After dishing out her power, she salivated a bit at the sight of him being pushed down and then became self conscious about how weird she was behaving. Tichaona didn't have the chance to witness this bizzare act of fetishized hedonistic violence as he pulled himself back together. He was mostly in awe; mesmerized by the concepts if strengthening, detecting, projecting and concocting. As she lifted the weight off his body, he quickly rose up and shouted, "You're definitely going to teach me that cool ass shit. Like goodness, it's really amazing stuff!"
"It is good that you're excited about the prospect of acquiring these skills but first things first, you shall work on building your strength. For now you shall use my shoe which you damaged, as your weight." she said, wincing at him with a wicked smile.
"Your shoe? Wait a minute, are you going to reinforce your shoe?" he asked, bemused by her choice.
"Yes. Rather than waste time and watch you struggle to push me, it would be better to have you work on something without me being in the equation. I will adjust the weight according to your capabilities. You may do the human training methods that you know, but with my shoe. Hmm, both my shoes." she said, now handing them over to him. Both her feet were now exposed and it looked like she hadn't clipped her toe nails in a while. Tichaona grimaced a bit and then commented, "So do you ever have time for like personal beauty, goddess? I mean, are the way your toes look, like the norm with how Quendalion women present themselves?"
"My toes? How can you fixate on such things at a time like this? I am giving you these shoes to build up your strength so take ahold of them and work on amassing your strength." she said, ignoring his comment and placing the two trail runner shoes in both his hands. She had already imbued them and at the moment they were exchanged from her hands to his, Tichaona felt like he was carrying the heaviest weights in existence.
He soon fell into a kneeling position as the shoes made his upper body plummet downwards. It was as if he was magnetized to the ground and his palms became the base of the pressed weight. He agonised and told her, "Reduce the weight god damn it! There is no way I could possibly lift this!" The dark figure realised that she had not given him the right amount and walked towards him and tapped the shoes. As soon as they were relatively liftable, she pulled back and then asked him, "All better now?"
"Yeah, at least this is reasonable, geez!" he said, venting over the pain in his hands. Tichaona began to curl the shoes; a sight that made the dark figure slightly giggle as she saw him groan over doing just 20 repetitions of her shoes. After that first attempt, he dropped the shoes on the ground which left a dent in the floor. He then panted whilst placing his hands on his hips, darting at her and then giving her the signal to reduce it even further. She declined the weight reduction and told him to do an xp purchase. His eyebrows were raised upon witnessing her insistence and he winced back at her, irked by her lack of sympathy.
After a couple of tries, he capitulated to the reinforced shoes and sat down on the ground. He was drenched with sweat and his muscles were throbbing. The dark figure then remarked, "Not so easy, is it, warrior in the making Tichaona? We will eventually mould those arms into pillars of fortitude, but your efforts today, are deserving of a reward. I have been thinking of a unique recipe that will not only be a treat, but will help with muscle strengthening. Make sure to cleanse yourself before we feast."
"Sure will do." he said, as he dealt with the burning pangs of muscle spasms. Another day of training had ended, but now he had much to look forward to.
2 weeks passed with their routine primarily being: Goshem education, dodging and swerving, gardening and sparring with each other. She would usually hold back so that he could have a chance to fight her without being completely dominated, but the results always ended with him bruised and battered. Regardless of his flat out loses, his attitude towards their fights had changed due to the nuanced approach she had taken. The dark figure had toned down her autonomous dialogue and used positive reinforcement such as rewards in the form of delicious meals and even the alcohol he demanded.
Tichaona was even given more freedom to roam about in the woods even though she used her emerald soul stone to watch him. He had internalised the fact that she was older than him and projected the idea of a wise, experienced and annoying aunty, whenever he was around her. She was well versed in combat, staunchly believed in following her culture's customs even if they seemed uncouth under the scrutiny of human standards, and was genuinely passionate about cooking. The equalization of their relationship was something she had problems with due to him being the student who was learning from a superior being, but wanted a level discourse with her. When her intrinsic desire to order him around or just force him to do things, he would always ask why and negotiate for an alternative.
This was the case when she managed to convince to face off against the wolves again in the battle arena. The actual fight against the wolves became one sided as he had become more agile as his sense of agency out classed these beasts. He was quick to break the legs of the animals and watched them roll in pain, unable to move. Having achieved this without breaking a sweat, he gained confidence that he could take on any wolves. The plus side was that his skin and flesh had hardened to the point where it wouldn't be easy for a carnivorous animal to just pierce the first layer of skin.
