As a couple, they had agreed upon their routine for the coming weeks as they navigated their life in Goshem. Tanatswa had settled for the physical labour side of things whilst Shami merely delved into drawing building plans and collecting foods that catered to her pregnancy nutrition requirements. Anything that contained calcium, folic acid, iron and protein was on the list of things she was gathering. The pregnancy pangs had not yet kicked in, but she wanted to plan ahead before her physical changes had gotten the best of her.
With the 2nd yield of mana completed, they managed to grow over 1000 mana plants which they decided to store in a shed that Shami built. Despite the fact that Tanatswa was willing to overload himself with duties, Shami disregarded his doting habit of being over protective and insisted that she was still physically capable of doing something regardless of the fact that she was pregnant. Tanatswa didn’t argue with her and simply let her do whatever she wanted as long as it was a light weight activity.
Shami primarily wanted to be active instead of just sitting around as she waited for him to finish the work. Doing something kept her mind from meandering into morbid thoughts of doubt as she passed the time. Her routine was primarily planning the day with her boyfriend, listing down and drawing building plans and gathering food as well as building materials. Tanatswa would mix in building and severe training. With an abundance of mana plants that they had grown from their own land, he had an ample supply to use for him to train his ability. The forest which had been devoid of any civilized life was experiencing an extreme turn around as the couple quickly reinforced their walls and made their household.
The speed and stamina that Tanatswa had as he approached level 4 was enough to outmatch any large construction site team. He would lay the bricks fast, mix in the cement like solution fast as well as cut wood with ease. The young man was running on autopilot; driven by his desire to be a responsible parent who would adequately prepare his child for this world, he wanted to make sure all was done. Pulling all-nighters and dedicating the first 2 weeks to just territory reinforcement was all that consumed him. Shami watched on and was moved by her lover’s desire to get things done for their child.
The house and reinforced platforms for the fortress were done and the two of them marveled at the results of their efforts. They managed to achieve what would normally require a team of builders; the job of the welder, carpenter, mason and plasterer were shared between the two of them, powered by the inhuman endurance that came with the bodies they had. Shami was glad that all that was over and around that time her first trimester side effects were slowly creeping in.
At times she would wake up feeling nauseated and her breasts felt swollen. There were times when Tanatswa felt like having sex with her, but her internal constitution was quickly driving her libido low. With no midwife to save her from the awkwardness that she wished he wouldn’t have to see, she simply contended that she couldn’t indulge him in a sexual acts. As a man who had spent most of his life celibate, he didn’t brood over his lack of action and simply overcame his desires by focusing on his training.
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Refiner was an ability that Tanatswa came to realize was more or less a cheat, but one that had its pros and cons. The only thing that could limit him was his imagination. When it came to the times he would relax whilst playing the guitar that Shami made for him, Tanatswa would use his repository of knowledge to do covers. When he would practice the hard way by playing chord progressions by ear and trying to imitate the exact strumming order of the hits and the greats, it would take a long time.
As much as he wanted to lay back and blow off some steam with music, he didn’t want the practicing part to feel like work after deadlifting boulders that weighed several tons. Tanatswa would use his ability which would make him play like a virtuoso. As Shami returned from picking fruits, she would stumble upon him playing fantastical music with high level dexterity. His playing would bring a little glimpse of novelty in the already mundane and primitive lifestyle they were currently living. As soon as she realized that he had used his mana to do so, she would scold him and remind him that he wasn’t supposed to be reckless with the mana supplies.
Tanatswa would own up to his foolishness and apologize to her, promising to only use it for his combat training. Regardless of that incident, he learned that he would sometimes retain some muscle memory of the techniques he used, but most of the time, the excellent techniques would be hard to reproduce without cheating. Tanatswa decided to document and take down any unique experiences that he felt so that he could later go back to them and try to reproduce them without resorting to mana use.
The issues that he discovered through guitaring were also apparent in his combat training. Tanatswa would travel out from home base and instigate some wolves and large buffalo like animals. When he wanted to get better at sensing nearby creatures, he made use of Refiner, and even utilized energy manipulation techniques like detecting and projecting. He didn’t really understand what was going on, but his body would leap beyond its limits, getting a taste of higher leveled techniques.
The wolves that were a nuisance were now child’s play. He could easily kill the beasts and at times, he would skin some of them alive and use their fur for knitting and sowing purposes. Tanatswa made it a point to carry with him a thick, wrapped around hide which he took down notes on. As Shami tried to figure out how they could invent the papyrus paper, using the custom goal mechanic as a guide, Tanatswa simply made use of this hide and inked notes that recalled vivid memories that he felt when undergoing feats. Tanatswa wanted to recreate the experiences without having to cheat and on one particular day, managed to do so.
Tanatswa recalled having phased through a herd of animals that were running away from what seemed like a tremor. The animals had created a deadly stampede; one that could easily be avoided by just leaping forward or over the herd. Tanatswa recalled the feeling and committed it to memory. The way his body felt and where his mind was at, were things he hoped to replicate, but he had not prepared for the ramifications of such an attempt. Tanatswa imitated the feeling and mental constitution that came as a result of that and began to phase through obstacles like trees, his fortress and even water from a river. He managed to so as if he had skipped space and landed ahead.
After a while of experimenting, he pulled a muscle and a great load of fatigue, muscle strain and other spasms, engulfed his body. The leaps into techniques reserved for higher leveled individuals were now straining his body. Tanatswa returned home from his training, looking he got hit by a truck. Shami was driven to tears by his wellbeing and nursed him back to health. Tanatswa explained what happened and told her that he had made an interesting discovery about his ability.
She didn’t find the severe results of discoveries fascinating and went into a tantrum akin to a mother scolding a child. The cost of going beyond his limits and tasting the power attainable by higher leveled individuals, without using his ability, was risky. To him, he likened it to someone lifting weights beyond their weight range, using adrenaline to boost their pull and push before accepting that they were doing their body a disservice. Tanatswa was happy that he at least learned something value, about his ability.
Outside of the housing priorities, Shami had also done training of her own as she tested her ability. She turned into several kinds of creatures, some within the bird species and others in the sea water category. She mostly did this when Tanatswa was fully engrossed with own training. Due to her power favouring smaller creatures for longer transformation times, she went beyond, even becoming a small fish that would swim near a ravine.
In her diminutive state, she learned how to communicate with other animals, learning basic speech patterns and biological triggers that made them behave a certain way. As this continues, she even noticed her Taming level go beyond level 1 and rise. Sometimes, a bunch of birds would go collect certain foods that were too far away for her to collect on her own and act as her errand boy. Things were changing and the two of them developed their skills as they spent their time together.