“Who’s there?!” Liam shouted as he scanned the room.

“Relax,” the voice whispered stretching the word out with a bemused tone. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Yeah, not going to lie. When a random voice whispers they’re not here to hurt me I totally feel relaxed. Especially when said voice is nowhere to be found,” Liam sarcastically stated as he prepared himself for anything.

“Touche,” the voice responded. This time it wasn’t a whisper and gave Liam a sense of direction where to look.

Liam turned around and went wide eyed. The direction the voice came from was on the other side of the table. He was able to see a shadowy silhouette take form sitting on a chair.

The figure’s shadowy form started to dissipate revealing a black cloaked individual with their hood covering their face. They were leaning back with an elbow resting on the armrest of the chair and their hand under their chin. The person had a relaxed posture as they stared at Liam.

Liam couldn’t see the person’s eyes or facial features above the lips. What he was able to see was two snake bite lip piercings under the person’s bottom lips. The piercings weren’t hooped lip rings but black spikes. And what Liam was able to see from the jawline was this individual was a man.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Liam repeated as he stared at the male still sitting. “What did you do to the people in this room?”

“You’re a curious one,” the man stated as he gave Liam a sly smile. His voice wasn’t deep or gruff. He sounded like he could be as young as Liam, early to mid-twenties. However, the man’s voice had a playful tone to it. “It’s good to be curious and ask questions. It will keep you alive. As for your first question, you don’t need to know who I am…for now.”

“What about my other questions?” Liam asked as he kept his gaze on the man. He couldn’t get a good read on him. He couldn’t tell what race he was or what kind of class he had, not that he would know since he was still clueless on all the classes out there.

Liam could feel some sort of power within the room, but at the same time it felt like there was a void of power. This really confused him. He activated his Mana Sight to see if he could get a read on the mana he was using, but there wasn’t anything there. Nothing surrounded the man, and nothing was in the air around them.

What the hell? Liam thought.

The hooded man tilted his head a bit before letting out a quick chuckle. “You won’t be able to figure it out. You’re still too fresh to this world to understand how this is possible.”

Liam was surprised at the man’s words. He didn’t know how he was able to tell what he was doing.

“You look confused. I’ll give you a hint,” the man started as he pointed to where his eyes would be in the darkness of the hood. “When you activate Mana Sight your eyes flash briefly. I was able to catch it around the rim of your glasses.”

Liam didn’t know that fact. He had never noticed when the others used Mana Sight and there was no way he’d be able to see it happen on himself. However, for something so small to give away what he was trying to do was a mistake he was glad to find out now. He was also happy the man didn’t take offense to his action as well.

“Alright, to answer another one of your questions. I am here on clan business,” the man started.

“Clan business?” Liam asked with a raised brow. “What do you mean by that?”

“What I mean by that, my dear little newbie,” the man started up with a teasing tone of voice. He brought a hand up with an index finger pointing at Liam while twirling it. “Is I have business with you.”

“With me?” Liam questioned. Again, confused by what this man was saying. “I don’t know your clan, nor do I have anything to do with them.”

“That is where you’re wrong. Well, actually, you’re right that you don’t know about the clan yet. But you’re wrong on the part that you do have something to do with the clan,” the man smiled. He paused for a brief moment as he stared at Liam. He watched as Liam’s face grew even more confused. “God I love the confused looks newbies like you give when I do this.”

Liam felt a bit uncomfortable as the man said this last part. The way he said it gave him a weird vibe that he didn’t like. This made Liam take an involuntary step back.

“Uh uh,” the man said in a light scolding tone as he waved his index finger side to side. “It’s best that you don’t try to move or run away…I mean I welcome the chase especially when a confused newbie like yourself tries and thinks they can get away, but I simply don’t have enough time for that. I still have…” The man’s head swayed left to right as he finished, “Seven more people to find after you. There are quite the number of clans men and women arriving this time round.”

“What do you mean by that?” Liam inquired, still not sure what this man was going on about.

“I mean, there are seven more people that came from different tutorials that I have to find and do to them that I’m going to do to you.”

Liam’s guard instantly went up as he questioned, “What are you going to do to me?”

The man dropped his hooded head to the table as he placed both hands on it. He then lifted his head back up and said, “I’m getting there. If you keep interrupting me then it’ll take longer.”

The man waited for Liam to respond. When Liam didn’t say anything he continued, “Here is what’s going to happen. You’re going to stay there like the good little boy I am hoping you are while I put this item on you.”

Liam watched as the man pulled out an item from his inventory. As Liam got a good look at the object he was suddenly filled with a mixture of shock, confusion, and horror. The item looked to be a normal leather collar. However, Liam had seen a similar item like this before. It was before he came to this world. Right before his old world fell into the apocalyptic hell it had turned into.

