With the fourth day of the apocalypse underway, Rory didn’t like that they were still far away from having a proper Safe Zone set up. So, after Weaving away the corpses of the monsters that had attacked in his absence, Rory went about setting the Sigil of Security into the Settlement.

[Settlement Status]

Belcourt Palace

Type: Camp

Leader: Rory McIlroy

Tier: Argent VIII [10%]

Stats

Population: 25

Area of Influence: 20m2

Treasury: 13,760 Mana, 20 Credits

Defences [Selectable]

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Components

Sigil of Shelter: Ordinary, [Argent V]

Sigil of Finance: Uncommon, [Argent IX]

Sigil of Security: Remarkable, [Cerulean I]

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As much as Rory appreciated the jump in the Settlement’s Tier, his eyes narrowed to the Defences portion of the [Settlement Status]. A moment’s focus on the selectable area proved that he could indeed pick from a list of options that would help them defend their base.

[Defences]

You can now pick 1 instant, 1 major, and 2 minor defensive measures. Choose wisely.

Instant: Activatable [Requires Cooldown] [Tier I]

Entrapment: Activate all traps at once [Requires Trap Sigils] Terrain Switch: Allows switching between available terrains for a short time [Requires multiple Terrain Sigils] Rejuvenation: Heals and replenishes Mana and Stamina of every party member by 50% [Requires Sigils of Healing and/or Rejuvenation]

Major: Permanent change [Requires Mana] [Tier I]

Raised Elevation: Increases incline of surroundings by 10% Thickened Walls: Increases wall thickness by 20% Raised Walls: Increases wall height by 20% Passive Reconstruction: Rebuilds broken defences and resets traps automatically

Minor: Changeable bonuses [Tier I]

Survivalist: Continued hardship allows 20% greater survival even when stores are low Endurance Expert: All party members have resilience, endurance, fortitude, and defence raised by 10% Forager Force: All Mana in a 10-meter radius around party members outside the Area of Influence will gravitate towards them at 0.02 m/s Home Ground: All outgoing damage by party members increased by 25% in the Settlement’s Area of Influence

Rory had to read through all those options a few times. There was a lot going on.

For the instant defensive measure, the choice was obvious. He had neither any Terrain Sigils nor the Sigils of Healing or Rejuvenation—while Evelyn had absorbed the Sigil of Vital Rejuvenation—which meant he only really had one option, which wasn’t great either. Rory couldn’t see a moment when he might need to activate all the traps at once, or what benefit that could provide.

He’d hold off on that decision for the moment. Maybe the others would have input.

The major options weren’t that great either. Raising the elevation would be agony on his arthritis and make them all more tired, and their current walls were too thin and low for those percentage increases to matter. 200%, instead of 20%, would have given Rory something to think about.

That said, Passive Reconstruction sounded excellent. It was a pain to go around resetting traps and rebuilding broken barriers, so this would save a lot of time for them. Rory picked it.

The minor measures were a whole lot more intriguing. All of them provided excellent bonuses. Home Ground would be the least beneficial, at the moment, but once their Area of Influence actually increased some more, it would be a great bonus to have as well. For the moment, Rory picked Foraging Force and Survivalist just in case they ran out of supplies.

“Something’s weird,” Miles said.

He was carrying a sack full of the blue crystals, Jerky nipping at his heels with her tail wagging. Rory looked over to see he had paused. He followed Miles’s gaze out through the palace’s doors to the garden.

The barricades that had been destroyed in the monster attack were reforming on their own.

“Great,” Rory said. “It’s working.”

“What’s working?” Miles asked.

Rory explained all the new improvements they’d received thanks to the Sigil of Security from the police station.

Miles’s eyes brightened. “This is so cool. First, we get to customize our character. Now, we can customize our own home. So sweet!”

Rory laughed. “Don’t let your excitement runaway with you. We still have work to do. Ultimately, we still need to set up the Safe Zone.”

“Yeah, yeah, gramps. I’m sure you’ll get to it, eventually. Just take a breather for a minute. It’s not going to hurt you.”

He wasn’t wrong. Rory needed food, and a nap afterwards sounded nice. Maybe he could even pull Viv in for some—Rory shook his head. There was no time to waste dawdling on things like that.

“How’s your Sigil of Experience been so far?” Rory asked. “Have you gotten much use out of it yet?”

“It works, but I wasn’t expecting it to take up a stat slot. But my Sigils are definitely growing faster from what I’ve seen.”

“Oh really? Mind if I check?”

“How are you going to do that?”

“Uh, you’re going to have to show me.”

