With a troubled look in his face Valthar walked through the tunnels that stretched beneath Last Torchlight.

  A day had passed since he first analyzed Damian and till now the situation had barely changed at all, the man was dying and Valthar didn’t know how to fix it.

  Since the problem was caused by the dark mana from the mist, removing it should be a simple solution, but since Damian’s body rejected opposing elements Valthar found himself lost.

  Maybe if Valthar was one of the mages of the Church he would have a spell to deal with such a situation, even if it crippled the poor man that was at least better than death.

  Most annoyingly he could feel himself close to a solution, as if the answer was just a single step away from his grasp.

  ‘Even with an affinity towards the darkness element, why is his body rejecting the light element so fiercely?’ Valthar pondered in his mind.

  That was clearly a strange reaction, since an affinity to darkness element this strong was enough to make someone a natural mage or at least a powerful knight, not just some lackluster E rank adventurer.

  Sighing he soon saw a staircase going upwards and a sign on the wall written with glowing silver runes.

  [Forward lays the outer area of Last Torchlight]

  Vallthar’s cane tapped up the stairs as his thoughts looped again and again, as if asking the same question enough times would bring him the answer.

  As he got out of the underground area a cold wind blew against his cloak, in his view wagons and tents from traveling merchants dotted the area and dusk was slowly taking over the sky.

  It was quite the sight to see since dozens of different groups gathered in wait for the monthly mega caravan to Deep Bonfire that was only a few days away, yet Valthar could not bring himself to appreciate it.

  His mind felt turbid, his heart fearful.

  After much analysis and thinking Valthar knew a lot about Damian’s situation, but the most important part evaded him, Valthar simply had no idea how to even start curing the man.

  In theory he shouldn’t be so bothered, he didn’t really know Damian as a person and healers with much more experience than Valthar had already declared the poor man’s days as counted.

  Even the broken legs or a soap washed mouth meant little, when compared to the pain of having his mana veins burned from the inside those two were insignificant consequences.

  Still a quiet terror clawed at his heart, like a whisper that weighed on his shoulders.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  To let the man die would be a failure, a testament to his incompetence, a sign of the terrorizing truth that even at healing, the thing he did best, Valthar simply wasn’t enough.

  Just the thought of such a failure made Valtahar’s legs shake and his hands tighten around the handle of his favorite cane, yet his steps didn’t stop, couldn’t stop.

  To stop meant to lose, to lose meant to fail and he would do anything for it not to happen.

  Valthar soon reached an old and powerful magical tree, so tall it towered over the city walls, so large that it would serve as a point of reference in Emberheart city, but here it was just one of the many trees that marked the edge of the Darkmist forest.

  His palm pressed against the outer bark with his sense he felt the tree's life force, it felt like a sea, so large and dense Valthar could only conclude this tree was at least rank C or above.

  His life ring pulsed as he tried to pull its life force into his body, for a moment it showed resistance but thankfully it soon gave way without the recoil he had suffered when he tried to pull the life force from the shadow fox.

  Still some pressure was placed on his mind and the process felt viscerally slow, yet every drop of life energy that seeped into him was worth ten times the ones sucked from normal trees.

  A benefit Valthar didn’t have the mood to celebrate as his mind circled around Damian's problem.

  ‘I need to know what’s causing his blood to reject light element mana… since I can’t get this info through my life sense, it must be something mana related.’ Valthar’s brows furrowed. ‘If I could get a mage to analyse his situation, preferably one with affinity to the darkness element and with three mana rings, then I am sure I could find a solution.’

  His teeth gritted inside his mouth, to be so close and yet lost tasted bitter.

  Mages were few and far between, to go after one of a specific element would need either extraordinary luck or contacts.

  Well, money could work too since almost anyone could post a mission at the adventurers guild, the problem was that Valthar wasn’t sure for how long he could keep Damian alive.

  Maybe he had time to wait for a mage to answer his mission or maybe in a couple days everything would be decided, be it for good or for bad.

  But he knew an emergency mission for a mage wouldn’t be just one or two gold coins.

  Luck was a no go from the start, ever since he’d been banished from the Manaborns it felt almost like the world itself was conspiring against him.

  That left Valtar with contacts, of which he didn’t have any, the only people he even knew in Last Torchlight were Emily, Damian and Mikayla.

  And of those three one was a ‘maid’ desperate to keep her husband alive, the other was the husband in coma and the third…

  Mikayla without a doubt could find a dark element mage with a snap of fingers, but would Mikayla help Valthar win the bet when she herself was on the other side of it?

  Lost in thought, dusk passed by and night came as Valthar pulled as much life force as he could.

  Even now the magical tree remained unmoved, as all the life force Valthar was able to pull was barely a fraction of the life force it had accumulated throughout its long life.

  With gritted teeth Valthar made his way through the bright fireplaces that illuminated the camps towards Lamia’s burrow.

  His steps were solid, little to no doubt was left in his mind even as the terror in his heart refused to diminish.

  ‘I cannot fail. Even if it ends up as nothing, I have to try it.’ Valthar steeled his conviction, for barely even after a day of taking on a bet and he already was on his way to ask for help.