The two of them sat down beside each other on a stack of hay that was tied together with the use of large vines and began to discuss. It was now time to unravel and share things that they had discovered over the course of their existence in Goshem and who knows, maybe they would experience a complete paradigm shift after their lengthy exchange.

“So I think we should map out how we got here first and question whatever peculiar things we think are worth mentioning.” he said, setting the tone for their dialogue.

“Well I think everything here is worth mentioning so… I died after going to some euthanasia facility in Pretoria after getting a suggestion from a member of the rehabilitation centre I was attending. If you were wondering what kind of rehabilitation centre it was, just know it was for people dealing with chronic depression, and not drug addiction. If I had killed myself over drugs then that would be stupid. Anyways, I went through the damn thing because I was really depressed. My relationship failed and some bitch that I trusted ruined my reputation by exposing secrets I trusted her with. So life became unbearable and then I decided to end it all. I thought when you died you would cease to exist since I wasn’t raised in a religious environment, but to think that I would end up here, is just fucken madness.” said Shami who seemed shaken but was slowly getting her nerve back.

“Wow, well that sounds pretty sad, like, I guess relationships can have that effect on you, hmm. Well it seems like what we have in common is the place we chose to kill ourselves...” he said before being interjected.

“Hey don’t speed over to that stuff just yet, I literally shared something embarrassing and the reason why I decided to kill myself. Just tell me why you did it. I mean, I think I would want to know that as a fellow human being who took their life.” she said, grabbing his shoulder and making him face her attentively.

“Well,okay, I guess I almost glossed over those details, well I don’t know if my reasons will hold up to scrutiny, but yeah, I decided to kill myself because I felt like the world was rigged against me and everything I tried to do or pursue would always fall short. Like it was a case of bad luck or some family curse if you want to get all superstitious, but I think for now, I will just say that in a world that I could not be number 1 or gain even miniscule progress, dying seemed like the only thing that made sense.” he said, only becoming self conscious towards the end of his words. This very scenario between two people who commited suicide and ended up in Goshem was just baffling to him and he had no point of reference that he could use to behave appropriately. This situation felt rather bleak, so before a lengthy uncomfortable silence could creep in, Tanatswa continued to talk.

“So basically you ended up at a euthanasia facility before you died just like me, so I don’t know if we could consider that a connection or maybe it’s just a coincidence, but I am pretty sure there are people out there who would rather pussy out of the pain of different methods of suicide. I mean, I did.” he said, poignantly

“Did you like, try cutting yourself?” she asked, almost stifled by the possibility of asking such a sensitive question.

“No, I tried hanging myself. The shit hurt a lot so I ended up not pulling through with the whole process. Well anyways, we have established that we both died in our past lives so we can say that we are in the afterlife.”

“Wait a minute, let’s not conclude just yet. I mean if this is the afterlife as you believe, why would our bodies have to be augmented to feel like we interface like video game characters. Some of the things we have seem deliberate, like it was made by a team of scientists or something. Like you also have stats and xp right?” she said, showing more animation as if she had a lot to counter his points.

“Yeah I am guessing the UI is the same for everyone, so yeah I can see the stats, the inventory even the custom goals.” he said confidently.

“The UI, ah, oh, you mean the user interface? Its funny how you are associating our vision with the way some app looks. Well, the stuff you mentioned doesn’t sound like the creation of some divine being, unless you think there are 5th dimensional aliens that like to model a world based on role playing games. Like seriously, what if our bodies were taken after going through the euthanasia and we were sent to some lab or facility and got worked on. I know this sounds ridiculous, even for me, but with things I have seen and the things you have seen, there has to be a logic behind it.” she said, gripping his shoulder firmly and looking into his eyes to persuade him to see reason. Tanatswa halted for a couple of seconds to digest her thought process and then brushed her hand away from his shoulder and said, “Well, in the first place it seems unusual that we would have stats and passive level gains like RPG characters, but I don’t think mankind is yet to be at the level of making dragons and making humans do things I can do. Let’s face it, I think this is the afterlife or the ‘alternative realm’ as the purple guy had stated from the beginning. We can speculate all we want and come up with fantastical theories but with no point of reference, we need to take it like it is. I don’t believe that we are in a simulation or any contrivance of man. Maybe it’s hard for you to swallow as an atheist, but I guess if you’re born with no expectation of life after death you’d probably be quick to dismiss it.”

