Maxine was sitting on her bed while staring at the golden bracelet that she had acquired three days ago. She had dedicated the past two days of her free time trying to figure out what the golden bracelet does. At first she had thought that it improved attack power and tried channeling her essence through it before unleashing a Crescent Moon Blitz attack. However it wasn't any more powerful than when she did it normally. She had tried channeling essence through it in several different ways. Next she tried to see if it was a defensive artifact and had Silky throw rocks at her. Unfortunately the expected bubble shield didn't appear and Maxine earned a few bruises. It didn't even prove to be the extremely rare automatic healing artifact. She had even tried cultivating while wearing it with no change occuring. She was almost on the verge of thinking that it was just an extremely durable piece of jewelry at this point.

At her wits end, Maxine used her spiritual sense and scanned it thoroughly. She didn't do this before because she never considered that this might be a storage device. Unfortunately it wasn't, but she did find a strange matrix of essence inside of it. At what looked like it's core, there was a small glowing orb. However she didn't dare touch it with her spiritual sense. She had no idea what a cultivator that was that strong would be capable of. It could be the soul of the woman that had died in the cave just waiting for someone dumb enough to initiate contact with it, so that she could take over their body. Or, it could be something else entirely, but she didn't want to take that chance as she swiftly put it back into her dimensional pouch. What she needed right now was a suitable guinea pig. Unfortunately she didn't know any cultivators that she hated enough to do that to. 

She shrugged as she retrieved ten bronze essence cores from her dimensional pouch and started to make more Shadow Wolves. After she had finished the fifth one, Silky awkwardly came in through the doorway. It always fascinated Maxine to watch Silky get through the door one leg at a time. However it never took her more than ten seconds to get through one. 

"Mama can I have one of those?" Silky said while visibly drooling. Maxine knew she was talking about the bronze essence cores.

"Yes, you can have one, Silky," Maxine handed Silky one of them. 

"Thank you, mama," Silky said as she gave Maxine a hug. However after parting from the hug, Silky threw the essence core into her mouth. Maxine immediately panicked.

"Spit it out! You could choke on that!" Maxine yelled while rushing towards Silky to try and force it out of her mouth. Silky flinched and promptly spits out the bronze essence core into her hand.

"I am sorry, mama. I wasn't going to swallow it. I was just trying to get the yummy stuff inside of it," Silky answered. Maxine calmed down quite a bit at hearing that and remembered that Silky had required the essence cores to evolle in the past. Wait a second. Can Silky evolve again? That would be interesting to find out if she can. Maxine had never heard of an evolved for of an arachne, but that didn't mean they don't exist. The best time persue that would be during childhood. 

"Then you should have said that before putting it in your mouth. You scared me," Maxine said as she hugged Silky.

 "I didn't mean to scare you, mama," Silky said while tears started to form in her eyes, "Please don't be mad at me."

"I am not mad at you," Maxine said as she pulled herself away from Silky, "Can you tell me why you needed to put that essence core in your mouth to get the stufff inside of it?" Silky's face perked up as she nodded her head.

"I put it there because I get more of the yummy stuff when it's im my mouth," Silky answered innocently.  

"Show me," Maxine said, "But be careful not to swallow it. Okay?" Maxine extended her spiritual sense to encompass Silky's whole body.

"I understand, mama," Silky said as she put the bronze essence core back into her mouth. She rolling it around her mouth like it was a jawbreaker as the essence within it was being simultaneously drained and refined. There was far less loss to this method than the one Maxine knew. Silky was getting twice of the essence from that core than Maxine would have and was doing it in far less time. It was amazing. Although it didn't have much use to Maxine at the moment, but it would be a great boon to her friends. After Silky had finished draining the essence from the core, she spat it out and it disintegrated before it even hit the floor. 

"Amazing Silky. Here have some more for showing me that," Maxine gave Silky three more bronze essence cores. Maxine intended to experiment with that method herself once her core is completely stable and put it to paper before giving it to her friends. Other than Patrick, no one else had the experience to handle any problems that might arise.

