Bulma watched Darc compare his energy output with that of Arkis and she could slightly see that he was a little bit frustrated about Arkis catching up so soon.
Thinking about it she does know that Darc started training when he was 4 years old. And Arkis was just about 3 years with him now? So it is understandable why he felt like that.
"Are you feeling bad about being surpassed?", she asked him.
Arkis already let go of Bulma´s waist after Darc reduced his aura and heard her words. Now she was also kind of interested in Darc his answer to that and looked at him with a curious look.
Darc put a hand to his chin when that question came and thought about how he should answer that.
"Hmm, it's not that I feel like her surpassing me is bad. It is just the fact that I feel like my power is not yet my own. And just thinking about it seriously. Then Arkis has already surpassed me already by a lot. The Energy reading just now was her base power. That means it is the energy that she can let out without having any trouble. She still can increase that with a technique. Where in my case the base energy is a lot weaker and what the reading showed was already an increased energy output. In a way, my own body hinders me in achieving better results. So, I guess it does make me feel bad somewhat. But I am also happy for her that she improves. I Am a little bit conflicted.", he answered truthfully.
His body may have a boosting with his meridians but Arkis can use the Kaioken with which she could at least double her power. So speaking about that means she is already stronger than Darc. In a way, his meridians also hinder him to increase his base power too much.
For example. If he fought someone with 1 million battle power and he was a quarter million base himself and about a million with his meridians, then his body would only get a zenkai to the amount of a little bit over 1 million and then stop benefitting from it. But the 1 million are not his base but his meridians included. So his base would be about maybe 400k afterward.
At first, Darc just liked it to be like that since his base energy would get a boost and it would be like a Transformation for him that would get stronger and stronger. But if it really hinders his improvement the more power he has then it is redundant. One can already see it in this case of where Arkis nearly is already stronger in her base than him fully powered up.
That is also one reason he tried to spar with her while keeping their energies as low as possible in the gravity chamber. If she didn't then Darc wouldn't benefit from it and if he increased his own energy he would blast the ship apart.
"Then can't you use the same technique to increase your energy?", asked Bulma back after hearing his words.
"Weirdly enough the technique that she uses doesn't work on me. And there are other ways to increase someone's energy but I also can't use those.", sighed Darc. If it were that simple he would have done it. But then again he felt like he was close to an answer to his problem but at the same time too far away to grasp it.
"I guess the only way to find out is to go to the person who invented the technique and ask him.", he added.
"Is that your next destination while you are waiting for the spaceship to be improved?", said Bulma and looked into the direction of the ship. Looking closely with her sharper technical eyes she saw how worn down it really was.
"That was basically the plan.", said Darc with a nod.
"Someone else invented the Kaioken?", asked Arkis now after hearing him out. She immediately knew which technique was the one spoken about.
"Oh, yeah. I didn't tell you yet but the Kaioken is a technique that was created by the Northern Kaio. Hence the name of the Fist of the King of Worlds...In a way it is tailored at you, Arkis. You being a Supreme King of Worlds and all that.", he explained to her. Until now he actually forgot to tell her about its origin.
"So, how do you get to that Kaio when you don't have a ship?", asked Bulma and Arkis also agreed to that.
"We use teleportation, Bulma. It is convenient to use as long as someone knows the destination. Arkis, with Kai Kai we can travel to the other world and meet king Yemma. From there we can travel down the snake road to get to Northern Kaio´s place. When we are there and know the coordinates of that place we can travel there without having any problems.", he explained to her.
"Where do you know about all that?", interrupted Bulma and looked a little bit suspicious.
"You know Kami´s lookout, right? The place where Goku still trains at? Well, Kami can also use that teleportation to get to the world of the dead. And I did learn Kai Kai from him. That is why I know of it.", he told her.
"So it is like fortuneteller Baba´s ability to bring someone back from the dead for 1 day?", she asked back.
"Exactly.", he nodded.
"Hmpf, and where do you know about fortune teller Baba? I never mentioned her to you.", smirked Bulma now after laying a trap at him.
Darc only smiled though. "She is Muten Roshi´s sister. I know of her. Bulma, when you try to trick me into something, you should get better at gathering information first. You know that I gathered the Dragon Balls when I was younger. At those journeys, I met a lot of people. Even that pilaf gang was no exception.", he said and brushed her trap aside.
Bulma only sulked a little but then gave it up to find out why he has so much knowledge regarding such things. But he always seemed to have some kind of excuse when being confronted about it.
Arkis only chuckled a little bit since she knew better by now that Darc had immense knowledge about others things that he normally shouldn't have.
"Alright, let's get inside and enjoy the rest of the day. Bulma, did you hear from the others at all? I mean Goku and the others.", asked Darc now and started walking.
Bulma and Arkis followed suit. "Like always there was nothing. Not even the most basic call. I wonder how people can stay alone somewhere for months non-stop.", said Bulma after come to think about the others.
"Well, Goku is with Kami. Tien has Chiaotzu and Yamcha is together with Puar. And Krillin is somewhere under his own monk people as well. So in a way, they all have people with them. Otherwise, they really would go insane...", said Darc and thought about the hyperbolic time chamber.
That place was probably hell in itself. At least the way he trained now he could still teleport here and there.
"And you got Arkis, huh?", asked Bulma him and looked at his reaction.
"Are you getting a little bit jealous? Do you want to come with us?", he asked her after her words.
"Hmm, maybe a little? I do trust you if you started anything with Arkis you would tell me. After all, I don't think you would use us both and play with our feeling, right?", she said and looked straight in front of herself.
Darc only sighed after looking at her silhouette but arched his brows after he heard Arkis her next words.
"Is it that wrong to have more than one woman? I would also like to be a family with Bulma.", asked Arkis and smiled innocently.
Bulma also arched her eyebrows and looked at Arkis. She didn't know how to react to her words.
"Let's not talk about such topics right now...", said Darc and pinched Arkis her nose. He always tends to do it when she did something naughty and inappropriate.
Enjoy.