Liam’s mind started to race as he started to panic internally. He wasn’t sure if it was the exact same item, and he still wasn’t sure what it was since the ones who used it didn’t tell him exactly what is was nor what it was meant to do. All he knew was his world had changed when it was used on him back then.

“No,” Liam suddenly said as he shook his head and went to take a step away.

However, before he could move any farther his Danger Sense suddenly flared up underneath him. He couldn’t react in time as the man swiftly chanted, “Grasp them with the Tendrils you possess. Grasp of the Shadows!”

Liam felt his body suddenly freeze as shadowy black tendrils shot out from underneath him, wrap, and tighten around his arms and legs, tug down and root him in place. Pain slightly ran through his body as he watched his health drop to the halfway mark.

Even though Liam felt the pain he ignored it as his mind focused more on the feeling the tendrils sent through him. A sense of panic and dread welled up within him as the texture of the shadowy appendages brought forth memories of the time back in the darkened world full of screams, cries, and whispers.

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He felt his heart begin to race as he stared at it. He knew this was bad news. Liam tried to jerk himself free from the grip of the shadowy tendrils but failed. During his panic and struggle to free himself, Liam sent his thoughts out to Eri. Eri? What’s going on here? Why is this lunatic trying to use that item on me?

No response came.

He tried again.

Nothing.

Once more.

Silence.

What the fuck?! Liam thought to himself. Why isn’t she answering?

Before he could try again, he felt the world around him grow cold.

Liam snapped his eyes towards the man who was sitting in the chair on the other side of the table.

“Tsk, Tsk, tsk,” the man started as he slowly stood up. “I told you not to move.”

Liam watched as the man reached his full height. This man was taller than him by two feet. Judging from the outline of the cloak his physique wasn’t bulked, but lanky.

Liam felt his Danger Sense cover his entire body as he watched the hooded figure slowly walk around the table with the collared item in his hand. He felt his body start to shake as he got closer and closer.

“Since you wanted to be a bad little newbie it looks like we’ll have to do this in a more torturous way.” The smile the man had on earlier had disappeared and turned into an apologetic one. “I held back as much as I could when I used this spell. I really did mean it when I said I wasn’t here to harm you. However, you left me with no choice. All of my spells do some form of damage. So please, don’t hold this against me.”

Liam gulped as his gaze switch back and forth from the man to the item in his hand.

Once when he was within arm’s reach, the man brought the collar-like object up and went to place it around Liam’s neck. However, before he could a sudden spark of black lightning zapped from Liam’s neck right towards the object in the man’s hand.

“What the!” the man suddenly exclaimed as he dropped the item. He then watched as black static electricity danced around the object, sizzling and frying it like a metal coated object that was placed in a microwave.

The man then snapped his gaze on Liam while taking a step back as a powerful aura pulsed out from Liam’s neck like an angry beast warning any trespassers getting too close to it.

Liam froze, not sure what was going on.

The man stared at Liam with his mouth wide open.

After a few seconds had passed, the powerful pulse that had emerged from around Liam’s neck calmed down and disappeared.

“Wha…what the hell was that?” Liam questioned as he stared at the hooded man.

For a long moment the man didn’t say or do anything. Then he straightened his body and brought a hand up to his chin and started to think. After muttering to himself for a minute he gave Liam an ominous frown.

“So, it is true,” the man started. He spoke with a threatening tone of voice that sent a chill down Liam’s spine. “I thought it was just the ramblings of someone who failed their task, but after what I just witnessed…”

Liam kept his eyes on the man. The power Liam couldn’t feel off of him suddenly appeared around him. The amount of power that suddenly appeared was suffocating. It felt like plastic wrap had suddenly wrapped around his body and face with no breathing room what so ever.

The fact he was still wrapped in shadowy tendrils didn’t help at all. His vision started to darken with each second that had passed as the power continued to constrict him. He started to choke as he tried to gasp for air, but failed with each attempt.

What is with this power? Is this what the higher leveled people feel like? Liam thought as he fought to stay conscious.

Then, as soon as the power had come, it suddenly vanished. Liam coughed as he tried to take in as much air as he could. His vision started to come back, but stars started to float around the edges of it as he tried to calm his racing heart.

“You’re from Earth aren’t you?” the man asked.

Liam was finally able to calm himself as he heard the question asked. He was confused by it. He wasn’t sure why he asked him that, let alone that he came to that conclusion just by what had happened. Regardless, Liam didn’t like where this was going.

Liam didn’t answer him out loud. Instead, he just nodded as slowly as he could.