"Thank you, mama," Silky said as she got out of the room with her prize in hand. Maxine wondered how many bronze essence cores it would take before Silky got to the iron stage. However at that moment Maxine realized she had never really checked Silky's cultivation since she evolved into an arachne. She checked it at that moment and found that Silky was more powerful than Patrick. She had a cultivation of bronze rank 4. Maxine was impressed with Silky's cultivation. Maxine did the math in her head and it would only take roughly thirty bronze essence cores for Silky to get to iron stage. She could definitely spare that many to get another iron stage fighter, but at the same time, Maxine didn't want to spoil Silky. She needed a reason to give her the bronze essence cores. Maybe I could give them to her for improving her reading level.

Maxine pulled out more bronze essence cores to replenish what she gave to Silky and made five more Shadow Wolves. She checked the time and saw that she still had a few hours before lunch time. Maxine decided to take Silky out for a jaunt through the forest to get some exercise and to check on her nest. Silky was excited to get out of the house, but as Maxine opened the door, she saw Jack of all people pacing back and forth infront of her house. How the hell did he figure out where I live?  However Maxine soon realized any of Silky's, or her own, fans would have known where she lives. The part that really concerned her is why he was here. Jack was autistic enough that there is no way that he would ever go somwhere new like this by himself. Not unless it was something far more pressing than just to meet Silky. There is a possibility that he noticed something anomalous about her behavior during the outting with everyone. His attention to detail is frightening. She remembered one time when he tracked a squirrel through a forest that had leaves covering the ground without the use of his spiritual sense just to prove how good he was at tracking. He even pointed out that it had an injured hind leg while tracking it. When he had found and pointed it out, it did indeed have an injured hind leg. She still had no idea how he had did that.

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"Hey Jack. what are you doing here?" Maxine asked from the doorway to her house. Jack was startled as he turned towards Maxine.

"What? Oh, hi, Maxine," Jack said in greeting, "I have something I would like to ask you." Maxine became curious as to what question that he had on his mind that would drive him to come here. She was about to ask him why he didn't just call, but recieve a spiritual sense message from him before she could, "It is a question that I don't want anyone to know that I asked you."

"Mama, is that one of the friends you saw a few days ago?" Silky asked from behind her. Maxine turned her head and looked at Silky.

"Yes, he is. He wanted to meet you before and was disappointed that he couldn't," Maxine answered Silky.

"Really?," Silky said as she looked at Jack. However before she could answer Jack had already gotten alot closer and was giving Silky a look of adoration. He pulled his phone out and took Silky's picture and giggled excitedly. What. The. Fuck. I never thought that Jack of all people would be a fanboy. He didn't speak much and he was normally quite calm when I was around him in the previous timeline. Although he did dote on his pet tarantula. 

"It certainly looks like it, Silky," Maxine said.

"He's wierd, mama. Did he hit his head?" Silky asked innocently and Maxine had to struggle not to laugh at that question. However Jack didn't seem to have even noticed that Silky spoke as he continued to take pictures of her from different directions.

"No, he didn't. He just thinks you are super cute," Maxine said and a huge smile spread accross Silky's face. After a few seconds, Jack finished taking Silky's pictures and Maxine said, "Jack? You said you had a question for me. What was it?"

Jack seemed to snap out of his fan boy mode and sobered up as he answered, "Yes, I did say that. Do you have somewhere there are less people around? I don't want anyone to listen into our conversation."

"Yes, I do," Maxine answered, "As a matter of fact, Silky and myself were about to go for a hike. Want to tag along?"

"Of course. Lead the way," Jack said. 

Maxine started running down the street with Silky and Jack. Fortunately she didn't have to slow down for Jack and she was happy that he didn't go back into fan boy mode as well. It didn't take them very long to reach the forest and enter it. While they were walking towards Silky's nest, Jack pulled out his cellphone and took out the battery. Maxine narrowed her eyes and did the same. Jack still didn't ask again about what he wanted to ask until they reached Silky's nest. There weren't that many essence beasts in the webs and the whole thing was in horrible condition. Silky ran towards it as soon as she saw it. She immediately cocooned the essence beasts and started repairing her nest. Maxine looked towards Jack curiously. She really wanted to know what he wanted to ask her.

"Do you have any electronics on you that might be able to transmit sound?" Jack asked with his spiritual sense.

"Maybe," Maxine answered using her spiritual sense as she put a sound proof barrier around the bangle on her wrist, "Why can't you just talk to me using your spiritual sense?"

