Maxine had eaten breakfast with Silky and gotten to the forest early. She had roughly four hours to hunt for essence cores and another hour to create Shadow Wolves before she had to go get lunch and visit her mother at the hospital. However when Maxine and Silky got to Silky's nest, Maxine saw the Shadow Cat pacing nervously back and forth infront of it. As soon as the Shadow Cat noticed them, it looked at them for a few moments before it walked leisurely away. What the fuck was that about? Was that thing worried about me?

Maxine shrugged and told Silky to check her nest for any essence beasts. Maxine had no intention of taking any of the essence cores that might come from those things since they were technically Silky's kills. It felt too much like stealing to Maxine. Maxine summoned all of her Shadow Wolves and used them to track any bronze stage essence beasts in the area. When her wolves found a scent, she chased after them while they tracked it and killed whatever essence beast it was.

Maxine spent more time than she had intended hunting for essence cores since she had remembered half way through the hunt that she had promised Patrick to make a Bow for Meagan. It took alot of time to harvast the sinew and bone needed for it. However it would be deadly once it was completed. Unfortunately there weren't very many bronze stage essence beasts around. She had only managed to acquire six of them since she started and it had already been four hours. 

As Maxine finished up harvasting everything, a lone copper stage Fire Fox lept at her. It looked half-starved. She caught it mid-air by the throat and was about to strangle it to death when she thought to use it as a guinea pig. She wrapped it in shadow tendrils and shoved it into her shadow. She was worried that the realm that her shadow connects to had an atomasphere that was poisonous to her and since her Shadow Wolves were not technically alive, they didn't count as they didn't actually need to breathe. She sent one of her Shadow Wolves into her shadow to observe it while she made more bronze stage Shadow Wolves.

After completing the sixth Shadow Wolf, Maxine checked on the Fire Fox. It was still alive and didn't seem to be poisoned. She was satisfied that the air there wasn't toxic and rewarded the Fire Fox with a feast of flesh that remained of the essence beasts she had killed earlier. 

Maxine quickly checked the time and saw that she still had thirty minutes before she needed to go get lunch and visit her mother at the hospital. She told Silky through her spiritual sense that she was going to go check out the place within her shadow, so that she wouldn't worry when Maxine disappeared. 

After ordering all of her Shadow Wolves back into her shadow, Maxine entered the shadow herself, but didn't cut off the flow of essence to it. She looked around for a moment and took a deep breath and didn't feel anything wierd. Next she made certain she could still feel the spiritual mark on Silky's mind while in this place, so that if she couldn't maintain the essence to her shadow, she could still find a way back. Even though the spiritual mark was faint, she could feel it quite clearly. 

Maxine glanced at the small portal on the ground and picked up her Twilight Iron Blades that were laying beside it. That must be what I created when I put things into my shadow. Maxine dumped alot of her essence into it to be maintain that small portal and left all of her copper stage Shadow Wolves to guard it as she left the small cave. The view outside was still in shades of grey and didn't appear any different than when she saw it through the eyes of her Shadow Wolf. She was enjoying the thick shadow essence in the air. She could literately feel her strength increasing just by standing here and breathing normally. She couldn't imagine what cultivating here would do.

Maxine finally extended her spiritual sense and felt for that village that she detected before. However it was being attacked by, what looked like, bandits and each of the bandits were more than one rank of cultivation above the villagers. The bandits weren't even sparing the children as they raided the village. Maxine could feel her rage rising rapidly as she ordered her bronze stage Shadow Wolves to merge together into Three-Headed Shadow Wolves. She ordered them to attack the bandits and formed her essence armor as she ran towards the village at top speed.

