One breath and another second passed. Another breath and more sweat dropped down to hit the floor. Time flowed like sand through one's hands. No matter how much one grabbed, it still trickled through one´s hand and fell back into the flow of its origin somehow.

----

Darc concentrated a lot on his training in that time and tried to improve his base strength and also his understanding and utilization of his godly ki.

Only at one point when he thought that he would not make any progress any longer did a breakthrough happened inside his meridians and he finally found a way to burst open his godly powers.

It was weird at first but it somehow worked out. When he concentrated his godly ki inside a few bigger, clearer meridians of his body and then let his normal ki slowly flow through it, it resulted in him making said progress. There was a minimalistic change in his ki that he could observe.

It intertwined with the godly ki already residing inside the meridian and a small part of it then changed after making contact and mutated into godly ki while the rest just continued on flowing in his system as normal ki.

Like that, he could finally and effectively increase the amount of godly ki inside his body. And not only that. The normal ki that was absorbed and seemed lost while being converted into godly ki regenerated after a while as well.

That made Darc a little bit curious at first and let him think about the actual difference again.

Why was normal ki still regenerating after turning into godly ki?

To confirm something, he started wasting a little bit of his godly ki and wait to see if it regenerates and it really did refill back just like his normal ki.

But why was his transformed normal ki still there and regenerating as well? It would not be of any use later since godly ki was superior to normal ki. Or was it?

That fact gave Darc an actual headache so he only concentrated to max out the godly ki for now and see how much he could hold in him. He would worry about the other stuff later.

With him converting more normal ki into godly one, the time passed even faster than normal. And at some point, months passed in the blink of an eyelash.

----

Darc finally reached another breakthrough in his efforts and understanding of ki after the time passed on. He noticed his ki was both. It was godly and at the same time, it wasn't. Like twins that were born at the same moment or sides of the same coin. It all just depended on his will which side of the coin he wanted to flip.

The only real difference in usage he noticed, was that godly ki was more in tune with his environment and strengthened him through his various chakra points that are gates for such surrounding energies to enter his body. It also could be stored inside one's body as well.

Like that he would gain stronger stamina to remain longer in a fight since he would passively recover with the world sending its energy inside his body through his chakra gates.

Whereas his normal ki still worked as a multiplier and was in tune with the inside of his body to strengthen him over his normal level with pure explosive power. It also could scrape at the chakra gates to strengthen said multiplier but that of course resulted in a higher strain on his body which ultimately results in higher stamina usage overall.

Let's take the Super Saiyan Transformation as an example. It touched on the third chakra: the solar plexus chakra or how Caulifla would explain it. A tingling in ones back.

When going through emotional trauma like the loss of a dear friend, it becomes blocked by one's sheer anger or powerlessness and starts accumulating ki inside it. After being finally freed through ones will in form of pushing a lot of energy into it or wanting to went ones anger on someone's head, it bursts open in the form of a Super Saiyan. Since the Saiyan have a good body memory the could with high enough powers remember the feeling and tap into that state again voluntarily.

In the end, it should be called more like golden something state as Frieza called his. Golden Fighter maybe? But that the hair changed color depending on which chakra the Saiyans used was sure helpful to make it a super Saiyan. In his eyes, the Saiyan only slowly had one advantage and that was their Oozaru form.

At least that was his understanding until now. The concept reminded him of Yin and Yang. He would actually be eager enough to try his new hypothesis out but even the normal Kaioken didn't work out yet.

---

His godly ki was also already on the level now where it could clad his body. Arkis was the one most surprised about his immense improvement.

She entered the training room for the first time on this day and saw Darc just standing around and not moving at all.

He had his eyes closed in concentration and suddenly ignite his aura. That aura started to hug him around his body from bottom to top and flickered like a black flame around his body and some sparkling white lights flying around in its vicinity. Thinking about the color again he also now knew that black was also the color of the root chakra just like the red from Saiyan God.

