The streets of Last Torchlight were both wide and gorgeous.

  From the moment Valthar had entered to the moment he reached the center of the city he had not seen a single dirt road.

  Every path was meticulously paved with stone.

  In every building details made of silver decorated the outer walls.

  An eye opening sight since there wasn’t a single silver mine anywhere in this region.

  And to top off the city's luxurious streets on every street corner one could see statues of magical beasts made of precious metals.

  Metals that could fetch a high price as weapons and magical conduits used as pure decoration on every street.

  To see such affluence brought a feeling Valtthar had not expected to feel so far away in the Outlands… Nostalgia.

  He had grown in a place much like Last Torchlight.

  Where riches dotted the walls and prices were so high that copper coins meant little more than paper weight.

  Speaking of prices, here things were astronomically expensive for Valthar's current budget.

  According to what a merchant told him that one gold, the amount he used to rent a premium room for two months at Warmheart Inn, could only buy three nights at one of the Inns inside the city.

  A price far from acceptable in his circumstance, which left him to camp outside the city walls together with other merchants.

  Crazier still, even just to enter the city had cost him money, with a single entrance running him a full 50 coppers!

  Honestly it felt like a waste, yet he still decided to enter the city.

  While soon he would be on his way to Deep Bonfire ready to start healer services there.

  He had heard on the way here that apparently the Silverfang family didn’t spend most of the time inside Dark Mist Forest, but instead they lived and managed things from their mansion in Last Torchlight.

  The city served as a funnel from where the materials collected inside the Darkmist forest were gathered before they flowed to the rest of the Empire.

  Covered in a shabby cloak and with his trusted black cane Valthar roamed through the luxurious streets.

  Much to his surprise his shabby clothes drew little to no looks from the well dressed residents of Last Torchlight.

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  Quite the opposite actually, people seemed to ignore his presence on purpose as they walked around only giving him a few glances of superiority.

  To Valthar it felt both annoying and novel.

  When he was a noble, others looked at him with respect

  When he had his mana veins crippled, others looked at him with pity.

  And as a cloaked traveler most treated him with caution.

  Never before had he been as directly dismissed.

  To his even greater surprise, he felt actually comfortable without eyes following his steps.

  Like he was free to do whatever after months of constant scrutiny.

  For an hour or so, he savored that feeling, walking the streets and watching people pass by with their noses pointed at the sky.

  They seemed confident and above all else proud to reside in Last Torchlight.

  They dressed in colors similar to the metallic details that dotted the buildings.

  A mix of silver, soft blues and white.

  After enjoying the feeling of invisibility for a while Valthar made his way to an Inn near the center of the city.

  He hadn't paid 50 copper for sight seeing, he was here to collect two important pieces of information.

  For one, how do people see dark magic around these parts and for two, how should he warn the Silverfang family of his operations here.

  He remembered very clearly the warning from Amber, the metal mage from the caravan, that operating dark magic without the Silverfang's knowledge was a death sentence.

  But just as he was about to enter the Inn a tall and burly man in a suit stepped in front of him.

  “Stop right there. Only residents and VIP partners are allowed in this establishment.” The bouncer stated curtly, not wasting a second before he tagged Valthar as another worker from Deep Bonfire.

  Valthar frowned,he had come to this Inn in search of information.

  Inns were famous for being a great place for travelers to chat and trade stories, yet this one apparently didn’t even let most travelers enter.

  “I’m Valthar, a traveler on my way to Deep Bonfire, since I can’t enter this establishment. Would you know where I can find an Inn where travelers like me gather?”

  “There are no places for menial workers like you inside the Last Torchlight walls.” The bouncer eyed Valthar from top to bottom and scoffed.

  Valthar narrowed his eyes at his dismissive response, in a moment his hand tightened around the cane’s head and his back straightened up.

  “Such a subpar response is a blemish both to you and to the establishment you represent.” Valthar locked eyes with the bouncer, the manners ingrained from years as a noble seeping together with his indignation. “So I'll ask again, where can I find the place where travelers gather in this city?”

  The bouncer’s life force pulsed with annoyance and disdain, yet something in the way Valthar postured himself made him hesitate.

  “Follow that street till the end and you’ll find a set of stairs going down, here in Last Torchlight people like you generally keep to themselves underground.” The bouncer said with clear disgust in his voice.

  “Thanks for the help.” Valthar answered with a scoff and walked to the street pointed, completely disregarding the backhanded tone of the answer.

  It annoyed him no doubt, from this moment he had already decided never to step foot inside that Inn even if one day he could.

  But that was all.

  Compared to the hundreds of life forces he could feel inside his reduced life sense or to the tens of thousands he would connect to if he expanded his life sense to the max, both him and the bouncer appeared to be exactly the same thing, specs of sand in the beach.

  With calm steps Valthar soon reached the descending stairs.