After a gritty work out, Shami and Tanatswa would use a carved out piece of wood, akin to a bamboo tree, to syphon the water out of the gigantic wooden dish, into the mana plant garden. Based on the stipulations from the custom goals, they really had to keep the growing seed hydrated as well as fertilized with animal dung.

Tanatswa helped Shami in sewing the animal hide into wearable items such as: gloves, face masks, foot wear and especially worker clothes. Shami eventually got over her strip teasing phase, settling for something that was light that covered most of her body and didn’t make her fill like she was wearing a furnace when they were exposed to the heat. This made it easier for Tanatswa to focus, but at the same time, he did miss the rather revealing version of his girlfriend.

The couple had fallen into a routine of rigorous back breaking exercises, agricultural labour and construction work. Though they wanted to joke around and they did occasionally give into their urges and kissed each other, even sometimes delving into groping each other, they still didn’t have sex. Tanatswa was getting slightly frustrated by them not doing it, even though he had claimed that he would outlast her in a contest of abstinence.

Shami was also counting the days until her period would occur, hoping for the best. She also wanted them to get physical, hopefully with Tanatswa being more careful with how he did his business when it was time for him to climax. Shami still had her mind set on her belief that having a child in Goshem was a bad idea and would rather master the art of family planning, even if it meant pushing the breaks on her sex life. However, as the days passed, the carnal issues of their relationship were not the only thing that began to trouble the pair.

The two of them had to wait for at least 3 weeks before their plants would develop into something tangible and in the meantime, their routine was taking up most of their time. As Shami’s physique improved, she became more self-disciplined and managed to do sets without being monitored or pushed by Tanatswa. She used the anger she had towards Tichaona who kicked her ass to channel it into her more extreme sets. Instead of moaning sounds it became more like womanly growls. This made her happy, but her partner was experiencing an opposite feeling.

Tanatswa was way ahead of her in terms of physique, but after he crossed the 40% mark for his level 2 strength, even when he went all out, he was barely making any passive gains. The only time his experience points increased was when they worked on laying bricks and he picked up a few tricks from Shami who would instruct him to cut wood or chip stones a certain way. Tanatswa wondered if this was the system making it harder for him to level up because his body had built up a resistance. The training he did ended up becoming a walk in the park, but for it to have at all an effect he would have to quadruple the sets. Eventually the partnered training became more or less a solo effort.

Though Tanatswa and Shami had been cohabiting together, as far as sharing personal information was concerned they had only scratched the surface. Likes and interests aside, Tanatswa only had a vague history about Shami who was apparently tomboy who bonded well with her father and had 2 sisters, 1 older than her and her youngest sister. The exact details of what a certain friend had told her then fiancé, which destroyed their relationship, was never made clear. Tanatswa on the other was an open book. He had told her about the frugal lifestyle he lived with his mother who had separated with his father. He more or less despised him but at the same time felt disappointed by how his dad turned out. His father was also into tech, experienced in both computer networking and object orientated programming. At least he could respect how good his dad was in the use of JAVA and database design since he was such just an average web developer. Tanatswa wasn’t at all afraid of sharing his past, but would only do so if asked by her.

He didn’t believe at all that he had lived a spectacular life and was always reminded how mundane his existence was whenever he did share a story, in his past life, with his former friends. Recalling an event that seemed eventful to him was seen as something insubstantial among his peers and for the most part, it made him really wonder if Shami really gave a shit. Now that they were lovers they could feign interest in each other’s stories, because a healthy relationship required both parties to give a shit about even those kinds of tales.

The growing mystery continued between them as they began to rather prefer sleeping as soon as they had finished their evening meal. Tanatswa was now usually more exhausted than Shami ever since amped up the intensity of his training. A week of him retiring early actually happened and Shami, who wanted to have an evening chat with him, was left peeved by this happening for nearly 8 days.

Their levels were increasing, but they were slowly drifting apart. The inexperienced Tanatswa who tended to over think things was now dealing with sexual frustration and would show it through passive aggression. When Shami would smooch or kiss him, but then stopped him from over reaching, it was no longer her being quirky and teasing him, but him being annoyed by this vulgar woman who played with his emotions.

Tanatswa believed that if she really didn’t want them to end up having sex then why would she tease him with risqué moments and then not follow through. Her insistence and her behaviour contradicted each other which made him feel confused. Another thing that slowly began to lose its lustre was her crass jokes and the way she talked. Since there were still many things she hadn’t revealed to him, all he had going for him was what he already knew about her. She was the foul mouthed tomboy with a knack for handy work, hunting, architecture and being forward when it came to showing interest in him. Tanatswa didn’t really know why she was becoming less of the hot babe he first encountered, but he would soon get a taste of the saying ‘familiarity breeds contempt’.

