The Elgang was offered a trip to Altera island thanks to their outstanding contributions in liberating Sander. The trip expenses were covered by COBO, COBO Express, COBO arms, COBO healthcare and COBO insurance, respectively. So what are you waiting for? Register to COBO now, join the adventure, save the world and becoming a hero too. Would you like to know more? And remember, COBO always put your happiness first!
COBO TV, newsreel time.
Altera town in the afternoon. Two figures, their clothes full of green spores, muddy shoes and the slippery miner's helmet on their head wandered the Ponggo's clean and plain street. They had their hands full of exotic flowers oozing weird smells, and some strange herbs put neatly on one's miner helmet. Miner helmets and the muddy clothes were like trademarks of the Altera town, where a race of bipedal, short and fluffy rodent-like beings reside. They were expert miners and engineers, who had carved a big city underground, mainly as a hideout for them to evade their enemies - the Nasod, a robotic race whose after centuries of hibernating had recently risen again, only to be stopped on their tracks by a band of fighters - the El search party.
Back to the story, the ones we mentioned earlier begin to chat:
_ Uhm Rena, I think I have already done with this. Thanks to you we're all dirty and dizzy.
The girl who talked begun to puff her cheeks, that sign couldn't be mistaken to anything other than sulky.
Rena - the other girl obviously, gently replied with a fresh smile:
_ Well Ara, as least we got the herbs, I will ask Ciel if they're edible and if they are then I will boil you some herb tea.
Ara- the sulky girl - seem to be somewhat relieved. Then suddenly she slipped, the helmet on her hands flied so high and most herbs were dropped down the street. After the shock, she scurried around, collecting the dropped down herbs in panic, but when she looked up, a female Ponggo looked like she was in pain, and holding to her head.
Rena rushed to said Ponggo:
_ Agatha?!
Agatha- obviously the name of the Ponggo, and a notable one, began to whimper:
_ Ugh, my head, pong! Why a helmet came from nowhere and hit me pong!
Ara said:
_ Hwawa! That was my fault, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!
To be fair, the helmet wasn't hitting Agatha too hard, but still she keep groaning about her hurting head like a anvil has hit her. Rena had to intervene:
_ What about we getting to that pub to have some drinks as a sorry from us?
Agatha nodded, still holding her curly head with her curly and fluffy hand, to hid her chuckling.
The pub, a medium-sized bar that was somewhat attractive, was one of Ponggos town crowded public place, especially in the late afternoon, when the miners were done with their daily works. The Ponggos, from oldies to young mole-men, were busying chatting loudly. So our band of an elf, a human and a ponggo found a desk that's in the middle of the pub and sit down. They began to order from the menu:
_ One el-fire cocktail please. What about you, Ara?
_ One kool-el aid and a cracker *cough* Eun Eun, I'm hungry, and one cracker can't make me fat *cough*, ok ok blue berries instead.
_ Bring me lizard jerky, Red-Bean sherbet and Organic apple pong!
Rena whispered to the voracious ponggo:
_ But can you eat them all? You're going to get sick from eating too much!
_ Oh come on pong, I have to work hard at blacksmith everyday so I deserve qualified food pong!
Rena signed, and called the waiter to order their dishes. But the waiter shook his head:
_ I'm afraid all the apples are out of stock dear miss pong. Lately, the apples are becoming very rare pong, and they are only sold in minuscule quantities pong.
Rena signed again. That's right, the wonderful apple gardens in Velder were destroyed by the war and the only way to find some is from William's ranch. But the prices were biased, because of the shortage of the stock and the intervention of the merchants. They began to eat their dishes, when Rena had just finished half of her cocktail, Agatha suddenly pulls her sleeve.
A big, muscular towering figure with gray skin, it was easily as tall as the height of 3 men combined could be seen approaching. Someone is talking like directing that giant "There, there, put it in front of of you". It carried many heavy crates on one of its shoulder, and someone on the other shoulder. Rena couldn't help but babbling:
_ U-u-u-n-n-n-o...
Then, as an instinct, she drew her bow and quickly shot an arrow at Uno. When the mana arrow was about to hit Uno's chest, then suddenly something dashed in and block it, then the arrow was sent back to the side of Rena and accidentally cut a small hole on the table's surface.
_ Well well well well!
