Lurk sat still staring at the Collar in his hand. He activated his [Read Item] Ability and poured in mana into the collar, Runes appeared before him projected out from the rod. He could now see the runes and the deeper magical runes that someone had arranged into it back when it had been made just like when he looked at his Avatar in the Mental menu, it was, of course, nowhere near as detailed and only had a few amounts of runes to work with.
He could see the runes in greater detail now that he had leveled up the crafting skill, but it was still very complex. There was a complex inlaying of runes and connections between them to prevent tampering with the collars. The collars would fire off their pain effect at the max setting which he is sure would be more than enough to kill the person wearing it, or if they were extremely strong cause them to be completely incapacitated.
He figured the rank of the rune meant it was equivalent to a rank 3 spell. Looking it over he saw the spell was part of the magic domain [Dark]. He was just shy of being able to learn the spell, and when he was trying to examine it in greater detail he had a feeling it was too complex for him. But it did give him ideas to make lesser versions of the spell. But he needed all his mana right now for the task in front of him.
The enslavement runes were also very complex and powerful. and focused on many connection points, as opposed to the pain one that just focused on various nerves and fewer mental locations. It would be easier to stop the pain versus trying to figure out which of the mental connections did what. Especially since the runes belonged to a school he had no access too [Enchantment]. The only reason he knew they were connected to mental points was he had his mental menu system to compare to.
That was a very helpful tool for him to compare and examine the collars functions, but it would take a long time to figure it out, how the runes were set up in the collar itself, just knowing which part of the mind it was connected too was a big help though but a misstep could cause the collar to fire off its pain function at its highest setting.
The lock was only rank 1 and that had given him hope that the easiest point of attack was simply to remove the collars locking function. But as soon as he began to examine it he was puzzled as the rune focused completely on making an anti-tampering system focused on making sure all the runes were connected and functioning constantly, the collars locking mechanism itself had runes that if it was opened the connection would be severed.
The collar could be removed quickly, but the collar itself had already placed its spells inside the mind of the target, the spells were requiring the collars input to prevent it from releasing the pain spell at maximum. So speed was no issue in how fast one could severe the lock and remove the collar.
Lurk pondered if his status clear spell was high enough level it could remove the pain spell and he could remove the collar at the same time, but the timing was very tricky to pull off... And he did not have a rank 3 clear status spell, he would need to craft one of those first. He considered that as a potential solution as he could create a stronger version of the Resist Pain but make it at rank 3 instead but even then it would be a heavy ordeal to suffer through it.
Lurk furrowed his brow and scratched his chin pondering over how to attack the collars weaknesses, when he put down the collar in his hand and picked up the control rod. He began to examine it and his eyes opened wide.
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[Wand of Dark Impulses]
Very Rare
Rune Slots: 5
Durability 40/40
Mithril : Silver : Gold : Exquisite Ruby
-Slots-
[Collar Link]: Rank 3 (16 collars linked)
[Tough]: Rank 3
[Empower: Enchantment]: Rank 6 (defect)
[Empower: Dark]: Rank 6 (defect)
[Open Slot]
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("What is this... how can these adventurers have this? This item is way to powerful... and none of them had the abilities to use it properly... Except to use as a slave item... but wait its broken? ")
Lurk examined the runes seeing the two empower runes made his head hurt from just trying to cope with them. This wand was clearly made to empower dark and enchantment spells initially. But the runes also had some telltale signs of not being made by the same people. The Link and tough rune were all made by the same person. The empower ones were clearly beyond the skills of that person.
It felt like staring at the Mona Lisa with a flaw on it, and someone had doodled a stick figure onto it to try and fix it. Completely ruining the original intent. It must have been a salvaged item, Lurk could see that some of the runes in the empower had been repaired and then spliced with the link. Someone turned this wand into a slavery item to empower the collars instead.
("someone with skills in [Dark] and [Enchantment] could use this wand to empower those spell types. But the two runes were broken, and no one could fix it, so they must have hobbled it together to make this...")
Lurk looked at the collars, and shivered slightly. If this was just some random hobbled together piece of equipment someone had thrown to the side only for someone to pick up and turn into a slavery tool...
"Sylvie... How many magicians in human lands?" Lurk asked as he examined the links between the collars and the wand.
"Around 1 in 1000 are born with magical skill. Some can be awakened to them if they join guilds after showing signs of having abilities during an exam since they won't notice their abilities on their own... The ones born with it begin to show signs of their magic early on depending on what type it is. But if you train hard at magic under someone you can learn it. It might just not be powerful enough to warrant the training.
In my country 1 in 10000 is born with magical abilities. but its always extremely strong once its confirmed... Which is why I was a disappointment to my family..."
