Since this time would be the first that Maxine had ever taught a class without someone she knew present, she felt a little nervous about it as she was she unlocked the front door of her school and entered the building. It was formerly a karate dojo and the hardwood floors appeared to have been cleaned recently. The walls had only three items decorating them. The first two items were the signed contract, and it's simplidied version, that she signed with the government. The last one was a wall clock. This place might not be much, but this is still a way better learning enviroment than that damn warehouse that I taught those soldiers boys at. 

Maxine checked the time and noticed that she still had a few minutes before even the earliest arrivals could arrive. She went into the room in the back and in the off chance someone was watching her, reached into her back pack to retrieve the Awakening Fluid through a small portal to the shadow world. She hadn't put it in her dimensional pouch since it wouldn't allow the medicinal glob to dissolve properly for some bizzare reason.

Maxine held it up to carefully inspect it and found that the glob of medicinal ingredients had fully dissolved. She smiled in satisfaction and nearly dropped the bottle when Hellen said via spiritual sense, "It still amazes me how easily you learned how to make that. I can only imagine how happy your father will be when I tell him." Once she recovered, she stuffed the bottle back into her backpack.

"Damn, mom. Don't do that," Maxine complained, "I nearly dropped the potion that I made."

"I'm sorry," Hellen apologized, "I'm just happy that you inheirited your father's talent for alchemy."

"Yeah, you told me that last night," Maxine said. At least a dozen times.

"I know," Hellen said happily, "But it's something that you deserve praise for."

"That much is obvious," Maxine replied and decided to figure out why Hellen was praising Maxine so much, "By the way, you didn't mention how many times Guan needed to make that stuff."

"I didn't?" Hellen said in a surprised tone, "It's odd that I would forget to mention that. He took forty-five tries before he succeeded. Your talent is only slightly weaker than his, but keep in mind, that it normally takes at least two to three hundred attempts before anyone else just starting alchemy could make that same potion." 

"You're joking right?" Maxine asked in disbelief, "Anyone could have done what I did. It wasn't that hard."

"It only seemed that way to you," Hellen said, "Your Shadow Lord form gives you a significant boost to your intellect. That and your natural talent made it far easier to make the potion than it should have. Unfortunately your intellect is hindered by your impulsive nature when you get the least bit angry. Remember when you snapped at Chris for being too invasive with his questions?" His comment about my damn past, or rather the original Maxine's, pissed me off to begin with. I almost think he said that on purpose just to make it easier for me to slip up.

"Yeah," Maxine admitted and heard the door to the dojo open, "I can't chat anymore. I have to greet one of my students."

"Alright," Hellen said and she cut the spiritual sense connection.

Maxine began to walk out of the back room before she remembered that she needed to set out some of the chairs stored in the backroom. She grabbed a couple of them to avoid wasting time and walked out of the back room. She saw her student. It was a twelve year old african american girl with her mother. Maxine remembered the girl's name. "It looks like you're the first one to arrive, Kanisha," Maxine said happily, "We will begin as soon as the others arrive." Kanisha nodded quietly while having an eager look on her face. It's good that she is eager. Teaching someone that wants to learn is always better than teaching someone that doesn't. 

"Do you need help?" Kanish asked after looking at the two folding chairs in Maxine's hands.

"No, need," Maxine said as she remembered that she could have used her essence to move the chairs. She felt annoyed at herself for forgetting that and immediately created shadow tendrils to unfold and place the two chairs on the floor. Afterwards, she used her tendrils to grab more chairs from the back room and set them in place while Kanisha and Mrs. Crane watched on in awe.

"That's handy," Mrs. Crane said once Maxine finished with the chairs, "Will Kanisha be able to do that?"

"It depends on something," Maxine answered honestly.

"On what exactly?" Mrs. Cran asked.

"If she has a type of essence that can manifest into something malleable or not," Maxine answered, "But the chances that she even has an elemental attribute of any kind is actually quite low. In fact, I would be surprised if someone in this class has and elemental-type of essence, but it doesn't mean I am not hopeful for one."

"Is there any way to make her awaken one?" Mrs. Crane asked.

"No," Maxine answered flatly, "There is no other way to awaken one other than by natural means." 

"That's too bad. I am going to head back to work now. I should be back around the time that your session today ends," Mrs. Crane said before turning around and leaving. Maxine expected that she wouldn't be able to stay. Afterall, someone with the wealth to pay Maxine's fee would have to have a fulltime job at the minimum. 

