Within the fox settlement, there was a mother and a daughter sitting down to talk with one another. The mother was at a loss for words, completely baffled by her daughter's unexpected actions. Sad and downcast, the daughter set there waiting for her mother to say come out of shock and say something.
"Netra, what were you thinking?" Puula finally spoke. "Do you have any idea what your actions could cause? Why would you share scents with him, a gorilla of all things?"
"Mm…" Netra took her time to think of an answer. Puula was used to her daughter acting so awkwardly like this, that's why Puula was usually very patient and never tried to force anything on Netra. After five minutes of waiting, Netra managed to say something. "He's different."
"What?" Puula was even more confused with an answer like that. "Why is he different?"
Taking her time, Netra thought up what she considered an acceptable explanation. "He's different. You said I can only be with someone I feel is stronger, that's why he's different."
"But, but…" Puula was torn between what she wanted to tell her daughter and the words she had previously told her daughter. "Netra, I still think you should only be with someone stronger than you, but they should at least share an essence type. That way you can cultivate together and get the greatest advantages of having a mate."
"He's different though," Netra insisted. "His dark essence is stronger."
Puula stared at her daughter, completely lost after hearing her statement. "His dark essence? Netra, that's impossible. His entire clan has earth affinity so there's no chance of it happening."
"He's stronger… but he must be hiding it," Netra was persistent.
"Netra…" Puula knew that when Netra got to this point, she would never change her mind. That's why she dropped the matter of the dark essence and addressed the problem directly. "Even if he has dark essence but is hiding it, then there's no way for us to prove anything and it wouldn't matter. Either way, you did something that you knew you shouldn't have. Now, who knows what they'll be saying about you, me, or even the clan. Try to control yourself, okay Netra?"
"But…"
"Okay, Netra?" Puula didn't give Netra any other choice. She was determined for her daughter to be strong and independent like herself, especially since never before had Netra shown any interest in anyone. Usually, Puula would've liked to see Netra interact or pursue someone but since it was a gorilla that would never be able to have dark essence, she wouldn't let Netra ruin her future by getting closer to him.
"… Mm," Netra was reluctant to agree, knowing that she would never be able to do anything until she did. Returning to her natural coldness, Netra turned away from her mother and began to cultivate.
"Netra…" Puula could tell that she had hurt Netra's feelings, but she felt that it was a necessary action to keep Netra from ruining her potential. Slowly, Puula stood up and left her daughter to cultivate alone. She also had to talk with her son and advisor to make sure that no other foxes hear about this, especially after she and Netra had turned down many suitors from within the clan.
Netra sat quietly, focusing on her dark essence. It didn't make sense to her either, but she was certain that she had sensed dark essence from Oli and was determined to find out the truth.
* * * * *
The following morning was lively, with everyone making trips to other tribes and clans in order to spar and train together. A couple of young masters even stopped by Oli's home to challenge him and try to assess his strength but were disappointed to find out that he wasn't home. Before a single sun had risen, Oli had already made his way to the magicite mine. Since he had more than two moons before the entrance tournament, Oli already told Yeter, Ania, and everyone he knew that he would enter secluded training every day until he neared a breakthrough and only returning home to eat a very late meal and sleep.
Oli knew that if he couldn't find a way to train something new, then there would be no chance of him advancing to the next tier by the tournament. For that reason, he began to look through all of his gathered battle arts. There were plenty to choose from, but most of them were at higher levels without the option to learn anything as a novice level cultivator.
He considered his options and soon reached a conclusion. There were two novice grade battle arts that caught his eye, one using dark essence and one using earth essence. Since he wouldn't have any reason to use the dark essence in the tournament, Oli stuck to his mother's favorite earth essence battle art, the Earthen Hammer.
It was a simple technique that focused on condensing essence together in the shape of a war hammer. With a few days, Oli began to show some results and was able to form a small, crude hammer. It amazed Oli how much essence he had to use to form and maintain his crude hammer, let alone the full battle art. He was patient, showing better results daily and eventually being able to make the hammer, though he struggled to maintain it for long.
No matter what he did, Oli wasn't able to maintain the hammer for even a minute after three suns passed. Desperate to find a solution, he looked over the Earthen Hammer art that was imprinted in his mind and tried to see if there was a solution to his problem, other than taking a year to master this art alone.
For many days his mind would draw blanks, unable to change the outcome until he had an idea. He remembered what his mom said about cultivation techniques and how it was possible to build off of them to make them better. With that mindset, he examined the battle art again and finally found inspiration after over a moon had passed. More than half of his time was gone, but Oli was ecstatic. If his new plan could work, he understood that he may be able to take the whole competition by surprise.
Like before, every fifth day he would still do his soul training, hoping to finally interact with the soul jade and try to get as much power as he could before the tournament began. It's was clear to him that he was close to activating it, but he would always fall short just before he could pull it off. Oli was very sad to admit that he wouldn't be able to use the soul jade for the tournament, but he had to pause his soul training to pull off his miracle idea in time.
Once the second moon had passed and the school entrance exam was less than two suns away, Oli exited the cave earlier than usual with a big smile on his face. However, that smile vanished after Oli heard some rustling in the trees and he felt like he was being watched.
After a couple of minutes, he couldn't take it anymore and yelled, "Come on out! I don't know who you are or where you're hiding, but if you want to talk, just come on out and say so."
It took a few moments for Oli to suddenly turn around and see a two-tailed fox youth directly behind him. He didn't have time to react with her already being so close and was forced to feel her fur brush up against him all over again. This time there was no one around so he wasn't too worried, but he still was clueless to the fox girl's intentions and methods to recognize his dark essence the first time.