Maxine had been waiting for a solid week for the arachne to do something to show that they recieved a reply from their elders. During this time, she had cultivated without the use of the iron stage cores due to Hellen telling her to stabilize her cultivation first. Fortunately this gave Maxine plenty of time to stockpile more bronze and iron essence cores. She now had 710 bronze and 26 iron essence cores. Many more of her shadow Wolves had ranked up as well. She now had 90 iron stage, 165 bronze and no copper Shadow Wolves since they ranked up to bronze.
Maxine had managed to acquire a body scan of the Scarlet Horned Savage Dragon from Guan via spiritual sense over the course of three days to avoid overwhelming Maxine. Apparently, Hellen had told him about Maxine's ability to recreate essence beasts using her essence and an essence core as long as she had a base to work with. Maxine figured that he did that because he wanted her to have a powerful bodyguard.
After recieving that scan, Maxine immediately started to scale the beast down to a more manageable size to keep herself from worrying about the arachne. She wondered if it would affect any of its capabilities by shrinking it like that and did simulations in her head since doing it in reality would have unpleasant results if it were discovered. However for some reason, she knew it would be more powerful than a Terror Bear at the same level. That feeling spurred her on to perfect it. Unfortunately after scaling it down she met with several problems. Every time that she made an adjustment and simulated it in her head while she was scaling it down, the beast either lost the ability to breathe fire, couldn't fly or couldn't move at all. It's not a dragon if it can't breathe fire or fly!
Maxine was playing a card game with Silky when she finally got her scaled down dragon to work the way she wanted in a mental simulation. She smiled to herself since she knew all that she needed to do now was to make it in reality to test it out and wondered if Emily would like to fly on the back of a dragon. Maxine could just imagine the look of joy on Emily's face while riding on it's back.
"Mama, why are you smiling?" Silky asked innocently.
"You know that thing I have been working on?" Maxine asked. She had told Silky that she had been trying to make a dragon using her shadow essence and had run simulations in her head to figure out if it would work.
"Yeah," Silky said.
"I think I have figured out how to make it work now," Maxine said and Silky's eyes widened in excitement, "But first I need to check a few things before I make it. Just wait alittle bit and I promise you will get to see it first. Okay?"
"Okay, mama," Silky said while bouncing in place due to excitement. Maxine knew the reason for this because Silky had read a few fantasy novels about dragon riders and wanted to ride a dragon ever since.
Maxine went to the computer and checked her youtube video just in case there was something positive on it. However she found a post with a link to another site and this hadn't been posted just once either. She clicked it and it showed a website that displayed a long list of why a police force made up of essence cultivators would be pointless. Whoever wrote this made their first point that essence cultivators were mostly good people. Making the need for a police force comprised of them pointless since their population was less than a tenth of a percentile of the total population. Where did this guy get his information? Essence cultivators are seriously dangerous. One of us could easily kill one hundred normal people even if those people are armed. Although this person is right about our population not being that high. I doubt there are even two thousand essence cultivators in this state. However that will change very soon. A more recent addition to the website started off by insulting the essence cultivator that defeated the dragon. Whoever wrote this even went so far as to call Guan 'a lazy bastard' because he wouldn't fight the essence beasts on Earth. Finally it finished with almost five pages of information stating that the military appeared to have done an amazing job considering that they had next to no notice to prepare a defence and managed to keep the total loss of life under twenty thousand civilians nation wide. She knew whoever wrote this would change their tune after the next essence beast horde since there would be more places hit than last time. The first time there had only been three places attacked by an essence beast horde. Next time there would be five cities attacked and all of them highly populated. Although she had probably prevented one of those five with her Shadow Wolves hunting all of the bronze or higher essence beasts in the area.
Maxine quickly checked to see what date this webpage was published. It had been made quite literately hours after she posted her youtube video. She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. It was obvious that this was arranged by one of General Jones' cohorts to make things seem less severe than they were. She just didn't know who it was since it had been created anonymously. She did a quick internet search and found more than a dozen similar websites in place as well as a few videos as well that were posted by supposed experts. Why would anyone do this? They have seen what essence beasts and essence cultivators can do and how numberous they are. Do they seriously believe that the last essence beast horde was a one time thing? Or is it that they think that the next essence beast horde will occur again years later? In either case, that's wishful thinking. However Maxine suddenly realized that no one besides reincarnators knew how prolific essence beasts were. Even though she had killed over a thousand bronze and thirty iron stage essence beasts in the past week, there was no real sign that their numbers were significantly affected. Maxine knew that drastic measures had to be taken if they still had the same mindset after the next essence beast horde appears, which should happen in roughly a week. Fortunately her Shadow Wolves hadn't detected the formation of an essence beast horde within the two hundred miles from the spot she was at.
