A Surge in Power

As he drew closer to the planet, the scene before him became clearer and clearer.

By now, the planet had shrunk considerably because of the Tree of Might's absorption. Its atmosphere had also begun to thin, exposing the geological layers beneath.

Looking at the planet, Kast felt a little puzzled. In the original story, he had learned that the Tree of Might needed nutrients from the soil to grow. Although this planet had land, apart from that, all it had was massive amounts of radiation and gas filling the atmosphere.

Without any extra nutrients, how had the Tree of Might survived on this planet—and grown so enormous?

Still puzzled, Kast brought his ship to a stop above the planet, near the Tree of Might's crown, then stepped outside.

Floating in the air, Kast slowly descended toward the Tree of Might below.

"So that's how!"

As he entered the planet's atmosphere, Kast finally understood how the Tree of Might had managed to survive here.

Generally speaking, gas giants were extremely dense. Their high atmospheric pressure created tremendous heat and radiation. But this planet had little radiation, and its temperature was far lower than that of a typical planet.

Kast sensed that the planet's temperature was now only around 100 degrees. That was still beyond what an ordinary human could withstand, but it was extremely low for a gas giant, whose temperature was usually well over a thousand degrees.

Kast figured the planet's dramatic change in temperature had to be related to the Tree of Might growing on it.

The Tree of Might drew nutrients from the soil, but it was still a divine tree. Heat and radiation were forms of energy too. Perhaps this Tree of Might had mutated, allowing it to absorb radiation and energy as nutrients.

And since the planet also had land, it had managed to grow tenaciously by absorbing energy, even without extra nutrients from the soil.

As the Tree of Might grew, it also purified the atmosphere, causing the planet's dense gases to disappear.

That explained why the gas giant's atmosphere had become so thin and transparent.

Now that he understood what had happened, Kast stopped dwelling on it. He had reached the Tree of Might's crown beneath him.

Kast knew from the original story that the Tree of Might's fruit grew near the top of its trunk. There was a hollow there, and the fruit hung above it.

He flew along the trunk and soon spotted the hollow.

"This is the place."

Once inside, Kast looked at the densely packed red fruit above him, and a faint smile touched his lips.

He reached out, plucked a fruit, and examined it in his palm. It looked like a spiky piece of fruit. Perhaps because it had absorbed radiation and heat, it was still hot to the touch.

Looking at the fruit in his hand, Kast considered it for a moment, then took a Senzu Bean from his clothes. Since this Tree of Might had absorbed different kinds of energy from the one in the original story, there was a chance the fruit might have some harmful effects. To be safe, he'd keep a Senzu Bean handy.

That way, if anything went wrong, he could use the bean to save his life.

As for being afraid to eat the fruit because it might be dangerous, that wasn't something Kast worried about.

After all, fortune favored the bold. There were only so many ways he could increase his strength right now, and the Tree of Might was arguably the most promising of them. The only other options were the Grand Elder on Planet Namek and Old Kai on the Supreme Kai World, who was currently sealed inside the Z Sword. Both could unlock a person's potential and grant them far greater power than before. But unlike the Tree of Might right in front of him, the Grand Elder and Old Kai were completely out of reach for now.

First, he couldn't go to Planet Namek yet. Without going there, he couldn't reach the Grand Elder, and without reaching the Grand Elder, he couldn't have his potential unlocked. The Supreme Kai World was even more inaccessible—he didn't even know where it was. On top of that, Old Kai was still sealed inside the Z Sword, making it even more impossible.

Perhaps Kast would visit Planet Namek in the future, but he had no plans to do so at this stage.

Since he'd come across the Tree of Might and had its fruit in hand, he was obviously going to eat it.

With that thought, Kast didn't hesitate. He took a bite of the fruit in his hand.

"Gulp."

The instant he swallowed the whole fruit, the muscles throughout Kast's body suddenly swelled.

Aside from that, he felt nothing else. Though the Tree of Might had absorbed different things, its fruit worked just as he remembered from his previous life: it increased his strength and had no other side effects.

"This power!"

Clenching his fist, Kast felt immense strength filling his body.

"My battle power must be over 500,000 now!"

Just like Turles in the original story, whose power had skyrocketed after eating the fruit, Kast knew that Turles had defeated Son Goku, who had a base battle power of 30,000 and had used Kaioken to multiply it tenfold.

Kaioken was a technique that multiplied one's strength. Son Goku's battle power with the tenfold Kaioken had to be at least 300,000. Yet even then, he still couldn't beat Turles after Turles ate the Tree of Might's fruit.

From that, it was clear that a single Tree of Might fruit could increase one's base battle power by at least 300,000 to 500,000. The exact amount depended on how much energy the Tree of Might had absorbed.

With that thought, Kast smiled faintly and picked up another fruit. From how he'd felt after eating the first one, he knew he hadn't reached his body's limit yet. He could still eat more of the Tree of Might's fruit.

He could probably eat around ten more for now. Luckily, the Tree of Might still had fifteen fruits growing on it.

As he ate one fruit after another, Kast's battle power finally broke through 5 million, and his body reached its limit.

At the same time, Kast felt a bottleneck forming within him. He had a premonition that if he broke through it, he would enter an entirely new realm!

"This must be the Super Saiyan bottleneck."

Kast knew that once he broke through this bottleneck, there was a very high chance he would transform into a Super Saiyan!

And a Super Saiyan had a battle power multiplier of fifty times their base form.

With a base battle power of 5 million, if Kast could transform into a Super Saiyan, he would have the terrifying power of 250 million—far beyond Frieza's battle power of 100 million.