The rest of the week went by swiftly, and it was finally time to once again depart to the south. One reason for leaving when they did, was because the full moon just passed, as he always tried to ensure he doesn't have to worry about it as much while traveling. Felix already left days ago, and headed to the surrounding territories to gather information on them. Around the two of them were also various dwarves preparing for the journey as well, as they would be leaving around the same time, but Leo and Iris will be traveling ahead. Suddenly several people came to wish them farewell.
"Take care my daughter, and please stay safe." Hilda said to Iris before turning to Leo,
"Please, take care of her, and yourself." Leo nodded and said,
"Ensuring iris's safety is always my main concern, no matter what." Hilda looked concerned, but didn't say anything. Next Natalie and Jack stepped forward.
"Run fast you two, remember the easiest prey is the one that doesn't notice the hunter." Leo looked serious and nodded at her words. If the kingdom gets aware that they might try to do something then it'll make their plans nearly impossible, so they needed to ensure they didn't cause any commotion while there. Jack then said,
"The two of us will be with the dwarves, we'd try to go with the two of you, but we both stick out worse than Iris so we have to stay back. Try and save some heads for me though." Leo smiled at jacks words, both glad and worried that the two of them will join the battle. Jack saw he was worried though and said,
"What's this, worried about the guy who trained you to begin with? It's twenty years too early for you to be worried about me fighting!" He declared out loud. Several people also cried out at that time, to also show their determination to fight. They moved through the rest of those who were saying goodbye, before getting to elder grandma.
"Be careful, you're not facing a group of soldiers out of their element this time, they're going to be the elite fighters whose main goal is to protect their king, and home. As Natalie said, don't cause any unnecessary issues and keep your head down." Leo and Iris both assured her that they understood, before they finally departed.
They both entered the tunnels armed with their bows, and iris's knives. Leo was hoping that his sword will be ready by the time he returned, and he left his axe with the dwarves, as he didn't want to draw attention with it. They mostly brought the bows so that they could pass as hunters. The two took one last look at daylight, then shot forward into the darkness once more.
They had traveled for several hours before they ran into the first monster, Leo didn't even stop to register it before his claws ripped out its throat. The two were still moving and were already well away from the corpse before it even hit the floor. They didn't bother with harvesting rations, as they were more focused on speed and didn't want the extra weight. They moved without rest as the hours went by, as both were accustomed to traveling for hours without stopping.
It was after about six hours of running that they took their first rest, only for a quick lunch and for Leo to ensure they were going the right way. While moving they only slowed their pace long enough to mark the turns so that the dwarves would know the way they went when they arrived at them. Leo confirmed the next several forks they had, and then they resumed their journey.
It took a week of this constant movement before they reached the exit they were looking for. Leo looked at the maps once more, and couldn't wrap his head around the fact that they made a journey that would usually take several weeks or months by foot, in a week. He was even more excited to build the railroad in the labyrinth to use for transportation in the future.
They stored the maps in a hole they made in the wall with magic, then marked it so that dwarves would dig it out later. The maps were too precious to take into the city with them. They then joined the road and continued the rest of the way to Heliantis as normal travelers. As they stopped Leo and Iris would hunt some game to further cement their story of being hunters.
Unlike earth, the lords of this world welcomed hunters as they kept the dangerous monster populations down, as long as they didn't kill any prized game. Stag lords and other such "less dangerous" game were prime examples of this. After about five more days of travel, the two got their first look of Heliantis, the Capitol of slaves.