Problem

"What... the hell" Maddox lets out at the revelation

He held both energies in his bodies which normally would not be possible since that would cause one or the other to remain in the body of someone. That was probably the reason why he was called an abomination before which now he could understand since he is something that should not exist for a variety of reasons. As for how these energies came into being in his body made no sense to Maddox since he can understand the darkness from his mother but the river of gold he was seeing made no sense since his father did not possess any sort of essence in his body unless the man he had grown up with was not his father...

That thought made Maddox open up his eyes and break his meditative state as he tried piecing together the facts. Ultimately it made sense since there was a higher chance of one developing essence if your parents could wield it beforehand and would be quite powerful compared to those who suddenly receive it. Plus he always thought that his 'father' never really looked like him since there is no way that ugly bastard could give birth to his handsome mug.

With that Maddox concluded that his mother had done it previously with someone else that could use essence and not only was he a very powerful user but he could implant her with his seed. How he knew that was quite simple as the previous video that he took he saw that his mother had taken out any residual 'juices' that were inside her before making that strange bead that she consumed. It was a bit disturbing to think about that fact but Maddox found solace that he did attack his father and did it to someone he barely considered a father figure.

Turning back though to the problem of creating his first orb though seemed to be something that Maddox was going to have a tough time accomplishing since he could not create one out of the essence in his body. If he tried it would harm him and unless he felt like feeling that pain he either had to become a masochist or find another way. So Maddox started looking over the pdf files once more to see if there was anything he missed and after a few minutes of looking over everything he did not glean anything that would be useful since it was pretty straightforward.

"Just gather the essence in your body to then mold and form it into your first sphere within your body, once this step has been completed all that needs to be done next is to repeat the process over and over. The process will take longer with each orb and become even more difficult until one of two scenarios happens with either all the essence in one body being used up or being unable to grasp the essence within your body," Maddox reads aloud to see if there is anything he missed since reading aloud might help

"Okay I get that part but... what the hell do you do if you cannot touch the damn thing!"

Maddox was getting a bit frustrated as he decided to take a break and try getting some sleep if possible since it was l-

"BEEP!" "BEEP!" "BEEP!"

Maddox's alarm rang out telling him to get up even though he was already awake he lost track of time and now it was 06:00 which was meant Maddo could not go to bed now since he had some things that he wanted to do today that took priority. So after eating some leftovers from the night before waited until it was 08 in the morning and sat down at his desk before pulling out his phone. For the next few hours, Maddox did some research, with a bit of difficulty, into various home remodeling agencies getting quotes and prices for what he had in mind.

Another thing he did was go through some items that may be useful in the future that he could buy as he needed something usable to defend himself within the coming years as while he told Katherine he wanted to help the coalition by providing some things that did not mean he was just going to sit on his ass. Maddox wanted to hunt the infected and make them feel fear and have them suffer slowly as they were killed by him through various means. So there was no better place to do that than in his very home where everything began.

As these thoughts ran through his head a bit of the miasma began to leak from his hand causing it to flake and peel which he instantly noticed and fear gripped his heart as he did not want to turn into one of those creatures. Flicking his hand a bit as if his hand was on fire a small golden glow appeared and soon the miasma disappeared and his hand was back to normal.

Maddox's body was in a delicate balance with both the miasma and essence keeping each other in check as it seemed and if either becomes the only energy in his body then the results will be bad. The miasma would cause him to transform into an infected and the essence would... well Maddox could only assume that would be bad since only that small bit of essence that showed up just now made him unconsciously fear it. Still, Maddox had to be careful since the miasma seemed to react to emotions so he had to try to keep those in check and not accidentally turn into an infected or harm himself by the essence in his body to fight the miasma inside him.

Ultimately it kind of sucked for him since he could not use the methods that were given to him to create an orb and he could not use too much of his miasma without worrying about turning over to the dark side. He was in a pickle which seemed very difficult to overcome without any sort of help but Maddox had no one to turn to since Katherine was the only one who could somewhat relate to his problems and even then she would immediately report this to her superiors and they would defiantly dissect him or something else along those lines.

Not lingering on those thoughts no more Maddox continues his search for all sorts of things that he would need for the future and figuring things out to the point he passed out at his desk in the early morning of the second day back home. He continued this trend for a whole week by leaving his room only for the necessities of the bathroom and food which lead to him looking like some homeless person in a fancy house.