The dark figure took this opportunity to teach him how to enhance his taming skills and opted for him to domesticate one of the wolves he had clashed against. At first he wasn't keen on the idea of keeping an animal that could kill him, as a pet. However, she assured him that it wouldn't make sense for one who was quickly reaching level 4 to have some stats that were still in their elementary stage. With that reason alone, he warmed up to the idea and nursed the wolf that he harmed back to health.
As Tichaona's responsibilities expanded; taking care of his new pet as one of them, the dark figure lamented in secret. As he would get more powerful, he would become harder to control. With all the strength training that she did for him, reinforcing objects that he used as weights and spoiling him with meals that improved his sensory skills, she worried that he would eventually attempt to escape. If it weren't for her reinforcing the ship's walls and structures with her power, he would just blow up the walls with his might and flee.
She could probably catch him since she is the superior one between the two of them, but she wanted to avoid that drama. Another thing she wanted to do was raise his mithridatism levels. Even if a warrior was strong, diseases and viral infections could easily end you. Inoculating yourself from any kind of toxins was ideal for, but she worried about how he would handle her methodology. As she postulated, she would glance at Tichaona who was either discipling his wolf or showing promise as he trained in an area where she increased the pushing force of the gravity. She thought long and hard and eventually acted on her thoughts.
Close to reaching level 4 and excited to finally use what he deemed as 'magical exploits', Tichaona woke up with an optimistic mindset. He showered, took a dump in the advanced Quendalion toilet and was up for some more Goshem historical content. He dashed out of his sleeping room and searched for her. He quickly found her, with her back facing him, in the training room. She looked back at him with solemn eyes and then he asked her , "Is this a bad day?"
"Not for me, but for you." she said, looking poised.
"If it's going to be some super hard training, don't worry, I am keen on fulfilling my end of the arrangement and training hard, so you don't have to look so sad." he said, giving her a bubbly smile.
"It is I who will not be fulfilling my part of the arrangement. Lately I have succumbed to the pressure of speeding up your progression so that I can quickly mould you into the ideal asset I desire. I want you to know that I have decided to do things this way with a reasonable justification." she said, sounding apologetic in her delivery.
" Well goddess, I may be a slow learner, but give a man chance to prove himself." he said, giving out a confused look as he tried to figure out her intentions.
"I do sincerely apologise to you, for what I am about to do." she said, as she raised her right arm. Tichaona anticipated the worst as he gazed at her hand which quickly began to emit a dark aura. The black miasma of death engulfed the raised arm and he looked at it, partly enthralled and terrified. The dark figure kept a serious solemn face as she raised her arm and soon enough, somethung began to happen. Extreme suffering!
Tichaona fell to the ground, groping his own body as he writhed in pain. He began to nose bleed and coughed up blood. He was poisoned by her power and felt immense pain. He cried out for her to stop his pain but she then told him, "With your tendency for inhibitions, I couldn't afford for you to skip this part of your grooming. Building up your mithridatism will become a crucial component in making you strong. For now, you shall stay here and fight of the poison. Your immune system will adapt and evolve, but you will have to endure. I will give you just enough to immobilise. I will not kill you, but as your body builds up an immunity to my small doses, I will raise the toxicity of my poison. If you end up hating me, please forgive me. This is within your best interests."
Tichaona yelped on the floor, totally overtaken by the poison and began to swell on his joints and face like a bull frog. His handsome features were marred and he looked disgusting. The dark figure left him there to suffer and started the most cruel training of all. There were clear benefits to this if he survived that would make him powerful, but she didn't realise that she had doomed their amicable relationship completely. Whenever his immune system would recover, she would come back and dose him with poison and repeat the process again.
From that point on, he grew to fear her return because every time she did, she always had something way worse than before. He peed blood, bled from the eyes, had bloody stools and was all in all, suffering like a dog. No amount of mithridatism stat increment could compensate for how betrayed he felt.
She was no longer just a sadistic alien to him, but a draconian demon. Every aspect of her was vilified in his eyes as his body recuperated and then became subjected to a higher dosage of her poison. Sometimes she would sweat venom and administer it to him through the mouth. Nothing he experienced could compare to the pain she inflicted on him. As long as he didn't die, was her limitation for him, but now more than ever, he wanted to die. In the process of creating a formidable asset, the dark figure was also creating her own nemesis.