“So are you saying that I am crazy for thinking these things?” she asked, slightly offended by his dismissal of her ideals.

“I never called you crazy but I think we should rule out scientists operating on us, because the wildlife and even the way our bodies work is probably because of the purple guy who created this world.” he said, with his eyes sharply focused on her.

“So what do you think this guy or purple thing that appeared wants from us? Like what does he intend to do with all 1000 of us?” she asked, latching her hand back again onto his right shoulder as if to emphasis her seriousness.

“Well, it or he, said that the goal is just to level up and after my close encounter with that thing in the Ethereal Woods, everything seems to now make sense. Just forget all your suspension of disbelief for just a moment and consider what we already know. You can see the levels of animals right?” he said, brushing her hand off once again, ever so slightly and placing it on her lap.

“Yeah I can see the value bars on the different animals I have seen here.”

“Well so if the goal is to level up or in a more tangible sense, get stronger than our current level bars then the fact we can see other levels, is this place’s way of indicating where we stand in the hierarchy of Goshem. I think the fact that we can level up and are guaranteed a special ability at level 2 is also by design. That purple guy created this place and I believe that we did indeed die and we are not on earth. If some god or supreme being of existence were to design the afterlife to look like super mario cart or candy crush then I guess we don’t really have a means of disregarding the possibilities, because this a completely unique situation for us, but we have already been given information and if we don’t refute it because of our beliefs, then I think we can make progress.” said Tanatswa who was surprised by his own eloquence towards the end of his words. Shami had wanted to immediately counter him, but at this point she was now coming to terms with her own denial. She paused for a while, processing his stance on the subject and then rose up from where she was seated. She began to pace around the hut, looking like she was caught in deep thought. Tanatswa looked at her with bewilderment and wasn’t sure if she was still trying to look for points to argue with him, but alas, she sighed, in defeat and then asked him, “So what do you want to do, now that we are permanent residents of this place?”

“Well, I think I would want to focus on leveling up first. It’s clear to me now that there are safe parts in Goshem as well as dangerous parts, I don’t think I should get too spooked just yet. The creatures in the Ethereal Woods had far higher levels than me, but even with my current strength I could still do crazy shit, so I want to see how far I can go with my body.” he said, clenching his fists as if to give some pretentious pose to accompany the delivery of his words. Shami laughed at his pose and the seriousness he wanted to convey in that moment was destroyed. Tanatswa who now looked slightly annoyed, asked her, “What was so funny about that?”

“Sorry, I get what you mean, but that serious look and you raising your hands up as if you were giving a speech seemed cartoony. Um, don’t get mad, I sometimes get riled up by the most random of things, it’s kind of my thing.” she said trying to placate him. Tanatswa had nothing to say concerning her obnoxious interruption but it seemed like they were now on the same page.

After Tanatswa was left for a few minutes to eat his food whilst Shami packed up a few things in her room, he began to notice his inventory slot icon pulsating again. He immediately opened it to see a new slot category for his stats. This slot was ‘Mithridatism’. It’s percentage was 3% but he had no idea what it meant. He attempted to read it out loud and Shami overheard him behind the curtain. She quickly came out and asked him, “You got that stat as well? Wait did you always have it or did you get it recently?” Tanatswa then darted his eyes at her and said, “I think I got it just now. My inventory slot wasn’t doing that heart beat thing a few minutes ago, so I am guessing something happened to trigger it.”

“Do you know what mithridatism means?” she asked.

“I have no idea.” he said, almost disappointed in himself.

“Well if I remember correctly, it has something to do with the body’s ability to immunise itself against viruses and stuff. So considering that you survived the toxic air of the woods because of the antidote I gave you, I think that’s why you have picked up a new stat. Well the same thing happened to me.” she said, stroking the hair on her temple, backwards.

