Maxine was tired this morning. Hellen had decided to teach her how to defend against charm-type skills lastnight until it was beyond late and Maxine had been woken up twice by her ravens after she had already gone to bed. Both times were nothing more than the essence cultivators from yesterday checking where Maxine lived. Although it confused her why they didn't just wait until morning to locate her. However she pushed all of those thoughts out of her head as she got ready to go spend some time with Emily.
Maxine got dressed and checked on Silky to make sure she was getting ready as well. Maxine's mother had gone back to work today and it meant that Maxine had to take Silky with her. Maxine thought her mother was pushing it, but understood why she forced herself to go to work. The money they had was dwindling and they needed the income from her mother's job. It didn't help that Silky ate more than Maxine and her mother put together and the recent hospital bills weren't helping either. The good part though was that Maxine was able to suppliment their food with essence beast meat, which helped with the food costs, but that didn't help as much as she would like. The only things that Maxine could think of to help with the household bills was to either craft equipment to sell to the military, sell the silk that Silky produces, or do paid interviews on TV.
Maxine debated the pros and cons of those three choices while she brushed her hair. Out of the three choices, selling equipment to the military would give her a very steady and large source of income, but she wasn't too fond of them after General Jones had tried to get her killed. Not to mention, they may see her medieval style weaponry and armor as useless beside guns and kevlar. As for selling Silky's silk, it wouldn't sell as high, and Maxine wouldn't know who she could sell it to. Not to mention someone might try to kidnap Silky to produce silk once the knew that she had that capacity. She didn't even consider the TV interviews because it wouldn't be a steady form of income. Once the public got tired of her, she would no long be able to use that method. None of the methods for gaining income had any particular strong points. It was frustrating.
Maxine let out a sigh and pushed those thoughts out of her head as she walked into the kitchen to pick up the fifty dollars that her mother left on the counter. For today, she was going to enjoy her day with Emily and Silky. Maxine turned around and saw Silky was waiting next to the front door.
"Alright, Silky. Let's go and pick up Emily," Maxine said.
"Okay, mama," Silky said. They left the house and made their way to Emily's house.
As soon as they got there Maxine knocked on the door and was greeted by General McKenzy smiling face. His eyes landed on Silky. Silky smiled and said, "Hello."
"Hello, Silky," General McKenzy said and shifted his gaze towards Maxine. However his expression shifted to concern as soon as his eyes landed on Maxine's face and he asked, "Maxine, is there something wrong? You look agitated." Maxine hadn't been aware she had that kind of expression on her face.
"I am just worried about how my mom is going to continue paying the bills," Maxine said honestly, "Hospital bills and Silky's nutritional needs have drained mom's bank account. I know she hasn't said anything, but I know it's beginning to become a problem." Maxine saw that General McKenzy was giving her an appreciative look.
"Marvelous. Most teenagers don't show this level of awareness," General McKenzy said, "However if it's additional income you need, why not just teach others how to cultivate? I don't recall ever making you sign an agreement not to."
"That's... a great idea," Maxine answered. I don't know why I didn't think of it. However when she thought about it more carefully, it became daunting task. She had a responsibility to make sure that each of her students had a certain level of character to ensure that they wouldn't use their new abilities for criminal activity. With the military, she had known that each of her students had already been thoroughly checked over by psychologists, but in this situation, it would be all on her. At least, this is the most stable form of income for me since who wouldn't want to become super strong and be able to run as fast as a car. It's like being a super hero. And I know the perfect place to find students. I just need to place a few posts with my requirements on some websites and I will have my potential students. Doing that would also make another statement. It would be stating that essence cultivators that awoke to their power naturally were not mutants and still human. They were simply people with a higher aptitude for cultivation.
"Glad, I could help," General McKenzy said while showing a gentle smile and turned his head slightly a moment later, "You two enjoy your day." Maxine saw Emily appear next to General McKenzy as he finished speaking.
"We will, Grandpa," Emily said cheerfully, "Let's get going, Maxine." Maxine noticed that Emily was dressed up for today and was wearing a backpack. Undoubtedly with a spare set of clothes for their training session.
"Sure," Maxine said as she lead the way and looked over her shoulder at General McKenzy, "We should be back before three. See you later."
They left at a nice slow run with Maxine leading Emily and Silky to Silky's former nest site. Although their slow run was nearly fifty miles per hour, it was still slow for them. Maxine didn't dare go any faster since Emily was only bronze rank 1 and had only recently decided to start using her increased speed to get around town. She didn't have enough time to get used to her maximum speed yet and might accidentally run into someone. That would be little different than the unfortunate person being hit by a car.
