Because it had reached the weekend and she hadn't heard from the general yet, Maxine had gone into a nearby conservation area with her backpack on her back. She needed to locate some sturdier materials to make some new clothes and collect essence cores for boosting her cultivation. Most of the fibers she had found either at the base or online were too fragile to withstand her faster than sound running speeds. The ones she did find that could meet the task felt like sandpaper. Hence her search for sturdy yet soft materials. She only knew of one material that met her needs and that was the silk from a copper or bronze stage Widowmaker spider. A single strand of it's silk that was thick as sewing thread was as strong as a half-inch thick steel cable, yet as soft as normal silk. 

Earlier in the day, Maxine encountered a few dozen of copper stage essence beasts and only two bronze. She had placed their essence cores into her backpack. However there hadn't been any sign of the Widowmaker spider since her search began two hours ago. She was at least thirty miles away from where she started and was beginning to worry that she wouldn't be able to find it. Her mind started to wander as she searched. 

Maxine had sudden concern about where General McKenzy might get the essence cores, but had dismissed that thought. She couldn't imagine a man as competent as him would pass up a chance to use the Sadist Rat corpses from her school as research materials. Even if he didn't, he would, at the very least, have ordered them to be disected to determine the cause for their abnormal size and aggression. It would have only been a matter of time before he found their cores.  

Maxine's attention shifted from her own thoughts when she found what she had been looking for. It was bronze stage Widowmaker spider and it was a few miles away from her. Maxine arrived infront of mess of large spider webs that was at least one hundred feet across. She wondered how no one had found this yet and noticed there were quite a few wiggling cocoons hanging amonst the spiderwebs. Some were almost as big as she was. However a quick scan over them with her spiritual sense revealed that none of them contained humans.

Maxine scanned the mess of spiderwebs for the spider and found it. It was fourty feet infront of her. It was a mostly black spider that was only about the size of a mid-sized dog and possessed a white pattern on the top side of it's abdomen that was rather pleasing ot the eye. However, it had one of the most deadly venoms amonst in the bronze stage. It was so potent that it could incapacitate iron stage essence cultivators with a single bite. The only good news was that it hunted mostly using it's webs. So unless someone was dumb enough to get caught in it's webs, they wouldn't be in danger.

Maxine picked up a stick and poked the spiderweb to get the spider's attention. It didn't move, but she could tell that it had started watching her. It's smarter than normal. She smiled to herself. If it was this smart enough, she might be able to train it to weave clothes at a later date and she would only have to dye them. She tried to touch it's mind with her spiritual sense and just as expected it lashed out with a mental attack in fear. She withstood it's attack and made an attack of her own. It quickly became a battle of wills. Fortunately, it's mental strength was no match for Maxine's and quickly submitted to her.

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While it was still in a docile state, Maxine placed a spiritual mark inside of it's mind. It would prevent it from turning on her unless it's mental and physical strength surpassed her own. She sent several mental images to the spider to depict what she wanted from it and promised that she would reward it with bronze stage essence core after it was done. Unfortunately, it wasn't dextrous enough to weave clothing, so she place non-sticky thread on an one foot tall and six inch wide spool that she retrieved from her backpack. She instructed it with a series of images that she wanted it to put non-sticky silk on the spool. She watched as it fed it's silk onto the spool.

Since she couldn't get the spider to make her clothes, she would just make them herself. After it had finished filling the spool with it's silk, Maxine pulled out a single bronze stage essence core and the Widowmaker spider's eight eyes locked onto it. Maxine tossed it to her Widowmaker spider. It pounced on it and swallowed it. It made, what Maxine thought were, happy sounds.

Maxine examined her Widowmaker Spider more thoroughly with her spiritual sense as it digested the essence core. It was female and had seemed to have just ranked up into the bronze stage. She started looking for any unique traits it might have. After her scan of the beast, she ran her hand accross the spool of silk. It felt much softer to the touch than she had expected.  

Maxine didn't want to keep calling it 'the spider' or 'Widowmaker.' It sounded too harsh as a name for her pet. "You need a name. I think I will call you Silky. What do you think about it?" Maxine said out loud while looking at the spider. She felt a sense of approval from it. "Alright, Silky. You be a good girl and stay here. Don't eat any humans. I will be back later with more tasty essence cores." Maxine turned around and headed back towards her house. She wanted to take Silky with her, but she knew that her mother and everyone else would end up screaming and trying to kill Silky out of fear. She wouldn't blame them for it either. A giant spider is straight out of a horror movie or a nightmare. Anyways it's better for Silky to remain in a place that it can provide food for itself.

Maxine continued her search for more essence cores and collected some more bronze and copper stage essence cores before she decided to head back. She had gained 58 copper essence cores and 5 bronze cores, minus the one she fed to Silky, from her trip. She was roughly half-way home when she recieved a phone call from General McKenzy. He notified her that her class would begin Monday at ten in the morning and she mentioned her arachnid pet to the general before the call ended. She didn't want him or her future trainees to kill it. He seemed rather surprised that she was able tame it. After hanging up her cellphone, Maxine felt nervous about monday, but she is mostly ready for it.