“Wow, so you used the custom goal to make an antidote. Hmm, I should have thought of that. But how did you manage to make it in time? Like was making the antidote that quick?”

“I beg your pardon?” she asked, confused by what he was referring to.

“Well, I mean if the Woods are toxic and you managed to make an antidote when your health bar was dwindling because of the toxin, then it must have been a rather quick process?” he asked, showing more animation than usual.

“Well to be quite honest, I almost didn’t make it. I think by the time my health was at the critical levels, I had finished making it and drank the stuff. I fainted as soon as I had taken the solution, but then woke up a couple of hours later. It was actually a string of bad things happening in a single day. Like I was still near the forest when I had recovered and I came across one of those wolves. I think it had come back from hunting unicorns in the area, so it dropped its food upon seeing me and started chasing me. I nearly got killed, I mean shit, that was too close for comfort. Luckily I managed to trick it and made it fall off a cliff, but it fucken messed up my legs, as you can see from the tearing of my jeans. Well since we are superhumans, we can heal so no scars to be seen even after I thought I was probably going to lose my legs.” she said, strutting around in the room.

“Well, hmm. Sorry about that.” he said, almost as if empathy was foreign to him.

“You surely do have trouble trying to find comforting words, I am guessing you’re not that good in that department, hmm. Well anyways, after that ordeal, for some reason, I got the bizarre idea to erect a fortress around me to keep those random wolves from disturbing me at night.”

“You mean this hut?” he asked, almost bewildered by her choice of words.

“No silly, this isn’t a fortress. Wait, you have been outside yet, hmm, well follow me.” she said, heading towards what looked like an amateur made wooden door. Tanatswa was surprised that he had not noticed it and began to wonder if the custom goals mechanics could teach you carpentry as well. Shami opened the door and a bright light passed through and lit the room. Tanatswa walked out and saw something that looked like an incomplete fortress made using huge rocks and mud being used to stack and fuse the rocks together. The little hut was in the centre of this circular formation and though some of the stacks had reached the height of nearly 30 to 40 metres, other sides were still in need for more rocks. Tanatswa was impressed by her resolve to create such a thing and the manner in which it was done didn’t seem half assed. It was as if she had prior existing knowledge that was useful in executing such a feat. Tanatswa looked around and then told her, “Wow this is impressive, like goodness you did this all by yourself. If you managed to carry all these rocks by yourself then you must have a high level of strength.”

“Yeah, well I kinda started working on the strength stuff when I figured out the whole using your xp stuff. Besides I really didn’t feel safe sleeping out in the open when any random wolf could come in and attack me. Which reminds me, what are your current percentages for all your stats?”

Tanatswa and Shami began to talk about their stat values it became clear to Tanatswa that they had different affinities for specific things:

Tanatswa

Strength 59%

Agility 95%

Intelligence 99%

Crafting 10%

Luck 6%

Charisma 1%

Influence 19%

Infamy 0%

Artistry 100%

Mithridatism 3%

Wisdom 3%

Tamer 56%

Shami

Strength 30%

Agility 70%

Intelligence 85%

Crafting 98%

Luck 20%

Charisma 40%

Influence 20%

Infamy 0%

Artistry 100%

Mithridatism 10%

Wisdom 9%

Tamer 80%

After Shami realised the difference in strength between them she decided to put him to good use. Shami insisted that he help her to get more rocks so that they could finish what was left of the fortress. Tanatswa had wanted to talk more and make his acquaintance with this girl but right now the priority was to make sure home base wasn’t susceptible to any breach of entry. The actual process of gathering rocks was more like sprinting back and forth whilst carrying large rocks. With this method, it made sense as to why she managed to get this much done in a short amount of time.

With no wheelbarrows and anything that could withstand the weight of these rocks, everything had to be done by hand. Tanatswa was almost carrying the rocks as if he were strutting ant that was creating things that were 5 times its size. He still couldn’t get enough of the strength he had, and having it made him feel so alive. In between rounds he would notice Shami carrying the same amount as him and he observed with much fascination. He clearly had the upper hand in physique but seeing her carrying the rocks was quite the spectacle. Her animal skin clothing which covered most of her upper body still showed glimpses of her arms. Her arms and muscles were toned and had definition, but in a rather feminine way.