It took them almost five times longer to get to Silky's former nest. There were lots of holes and missing sections to Silky's former nest. It made Silky distraught the moment she saw it. Maxine soothed Silky, "It's alright Silky. Remember you live in a house now and we don't need your webs to feed ourselves either."
"That's not it, mama," Silky said while looking even more upset, "This is the place we found each other. I want it to stay the same way." Maxine felt touched and was thankful Emily was staying out of this.
"Silky," Maxine said soothingly as she knelt down to get on the same eye level as Silky, "It's not possible to make it stay the same forever. The trees will grow as will the bushes that your webs connect to. But as long as you cherish your memories of that time, it will always exist in you."
"Really?" Silky asked with a bright smile.
"Yes," Maxine replied. She saw Silky's six eyes sparkle with joy. Maxine knew that even though Silky often showed great intelligence she would ocasionally do things like this to remind Maxine just how young Silky really is.
Maxine stood up and turned towards Emily and said, "Now let's start the training session. First I need to do a review over what we did last time, so both of you show me your best barrier." Silky and Emily nodded as they both formed a Revolving Rumble Barrier. Silky, the same as last time, formed her barrier almost instantly. However what surprised Maxine was that Emily had done it just as fast as Silky had and it seemed she was doing it effortlessly. She must have been practicing. Maxine was pleased about that. "Good, I see you have been practicing, Emily," Maxine praised, "Now that I know we don't need to work on barriers at all, we can get to learning how to dodge."
"How exactly will we be learning to do that?" Emily asked as she released her barrier.
"That's easy. I will make you dodge the attacks of essence beasts," Maxine responded, "Don't worry too much about getting hurt though. I will make sure that they are far weaker and slower than either of you. It shouldn't be too hard to dodge the attacks from them and it will be alot harder for them to hurt you. Just keep in mind that they still can." Maxine extended her spiritual sense as she finished speaking and found a few copper stage essence beasts. She decided on the one that was either copper stage one for them to use for practicing to dodge. When they were that weak, she could easily intercept it if Emily or Silky couldn't dodge fast enough.
Maxine quickly used her shadow tendrils to capture a wolf-type essence beast. She didn't dare get a rat-type. It would bring back some bad memories from when the Sadist Rats attacked their school and it would cause Emily to hesitate or even freeze up entirely.
While the essence beast was being transported, Emily took the opportunity to get changed behind some bushes. She came back out dressed in workout clothes as a Copper-Fang Wolf appeared while wrapped in shadow tendrils. It was still struggling in her tendrils. She walked up to it and stared it in the eyes as she connected to it's mind with her spiritual sense. She thought she should at least try to see if it would be willing to help them train. Maxine pulled out two copper essence cores while trying to impress onto this essence beast using a series of mental images that if it does what she wants it to, she would give it the two copper essence cores after they were done. Maxine smiled to herself as the Copper-Fang Wolf stopped struggling and wagged it's tail once to show it's agreement. She hadn't actually expected it to understand her due to it's level of cultivaton, but this was definitely a pleasant surprise.
"Maxine, what are you doing to it?" Emily asked.
"I just wanted to see if it would agree to helping us train," Maxine replied as she removed the shadow tendrils from the Copper-Fang Wolf, "It agreed by the way and your up first."
"Oh, alright," Emily said as she formed her priestess-like essence armor and seemed to get into a defensive stance. Maxine sent a few more images to the Copper-Fang Wolf to let it know to train with Emily first. However she made it clear to take it easy at first as if it was playing with a pup.
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Maxine watched as the Copper-Fang Wolf trotted towards Emily and jumped at her. Emily awkwardly dodged to the left and nearly fell down because she did it too forcefully. Maxine wanted to give Emily advice, but stopped herself when she saw that Emily became more focused. The wolf jumped at her again, and Emily dodged it. Although Emily's movements were too big in Maxine's opinion, but Emily was still able to keep her balance. It was an improvement, so she kept silent as she continued to watch Emily dodge the Copper-Fang Wolf. Emily was quickly dodging more and more smoothly as time progressed and the wolf began adding bites and scratches into it's attacks. However Emily was able to dodge it all, but that was to be expected with the large cultivation gap between the two of them.
Maxine checked the time and saw that Emily had only been practicing for only an hour. Yet she was able to dodge the Copper-Fang Wolf fluidly during this time, but she looked like she was starting to get tired. However the Copper-Fang Wolf seemed to be just fine. Maxine shook her head slightly as she remembered most wolves had incredible endurance.