Sylvie informed Lurk of what she knew about the country she had been held as a slave in, then thinking back to her own village and her life she had always seeing people look at her and talking about her magic not being useful. But she always led a quiet life with her grandfather being the one trying to keep her training up despite her detrimental flaw.
"Hmm... I am not sure it was disappointment aimed at you, Sylvie..." Lurk looked at the rod pushing mana into the rod. the runes appearing as he began to try and experiment on different ideas he had for them. He cast the spell to project light and the runes he was working on were projected out to be visible even to Sylvie now.
"What do you mean master?" Sylvie tilted her head. She could see Lurk focused on the runes appearing and shifting around, Lurk manipulating the mana construct he had formed to see how the runes would react if they were burned in to be permanent. The construct either collapsing or seemingly continuing on until another hitch hit and Lurk had to change another rune. Lurk was testing and making revisions. Sylvie could feel their combined mana pool depleting fast as Lurk worked.
"Were you an only child Sylvie?" Lurk asked gently as he kept his focus on the rod. The speed of the runes shifting and new circles appearing with new runes in it beginning to take form next to the already in place runes. Lurk suddenly began forming an entirely different set of runes to appear next to the first projection. Sylvie was slightly startled when he asked.
"Uhm... Yes... My mother and father died around the time I was born... So my family could not expand further... My grandfather would argue with the other heads often about it, they would use arguments that the only heir being me had no skill or power and that my grandfather should relinquish the resources under him to them instead. I never knew the details, but my grandfather always looked at me sadly and everyone else was angry often..."
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"I see... How were you captured if its ok I ask?" Lurk said as the runes tried to merge and failed, Lurk making new adjustments to his simulation and everything returned to normal - More mana was sucked out of their pool, Sylvie was astonished... The amount of mana being burned off for whatever it was Lurk was doing was way more than she could ever hope to have had access to in her normal life. But she could also sense that the mana was pooling back in. Just like it always had been for her. Her mana would drain instantly from the few spells she could cast but would refill again fast. But now the speed the mana was forming it was much faster.
"I... I... I do not remember... I was taken from my village by rough men, they put this collar on me and was then taken to a rich family where I helped around at a mansion. I spent a very long time there... They were nice to me at first but then they suddenly sold me to another noble when that house ran into money problems... Then due to the civil war happening the noble house sold me and I was picked up by the dark elf in an auction." Sylvie lifted the collar she had on, it was different from the other ones Lurk was examining and made of an entirely different metal.
"Hmhm" Lurk nodded keeping his eyes on two projections he had been working on. Every time he made a working revision he changed a little something in the new project, it became more and more complicated as he built onto it, while he kept going through different examinations of the wands runes.
"I am sorry to hear that Sylvie... I think I might be able to help you though... But it will be very hard for you... Are you ok with it?... Your collar has removed your memories just like these collars did"
"I... I will let master decide it... But I would be happy to remain with you like this" Sylvie blinked at Lurks sudden statement, but reverted back to her normal self and answered Lurk gently. Their mana pool reached a dangerously low level as Lurk focused on the runes as they sped up shifting around in front of the both of them. Until the first set of projections vanished and Lurk looked to the newly created rune that then collapsed down into a single rune onto the wand, Lurk put the crafting tool to the wand, and the tip lit up and a new rune was seared into the wand. Their mana pool collapsed at that point when he was finished.
Lurk held up the wand and looked it over. A glimmer appearing inside the two rubies when Lurk spoke next.
"[Freedom User Resti]"
Resti woke up looking over at Lurk, her eyes were a lot more clear than before, though red around her eyes from crying. She put a hand up to the collar on her neck. But it was still attached around her neck.
"Wait... What just happened?... I can remember everything fine now... I forgot it again?..." Resti was puzzled, Lurk sighed with relief.
"I disabled the collars from affecting you anymore."
"Wow... That's amazing?!. Can you do that for the others too?" Resti said as she came over to Lurk leaving the furs sitting next to him.
"Yes... The rod was actually only used as a tool to collect and keep the collars strong and powered up all the time, even a mild or weak slave collar would be empowered by this wand if it was joined to it. It is able to attach itself to more collars and control them even"
"So we are free??" Resti said smiling.
"Yes... We just need to wait for the magical spell in your head to run its course. It will not be refreshed anymore by the collar, it will instead focus on the fake one I created for it. Once it's gone we can just cut the collar"
Lurk said as he reached out to examine Resti's collar. Then closing his eyes as he examined her avatar in the mental menu, her [Slave] rune was indeed not receiving outside input anymore, and what he had identified as the mana supply for the spell in her head was already ticking down.
"What did you do exactly?" Resti asked curiously her and Sylvie both looking at Lurk.
"I made a dummy avatar on the rod." Lurk said as he showed the new rune on the wand. The rune was glistening as it seemed to be very active and mana was running through it.
