"Breaking my limiter can give my martial arts limitless potential.
What do you think, Chiaotzu? Want to try it too? Once the Dragon Balls recover next time, why don't you make the same wish I did?"
Tien Shinhan revealed the truth as though he were joking.
He would be happy to see Chiaotzu become a little stronger, too.
After all, to Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu was truly one of his own.
But the moment Chiaotzu heard Tien Shinhan's words, he covered his hat with a terrified expression.
He didn't want to lose his one remaining hair just like that.
"Heh heh, limitless potential in martial arts. Well said. It seems your ambitions are even greater than I expected, Tien Shinhan.
Then train hard at Korin Tower with Goku.
I'll take Krillin back to Kame House and begin even stricter training, too!"
Master Roshi voiced his admiration, heartened that Tien Shinhan still maintained this determination to keep growing stronger after defeating King Piccolo.
When he himself was still young, he had also worked hard for a time after seeing his teacher Mutaito sacrifice himself to seal King Piccolo away.
But after becoming Earth's grandmaster of martial arts back then, he had grown somewhat lax and neglected his training over the past two hundred years or so.
The main reason was that those magazines full of fair, tender flesh were simply too enticing, causing an old habit he had worked hard to quit to flare up again.
"Tien Shinhan, Goku, I'll catch up to you two soon!"
Krillin, too, was brimming with fighting spirit, determined to catch up to the two of them on the path of martial arts.
"All right, I'll look forward to it!"
Tien Shinhan nodded, while Goku beside him also sincerely encouraged Krillin to catch up.
"Ah, it's good to be young!"
Master Roshi stroked his beard, watching the scene before him with satisfaction.
"We'll be off, then, Goku, Tien Shinhan, and Chiaotzu."
Meanwhile, Bulma had finished checking the plane. After finding nothing wrong, she said her goodbyes and left with Master Roshi and Krillin.
"Let's start training!"
"What do you say, Goku? Want to race to the top of Korin Tower?"
He watched as Bulma and the others' plane shrank to a dot, then finally disappeared from view.
Tien Shinhan then turned toward Korin Tower behind him, eager to begin training.
He wanted to see whether breaking his human limiter had also changed how quickly he improved through training.
"Sure! But this is your first time climbing the tower, right, Tien Shinhan? I've already climbed it before. Wouldn't a race be a little unfair?"
Hearing that he could compete, and against Tien Shinhan, who was evenly matched with him, Kid Goku immediately perked up.
But remembering that he already had experience climbing the tower, he reminded Tien Shinhan.
"That's fine. Climbing the tower comes down to raw ability. Experience might make a little difference at first, but I'll adapt soon enough.
If I can't overcome such a tiny difference, what right do I have to become a true martial artist?"
Tien Shinhan's bold spirit surged. There was no concern for fairness in battle.
The same applied to a competition. Naturally, he had to use everything at his disposal.
As long as no one cheated, a slight difference in conditions was something he ought to overcome!
"Chiaotzu, just do your best. If you get too tired, you can use your psychic powers or the Flight Technique to fly straight up.
Your training mainly focuses on psychic powers. Basic physical conditioning is enough."
Tien Shinhan hadn't forgotten Chiaotzu beside him.
After all, he would be racing Goku up the tower while gauging his own training gains along the way. He couldn't spare any more attention.
"Don't worry, Brother Tien. I know my limits."
Chiaotzu nodded to show he understood.
And so, a tower-climbing race officially began.
Three!
Two!
One!
Tien Shinhan and Goku stood behind a line three meters from the base of Korin Tower.
As Chiaotzu finished his three-second countdown, they both dashed from the line toward Korin Tower.
The instant they touched Korin Tower, they clung to its outer wall and began climbing.
At first, thanks to the difference in climbing experience, Goku shot upward like a skyrocket, quickly climbing dozens of meters.
Tien Shinhan, on the other side, climbed only five meters in those same ten-odd seconds.
His lack of experience even caused him to slip once, sliding two meters straight down Korin Tower's outer wall.
In just one minute, the gap between them had widened to several hundred meters.
But after that minute of figuring things out, Tien Shinhan had grasped the knack of climbing the tower.
Recalling how even Goku's tail had occasionally helped him climb, Tien Shinhan had a flash of inspiration.
Four Witches Technique!
Unlike the Multi-Form Technique, which split him into four, the Four Witches Technique was another major move Tien Shinhan had mastered.
Using the Four Witches Technique, Tien Shinhan could grow two extra arms from his back.
With all four arms climbing, combined with the knack he had just picked up, Tien Shinhan's climbing speed instantly soared.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-
Like a rocket shooting upward, after another five minutes or so, Tien Shinhan had thoroughly gauged the gap he had fallen behind by.
"Oh, Tien Shinhan, you caught up!
Four arms! Isn't that more than my two hands and one tail?"
Goku had already seen Tien Shinhan's Four Witches Technique at the World Martial Arts Tournament, and had even suffered quite a bit from it in battle.
He hadn't expected Tien Shinhan to use it while climbing the tower, too!
But this didn't break any rules, much less count as cheating, because both Tien Shinhan's Four Witches Technique and Goku's tail were part of their own abilities!
"I didn't think the Four Witches Technique would be such a powerful move for climbing the tower, too!
But I'm not going to admit defeat that easily!"
Seeing Tien Shinhan overtake him, Goku refused to fall behind and burst into full speed.
Seeing this, Tien Shinhan refused to be outdone.
What had been a somewhat lonely, monotonous climb suddenly became a blood-pumping contest as the two competed.
One moment, Tien Shinhan held a narrow lead.
The next, Goku gritted his teeth and overtook Tien Shinhan by a head.
In this heated tower-climbing competition, both Tien Shinhan and Goku received more thorough training than they would have climbing alone.
Neither Tien Shinhan nor Goku had perfectly mastered the use of ki yet.
But they still had a perfect sense of their own strength.
Using the power level scale, Tien Shinhan placed his strength when he first transmigrated and merged at 180.
Half a day later, when this climb reached its end, Tien Shinhan sensed that his power level had actually increased by nearly 50.
In other words, his power level had now reached 230.
With that power level, even without using the Evil Containment Wave as a feint, the aged King Piccolo was no longer a match for him!
At the same time, Tien Shinhan's earlier conjecture was confirmed.
Training could indeed strengthen the effect of the trait he had gained after breaking his human limiter.
During the tower-climbing workout, Tien Shinhan's rate of improvement had risen to roughly a hundred times the trait's original effect!