At the end of the week though Maddox was completely done with what had been trying to complete and while he still had not been able to deal with the problem of essence sphere creation he still made some good progress in regards to some other important things. Now he had a well-known company that dealt with home security and construction planned to appear at his home within a few days so that he could an official quote with what he had in mind. Still, though leaving his room he only now realized a few things. First, he smelled like shit, second, he had not cleaned in a week which lead to the formation of dust and dishes that needed to be addressed, and third Maddox was a literal fat ass as for the past week he had not gotten any exercise.

Seeing his poor body and living conditions Maddox decided to set up a life schedule for now since he needed to stay fit and hopefully could bulk up a bit since those creatures were strong. The only reason he was able to beat those creatures before was because of the element of surprise and some good hardware so in a regular fight, they would kill him easily. So strengthening himself would help with that by a little bit.

So after showering and dealing with the call of nature Maddox came out of the steaming hot shower whilst feeling refreshed and relaxed at how things had ended up with now. Sitting down Maddox took stock of everything he had since the leftovers were now gone and everything had been removed previously since it had been about seven months since anyone was there, so he had to now start getting food for himself and if he truly did want to stay in shape then he would need to cook for himself. Fast food and take-out from a few places would not hurt every once in a while but he needed to watch his intake since too much would be counterproductive. With that Maddox makes a list of some easy things that he can make like pasta, salads, and Stater Bros. rotisserie chicken would be some examples of what he could buy to be useful for some meals to have.

Now then thanks to his mother's company now being his technically he was now given a paycheck monthly which he could use as well as his parent's bank accounts since they were considered dead all their stuff became his. His parent's vehicles he decided to sell since he did not want those as he still had two other cars parked in the driveway that he could use with both looking new and modifiable by him once he did some proper research into what he would need in the future. So he could deal with that once he was able to drive but getting a driver's license was another two years away at the minimum and he had no family members he could use for the test. His only option would probably be Katherine since she was the only one that came to mind for the job. Still, things that would happen in the future would happen in the future so he would not think about them for now.

Maddox got dressed and after grabbing a debit card that was for his parent's bank account Maddox walked down to the local supermarket where he started buying all sorts of groceries and items that he would need for the rest of the week. Once done he took an Uber back home which was a bit awkward for him since the driver recognized him and gave their condolences for his loss. Putting everything away Maddox starts cleaning up the house but stops when he reached his father's office and his parents and sisters' room since they brought up bad memories. Still, Maddox knew he had to go in there eventually since he wanted to check if there was anything that the cleanup crew had missed after Maddox's fight that day.

The clean-up crew shows up after any sort of fight against the coalition and infected individuals to make sure that no new disease appeared, which did a few years ago that lead to them placing the blame on a guy who ate bat soup. They are efficient as not even a smudge was left of the altercation as Maddox entered his sister's room and everything looked just the same as before that day. Only dusting the place Maddox leaves his sister's room since there was nothing in there that he wanted to change or alter since that was the only place that had any sort of connection to his sisters.

His father's study was different since this place was where he decided to look around and had to break open a few things since there was a safe in the wall which was easy to crack open with some good old fashion hard wiring solved. Inside was a gun, some wads of cash, and fake identification for his family members that Maddox took out and planned to make use of in the future. He had a fake identity but of course, his fake name sucked with it being Lara Croft making him out to be some video game character, but he could change that later to something better. The other fake IDs he shredded since he could not use them. With that done and every inch of his father's office looked over, only finding some of his mother's and father's concept ideas for their future projects being found, Maddox enters his parent's room hoping to find something more... interesting.

Inside the room, it was pitch black but Maddox could see fine which lead to his discovery of night vision that was also useful even though everything was grey to him it still helped as he flicked on the light switch. Light floods to the room with everything available for him to see with a large queen-sized bed pushed up against the wall to the right with a walk-in closet going into the opposite wall with two entrances. In between those two doors was a large dresser and above it was a photo hung on the wall of the entire family but it was the photo Maddox hated the most since in this photo he was way off to the side of the photo to the point he looked like a complete stranger in the family photo. It had been a professional photo one Christmas day and Maddox hated that Christmas that year due to that photo as it was his parents.

Still, Maddox was not here to linger on some stupid photo as he was only in here to clean and to search for anything that could be useful. So the search began while also simultaneously cleaning the dusty place.