"I havn't gotten enough practice at and talking with both my voice and spiritual sense at the same time to maintain the ruse that we are not talking about anything important," Jack answered. 

"Fair enough. Now what was so important that you needed to ask me?" Maxine asked.

"How long have you been in that body, Maxwell?" Jack asked directly, "And don't give me that bullshit about you being a seer." Fuck. I should have known he would have noticed something.

"Three and a half months. What gave me away?" Maxine asked.

"Several things actually," Jack said, "I was already suspicious of you when I saw the video file of your battle with that bear. There is no way an untrained and inexperienced girl could have fought like that. Your tactics in that fight were almost exactly what the Maxwell I know would have done. Next Patrick's behavior, before and after observing you, gave me another clue. He was first terrified of you, but when he came back, he said you weren't a threat. That along with a small slip up while telling us that you were a seer, gave me another clue. You also wield two blades like Maxwell prefers as well. Your speech patterns are almost identical and finally, your reaction when I asked you how long you have been in that body. There were some other things, but they are inconsequential next to those. However I found it odd that your mannerisms were different and that you were unconsciously avoiding physical contact with men. I would like an explaination."

"The original owner was still in this body when my soul entered it. We merged together and it just so happens that she had a phobia of men. I have a child beating bastard of a dad to thank for that," Maxine said. The moment that she mentioned that her father was a child abuser, Jack's eyes burned with fury. However his face remained freakishly calm. 

"That would cetainly explain a few things," Jack said, "Does anyone besides Patrick know about this?" He seems really chill considering I just proved the existence of souls. Unless ... Patrick already told Jack that he was a reincarnator already. 

"Not exactly," Maxine answered, "Emily made a guess that was very close to the truth."

"Emily?" Jack said with slight confusion on his face, but it quickly vanished, "You mean your girlfriend?" 

"Emily said I was her girlfriend?" Maxine said as a smile spread accross her face. 

"Yes, she did. It was when you were in the changing room," Jack said, "Maxwell was rather disappointed when he found out about that." Maxine was elated that Emily considered Maxine her girlfriend. But why did she blush when Maxwell stared at her? Maybe I should ask her.

"I bet he was," Maxine told him and remembered about those 12 medicinal herbs that she got off of those bandits, "Oh! Can you help me find out what the properties of these medicinal herbs are? I could use your freakish perception to help me figure it out after I feed one to an essence beast."

"I should be able to as long as it doesn't take more than an hour. I need to head back home for lunch. Otherwise my family will wonder where I am," Jack answered. 

"Thanks again," Maxine said, "Follow me and don't worry about Silky. She will be quite safe inside of her nest." 

Maxine summoned twenty Shadow Wolves out of her shadow. Jack seemed startled by their appearance, but quickly calmed down. She had her Shadow Wolves lead the way to find a bronze ranked essence beast. It took almost half an hour to find one and she pinned it down with shadow tendrils. Maxine withdrew one of the strange medicinal herbs from her dimensional pouch and force fed it to the essence beast. She slashed it's shoulder shallowly to see if it starts healing and watched the essence beast carefully with her spiritual sense. She detected that Jack was doing the same. However what she saw made her angry. The essence beast's heart rate was accelerating as well as it's eyes going bloodshot. It started making thrusting motions with it's hips as it started panting heavily. The medicinal herbs were clearly very powerful aphrodisiacs. I was hoping that these things were healing herbs not fucking aphrodisiacs. I should have skinned those fucking bandits alive. 

Jack agreed that it was an aphrodisiac and Maxine quickly killed the essence beast. Unfortunately he couldn't stick around and she had to take him back to where they entered the forest. She reminded him not to share with anyone that she was a reincarnator and reminded him to try his best not to be seen before he started running back home. She definitely didn't want Jack, or anyone else for that matter, to deal with the General Jones.

Maxine wanted to destroy the aphrodisiacs as soon as Jack got out of sight, but she refrained from doing so. If she tried to destroy them using fire or essence and she inhaled some of the fumes, she would probably enter a sexual frenzy and would probably rape the first man that she encountered. She needed a different way to dispose of these things. She guessed that she could just force feed them to essence beasts another day. Sine she had already done what she had planned for today, Maixne decided to go home and get lunch with Silky before visiting her mother.