Lurk moved over to Resti, who had begun crying in earnest, he put a hand on her shoulder. Resti sobbed but leaned towards Lurk as he gave her a hug. Lurk closed his eyes, he brought up his mental menu looking at it seeing Resti's mental framework reacting speeding along in its amazing complexity, and at the edge of it he could see the [slave]rune sending out its own small pulses of magic signals and runes that would either increase the effect of some of Resti's own occurring mental effects, or disable some of them.

("Even now her reaction when I wanted to comfort her is causing the [Slave] rune to make that mean more to her trying to make her ignore her own true intentions.") Lurk gritted his teeth as he tried to translate what the rune was doing when he had tried to comfort her. The rune was trying to temper her bad reaction from the people that had given her commands. But exactly what precisely it was empowering or depowering was not easily understood as the runes in the mental part of her avatar was incredibly dense and complicated. Lurk focused and returned his own senses.

"I am not sure exactly how much of it is -fake- but I can feel the collar is strengthening some of your thoughts about me, and dismissing some others... But now... Focus Resti on your intentions.." Lurk talked to her as he let go of her and took hold of her shoulders and looked into her eyes.

"What do you want yourself, focus on it" Lurk said to her in -a matter of fact- voice trying to bring her own reasoning and ideas to the surface. As he did he focused on his mental menu again. Keeping a keen eye on what the [Slave] rune would now attempt to do as Resti's true intentions and thoughts would appear.

"... I ... I want to be safe... I want to..." Resti shook her head a bit as she began to struggle with something.

Lurk saw some of her inactive mental stats mostly pertaining to memory were being heavily suppressed now the [Slave] rune focused its attention towards it, Lurk soaked in all the functions the rune brought into action trying to discern how it functioned.

"I.. I.. I want to go home!... I want to be with my mother!" Resti broke out into heavy tears and sobs leaning into Lurk again for a hug.

Lurk saw the [Slave] runes grasp on her memories slip and the rune retracted all its attempts away as Resti's mental strain was impossible for it to contain when Resti was focused on the traumatic event it had blocked out of her mind as much as it could. This had definitely changed her mind and decision making Lurk knew, anyone would react differently if they had stopped thinking about something horrible that had just happened to her. The [Slave] rune clearly was designed to lessen and cancel out traumatic mind influences automatically on top of the whole command system it had implemented... Whoever designed the collars knew that happy slaves are better slaves... Lurk tightened his hug keeping an eye on the mental menu to see when the [Slave] rune fired back up when Resti lost her focus.

"I am so sorry for your loss Resti, I wish I could do something about it... " Lurk held her Resti grabbing onto Lurk and crying into his shoulder, her mind was free now and she was able to process her loss, the rune having locked it away had caused it to pile up to a damaging degree, if she would not vent it this would definitely lead to dangerous future problems if the collar was ever to come off , Lurk speculated, which caused him to sigh internally as he turned his head to look at Sylphie who was also looking sad at Resti's situation.

("Sylphie has had her collar on for a lot longer... Her reaction might be several times more intense... It could be dangerous to her mind...")

Lurk allowed Resti to cry properly her avatar mental strain seemed to lessen, it was still in a bad way. But it was not looking as strained as before, the [Slave] rune was beginning to send out runes again to try and effect Resti.

"Now focus again Resti... I know its hard... It's ok... I am here... So is Sylvie... We will not abandon you... Your mind might have been blocking your memories... But I won't stop liking you, and I will not give up on you..."

Lurk spoke normally to Resti first to remind her to focus, once the rune retracted he spoke softly with his own heartfelt feelings, wanting her to take in his words without a [Slave] rune filter to make her ignore facts her own mind wanted to perhaps bring out.

Resti tried to calm her crying, a hand coming up to wipe her own tears. She looked at Lurk's face, locking eyes with him.

"I... I don't know what I want... I am tired... It feels... hopeless... But... I am happy you are trying... I might have... Acted a bit fast..." She looked away but Lurk held a hand on her chin and made her look back to him.

"But do you like me..."

Resti hesitated as she was working through her feelings with the unfiltered effect of the collar, but it had caused her to think about Lurk in certain ways and those thoughts were still there despite their false initial appearance.

