As the two of them continued to coexist with each, they got used to each other’s quirks. The dark figure realised that Tichaona always seemed to seek comic relief, trying by all means to pester her with absurdities and pointing out how silly her customs were despite her threatening him with potential acts of violence. Tichaona also got used to the principled, awkward and irritable alien, who seemed less of a psycho as they collaborated. The food she recommended altered his senses vastly to the point where his visions, sense of smell and hearing was heightened. Eating the right food became rather a force of habit as they trained.

Tichaona’s superhuman reflexes became more astute as he could sense the muscle movements of her arms and dodged accordingly. As she improved, she increased her speed and that was partly the methodology that led to his progression. His endurance improved, going from lasting only 10 minutes to even doing it for 2 hours. His body became leaner as a result as this training was extremely cardio intensive. The experience points he would accumulate were added to his strength, agility and mithridatism. Tichaona became faster, free and his body now had the muscle memory and sensitivity to his environment. Whenever he was done with her, he would stretch and then proceed to do something with he never thought he would be doing, studying.

The dark figure had documented the fauna and flora of Goshem and all the details were archived in the database of the ship. She made him go through it because she believed that a strong man with little brains was just a punching bag destined to die. Educating him was imperative because he would have the upper hand against his contemporaries. After a reading session, she would make him do tests and if he were to make mistakes, she would swat him on the buttocks to affirm her disappointment with him. This was all too awkward and embarrassing for him because as a grown man being treated like a child.

He would later make it clear to him why she couldn’t do that and eventually she stopped. The education was there to stimulate the mind, at the same time it was greatly enhancing his intelligence stats. Tichaona found all this archiving to be fascinating and also realised that there were only 2 seasons in the region he was in and other regions had 3 seasons. There was a detailed account of water species, birds of prey and the surface wildlife. Most of the beasts highlighted on the tablet he used to study had power rankings. From the wolves, unicorns and other creatures, rankings were clearly stated.

There was also a ranking for mystical beasts which were ranging from level 10 and the highest being level 25. Tichaona asked her where such a beast would be living on the planet and she simply told him that the ‘Belogra’ was a desert creature, designated deep in sand dunes. She even mentioned the time when she faced one and was heavily injured when she was still lower leveled. She eventually did kill one and scoffed its existence as she went into gratuitous details about how she eviscerated it and paraded with its organs. By the time the conversation had steered to that direction, Tichaona was less invested her smug anecdotes of sadism.

Apart from the education, dietary stipulations and the defensive combat he was learning, she would also challenge him to manage to land a hit on her, just once. Regardless, her evasive maneuvers left him out classed. Tichaona could not keep up, even though he could now sense what her body language was suggesting, whenever she moved. At times, the dark figure was impressed by his attempts at agency, but he was still far from perfect. She couldn’t wait to teach him the level 4 skills that awaited him once he levelled up. As his teacher, she wanted the prove that her methods would soon enough show results, but she knew that for him to make that leap faster, she had to harm for the sake of progress.

The dark figure alternated the cardiovascular training and focused on strength training. Since Tichaona was extremely strong, there were no weights or even objects that had enough opposing force to even cause his muscles to burn. Large rocks that weighed several tonnes were liftable and even the dark figure confirmed that doing any of the conventional training he knew about from earth was eventually going to make him face a dead end. If there were no objects heavy enough for him to lift then the dark figure was going to make use of her body as an immovable object.

She would do this by using the energy that leaked out of her orifices and channel it all over her body, creating an aura that acted as a shield with reinforced weight. Tichaona thought that surely, regardless of her technique, he would be able to push her, but that didn’t happen at all. Her body was an immovable object, lodged on a single spot and he groaned and panted as he tried to push her. His face became veiny and divisions popped up on his muscles as he struggled. His feet would apply so much pressure to the floor that he would cause it to collapse before him and he would leave deep holes that resembled his foot prints. The dark figure didn’t mind at all that he had dented the floor of her ship and simply took pleasure in seeing him struggle. Eventually he gave up and asked her how the hell it was possible for her to be that heavy.

“You know, just when I think I have made progress, you do this humbling thing that I can’t stand. So explain it to me, goddess, how am I not pushing you right now. Is it magic or am I that weak?” he asked, sulking a bit as he sweated.

“You already know the answer to that. You’re just too weak! But I will fill you in with a bit of information. The excess energy manipulation has several variances to it, but the one I used is called strengthening. Once you reach level 4, you will be able to channel this excess energy, but I will forewarn you that mastering the art of energy manipulation is not easy.” she said, as she released the encompassing aura. The disengaged shield dissipated and even though Tichaona couldn’t see it, he could feel what felt like heavy air passing him by. The gaseous weight was something so peculiar to him that he couldn’t help but ask, “Just now, I felt as if a puff of air moved past me, but it felt heavy. That’s unusual. Did you just bend gravity with your will?”

“No. I released the built up energy surrounding my body and as it left my body, the reinforced nature of it tagged along as it passed your body. Well, considering that you got to experience a bit of that, I might as well explain the basics of energy manipulation in Goshem. We have four aspects known as: strengthening, detecting, projecting and concocting. These are the four governing basics of energy manipulation. As a combatant, you will probably have a higher affinity for one of these as it will be a challenge to master all four, plus, there is the nature of combining the individual aspects to have greater attacks.” she said, as she stretched out her hand to lift him up.

“This is rather interesting information. So you can affix this excess, intangible energy, onto external areas outside your body? Wow, like tell me more, with a bit of a demonstration. I am interested in seeing this.” he said, with sparkly eyes that reminded her of a child witnessing his first toy.

