The return to the nursery was a shock to the system. The cacophony of infantile violence, once a background nuisance, now felt deafening and trivial. The sterile, metallic air was thin and lifeless compared to the raw, ozone-charged breath of the Scarlet Maw. Kairo lay in his crib, his tiny body thrumming with a newfound tension. He had faced death and won through wit alone. The experience had carved something new inside him, a core of hardened resolve beneath the scientist's calm.
His first action was to check his status. The 24-hour ordeal had yielded more than just the promised token.
[User: Kairo]
[Race: Saiyan (Low-Class)]
[Age: 0.2 Years]
[Power Level: 19 -> 27]
[Status: Exhausted, Mild Malnourishment, Lingering Adrenal Fatigue]
[Skills: Basic Ki Control (Passive - Lv. 3), Environmental Analysis (Lv. 1)]
[Traits: Limit-Breaker, Mind's Eye (The Record of Ragnarok)]
[Mandate Points: 0]
[Trait Gacha Tokens: 1]
A gain of eight Power Levels. Not from a Zenkai, but from sheer survival. His body had been forced to adapt, to become more efficient. His Ki Control had leveled up twice from the constant, desperate use. He had even gained a new skill, [Environmental Analysis], a practical offshoot of using [Mind's Eye] to read the wilderness.
But the true prize waited in his inventory. The Trait Gacha Token. It pulsed with potential, a shimmering promise of power from beyond his own universe. He couldn't use it here, not in the open. He needed a moment of absolute privacy, a luxury that didn't exist in the communal nursery.
His opportunity came during the "Rest Cycle." The lights dimmed to a deep crimson, and the robotic attendants powered down to a minimal surveillance mode. The other infants, exhausted from their own brutal play, fell into deep, untroubled sleeps. Kairo, however, remained awake, his senses stretched to their limits.
He focused on the token in his inventory. A mental command: Use.
A wheel, vast and impossibly complex, materialized in his mind's eye. It was a mosaic of countless shifting icons: a glowing fist, a shimmering spellbook, a dragon's scale, a futuristic circuit board, an ancient rune. It spun in a dizzying blur of cosmic energy, a lottery of infinite possibilities.
Stop, he commanded.
The wheel slowed, hesitated, and finally landed on a symbol that was deceptively simple: a single, open, unblinking eye, etched in silver and radiating an aura of absolute, unassailable perception.
[Trait Acquired: Appraisal (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime)]
A flood of information poured into him. The trait was not a combat power. It was a tool of ultimate analysis. With a thought, he could now call upon a comprehensive data stream for any object, person, or phenomenon he observed.
His heart beat faster. This was… perfect. It was the ultimate complement to his scientific mind and his [Mind's Eye]. Where [Mind's Eye] gave him instinctual, combat-focused data on weak points and movement, [Appraisal] would give him the raw, statistical truth.
He immediately tested it, turning his gaze inward.
[Appraising: Kairo]
[Race: Saiyan]
[Birth Planet: Planet Vegeta]
[Status: Healthy]
[Magic: None]
[Skills: Basic Ki Control, Environmental Analysis]
[Unique Skills: Limit-Breaker]
[Extra Skills: Mind's Eye, Appraisal]
[Resistances: Gravity Resistance (Lv. 1), Poison Resistance (Lv. 1)]
Fascinating. It categorized his abilities differently from the System, using terminology from the "Slime" world. He then focused his gaze on the crib itself.
[Appraising: Duralloy Crib - Model 7]
[Composition: Vanadium-infused Steel, Polymer Coating]
[Tensile Strength: 4,800 Mpa]
[Manufacturer: Saiyan Armory Works, East Quadrant]
Next, he looked at the sleeping infant in the crib next to him, a particularly aggressive one with a tuft of blue hair.
[Appraising: Saiyan Infant - Designation: Zorn]
[Power Level: 32]
[Potential: Low]
[Skills: Bite (Lv. 2), Scramble (Lv. 1)]
[Status: Sleeping, Minor Contusions]
The applications were endless. He could appraise food for nutritional value, technology for its principles, and most importantly, warriors for their exact power, skills, and weaknesses. He could now quantify the world around him with a precision no other Saiyan could dream of.
But knowledge without the power to act was just frustration. He had the ultimate analysis tool. Now he needed the ultimate expression of power. He needed a technique.
Lying in the semi-darkness, he began to theorize. He recalled the memories of the original Dragon Ball story, of Goku's signature technique. The Kamehameha. A beam of concentrated Ki. The principle was simple: gather Ki, compress it, and release it in a focused direction.
Simple in theory. Lethally difficult in practice.
He started small. Holding out his chubby palm, he focused on the flickering candle of his Ki. He willed it to gather. A faint, barely visible wisp of blue energy flickered over his palm before sputtering out. The effort left him dizzy.
[Skill Attempt Failed: Ki Projection]
He tried again. And again. He used [Appraisal] on himself, watching the flow of his own energy in real-time. He saw where it leaked, where it destabilized. He used [Mind's Eye] to visualize the perfect, stable sphere of energy.
His body ached. His Ki reserves were pathetically small. But he was relentless. Failure was just data.
On the forty-seventh attempt, a tiny, marble-sized orb of pale blue light sputtered to life above his palm. It wavered, hissed, and vanished a second later.
[Skill Developed: Ki Projection (Lv. 1)]
He had done it. He had taken the first, most fundamental step. It wasn't a Kamehameha, but it was the foundation upon which all energy attacks were built. He, a Saiyan infant, had achieved through analysis and control what his peers would only stumble upon through blind instinct years later.
As the nursery lights brightened, signaling the start of a new cycle, Kairo closed his hand. The spark of blue light was gone, but the spark of understanding burned brighter than ever.
He had his first major tool from another world. He had the beginnings of his own technique. The path forward was no longer a dark, terrifying abyss. It was a complex equation, and he was slowly, painstakingly, gathering all the variables.
The first spark of a future conflagration had been lit.