The quarrels Malcolm had found a couple of days ago were on the verge of falling apart. They were old brown things, the wood rotting and the metal tips rusted and dented. In other words, they were functionally useless by themselves. They’d probably disintegrate into ancient dust while Ned tried to load them into his crossbow.

At least that was in a better condition. The crossbow’s wooden stock, while old, would survive. It’s metal flanges had rusted and broken off at the tips, but Ned had done a good job of oiling and smoothing it up. He had also replaced the wire. The cranking gears made strange grinding noises when turned, but some more oil had them working well too.

“Yeah…” Ned tutted at the small crossbow bolts. “I’m not using them anytime soon.”

“That’s fine,” Rory said. “I’m pretty sure I only need their shape, which is thankfully intact.”

Rory activated his Weaving and focused its white lines of light on the thick arrow. Soon enough, the quarrel dissolved into more light, and he received a white Sigil with the image of an arrow at the tip of a crossbow.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of the Quarrel. What’s a bow or crossbow without something to shoot? Now you can turn anything into a handy shot.

[Cerulean VII] allows turning 17 minor objects into quarrels per day.

Stats

Type: Concept

Rarity: Remarkable

Tier: Cerulean VII [0%]

Efficiency: Medium [49%]

“Oh, nice,” Ned said. His eyes gleamed as he watched the Sigil. “I could use that to make anything into a quarrel, huh?”

Rory wasn’t as enthusiastic. “You could, yeah. But I think it can be improved.”

“How so?”

“Well, I don’t think you want to be limited by having to carry around stuff you’d need to convert into quarrels. It’s good, you could probably turn rocks or whatever else you find into them, but plain bolts aren’t fun by themselves.”

Ned didn’t say anything to that, likely waiting to see what sort of improvement Rory performed. There was an expectant expression on his face. A placid calm, a certainty in Rory that had built up over the last week or so.

It made Rory stand up straighter. There was a strange kind of pressure in that he couldn’t fail the expectation now. He wasn’t sure his idea would work, but it was worth a shot.

“Go call Alia,” he told Ned.

The younger man frowned in question, but he turned and went to perform his task.

Rory went back inside the palace and pulled out his Sigil of Transfer from his pack beside a column. He would have used it before, but he’d had pressing matters to attend then. He Warded the Sigil into the column, hoping what he planned was about to work.

“You asked for me?” Alia asked when Ned returned with her.

“I did.” Rory nudged his head at the column. “Place your hand on this column.”

Right on the spot where he had Warded the Sigil of Transfer, Alia touched her palm to the column, eyebrows slightly raised in intrigue. Nothing happened for a while, then Rory remembered that Sigils, of course, needed Mana to work. He sprinkled a pinch of the glowing blue crystals from his pocket onto the minuscule gap between Alia’s hand and the stone.

She gasped. “Oh wow. It’s asking me if I want to change my Sigil for a different one.”

Ned stared at Rory. “I thought that was impossible.”

Alia nodded her head vigorously. “Yeah. Couldn’t we only remove Sigils by destroying the ones we have by the new one we’re trying to get? Is this like a bypass to that?”

“It is,” Rory said. “That’s what I got from its description, and it seems like that’s really how it works. Can you simply remove your Sigil for now instead of needing something else to replace it with?”

“I…” Alia stared at the column. “Yes, I can. But I’m not sure I want to. I don’t want to lose all the progress I’ve made on it.”

“What’s going on?”

Viv had come up to them, her question written on the expression on her face. Rory explained how he was testing out the Sigil of Transfer to see if he could use it to better improve the Sigils they all had. Viv considered for a moment.

“Are you saying you want to remove Alia’s Sigil of Summoning to give to Ned so he can summon quarrels?” she asked.

Both Ned’s and Alia’s eyes widened at that. Alia snatched her hand back, pursing her lips. Ned’s expression was more like avarice, but then his eyes caught Alia and he guiltily looked away. Rory decided that was enough.

“I thought that would be interesting,” he said. “But I don’t want to take away from all the work Alia has done. It was more an experiment to see if the Sigil of Transfer worked as I thought it would. But, I do want you to inspect the Sigil of Summoning. What did you call it? Insight? It could be that I can recreate it from scratch with Weaving.”

Viv agreed, and Alia looked very relieved. They shook hands. Viv reported that, according to the Insight offered by her Sigil of Knowledge, the Sigil of Summoning could be made from scratch with 5 Aromatic Phosphors, 17 Arisen Acorns, 12 Puffs of Killing Smoke, 8 Rotten Carp Scales, and 3 Fiery Sparks.

“Are those really the ingredients?” Ned asked, looking sceptical.

Alia shared the similar concern, but Rory and Viv both laughed.

“Yes, it’s really weird that way,” Rory said. “But good thing is that they shouldn’t be too difficult to find. For some reason, the system likes to dress up normal stuff we find everyday into… those weird names.”

“Wait, are you saying those Puffs of Killing Smoke is just cigarette smoke?” Alia asked. “Or, I don’t know, any kind of smoke?”

“I’m pretty sure, yeah. We’ll have to test and see, of course, but that’s how it worked last time with the Wielding.”

They called in Samson to use his Sigil of Gathering on the list of ingredients they had obtained.

“Think you can find these?” Rory asked.

“I’ll have to see what I get,” Samson said. “But I’ve got hope it shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Good. How’s your training coming along?”

“Not bad!”

Samson went on to inform Rory about his new Sigil. He had been practicing with a Sigil of Limestone to improve his offensive capabilities. It was much like summoning any other Element Sigils, though a particular skill he was focusing on was summoning stalagmites and stalactites of it. The spiky protrusions would do well to stab into monsters, working well as both a directly offensive and as a crowd-control ability.

