"This is the first item that is boundable! Sweet!" Urie exclaimed as he scrolled through the interface when Arie tugged his shirt.
"Brother? What does that mean?" Arie asked as Urie patted his head. "Can be bound is a feature of an item that was sealed only to the owner. It means that the item cannot be dropped nor traded." he explained and returned his attention to the opened interface.
He opened the three other items he got from the Clan Quest and looked at its use.
[Flame Spirit Essence, Legendary Material]
[Description: A solidified spirit essence that belongs to the deceased Flame Spirit.]
---
[Pure Obsidian Gem, Socket Item]
[Description: A flawless Obsidian that stores a unique power.
Strength +16
Vitality +10]
---
[Mystical Rose, ???]
[Description: ???]
"What's this thing? The system doesn't show what it is!" Urie exclaimed loudly, which surprised his younger brother.
"What's what? Don't scare me like that, brother!" Arie exclaimed as he placed his hands on his pounding chest.
"Nothing! Just something that I don't know if I'll be excited or disappointed." Urie shrugged his shoulders and looked at the interface that displays the notification about Alpagon.
"It mutated once again! I see!" Urie nodded and took out his compendium and took out Alpagon's card, but when he tried to summon it, an interface appeared in front of him.
[Alpagon is currently at the state of Mutation. Please wait for 5:09:23 before you can summon it again!]
"I see, so the timer started already when the prompt was sent!" Urie nodded as if he understood something and kept his compendium together with the card as he took the Mask of Mystery and equipped it.
The mask looks like those that have a creepy smile and it was colored white on the half and black on the other that was divided diagonally.
When Urie equipped it, the mask appeared in front of his face, but eventually, changed into his skin color and his face appeared as if he wasn't wearing the mask at all.
He looked at his Character Profile and saw that the mask was equipped, assuring him that the mask has that ability to conceal itself by copying the wearer's features.
"I think I saw you wearing the mask? Where is it? Did you unequip it?" Arie asked when he saw the mask a moment ago and when he's not looking, the mask disappeared.
"It's still equipped, though! Look at my face closely!" Urie said as the younger brother moved closer and looked at his face when suddenly, his face changed from his face into Arie's face.
The event caught Arie by surprise and fell to his bottom. He almost fell from the edge of the cliff. Luckily, Urie caught him quickly.
"See! I'm already wearing it!" Urie, in Arie's form, said as he helped his brother to get up.
"Okay, I believe you and please, stop that! That's too creepy! It's odd to talk to someone having the same face as I have!" Arie said as they prepared to go down the side of the volcano that wasn't flooded by the burning hot lava.
As they went down the volcano, Arie was asking if they could go to his quest next since he received one when he turned into an Ashen Elf.
His quest was about touching the Flames that gave life to the Ashen Elves. It has unique characteristics that can awaken the potential of the Ashen Elves so that they can use their abilities to their peak.
"Are sure that the quest is only about that?" Urie asked.
"I don't know? But, maybe we should find the remains of the Ashen Elves before proceeding with touching the flame. It might be dangerous!" Arie replied.
He started getting cautious about things in the game after their argument when encountering Centicoal.
They went back to the Lost Palace of Ashen Elves to look for some living elves when suddenly, flashes of black shadows pounced around the ruined buildings and the surrounding Ash Trees.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" Urie cautiously shouted while holding three cards in his hands while Arie was back to back with him while holding 3 cards in his hands too.
3 Cards was the minimum card count players could summon when encountering unknown creatures, but if their enemies were players, it depends on the rules that the two agreed upon, because fighting with other players requires Duel Invitation.
"Hold it right there, young man! We meant no harm!" an old man shouted as he appeared behind a tree, followed by groups of people following behind him.
They looked like elves, but with greyish skin and burning red hair. All of them looked as if they were on the verge of dying as they all looked skinny, looking like walking bones covered in thin skin.
"What's going on? What happened here?" Urie asked as looking at their awful features.
"Foremost, thank you for giving life to Asheville, the place of the Ashen Elves!" The old man thanked and bowed towards the two as the rest of the people behind him followed.
"Uh… You're welcome I guess? But, what happened here? Why did all of you look like that?" Urie asked as the old man stepped out and started explaining what's happening to them.
The Ashen Elves lived at Asheville, where flames continuously coursed through the cracks from the Black Volcano. Those cracks helped the lava to safely course beneath the ground towards the Asheville, which was ruined by now.
Ashville was one of the oldest towns, which was present way before the Black Volcano existed. It was thriving because of the flaming well that they made to make the town flourish.
The well dried up when the first earthquake happened that caused the way from the source to be blocked, but they found another way to keep the source of their energy flowing and that was, making a system from the volcano which emerged after the first earthquake and the town became more flourishing than before.
After a few years, the Obsidium Town was made as the Ashen Elves kept themselves hidden from the rest of the world using a device that hid the entire town from human's naked eyes.
No human has found the whereabouts of the Ashen Elves or their existence, but one day, a man stumbled across Asheville when he was on the verge of death. The Ashen Elves helped him and that's how the story about the Ashen Elves was known throughout the Obsidium Town.
He told it as if the Elves were the ones who kept the volcano erupting until the second earthquake struck and the volcano erupted.
People thought that the Ashen Elves were angry about things when a crystal shot out from beneath and saved the townspeople, except for the houses that caused the Black Phenomenon.
When the crystal was placed in the chamber, it prevented the volcano from raising the lava from below, which was the source of Asheville's energy, and made the town crumble by nature's forces.
The Ashen Elves kept human's away from the ruined Asheville by scaring them as they taunt the beasts from within the Ash Forest or impersonating some sort of Forest Demon which kept their sanctuary hidden for the past decades.
Nobody dared to enter the forest. It became a forbidden area for humans and this kept on until the Ashen Elves preserved their energies and gave it up when they saw Urie bringing the crystal to the Lost Palace.
They already surrender their fate to misery when suddenly, glowing red liquid poured out from the mouth of the volcano towards their town and the system that the ancient Ashen Elves made were put to use but some ways were broken.
It revived not only the energy of the town, but also filled the well up.
The Ashen Elves waited for Urie and Arie to come back to tell them everything before replenishing their lost energy and hope that they already gave up.