Lurk stared at the runes on the chest, his eyes twitched, the women around him looking at the runes in the air he manifested so he could observe them all at once proper. Even Emily had snapped out of her stupor looking around, she turned her eyes to look at Lurk.

"What are you doing??" Lurk looked flustered as he blinked and looked back at Emily

"This chest... It's just nuts... I've never seen something so complicated... Well ok, I have but... This is impressive." Lurk looked at the place were a lock should be, he saw several complicated security runes. But it was not tied into any lock, this chest should not be locked. But it was completely shut tight. Lurk tried to focus his attention on the runes, as he began to sift the security runes out and see where their main connection points were.

The women were looking back and forth between them. Some looking slightly worried, Lurk had never really moved into the area they had for themselves, he always respectfully stayed out of their corner, only briefly in the start of when they were setting up camp did he look at the chest but he never got the chance to properly examine it, and he never got back to it since he did not want to disturb the women. And he was also busy with scouting and making items for everyone and also keeping the goblins in check trying to teach them how to behave around humans. He was stretched thin and his attention was simply divided too much.

"Please continue preparing to leave, I have to examine this" Lurk said as he could feel the unease around him. He kept sitting in front of the Chest as the workshop got busy with people getting ready loading up items into the sack slings lurk had made and distributing items. Aurk worked with Resti to make sure everyone was set up for a long trek as the right people carried what they could.

The women were a lot more worried around the other goblins. Especially Aurk was a sinister looking goblin. He had reclaimed the Wolf pelt stolen from him and his new clothes all fit him nicely, If he had followed the normal look of goblins with rags and blood and trophies from dead humans on his body he would look utterly terrifying.

Vorm had returned and he was dressed in dark colors and a proper cloak and mask. He had collected many of the daggers they had claimed, he looked sinister when you could spot him. He sat at the entrance watching everyone moving around. Sala had also geared back up, her gauntlets were replaced by Alex's metal gauntlets, they had some nice spikes and Sala was giddy when she had them strapped on her the first time. She had also put Lula into a backpack that Lula sat in able to look out behind Sala.

The runes slowly began to make sense to Lurk, he was looking for the weakest link in the security as he was slowly singling in on the main runes that centered around the central magical circle. His eyes widened when he saw one rune in front of him.

[Elven Soul] : [Link]

("... This is an elf item?... Why would the elves have an immovable unopenable chest here?...") Lurk touched the area were the rune was located on the chest, and he put in some mana and saw it swirl around. But the rune did not accept it the mana, clearly, it was designed to link with something else.

"Ah I See" Lurk closed his eyes and tried to Link his soul with the rune that was connected to the [Elven Soul], the [Link]

He felt his soul poke at the link, the rune accepted him inside, the runes unlocked and the security measures pulled back and Lurk could feel his soul energy flow through the system in the chest till it reached a circular mark on the chest. The energy pooled into the circle and seemed to be waiting for something.

("Hmm the chest is -unlocked-... is this a button that has been unlocked?") Lurk put his finger on the circle, and a light flashed from the circle.

[Space Ring] equipped

[Chest Coordinates] Locked

[Beacon] Locked

The menu appeared before his eyes, the circle extended its light around his finger forming an amazing looking delicate looking ring made of tiny thin strands that interweave in complicated patterned around each other as if they were all made of vines. A tiny white gem appearing with the final flash of light in a small socket the vines grasped around tightly.

Stolen novel; please report.

[Storage] : now available.

[New owner reconized] : Lurk

Lurk looked at the ring with a dazed gaze. It was beautiful and shimmered slightly in the light of the runes that all slowly faded away as Lurk pulled his attention away. Emily had stayed on the chest looking at Lurk as his eyes focused and darted around looking at the runes when she saw the ring forming she gasped at the sight of the gem and vines shape.

"That... Is an elf ring... I've seen one before..." Emily said as she also looked at the ring intently.

"... Is it not weird a powerful elf magical item is here in the former great kingdom? from what I understood they never left their kingdom back in the day." Lurk said as he took his eyes off the ring to look at Emily.