One of Maxine's ravens got her attention. She quickly looked through the eyes of that particular raven and saw the twin girls from before. However both of them looked straight at her raven before they opened four previously undetectable eyes on their foreheads and closed them again as if to announce what they were. They're the arachne?! But they look human! Wait. How did they know my ravens are sentries? They should look like any other bird flying around.
However Maxine couldn't contemplate that for long as they started to quickly approach her house. She was still worried that they were going to take Silky away. Unfortunately as long as she was on Earth, running away from them with Silky in tow would only be a temporary solution at best. It was easier to confront the problem head on.
Maxine started to walk towards the front door and Silky gave her a confused look since they were still in the middle of a game of cards. "We have guests coming," Maxine said to Silky.
"Will I still get to see your dragon, mama?" Silky asked as if sensing Maxine's fears.
"It depends on our guests," Maxine replied and noticed that the twin girls were about to reach the front door, "They are almost here. Let's go see what they want." She stood up and walked ot the front door. She opened it right as one of the twins was about to knock on the front door.
"Hello," the twin on the left said, "My name is Mikari. My sister is Kena. I think you know why we are here. May we come in?"
"Yes, you can," Maxine replied, but internally she was extremely worried.
"Thank you," Mikari said as she came inside with her sister. Maxine led them to the living room and they all got seated. Silky was looking at the two curiously.
After sitting in silence for awhile, Maxine got impatient and asked, "Are you two going to tell me why you are here?" Her question seemed to startle them.
"Sorry, I was lost in thought," Mikari said, "We are here to talk to you about Silky and what's best for her." Maxine understood at that moment that they were not going to forcibly take Silky away and relaxed internally.
"I want to stay with mama," Silky blurted out. Maxine wondered why Silky said that out of nowhere, but figured Silky had picked up on something.
"I want to stay with you too Silky," Maxine said while brushing Silky's hair with her hand.
"Wouldn't you rather play with other kids like yourself?" Mikari asked Silky while gesturing towards Silky's spider-shaped lower body.
"No, I like it here," Silky stated.
"I told you she would say that," Kena said smugly and Mikari let out a sigh.
"Have you ever felt that humans are afraid of you?," Mikari said.
"Yes, but they are more afraid of mama," Silky said and Maxine felt shocked at hearing that. People are afraid of me? Why? I have done nothing, but help them. However she could see a strange smile on Mikari's face.
"Do you know why they are afraid of you?" Mikari asked.
"No," Silky answered softly.
"Would you like to know why?" Mikari asked and Silky nodded her head, "They fear that one day you will realize how strong you are and decide that you don't want them around anymore. It is why they are overly friendly towards you and Maxine. They don't want to give you any reason to hate them." It suddenly all made sense to Maxine why there had been so much resistance in forming a police force made up of essence cultivators. They were afraid that the police force would become something more than it was intended and dethrone these politicians from their place of power when they took over with their overwhelming might. It was the same with General Jones. He turned his fear into aggression and tried to eliminate her before she became a real threat. She had also wondered why reporters were not more agressive in their attempts to get an interview with her. It was because they too were afraid of her on some level. It doesn't matter if they are afraid of me or not. I am not fighting for popularity or to even be liked.
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"Then I will be a good girl," Silky answered childishly. If only being a good person was good enough.
"I know you are a good girl. We have been watching you," Mikari stated, "However your 'mama' on the other hand, I am not so sure about." All of the sudden, Mikari was giving Maxine a vicious glare.
"If you have something to say, just say it," Maxine said.
"Fine. What happened to Silky's real mother? Did you kill her?" Mikari said with clear hostility, "There is no way that an arachne would ever allow her child to be raised by someone else unless she were dead." Maxine detected that both of them were scanning her with their spiritual sense to ensure that she wasn't going to lie. However she was rather relaxed since she was going to tell them the truth anyways.
