As the rest of the day wore on, Rory decided to try and focus on himself for a change, letting the others handle their Sigils by themselves. He found himself back in the Command Centre, for once trying to get some use out of the place, even if only as a location to get his Sigils checked out.

It helped him be a little more productive than he had thought he could be, given how much energy he had spent helping the others. Rory hadn’t yet put his Sigil of Inventory to use, so he decided to plug it into something that could help. The first thing that came to mind was his shirt, but that he didn’t want to accidentally forget it one day, and thus, forget everything he had stowed away inside it.

No, what Rory needed was something he had on all the time. Something that he rarely removed, if ever, and honestly it was starting to look like he might as well Ward it into his hand or some other body part he couldn’t forget. Then he paused. His hand…

Rory looked down at his wedding ring. He couldn’t remember the last time he had taken it off. It had certainly been before this whole madness with the apocalypse had started. Another thing was that he had never tried to Ward a Sigil into something that was smaller than a Sigil. Was that even supposed to be possible?

Well, he wasn’t going to know until he tried. He wasn’t exactly keen to see Viv’s reaction if he accidentally damaged or destroyed the ring, but hopefully, nothing of the sort would happen.

“What are you up to, dear?”

Viv’s voice made Rory jump. He turned around with a slow smile, keeping his hands behind his back.

“I didn’t see you come in back there,” he said.

“Well, how would you when you seemed to be very focused on… something else?”

She raised her eyebrows at him in a silent continuation of her question.

Rory sighed. “I’m trying to figure out what would be best to Ward the Sigil of Inventory into.” Slowly, he brought forth the wedding ring. Viv’s eyebrows rose even higher. “Figured I needed something that I’m not going to forget easily.”

“Have you tried Warding it into your head?”

“Ha, ha.” Rory looked down at the gleaming golden band. For all that he had gone through, it was telling that it hadn’t received a single scratch. “But seriously, Viv, I’m not sure if it will even work.”

“Well, why don’t you go ahead and try?”

He smiled at her, then bent to doing just that. His Sigil of Inventory was in his hand, the white crystal coin showing him an image of shelves stacked atop each other. Holding the Sigil and the ring in the same hand, Rory used his Sigil of Warding. The Sigil of Inventory dissolved into dozens of globules of white light before sinking into his wedding ring.

Rory smiled. The Warding seemed to have worked. He twisted the ring around until he could he found the image of the new Sigil on the ring’s underside.

“Did it work?” Viv asked.

“Hmm, let’s see.”

Rory focused on the ring, trying to activate the Sigil of Inventory.

New Item!

You’ve obtained a Storage Ring. Keep running out of space to stuff your paraphernalia into? Well, this little ring will now grant you a tiny reprieve, appropriate to its size.

[Teal I] allows 3 Inventory slots.

Stats

Type: System

Rarity: Remarkable

Tier: Teal I [0%]

Efficiency: High [56%]

New Achievement!

Item Hoarder! You have now filled your available Item slots. Don’t start begging for more space, for you it isn’t getting more. Not until you hit the next tier, at least.

Rewards

The System Shop now has usable Items for sale

“Yeah, it works,” Rory said. “Though I need to see how it interacts with my [Status], I think.”

He let go of his concentration on the ring, and looked to the distance to focus on his [Status]. He had checked it not so long ago, but when he did so again, he found all his Item slots filled with the Staff of Deadly Winter, his Shirt of Rejuvenation, and now, with his Storage Ring.

[Status]

Rory McIlroy

Race: Human

Class: Grand Weaver

Profession: Veteran Merchant

Tier: Cerulean VII [83%]

Perks: Rescuer, Stalwart, Looter, Venerable, Lifedrain

Stats

Spirit: 150 [Cerulean X]

Fortitude: 125 [Cerulean VII]

Vitality: 115 [Cerulean V]

Leadership: 210 [Teal I]

Mana: 145 [Cerulean X]

Sigils

Sigil of Weaving: Legendary, [Teal II]

Sigil of Warding: Mythic, [Cerulean IV]

Sigil of Stats: Ordinary, [Teal I]

Sigil of Knowledge: Exceptional, [Cerulean X]

Sigil of Mercantilism: Exceptional, [Cerulean VII]

Sigil of Wielding: Exceptional, [Cerulean III]

Items

Staff of Deadly Winter

Shirt of Rejuvenation

Storage Ring

“Huh,” Rory said.

“What is it?” Viv asked.

Rory explained the new achievement he had received. It was interesting that he could now buy Items in the Shop, but that wasn’t what had made him frown. The way the achievement’s description talked about getting more Item slots made him suspect it was important somehow.

“You said your [Status] doesn’t have any more slots for Items, right?” Viv asked.

Rory nodded, raising an eyebrow at her to make her continue her line of thought.

“Well,” she said. “What if, even if you can put things into your ring, they don’t register as Items?”

Rory considered that. “I was assuming so far that the Inventory would essentially act as extra Item slots.”

“Right. One of the options is that the Inventory slots are extra slots for things you can use, but they aren’t just Items.”

Rory grimaced. “And the other option is that the Inventory only lets me carry around more things, like an invisible bag. Those things still wouldn’t register as Items I could use. That’s a bit of a bummer.”

Or maybe he just needed to rework his expectations differently. The achievement had mentioned he only needed to get his [Status] to the next Tier level to possibly add another Item slot.

From observing his [Status], it was obvious that all he really needed to level up was his Sigils of Wielding and Warding. Strange. He was the most confident in raising those higher than most of the others, yet they were some of the lowest he had. That was fine. What he needed to focus on next was raising the ones he could the quickest.