"Basically I examined all the outputs the collars had to manipulate the target with, combined with the rods outputs. So I made a perfect counter for it that would intercept all new signals once a collar had been designated as the current link. This fake "mind" would then take all the signals and resend the all ok back to the rod making it ignore the collar. Of course, it can only do it with one collar at the time." Lurk explained to them as he used his newly recovered mana to make tiny symbols in the air with his project light spell.
Showing how Restis name was replaced by a new [Fake Resti] that then took all the signals away from the collar and rod. Giving Restis mind freedom from the stronger impulses and the emplaced pain effects would begin to stop working slowly running out of mana. He thought back to the rod on the menu.
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[Wand of Dark Impulses]
Very Rare
Rune Slots: 5
Durability 40/40
Mithril : Silver : Gold : Exquisite Ruby
-Slots-
[Collar Link]: Rank 3 (16 collars linked)
[Tough]: Rank 3
[Empower: Enchantment]: Rank 6 (defect)
[Empower: Dark]: Rank 6 (defect)
[Avatar Dummy 1.0]
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"How long does it take?" Resti asked pulling at her collar again with an annoyed look.
"A few more minutes then the spell runs out. We need to get ready to move out, by the time we arrive back in human lands all the collars will be off. So we can move out now. Would you mind helping packing up in here? I'll go inform the others." Lurk said as he packed up all the tools and bits into sacks. Sylvie nodded and began to help with packing up the items instead of Lurk, Resti nodded and went to pack up the furs.
Lurk headed out and called over Aurk and Sala giving them the same orders. He headed over to the women and stood before them.
"I will be bringing you all home now... I figured out how to disable the collars." The women all looked around and some smile back at him, some cried. Emily stared at Lurk, she was sitting on a flat chest in the corner that the women had begun using. Lurk had tried to open it before but it was impossible, Emily had used it to sleep on as it was quite big and his own height. But his initial attempts at trying to get inside it had failed and he had simply not had time to go back to it. It even looked like the gnoll had been trying with a piece of twisted iron.
"So do it then," She said coldly to Lurk
"It is complicated... But I can only do it one collar at once. Resti's collar is being turned off right now"
Emily jumped off the chest and walked over to Lurk and leaned down.
"So you are letting your own women go first? We need to sleep with you to be first in rank to be free?" She looked angrily at Lurk.
"She was there when I finished, I can do a lottery to decide the order you are let go in from now on for it to be fair if you want it." Lurk said back at her, not flustered at all by her anger. Which just made her angrier.
"I do not believe you! You can't take them off!" she sneered at him.
"I can but... Wait..." Lurk looked at her... The way she had said it while angry at him...
"... You do want it off right?" Lurk asked gently. But Emily blinked and looked shocked.
"...Y..Yes of course..." She grit her teeth.
"Ah I see...." Lurk looked away.
"You see what!!" Emily angrily questioned Lurk standing up at her full height. The women looking back and forth between each other.
"... You do not want to remember what happened..."
"Shut up!" Emily roared out before Lurk could finish saying what he had on his mind. Emily had also been forgetting slowly what had happened to her. But she was also sitting around the women who had been captured alongside her... Some of them had collars on, others did not. The ones without collars had been crying about their situations, some had the strength to try and console them from their bad memories they were suffering from. Every time someone brought it up she would get stings of memories back that would fade back into nothing. But she knew it was beyond unpleasant. It made her want to give up on everything, every time the memories came floating back... It made her weak and unable to stand tall with all her strength. Emily was a warrior adventurer that had been beaten and seen her city and friends fall, only to be captured and raped by goblins alongside her best friend. Her eyes began to tear over as the feelings surfaced again over that which made her feel even worse.
"... When Mercia escaped and you didn't..." Lurk said quietly.
"Shut up!... She ... She didn't leave me!! She would never abandon me! In a dark cave! Alone with goblins!..." Emily cried, but her former strength and trying to stand tall was beginning to falter. She slumped down and rubbed her eyes trying to stop the tears.
"I will let you think about it, it is your choice..." Lurk said to her quietly, Emily cried more Lurk held out a hand to her.
"You can rest up before we pack up and leave..." She took his hand and he helped her up, despite being only 2/3rds her height he easily helped her up. Walking over to the chest lurk walked with her. As she leaped up onto it. Lurk looked at her, as he put a hand on the chest to steady himself a little and he sighed as he wanted to say something more to her before she returned to her "repressed state" but then.
"What!!!" Lurk stared at the chest when his hand touched it. he immediately cast [Project Light]. and a Rune appearing out [Space] and then following more complex runes began expanding out in gigantic complex circles that filled up the corner of the room, and along the walls of the entire workshop lighting it all up brightly, making all the women and goblins look around shocked.
"What the hell is this chest?!" Lurk stared at it wide-eyed.