The idea of a she hulk had never appealed to him, but seeing her do this mundane manual labour like just one of the boys made him have respect towards her and he even noticed how physically fit she was. After this process was done, there was the collection of mud and stacking of the rocks on top of each other. She had a somewhat large bamboo like bucket that she had made, which she would fill up with mud that she had mixed up at the river. As Tanatswa stacked up the rocks, the experience reminded him of construction work.

He had never done it before in his past life, but he wondered if what he was doing was comparable to the real thing. He took this time to gaze at the landscapes and marveled at how plush the greens were. Despite his deadly encounter with the dark figure, nothing in this place resembled anything hostile, rather it was perfectly concealed by the appearance of mother nature developing a harmonious environment. He had noticed that there would be a bit of leakage of mud from the container as she carried it which also explained why she would run to make sure only a little bit would have leaked by the time she would arrive. Shami wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty which made Tanatswa wonder why she was so hands on and willing to do things most girls would rather avoid.

At one point he thought that maybe she was some tough tomboy or maybe that she was doing all of this because her survival instincts had kicked in. She treated the mud like it was cement or something and spread it across, climbed down and ran back to get more mud. He was honestly in awe and couldn’t help speculating what kind of woman she was. After 4 hours of doing this redundant job, they were done and were left mostly filthy. After assessing her appearance, she decided that she desperately needed to bath and change her clothes. She even uttered, “I wish had fucken soap, things would be much easier this way.” Tanatswa overheard her and told her, “I know how to make soap, well I recently figured out how to do so, so maybe I could make some.” Shami literally glowed like a child who glanced at a new toy upon hearing him and she urged him to spit out the details of how it was done.

They immediately gathered all the necessary resources required for this and immediately went to work. They were running out of daylight, but this didn’t deter Shami who seemed eager to remember the feeling of soap on her body. When the finished making it, the soap came out more refined that his first iteration. Shami exhibited a rather exuberant friendly manner upon the soaps completion and gave him a really tight hug and called him ‘A really handy guy’. Tanatswa ended up thinking too much about what that meant and whether or not she now really liked him in a rather romantic way. He then soon enough brushed it off as childish thinking and said to himself, “That would never happen.” With the daylight slowly disappearing it was time for them to rinse off before cohabiting. They both smelled like boiled sweat and clearly sleeping in the hut with this odour was unthinkable. They both took a bath, but took turns so that none of them would have the chance to peep at each other. Shami even teased him saying that if he were to peep even just once, he would be sleeping outside.

Tanatswa who clearly didn’t want to test that scenario kept away and waited until she was done. He then got in, bathed and then began to wonder about his past experiences in Goshem. Since he didn’t have any spare clothes, washing his clothes and then having to wait for them to dry seemed like a bad idea considering he would have to wait in the nude until they would dry. Being a nudist would probably creep her the fuck out, so Tanaka decided to just wash his shirt and he kept his pants on as well as the animal skin cloak he got from Shami.

When it got dark in Goshem, it got really dark and you could barely see the stars nor your environment. You could hear the sounds of insects and creepy crawlers everywhere and sometimes the movements of the wolves, but this didn’t deter these two from enjoying their meal. Tanatswa dined on the food that apparently Shami had hunted a day before, which was now being roasted on the bonfire she made. Tanatswa had not killed a single animal when he got here but this woman seemed to have a knack for it. T

anatswa didn’t know exactly what it was, but the taste was similar to goat meat and the fats were succulent. These two had met each other through unusual circumstances but now they were cohabiting together in this mysterious world, trying to survive the elements as the feasted on the juicy meat.As they chowed down the meat, Shami, who looked almost like she was zoning off into the distance, immediately averted her attention towards him and then uttered, “You seem like a quiet type, almost like a serial killer.”

“Wait what, no I am not a…” he said, almost petrified by her inference.

“Come on man I am just pulling your socks, but on a real though, you are too quiet. Hmm, well I guess we will have to get to know each other more, to get you talking.” she said, as she giggled at his sour expression.