As she reached the village, Maxine saw a young girl that looked to be the same age as herself being pushed down by one of the bandits as he tore the clothes off of her. Maxine charged straight at him. She kicked the wouldbe rapist in the face hard enough that it broke his neck with an audible snap, but that wasn't the end of it. The force of the kick launched him into the air and slam into the roof of a distant house. However Maxine didn't have the time to stop and check on the girl as she started slaughtering the bandits by using her blades. She had killed five of them before they noticed that she was there. They started to block her blade attacks with their weapons only to dispair when she cut through them as if they were paper and in turn cut them in half.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Maxine had found it odd that they didn't encase their weapons in essence. It was almost as if they didn't know how to use their essence, but that only meant that it was easier to save the villagers. Some of which had seen her in action, but she didn't care since they didn't attack her. She heard several bandits scream in terror at the edge of the village as her three Three-Headed Shadow Wolves and two normal ones tore into the bandits. She made short work of the bandits and the few that managed to retaliate only hit air as she dodged out of the way. Their leader put up far more of a fight than his compatriots. He encased his ax in essence as he blocked and attacked. However his skill was pitiful and didn't last longer than five exchanges before Maxine beheaded him in one swift motion.

Even though it made Maxine feel disgusted with herself to do it, she immediately started to harvast the essence cores from the dead bandits. She didn't have the luxury of picking where she got bronze essence cores to make her Shadow Wolves. However she found an unexpected harvast from their leader when she found a dimensional pouch on him. She had been wanting one ever since she found out that her shadow connected to another world rather than an empty space. It had been a big problem since she didn't know how to make one, but now she didn't have to worry about it.

Unfortunately after grabbing that pouch Maxine felt alot of eyes on her and looked up to see that the villagers looking at her in fear. She looked at herself and realized that she was absolutely drenched in dark grey blood. She quickly used her essence to remove all of it from her body and clothes. The villagers' fear quickly turned to shocked fascination as their eyes locked onto her clothes. Huh? All she was wearing were a pair of blue jeans, white tenni shoes and a light grey tshirt. It wasn't anything impressive. Wait a second. Can they see color?! Maxine looked carefully at them and it was indeed the kind of look she would expect for someone to have if that someone had seen color for the first time. 

Maxine retracted her essence armor and cautiously said, "Umm, hi." However she didn't really expect them to understand her, but was instead hoping that they could understand her tone. 

None of them appeared to have understood her, but an old man, whom she thought was their headman, came forward. He looked gratefully towards her and bowed his head. The rest of the villagers did the same. Maxine recognized the gesture as one of gratitude. She smiled happily at them and quickly ran towards the portal that she had left open as she ordered her wolves back to the cave. The reason she left was because the portal had sent her a warning that it was almost out of essence. It had burned through the essence she had left in it faster than she had anticipated, but it didn't matter. In any case, she was more than satisfied with the haul she got out of this even if it came from people that she had killed. She had gotten thirty bronze essence cores from the bandits and one dimensional pouch that she had yet to search. 

As soon as Maxine got back to the portal, it was about to collapse and she immediately jumped into it. She looked around and saw that her exit hadn't moved. She was still in the same spot that she had entered into the shadow world in. Maxine checked the time on her phone. She had only been in there for ten minutes and asked Silky via spiritual sense how long she had been gone. Silky's answer confirmed that. The time flow between the two worlds was the same. 

Maxine decided to go back into the shadow world another day and survey the area a bit better than last time. She didn't have the time to check to see what the wildlife looked like and how powerful it was. If there were enough bronze stage essence beasts there, she could hunt them in the shadow world rather than her own. For now Maxine needed to go get Silky and get her some lunch. However Maxine wasn't going to eat anything herself. The mere thought of food right now made her sick to her stomach. This happened every time she killed someone in the previous timeline as well. 

As they made their way back home, Maxine gave a few orders to her Shadow Wolves. The first one was to notify her if someone were to approach the cave. She had alot of her wealth inside of it and didn't want the residents of that world to steal any of it. The second one was that if anyone tried to steal anything that belonged to her that her wolves should detain them by any means necessary as long as they don't kill the thief. The last order was for them to swallow her wealth and flee if on the off chance that a powerful being approached the cave. With that out of the way, Maxine finally felt that she could relax somewhat and enjoy the rest of the day with Silky and her mother.