"Okay that's enough," Maxine said as she snapped her fingers since she had already let the wolf know that it was the signal to stop, "Good job, Emily." The Copper-Fang Wolf immediately spun around and came to Maxine, whom had an copper essence core for it in her palm. The Copper-Fang Wolf quickly devoured the essence core and looked towards Silky. It clearly knew that Silky was next up for the dodging training.
"Your turn, Silky," Maxine said and saw that Silky formed her platemail-type essence armor.
"I am ready," Silky said eagerly and Emily went behind the bushes again to change back into her nice clothes. The Copper-Fang Wolf jumped at Silky just as it got into range. Silky's left legs kicked at the ground and she literately flew out of the way. Maxine was surprised at Silky's fluid movement as Silky landed smoothly. She had done this with minimal movement and hadn't gone off balance at landing. Maxine guessed that Silky could have figured something out by watching Emily or that she had learned it while she was still roaming around saving people from essence beasts. Those were the only reasonable things that Maxine could think of.
However Maxine didn't say anything and continued to watch as Silky dodged. The Copper-Fang Wolf was far faster to incorporate bites and scratches with Silky, but she was still able to dodge wonderfully. However Maxine did see a few errors with Silky's dodging when she looked carefully, but those quickly disappeared as time went on. Maxine kept an eye on the time and snapped her fingers after an hour had passed.
"Okay, we are done for now," Maxine said, "You did very good, Silky." Silky revealed a big smile at that praise.
Maxine quickly gave the Copper-Fang Wolf it's reward and used a series of images to let it know that they would return another day. She also let it know that they needed more training partners for multiple angle dodging practice and that she would reward them accordingly. The Copper-Fang Wolf looked at her for a moment and ran into the forest.
"So, are we done for the day?" Emily asked.
"Yes," Maxine replied, "Do you want to go out to eat now?" Silky's face brightened considerably at the mention of food.
"Sure," Emily said, "But where could we go? I'm not sure there are any restraunts that could handle Silky's appetite or even let her through the door."
"Let me worry about that," Maxine said and thought for a moment, "There is a chinese buffet, but it would take us about twenty minutes to run it from here. Would the both of you like to try that?"
"Sounds good to me," Emily said, "What about you, Silky? Do you like chinese food?"
"Yes!" Silky said.
"Alright, let's head out," Maxine said as they all got to their feet and ran towards the restraunt.
When the three of them finally got to the restraunt, Maxine was pleased to know that they would indeed let Silky come in to eat. However they would charge her for full price due to her size, but Maxine didn't complain in the least since Silky could eat more than any two people combined. Unfortunately the place was rather busy and almost everyone noticed as Silky came in and watched her as she piled on alot of different meats onto her plate before she went to their table.
Maxine and Emily gosspied about random things during their meal and when they went to the cash register to pay the bill, Maxine noticed out of the corner of her eye that the blonde pretty boy from before was sitting at a distant table inside of the restaurant. He had probably been watching them for some time considering he was obviously on his second or third plate. He waved at her when she turned her head slightly to get a better look. She glared angrily at him since she didn't like being followed and walked out of the building with Emily and Silky.
"What was that about?" Emily asked after they left the building.
"Just a pretty boy trying to recruit me," Maxine answered and winced as she realized that she said too much. She had just answered Emily reflexively due to how much she trusted her.
"Recruit you for what?" Emily asked. Maxine thought for a moment and decided to answer truthfully.
"To be member of his sect, clan or faction," Maxine said and added, "He isn't from Earth."
"How can you be sure of that?" Emily asked curiously.
"Hellen said as much after checking him and a few others out," Maxine replied, "And another recruiter verified it when he approached me."
"Oh," Emily said, "Did you join any of those groups?"
"No," Maxine answered, "The chances that they would take me off of Earth are too high for my tastes and I don't want to be separated from you or my family if it's possible." Emily smiled happily with a slight blush on her face.
"Alright neither will I if they approach me," Emily declared, "How about we go back to my house to watch some movies?"
"Sounds good to me," Maxine said.
"Can we have some popcorn?" Silky asked innocently. Both Maxine and Emily looked at Silky and laughed.
"Of course, we will," Maxine said after she stopped laughing, "Now let's get moving."
The three of them ran to Emily's house and made some popcorn before sitting down to watch a movie. General McKenzy left them alone during this time and Maxine took advantage of the situation to cuddle with Emily on the couch. Maxine didn't even care about what they were watching so long as she could be near Emily. After the movie was over, it was getting close to dinner time.
