After finishing his not so tasty meal, Nedoth exited the tavern.

Finally breathing fresh air and not the stench of alcohol was a nice change. The night was very quiet. He couldn't say that he didn't like it. The calm atmosphere washed over him. The calm wind, the dim lights shining through the windows of various buildings and his footsteps being the only noise he could hear made him feel pure.

The sensation of such calmness was truly a luxury for Nedoth. A luxury he very much enjoyed.

Though as it could've been expected, such a luxury didn't hold for long.

The moment as he saw a group of individuals in leathery clothing and masks moving towards him, he knew that the splendor of momentary pureness slipped out of his grasp just as quickly as it appeared.

These obscure humans were obviously thieves. Though it was quite suprising to see a whole group of them.

In his time as an imp he only dealt with one human that was a thief, and he was a loner through and through.

He thought that all thieves would be loners, but maybe the factor that the human, he signed a pact with, was also an assassin.

The group of the four thieves stopped before him, blocking his way.

Presumably the leader of the group spoke up. Unlike his underlings, he wore a robe. Nedoth sighed within his mind. This wasn't going to be easy, if this guy was also a mage.

"Hand over your valuables without causing any trouble and we won't hurt you."

"What if I don't have any?"

"Then you lie." answered the leader.

Nedoth rolled his eyes while pointing at the ground, he activated his shadow mace glyph.

The shadows on the ground jumped into Nedoth's hands, producing the weapon directly in his palm.

"Bad choice." the leader of the thieves said. The thieves skillfully took out their knifes and started their attack.

The leader of the group produced a bright flame within his palm. With a small gesture, the pyromancer shot out the flame into Nedoth's direction.

What the pyromancer didn't expect was the dextrous movement with which his opponent dodged his firebolt, neither did his other underlings expect the umbramancer to be such a skillfull fighter.

Yet by far the most challenging for the thieves was his strange fighting style. It was both precise and savage.

Nedoth fought with seemingly mindless ferocity, but he also hit and blocked very precise.

It was as if someone mixed a savage barbarian from the north and a soldier together.

Seeing this, the leader decided to bring out the more powerful spells, that he normally didn't use.

Unfortunately for one of his underlings, the leader didn't decide fast enough as Nedoth's shadowy mace caved his skull in.

The underling thieves were much more cautious now, the leader on the other hand had a vastly different reaction.

It was curiosity. Now, that some umbramancer bashed in a skull of a thief wasn't something that curious.

But the expression on the mage's face as he did so? Now that was the curious part.

Most people that defended themselves from them didn't enjoy fighting back.

This umbramancer though? It was obvious that he enjoyed every second of it.

As he bashed in the skull of one of the thieves, he had a look of sheer ecstasy on his face. The pure sadism of this umbramancer excited the leader. This was exactly what he was looking for the past few weeks.

"Fall back!" The leader suddenly shouted.

"Let's talk." he said.

"Talk? You first want to rob me and then you want to talk?"

"I have a proposition for you that you should listen to atleast. If you decline, we can still try to kill each other" spoke the masked pyromancer with haughty tone.

"I'm listening." said Nedoth.

"Since you are a mage, you are probably searching for power and glory, correct? I can grant you that."

Nedoth scoffed. "And why should you ever give me something for free? You just wanted to rob me a second ago and then you want to give me power? What is the price?"

Under his mask, the leader smiled and answered "A trivial price really. How important can one's-"

Nedoth suddenly interrupted him with a bored look on his face. "Ah. A devil worshiper. Didn't think I would encounter a devil worshiper just after I heard a rumor of a demon worshiper."

The leader was a bit taken back. He didn't even state the price before being interrupted.

Before the pyromancer could say anything, Nedoth said "I won't sell my soul, I'll said that upfront, but I am sure I can be useful to your little cult, of course only for a price. As a matter of fact, I believe we can make an arrangement that would benefit both of us."

"Benefit both of us?" asked the pyromancer.

"Yes, have you heard about the bounty on the demon worshiper's head?"

"I heard about it, why?"

"Oh come on, don't play dumb with me. I am sure you would be interested in rooting out a demon worshiper, no? And on top of that, you can collect a few gold coins. A win-win situation for the both of us. We will split the bounty fairly between each other."

The leader was once again taken back by the forceful personality of the umbramancer. He didn't like being forced back a single bit, but he bore with it.

"And why would you not stab me in the back after we kill that flesh warper?"

"Why I wouldn't stab you in the back? Because you could be useful to me. Having connections with a devil cult could prove useful to me. Besides, I am sure that, that cult of yours has a ton of connections to the criminal world, I doubt you would survive otherwise."

"You are.. quite knowledgable about this, who are you?"

"Nedoth is my name. And yours?"

The pyromancer looked at Nedoth suspiciously. He never heard about anyone with such a name. A character who could fight so well would've been known atleast somewhere.