“I was obviously getting to that, but your eagerness on the matter has inspired me to meticulously break down each aspect. Alright, so the first attribute is strengthening. Basically, the energy that leaks can be imbued with your strength. Energy is gaseous, but you can apply it to any object or use it to cover your own body. You are essentially creating a semi-transubstantiated state which can wrap around you like a glove. I did the same when you tried to push me and added weight to my body. Like I said, the strengthening is dependant on your current physique, but when imbuing it on a concentrated spot, the strengthening is magnified tenfold, but that would leave the other parts of your body exposed. Basically, the hardened side and the blind spot.” she said, as she took off one of her pair of shoes. Her huge feet still made him cringe considering that he had never seen a woman with such large legs. He wondered why she was showing him her trail runner like shoes and then asked her, “Is showing me your shoe part of the demonstration?”

“Yes, I would like you to strike my shoe with all you have got at the base of it. Do that now.” she demanded,

“Well if you really have something against your shoes, I will gladly tear a hole in it.” he said, as he prepped up his fist and launched it at the base of the shoe. When he struck it, it felt like he had bashed his bare knuckles and he quickly retracted his swing and agonised over the pain.

“I went extra hard for that reinforcement, but try ripping apart the opposite side of this show.” she said, as she stretched out the hand that was holding the shoe.

“Fuck, that hurt, god damn it. You know what, I might as well mess up your stupid shoe.” he said, as he wiggled his wrist and blew over the painful sore on his knuckles. He walked towards her, tapped the reinforced heel which felt thick and then slipped his hand behind the shoe and forcibly yanked the quarter and tonge of the shoe. It weirded him out that the one side was concrete and the other was weak. She then glanced at him, partly peeved by the fact that he went overboard by destroying her shoe but at the same time happy that he got the demonstration.

“That was the blindspot effect. Since I am in good spirits, I will not strike you for damaging my shoe, seeing that I did offer it as a sacrifice for demonstrative purposes, but I do implore you to show more restraint.” she said, in a smouldering manner with glinting eyes.

“I apologise.” he said, placating her after sensing a bit of brooding rage coming from her, “so there seems to be a lot to this strengthening. So can you reinforce anything?”

“Yes, you can, but this technique consumes your stamina. Unlike mana, which barely scratches your stamina, this will drain your stamina since you’re repurposing your internal energy for external use. Thus, the energy output is in relation to what kind of reinforcement you want to do. That time when you faced the wolves, I reinforced the surrounding area so that you couldn’t run off or worse, resort to using mana when I clearly wanted you to use your brawn. That feat only used a fraction of my stamina.” she said, changing her tone to one that sounded pompous.

“So it can be applied in that way, hmm, this is really interesting. Tell me more goddess.”

“Detecting is more like spreading your energy out. Think of it as a fart that is spread like a web…” she said, before being interjected by the laughing Tichaona.

“You used farting as an analogy. Holy shit, so is it literally like releasing energy through your ass? I mean with the added example of spreading a web, it’s like you’re describing a spider, but only this time we are the spider and we are farting.” he asked, as he giggled uncontrollably. The dark figure immediately frowned at his behaviour and glared at him. He quickly got his composure and apologised. She the added, “So when you spread out your energy, think of it as a gas…”

“Fart. Well, it’s too late now. You already added the fart analogy so I am going to have an imagery of you extending your energy through your ass. Come to think of it, you have never farted around me.” he said, as he interjected her.

“Stop interrupting me you foolish man. Besides, if I farted around you, you would die. My power is poison so definitely my gas would be deadly.” she said with a straight face. Tichaona immediately lost it and went manic with laughter. The fact that she couldn’t tell how hilarious her choice of words sounded in context, made it even more funny. The dark figure stood there, subjected to his obnoxious laugh and then asked him, “Are you still in the mood of learning?”

“Yes, continue. Goddess of deadly farts.”

“You’re pushing it. This will be my final warning.” she said, tensing her muscles and fastening her knuckles.

“Fine, I am listening. So you cast a web with your energy and then?”

“The energy is spread out and acts as a web. The detecting technique is dependant on range so the wider you cast your net, the more likely you will be able to detect things in your perimeter. It’s more like having your own energy based radar, but this technique can at times be very stamina consuming, especially when you want to monitor areas for long periods of time. So unless you have large reserves of stamina, you will likely get exhausted from using this surveillance method. The projecting manipulation is something you already witnessed. When I threw that punch that landed on the wall, I projected the thrust of my fist which in turn was deployed as a projectile. That and detecting can be very mana consuming, but now it’s time I mentioned the most crucial of them all. Concocting!” she said, sounding vivified.

“Concocting? Wait is that like mixing energies?” he asked, trying to guess the nature of this form of manipulation.

“Yes. It’s when you mix the first 3 manipulation techniques together to create something remarkable, but unlike using each method individually, concocting is extremely stamina consuming and it requires lots of practice to even get good at. Here let me demonstrate.” she said, looking quite excited.

The dark figure let out a wave of energy which permeated the air and then reinforced it. Tichaona began to feel as if the gravity had begun to weigh him down. He went from standing, to kneeling to finally lying down. The weight pressed against him and he could rise up. Everything shimmered before him and he glanced at the towering figure that dished out the suburb display of power. Even though he was being overwhelmed by her prowess, at that moment, he revered her power and wanted to be like her. She had become his shining standard of strength.