When Rory was done taking care of most of the business at hand, he went to properly greet the newcomers. The people who’d been sheltering at the library’s upper floors had secreted themselves away in a hidden chamber within the place, which had allowed them to escape detection from the monsters ever since the apocalypse had started.

But, as Trish had lamented, they had refused to go out. Even when their supplies had run low, they had locked themselves in. So, they had suffered from the lack of food and water, and other things Rory had decided not to ponder on too much.

“We didn’t receive any Sigils,” one of the newcomers, a thin woman called Lucy, said. “Other than Sigils of Stats.”

She was emaciated. Her limbs looked spindly, her face was bony, and even her hair was a bit lank. Still a lot better than the condition they had received her in.

“Really?” Rory asked. “None of you received any Sigils?”

They all shook their heads. It was strange. After all, Rory recalled some of the people Dez had rescued receiving Sigils. All those April’s family had hidden with in the bunker had gotten Sigils when they had arrived in the palace. Though to be fair, Rory had assisted their rescue directly the first time around, so the system might have counted that.

Thinking about them made Rory a little sad again. He had never gotten along with the older couple, but he wouldn’t wish being crushed by falling debris on his worst enemy. Besides them, Sid and his father, Raj, hadn’t deserved to be brutally murdered by Thundershells either.

Lucy’s voice brought Rory back to the present. She had a small, puzzled expression on her face. “Why would we? From my understanding, the system only grants you Sigils via achievements.”

“That’s true, but I have a Perk called Rescuer that lets anyone I’ve rescued get new Sigils as well.” He crossed his arms, feeling a little disappointed. “Looks like you don’t get new Sigils if I’m not part of the rescue effort directly. Good to know.”

“So, are you going to give us new Sigils?” a small man asked from the back.

Rory smiled. “Let’s see what we can get.”

That wasn’t too much of a problem. There was a lot Rory could Weave to give them something to do.

Rory gave them all the options to pick one of the existing Sigils they had. There were seven of them in total, and he told them all to pick a “mentor”. Rory figured they could all specialize in one of the things someone already did and get the help they’d need to raise their Sigil using proficiencies from people who were already experienced.

They had other slots to personalize their abilities and whatnot. Rory wasn’t locking them into a single path. It was just that they already had some experience using quite a few Sigils, and it seemed a shame to let that go to waste.

Most of them agreed to the idea. But not everyone.

One of the newcomers, the small man who was known as Clark, refused the idea of fighting altogether. Rory tried to counsel him that he couldn’t really depend on anyone to protect him, nor would it be fair on anyone to keep an eye out for him in difficult situations.

But Clark said the idea of fighting went against his personal beliefs. He abhorred it, to the point he would rather die than raise a hand against others.

Rory wasn’t exactly sure he could understand that sort of maddening pacifism, but he decided not to push it. For one, he couldn’t, and more importantly, wouldn’t force anyone to do anything. For another, Clark wasn’t going to be a useless freeloader. He was a tremendous cook, and he decided he’d set himself up in charge of delivering good food. Well, that was something.

Lucy was also not enamoured of the idea of using Sigils that others already had. She wanted something new, some way that she could contribute without needing to depend on others.

Rory just gave her the Sigil of Extinguishing. Some testing later revealed that the Sigil really could stop the effects of other Sigils by throwing up a strange, sparkling mist. It put out Miles’s Stormfire and blocked Viv’s red lightning with ease. They all concluded that the Sigil was tremendously powerful.

The caveat was that it had belonged to a Homeworlder once, which meant there could be future complications. That took some explaining, but after learning, Lucy was fine with it.

Discovering its limits was fun, though. They tested it with Evolution Sigils first. Ned could still partially transform into the Hooktongue inside the sparkling mist, but he couldn’t make his Burnwing appendages work. It was similar with Viv and her Thunderclaw powers. She could manifest a dark, rocky arm, but she couldn’t summon any of her crimson lightning.