After waiting for some time, the rest of her students arrived as their parents dropped them off. The last student to arrive was nearly ten minutes late. Not the most promising beginning. But these people have busy schedules. It's not that surprising that they might end up being late. I can't expect them all to be as punctual as the soldiers that I taught before.

All of Maxine's students had clustered up infront of her after the last student had arrived. "Okay everyone sit down in a chair or on the floor. Whichever is more comfortable for you," Maxine said and she waited until everyone was seated in before continueing, "My plan for today is to teach all of you how to detect essence and if possible, draw it into yourself to refine it." I may as well make them aim high. I doubt any more than two or three of them will be able to even feel essence today.

Many of Maxine's students looked eager to learn, and she began, "Now close your eyes and relax your muscles. Extend out your senses beyond your body and feel flow of air in the room. Now search the air with your senses for tiny motes of light. They are there, so be patient. When you can sense them, I will know and impart my cultivation technique directly into your mind. Then you can begin to cultivate and take the first step on path of an essence cultivator." While Maxine spoke, she was actively using her spiritual sense and essence to pull essence in a dense cloud around each of her students. It was difficult, but manageable with only twenty students.  

Maxine was watching them carefully. She knew that when someone first felt essence they had a tendancy to draw a small amount of it into their body reflexively, but she didn't have a high expectation for these teenagers to have the capacity to enter the required meditative state on the first day. However to her surprise, five of her students were able to detect essence one after the other in just a few minutes after she finished speaking. Did I just stumble across a bunch of geniuses?

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

However as Maxine started imparting her cultivation technique to the first five, her disbelief only grew as more of her students detected essence. What is going on here?! This is too fast. I have taught others in the previous timeline and none of them were able to learn how to feel for essence this quickly. Although I have to admit the average age of people I taught in the previous timeline were between sixteen to eighteen. Most of the kids here are inbetween twelve and fifteen. Could that be the reason? I wouldn't think a couple years would make that big of a difference, but clearly it does.

Maxine had spent two hours watching as every last one of her students were able to sense essence and she was imparting her cultivation technique to them one at a time via spiritual sense. Just as she finished imparting her cultivation technique to the last student via spiritual sense, their parents began to arrive. Perfect timing. Now should be a good time to give them a dose of the Awakening Fluid.

"You guys surprised me. I didn't think that all of you would be able to sense essence in under two hours," Maxine praised them much to their and to their parent's obvious delight and she retrieved the bottle of Awakening Fluid from her backpack in the back room before she continued, "Now I am going to give each of your a small dose of this stuff. This will help you gather the necessary essence to form your core as soon as tomorrow. Maybe even today if you have an elemental attribute of some kind. However I want all of you to form your core here. Do not try to do it yourself. You could hurt yourself and limit your future attainments as an essence cultivator. I want all of you to be as powerful as you can get. One last thing, this potion tastes absolutely horrible, so brace yourselves." I know because the smell alone of it is punguent enough that I can only imagine the intensity of the taste.

Maxine went up to her students one by one and used her essence to feed them a single dose. She told them to immediately cultivate while ignoring their twisting expressions of disgust as they struggled not to spit it out. She knew that it would only take them a few minutes to form the essence strands under the effects of the Awakening Fluid and they could go home as soon as they finished using up the medicinal effect of that potion.  

Maxine watched them open their eyes with smiles on their faces. She was about to say something when she noticed Kanisha was sweating with her eyes still closed. Maxine quickly scanned her with spiritual sense and discovered the cause. Kanisha was in the midst of forming her core. She actually has an elemental attribute?

Maxine walked up beside Kanisha and sat down beside her. Maxine kept her spiritual sense trained on Kanisha's slowly forming core while staying alert. However Maxine was wondering why Kanisha was forming her core this soon and felt that her essence felt cold to her spiritual sense. That's odd, but not unheard of. I know of only two types of essence that feel the same way to spiritual sense and they are ice and crystal. Although there is a small possibility that it could be something else, but I can only find that out once she finishes forming her core. 

Mrs. Crane arrived at that moment and opened to speak. Maxine quickly motioned her to be quiet and spoke very softly, "Please give us a moment. Your daughter is in a critical stage in forming her core. If you interrupt her, it could hurt her." Mrs. Crane immediately shut her mouth and watched. However Maxine paid the woman very little mind and continued to observe as Kanisha formed an essence core. Kanisha's core was forming beautifully next to her heart and Maxine knew that she needed very little coaching to complete it. However she wanted to keep an eye on her just in case. After a few minutes, Kanisha opened her eyes with a smile on her face.

