced with the pack of enemies.
Plus, the danger he felt from looking at the stag drowned out the sense of danger he got from the hyena surrounding it.
Vidar's [Combat Mastery] wasn't omnipotent though, so he didn't know how strong it truly was.
This is what I was looking for but… Vidar hesitated to jump in, wary of the potential power the stag held since his Danger Sense was blaring this heavily.
As he was contemplating his decision, two hyenas rushed towards the stag's front with gurgling yips and snaps of their frothing jaws. The stag lowered its antlers to meet the charge, but the attack was a feint, and a third hyena lunged from behind, latching its teeth onto the stag's large behind.
In response, the stag's eyes seemed to narrow as it lifted its two front legs high into the air, before slamming downward with great force. The shockwave sent the hyena on its backside flying while the two who had feinted were pushed a little by the force. After the dust settled, the stag was left with more black blood oozing from its body, swaying as it stubbornly continued to stand its ground. The attack itself reminded him of Goku's Spirit Explosion, though on a much weaker scale.
As he watched the stag fight to its last breath, outnumbered and surrounded by enemies, Vidar felt… envy. A burning sensation started to build throughout his whole body, like a physical manifestation of his desire for battle. He wanted to be in that position, fighting countless enemies as he raged through the universe, unrelenting in his path.
Any nerves he felt washed away as his ki responded to his emotions, the heat making it feel as though his blood was boiling. While he could've rationalized his actions as a logical decision to take advantage of this encounter to harvest a few Petty Souls, he wouldn't lie to himself.
…When it came down to things, he just wanted to fight.
Scooping up a rock off the ground, Vidar lifted it and let it fly at the hyena that had been sent flying by the stag's shockwave.
While the hyenas were slower in reacting, the stag took advantage of the sudden attack without remorse. Turning with sudden renewed energy, it lowered its head and locked onto the fourth hyena, its antlers glowing with white light–
-Boom!!-
–sending off a ki blast that turned the unsuspecting hyena into a mass of sizzling viscera.
Vidar didn't slow down to catch anything else, too hopped up on bloodlust to comprehend the magnitude of such an action. The hyena in front of him barely managed to turn its head before Vidar arrived in a flicker of speed. With a wicked smile on his face, he gathered ki into his elbow before slamming it down onto the hyena's head. Its head was nearly liquified in an instant, the sheer heat of his ki exploding it into a mess of brain matter.
A vicious snarling sounded to his right as he regained his balance, unable to slow down as the other hyena took advantage of his stumbling. His smile only got wider as its jaws clamped down on his arm.
The second he pinpointed the exact location of the hyena's teeth on his arm, he focused a majority of his ki into those spots. With that, the hyena was flabbergasted as its ferocious bite barely scraped his skin.
He wasn't that strong, he simply knew how to control his ki while the hyena only knew brute force when attacking.
Vidar planted his feet and used his left hand to grasp the top of the hyena's maw while he pushed downward with the other. Once his right arm was free enough to move, he pulled it out of the hyena's mouth, quickly grabbing the bottom teeth as well.
Grunting, Vidar ground his teeth together as he used all the strength and ki in his body, slowly splitting the hyena apart from the mouth. Ignoring the hyena's whimpering and rapidly panicking movements, he picked it up and pulled.
"Hnngah!" Brutally, Vidar ripped the hyena's head apart above his head, the beast's blood dripping onto his head like
"Hnngah!" With a primal yell, Vidar wrenched the hyena's head apart, sinews snapping and blood spraying in a crimson arc. The beast's final howls echoed through the forest, a symphony of pain and carnage.
As the life drained from the hyena's eyes, Vidar tossed the severed head aside, his breath ragged and adrenaline coursing through his veins. There was one left, and his wild eyes snapped to it in anticipation.
The last hyena, after recovering from the daze of being hit by a speeding rock, hesitated as both he and the stag turned on it. Its growls faltered in the face of being outnumbered, and it slowly backed up, clearly intent on fleeing.
But Vidar's bloodlust wasn't satisfied with letting it merely be intimidated. With a roar, he charged toward the retreating hyena fueled by the burgeoning heat of his ki.
The hyena's eyes widened in terror as Vidar closed the distance between them in an instant. With a swift motion, he tackled the creature to the ground, pinning it beneath his arms. The hyena struggled and snapped its jaws in a futile attempt to break free, but Vidar held firm, his grip unyielding.
With a savage smile on his face, Vidar cruelly laughed at its futile attempts, his voice low and guttural.
And with that, he delivered a swift and decisive blow, ending the hyena's life with a single, brutal strike. As the creature lay motionless beneath him, Vidar rose to his feet, his chest heaving with exertion and satisfaction.
In the silence that followed, Vidar snapped back to lucidity, the lone figure other than him being the stag that stared at him calmly. It settled onto the grass of the clearing, watching him intently as it took short breaths.
Coming down from the high of fighting, he sighed at his actions. He didn't know what it was, but this always happened to him.
In the face of a battle with multiple enemies, for some reason, he could never control himself. Others back at Conton City had theorized his ki was naturally attuned for slaughter, so he hadn't participated in any battles until he reached a decently high level of Ki Control.
Without it, he tended to… get lost in the haze of battle.
"So… so stupid," Vidar muttered to himself, shaking his head. He'd wasted a ton of ki on a battle that could've been solved with much simpler, less flashy attacks. Now he didn't have much left if he had to get into another fight.
And on the note of fighting… Vidar turned to the stag, staring at it as it stared back placidly. The feeling of danger still blared at him from the beast, the feeling rising slowly each second he stayed there.
Seeing as how it wasn't tense to fight at all, it took a few moments for the details to coalesce into understanding.
It's infected by dark energy! It wasn't as feral as the jackalope, but that was clearly because it was strong enough to control its ki much better.
That was probably why the weak hyena-like things had even attempted to kill it. It was far stronger than all of them combined but infected with the energy, it had to focus a portion of its effort on controlling the insidious energy.
It wasn't strong enough to be a Common Soul, he was sure of that, but it was strong for a Lesser Soul.
Vidar's eyes narrowed as a thought occurred. If it was weaker than normal, wouldn't he be able to not only Harvest the Petty Souls of the four recently deceased hyenas but also the stag itself?
If he gathered another Petty Soul, that was a profit of two Lesser Souls for just a single fight!
Holding his hand to his chin, Vidar pondered the risks of such an action.
Is it… worth it?
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Author's Note:
Not much to say about this chapter, except that it lays a bunch of seeds that'll bloom much later on.
Vidar's destructiveness isn't something he gained from the trauma of war, but something that had always been a part of him. It's just that living a good portion of his childhood in war sort of amplified it into... this.
[Query]: Is there a place in the DBZ Universe you expect Vidar to eventually travel to? Besides Earth, of course.
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
Khaall
Khaall =[Status: Vidar]
-Age: 14
-Race: Human
-Power Level: 27 | Magic Points: 6
-Energy: 54
-Unique Ability: Harvest
-Perks: [-]
-Skills: [Combat Mastery (F)], [Meditation (D)], [Mana Core (F)], [Conjuration Magic (D)], [Ki Control (F)]
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein