The figure looked up at the large tree from his throne inside the bridge of his ship. It intrigued him.
He'd and his men had stayed on this planet for too long already, but he honestly hadn't anticipated this.
What sort of moron goes to the planet where Lord Slug himself is staying and steals the entire planet's life force?!
Slug had lived a long time. So long, in fact, that he had long ago given up on extending his life by training and strengthening himself naturally.
His defeat of Cooler, all those years ago, had been the turning point. Regenerating his limbs while already weakened from the fight had left his energy permanently crippled, which had notably accelerated his aging, which had already been a slight problem, even back then.
Ever since, he'd lived in fear of the Frost Demons' retribution. Hopping from fringe planet to fringe planet, never staying in one place particularly long for fear that Cooler, his father, or even his younger brother, would track him down and challenge him to a rematch.
He'd spent decades searching for something that would allow him to regain his use. Perhaps the location of his home planet, the planet Namek, which likely held the secrets to the Dragon Balls, which had the capacity to extend his life… but this… something that could destroy an entire planet, also held potential. It was something that he had never seen before.
He wouldn't allow it to be wasted by some primate. Whether it could help him or not, this tree was a weapon that Slug intended to possess for himself.
His body too weathered to waste energy casually, however, Slug ordered his men to bring everything related to the tree in question to him, and kill whoever had planted it.
From his chair, he could sense the battle taking place below. It was quickly made apparent that these invaders were unusually powerful. His men had managed to take out several of them, but the casualties were rather heavy.
Then, something changed.
The leader, the primate with the highest battle power of them all, suddenly had a massive spike in battle power.
Slug sat forward in his seat, watching with great interest as the newly-superpowered Saiyan began carving through his men like a hot knife through butter.
Unlike Piccolo and Kami, Slug had (a few, at least) clear memories of his early days on Namek, before the terrible climate disaster that caused them to send him away. He had an, admittedly limited, understanding of Namekian energy techniques, including the method to sense and manipulate chi energy.
As such, he quickly caught on to the truth, the source of the Saiyan's battle power.
Upon eating the fruits from the tree, the Saiyan's life energy had been forcibly expanded by the energy housed inside of them.
This wasn't something that was, from the Saiyan's perspective, especially useful. Essentially, it simply gave him a taste of a 'level' above his own. A temporary raise in life level, a 'booster shot' for the soul.
In the Saiyan, the 'booster shot' would only be temporarily effective, though. The raise in life levels would root out the impurities in his body, and raise the amount of energy he had, but Slug could already tell that the primate's willpower was rather weak. The soul was at its limit, unable to acclimate any further, and the body was not far behind. Before long, the Saiyan's new power would run out. The primate was like a balloon with a hole in it.
But it was likely that he would still get past Slug's army. Not that Slug particularly cared about the well-being of a few demons.. But the greed shone in his eyes. If the Saiyan ate the fruit, the extra power would run out… but if an ancient Super Namekian ate it…?
Slug blasted out of his ship as quickly as his aging body would allow. In an instant, his hand was wrapped around the Saiyan's neck, his power level of ten million overwhelming Turles's simple 100,000-level enhanced power level with ease.
He picked Turles up like a rag doll and, without a hint of hesitation, placed his hand over the Saiyan's face.
In mere seconds, everything that Turles had ever learned about the Tree of Might, over his decade of repeatedly planting trees, all flowed directly from his brain into Slug's. The overwhelming gap in power rendered any and all of the Saiyan's defenses, even his mental ones, completely and utterly worthless.
This wasn't a technique that Slug was particularly proficient in. Mental arts, to the evil, always came with a component of danger in order to learn. Essentially, he simply ripped the memories directly out of Turles's head. By the end, the evil Saiyan's mind had been heavily damaged. Blood dripped from his nose. Body on the brink of death due to brain damage, Turles's mind had been irrevocably shattered, but in exchange, Slug now knew everything about the Tree.
"Back to the ship. We're leaving this planet." The ancient Namekian demanded of his men in a voice hoarse with age as he walked up to the base of the tree.
A ripe fruit hung low on a branch. Slug plucked it carefully, before taking a bite.
That one bite was all it took.
Slug's aura rippled across the planet as his desiccated body instantly seemed to reverse itself. The boost in lifeforce completely overwrote his old age, bringing him back to his prime in one bite. He roared, laughing with the seamless effort that releasing so much, overwhelming power required. His power had gone back to what it was in its prime, and the feeling was electric, like nothing he'd ever felt before.
The release of the pure, evil energy swept across the globe, bringing the dying planet even closer to destruction. Slug's energy wasn't the only thing that permeated the large, dying rock, though. With his body, his senses and perceptions had expanded too, along with the unique, pure evil Namekian element inside of it. The way his energy ravaged the planet was far and away more destructive than even the Tree had been.
He reigned his power in after a short while, but Slug could already sense what had happened.
The special properties of his Super Namekian aura had permeated the planet's mantle, allowing the Tree of Might's own all-consuming properties to infect the planet's core. The tree immediately began bearing fruit at a breakneck pace, by taking energy directly from the deepest parts of the planet. Soon, the core would become unstable, and the planet would explode.
Slug didn't care. In fact, it filled him with a sort of sadistic glee. His revitalization had been such a powerful phenomena that a simple flaring of his new power was enough to destroy the planet.
He ate the rest of the fruit carefully, measuring the effect it had on him very carefully as he walked back to his ship, taking his time. He wasn't Turles. He wouldn't waste fruits, overinflating his power level temporarily for no reason. Slug would make the most of this strange power that had simply fallen into his lap.
He ordered his men to scavenge everything useful, including the fruits. Any who wasted a fruit would be killed instantly.
He then retired to his chamber to meditate. The new power inside Slug's body had awakened a certain connection inside of him. The location of his home planet, Namek, felt like an itch at the back of his head. He could sense it, the power of the Dragon, concentrated somewhere in the universe.
Slug intended to find his homeworld and subjugate it. Absolute power, absolute immortality, and whatever else he wanted were all in his grasp. His eternal greed would be eternally satisfied! None would stand in the way of Lord Slug!
As such, the old Namekian's dark warriors didn't think much of it when they stripped the Saiyan's corpse of the scouter that existed on its face, tossing it into their ship's cargo hold to lay forgotten.