At Miles’s puzzled look, Rory explained how he simply meant that Miles ought to explain everything in his [Status] word by word. The younger man had a better idea. He rushed off and returned with some pen and paper, then wrote out his entire [Status] as it appeared to him.

Rory peered down and read.

[Status]

Miles Velasquez

Race: Human

Class: Pyrist

Tier: Argent X [20%]

Perks: Stalwart, Arsonist, Unwavering

Stats

Health: 48 [Argent III]

Attack: 32 [Argent II]

Quickness: 20 [Argent III]

Experience: 5 Tiers [Argent II]

Sigils

Sigil of Stats: Ordinary, [Argent X]

Sigil of Fire: Ordinary, [Cerulean II]

Sigil of Heated Wind: Uncommon, [Argent IX]

Sigil of Fireburst: Remarkable, [Cerulean I]

Sigil of Earth: Uncommon, [Argent IX]

Items

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“Your Experience,” Rory said. “It says you’ve got five Tiers. Is it like you can add those Tiers to any of your Sigils?”

Miles nodded, lank hair falling into his face. He needed a haircut. “Pretty sure, yeah. I’ve just been waiting to figure out which of them might be the right Sigil, or that I could wait until I get a new one in a new slot, then add them up to quickly raise its Tier.”

Rory understood the dilemma. A quick decision without much thought could hamper future growth just for some short-term gain. That wouldn’t be very helpful.

“I need to figure out to how to get all you guys Sigils of Wielding,” Rory said.

Miles frowned. “You want us to use weapons like your staff, now?”

“No, not necessarily. You don’t have to use weapons, specifically. But a lot of items have activatable Sigils instead of ones that provide passive bonuses like your armoured shirt. A Sigil of Wielding would help with that versatility to use different kinds of items.”

“That makes sense, though you could configure everything to be a passive bonus, right?” Miles answered himself before Rory could point out the flaw in that. “But no, you wouldn’t want everything to be a passive thing that you can’t control. Would be weird if I could only summon flames when there were enemies nearby.”

“And there’s that too. I can’t really dig in so deep to get those conditional statements. It just… happens when I Weave.”

“Logical operators.”

Rory and Miles both turned to see Diane walking in. Jerky greeted her with a low bark, and she bent down to scratch the dog’s ears.

“What’s her name?” Diane asked.

“Jerky,” Miles said.

She looked up. “She’s hardly a jerk.”

Miles laughed at that. “No, she loves to eat jerky a lot. That’s why she’s Jerky.”

Jerky the shih tzu yipped in agreement and licked Diane’s fingers. This time, she laughed too.

“Alright, that’s a lot cuter,” she said. “Sorry, didn’t mean to intrude. Just wanted to get something to drink. Viv and Dez really like to push people.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Rory said. “Miles has been telling me to take a break as well. But what did you mean by logical operators?”

“Your talk about your Weaving reminded me of what I used to do back at the office. Just programming stuff, where you have your if statements and loops. You have a condition, and a reaction to that condition that works only while that condition is true. Would help to have something similar for your Weaving, right?”

“That would, actually.”

The problem was figuring out how he could do that. Nothing about his Weaving had yet revealed anything about setting up conditional statements. It could be something reserved for higher Tiers, but he’d have to wait and see for that.

“For now, I need to figure out how to get the rest of you some Sigils of Wielding,” Rory said. “Just wish I could use my Sigil of Knowledge on myself.”

“Can you use it on other people?” Diane asked.

“I can’t.” Rory blinked. “But even if I can’t use it on other people, other people can use it on me!”

The other two smiled, Diane looking a little smug at having led Rory to the realization. Jerky barked along happily.

“What’s going on?” Viv was walking into the hall with a slight frown of concern. “Everything alright, Diane?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Dian rubbed the back of her neck. “Just needed a little break, then got caught up a little.”

“With what?”

Rory quickly explained to her their thought processes about more Sigils of Wielding.

“Oh, so you need another Sigil of Knowledge.” Viv caught on quick. “I think someone found a library the other day that you can use for that.”

That was a good idea. The palace’s library turned out to be a large room on the second floor of the west wing. It was a lot more modern than Rory had expected.

The room was nearly half as spacious as the great hall and its ceiling rested over twenty feet in the air. All of the walls were covered with bookshelves filled with dusty tomes and there were several reading couches with mauve cushions surrounding a big table in the middle.

“I could actually have some fun in this place,” Viv said, looking around. “All these books…”

Miles sneezed, and Jerky copied him. “If you’re not being dusted to death, sure.”

“Well, I’m going to have to take away a bit of your fun,” Rory said. “Help me find an encyclopaedia. That was what I Wove the last time to get a Sigil of Knowledge.”