"Yeah... The elves almost never leave their forest... Only... Mercia managed to do it... She was the only one that wanted to help us humans against the Dark Kingdom..." Emily gritted her teeth as her memories began to stir again thinking about Mercia.

"From what i gathered there were not many magicians either back in those days?... Only the elves had a majority of mages... This explains why they have this magic craft shop here... But i bet it was not for selling items... They must have had a spy ring here to observe the kingdom..." Lurk said as he stood up. He looked at some items belonging to Emily next to the chest. He focused on the ring and suddenly a shimmer opened before him. It was as wide and deep as the chest. A dimensional pocket with the exact dimension of the large chest.

Inside were several pouches in one corner, along with six different colored ingots, and in 1/3 of the chest was a built a 3x6 grid out of wood that did not match the chest. The looked like they had been placed inside to organize easier. two of the grids had several small packages tied with strings. Looking inside he saw a ration of fine meat and berries and nuts. It was still fresh so at least now Lurk knew that time did not run inside the chest... Or these rations were extremely longlasting...

He looked into the other grids but only two more had items, he pulled out a delicate looking dagger. It was decorated with amazing patterns of gold and silver with an eagle at the end of the handle. It was also an amazing looking dagger.

_________________________________

[Eagle Strike] Dagger

Very Rare

Mithril, Gold, Silver, Ironwood

[Fast] Rank 4

[Deep strike] Rank 4

[Tough] Rank 2

[Elf Soul Link] Rank 6

[Disable] =connected Elf Soul Link

_________________________________

"whoa..." Lurk exclaimed as he held the dagger. Emily looked annoyed at Lurk, she did not like seeing a goblin wielding an elven item, but she knew from her friend that most elven items were impossible to wield except if an elf used them. To the dismay and annoyance of many humans that had sometimes managed to get their hands on these items.

"You won't be able to use it... the blade will be blunt to anyone but an elf" Emily smirked at Lurk. Lurk looked at it and tried to cut a piece of string from his pocket without using his elven soul. And as Emily had said the blade did not cut the string at all.

"Well now you at least know its a strong magic item," Emily said, she sat up as she had been feeling better she jumped down looking at Lurk who held the dagger out as he let the string fall onto the blade with its own weight, but this time he activated the soul link, and Emily looked shocked as the string fell past the blade into two pieces. The blade was extremely sharp.

"What... How..." She looked flabbergasted at Lurk

"Well... As I have been trying to say... Mercia is my mother...I have an elven soul just like her." Lurk said looking at the dagger before he sheathed it back into its sheath and tied it to his belt. Emily looked at Lurk stunned.

"And I am sure she did not mean to leave you behind... The timing of the goblins storming inside just as help arrived... It was impossible to get anyone else but her out... She did not have any say in it..." Lurk looked at Emily with gentle eyes as he tried to explain what happened back then. He was not sure how aware Emily had been back then. But she had been stuck in the darkness and the sudden flash of light from the teleport had blinded not only the goblins but also her. Only seeing flashes and hearing violent noises from the battle and screeches, she could maybe tell someone was there where Mercia had been. But she would not have been able to see it properly.

"Mercia was in a Stasis spell, she could not have a say in what happened... The elf girl that appeared in Vine armor who slew the goblins inside looked around methodically and when the door was bashed in she vanished with Mercia."

Emily looked down, her memories were back again, but they were slowly being explained away by the goblin in front of her.

"... Why are you doing this..." Emily said as she looked up at Lurk

"I just want everyone to be safe... When I return you to human lands... If you meet Mercia I would ask you to tell her something..." Lurk said solemnly.

"Tell her I am thankful she gave birth to me." Emily looked at the goblin in front of her, she just could not see it as an evil goblin anymore. All her instincts and thoughts of what goblins had done to her and would do if they caught her. Simply did not apply to the being in front of her anymore. She nodded to Lurk.

"I will." She said and smiled at Lurk.