7 Black Hand Market

Azure light bounced all over the cave, coming straight from large crystals of various shapes embedded on the ceiling.

An eerie silver cloud moved lazily between the tall shelves full of old dusty books. Voices came from the nebulous mass, breaking the silence inside the abode. Some were laughing, some were noble declarations, other full of hate or passion. Strangely they all seemed to come from the same person, even if some voices talked on top of each other.

In the blue cave, there was a big liquid portal on one extremity and a large pool on the other. Near the portal laid a small black scaled snake, looking viciously at the only other living being in there: a tanned young human with short black hair.

The human was inside the pool, with white muddy waters constantly churning around him, trembling in pain. He gave his back to the portal, too much concentrated on whatever he was doing to realize that he wasn't alone anymore.

The reptile on his end was studying silently the situation, trying to devise the quickest plan to kill the human and take possession of that wonderful shelter he discovered. It was a magic shelter! A lair hidden inside a little iron object! Possessing such a great item would forever end his quest for shelters. He needed to have it.

"How I get rid of him?" though Darkscale, looking the bare back of the human. He felt that his body was way more strong than before. However, he didn't know if he had what it took to take out a human that possessed such a magical item.

"If he has a magic cave, maybe he also has some other magic item that can be used against me! I can't let greed dictate my ruin!" the small animal wasn't a complete moron, he could tell that someone with such an incredible treasure wasn't an easy target. It was clear that the human, even if dressed as one, wasn't a simple hunter. "Yet he also isn't a cultivator, or he would have already sensed me" wondered the snake.

Cultivators could sense thing. He didn't really know exactly how they did it, but he noticed that they always seemed to know more than what their eyes, ears, and noses could tell them. This was something that he experienced first in his Dreams: the King seemed always to have more information than what his senses could tell him about a situation. Almost as if there was some secret sixth sense that Darkscale wasn't aware of.

"Maybe he's not a cultivator… maybe he's like me…" considered the little snake continuing to observe the human. "He looks like he's cultivating… yes, I think he's trying to become a cultivator!" the violet eyes of Darkscale narrowed.

"Trying to become a cultivator meant that he still wasn't one…"

After a moment of indecision, the snake decided to wait in the shadow for more information and to attack only when the human least expected it. He crept quietly behind a large shelf and the blue stone wall, laying in wait. In his mind, he kept playing numerous scenarios of assault, over and over to prepare himself for the attack.

This wasn't like with the hunter that he maimed some day before: this was someone capable of cultivation, someone that possessed magical items. He needed a plan! A good one at that!

"Maybe I need to sneak behind him and bite him in the side of the neck like wolves do…" contemplated the reptile, evoking how packs of red wolves attacked giant elks. The wolves were smaller and weaker, but they managed to hunt a stronger creature by biting it in the neck and letting it die slowly.

"However, they are a pack and I'm alone…no, I need another plan…"

After lots of thinking, he decided to wait until the human went to sleep. Only then he could be sure that his attack would succeed with certainty.

"Ehehehe, silly stinky human, wait and see…" considered joyously Darkscale, thinking at how glorious it would be to finally slay a damnable human! The exact moment the man would fall asleep, it would start the countdown to his death!

Containing his excitement to not be discovered, he kept his body locked in place in his hiding space and waited.

Hours passed, but the human didn't budge. That damnable biped continued to remain completely still, fully concentrate on whatever act of human devilry he was doing inside the white pool. However, in the meantime, four new clouds had escaped from the dirty white waters and were now flying around the cave aimlessly.

Darkscale didn't completely understand the logic of it, but it had something to do with the way the human was cultivating. In fact, every time he relaxed even a bit, a new cloud would emerge with a strange sound from the pool.

"Just go and take a nap… come on!"

More time passed. Now there were a dozen talking clouds wandering around. They were extremely annoying, talking nonsense without stop wherever they went. When one of those silvery mass of gas passed near Darkscale he wanted to curse it away, but instead, he had to remain in silence and bear the unceasing chatter it came from them.

"This is torture! Please Mr Human, go to sleep!" tears appeared in the little snake eyes. He hated those damned clouds! And even more, he hated the human that was causing them to pop out from the white pool!

"Come on!"

However, no matter how much the reptile wanted it to happen, the human seemed able to cultivate for hours and hours without stopping. Darkscale recalled how much he had been proud of himself for being able to endure cultivation for an entire hour.

"Damn you human, I bet he's cheating somehow!" judged embarrassed the reptile.

Only when Darkscale was almost at the edge of sanity, on the verge of snapping at a crying silver cloud circled in the air right in front of his head, that the human finally let a long scream and bounced out from the pool.

"Whoa, he's fast" thought the little snake shaking off the fatigue he accumulated in his wait and examining better the naked monkey's movement.