"I... I know you won't hurt me... You are not like the other goblins... You care about others a lot... I feel... I do... I do!" Resti was examining herself, Lurk just looked on allowing her to figure it out while keeping an eye on the [Slave]rune and its inability to affect her current mental state. He blinked hearing Resti last few words.

"Yes!. I know that... if I was sad before... I know that you would try to comfort me! The collar it just... prevented me from seeing Lurk comfort me earlier..." Resti let a tear go.

"I am sorry I did not notice... I will get this collar off you as quick I can... " Lurk smiled at her, feeling a bit of shame, that he did not notice or think that Resti was in a bad place.

"If you need anything I will do my best to help." Lurk said hugging Resti again. She leaned back into his hug and cried for a bit longer, Lurk allowed her to feel her feelings uninterrupted while being comforted. After a while she calmed down and was tired, Lurk let her lie down and rest, Though now the Collar had once more begun to affect her. Lurk quickly went back over to the box and items next to Sylvie.

"I will help you too Sylvie... But..." Lurk gave her neck a quick caress.

"... I know master... You can't take off the collar as easily with me... I could feel it, that you realized something when you looked at me..." Sylvie looked a little sad but smiled at Lurk in the end. Lurk nodded to her and smiled back. He began to go through all the items again, examining or trying to manipulate all items that had any semblance of having runes on them.

"No... This one... no just a piece of scrap... No idea what this was a part of... Whoa..."

Lurk put his hand on the weird pen like an item, when he noticed the runes and tried to manipulate them with mana, the tip suddenly lit up, condensing the mana. Lurk stared at it as he felt his mana flowing into the tool.

"This... This is what I need!" Lurk held the tool looking at it intently, this feeling was the exact same one he had when he was in the mental menu when he was changing the clear status spell to clear poison.

Lurk picked up a piece of leather and held the pen like tool, he focused his mana into it as he began to put the tip of it onto the leather, focusing his mind on a rune.

His mind could sense the mana forming, he could pack the tool with information in the shape of runes. In a matter of way making runes within runes.

This was how magic crafting worked... The items would not show the magical circles and runes clicking on in a clockwork. If you just drew one rune it would do nothing. But using this tool he could pack a rune with all the information and systems he knew off in the mental menu. He drew a tiny rune on the leather piece. It was shoddy work and he was sure the leather was not up to par for what the rune needed to properly bind too. As he could feel the rune slowly collapse upon the moment he stopped applying mana to it.

[Magic: Crafting] increased to 0.1

[Leather Scrap]: Tough (rank 1) (unstable)

The rune slowly fade and the leather scrap was ruined, he tried to write a new rune on it, but the piece was now filled with all kinds of jumbled mana that he could not make sense off... So you only had one attempt at making something... Perhaps it was easier with better materials... But for a brief moment, the leather piece had been strengthened.

"I can do it now Sylvie" I can work on the collars!" Lurk turned to Sylvie with a smile, Sylvie smiled back.

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Lurk sat up awake for hours as he was experimenting on the various items and pieces of cloth or leftover weapons, grinding the [crafting] skill up as high as he could. He was worried about manipulating the collars as there were definite signs of some kind of security measure to prevent tampering with them. Until finally...

[Magic: Crafting] Increased to 1.0

[Read Item Learned]

Lurk tried to pick up a short sword, and used his new skill he had learned.

_________________________

[Damaged Short Sword]

Common

Rune Slots: 0

Durability 10/20

Iron - Wood - Leather

_________________________

Now he could see more information. He now knew any attempts to make runes on this sword would inevitably be a hopeless cause, it was not made well enough for the mana to flow easily. Any rune added would be temporary at best. If it was even possible. The better the item was made for it, the more complicated the runes could be. Specific effects and spells could be added to an item that way.

He picked up a collar and focused on it.

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Collar "Gathering Slave Collar"

Rare

Rune Slots: 4

Durability 10/10

Silver : Steel : Gold

-Slots-

[Enslave]: Rank 3

[Lock]: Rank 1

[Pain]: Rank 3

[Open Slot]

________________________________

"Got you..." Lurk gave a wide grin.