Dez wasted no time taking Viv upstairs. Their rapid steps thumped up the nearby staircase, then struck down from overhead. Rory wasn’t sure what her plan was, but he trusted her big brain to come up with something clever to save them all.

Meanwhile, the rest of them were getting ready to move in case things turned nasty downstairs. Dez’s group was sorting through the supplies they had gathered and was making sure they were carrying everything that looked even a little useful.

Rory appreciated their pragmatism. They’d quickly gotten over the fact that their hideout had been compromised, and even if they survived this unscathed, there was no way they could stay here any longer. The monsters had discovered them. Even if they killed this group of Otherworlders, there would be more coming soon enough.

“Don’t worry, you guys,” Miles said with false cheer. “I’ve got some cool Sigils with me, thanks to Rory there. If worst comes to worst, I’ll burn the Thundershells to crab meat.”

“That’s very reassuring,” Trish said.

Miles missed the sarcasm. “Rory can get you guys some Sigils too. He’s amazing.”

His postulations of Rory’s brilliance were cut short by another peal of thunder. They were all too close outside. His heart spasmed. Truck was outside, as was their car. If the monsters destroyed the Cadillac, they’d be stranded here for good.

“We need to protect the car,” Rory said. “And Truck too, of course,”

“You’ve got a truck and a car?” Allen asked. He was staring at them.

“Uh, it’s not what you think.”

More thunder punctuated their conversation. It sounded as though the Thundershells were basically upon them. Rory was about to shove Miles aside so he could get a look when red flashes threw crimson light through the slits in the blinds.

Viv had started her offence.

The realization was immediately followed by screams and shrieks from the monsters. Thunder boomed, making the whole house shake, and lightning flashed as the monsters counterattacked. Unable to take the suspense any longer, Rory shoved aside Miles to see what was going on outside.

The only thing that was surprising was the sheer number of monsters arrayed on the streets. From what Rory could see, they were entirely surrounded. Rocky, crablike monsters scuttled around in every direction, though they all seemed to be panicked as arcs of red energy and blasts of black fire bombed on them from above.

Trish cleared her throat behind Rory, so he moved aside and let her have a look through the window. Rory’s heart was returning back to its regular position. They were safe for now.

“Your car’s fine,” Ned said. “They’re keeping the monsters away from it.”

Rory nodded gratefully at him for checking. Then he turned to Miles. “You were right. We need to start figuring out our Sigil situation before we move on.”

Miles smiled widely at him. “Of course, I’m right! We need to figure out all our skills and classes. It’s only going to get worse from here on out, I’m sure of it, and I’m also sure integrating with this system properly will help our survival a lot better.”

“Classes and skills?” Ned asked, walking up to them. He was geared up with a big hiking bag on his back. “You make it sound like this thing is a game or something.”

“Dude, it is! Don’t you have a Sigil of Stats?”

“I do, but I didn’t realize it meant stats like strength, dexterity, and all that crap.”

Miles slapped a fist into a palm. “That’s the thing. It can be those, but it doesn’t have to be. We can customize so much about our character. The possibilities are probably endless.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Rory said before Miles ran away with his excitement. “First, we need to get the rest of you some Sigils.”

“How are we going to do that?” Allen asked. “Aren’t these weird achievements the only way you can get some?”

“No. Well, usually yes, they’re your most reliable method. But apparently, there are more out in the wild that you can loot. For us, though, I’ve got a skill that lets me create Sigils.”

That got everyone’s attention.

Sue’s eyes affixed Rory with a sharp look. “You can make your own Sigils?”

Rory approached the kitchen counter, which Trish had let her long pipe lean against. He activated his Sigil of Weaving. The white lines sank into the hollow rod, turning it into a grey Sigil with the image of a burnished plate of metal. It had the exact same description and stats as the Sigil of Rubber, just with steel in place.

He flicked the Sigil at Trish, who was staring at him with wide eyes. She barely caught it.

“Don’t worry about losing your pipe,” Rory said. “If I’m reading the description right, you might be able to make more impressive things once you absorb the Sigil.”

Trish held it out on her palm, then let it sink through her skin. “Woah, I’ve got a class now. Iron Warden.”

“That sounds sick, honestly,” Miles said with a near-manic grin.