"Still, being fast won't be that useful when you're dead ehehehehe!" Darkscale congratulated himself for his high intellect: no matter how much strong and fast was that human, if he couldn't sense him he would end with his throat ripped open in a few hours. The image of bloody scene caused a wicked grin appear in the little mouth of the snake, while a long forked dark tongue flashed satisfied in the air.

His happiness didn't last long though.

"Wait, where he's going?"

Before Dakscale could react in any way, the human had already reached the portal and run outside.

"????"

Darkscale couldn't understand how that human didn't just fall asleep after so many hours of cultivation. Furthermore, now that he finally ended his session he simply runs outside instead of resting? What an insane monster!

The portal distorted and then changed, now projecting the image of what seemed to be old leather and some meat ration. Probably the human had put the magic item in his bag again. The snake was angry and frustrated, but when he saw that food lying just outside the bag he remembered that it was a while from his last meal.

"It's been a long time since I last ate something… wait… it's has been days since I ate something!" the little snake seemed to have forgotten his previous frustration and anger. Now he looked only surprised at his own endurance. He looked down at his body, realizing that he wasn't hungry at all.

"That's strange…"

He thought of robbing the human from his dried meat, but he decided against that. He still had a chance to hit the man when he would come back, robbing him of the food would clearly alert him. Plus, he strangely wasn't hungry at all. So, he didn't even need the food.

Ignoring the portal, for now, he looked around. Figuring that the human wouldn't come back for a while, he came out from his hiding place and started to study more accurately the cave now that he was alone. In his eyes, it was a very large cave, large than any other structure he ever entered in all his life. Plus there were many bizarre things inside of it.

The pool of white water from which emerged talking clouds was one of the strangest things in the whole cave, followed by the portal that functioned as a door. However, the most peculiar thing was a little altar hidden behind the pool. Only when he did make the tour of the structure he managed to catch sight of it.

It was a closed black hand with the palm facing the ceiling. On the back, it could be seen a glimpse of a white snake biting its tail. The strange limb stood on a pedestal of black granite, adorned with numerous complex inscription. A red barrier of crackling energy enveloped the whole thing, giving off a very dangerous air.

After observing the thing for a couple of minutes, and having already made the tour of the cave, the snake thought that maybe it was safer to go back in hiding: if the human returned and saw him standing there looking around his surprise factor was gone.

He turned and started to move back towards his hiding place when a silver cloud appeared right in front of him. The stupid thing screamed, reciting poetry with a disgustingly high pitched nasal voice. Darkscale jumped in fear, completely caught off-guard. After realizing it was just one of those annoying talking mass of silver, anger started to burn in his violet eyes.

"Enough you disgusting cursed cloud! You and I cannot coexist under the same heaven!"

His little mouth opened wide, as he angrily started using his breathing technique to completely absorb and destroy that evil clutter of talking gas.

The silver cloud was immediately captured inside his body, flowing to power every part of his being. It was incredibly better than the last time he cultivated. Like the difference between drinking from a puddle and a pure clear mountain spring. Two completely different feelings!

From the pool, numerous lines of white energy started also to be pulled towards the vortex created by the serpent's suction. This energy was as much pure as that of the silver clouds, making the serpent shake in trepidation: this place was amazing for his cultivation! Now he understood why the human stayed inside the dirty waters so much!

Yes, the lines brought with them also creepy whispers, but now the young snake was completely numbed to the sight of talking lines of energy.

While he was celebrating his victory, he noted with the corner of his eye that a helix of red caking energy appeared from behind him and immediately mixed with the lines of white energy directed inside of him.

"What the hell was that?"

He didn't manage to stop the technique in time and he ended up absorbing even that strange red power. He also immediately felt it inside him: contrary to the white energy, it didn't come with a cold and ghoulish feeling, nor did it came with creepy whispers. Instead, it came with a strong torrid heat that burned him inside out.

"Argghhh!"

Thankfully, it only lasted for a second and seemed to only strengthen his body even more, but the pain he felt while absorbing it had been almost enough to make him lose his senses. He immediately stopped the breathing technique and turned to see where that red thing came from.

"Oh…"

The black hand was still there, but the ball of energy that protected it before was completely gone. Recalling how much dangerous did it seem when he looked at it before, Darkscale became pretty anxious.

"Did I really eat that thing? It was strong… why this thing would need such a strong defense?"

He went closer to the altar, looking at it closely now that the energy barrier was completely gone.

"Huh?"

He could swear of seeing some kind of small vibration being emanated from the thing. Curiously, he gave it a rapid hit with his tail.

"It's metallic? It looks like a real hand! Wow!" admired the serpent.

"Tu tu tu tu" a happy jingle started playing, coming right from the hand. The latter, under the sight of a stunned Darkscale, slowly opened up until all the fingers had completely spread out.

From the center of the palm, a black beam of light rose to the ceiling, creating a large screen of some sort. Three blood red words appeared on the screen of black of light, followed by the image of a humanoid creature with curved ram horns and large protruding canines.

"Welcome to Black Hand Market, Devil Path division…I'm Devil Horns, how can I help you?"