In a small town near a long and wide river, a boy carried two baskets of fish on his back, with long black hair tied in a ponytail on the back of his head, he works tirelessly under the blazing sun of the morning.
"Masato, you're early today, I see you managed to bring quite a few this time!" An old man in his street food stall smiled when he saw the kid approaching.
Masato smiled back and put down the baskets before swiping away the sweat and giving a long sigh. "Grandpa, the work is done! The baskets are filled to the top."
"Hm, I can see that. You worked really hard."
"Hehe, that was nothing, if I want to achieve my dream, I need to do my best after all!" Ueda Masato smiled with a playful grin.
Grandpa Yori took the baskets and started counting the number of fish before nodding satisfied. "Having dreams is a good thing, but I really don't understand why you are so eager to meet those dangerous martial artists, they are a bunch of hooligans I tell you, one of them even took a daughter of mine away a few years back."
"Eh... Sorry, I didn't know."
Seeing his flustered state, Yori laughed happily. "What are you ashamed for? It's been such a long time, I have already left this behind, besides, I know that not every martial artist out there is a criminal, but it's just that the bad ones make more noise, you know?"
Masato nodded and reached out his hand to grab the money Yori put on the table for him, after counting and seeing 1000 Zeni, Masato was astonished and couldn't help but take another look towards the batch of fish he brought in to sell this time.
Seeing his confused look, Yori laughed and raised his head with pride. "Be thankful boy, I decided to sponsor you! Now that I gave you so much money, you'll have to obediently return and let me spank you if you go down the wrong path after learning how to fight!"
"A-ah!? Y-you... are you really..."
"Ahh..." Yori sighed helplessly. "You don't have to react like that kiddo, you're practically my grandson at this point! It's only natural for a grandpa to help his grandchildren. Now go, there is a train schedule to stop at the town today, buy yourself a ticket while you still can!"
With tears in his eyes, Masato looked at Yori and bowed down, showing his respect that came from the bottom of his heart.
Since he came to this world 3 months ago, he almost died of hunger in the first week and was saved by grandpa Yori, now he was even giving him all this money just so that he could follow his dreams! Every month, Masato would only make about 100 Zeni, with the amount grandpa Yori gave him, he could finally enroll in a martial arts academy!
Cupping his fist he raised his head and said. "Grandpa Yori, I'll never forget this kindness, when I'm powerful and capable I'll return to repay you ten times more!"
"Fugahahahaha! What's that kiddo? Ten times more? I'll only believe it if I see it with my eyes, now go before I change my mind!"
Smiling, Masato bid his farewell and left towards the train station.
On his way to the station, Masato sighed happily as he looked at the system before his eyes. Ever since he came to this world after dying in a tragic murder, he was gifted with this thing, and after so much time there was only one thing he could train with it, which was the standard skill that came with the system.
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Martial Arts Master System
Spiritual Anchor Manual - You've learned the Spiritual Anchor Manual from ???. Every being in the universe can use the power of life, otherwise known as Ki, Qi, Chi, etc, no matter their species, a few, however, can do so better than others, it's a difference in a fundamental level that involves both the body and the soul, while you can't change your body, it's still possible to enhance your soul! Each level gained in this skill increases your Spiritual Affinity by 10%. For your convenience, a level chart was added to allow you to understand the main difference between your species and other strong know species in the galaxy.
Spiritual affinity Lv 0 to 1 / Humans
Spiritual affinity Lv 0 to ???? / Demons
Spiritual affinity Lv 10 to 70 / Saiyans
Spiritual affinity Lv 30 to 70 / Human Androids
Spiritual affinity Lv 150 to 300 / Frost Demons
There are a plethora of powerful species in the universe, the list includes some of the ones you know, but not all of them, if you wish to better understand their overall level of talent, you'll have to defeat someone of their species in order for it to be included in the list!
P.S.: Don't slack! You might have some good surprises training this manual!
Spirit Anchor (Novice Stage) Lv 3 (20/300)
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The Spiritual Anchor Manual was a growth-type kind of technique, it would remain effective for as long as you grew, the more you trained it the better, as it could allow you to break through your natural limitations with a lot easier than it would be usually possible.
In a world like Dragon Ball, this was a priceless manual! It could by itself erase the fundamental weakness of the human race! Of course, it would require years of dedication, and constant refining, but what's that compared to actually being able to survive beasts like Frieza or Majin Buu?
