Finding the end of the maze wasn't difficult for Tommy, this time around. He supposed that it was because nothing was holding him back this time, and the false Pepper, whose purpose was to force him to face his weakness, was nowhere in sight.
"No little pictures to help you out this time, bro."
"Figured you'd be the last one, Tater." Tommy remarked, stepping into the chamber and looking at the wall opposite his brother's false copy, "First, it was Tarble. As overwhelmingly strong as he is, Tarble's main 'thing' is his smarts. That's what I always envied. Then, there was the puzzle. Lynn's open mind to help me through it. Then, I had to trick Pepper into letting me go. Now…"
Tater wasn't any dumber than Tommy was. The fake version of Tommy's brother figured it out right away. "Straightforward, but steady. And how exactly are you going to do that, Tom?"
"...Like this. REGALIA!" Tommy followed the motions he'd seen from Tarble a thousand times, but the wave wasn't anywhere near as strong as what he'd seen from Tarble. Still, it slammed into the wall with a loud BANG!
"...That sucked."
"...Thanks, Tater. Your warm and caring advice is always helpful." The wall was undamaged.
"No, seriously. What the heck was that? It was barely an energy wave, man. You suck."
"I GET IT! I'm not that strong, and I don't have any clue how to actually use the Regalia Wave, just like Tarble said." Tommy said. He'd thought that just going through the motions would be enough, but Tarble had mentioned that, while it was possible to use the energy waves without truly understanding them, there were many ki techniques that were simply a form of art that couldn't be mastered so easily.
According to Tarble, that was why he didn't use the Galick Gun, his family's signature technique. He could mimic it, and it'd be fairly powerful, but according to Tarble, that particular technique was the pinnacle of all Saiyan achievement, and couldn't be truly mastered without feeling the energy flow up close and personal.
That being said, it was also one of Tarble's many complaints about Saiyan culture. With two years and limited time to practice, he'd created an energy wave technique on par with the strongest energy technique invented by any Saiyan since their colonization of Planet Vegeta a thousand years ago. He called that a sad fact of Saiyan stupidity.
"...What was that technique I used to confuse fake Pepper…?" Tommy thought to himself. If the Regalia Wave didn't work, and he knew that he couldn't recreate the Regalia Cannon that his subconscious had given the imposter Pepper for some reason, then suddenly, Tommy found himself needing another technique. Something to bust down that wall in front of him.
In order to fool Pepper's clone, Tommy had known that he'd need to ensure that she believed that he was still right in front of her. That meant fooling her eyes and her ki sense, by creating a lingering energy field where he'd been just a second ago. Basically, it was a brute-force afterimage technique, with ki and power rather than speed and skill as the driving force behind it.
Then what if…
Tommy raised his hand, concentrating energy into it until it began softly glowing with a white pulsing light. Then, he walked up to the wall, pressed his hand against it, and began his work.
One pulse rippled outward from his hand, tracing its way over the wall as a shockwave before settling. Not enough. Tommy sent another pulse of energy through the wall. This time, it shook a bit, but showed no signs of falling down.
A third pulse of white energy. A fourth. With every pulse, the wall began feeling a bit more unstable, but Tommy's stamina was taking a pretty big hit with each attack as well.
Then, Tommy slammed the fifth pulse through the wall, and it finally came crumbling down.
The rest of the labyrinth, and the vision, came down a moment later.
…
Tommy woke with a gasp, sitting bolt upright. Somewhere along the way, the Namekians must've moved his prone body into an empty house, because he was now in a bed, covered in his own sweat.
"Oh, good. You're awake." A young Namekian with a cloth noted, pulling a wet cloth from his lap. It must've been on his forehead.
"Who are you? How long was I out?" Tommy asked.
"My name is Weiss. It's my turn to care for you for the day. You have been inside the trial for the past five days." The young Namekian replied casually, picking up a bucket and wringing the cloth into it before slinging the cloth over his shoulder.
"Five days…? It felt like a few hours at most."
"The trial takes place in a dream state. It doesn't conform to real time, but how your mind perceives time. Some trials feel like they take weeks, but only take minutes in the real world." Weiss told him.
Despite being clearly younger than even Tarble, Weiss calmly and patiently answered each and every one of Tommy's questions as he asked them.
Tommy wasn't hungry because the aromas that'd put him into the dream state in the first place had essentially placed his body in a state of suspended animation to conserve strength.
As of an hour ago, three of Tommy's friends had already passed their trials. Tommy was the fourth. The child wasn't entirely sure which of the others was still in the process of completing their trial. Tommy had half-expected to be in last place, so he wasn't particularly shocked by the news.
And as for the dragon ball and the directions to the Grand Elder Guru, the dragon ball would be dropped off at Guru's place, and the Namekians would guide them there as soon as the final trial was completed. As far as they were concerned, though, they were just safekeeping the ball for Tommy at this point, though, so if he really wanted to take it, nobody would stop him.
Tommy declined. From how Tarble had spoken, he wasn't much interested in the Dragon Ball or the wishes attached anyway, so it wasn't worth putting up a stink over.
Tommy half-wondered why that was. The Namekians had described the balls as something capable of granting any wish, including power or immortality, but Tarble hadn't seemed very swayed by that, despite having already known about them before setting foot on the planet.
Tater believed that Tarble didn't care much for it because it was an un-Saiyan-like shortcut to power, while Lynn figured that there was probably some sort of hidden limitation or catch. Tommy was more inclined to lean toward Lynn's side.