Strange Introductions and Dark Hand

Drew stared at the hatch covered in greenery with butterflies in his stomach.

'Here goes nothing,' He thought anxiously. Something deep inside Drew seemed to tell him to be on guard against the Black Strings... but he knew this was most likely the best opportunity he had to grow stronger.

He opened the hatch and looked at the dark rope ladder leading downwards to the dirt tunnel below.

"Fuck it," He murmured as he jumped down the hatch, closing it as he did so.

It was a small drop and with his recent training, the impact when he hit the ground felt like nothing.

He stared at the crude dirt tunnel that marked the path forward, the path towards The Night's Hold. But something stood in his path. It was a man who could only be described as a living shadow.

The man was tall, standing at over 6 feet in height but despite this massive size, he remained thin and agile.

No defining details could be seen as his body was covered in black and grey hooded armor with gloves and a mask that completely sealed away any form of identity.

His armor was pitch black, but grey strings seemed to twine around his hands with seemingly no purpose.

The only other defining detail about the man was a small symbol on his mask... It was a Dark Grey hand wrapped in black strings.

He was covered in barely noticeable tendrils of living shadows that made it much more difficult to discern his figure.

'The Black Strings,' He thought as his body stopped moving on instinct. 'It must be the person who is supposed to show me the ropes...'

They stared at each other for a long while before one of them made a move.

"Drew...?" a raspy voice echoed from all around the dirt tunnel. The man didn't even move an inch. His chest remained still as if constantly holding his breath.

Drew hadn't seen a horror movie before but he pictured that this moment would be pretty close to it.

"That's me," Drew said nervously, trying to shake his nerves.

The man continued to stare at him in silence before making his first notable movement since Drew spotted him.

"Good," The voice echoed once more as the man nodded slightly in recognition.

"Come," It continued.

After the man said those three words, he turned around and slowly walked down the tunnel.

'Weird...'

The man's steps were both fluid and rigid as he walked forward. Drew hesitated for a moment but quickly followed behind him.

Their footsteps echoed through the tunnel endlessly.

'Wait,' Drew thought as he stopped moving for a second and listened.

Silence filled the air, yet the man continued walking.

'Even his footsteps make no noise,' Drew thought while looking at the shadow man, 'Creepy,'.

---

They walked for what felt like forever and it didn't take long for Drew to realize that they weren't heading toward Black Street.

'Didn't Gill say that the headquarters of the Black Strings here was in the shop?'

'If that's the case... why are we heading away from Black Street?'

"Hey... Sir, Where are we heading?"

"Hmm," The man responded, walking forward without a care.

"All righty then..."

'Looks like I won't get any answers out of him,'

Their journey continued for a few hours before they reached a dead end in the corridor, though the man didn't show any signs of stopping.

He continued forward and snapped his fingers, silent still, and doing so caused a small black door to appear in the wall. He wordlessly opened the door and stepped inside, waiting for Drew on the other side.

'I guess this is the end,' Drew thought with a gulp.

He entered the room and the door behind him promptly disappeared. He gave a cursory glance over the room and found that it was fairly simple besides a small table and two chairs.

The table had a large wooden box on it as well as a few pieces of paper and a small quill.

The dark man sat down in the further chair from the door and waited silently.

"You want me to sit?"

"Hmm,"

"O-okay I guess," He said, his nerves starting to act up.

He slid into the creaky wooden chair and sat as straight as possible as he observed the man.

The man quickly picked up the quill and dabbed it in some ink before moving it towards the papers, though the quill remained above the papers, hovering silently.

"Affinities?" The raspy voice asked dully.

"Umm..." Drew trailed off as he began to think of what to tell the man.

'He probably would be able to tell if I was lying but if I just leave out information he might not pick up on it,'

"I have The Scythe Mastery Affinity. It's at Master level," He said shakily.

"Hmm," The man grunted as he quickly filled out a portion of the paper.

"Skills?"

"I have Scythe Master, it is at level 4, it's my highest level skill," Drew said aloud.

People in this world understood skills and their levels, they just didn't have a system to describe them in depth. Instead, they used Appraisal magic and intuition. There was an innate ability that was grained within everyone in this world to be able to understand their skills and affinities.

"Continue," The man grunted once more.

"Focus is my second highest level skill, it's at level 3,"

"My other skills are all at level one though,"

"Their Stealth and Acceleration,"

"Hmm," He grunted, this time sounding slightly surprised, though the change was subtle.