“You seem to like teasing people.” he said,trying to patronise her.

“Well if you weren’t this quiet I wouldn’t have to. I mean, I was alone for god knows how long and I kind of missed some human interaction. Didn’t you get kinda lonely, doing this survive by yourself shit?” she asked, looking at him with much interest.

“Well, yes and no.” he said, a bit reluctant to share.

“Come on guy, you don’t have to complicate things just say yes or no.”

“Okay then, I felt 50% lonely and 50% okay.” he said, slightly peeved by her stipulation.

“You are a real piece of work aren’t you? Well anyways, I really did feel lonely and for the first time in a while I missed people.” she said almost sorrowful in her tone.

“So do you miss them?” he asked.

“My family, well I do. I think if there had been someone there to stop me, I wouldn’t have made the decision, maybe I would have bounced back or something. I know it’s already too late for me to change my actions, but I think, I really think I gave up too soon.” she said, slightly tearing up. As Tanatswa saw her draw out her tears he began think to himself, “Did I really pull the plug too soon?”

The young man didn’t want such ideas to fester in his mind, but he had to confront the possibility that he might have needed to endure just a little more and he would have finally found his break through. But the more he thought about it, he could only foresee an abundance of suffering waiting for him. Tanatswa not wanting to make his suicide seem like some vain act of foolishness, decided to confront her. He got close to her and told her, “I am not really good at this, but I think sometimes things are not meant to be and when death comes your way, no matter how unpredictable or sad it maybe, it just wasn’t your day. So this may sound like depressing shit you don’t want to hear, but in the end, at least you chose to end your life by your own means. So don’t regret it and live in the now.”

“Wow, that surprisingly made me feel even worse. What the fuck dude? I am literally feeling guilty about how my parents would probably feel about me dying and you say this existential shit. Live in the now you say.” she said, nauseated by his bleak response.

Their conversation resulted in Shami losing her appetite and she immediately told him that she was now going off early to sleep. Tanatswa knew that he had worsened the mood of the night, but alas, he stood there with a vague understanding of how to mitigate this disaster. Shami blew out the fire, and showed him where he would sleep but showed some slight signs of iteration. She slept in her room and Tanatswa reclined on top of the straw in the other room and used the animal skin as a blanket.

As he tucked in and listened to his inner voice that was telling him to fix his mess, he then said shouted out to her, “I am sorry for that, I am a bit too direct with the way I talk about things and I am not very good at being sensitive. So, yeah, I need to work on my communication skills.” Shami heard him and she then quickly responded, “It’s okay, I was just in the moment, but fuck it, you did upset me, well just a bit. But forget about it, just, forget about it and let’s call it a night.” Tanatswa wondered if she really felt like it was all old news or if she was dismissing it to just sleep it off, but as he snuggled into his sleep, Shami suddenly asked him this question, “Do you miss your family or regret committing suicide?”

Tanatswa thought for a moment what her angle was, but then bluntly answered, “No I don’t miss them and I don’t regret killing myself. It’s what I wanted so I am going to stick by the decision I made.” Shami instantly flinched upon hearing him say that and was shocked that he had that much conviction towards facilitating his own death. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be scared or concerned for him, but it appeared as if Tanatswa was sticking to his guns. She honestly believed that she had committed suicide on a whim, but clearly not everyone was the case. With that alone, she inferred that probably Tanatswa really had a hard time with his past life and it wasn’t her place to project her own insecurities and regrets onto him. She then finally said to him before falling asleep, “Well I guess that’s okay. Well good night.” Tanatswa reclined and then took her remark at face value.

What he had gotten from this little skirmish was that not everyone who committed suicide really did like the way he did. He had accepted that there was no other way for him and he earnestly sought death, but maybe other people unlike him would get caught in the moment and make rash decisions. Tanatswa decided to sleep it off and hoped that his relationship with Shami would amend itself. The two of them were now entering day 9 of them being in Goshem, but soon enough they would meet up with the other 998 and experience the vast wonders and deadly mysteries of this world.