The voice of someone who couldn't be mistaken from anyone other than Chloe, a dark elf commander who had taken part in the invasion of Velder capital. She courageously hurrying to the inside of the pub to find the source of the arrow.
_ Show me your faces now, goddamn Glitter assassins!
She drew her bow and pointing from one to another innocent and shocked ponggo faces. When the arrow was pointing at Agatha, she yelled "Holy Pong!" and grabbed her pickaxe. Rena and Ara stood up immediately.
_ Chloe, what are you doing here? Are the demons going to invade this place!? - said Rena.
Chloe seemed to be flinched for some seconds, until a mischievous grin appeared on her face:
_ Yes, I'm going to storm this place to the ground and enslaving all of you.
_ You!
Then suddenly some voices hit Chloe's back:
_ Here's the bill and the cash for your goods, miss pong!
The waiter was giving Chloe some notes and one bag full of silver and gold ED - the Elrios standard currency.
_ Thank you Andy, these are your goods.
The pub's employees began to bring the crates of William's ranch apples which Uno had brought, to the inside of the pub. The ponggos began to line up before the counter bar to buy those apples.
_ Wait a minute, what is the meaning of all this? - thus said Ara.
Agatha whispered to Rena's ear:
_ Are you nuts pong? Why attack the apple merchants at the first place pong?
_ Apple merchants? Not long from now they had stormed the Velder capital and captured it since then! They must be spies in disguise to begin attacking this village too!
_ Hey talking behind people's back is rude! - so said Chloe, now standing in a relaxed stance and looking at our hero's faces.
_ They're refugees pong! Some of us found them near Bethma's mining cave when us ponggos help cleaning up the Nasod's facilities there pong! They were bleeding and lying unconsciously pong, the corpses of the demons scattering here and there pong, so we assumed they were being chased by the demon force pong! So we brought them back and healed them pong! I myself had seen Adel carried the unconscious Lena pong!
_ I don't know what had she had told you pong, but her name is not Lena, and she have an army of dark elves... - Rena accidentally adding "pong" to her speaking.
_ Not my army anymore! - Chloe finally couldn't ignore them and began to speak furiously.
Chloe, after her failed attempt at Hamel, was sent back to Velder to resist the Velder militias, who were slowly gaining momentum against the Glitter and dark elves combined forces. When she was out of Velder, the Glitter's higher command begun to experiment on firstly dark elves troops, and then the glitter's warriors. They were rounded up and being injected by Joaquin's "medicines", which he said can improve the fighting strength of injected soldiers. Chloe was horrified by the effects of said drugs, which made the specimens suffered from many mental paranoids and they couldn't control themselves and fought blindly without self-conserving conscious. Chloe couldn't help but feeling outraged and grief-stricken, then one night she made a speech with her remaining troops about such atrocities of the demon army commanders, they took the southern gate and poured out. But they were ambushed by Velder's miltia garrisons, who misunderstood the revolt to an offensive attempt by the Glitter army and begun to shoot with anything they had. Only a handful of troops were able to breakthrough both the siege of both armies, they ran all the way to avoid the assassins of Morfos and their number was thinned out until arriving in Bethma only Chloe and Uno were the only survivors...
_ That Uno, he was nearly blinded by Velder's troops, and was awaiting to be injected with that damn drug. If that had not because of him, we would have never escaped through the southern gate and Velder's barricades... - Chloe clenches her teeth in bitterness when her largest sorrow was evoked again.
Tears begin to appear on Rena eyes, but she never forgets who was leading her elven kin to that meat grinder, and massacred human civilians and troops in Velder. She cleared her throat and began to speak:
_ There are many issues between us, but I'm not in the mood to interrogate you now. So, now, swear with me, you will never assail innocent people again.
They all felt silent. Chloe wanted to say something to provoke the big-nosed elven girl who was preaching to her, but at the same time she felt the goodwill in Rena's words. So she pretended to turn to Uno, who was sitting outside of the pub, the ponggos children surrounding and embracing him and he let them do whatever they want.
After a long time, Agatha couldn't mask her voices anymore:
_ Aw pong, I can't pretend that was not a moving story pong, but let put it aside for a while pong and gimme something to fill my stomach pong...
Ara for a while dreamed she can be a ponggo. Like guinea pigs and many rodents, they enjoyed eating five times a day, and would starved to dead if one hadn't eaten for more than three days.
