The stairs were wide enough for a group of six to walk down side by side, so even as Valthar slowly made his way down with his cane he did not need to worry about slowing others down, since they would just walk around him.

  The more steps Valthar took down the stairs the more grime he could see on the walls, a sign of a lack of care that would be almost impossible to see on the city above ground.

  By the second flight of stairs no more sunlight reached the floor, leaving only silver colored light element runes to illuminate the way down.

  And after the fourth flight of stairs he finally reached the end, a large circular room from where a set of wide tunnels spread out into the 8 cardinal directions.

  Through his lightly expanded life sense Valthar tried to find where people gathered here in the underground, only to discover life force signals could be seen in every one of the tunnels.

  ‘There are more people down here than above ground! Maybe even more than the people gathered outside the city walls!’

  Each tunnel was as wide as the streets above, with doors carved on the stone wall leading to a mix of both commercial stores and houses.

  Contrary to the people above ground who deliberately ignored Valthar, down here people eyed him with caution.

  Unsure where to go next, Valthar stopped someone and asked where he could find an Inn.

  The man eyed Valthar with doubt for a moment before answering that he could go either south or north.

  “Fang’s Den to the north is great, most merchants gather there, but their prices are high.”

  “Lamia’s Burrow to the south is cheaper, but the people who go there tend to be either dodgy or desperate.”

  After he thanked the person, Valthar made his way down a tunnel.

  His goal was to find how dark mages moved in this area and how the Silverfangs dealt with dark mages.

  And one of the two recommendations seemed just the right place to find such information.

  *

  Red lighting illuminated Lamia's Burrow, the clientele looked much like Valthar expected, cloaks or adventurer gear being the norm.

  All around one could see dozens of maids and butlers buzzing around, yet their clothes seemed a tad too short and a tad too tight in Valthar's mind.

  From table to table they served bottles, whispered in clients' ears, sat on laps and pulled people by their arms towards the back of the Inn.

  ‘Is this place a…’ His thoughts stopped midway as he felt something soft squeezed against one of his arms.

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  “Looking for a good time handsome?” One of the maids whispered in his ear. “For the right price I can satisfy even your wildest desires.”

  Valthar’s eyes grew wide, his heart skipped a beat and his life sense instantly locked onto the woman that hugged his arm.

  ‘She is anxious,stressed, worried but not hostile.’ He read her emotions through her life force.

  “I’m not looking for…” Valthar stopped mid sentence. “Actually I’m new here in Last Torchlight, if what I desire is information how much would that cost?”

  “What kind of information are you looking for?” Her fake smile dimmed as her emotions relaxed.

  Valthar glanced around, the inn was packed with customers.

  And while he didn’t really intend to keep his dark magic a secret once he went to Deep Bonfire, to reveal too much in such a public place seemed like a bad idea.

  “The kind of information I am after is better kept in private. How much for a room and a 1 on 1 talk?”

  “Our rooms go for 50 copper a night, add another 50 for and we can talk about whatever you want.”

  “I’m Valthar.” He handed the woman a silver.

  “You can call me Emi, the rooms are this way.”

  The two made their way through a tunnel carved in the back of the inn, on the sides numerous doors lined both walls of the passage.

  Most were silent but a few others were so loud Valthar could hear grunts and noises through the stone walls.

  ‘Probably knights with some rank…’ Valthar guessed as he decided not to pry about it with his life sense.

  She opened a wooden door to a room silver in color and simple in furniture, inside were a couple chairs a table and a double bed

  The double bed looked soft and fluffy, but Valthar decided not to test it out and sat on one of the chairs, at the end of the day only gods and Lamia's Burrow’ staff knew what this bed had been through.

  “Now that we are in private, what is it that you wish to know?” Emi sat on the other chair.

  “Coming here I heard the Silverfangs are somewhat lenient with darkmages, how true is that?”

  Emi paused for a moment and her life force flared with caution.

  “Not here in Last Torchlight, but I’ve met such cases in Deep Bonfire, why do you ask?”

  ‘Am I not being obvious enough?’ Valthar looked at her sideways.

  “Look, my mana veins are crippled, so much so I can’t even sense elemental mana anymore and yet I still would still call myself a magic based healer.” He shot her a meaningful look and locked his attention on her emotions.

  After he basically admitted to being a darkmage point blank Valthar expected a lot of reactions.

  Apprehension, fear, caution, suspicion, maybe even direct hostility! Yet what took over inside her was none of those, but instead a tiny almost imperceptible seed of hope.

  “What rank of healer are you?”

  ‘Measuring healer by rank instead of mana ring count? She must not know any formally trained mages.’ Valthar nitpicked in his mind before pondering her question.

  Energy rings wise he only had a single one, the equivalent to an F rank classification.

  Skill wise he would also call himself an F rank, he had no doubt his utilization of life force until now was simply crude and basic.

  When he considered the effects he could reach however things got a bit more complicated.

  An F rank would never have been able to save Amara from certain death in that forest, much less revive a worm or feel the presence of life from kilometers away.

  “It’s hard to say, my magic behaves a lot differently from elemental ones, I’d say I’m somewhere between F and D rank depending on the patient's condition and the situation at the time.”

  Such an answer honestly meant little to nothing when you considered that the first true barrier of progress came when going from 3rd ring to 4th ring.

  Which meant 9 out of 10 people were ranked either D or below.

  Emi frowned for a brief instant, a mix of hope, disappointment and desperation shifted inside her.

  Valthar still had questions to ask, yet he only stared and waited for her to speak once more, he was pretty sure she hadn’t questioned his rank as a healer for no reason.