He thought about, if giving this "Nedoth" fellow a fake name would be a good idea. It would be safe for the beginning, but if this umbramancer heard his real name somewhere, this could mean trouble for him later down the line.

Someone who could fight this well was no one to be made an enemy of in his eyes.

"..Vedvem." muttered the pyromancer after a while.

"Vedvem then. I'd like to know more about that cult of yours, where is it located?"

Vedvem narrowed his eyes before talking "Come with me."

"Ah. Wait a second. Can I have that corpse?" asked Nedoth while pointing at the dead thief.

Vedvem furrowed his eyebrows. "Why do you need a corpse?"

"Does it matter?" Nedoth said with a faint smile.

Vedvem shrugged with his shoulders. "I guess it doesn't."

Vedvem got this question a few times in his lifetime of being a criminal. The first time he got asked this, he instantly thought about necromancy, but then he learned more about the various utilities of corpses as time went on. The most common and most respectable one being anatomical study.

Though there were also some odd individuals who were necrophiliacs. At first he found it vile and repulsive, but after such a long time in the criminal world, such occurances, although certainly rare, weren't anything new and he got used to it after a while.

One could say that he grew rather tolerant in his time of being a criminal.

"Could you help me with carrying the corpse somewhere out of sight?" asked Nedoth.

Vedvem nodded and ordered his underlings to carry the corpse. Vedvem sighed out of relief that the two weren't squimish about it.

He didn't know, if his now dead underling was a friend of the two or not. It was good that they didn't make any more trouble for him.

The four men walked for a while until they arrived at a building that was in a poor shape. It looked more like a house from the slums rather than anything else.

Vedvem took out a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. The four went inside and locked the door behind them.

Nedoth was especially cautious now, a tight room such as this was a good ambush. The two men carrying the corpse let it fall onto the ground now that they were in a safe location.

Thankfully for Nedoth, his worry of an ambush never came to pass as they opened a trap door which led to a tunnel.

After a two minute walk, Nedoth heard a lot of voices in the distance.

He asked "So many voices? Are those all from your cult?"

Vedvem let out a small laugh. "No, no. Where we are going to, is the central hub of this kingdom's only safe haven for criminals like us. It's also where numerous cults are located or the thieves guild for example."

"The thieves guild?" asked Nedoth.

"Yes. It's a guild of extremely capable thieves. The guild's official name is Grabbing Claws. I'll give you a tip that could save your life. Don't get on the guild's bad sides."

Nedoth let out a small chuckle. "Well, I don't fear being robbed, since I don't have anything on me."

Vedvem scoffed. "I fear you do have something to lose. Your life for example. Although their code once forbade them from killing, over the years they have gotten rid of this rule. Now they are a mix between a thieves and an assassins guild. You can identify them by their claw tattoo on their right hand."

"And I take it that it would be wise to simply give them what they want, if they ever ask for something, right?"

"Definitely. Although you fight well, you are a mere insect in their eyes. But you shouldn't fear them too much. They usually don't blackmail others in here. Otherwise nobody would ever come to this place. It's bad for business."

"Hm. I'll take your advice then." said Nedoth. It was fortunate that he got told this beforehand. He wouldn't want to get stabbed in the back by an assassin just because he didn't know who he shouldn't piss off.

The voices were now getting louder and louder. Only a minute of further walking and they arrived at the central hub.

Nedoth's expectations were completely blown into pieces. He thought it would be nothing more than a glorified sewer but it turned out to be completely wrong.

It was like a bright, shining underground city. It didn't look like a criminal safe haven at all. There were various stands were various things were sold.

Ranging from tasty meals to jewelry, illegal weapons, exotic animals and yes, even monsters were sold openly.

But that wasn't all. There were complete sections for various types of magical schools. Most of which were forbidden without a doubt.

Still, what suprised Nedoth the most were the various types of races that were here. In the kingdom, only humans lived freely, but down here?

Beastfolk of many types were seen here. Lizardfolk, wolfkin, bearkin and so on could be seen strolling the underground city.

He could even see a few fiends from various realms here and there. Although the vast majority of those fiends were devils. Most likely because they simply didn't rampage and destroy the entire city just because of the spur of a moment, unlike demons.

Even pure blooded elves could be seen here strolling around. No matter whether they were high or dark elves.

The tolerance of this place was unfathomable for Nedoth. Not only were here races walking around openly that would be enslaved at first sight normally, but even fiends were allowed to freely exist here.

But of course not all was nice and good. It was rather the opposite.

People were beating themselves up, scamming each other out of money constantly and shouting at each other.

As the group of four went deeper into the criminal city, human sacrifices to dark, malicious gods were conducted openly on bloodstained altars. Some of those victims looked like they were tortured for hours beforehand.

Some sacrifices were killed by daggers, some were burned alive and others even drowned.

Screams were filling the narrow corridors, giving Nedoth a feeling of familiarity.

A faint smile crept up Nedoth's face as he listened to the sweet ambience of the screams of unlucky victims getting sacrificed. He knew that he would feel at home right away here.