“That’s incredible.” Allen was looking between Trish admiring the glow of her Sigil on the back of her hand and Rory. “So, you can turn just about anything into a Sigil?”

“Basically, yeah,” Rory said. “Now we just figure out what we can get for all of you.”

Miles butted himself in before anyone else could speak. “We should think about it strategically. Like you know, tank-healer-DPS combo and all that. Maybe some utilities that can throw in buffs and boons. Once we organize into dedicated roles, we can take just about anything.”

Ned nodded at that. “That’s right. And we can configure different people with different skillsets to cover different kinds of situations.”

“Exactly! Like, this Iron Warden sounds like a perfect tank. So now we need to figure out a healer situation.”

Miles faced Evelyn, who frowned back at him.

“I have no idea how to get a Sigil that can heal you all,” she said. “But I don’t mind doing what I can with what I have.”

Miles shook his head. “That’s fine, but we’re going to need actual cleric powers to make it properly effective.”

“Hmm.” Rory wondered about the time he’d seen Evelyn fix up Miles’s wound. A part of him wondered if he could his Weaving on an act and claim a Sigil from that. But even if it was possible, Evelyn had simply administered first-aid. Rory wasn’t sure that counted as healing. “It’s not something I can Weave easily, I think. But we can try later. What else is there?”

“DPS and utilities,” Ned said.

Miles lit his hand on fire. “I’ve got DPS covered.”

“I want one,” Allen said, the firelight painting a longing expression on his face.

“And utilities…” Rory rummaged in his backpack, seeing what Sigils he already had. “I’ve got some interesting ones that can help.”

He let the others take a look and have their pick.

“This says I can summon barricades,” Sue said, twisting her crystal coin this way and that. “How does that even work? You know what I mean? What are the barriers made of? What’s its shape supposed to be?”

“There are going to be some things you can only figure out by testing,” Rory said. “The descriptions can only say so much.”

“Good thing we’ve got way too many monsters to take care of.”

That made Rory wince a little. Blasts of red energy and black flames were still descending in a continuous stream form above, which meant there were still Thundershells left to kill. But he couldn’t hear as much lightning as before, and there were no bright flashes lancing into the dim room, so a lot of them must have died.

“Another one we’re going to have to test,” Ned said, absorbing the Sigil of the Hooktongue. “It’s that monster you mentioned, right? What does it even do?”

Rory explained about the monster Miles had killed thanks to his Sigils. Ned’s face went pale the more he learned about it.

“Don’t worry,” Rory said. “I’m sure you won’t turn into one.”

“I might turn into a Hooktongue?”

“Uh…”

Rory decided to focus on the others. Allen took the Sigils of Rubber and Support. Everyone agreed Trish could use the Sigil of Endurance the best. She reported that it gave her three stats in her [Status], filling up all three slots with health, defence, and stamina.

An achievement gave her a fourth stat slot. Rory would have to keep that in mind. If filling up the stat slots gave them a new one, then maybe it worked the same way for Sigils.

But that was the extent of Rory’s powers, so far. They all had what he had to give, while still having several open slots left for other Sigils. Everyone agreed that it was in their best interests to fill those up with other appropriate Sigils as soon as possible. Lucky for them, they’d gathered most of the Mana in the area, so Rory had no shortage to use more of his Weaving.

“You guys figure out what exactly you all want to be,” Rory said. “I’m going to check some things in the meantime.”

Rory left them to it. Miles and Ned both seemed a lot better at figuring out the class and skills stuff, so Rory focused on other things for the moment.

Outside, the fight was dying down. It sounded like Viv and Dez had taken care of most of the creatures. If that was true, and if more of those creatures weren’t hiding out nearby, they’d need to leave the area soon.

Rory had to hurry.

The first thing he found was a first-aid kit from the supplies Dez’s group had stored. Making sure he had some flakes of Mana in his pocket, he used his Weaving on it to get a Sigil of First Aid, which showed the picture of what looked like a bandage roll.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of First Aid. A little help goes a long way. You never know when a minor healing keeps someone from dying.

[Argent III] allows creating 5-meter-long healing bands that decay in 5 days.