They all got to work. Miles was right. The tomes in the library really were dusty, as though they’d been left as show pieces rather than books to be read. Rory perused through the lower shelves while Viv and Miles stood on the couches to check the ones higher up.

Eventually, they found several encyclopaedias. Diane got a large book about plants and gardening, Viv had found one detailing medieval horse breeding practices, and Miles had obtained one about castle-building.

“These will do fine,” Rory said.

He used his Weaving on one of the thick tomes to receive a Sigil of Knowledge. As he had suspected, it was at his Sigil of Weaving’s current Tier—Cerulean IV. On another, he wasn’t as focused, so he received a couple of Sigil options instead of a singular Sigil of Knowledge. Rory frowned at the other choice and picked it just to see how it was different.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Learning. You can now pick and choose what you learn about for any given topic.

[Cerulean IV] allows picking 1 major topic and 2 minor topics of learning for one object per day.

Stats

Type: Concept

Rarity: Uncommon

Tier: Cerulean IV [0%]

Efficiency: Medium [45%]

Rory frowned at the image of a scroll on the new Sigil. Apparently, the difference between Knowledge and Learning was that the former provided an overall base knowledge about something, while Learning allowed one to pick the kind of information.

In other words, it was an externally activatable Sigil, which meant Rory couldn’t use it thanks to his Weaving. For now, he pocketed the new Sigil.

Diane reached out for the one he still held in his hand, then froze when she saw Viv looking avidly at the Sigil itself. Viv cleared her throat.

“It’s fine,” she said. “Go ahead. I was simply professionally curious.”

Diane raised her hand. “No, no, it’s alright. I was only curious too. Besides, we’ve got two now, right?”

“No, the other one is different,” Rory said. “It’s a Sigil of Learning that allows you to pick stuff to learn about with a limit. I’d give it to you, but I think its Tier is too high for you to use. Same with the Sigil of Knowledge, now that I think about it. Actually, give it a try.”

Diane did so, then frowned. “You’re right. Says I can only get Sigils in a Tier level I already have.”

“Right. That’d be anything in Argent.”

“Knew it couldn’t be that easy to get a powerful Sigil.”

Viv muttered something about silly rules then took the new Sigil of Knowledge. “Alright, let’s see what you have.” The image of the Sigil of Knowledge—a large, open book—glowed on the back of Viv’s hand. Her eyes had gone unfocused. “I can see your [Status]. But I can’t look into any of the Sigils yet.”

“Here, hold my hand and then try.”

They clasped palms, and she gasped.

“I can see it now,” she said. “Holy crap, your Sigils are more impressive than I thought.”

Rory laughed. “Tell me what you see about the Sigil of Wielding. Does it tell you the requirements to make it? Did you get some sort of active ability?”

“Yep, it’s called Insight. Let me see… it says you need 12 War-torn Stones, 5 Drops of Moonsilver, 7 Cynium, 13 Baked Blades of Grass, and 2 Grasshopper Glands.”

She looked up to see them all staring at her.

“You sure you’re not drunk?” Miles asked.

Viv stared flatly at them all. “I’m not lying.”

“I’m not really surprised, honestly,” Rory said. “Try it on another Sigil. What does it say about the Sigil of Warding?”

They clasped hands again. Viv concentrated once more for a second.

“It’s as strange as the last one,” she said. “10 Ambrium, 7 Phosphor, 3 Wisps of Purity, 5 Poultry Gallbladders, 1 Forge Water.”

Rory nodded. “Seems like everything I need to make Sigils is strange. Pretty sure some of them are Otherworlder materials too.”

The first he could understand, but the next… Rory hadn’t the faintest clue how he could get most of those ingredients. Wisps of Purity? Poultry Gallbladders? Forget Viv, it was the system that sounded drunk.

“You look a little disappointed,” Viv said. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll find them.”

Rory took a deep breath. He hadn’t meant to get himself—and by proxy, the rest of them—down. “That’s right, we will. The Ghouls and Wraiths should be able to help. And Truck too, wherever he is…”

This opened up a lot of possibilities. Rory was going to have to see to how they could use Viv's Insight from the Sigil of Knowledge on other Sigils too. They'd just need to find a way to get all those strange crafting materials.

They decided to head out to lunch after that. Rory’s expectation of how fast time should pass had been screwed with after the last couple of days filled with excitement. There was no heart-pounding, blood-rushing thrill of life-or-death situations today, however, and he was thankful for it.

Miles was right. Rory needed a proper break. At least, working on the palace was fulfilling in ways he could never have imagined.