The reason why he was still stuck at lv 3 even after 3 months is because of the side effects of training this technique, you can gain one experience point per hour by training at the first stage of the manual. But the more you did, the more energy is consumed.
How it worked was a little tricky, the life force, Ki, wasn't just a single type of energy. Lifeforce is born when Physical Energy and Spiritual Energy are fused within the Internal Furnace, as described in the Spiritual Anchor Manual. In order for you to produce Ki, even the weakest of those two types of energy is necessary, therefore, a being without it wouldn't be able to have it.
What the Spiritual Anchor Manual did, was produce a lot of Ki when you meditated and followed the book words by imagining energy entering the furnace and leaving it like a ghostly kind of energy after an hour. That ghostly energy would be ownerless Spiritual Energy, you have then to imagine your soul being bathed in this energy and this would nourish it, enhancing your natural Spiritual Energy.
The only reason why he was still a novice in the manual, was because he lacked the necessary amount of Physical Energy, only by growing strong would he be able to increase the efficiency of the technique to higher stages.
Even so, this technique alone gave him the hope to one day surpass the Z fighters as he liked to call them, it might be just a minimal step towards that goal, but even a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.
Arriving at the station, Masato bought a ticket and waited for some time. When the train arrived, he hopped onto it, carrying only his money with him, and left the Piterodatiru Town behind. The next step in his journey.
The train this time was going to Central City. It would first go through a large forest near the plains filled with large rock formations covered in moss and grass that Masato didn't know to exist in the world of Dragon Ball before being reborn there.
Sitting there without much to do, he took a journal from the table and started to read it, after a while, he was surprised seeing a slightly familiar face but he couldn't put his finger around it, scratching his head in confusion as he kept that face in his mind, he was surprised when the very person sat on the same table as his.
"Sorry... the others are all occupied and you seem to be around my age..." The girl pushed down her glasses and smile. She had smooth blonde hair that went almost to her waist and large dark eyes that seemed to draw Masato in them.
Caught by surprise he failed to answer for a moment but quickly corrected that mistake. "Don't worry, I'm not sitting with anyone... Eh... My name is Ueda Masato." Curious over the girl's identity, he smiled and decided to approach her, maybe she was someone he had seen in the anime and just couldn't remember.
"Oh? You don't recognize me?" The girl frowned slightly with a cute pout on her face as she slightly lowered her cap. Looking at her luxurious clothes full of fashion, and a style that should be more common in West City based on some tourists he had seen before, Masato pushed his mind to the limits but he just couldn't recall it.
After a while, he came up with an excuse and said it without bothering with her earlier reaction. "Sorry, I'm but a poor orphan from Piterodatiru Town, I don't know much about the world, are you famous?"
Hearing this, the girl blinked her eyes in surprise as she stared at Masato. "Woah! You have lived without parents all your life!?" Just as Masato thought that she had fallen for it, the girl shoot out a low grunt and said with her head raised high. "I don't believe it! Humph! You're clearly trying to catch my attention by pretending that you don't know me!"
'What...?' Masato blinked his eyes in genuine confusion and frowned slightly. What a little brat! It was his first time meeting a girl so full of herself! Could it be that she was like a super-duper famous and sought-after girl? Was she a princess or something!? Before he could finish his thoughts, the girl continued spouting her nonsense.
"Besides, I know I'm very beautiful, which boy doesn't want to be with me, so just admit it already, you're pretending because you want to be my boyfriend, right? I bet I'm right!" The girl smiled proudly of her assumptions, like a detective who solved the murder of someone.
Masato could only smile helplessly and leave the girl for her own delusions, who know what's going on in her mind? Besides, he couldn't think of a way to clear his name now that it had been sullied without him noticing.
'Although she acted like a little brat and was somewhat bossy, he didn't feel any malice coming from her, so she probably doesn't mean any harm.' As if to answer his thoughts, the girl smiled and reached out her hand with something she took out from her handbag.
"What is this?" Masato took the small piece of paper curiously.
"You're going to Central City, right? There will be a concert in a few weeks, you couldn't capture my heart, but I commend your attempt! To not let your efforts go unrewarded, I'll give you this VIP ticket for the concert, it has the best views and even some free snacks to eat during the show!"
Looking down at the piece of paper, Masato was astonished to the point of having his mouth hanging open in surprise. [Super Idol Azuki show on Central City! Thank you for supporting me, my adorable fans! VIP Ticket for Idol Azuki's show.]