"Looks like we need to head home, Silky," Maxine announced after stretching a bit, "I would stay longer, if I hadn't promised mom I would be back for dinner." Silky looked at Maxine for a moment and started to shove what little popcorn was left into her mouth. Maxine smiled at Silky's antics and turned towards Emily.
"Let me see you to the door then," Emily said as she took them to the front door, but she stopped and turned around as if she were waiting for something. Maxine was wondering what it was and could only think of a goodbye kiss. She leaned closer to Emily to confirm this and saw that Emily didn't retreat or avoid her. Maxine went for it and gently kissed Emily on the lips. To her joy, Emily kissed back. Maxine's arms wrapped around Emily's chest as Emily wrapped her arms around Maxine's neck. She wasn't certain how long they were kissing for, but right as Maxine wanted to deepen their kiss, she heard General McKenzy cough a couple times just behind her. She quickly separated from Emily while blushing fiercely. Emily was in a similar condition. General McKenzy had a neutral expression, which Maxine could only assume meant he was angry. Only Silky was showing a toothy grin.
"I am going to have two mamas," Silky declared, which only made Maxine and Emily blush all the deeper. General McKenzy looked at Silky for a moment as he let out a sigh.
"I think you and Silky should go home now," General McKenzy said while looking at Maxine. Yep, he is definitely pissed.
"Yes, sir," Maxine said meekly as she opened the front door and had Silky follow her. She had felt as if she were being supressed by General McKenzy's eyes. It was as if Maxine were still a man and had encountered a girl's father after being caught with her hand up the girl's shirt. It was that same kind of overpowering feeling.
However as Maxine started to leave, she remembered she had promised Emily a gift and quickly fished out the dimensional pouch from her pocket and tossed it to her while saying, "That's your gift. It's a dimensional pouch. See you later, Emily." Maxine sent quick instructions on how to use a dimensional pouch via her spiritual sense before turning around to leave.
"See you later," Emily replied from the front door, "And thank you."
Maxine retreated home with Silky while thinking about her day. Aside from the appearance of the blonde pretty boy, she had an excellent day. She got to spend alot of time with Emily and Silky, got to cuddle with emily and even kiss her again. Now if only I didn't have to worry about anyone finding out that I am Guan's daughter, this day would be perfect. At least being with Emily made me forget about it for awhile.
As soon as Maxine got home, she ate dinner with a smile and told her mother about her day with Emily and Silky. Her mother seemed happy to hear the whole thing, but Maxine omitted the parts about the essence cultivators from another world. Her mother didn't need to know about that stuff since it would only cause her to worry. Maxine noticed that Silky didn't seem as hungry tonight as she normally did. Maxine could only assume that Silky had filled up on popcorn.
After dinner, Maxine went to her room and pulled out all of the iron stage essence cores that her Shadow Wolves had collected. She wondered if her essence core was stable enough to train using these essence cores. She needed to boost her power as quickly as possible to be able to defend herself.
"Hellen, is my cultivation stable enough to train with these essence cores?" Maxine asked using her spiritual sense.
"Let me check," Hellen said as she scanned Maxine's essence core, "You should be able to cultivate using those essence cores right now. However your essence vortex is slightly off balance, but it should correct itself while you cultivate. The only problem is this would only happen if you had a massive boost in strength in the last few months. Care to explain that?" Maxine quickly explained the reason for it and why she did it. "Maxine that was extremely risky. If your cultivation method were as advanced as it was, you would have died," Hellen reprimanded, "Do not ever even think about doing that again under any circumstance!" It was something Maxine already knew.
"I know, Hellen," Maxine said, "I am perfectly aware that if I messed up my core would have ruptured and turned me into a bloody mist and I have no intention of ever doing that again."
"Good," Hellen said, "Now I need to rest some more. I spent a good part of my day watching you and your lover today." Maxine couldn't help but blush slightly at that comment.
"Alright, rest well," Maxine said as she checked to see how many essence cores that her Shadow Wolves had collected today. They had collected only 5 iron and another 203 bronze essence cores. She would send her shadow clone to retrieve them after dark as she did last night.
Maxine quickly formed a portal to the shadow world and jumped into it. She intended to cultivate, practice the Phantasmal Steps of the Shadow Cat and make more Shadow Wolves. She had neglected that skill for long enough. With essence cultivators at least six times stronger than her, she needed every ounce of speed that she could muster.
Maxine quickly walked to her usual spot to cultivate and put all but 4 of the iron essence cores back into her dimensional pouch. She was going to see how much essence she could absorb using the method Silky had demonstrated her the other day before she started training in her other skills. However before Maxine started, she wondered how Amanda's petition was coming and decided to check it either tomorrow or the day after.