"Magic?" The man said, tilting his head up slightly.

"Er- I don't have any magical affinities or spells," He said anxiously.

"Lie," The man said simply, adding a new line to the page.

'Fuck, Fuck, Fuck Fuck!'

Drew's insides began to boil and his face flushed hotly as his being was filled with turmoil.

'I bet it doesn't look good to lie to the first person you meet in the guild,'

The man remained silent and continued writing lines upon lines of text that weren't legible to Drew.

'It doesn't look like English,' He thought as he squinted at the page.

'Does this world even speak English?'

'I never even noticed it before but I really doubt that the language everyone is speaking is the same that I spoke when I was on Earth,'

'I wonder how I understand everyone here...' Drew's thoughts were interrupted as the man seemed to be nearing the end of his writing.

After he finished filling out the first page he stood up and walked to an open space at the back of the room.

"Watch," He said simply.

'This is fucking weird! He didn't even have a reaction when he said I lied about magic,'

The man moved his legs into a slightly wider stance and his body became tense yet fluid. He raised his arms to about the middle of his torso and stretched his fingers out as if reaching for something.

The man's shadow began to waver slightly and an ominous feeling filled the room.

Drew felt a tap on his shoulder and jumped with fear, turning around sharply to see a hand made out of shadow floating in the air. It stayed afloat for a few moments, waving slightly at Drew before disappearing into nothingness once more.

"What the hell?!"

"Hmm," The man grunted before sitting down once more.

"What's even going on?! Is this the way everyone gets orientated into the guild?"

Drew was getting on edge, anger was filling his body and something wasn't adding up. The man remained still at Drew's question and waited patiently for him to calm down.

His mind became cold and after a few deep breaths, he came to a conclusion.

'Even if I wanted to leave, there is no door out,'

'It's best to just follow along for now,'

After Drew went silent, the man spoke up once more.

"Do," He said bluntly.

"You want me to do what you just did?"

"Hmm,"

"I don't have Shadow Magic Affinity, so how am I supposed to do shadow magic?!" He said, fed up.

"Try,"

"Fine," Drew said shortly, standing up and walking to where the man had previously been.

'System, is there any way you could lend me a hand?'

[Negative. The user would have to upgrade the system to have the [Data Collection Function] to be able to analyze the man's skill]

'I guess it's up to me then,'

'What was it that he did again...?'

Drew took a deep breath and focused his mind.

He looked at his stance and adjusted it, widening it ever so slightly as the man had done before. He tensed his body a little while maintaining enough fluidity to move freely. Then he moved his hands to the center of his chest and reached out half the distance that he could reach out if he stretched the most.

His elbows were bent and his fingers stretched out and a subtle vibration began to fill the air.

"What's that sound..." Drew mumbled, feeling a light buzzing fill his ears.

It was then that he felt it.

It was hard to feel at first but he could definitely tell that something was different about his body.

He moved his fingers slightly and was about to inspect his body, but as he moved his fingers he felt a tug on that strange addition of his being.

Drew froze, his mind focused on the sensation filling his mind. He twitched his finger and felt the connection tremble once more as it seemed ready to lurch forward at any given moment.

'What is this...'

He moved his hands a little more and he finally managed to understand what was going on.

'I'm controlling my shadow!'

A sliver of darkness was moving through the air in a way similar to when he moved his fingers. As Drew tested around with it the sliver began to concentrate and form into a physical hand as each of his fingers moved in tandem.

The hand moved around the room by his will and began soaring at a rapid pace.

He got lost in the sensation that this strange ability brought but a sudden sound made him lose concentration and with that, the shadow fizzled into nothingness.

He looked to the man who made the noise and saw him holding a hand in the air, having just snapped, and having just made the first physical sound since Drew had met him.

"Good," The raspy voice spoke.

[The User has learned the Unique Black String's Skill [Dark Hand: Lv: 1]. The user has also gained 200 energy points from the amount of progress you have made up until this point. Congratulations on your leap in progress Drew!]

The system notification rang out like bells and Drew became starstruck from this moment.

'It did that when I learned acceleration too...' He thought as he noticed the bar to upgrade the system had finally increased once more.

'Two upgrade points to spend when I'm done here,'

'I suppose this man isn't all that bad after all,'