Chloe was waken from her recalls and going to get a organic apple, and brought it to Rena's table. Agatha began to hum joyful hymns, until Chloe hid the apple behind her back and mischievously saying:
_ Soooo, this is what you want huh, Rena?
Rena cautiously nodded, then began to count money in her wallet:
_ Shut up and take my money!
_ Let me see... Ho ho ho, I'm afraid this is not even nearly enough.
Rena pointed at the menu:
_ One organic apple - four hundred ED, isn't it?
Chloe tilted her head and deliberately saying:
_ The price varies from day to day, babe. You don't know the market. Its price now should be nine hundred and eighty eight.
_ How could it be? I thought you have quit your cutthroat job? - Agatha rushed to the bar only to see the emptied apple crates, obviously when they were listening to Chloe's "monologue", the other ponggos had been busying trying to hoard all of those favorable apples.
_ La la la can't hear you. Bo ho ho ho, how poor are you~
Rena had fallen for Chloe's bait. She began to beg Ara to loan some money. They were not poor of course, but they just didn't feel like bringing big money around. Unfortunately, Ara was like Rena, just bring enough money to buy snacks and some of their money were already paid for Agatha's luxurious appetite.
No way out, Rena turned to Agatha, intended to persuade her to stop demanding something so expensive, only to find Agatha had silently vapored. Straining her eyes looking at the street, she saw Agatha was running like hell while holding something red.
_ Too bad, the ponggo has gotten away with my last apple. Now you must pay me. Or you want to dance with my Uno hound? Uno! - Chloe, who was sitting on the table, clapping her hand and Uno began to detach the ponggos children from him and dismissed them, then stand up and crouched to the pub, fearing that he could trample on the ponggos because of his blindness.
_ Ara, bring that deserter here NOW and makes her pay for that! Wait wait, put down all your money here first!
Ara began to chase after Agatha, who can only be realized as a small shadow far away.
Rena panicked, and suddenly some loud noises took place which sounded like Ara had crashed to a wall, which in fact true, Rena wondered should she fled like those happy people too.
Chloe acted like inadvertently checking the herbs Rena and Ara had been collecting the whole morning in Contaminated transport tunnel. She blinked to Rena:
_ Hey babe, what if I get those herbs instead of the money you still owns me? I don't want you to think of me as a cold-blooded bloodsucker that would suck you dry.
Rena could only smile awkwardly and be thankful about that offer. She left the herbs on the table and left the pub. When she looked back, she could see Chloe still standing there dumbfounded, staring at some points far away. A ponggo child tried to feed a phoru cookies to Uno. He simply sitting there, his face on his hand, quietly.
" So I picked up Ara, geez, how could a person be so clumsy. We took a bath then resting until you all had gotten home to tell you about the whole story. Scary huh?".
_ I can't believe that, really, I have always wanted to make her pays for all of Velder's suffering, but now I just can't fight an already downed man! - said Elsword. Elesis puts a hand on her brother's shoulder
Raven suddenly feeling an urge to pretend checking the functioning of his Nasod hand unnecessarily noisily. Add seemed to be unfazed, but still sitting there until the end of the story.
The others just shaking their head or moodily thinking.
Suddenly the door to their room opened, Lu and Ciel stepped in. That's right, nobody recalled them as the party's member because they were still fresh and the party had gotten used to the meeting of nine members only.
_ What have I just missed huh? - said Lu.
When Chung, the only person who was willing to recite the story to Lu again, to the part when Ara was arguing with her other half about what she was allowed to eat, Ciel had already done boiling some tea. He offered everyone a cup, as usual Ara gulped down the hot tea like it was nothing; Ciel handed Eve's cup to Oberon, who in turn adding some sugar before handing to Ophelia, who in turn adding a mint leaf before handing it to Eve herself.
Ciel really was in a good mood:
_ That tastes good right? When we were going shopping, I heard some megaphone's noises advertising about the herbs from a girl who sat on the shoulder of a monstrous Glitter, the biggest one I had ever seen in my life. Weird, right? It cost me dearly of course, I paid 3880 ED for only five leaves of the herb, barely enough to boil this pot. But don't you know, this herb is one of the Altera's specialties, which is not only tasting excellent, but is nutritious and good for your health. Unfortunately it only appears under rare circumstances and is very very rare, the last time I saw someone sold it was ages ago...