The aura was not wild but deadly calm. It pressured her immediately and she gritted her teeth and even some sweat started to drop down from her face.

Noticing her presence, Darc opened his eyes and regulated his godly ki back into his body after seeing her predicament.

"Sorry, Arkis. I didn't think the effect would be this bad on you. I finished converting all of my energy into godly ki and finally can let it flare up and power up myself with it. Though I am only able to activate my aura for a few seconds or so before I run dry with the amount of energy I got right now." , he said and scratched his chin.

" Best I keep it mostly dormant and use it like normal ki. I also noticed both my normal ki and godly ki grow at the same speed after I converted it.", he explained to her and grinned all the while scratching his head in apology.

It took some time to learn to activate the aura and regulating it back was even more so of a problem.

At first, Darc just collapsed most of the time because his stamina was sucked dry immediately and his ki went berserk inside his body. He even sustained some internal damages he had to heal up with Senzu Beans a few times.

But in the end, it worked out after his godly ki control reached a certain mastery. The conversion of his ki into godly ki also helped in the mastery of his normal ki control and even his godly ki sense profited off it. Not to mention his meridians got a huge boost with the godly energy flowing through it. Also, both normal ki control and ki sense reached mastery where he thought it wasn't possible to achieve that level at first.

"It´s alright. But you sure are improving by leaps and bounds.", she told him. "I hope you won't forget about helping me reach the same stage."

Darc smiled "Don't worry. I know that your godly ki is mostly dormant right now and functions as normal ki. My thinking about your ki being sealed was right in a way. But at the same time, I don't know yet how to activate it for you. Sending my own godly ki inside you would probably be a bad idea so I will have to see what switch awakens your dormant energy. But don't expect too much even after awakening. With your strength right now you won't be able to wield much of you power either way."

He walked around and made a horse stance. "Here, what do you feel?", he asked her and flared his normal white ki.

Widening her eyes Arkis looked at him and thought a little "I can sense the godly ki still inside your aura. It pressures me slightly. But it's much weaker than with your complete god aura. Its just like...me?", she answered and asked him.

Darc grinned at her answer. "Exactly. It probably still pressures you because I got more ki than you. Just like normal when people with normal ki meet someone with higher ki. Now, how about this?" he extinguished his aura and shortly after flared it up again. It was white again.

"Hmm, this time the sensation of a god is gone. I don't feel any pressure anymore but I can feel you being stronger than me.", she answered again and realized. "So it is possible to change between modes in one's ki and let it go through variation?", she added as a question.

"Bingo. Even though the god aura has the greatest benefit in strength it also runs dry pretty fast. When I mix them I get the best out of both like having a regenerative endurance which lets me fight much longer, in trade of me lowering my overall strength. With just normal ki I can push myself higher but only on the level of a mortal in the end. But what I think is all types of energy can reach immense levels on a gods level and probably even beyond that. The only benefit I see is that godly ki would always prevail in terms of power as long as one can accumulate enough energy to sustain the form. In a matter of fact, I think it actually is more draining for me because I am a mortal wielding godly ki. Only when I actually make this ki my own and can indefinitely sustain my god-form, only then would I reach godhood and reap all benefits from this form. But until that day. I will probably have to use the god-form as a short power-up. It hurts my heart but that's how it is.", he said and finished his lengthy sentence.

-----

"Now then. I totally forgot about the time.", he noticed and looked at his watch to look at the date

It was already Age 753, August...

´WHAT!!!?´, he screamed in his mind and his eyes bulged. ´Let me think. Mid 750 I went off and started the 5 months journey to that planet where that lizard was. Then the 5 months back to the outpost. On the way, we probably did some errands so we can make it upgrade that to 7 months then. Shouldn't it be still somewhere around mid-year 751?´

"Hey, Arkis...and Alice...Can you actually tell me which year it is?", he asked them both and already had a premonition.