That effect reminded Rory of his Weaving’s limitations. It wouldn’t let him use any Sigils externally either, though it went one step further and prevented him from using Evolution Sigils to turn himself into an Otherworlder creature too.

Just as an experiment, he tried using his Weaving on the mist. It didn’t work from within. The lines of white light died as soon as they burst free from his hand. It was a little frightening to be inside the sparkling foggy gloom and realize that he was utterly powerless within it.

However, it worked when used from outside. Rory stepped free of the mist then turned his Weaving on, the lines of light only disappeared when they touched the mist’s boundary. Rory had thought that he wouldn’t be able to Weave another Sigil of Extinguishing since his Sigil didn’t even work on it, but then he got the Sigil in his hand after a few minutes of Weaving.

“Looks like it just takes a while to get it.” Rory held up the Sigil of Extinguishing to show Lucy and the others. “So there’s a certain amount of time it needs to activate and work its magic. A tiny window where a quick Sigil can get its work done.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too,” Viv said. “My lightning is able to go a little bit inside before it starts disappearing.”

Miles’s shoulder drooped in disappointment. “My Stormfire barely goes in at all.”

Rory got that. It was still surprising to him that his Weaving was so fast, but then, it had reduced lightning to Sigils before. It could quickly when he needed it to. There was no surprise that it had dug deep enough into the Extinguishing mist to Weave it into a Sigil before being dissipated.

“Oh, so I can just combine it with the current one to raise its Tier, right?” Lucy asked.

“Correct,” Rory said. “Though I’m going to hold onto this one. Need to check something, first. You guys keep practicing.”

Leaving the newcomers to test their new Sigils with their respective mentors, for those that had them, Rory headed to Dez. The big guy had once again taken himself to one corner of the palace ground to practice with his Sigil of Abyssal Inferno without harming anyone.

He was determined to raise it to Teal and gain better control. None of them was sure it would even allow something like that, but they had other things in the works in the meantime. There was the Potion of Purification Vern was cooking up, and now Rory had a Sigil of Extinguishing. One of those was bound to help.

“You really should give me advance warning before turning up, man,” Dez said.

He was snuffing out his dark fires as fast as he could, sniffing the air as though to trace if there was any of the toxic fumes still remaining somewhere.

Rory just used his Weaving again, targeting any of the Abyssal Inferno’s fumes in the air. It wasn’t easy. There had to be particles floating around everywhere and it took a while for his Weaving to locate them all, but eventually, he received a Sigil.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Abyssal Fumes The air of the abyss doesn’t care if you can’t breathe or not, You’re supposed to be dead, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re in pain, outside and inside.

[Teal I] allows creation, manipulation, imbuing, embodying of element in a 73-meter radius.

Stats

Type: Element

Rarity: Remarkable

Tier: Teal I [0%]

Efficiency: Medium [48%]

“That’s one way to do it,” Dez said, staring at the Sigil in Rory’s hand. “Not sure I want that Sigil, though.”

Rory held it up, inspecting the image of the grey fumes on a black background. “I was expecting a Sigil of Abyssal Inferno, but I guess since there weren’t any flames, I got…this.”

Dez snorted. “What’s up?”

There was a sparkle in his eye, an expectant hope that Rory brought good news. After all, Vern’s potion would be done before long. But Rory felt a little guilty for bringing in a hypothesis instead of an actual solution.

“I want to try something,” he said, “With the Sigil of Extinguishing.”

“You think you can put out my fumes without putting out my flames?” Dez asked, slightly sceptical.

“We can try. There’s… a lot that goes into it. All those conditional operator things Diane said.”

“What now?”

Rory quickly explained how some of the Sigils he had been creating were all working under conditions. For instance, the Sigil of Frozen Lighting only activated when a monster touched it, and it worked only on monsters. Rory figured he could use similar principles to make the Extinguishing target the Abyssal Fumes. It helped that he had a Sigil for it.

