Hell's Academy

Lasinda and Howard didn't seem to get along even after three days traveling up the Jarkalon Abyss together. 

She had been gathering fruits and minerals for several weeks on the edge of the Jarkalon Abyss to try and find a special herb that her father needed to return to good health. Of course, now that was all gone, she'd have to return to her father without the Jade Stem Herbs he needed.

Lasinda was part of the Great Slavensen Nation, and her father and mother were the leaders of the entire Nation. Yet after years of being bullied by the nearby nations like the Grey Neck People, and suffering losses of pretty much all their troops, there was almost nothing left keeping them from being taken over.

That was why Lasinda went to try and find an extremely rare herb for her father, The Jade Stem Herb. 

"My father lost the ability to walk when I was much younger than I am now," Lasinda complained while wrapping her arms around Howard's back. She'd gotten tired, and couldn't help but accept his offer to jump with her up the Abyss. "When he lost the ability to walk, many people tried to take his place as the nation's leader but many of them died."

"He was the only warrior we had in the SSS rank, but without the ability to walk it's hard for him to fight. Unlike the Arthraku, who can capture Authoritarians, our people have pretty simple abilities. We-we grow plants in our bodies that can be used as weapons. And I know it's wierd, but you don't need to insult me about it okay! We're the reason these mountains are so green in the first place!"

"I think that's really cool," Howard said with a smile, "However, why are all the nations attacking you?" Howard jumped up almost an entire meter before he landed by a large clearing. 

Traveling up the Jarkales Abyss was quite difficult, and finding a place in it was even harder. Every time he found a ridge that seemed to offer some hope of locating Lasinda's villag,e she'd shake her head and he'd jump somewhere else. And this had been happening for quite a while. He was beginning to wonder if the Jarkalon Abyss in was bigger the entire Furnace floor in total area! It was thousands of kilometers long and at least a few hundred kilometers wide with dozens of places to enter. Howard sighed and put his arms against Lasidna's back before he jumped once more. 

Lasinda, sighed, and looked out at the next several places he appeared before setting her head down on his back.

"They-they attack us because they want to take us captive. They want our ability to grow plants for their nation. Since we can put Ki into plants, they can grow everywhere. However, it's our tradition if we're captured to die before helping another nation." Lasinda almost started to cry. "Haha, anyway! Maybe it's better that I lost all my herbs! Nothing I got would've helped my father anyway!"

"Can you tell me what it looks like?" Howard sighed and put Lasinda down from his back. His black hair flowing behind him while he stood up at almost 1.92 meters tall. "Maybe I can find it, and then we can go back?"

"That's impossible. If you did, my father would probably let me marry you," Lasinda said in jest. "I spent three weeks looking for it, and moved at almost the same pace you did. Well, you're a lot faster than me, but I'm still fast! I-I searched far and wide for it! I checked all 10 areas it was spotted in the past. Nothing."

"Just draw it, or describe it to me," Howard activated his intent and began to spread it through the peaks nearby. "Trust me. I should be able to find it. However, I can only find it if you tell me something about it!"

The Jade Stem Herb was actually a massive plant that was almost a meter tall with huge flowering petals, and should be actually easy to find. Yet, of course, this wasn't the case. It tended to grow on the ridges of the mountain in areas with almost complete darkness. It was hard to find because it also had some ability to hide itself if it was spotted.

The Jade Stem Herb had an extremely potent healing effect on those who took it. It could also be used by someone from Lasinda's tribe to put in their bodies. They used plants much like the Arthraku used Authoritarians. They put plants in their bodies that could be taken out in battle.

However, because of this, there were also many ancient plants that no longer existed because of overuse. And the Jade Stem Herb was already not the type of plant that germinated very often! In fact, it only sprayed out its seeds once every 10 seasons! And out of the hundreds of seeds it scattered, only one in a thousand would grow.

This growth, with compounded by how many tribes gathered this plant, made it almost impossible to find. Frankly, Lasinda would believe it was gone forever if it hadn't been spotted by someone in her nation! Of course, that person was dead now! It was just the luck of her tribe.

She explained what it looked like to Howard and then he nodded his head and closed his eyes.

'First I'll use my Dream Ki to scout the area, but this time I'll include my intent in it.' Howard nodded his head. "Since my Ki Hearts have my intent, frankly any type of Ki I use I can somewhat track. However, the problem with Dream Ki is that I got it from the Dream Enchantress.'

'I don't even know if this will work yet, but if it does… It will be nice to pick up a new wife, haha!'

Howard closed his eyes and then sent out a burst of Dream Ki from his hands that shot in all directions, using the information that Lasinda had gave him. She sighed, her black hair flowing in the wind while she waited to see if there were any results. 

'Hmph, what an idiot. As soon as I said I would marry him if he found the plant, he got serious. Well, there is no way I'll marry a man I just met! Hmph, he has to be out of his mind!"

'However, he is kind of cute,' Lasinda bit her lip while Howard seemed to get stronger. 'Strange… He's not afraid of the Abyss even though he told me he was from the lower plains of the Furnace. How could he have gotten so strong down there. It doesn't make any sense.'

"Found it!" Howard said, opening up his eyes before he smiled. "Hehe, you said its a two meter tall plant that likes to hide near caves. "Well, I just so happen to have found one less than 10 kilometers from here. It's inside of an Authoritarian's nest! It should be no problem to get it."

"Don't you dare!" Lisands said before she felt Howard put his arm around her and hoist her up into the air. "No! Nonononono! Don't! Put me down! That cave is too dangerous to enter!"