+It is the year 753 and our current date is the 3rd of August.+, answered Alice and Arkis only nodded to the AI´s answer.

"How!? Where did the last 2 years go? I still remember starting my training somewhere in April of age 751? And shouldn't we still get back to the outpost!?", he asked in a panicked tone.

+.....Darc, we have already fulfilled 3 more missions and accepted the fourth one at our visit ate the outpost. The first mission took 8 months. The second 6 months, the third another 9 months and the current one are 5 months to reach our destination. We already are 4 months on it and would soon arrive at our destination. That is a total of 27 months or 2 years and 3 months.....+

"I think you were pretty concentrated on your training. But you still even gave orders to take light jobs and postpone the hunt for now. I was actually confused at first but didn't say anything. I also was the one who did most of the jobs.", added Arkis at this moment.

Darc just blanked out at that moment. "So I am already 19? Wait, I just trained through 2 years constantly and 2..no three years of my lifespan are nearly gone!? Oh, crap...I NEED TO GET TO THE COMMUNICATION ROOM ASAP!!", he panicked after realizing his airheadedness and charged right to the comm-room. Where the hell was his mind in those past 2 years, damn it.

Arkis only watched him speed off and just shrugged her shoulders and started training herself.

He immediately speed-dialed his mother's phone but no one actually picked up. He could only look at the screen with a wry smile and wondered if that was on purpose. Then he dialed Bulma and sighed.

She luckily picked up.

"Well, look who has finally got the time to actually communicate with us...", said Bulma and one could clearly see how annoyed she looked on the communication screen. "I nearly thought something did happen to you, but looking at you now and seeing you are fine I should just hang up. So that you know not to forget your friends.", she added.

"I am sorry!", he said and clapped his hand together and put them in front of his face. "I totally blanked out on this! We also had no communications for a while somehow. What doesn't excuse it but say, is everything alright on your side? I tried to contact my just now parents but it looks like they won't pick up."

Bulma looked at him and saw that he was earnestly apologizing at least. "Your parents actually moved here to west city. Some things did actually happen.", she said and counted the events.

There was the thing with the red ribbon army she was involved with and how she went on with that kind of adventure. After that, she also had a lot to do with the company so in a way she wasn't bored.

At least she didn't chew him out more because he was comm dead for so long. He was in contact with her until mid 751 after all but later he wasn't and she did get annoyed about that fact. She even got worried that something actually happened to him and she wished him back with the Dragonballs after convincing Goku to lend her his ball again. And all that to only to get told that he wasn't dead. Then she just didn't care for a while because of her anger.

"I thought I would at least see you at the 22nd martial arts tournament but I guess that was not the case. But the more important matter was that some demon king actually tried to take over the earth this year! Luckily Goku stopped him. Even Lite helped out. Krillin though got killed and we had to revive him. Lately its such chaos here."

"I see, so many things happened. My parents moved probably because my father got more time again and since I am busy all year myself it seems like they moved back together. And the martial arts tournament was this year and it would be held in 3 years again? It's getting shorter, huh?", he asked her but already knew the answer. He just wanted to make a conversation with her to calm her.

"I am still waiting, you know. If you dare miss my 20th this year I am gonna be mad! Don't even bother contacting me if you actually go silent again.", she said to him angrily again.

"Wait, wait. I actually will take a few months for vacation. I also need to speed run my school stuff at that time. How about we spend the holidays together this year? Like that, I won't forget your birthday as well. What do you say?", he asked her with a smile. He actually really needed to crash his diploma.

She narrowed her eyes "Alright. You better keep that word. See you later than.", she said and hang up.

Darc only looked at the black screen. "ALRIGHT! Arkis! You take over for the time being. If you got problems teleport to earth to inform me. For the time being just do those easy missions. When I am back from doing my stuff back home we will rush those special units and be over with them. I will be leaving now.", he shouted to her after leaving the comm room and instantly transmitted himself back to earth to capsule corporation.