It was the thirteenth day of the fifth month, morning arrived quickly, and so did the horse-carriage that would take Jacob out of the castle.

He and Xenia were suited up in their Royal garments, he had on a white and blue robe, adorned with golden embroidery and jewelry, underneath it were black, tailored overalls, stretching all the way down to his shoes.

Xenia had on her usual attire, leather clinging to her like second skin, a dark, supple armor that radiated elegance. Although she was just a servant, she certainly didn’t look like it.

The entire of Jacob’s family stood at the entrance of the huge building as he walked to them.

"I’ll be leaving now." Jacob announced subtly.

"Aww, come here," Elena pounced on him, wrapping her arms around him as tears ran down her cheeks, "I’m gonna miss you honey."

"I’ll miss you too mother, don’t worry, I’ll send you messages. You too grandma." Jacob said, extending his hand to meet with his grandmother’s.

When he finally managed to break free of Elena’s grasp he moved to Rhoarin, who stood beside his father, Jacob’s grandfather, Alaric.

"Father—Grandfather, I promise to stay on course and not interfere in matters that do not concern me." Said Jacob with his chest out.

"Do not turn your eyes away from blatant evil as well, wherever you go, leave it better than it was when you came. The Heavens have eyes my son, do you understand?" Rhoarin inquired, looking the boy directly in his eyes.

"Yes father, I understand."

"You’ve grown into such a fine young man, may you have good fortune." Alaric said, placing both hands on his shoulders.

Off to the side Elena had moved over to Xenia, who stood in silence, watching as the boy bid goodbye to his family, the usual warm smile playing on her lips.

"Xenia, I trust you’ll keep my son safe." Elena told her, her eyes were red and she was still sniffling, but Xenia understood how hard it was for a mother to part with her child, so she just responded.

"Yes, My Lady, as long as I live, no harm will come to the young master."

Elena nodded and placed a hand on Xenia’s shoulder, raising her handkerchief to wipe her nose.

After all the goodbyes were said, the family finally bid goodbye to their heir, Elena in particular stood and waved until the carriage had vanished from her sight.

Rhoarin grabbed her by her shoulders and caressed her arms for a moment before she spoke, "I didn’t expect him to leave so soon, I had a lot of time with him, but I still long for more."

Her husband remained silent while she sobbed and sunk into his embrace.

"He is a strong boy, he will definitely be back." Rhoarin assured her.

_ _ _

Nearly six hours after they left the castle.

Jacob stared at the map as the horses trotted along the pathway, the Daven Heaven Continent was quite big, on the western side were small cities like Malkovia, Lahoth, and Khalarnis.

Far to the Eastern end; Zethurne and Marlboro made their strongholds.

The Southern end of the Continent was governed by the Flying Macabre sect, that was Jacob’s destination, he had thought many a time on how he was going to confront Savant about his attempted assassination.

Jacob studied the map for a while, it had already imprinted itself in his memory as a result of <Total Recall>

There was only one problem, to get to the Flying Macabre sect, they would have to go through the Ten Thousant Beast Forest, which lay dead in the middle of the continent.

Jacob had only heard stories of it, only the strongest warriors and cultivators ever made it out of there, he sighed and silently told himself that whatever challenge lay await he would be ready.

He looked up for the first time at Xenia, her gaze was fixated on the road outside the carriage.

"Where to next," he asked her. "Since I have never been outside the castle before, you will be my tour guide."

The woman looked confused for a second, and then she smiled, "There is a small town ahead of us, I’m sure we can spend the night there." Xenia said,

Jacob nodded, intrigued by the idea of sleeping somewhere outside of the room that he had slept in for the past sixteen years.

Suddenly the horses whinnied and came to a halt, they seemed to have gone into a frenzy.

"My lord, it appears we have run into a problem." The coachman called from the front of the carriage.

"What kind of problem?" Jacob asked him.

"See for yourself sir."

Immediately, Jacob and Xenia stepped out of the carriage.

Before the carriage stood a large beast, it was a wolf, it growled aggressively, making the horses whinny loudly and stand on their hind legs.

"Young master, it’s a dire wolf." Xenia said, sticking her hand out as if to protect the boy who stood behind her.

Jacob looked at her, a smile crept on his face.

<Spirit beast detected>

<Dire Wolf>

<Grade: Spirit Grade> 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

<Rank: A>

’It’s just a low level beast.’ Jacob mused inwardly as he stepped forward. "I’ll handle it, Xenia." He said.

"No, young master, I made your mother a promise, let me do this." She protested, looking at him.

He studied her for a moment then closed his eyes and raised his hands slightly, "As you wish."

Xenia stepped in front of the dire wolf, it’s fur was Snow White, it eyes red with blood lust, fangs dripping with saliva. It stood at about five feet tall.

She pulled out her sword gracefully and stilled herself, Jacob was probably the only person who could see that she was channeling her Qi in that moment, he could see the flow, how it moved like a calm wave all over her body.

The beast growled again, then fifteen other wolves, considerably smaller, possessing fur of a silver-gray color, stepped out of the shadows, they had the same red hue in their eyes.

Xenia looked unfazed.

Surely she had encountered such a battle before, Jacob watched on as the woman gripped her sword, the blade gave a faint hum as she stood in a very familiar stance.

’Personally I’ll just cause them to decay on the spot, but let’s see what she has in store for us.’ Jacob thought.

He’d never seen Xenia in actual battle, so now was a good chance for him to see where she lacked and if she would indeed be useful on there journey.

After a moment of stillness, one of the wolves attacked first, leaping quickly at Xenia.