3 weeks passed and the fruits of their labour were finally showing. The mana plants were sprouting from the soil and their purple colour shined during the day. With several of these plants growing, they could now eat them, replenish their mana and start training their abilities. The couple saw this as a cause for celebration and hugged each other in a jovial embrace. Their yield was a successful uninterrupted development and they decided to halt their physical training for 2 days. As soon as Shami ate the fruit, the glowing miasma of gold and purple engulfed her body.

She remembered the feeling she got when she turned into a bird, but instead, got creative and shape shifted into another woman. Without a mirror, she couldn’t tell how she looked and asked Tanatswa to rate her look. Tanatswa was at first fooled and thought that another survivor, who just happened to be dressed like Shami, had entered their home. The shape shifting had altered her voice, eye colour, height and posture, but when she reverted back to her old self, Tanatswa was frightened.

“Holy shit that was you! You scared me with that sudden change, god damn it. Well, your ability is wicked special.” he said, panting as he looked at her in awe.

“Yeah, ever since we committed to the mana plant project I have been thinking about what I could do with my ability. I mean, turning into animals can’t be the only thing I can do so I figured I could be like Mystique from X-men, like check me out.” she said with a rather excited expression. Shami changed her ethnicity from being a light skinned bi-racial girl to black, Hawaiian, European, Latino and Asian. The experience was uncanny for Tanatswa who simply looked at her in awe. She even modelled and walked towards him saying, “I think I could get used to this. I can literally have the body of any woman. Quick, mention your celebrity crush.”

“Um, let’s see, Scarlet Johansson.” he said, from the top of his head.

“A white girl? Well I thought you’d pick a black chick, but it seems like you like us light skinned babes, well here goes.” she said with a charming smile. Her anatomy, facial structure and overall body mimicked that of the ‘Lost in Translation’ actress. Tanatswa was spell bound by the stoic beauty and wondered if he was going to go hysterical. He grabbed her face and noticed the sparkle in her eyes. Shami liked the way Tanatswa was looking at her, even though she had mimicked the actress’ appearance. Shami then reverted to her appearance and then told him, “You should also give me that look more often. I really liked that.”

“I think you should change back to her, I have already seen your face.” he said in a snarky tone.

“You know what, my mana aint worth wasting for the likes of you. I wanted to spoil you with more options like you feeling me as any of your child hood crushes or as a bonus, any slutty actresses you wished you could see up close, but the doors are closing buddy.” she said, trying to make him feel bad.

“I am no longer a raging horny teenager who would fall for such, so don’t try to ensnare me with that. I am not falling for it.” he said, looking away and then walking towards the cottage.

“You’d be missing out buddy; I could look like J Lo, Queen Latifah, oh Nicky Minaj, oh Tanatswa you definitely want to see me as Nicky Minaj, silicon booty and all. Wait, Kim K, Angelina Jolie? Why are you walking away from this? With the way you looked at me as Scarlet, I know you want some more of this action. Come on Tanatswa, stop walking away!” she said, frustrated by him passing this by when she honestly believed that he was likely into her doing this. Tanatswa just wanted to get a bit of a time out from her craziness so that he could train in silence. If there was one thing he suspected, it’s that Shami probably had female friends, in the past, that were just as loud and crazy as her, unless she only had guy friends with no filters. Shami didn’t feel like pursuing him and just let him go into the jungle where he began to train alone.

Tanatswa had been in a slump lately due to his stats barely moving up and with his ability Refiner now accessible again, he wished to rekindle the joy of progress. With his mana bar fully juiced, he wanted to trigger it again, but had a vague memory as to what had caused his ability to work. Tanatswa took his ability’s title literally and believed it was supposed refine whatever attack he would make or action he took.

When he tried to stop Tichaona’s ability, Barrier to Entry, upon realising that he was lacking enough speed to reach Shami’s battered body, the ability was triggered. The same could be said for when he stopped that log from hitting him. If his deductions were correct, his ability would only get activated when he is not only conscious of his limitation, but is doing something that has limited reach in execution.

Tanatswa then decided to try jumping from tree branch to tree branch, like he abysmally did, at the Ethereal Woods. It was time for him to get his mojo back and he didn’t want his girlfriend’s cool ability to outshine his. Tanatswa prepared himself and started leaping from tree branch to branch, with the goal of not falling to the ground.