More importantly in Rory’s opinion, all the debris lying around meant he’d be able to weave a lot more Sigils of Limestone. Combining it with the one Samson already had would be an effective way of raising his Sigil’s Tier.

With all that taken care of, Rory sent the rest of them off to train or take care of other tasks. He’d finish taking care of Ned’s quarrels once Samson had found the ingredients needed.

“How’s your new Sigil coming along?” Rory asked Viv when they were alone once more.

“The Sigil of the Thunderclaw?” Viv brought up her stump. It flashed blue, deep navy scales covering it like a rocky carapace. But instead of ending at her stump, they extended out and formed a forearm, a hand, and five fingers, all made of the same, dark-blue stone. “I think I’m getting quite good at it.”

Rory’s eyes had begun widening as soon as he’d seen it start expanding, and now they felt like they’d pop out. “You basically have your arm back, then?”

“Well, kind of. I can’t really feel things as well. There aren’t nerves of the typical sense. I can’t sense anything.”

She extended a stony fingertip until it brushed against Rory’s cheek. He stood still. There was a small tingle at the momentary contact, like a miniature jolt of electricity. It didn’t hurt at all. It was an interesting sensation, though.

“That’s pretty cool,” Rory said. “Though I’m a little concerned after what Ned said.”

Viv frowned. “What did he say?”

Rory explained how Ned’s Hooktongue powers had been growing, but at the same time, he was suffering from increased animalistic urges which he could only attribute to the Hooktongue’s monstrous instincts.

“That’s… concerning,” Viv eventually said after a moment’s silence. “I’m not sure if it’s time-related or if it’s Tier-related.”

“Well, I think Ned mentioned his Sigil of the Hooktongue was at Cerulean V. And your Sigil of the Thunderclaw is at Cerulean VII, since that’s what I Wove it at. Unless different Evolution Sigils show monstrous instincts at different Tiers. Hmmm.”

“I wonder how it affects Sigils we could get from animals.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it. If we can get Sigils from different monsters, we could also get them from different kinds of animals too, right. Though, they likely wouldn’t be anywhere near as interesting as Otherworlder monsters.”

“Well, that line of thinking means we can get Sigils of the Human too…”

They stared at each other, then laughed nervously. The idea was getting dark. So far, they’d only been able to obtain Evolution Sigils from dead monsters, and killing innocent animals to obtain their Sigils already sounded bad enough. Trying to get it from people was not only icky, it also sounded ridiculous, serving no purpose whatsoever.

“Let me know if you start to feel differently,” Rory said.

“I will. Though…” Viv flexed her rocky arm and summoned a short sword made entirely of the same material. Then it flashed red, whirling with the crimson energy of her Omnipresent Sabre. “I certainly feel a lot more powerful than before. Even without the arm, it’s… very potent.”

The interaction was strange. Rory couldn’t help but staring at the way arcs of electricity flashed around the red rod of energy around the blue blade. “It certainly looks that way.”

Leanne came dashing up a while later to ask for Viv’s help with inventorying their new deposits of Mana. The people who’d gone out to collect all they could had returned. Viv hugged Rory goodbye and headed off with Leanne.

For himself, Rory headed to the column with the Sigil of Settlement as inspected its [Status] after a long time.

[Settlement Status]

Belcourt Palace

Type: Base

Leader: Rory McIlroy

Tier: Cerulean IV [42%]

Stats

Population: 29

Area of Influence: 80m2

Treasury: 38,700 Mana, 30 Credits

Defences [Selectable]

Passive Reconstruction [Major]

-

-

Components

Sigil of Shelter: Ordinary, [Cerulean II]

Sigil of Finance: Uncommon, [Cerulean I]

Sigil of Security: Remarkable, [Cerulean VI]

Sigil of Produce: Exceptional, [Cerulean IV]

Sigil of Healing: Remarkable, [Cerulean V]

Sigil of Learning: Exceptional, [Cerulean VI]

Sigil of Energy: Remarkable, [Cerulean VII]

Rory cringed a little at seeing how much their population had decreased since yesterday. One attack, and over a third of them had been wiped out. It was insane.

No. He had dealt with the threat of despair, and he was not about to succumb to it. There were more important things to deal with. As the leader of this band of survivors, Rory didn’t have the luxury to sit around moping and being lost to his feelings.

Viv and Harlow had been working to lay down cables, but that was an inefficient process that led to potential trouble. Having an integrated circuit layout running through the walls of the palace itself would be a lot simpler.

He focused on the Sigil of Energy. When it opened up on the interface, he received the option to establish the much-awaited power lines they had all been waiting for.

[Power Options]

You can now pick 1 major and 1 minor improvement. Choose wisely.

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

Power Lines: Establish power lines within the Settlement [1 day] Mana Generation: Construct a Mana power generator [3 days] Power Protection: Establish protection against and for power layout [0.5 days] Power Storage: Construct a battery to store excess power [1 day]

Minor: Changeable bonuses [Tier I]

Individual Generator: All movement by all party members within the Area of Influence generates 1% power Improved Efficiency: All appliances running on power has efficiency raised by 10% Power Cull: 2% of all collected Mana is converted to power

Rory picked the Power Lines and the Individual Generator options for now. That might give them a surplus of power compared to what they needed, but their next option would be to get a battery going to hold onto that surplus.

There was a faint grinding noise and low tremor thrumming through the whole palace. Rory smiled. The power line preparations were underway.