"Just try not to kill too many people in the Slave city''

"You know about me" Don declared.

"That's what I am afraid of" Knight frowned and ruffled his hair, let out a small laugh.

*********

Uncle Dior packed the things for the journey and came to meet Don near the hut, Amaryll was also present in the situation with Elrond.

Uncle Dior wore a black robe with a hood to hide his pointy ears and face.

"Uncle Dior is everything ready for the journey" Arwen couldn't help but ask, the forest was equally dangerous as it was beautiful so Arwen didn't want them to be unprepared.

"Yes, We can depart when Don arrives" everyone looked at Don's hut and expected him to come out.

"What is he doing?" Amaryll was not good at waiting so she wanted to go inside the hut and drag him out but before she did that she had a bold out of the blue as another youth came out of the hut.

Everyone expected Don to come out but the one stepped out of the hut was definitely not Don, this youth had a brown long hair, he was not handsome as Don just an average looking guy, he wore a worn-out brown robe matching his hair color.

The elves were startled to see the mysterious youth but they quickly recovered from the initial shock and got into a defensive position.

Arwen immediately took out his bow and aimed an arrow at the youth while Amaryll took out a dagger and came in front of Elrond and guarded him with her body, Uncle Dior took out a weapon which looked like a small-sized crossbow and aimed at him.

"Relax it's Don" a lazy voice came from the hut as Knight stepped out.

The elves looked at Knight then the youth whom Knight claims to be Don but the elves didn't let down their guard.

Knight saw that the elves didn't believe him, he shook his head

"Don take out that mask before they hurt themselves with those weapons"

Don nodded to Knight and took off his mask and revealed his real face. The mask flickered light when he did that, the mask looked like it was made of porcelain, there was no hair attached to the mask but it was a magical feature of it.

The elves were visibly startled but seeing Don made them relax, Arwen lowered his bow. Amaryll unsheathed her dagger and stared at the mask with sparkling eyes, Uncle Dior hid his crossbow and loosened up his tensed body.

"How how do you? what what is that thing" Amaryll couldn't finish the sentence she was too excited as she ran forward to Don and took out the mask out of his hands and started to inspect it, she first tapped the mask with her fingers then felt it surface then held it over her head and looked at in the sunlight.

Don knew about the curious nature of this elf so he let her play with the mask for a bit while Arwen looked a little embarra.s.sed with his sister's reaction.

"So what is this thing?" Amaryll asked again.

"It's a magic mask" Don answered. "Obviously" Knight retorted looking at the elf but the elf didn't seem to mind and put the mask on her face,

Arwen and Uncle Dior watched this scene with an open mouth, she didn't even ask Don's permission to look at the mast let alone trying it on.

Arwen wanted to pinch Amaryll's pointy ears with all his might, he was too embarra.s.sed.

"You can't use it, the mask only works with battle energy"

Amaryll seemed disappointed at Don's answer she held onto it for a moment before she handed over him the mask in an embarra.s.sed manner.

Don took the mask from Amaryll's hands and placed it on his face, the mask let out a small glimmer of light and altered its size to fit his face.

Don's face started to shift into the previous youth's face while his raven black hair disappeared and the brown long hair started to grow.

"Uh uh" uncle Dior cleared his throat

"Can we go now? We have a long journey before us" Uncle Dior started to slowly walk away.

Don nodded and took off his ring and threw it to Knight.

"Use it if you face any Dangers you can't handle '' Don didn't wait for Knight to answer just as he put his hood on, nodded facing Arwen and followed uncle Dior in the direction of the Slave city.

Knight too didn't say anything as he touched the ring on the floor, just when Knight touched the ring, it started to shine and coiled around Knight's leg. Knight lifted his ring leg to his eye level and examined it

"Hmm fits well"

Then Knight joined with Arwen who was staring at the direction Don and Uncle Dior went and waited till their figures faded into the woods.

"Let's go" Arwen took Elrond and went to his hut leaving Amaryll and Knight behind. Arwen would have taken Amaryll too but he saw that sparkling eyes of her pop up when he saw the ring Don gave it to Knight, so he knew his sister wouldn't come with him even if we pleaded.

************

Don and Uncle Dior were walking through a dense forest filled with the chirping of the birds and chitter-chatter of diverse insects.

The duo was traveling in silence admiring the elegance of the surroundings.

The sound of water falling and the smell of the lush green plants and the fragrance and the beauty of wildflowers were so refreshing for them.

Don wanted to protect this forest and the beings living in it, he knew sooner or the human empires will try to conquer the outer lands when they do they will just destroy the nature for their selfish reasons, its the human nature.

While they traveling many magical creatures, as well as normal predators, tried to hinder their path, normal predators can't feel the magical fluctuations or use their intelligence, they just do whatever they supposed to 'Hunt', Uncle Dior didn't make any move against them as he wanted to see how Don was going to deal with them.

Small predators such as snakes and racc.o.o.ns didn't dare or they knew they couldn't handle this hunt but some big predatory animals such as cheetah, bobcat, cougars were brave enough to pick a fight however Don didn't kill them he just knocked them out by manipulating the old logs or tree branches around him.

As for the magical creatures, they thought the trio would be an easy kill, Don had no magical fluctuations around him and Uncle Dior was low-level magi, so they made their move without considering much.

Uncle Dior looked at Don who is traveling beside him, he saw Don watching around their surroundings for any threats.

"There are no magical beasts above the peak master level in this part of the forest so you can relax" however before Uncle Dior could finish,

A Big black panther jumped down from one of the trees and stared at the duo,

"What the!"

The black panther gently started to move towards them, Uncle Dior slowly took out his small-sized crossbow while Don slowly walked backward

"Do something" Uncle Dior hissed.

Any sudden move could make the panther agitated so Don made his move very very steadily and slowly. First, he moved his hands to his back, with one hand he controlled the logs leaves and dust around him while on the other he retrieved a small throwing knife.

If he was alone he could just take his sword and go kill it but he was here with Uncle Dior, despite the fact, it couldn't kill him but the panther could easily attack uncle Dior in an instant so he manipulated the surroundings to confuse the panther which could buy him some valuable time to save Uncle Dior and kill the panther.

The Black panther confirmed that the two prey in front of it did not pose a threat to it. So the panther finally bared its teeth and dashed forwards, unantic.i.p.atedly to the panther, the logs, vines, leaves, and dust wrapped around it and halted its pace the panther was confused, without wasting the opportunity Don threw the throwing knife straight at the panther, the knife was controlled by battle energy so it flew so fast like it could cut the wind itself and pierced through the panther's head.

The panther died with opened eyes, it couldn't have known how it was killed, everything has happened in a flash.

"What the heck is a mid great master level beast doing here!" Uncle Dior said with the gritted teeth, his face showed a concerned look.

Uncle Dior inspected its body

"Shame such a majestic beast, let us take its magic core it will fetch us a good price"

It took several minutes to cut open the beast and retrieve its magic core,

The pure red core was glimmering in Uncle Dior's hands and he was smiling at the core.

"Let's go before any more d.a.m.n beast comes" Uncle Dior put the core in his side bag and moved hastily.

The denseness of the forest gradually reduced and some man-made paths have begun to appear at long last they were out of the woods literally, by the time they were out, the sun started to set and the sky turned into a golden red color, some man-made structures could be seen, at the far distance, Don could see the big walls.

The Slave city of Outer lands