“I know that look,” Viv said with a knowing smile. “You’re thinking of training some more, aren’t you?”

Rory laughed. “Well… I’m certainly thinking about improving my Sigils, yeah.”

“But not training?”

“Some of them can’t exactly be trained more.”

He was thinking of his Sigils of Knowledge and Mercantilism. Both of those weren’t far from Teal, so all he needed was some more information and some more deals.

“But first, let me check if the Shop really does have new Items I can buy,” Rory said.

They went downstairs to where the Sigil of Settlement was Warded into the central column. Rory poked into the [Settlement Status] to get a quick look at the System Shop. Ignoring everything else that popped up, he focused only on the new options that were available near the bottom—Items.

[System Shop]

Waste not, want not. Credits aren’t infinite. Purchase wisely.

Items

Golden Fan [Cost: 348 Credits] Ranger Oculars [Cost: 120 Credits]

Unlike other options, Rory wasn’t given a third choice. It seemed, for now, he could only buy a Golden Fan or a Ranger Oculars. That wasn’t the problem.

The real issue lay in the fact that these Shop purchase options didn’t have any descriptions attached to them, just like any other purchasable option. It was worse here since the Items’ names gave little indication of their purpose or potential powers.

But the quick look at his [Settlement Status] had informed him that he had just enough Credits to afford the Oculars. Not ideal, since he would have liked to investigate both options, but he decided to try out the Oculars. The name gave something of a hint, which was good enough.

As soon as Rory picked the option to purchase the Ranger Oculars, a bright light bloomed into existence before him. He stretched out his hand. Soon enough, the light coalesced into a more solid form, the glow slowly dissipating to reveal thick, short tube with different-sized glasses at either end.

“Oh, shiny,” Viv said.

Rory did not get a new Item notification. With rising trepidation, he pulled the glasses to his eyes on either side, trying to determine if it functioned like some kind of fancy telescope.

The glasses were too foggy to reveal anything.

Blinking, Rory pulled the Oculars from his face. Once it was far enough away, the mist cleared up and the glasses were clear again.

Rory stared at it. “Really?”

“What’s wrong?” Viv asked.

“I can’t see through it.” He pulled it close to his face and watched lenses fog up in real-time. “It won’t let me.”

“That’s insane.” Viv held out her hand. “Here, let me try.”

She tried looking through the Oculars as well, and grinned when she did so. The lens was pointed straight at Rory’s face.

“I can see your nose hair!” she said, then laughed.

Rory self-consciously rubbed his nostril with his finger. “So, it’s working for you?”

“Yeah. I got the notification and everything.”

“Great. That means I really do need to rise a Tier or something.”

More Tiers meant more Sigils through his Weaving or exercising said Sigils to get them to a better position. That didn’t leave him a lot of options, but he did have some ideas.

“Hey, where are you going?” Viv asked as Rory headed off.

“Getting my Sigils Tiered up!” Rory’s sudden excitement flooded him with some much-needed energy. “Come on, keep up, Viv.”

Her footsteps went silent behind him. After a moment, Rory was about to turn to check and see if she had fallen from him, but then red lightning flashed. Viv appeared a few feet ahead of him.

“Keep up, dear,” she said.

Rory grinned, then walked past her. They reached his destination soon—the library in the palace wasn’t far from the Command Centre.

“Wait a second,” Viv said. “Are you thinking of trying to learn something to improve your Sigil of Knowledge?”

Rory started surveying the book-stuffed shelves around them. “That’s right.”

“What’s right?”

Diane walked in from behind a couple of tall shelves, an old book in her hand. She looked between Viv and Rory. He did his best to explain about his Storage Ring, his [Status], and how he likely needed more slots for any new Items he got, such as the Ranger Oculars.

“Oh, so you want the Sigils of Learning to grant you a lesson, so you can raise the Tier of your Sigil of Knowledge?” Diane asked with a considering look. “That’s smart.”

“How does one exactly go about doing that?” Viv asked.

Good question. He looked expectantly at Diane, hoping she would know the answer to them.

“So, this is going to sound strange,” Diane said, daring them with her eyes to contradict her. “But what I’ve found is that you can make the library summon a book about basically anything. Only once per day, though. It’s also not once per person, like with the Sigil of Quests. Once per day, for everyone.”

Rory smiled at her. “Is that why you’ve been guarding the library so meticulously, or Dragon of Knowledge?”

“I’m just fascinated with it, okay. What did you want to find out about?”

Rory didn’t need to think long to land on his chosen topic. “Something about… the Invigilator.”

Diane blinked, and a second later, there was a short, small flash in one corner of the library. They found a tightly-furled scroll with a bunch of what seemed like basic information regarding the Invigilators, their roles and powers, how they were chosen, and the like.

Thankfully, the scroll was written in cursive English, for some reason. Rory learned quite a bit about how they had access to a “celestial-scale prison” for powerful monsters that upset the balance of the war, how their powers could go beyond Sigils but was basically like amplified Sigils at the same time, and how they were bound securely by the laws of their own system.

“Surprisingly interesting information,” Viv said. She looked at Rory. “And your Sigil?”

Rory checked his [Status]. “Oh, it worked! The Sigil of Knowledge is at Teal I.”

Viv and Diane both smiled happily at him. Rory let the scroll go back into the shelf spot it had appeared in. The library’s new power was definitely intriguing, and he was happy to let Diane stay in charge of it, but for now, he needed to see what else he could do to raise his Sigils’ Tiers.

Wouldn’t be long before he hit Teal I himself.