Stats

Type: Concept

Rarity: Remarkable

Tier: Argent III [0%]

Efficiency: Medium [35%]

It might pair well with the Sigil of Medicinal Storage Evelyn already had. It still wasn’t the kind of healing Rory or the others had in mind, but it was better than nothing. Plus, it likely complemented her innate skillset as a nurse.

Oh, and his Weaving was at Argent III now. Good to know.

Next, Rory Wove some water from the kitchen sink and rubber from rubber gloves. The former gave him a transparent-looking Sigil with the image of a bluish teardrop.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Water. You can now let your inner child loose and splash around to your heart’s content.

[Argent III] allows creation and manipulation of material in a 5-meter radius.

Stats

Type: Element

Rarity: Ordinary

Tier: Argent III [0%]

Efficiency: Low [13%]

The only reason Rory had paid attention to its description was to see how his Weaving now being at Argent III affected things. If he recalled correctly, the first Sigil of Rubber had an area of effect in a one-meter radius. This one had five. He wondered if higher Tiers would let him do it miles upon miles away. The possibilities were ridiculous.

He even focused on the hardwood floor and the tiled walls to get Sigils of Wood and Marble. When he returned to the others, they all looked like they’d been infected by Miles’s excitement.

“So,” Miles began. “I think we’ve mostly figured out what we all want to do, depending on what we have and can get easily, of course.”

“What have you been thinking?” Rory asked.

That started a long conversation about what they all wanted.

Ned needed something mobile. He was likely going to get those rocket-ended wings, which he was excited to try out, and so needed to attack from range.

Rory gave him his new Sigil of Water. “Here, this should help with the range.”

Ned eyed the Sigil skeptically. “Water… isn’t exactly damaging.”

“Not by itself just yet,” Rory said. “But I’m thinking it can help set the battlefield, which is like this utility thing you guys want, right? But besides that, they use water jets to cut wood and other things, so you might just need to raise its Tier a bit. There’s a lot of Tiers to go through.”

Ned nodded, now more accepting of it. “Huh. My class just turned from Hooktongue Enthusiast to Hooktongue Acolyte.”

Miles sniggered at that.

Allen took the Sigil of Wood. “It’s like Trish’s Sigil of Steel, but… worse.”

“For now,” Rory reminded him. “Maybe you can only make wooden implements and the like for now. But I’m wondering if at a certain point you can make the wood grow into full-fledged plants at some point. Imagine summoning a giant tree to do your bidding.”

“If you put it that way, might explain why my class is Druid Neophyte.”

Rory then gave Evelyn the Sigil of First Aid, which she accepted gratefully. He wanted to find something for May as well, but Sue said she wasn’t in any condition to use one. The woman still stared vacantly at everything, not registering anyone or anything. He had no idea how to help that.

Rapid steps interrupted their strategizing. Dez and Viv came down, flush with the pride of victory and looking like they’d outdo Miles in their excitement as well.

“They’re all dead,” Viv said, with no small amount of satisfaction. “Though everything is a mess outside”

“We’re going to go out and make sure they’re all dead.” Dez eyed them curiously. “Sounds like you all have been busy though.”

Miles jumped in with Jerky barking along. With his enthusiasm punctuating every word, Miles went on to explain everything they’d been figuring out and doing so far, which pulled Viv and Dez into the thick of things too.

“We actually got a few interesting Sigils as achievements,” Viv said. “Haven’t used any for just this reason, though. Got to figure out who they fit best with.”

“What Sigils?” Rory asked.

Viv and Dez showed them their rewards. There were Sigils of Fearing Roar, Perception, Agility.

“Fearing Roar sounds like a debuff,” Miles said.

Dez nodded. “It is. Think we just yell, and then the monsters get scared, or something like that.”

“And the other two sound like stats.”

“Right again. I think Viv should keep the Agility one for herself.”

Rory remembered how she zipped around with the use of her teleportation. “I agree. Agility for Viv.”

Viv huffed a little. “I just wanted to make sure no one else had a better use for it.”

Distant thunder rumbled somewhere father off, getting closer every moment.

“Sounds like we’re going to cut this little meeting short,” Dez said. “Got to move, now.”

Rory’s heart thumped loud and hard. Just when he was starting to think they’d have some breathing room between themselves and the Thundershells. Oh, well. Maybe they’d be able to figure out the rest of their Sigil situation on the way.

So, along with everyone else, he started preparing to leave.