"Yes. As long as you defeat the five warriors under me, you can receive one free fortune-telling session."
Fortuneteller Baba cackled, already looking forward to the coming battles.
"But let me make this clear first: even though only two of you have come, you still have to defeat all five of my warriors in succession.
"If you're outnumbered, that's your own fault for not bringing enough people."
Fortuneteller Baba added this to prevent Tien Shinhan from making an issue of having only two people to face a gauntlet of opponents.
"Haha, as long as you agree, Fortuneteller Baba, there's no problem.
"As for five warriors against two people, Chiaotzu won't need to step in to deal with them. I alone will be enough!"
Tien Shinhan still remembered Fortuneteller Baba's five warriors.
Their power levels weren't high. Even he himself before defeating King Piccolo could have beaten them.
The only things that warranted a little attention were the special abilities each of them possessed.
With his current power level, what Tien Shinhan needed to worry about was being careful not to kill them outright, rather than how to win.
"Well, young man, you certainly are confident. But too much confidence can easily turn into arrogance!
"I already know that you defeated King Piccolo."
Fortuneteller Baba's words seemed pointed, as though she were hinting at something.
Tien Shinhan took some notice of that.
Could Fortuneteller Baba have other, stronger fighters under her besides the five warriors who fought Goku in the story?
Did Fortuneteller Baba's deliberate emphasis on knowing he had defeated King Piccolo mean the opponents she sent out would at least be on King Piccolo's level?
At that thought, Tien Shinhan grew a little more cautious.
But he remained confident. After all, for his current self, even if all five fighters who came out next were as strong as King Piccolo, he could still defeat them one after another.
There was an enormous gap between strength exceeding a thousand and a power level below five hundred.
"Is that so? Then I'll really have to look forward to seeing your warriors, Fortuneteller Baba."
Tien Shinhan gave a faint smile, also urging her to get the fighting started sooner.
"Hehe, all right. You two, follow me."
Seeing that Tien Shinhan remained confident, Fortuneteller Baba said no more and turned to lead the way.
Before long, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu followed her to a fighting ring inside the main hall.
"Here we are. Falling out of the ring or being beaten until you can no longer fight counts as a loss. There aren't any other rules."
Fortuneteller Baba briefly explained the rules, then immediately activated a special ability on her crystal ball.
The crystal ball she sat on immediately emitted a milky-white glow.
"Challengers are here. All five of you, get ready to fight at once. This time, you have heavyweight opponents."
"Yes, Baba!"
Several voices came through from the other end via the crystal ball's power.
Before the crystal ball's glow faded, Tien Shinhan also noticed a beam of light fly out of it, spreading to cover the space above the ring.
What's this?
Somewhat surprised, Tien Shinhan stared intently at the layer of light above the ring, trying to discern its special effect.
But soon, when the first warrior arrived and Tien Shinhan stepped into the ring as well, he understood what the light did.
So this curtain of light is used to increase gravity!
Tien Shinhan could feel that the gravity bearing down on him had reached three times Earth's normal gravity.
With gravity suddenly increased like this, Tien Shinhan, who had not adapted to it, immediately felt his movements restricted to some degree.
By contrast, Fangs the Vampire, the first warrior to enter on the other side, had clearly trained and adapted to this environment before.
Although moving under three times gravity was also quite strenuous for Fangs the Vampire, his movements were not affected too greatly.
In this environment, Fangs the Vampire held a considerable home-field advantage.
So when Fortuneteller Baba mentioned heavyweight opponents just now, was she secretly reminding her warriors that the gravity multiplier in the ring would change for this fight?
Recalling what Fortuneteller Baba had said through the crystal ball, Tien Shinhan realized this was a setup she had already prepared.
With one side accustomed to the conditions and the other not, even challengers whose original power levels were considerably higher than Fortuneteller Baba's warriors could very well suffer from their unfamiliarity with the fighting environment, or even lose in the end.
But Tien Shinhan was different.
While Fortuneteller Baba was still judging his strength by King Piccolo's level, Tien Shinhan's current power level had already surpassed a thousand.
Looking at Fangs the Vampire before him, he found that his power level was little different from what he remembered.
If she hopes to defeat me merely through familiarity with the fighting environment, her calculations are going to fall through.
Fangs the Vampire's power level, barely approaching a hundred, was simply far too weak for Tien Shinhan.
Once he understood that Fortuneteller Baba's only trump card in this contest was changing the ring's gravity, Tien Shinhan knew the battle was already over.
Bang!
Without the slightest hesitation, Tien Shinhan threw a punch at Fangs the Vampire, who had darted to his side to attack.
The punch struck Fangs the Vampire squarely, knocking him unconscious on the spot and sending blood spurting as his entire body flew out of the ring.
And this was only the beginning.
The results of Tien Shinhan's three months of training at Korin Tower and Kami's Lookout showed themselves.
The fighters who followed-Invisible Man, Mummy, Devilman, and even Kid Goku's grandfather, Son Gohan-were all defeated by Tien Shinhan with a single punch each.
Invisible Man, in particular, could be said to have lost the fastest.
Relying on his invisibility, he launched a sneak attack on Tien Shinhan while invisible as soon as he entered the ring.
But against Tien Shinhan, who had already mastered Ki Sensing, his invisibility, which could not conceal his ki, was completely useless.
Just three seconds into the fight, Tien Shinhan punched him out of the ring.
And of those three seconds, he had spent two and a half charging up to Tien Shinhan.
The remaining half second was the time he spent flying backward through the air after Tien Shinhan punched him, until he struck the wall surrounding the ring.
"See, Fortuneteller Baba? I told you I alone would be enough."
After dealing with all five in succession, Tien Shinhan dusted off his slightly dirt-stained fists and walked over to Fortuneteller Baba with a faint smile.
"Ah! I never imagined you had become this powerful. Changing the ring's gravity didn't hinder you from defeating your opponents at all.
"Oh, well. I'm not someone who goes back on her word.
"Though it's a shame I didn't get to see a fierce, evenly matched battle, you have fulfilled my conditions for helping you.
"You're certain you want to find the location of the Fountain of Youth, correct?"
Fortuneteller Baba sighed. Tien Shinhan had indeed succeeded in his challenge, but the fights had ended too quickly and been far too one-sided, leaving her nowhere near satisfied with what she had watched.
Still, although she was greedy for money, she was not someone who broke her word, and she naturally accepted her loss.
Tien Shinhan nodded.
"That's right. Please divine how I can find the Fountain of Youth, Fortuneteller Baba."