"Congratulations, you just became a copper stage essence cultivator with an elemental attribute," Maxine stated.

"She does?!" Mrs. Crane asked excitedly, "Which one?"

"Let's find out," Maxine said and looked to Kanisha, "Try to grab ahold of your essence and form a small ball above your palm." Kanisha closed her eyes in concentration and a small void that literately warped the air around it appeared above her hand. That's definitely something I have never seen before. It's definitely dangerous though. Every instinct I have is telling me to get away from it. 

"Which attribute do I have?" Kanisha asked.

"I don't know," Maxine answered honestly, "I have never seen an attribute that behaves like this before, but I can tell you one thing with certainty. If you use this essence, there is no essence beast on this planet that would ever come near her."

"Why would they do that?" Kanisha asked.

After a few seconds of thought, Maxine answered, "Because I feel an instinctive fear of it and human instincts are weak when in comparison to an animal. In other words, since I don't want to even be close to it, an animal will want to be as far away from it as physically possible." 

"Good," Mrs. Crane said happily and she looked to Kanisha. Maxine didn't even bother listening to how the rest of what Mrs. Crane said as Maxine stood up. She looked at the rest of her students, whom were all looking at Kanisha with eyes filled with jealousy. 

"In any case, I think that we have kept your parents waiting long enough," Maxine told them, "Just a reminder, we are going to have all of you form your cores tomorrow. Have a good night, you guys." It only took a few minutes for everyone to leave and Maxine locked up her school as she left herself.

As Maxine walked home, she asked Hellen via spiritual sense, "Do you know which attribute Kanisha has?"

"Yes, it's spatial. It's exceedingly rare even within the Alliance," Hellen answered, "If Guan hadn't laid down the rules to the Alliance, she would be taken on as a student to a spatial attribute holder wanting to pass down their techniques."

"Does Guan know any of those guys that wouldn't take her offworld?" Maxine asked, "I know I can't teach Kanisha properly since I know nothing about that attribute."

"Your father knows a few of them, but don't get your hopes up," Hellen answered, "Those that can use that attribute are very prideful and very few of them would teach Kanisha if they could only do it on Earth."

"Better than nothing I suppose," Maxine said. If nothing else, I can mimic it using my essence to see what I can do with it to give Kanisha something to work with. However I have a feeling it won't easy or even as remotely as essence efficient as it would be to mimic another type of essence.

"Oh, before you get home, there is something I need to tell you," Hellen said.

"What's that?" Maxine asked.

"Turan's interference has caused an unexpected problem. He is doing too good of a job and the Alliance was forced to hire a ship from the Technological Union to perform a DNA scan the inhabitants of Earth. They didn't do it before because their services are notoriously expensive," Hellen said with far more calm than Maxine would have expected, "They are the only ones with the technology to do it and unlike the members of the Alliance that can do the same thing, they won't be breaking any of your father's rules by doing so. If he were to place one that would prevent them from approaching, they would have all the confirmation they need to go all out to find and capture you." God damn it! Wait, I need to calm down. I made this clone for exactly this kind of scenario.

"When will that ship arrive?" Maxine said calmly, "And what the fuck is the Technological Union?"

"I know this world's inhabitants have a tendancy to use vulgarities rather freely, but I would prefer it if you left those kinds of words out of our talks," Hellen said to Maxine.

"Sorry," Maxine said.

"It's alright, Maxine. Just avoid it in the future," Hellen said and continued calmly, "Anyways, the Technological Union is a group of races that rely on technology rather than cultivate any type of energy. As for when the ship should arrive, it should arrive in three to four months, but that is based on what I know about them from one hundred years ago. Their ships could be much faster now." Maxine quickly did the math in her head. She could teach no more than two more batches of students at best with that timeframe. I need to up the numbers of students per batch considerably as well as designate a teacher for when those assholes from the Alliance show up to try and capture me. Unfortunately I probably have less time than Hellen's estimation, so I need to set things up for my school as soon as possible. In any case, I will give those fuckers from the Alliance a good old chase before self-destructing my clone in some uninhabited area. Although it would be a lot more believeable if my clone gets mortally wounded while fending off their attempts to capture it. All I would have to do is to dodge in an unexpected way and 'accidentally' turn a crippling blow into a killing one. Regardless, the biggest problem with that plan is that I can't tell Emily any of it. I don't relish the idea of causing her pain like that, but I don't know a way to spare her that without her tipping off the Alliance that I am still alive. This sucks.