"I don't know what happened to her mother," Maxine answered, "But didn't you know that Silky was still just a Widowmaker Spider when I found her?"
"What?" Mikari and Kena said at the same time and both of them looked at Silky in astonishment.
"Do you mean to tell me Silky evolved from a spider-type essence beast?" Mikari asked.
"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying," Maxine answered.
"It is quite rare for that to happen," Mikari explained, "In fact I know of only four within the sisterhood that are like that." I wonder how they would react if I told them there would be more spiders that evolve into arachne later.
"Will knowing that change anything?" Maxine asked.
"It wouldn't have even if we knew before," Mikari said and added via her spiritual sense, "Your father has already made it quite clear the concequences of abducting any native Earthling by force. Hence we are only here to persuade her and stay to teach and protect her if she doesn't want to leave. Fortunately, you have already started to teach her how to evade and to defend against attacks." Fear surged through Maxine at that statement since Mikari had indirectly said that she knew that Guan was Maxine's father.
"You are mistaken. My father is Johnathan Levings, not this Guan," Maxine replied with her own spiritual sense while hoping that Mikari believed her.
"There is no mistaking your identity," Mikari stated using her spiritual sense as she leaned in closer and inhaled deeply, "Your scent is similar enough to Poison Emperor Guan to be his child and you have the shadow attribute which is almost exclusively found in the Kavros Clan. But don't be concerned. I know better than to reveal your ancestry. If I did, both me and my sister would be dead before we knew what happened." What?! The shadow attribute is bloodline related?
"So, what now?" Maxine asked using her voice.
"Silky has made it quite clear that she doesn't want to leave. Myself and Kena shall go over what you have taught Silky already," Mikari said, "After that we can start teaching her the things she needs to know."
"Alright," Maxine said before she started telling them every tailoring book that Silky has read and every technique that Maxine has taught Silky.
"You have been quite thorough in her education thus far," Mikari said, "But there are some things she needs to learn from other arachne such as how to look more human and how to conceal the four eyes on her forehead." Those two techniques made perfect sense to Maxine. If an arachne looked like a human, it would be far more difficult to find an arachne to abduct them and and force them to make arachne silk.
"Alright. When will you begin Silky's training?" Maxine asked.
"Kena already has," Mikari said with a smile, "She was also trying to convince Silky to leave with us for most of our conversation, but Silky is a stubborn one." Maxine felt happy that Silky was so stubborn, but angry that these two went behind her back like that.
"She is only stubborn when it is something she really doesn't want to do," Maxine said with a smile, "I will leave you both to it, but if either of you do anything that I don't like again, I will feed you to my wolves." Mikari appeared confused for a moment before her eyes opened wide.
"Those things are yours?!" Mikari asked in surprise, "All of them?!"
"Yes and yes," Maxine said as she leaned back into the couch, "Just ask Silky if you don't believe me." Mikari turned to Silky for a few moments before she turned back to Maxine with a look of disbelief.
"I have never heard of a technique that allowed anyone to control that many essence beasts. The most I have ever seen anyone control is twenty," Mikari said, "How were you able to do it?"
"That's my secret," Maxine said. Like hell I will tell you. It's the same as announcing one of my skills and I don't want anyone to know about my abilities. I can never be too careful with that. Someone might be able to find a weakness in that skill and exploit it. "Shouldn't you be helping teach Silky?" Maxine said while using her tone of voice to hint that Mikari was already pushing Maxine's bottom line.
While they were teaching Silky via spiritual sense, Maxine watched them, but was also training using her shadow clones within the shadow world. She had discovered that she was able to do this a few days ago. One was practicing the Phantasmal Steps of the Shadow Cat while the other shadow clone was practicing dual blade techniques. Although her shadow clones could cultivate like Maxine could, they weren't able to boost Maxine's cultivation rate at all when they did so and it took up quite a bit of her mental capacity to use them both to train. However the benefits this brought were amazing. She had managed to increase her speed even more through the Phantasmal Steps of the Shadow Cat. She could now move roughly thirty percent faster than she could normally, but even with that boost of speed, she felt that she only had a very basic understanding of the movement skill. Maxine had also managed to unite all of the Crescent Moon Blitz blades into a singular blade wave that had three times her normal striking power, but it used up almost twenty seven times the essence that a normal attack would. She felt that this was inefficient use of her essence, but didn't know how to reduce the cost without doing alot of trial and error experiments, which one of her her shadow clones was doing at that moment.
