Making their way away from the beach would be no problem for the three young warriors. Although they were a little tired out from their fight on the beach with that over-sized Gero, they were continuing on without having too little energy to keep going or fend off the small monsters that inhabited the environment between the beach and the three other main locations in the area, the mountain, shrine, and academy. Having nearly made it back to the big 'intersection' of the path, they fought through a few monsters, at which time, they had stopped to regain some of their strength.

As they stood around, leaning against the trees and bushes, Sei plopped himself down, next to Hitoshi, a bit of conversation on his mind about what he'd just learned and their current destination. “Hey, Hitoshi...” he said, almost with a little bit of worry in his voice. “I can completely understand why the principal had you keep quiet about this whole disappearance deal, but going to Genbu Mountain is not a joke...” He paused for a moment, taking a breath before continued. “If we're going to do this, I'd appreciate if you would tell us the rest of what you know. I never would have, for a moment, though she would trust the three of us with such a sensitive-sorta thing.”

Hitoshi completely understood Sei's worries in this. It was strange for Principal Ayuka to entrust the three of them with this sort of mission or assignment. They weren't the worst students at the academy, but they also weren't anywhere near the best. Unfortunately, he didn't have much to say to Sei that he didn't already know. “You know just about as much as I do, Sei. Every couple of years, a few people disappear from our academy. Until now, the administration's had the enviable job of covering these up. Ms. Ayuka is tired of bearing the shame of that and wants us to find out what's causing it, not to mention how we can prevent it from happening this year.”

“That's all I know, honest.” said Hitoshi, having spilled out everything he knew about this situation to Sei, hoping that he would be alright with that sort of answer. It was no secret that they didn't know all that much about this situation, and they could be running straight into a very bad situation. Tarou, stepping forward, eagerly reminded the other two of their destination as he stood up from his place against one of the trees. He brushed his robes off as he spoke. “In any event, our course is very clear. If we are to trust Houjo-san, our destination is Genbu Mountain. We need to be ready. Only the most advances of our classmates train up there.”

Nodding towards him, the other two picked themselves up and joined him. After they'd all brushed themselves off, they headed forward again, coming around the corner and making their way to the fork in the road, stopping at the sign, which showed which landmarks were in which directions. They looked up, seeing how how the mountain peaked. Despite there being set paths, made by the academy's staff, climbing Genbu Mountain would be no easy task. They would need to be well prepared, were they to tackle this place.

All of them took out a Potion and drank it, as they started walking off the grassy fields and onto the rocky path of the mountain. Hitoshi's boots crunched small rocky pebbles as they came up, into the mountain. As if the rocky terrain wasn't enough, the mountain paths were like a maze. They were built in such a way that it would make the trip up the mountain all the more difficult for students who wanted to train there. The three of them now had to travel up that path, getting their own 'training session' as they made their way up higher,

From the moment they set foot on the mountain, the difficulty of the task at hand made itself clear. From the sky above came three eagle-like monsters, dive-bombing the three of them. Hitoshi had raised his sword upon seeing them. Ready to attack, he heard a yelp from behind him. Looking back, Tarou and Sei were both being dragged onto the ground as two huge sprout-looking creatures came up and knocked them off balance. As Hitoshi was distracted, the claws of one of the eages dug into him, shoving him to the ground as well.

Taking a hit, all three were on the ground, barely able to hang onto their weapons. Tarou, barely able to concentrate, cast a Thunder spell that knocked the monsters off of them. The three then raced to the base of the mountain, followed closely behind by the eagles by air and the burrowing sprouts by ground. Leaping out onto the fields below, just in time, they looked at one another as the monsters abandoned their pursuit. They looked at each other and nodding. Carrying one another back towards the beach, they agreed that they needed to do a little more training before they'd be ready to tackle this place.

They nearly emptied their supply of potions, trying to recover from the beating they'd just taken and, by the time they'd reached the beach again, they were all well enough to walk on their own. Tarou had bruises on his arms and his face, Sei had a stream of blood running down his forehead, by his left eye, and Hitoshi had a limp leg. The three of them clearly weren't ready to tackle Genbu Mountain just yet and needed a lot more training. Realizing they were out of Potions, they made their way through the Beach Maze, making it back to the large Crystal that could heal their wounds.

Fighting through Geros on the way there, they were taxed again, distracted from the battles, only thinking about getting to the crystal to heal up. As they finally made it there, they took in it's warm radiance and sighed, hoping they wouldn't have to take too long of a side-trip for this training and get back on course with climbing up that mountain...