Some time passed after the first real normal day that he had in a long time. Darc was currently wearing a lab coat and sitting near a machine and analyzing some data while drinking coffee out of a mug.

He took a mouthful and then placed it back on the desk in front of him. Yawning a little bit he leaned backward in his chair and stretched himself out. To be precise its been now 6 months. Not long and his little boy would be born. Yes, it is going to be a boy. Maybe fate just wills it that Bulma´s first child is a boy.

She even already had a name and who would have thought, it is the one everyone knows of already. The name would become Trunks. Darc, of course, objected to it at first but with no real success. Bulma stayed adamant about this name no matter what. So he gave up about convincing her.

Darc didn't really bother himself with that matter for long to be truthful. He was pretty calm even though it was a weird feeling becoming the father of Trunks. Well, now Vegeta at least will have his opportunity to chose his kids name. He looked pretty dejected when Bulma always chose the names.

Darc also used this rare time to relax and think things through. He even took over the job in the lab while Bulma was laying low. He actually was pretty good in tech stuff.

Maybe having Bulma and Glew around himself somewhat influenced him to get interested in this stuff unconsciously. That is if doing it part-time was any help at all. He still mainly focused on the business in the western universe.

And he also did not forget to train his body as much as he could to keep it fit. The longer he was without ki the more he felt distant from the world somewhat.

Come to think of it he also didn't have a driving license which he should get at some point. Always taking a cab to get from one point to another got annoying.

Looking at his watch he saw it was already time for him to get into contact with Arkis. She would do some errands for him at the GP and also go to Chronoa to check on things. Oh, boy was Chronoa outraged when she found out about Darc his current condition.

But in the end, she only sighed that it can't be helped. She also wasn't getting anywhere soon with the corrupted timelines. So his help wasn't needed for the moment. Arkis could do it if it wasn't anything hard.

That is also one point how he ended up like this now. Arkis also slowly came to like the normal life. It was peaceful and had its good sides. Since she was Darc his partner and came along well with Bulma she could stay here at the Briefs household.

Standing up from his chair he undressed the coat off from his body and placed it on the chair. Then he walked out of the lab and walked over to another room.

It was the special training room that he got for himself. Dr. briefs actually got it finished much sooner than he at first thought. Also, building a stationary training room was much easier than one that was a spacecraft. So this room could go up to 1500g.

The AI Alice was immediately activated when Darc entered the room.

+Welcome back, Darc.+

"Hey there, Alice. Alright, let me change up and then let's do some workout.", he told her and went over to a side room that was for changing clothes. Well, since his meridians ruptured he can't use magic. So it was back to the normal way of changing clothes.

Coming back out of the room after changing into some training clothes he positioned himself and made some stretching exercises.

"Alright, close up the room and increase the gravity to 700g.", said Darc to the artificial intelligence.

+Confirmed.+ gave the AI back and started to operate the rooms machines.

This was the benefit his current condition gave him. At least now he knew how strong his body physically was. He always suppressed his ki to get some benefit from the gravitational chamber. Now he could directly see how his body fared without even the slightest amount of ki inside it. At first, Darc had to start back at 200g of gravity and now his body slowly got used even to 700g.

What made him surprised was that his body was adapting pretty fast. Not even before all this happened did he have such fast progress. And he was only training once or twice a week now with all his work on the side. He also started thinking about taking a short timeout after Trunks is born until the Z storyline began.

What he also got was his understanding of his martial prowess also became stronger. Every move he executed hundreds and thousands of times slowly got etched deep into his bones. And his forms slowly looked like a fluent stream of moves without the slightest interruption in motion.

He also didn't look like he had any strain to his stamina. At this moment Darc realized. True mastery of martial arts does not come from immense ki but knowing the basics would be always stronger. What use was power when one couldn't use it properly? One would only be a glass cannon.

Some time passed while he trained. Darc punched out with his right hand and placed the other close to his chest while it still remained close up to a fist. His feet blurred and a second later his body vanished like a mirage that never existed.

Darc moved around so fast that he was nowhere to be seen but suddenly 30 Darc appeared in the room at various positions. Some even stood against each other. The stationary figures suddenly started to move slowly and attacked each other. Each Darc struck at another Darc and the contacts looked heavy. Since no ki was involved the attacks were silent and deadly. This went for a while until the figures started to dissipate and one remaining Darc stood sweat-drenched in solitude in the room.

"Alice, increase the gravity to 750g.", he told her an prepared himself.

+...Affirmative. Be careful, Darc.+

Then the gravity became even stronger and Darc suddenly had to go to his knees. He slowly pushed himself back up and executed some routine punches and kicks. The fluent movements from before were still fluent but looked like in slow motion compared o the other time.

A lot more time passed and the room slowly became brighter. Darc lay on the ground and breathed heavily.

´I wonder how strong my ki will be when I actually get it back?´, he thought about the result of his training here.

He wouldn't believe he needed to train his ki back to the point he already had. After all his muscle memory was godly. His body would just remember his power and easily access it when needed even if he went without training for years like Krillin did.

And now that his body is much stronger than before his power should be even stronger then what it was when he is healed up. The question was, by how much that would actually be.

He stood up from the floor, went to the shower and left the training room afterward.

Right at that moment, Lite came over to visit together with Glew. Glew went straight to Bulma after saying her greetings. Lite and Darc sat on a couch and started their little conversation.

"How are you holding up?", asked Lite him and smiled.

"Pretty good. How about yourself? Any news about a kid on its way?", smirked Darc to his friend.

Lite only sighed. "Don't mention that. Do you know how much Glew is actually nagging me about this matter? Ever since Bulma became pregnant Glew started asking me about making a family.", he answered him.

"Well, are you actually trying or should I be worried about my dear friend being somewhat unable to do it? Is everything okay down there, buddy?", he asked him with a slight laugh.

Lite got a slight blush and furrowed his brows. "Everything works just fine!", he rebuked and got a lot quieter "...Well, the doc said it at least."

Darc arched both his brows and stayed silent. Then he sighed. "Well, at least you seem to want it. Just stay vigilant. At some point, it will work out. And if not there is still the option of adoption or...the dragon balls?", said Darc with a serious tone so that Lite knew he was taking this matter seriously. Talking about stuff like that should also not be taken on the light shoulder.

Come to think about it he could use the dragon balls himself but at the same time, he didn't want to rely on them too much. He used them for his start to get some advantages but now it was pretty much redundant.

And even if he wished his meridians healed it probably wasn't in his power yet to do so. Or else even Goku his illness would have been able to be healed by them as well but still needed the medicine.

Scratching his head, Lite immediately changed the topic. "Hey, you told me I could use your training equipment when we finally move over to the west city. Now it's about time you showed me. And did you get in contact to get me a job at the GP?", asked Lite now.

"Oh, yeah. They agreed to let you in. Hakase - I mean Dr. Briefs and I already finished building up your spaceship. But to make sure you are ready you should at least go and do some training under 10g to 100g in the gravity chamber. Like that, I can be assured that you idiot don't go off and die. Glew would chew me out royally and I would have to go through the trouble to collect the dragon balls for you.", answered Darc nonchalantly.

"Its that much of a bother to revive your friend?", smiled Lite with a wry smile.

"Only if you are dumb enough to die.", said Darc.

"And that is the guy saying that nearly died trying something out...", snorted Lite.

"Even though I did. Even now I am far stronger than you. So go figure.", said Darc and showed Lite the training room where he could do his training. He also gave Alice the command not to go over 15g for the time being while Lite was training there.

He also should get Lite to Guru at some point. Better now than never. Maybe visit Nail again and see how he progressed as well?