“Use your Sigil of Abyssal Inferno, Dez,” Rory said. “I need one of those too.”

Dez did so, though only as a small fireball that he flung far away, just to make sure its fumes didn’t reach them. Rory sent his Weaving’s white lines flying through the tree branches to focus on the distant black flames. It didn’t take long before he had the Sigil he needed.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Abyssal Inferno. The fires of the abyss are there for one reason only—to deliver the justice of pain to all those deserving of it.

[Teal I] allows creation, manipulation, imbuing, embodying of element in a 73-meter radius.

Stats

Type: Element

Rarity: Exceptional

Tier: Teal I [0%]

Efficiency: High [55%]

All right. Rory had the Sigil itself. For the rest, he needed to determine what exact order the other Sigils needed to go in order to get the required Sigil. There was no need for a physical order of stacking or holding them, but he needed to keep it in mind.

It was getting hard, so Rory decided to think less about their order, so to speak, and more in terms of effect. He had the Sigil of Abyssal Inferno first as the base that was to be modified. Next, came the condition of it giving off those toxic fumes, so the Sigil of Abyssal Fumes came afterwards. The Sigils of Activation and Automation followed to help the Sigil of Extinguishing detect the invisible poison gas, but that’s when the real problem showed itself.

The Sigil of Extinguishing would snuff out all Sigil effects if it was activated. As Rory saw it, Weaving in the current state as he had would create a useless Sigil. Dez would create his dark fire, which would give off the toxic gases, following which, the Sigil of Extinguishing would belch out its sparkling mist that would eradicate the very flames Dez had put out.

Rory had to narrow down Extinguishing’s effect to only act on the gas. He Wove the Sigils of Abyssal Fumes and Extinguishing together, receiving a new grey Sigil with the image of what looked like a blanket.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Abyssal Gaseous Extinguishing. Greet the deadly gas of the abyss with defiance.

[Teal I] allows removing Abyssal Fume effects in a 75-meter radius.

Stats

Type: Concept

Rarity: Exceptional

Tier: Teal I [0%]

Efficiency: High [52%]

“Get me another Abyssal Inferno,” Rory told Dez. “I need another Sigil of Abyssal Fumes.”

Dez complied, rocketing off another blast of black flames into the distance. Rory immediately sent another wave of Weaving after it, letting his lines of white light focus on the gas that was surely coming off the fire. He tried to ignore how Dez’s arms shook in excitement, making his aim awry.

Once Rory received another Sigil of Abyssal Fumes, he decided he was ready. He created the same mental order as before. Except this time, he replaced the Sigil of Extinguishing, which he didn’t have anymore, with the newly-obtained Sigil of Abyssal Gaseous Extinguishing. Then he used his Weaving to combine them all.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Chthonic Inferno. There are everlasting flames that run through the underworld, some in rivers, some raining from the skies, and some even coming out as the vomit of the damned. Guess which one is yours.

[Teal I] allows creation, manipulation, imbuing, embodying of element in a 73-meter radius.

Stats

Type: Element

Rarity: Exceptional

Tier: Teal I [0%]

Efficiency: High [57%]

The Sigil showed an image of bluish black flames of a red bed. Rory grinned, holding it out for Dez to take. He held out his palm in some reverence. Rory dropped the new Sigil there.

“Is this really going to work?” Dez asked.

“We’ll find out, won’t we?” Rory pointed at the trees. “Go on. Give it shot.”

Dez took a deep breath, then absorbed the Sigil. Its image glowed to life on the back of Dez’s hand, and a second later, his palm and fingers were alight with dark flames glinting with sharp blue light.

They waited for a few minutes, both of them trying not to hold their breaths so that they could detect if there were any fumes coming off the black fire. Eventually, after a while in which Rory felt nothing at all, he grinned.

It had worked. There were no more toxic gases coming off of Dez’s fires. He could once again join the rest of them.