A full day had passed in dreamless sleep by the time Valthar opened his eyes.
The room was dark and night had fallen over the city.
His body ached, his stomach growled.
The kitchen however was empty, with the Inn offering included meals downstairs he hadn't bothered to stock it up.
The magical clock on the wall pointed to the third watch of the night having just started, barely after midnight.
'Hopefully someone is awake at this hour.' Valthar's life sense scanned the Inn.
Though the cooks were gone and most guests were at peaceful sleep, someone was still active down there in the kitchen.
Valthar had yet to memorize who it was, but their presence felt familiar.
Before he went down he passed by the bathroom.
On the sink he pressed his hands against the water runes and then, nothing happened.
He frowned for a second before sighing. "Oh yeah, too little mana presence."
In other terms, the mana in his body was so low the runes couldn't distinguish between him and the air around.
With a sigh he walked to the bed and grabbed the room's key before turning on the water runes with its mana signature.
The cold water washed away the grogginess from his face and his brown eyes locked onto his mirrored image.
Messy brown hair, tired eyes and hollowed cheeks from the week long foodless imprisonment, he did not look great at the moment, but at least his dark eyebags had faded away..
His attention then shifted to his energy ring.
It felt sturdier, more vibrant and more connected to the rest of his body.
Not only had it assimilated all the life energy he collected, but now Valtahr could feel it generate a miniscule amount of it by itself.
'Two weeks? Maybe ten days till the first ring is solidified?' He wasn't sure, but felt it was a pretty good guess, especially if this life energy production increased as the process went on.
With dread in his steps Valthar walked out of the room, the magical runes of light on the hallway turning up with his movement.
Then he stopped at the edge of the stairwell.
Valthar was tired from the earlier walk, hungry from the long sleep and a whole five flights of stairs away from the Inn's kitchen.
Smoothly he went down the first flight, light steps of someone who had just woken up.
It looked fine, but his legs had already started to shake.
He had spent a week in a coma and after having his mava veins burned, to then walk for hours had been clearly too much for his body to handle.
As he got to the fifth floor an even worse situation made him frown slightly.
In front of him were completely dark stairs, apparently the magical lights on the top floor were just a premium bonus, unseen on the floors below.
Slowly he turned his head up, maybe there was some sort of lantern in the room, yet walking back up would make the rest of his descent significantly harder.
Then Valthar's stomach grumbled and acid threatened to climb up his throat.
No matter what decision he made it was he had to make it soon, otherwise he might end up dry heaving on the stairwell.
Valthar struggled to see the next flight of steps with the dim light that escaped the top floor, it was enough, but barely so.
If he fell here, he might seriously hurt himself so with careful movements he safely made his way to the fourth floor…
However, for the next flights of stairs the topfloor's light could not reach anymore.
Blind Valthar spent what felt like an hour tapping around in search of the way down.
In actuality he spent a couple minutes fumbling around before suddenly his foot didn't feel the ground where he expected.
He had found the stairs and yet he lost his balance on them.
Valthar's heart beat like a drum as he felt his body tilt forward.
His hands flayed around in panic till a moment later…
*THUNK
He grasped the wood railing like a life line, his legs shook as he found footing in the steps below.
Slowly he made his way to the third floor, each step checked twice before committing to it and sweat slowly gathered on his forehead.
Heart thumping Valthar dry gulped in complete darkness.
This time he didn't dare take any chances, carefully he got on all fours and slowly crawled around the stairwell.
There was no one around, there was no one approaching and yet a deep shame couldn't help but burn within him.
A once studious noble from a proud magical family now crawling inside an Inn on the Outlands, suffering like a pig just to walk down a set of stairs.
When he found the next stairwell, his arms reached up to the handrail, muscles spasming just like his legs.
For a moment he hesitated, but then his belly let out another grumble followed by a wave of nausea.
"Damn it." He cussed in a whisper, already forcing his body to move down.
Valthar felt his fingers pound in pain, but instead of relaxing his grip only tightened.
Finally he crumbles on the second floor, his breath ragged and his whole body shaking like a baby deer.
Then relief hit him like a truck.
He was close to the first floor, but more importantly he could see a faint light illuminate this last flight of stairs.
Whoever was down there had kept the lights on and curiously Valthar could feel through his life sense the person had already noticed his presence.
'Should I ask for help?' He pondered for a second before shaking his head.
He might be magically crippled, but at very least he would walk down these damned stairs.
With a deep breath Valthar forced his body to get up, back straight and head high.
Elegantly he placed his hand on the railing, before stepping down the stairs with confidence.
Unsurprisingly he didn't even reach halfway there before he felt his vision swim.
Then his foot slipped again, but this time his arms were too weak to suddenly hold the handrail properly.
'NO NO NO NO.'
*tudududududududu *BANG!
Valthar hit his back on the ground, his body going limp as a sea of pain flooded every inch of it.
"Are you okay young man?" Marcos' old voice asked in worry as he made his way to Valthar.
"Yes, I'm completely fine." Valthar bullshited through gritted teeth.
Since the pain wasn't strong enough to make him scream for real at the very least he was confident he hadn't broken anything.
"Do you need some help getting up?" The old man asked.
"There is no need, just give me a few moments." Valthar answered from the floor, face flushed red from embarrassment.