“Of course, you are,” the man said, matter-of-factly. “I don’t know what those dying old coots on your planet were thinking nor how they got their hands on these items, but it looks like the ancestors who were sent to your planet so many years ago had some sort of plan. Do you happen to know what it is?”

Liam grew confused as he listened to this person.

What is he talking about? Liam thought. Old coots? Ancestors? Plan? Items? There were more of these items back on Earth?

As Liam’s mind raced with the words this guy was saying, a memory flashed.

He was standing in room with a bunch of men wearing suits. There were five older looking men arguing with a stern older man who kept his dark cold gaze on him. Liam couldn’t remember what they were saying.

He remembered staring at the man as he spoke to him. Then he was confused as he looked deeper into the man’s eyes. Underneath that cold stare, Liam recognized something…something that clashed with what he was saying and how he staring back at Liam.

The cloaked man kept his gaze on Liam. When Liam didn’t respond he let out a sigh. “You know, there was an order given to us to kill anyone from the clan who came in this last batch of arrivals. Only the ones from Earth though. Apparently you lot were already placed with the seal for some reason. The higher ups said something about you guys being more of a threat to the clan than any that have come before you.”

Liam felt his blood run cold as he realized that the power that covered him earlier hadn’t really disappeared. He had only dampened it. It was still there, still wrapped around him, just loosened up for him to breathe.

Liam felt his Danger Sense cover his entire body once more as the hooded man stared down at Liam. Even though he knew he was trapped, he still wanted to flee as fast as he could. He could feel his instincts screaming to run, to struggle, to escape. However, it was futile. Liam knew he couldn’t escape.

Liam gulped as he continued to stare at him.

After a moment had passed, the man’s threatening frown turned into a sinister mischief grin. “However, I am not going to do that.”

This threw Liam off. “Wha…what?” Liam stuttered unintelligently.

“I said I’m not going to kill you. I’m not going to report you to the clan elders either,” the man repeated as he released his Grasp of the Shadows spell.

Liam dropped to his knees as he felt his stamina suddenly drain. He glanced at his stamina bar and saw it hadn’t dropped. He just felt…weak.

“I’m going to pretend that you weren’t someone from Earth nor did you already have a Clan Restriction Seal placed on you. That being said, if the others find out about you then you might not be so lucky. So, if I was you…I’d keep a lid on the whole seal thing. You understand?” the hooded man leaned down and got a better look at Liam.

Liam nodded his head.

After looking his face over he stated, “I thought so. You look almost exactly like them. I’ll just have them owe me for this.”

Liam gave him a confused expression and was about to ask what he meant until he felt the air start to ripple around them.

“Alright, my Time Seal spell is about to wear off, so I have to go now,” the man stated as he grabbed the destroyed item on the floor before turning his back to Liam. Shadows slowly started to engulf him, starting with his feet. As the shadows reached his chest, he suddenly turned his head to look at Liam once more and warned, “One last thing. Until you get stronger, I would advise you stay away from anyone from the clan.”

As the shadows covered his head he started to fade away from sight. He then finished as he completely vanished and time unfroze, his words whispering in Liam’s mind, “That includes your brothers and father…Liam.”

Liam’s eyes widened at the man’s words. What? My father? My brothers? I don’t…

A notification full of texts suddenly appeared in front of Liam’s face.

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“Liam what happened? I felt an absurd amount of power surround you for a brief moment before it vani…Liam…why is your health half full? – Eri.”

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Liam stood there. He didn’t see the notification even though it was right in front of his face. Instead, he was trying to process everything that had just happened.

As his thoughts started to swirl he felt his body begin to shake. With everything that happened in the dungeon he wasn’t able to really feel it. He wasn’t able to properly think about it. He was too preoccupied with trying to survive and making sure his team made it out each floor to really let it sink in. He wasn’t alone in the Tutorial Area when he came across those powerful monsters. He was always thinking, always moving. However, being trapped by the same spell he used so many times and feeling that dark sinister aura that the man had constrict and suffocated him with...It was a wakeup call.

This world really was different from his old one.

I really am weak. Liam thought as he stared down at his hand. It was trembling. I was powerless against that guy. If he wanted to…he could have killed me.

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“What are you talking about Liam? What guy? What happened? – Eri.”

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He didn’t realize he had transferred his thoughts to Eri when he was thinking them. He took a deep breath and stood back up.

Not here. Liam started. Let’s go back to the room and I’ll tell you everything that had happened.

Eri noticed Liam’s hand trembling. She really wanted to know what had happened outside her vision. To her, one moment Liam was sitting there, then the next he was on his knees with half of his health bar missing. She didn’t like this. Not only did she not like this, she was starting to feel angry about it.

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“Okay. – Eri.”

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