Maxine continued to watch them and tried to listen into their spiritual sense conversation. Hellen had told her how to do it, but it required a very precise use of spiritual sense. She was using them as a means of practice. To avoid being detected, she used an extremely fine thread of spritual sense that was just slightly thicker than a blood cell to make the attempt.
Unfortunately Silky noticed and used her spiritual sense to tell Maxine, "Mama, you will make them mad if you try to listen in. They just taught me how to change my legs to look like yours! Watch me, Mama!" As Silky finished speaking with her spiritual sense, her lower body started to glow softly as it shrank and shifted. Her spider abdomen shrank into her lower back and her eight legs started to merge into one as small feet appeared on her front most set of legs. Even the two tiny forelimbs shrank into her body. Her exoskeleton started to turn pinkish as her legs finally fused together. At the end of it, Silky looked like a beautiful little girl albeit with six eyes.
Maxine immediately stood up and looked at Silky in wonder. Silky smiled as she looked down at her legs and giggled as she flexed her toes. "Now I look like you, mama," Silky announced verbally, but she quickly got pale. Maxine rushed forward to catch Silky as she collasped and after realizing that Silky was unconscious due to draining her essence entirely, she immediately glared angrily at Mikari and Kena.
"Don't give me that glare," Kena said, "I warned her to wait until she was stronger, but she wanted to show you how she woud look quite badly."
"That's all it better be," Maxine warned them, "I don't think Silky will be able to learn anything more for now. Why don't you two come back tomorrow. I won't see you out." Maxine didn't even give them a chance to respond as she carried Silky to her bed.
After gently laying Silky down, Maxine marveled at how Silky had retained her current shape without needing to use essence. This is truly an amazing technique. I wonder who came up with it. However she pushed those thoughts out of her head and slowly ran her hands through Silky's hair.
She quickly checked to make sure that the Mikari and Kena had left with her spiritual sense and summoned her shadow clone that was practicing the Phantasmal Step of the Shadow Cat to watch over Silky. She quickly entered the shadow world and walked outside of the cave. With a thought, she retrieved an iron essence core from her dimensional pouch. I hope this works. I really want to ride on a dragon's back while it is flying. She infused her essence into it and provided it all of the information to form the body of the dragon. It took several times more effort, both from her mind and essence, to form her dragon. Finally the essence core floated off of her hand as silver flesh started to form around the essence core. It grew rapidly as it drew in essence from the surrounding area. It took a full ten minutes before she could even tell that it was a dragon and another fifteen before it fully formed. She felt amazed as it stood up at five feet tall at the shoulder and nearly thirty feet long from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail. Its wing span was sixty feet as well as it flexed open its wings. Its coloring was far different from the Scarlet-Horned Savage Dragon. For one, its horns were dark grey with golden vine-like patterns on them. It's scales were slightly lighter grey than the horns, but every single one of the scales had a singular golden line running down the center of them. Its beautiful.
Maxine quickly commanded it to breathe fire into the air and it unleashed silver-colored flames out of it's mouth skyward. AWESOME! Next, she hopped up onto its back and commanded it to fly. That was a mistake. Its attempt at flying was extremely awkward and nearly lost control and crashed several times. It is still doing better than my first flight. After about the seventh time nearly crashing, it started flying more smoothly and Maxine laughed gleefully. She ordered it to land and she got thrown off as it landed extremely hard.
Maxine flew through the air and would have eaten a mouthful of dirt had she not gone into a forward roll at the last instant. Maxine stood up and brushed herself off before she engaged her Shadow's Embrace armor and tried to store her dragon into the bracers. It changed into a massive greyish blob as it flowed into the right bracer. She would show off her dragon to Silky and have her help Maxine come up with a name for it later.
Maxine quickly returned back to her house and checked on Silky and saw that she was still unconscious. Suddenly Maxine's phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Amanda. She quickly answered, "Hey, Amanda. What's up?"
"Maxine, your visions of the future were right about the essence beast hordes, but wrong with the number of them. There are four of them appearing separate locations throughout the country and the new commander at the base asked me to convince you to help fight one of them off," Amanda said. This new guys is smart. He knew I would at least hear Amanda out. Maxine wouldn't have given them the time to finish the sentence if it had been a military officer.