Rory quickly explained his plan to the others. He understood that he could obtain stealth Sigils from Viv’s use of Smoky Stealth. Rory would simply have to focus on the action of her hiding in her summoned smoke. Or at least, that was what he had assumed. It, unfortunately, didn’t turn out to be so simple.

If Rory used his Weaving on Viv’s actions now, he would get a Sigil of Smoky Stealth. That was nice, but it wouldn’t help against the monsters. They’d likely catch sight of the smoke itself and come over to investigate, at which point, anyone using Smokey Stealth would be screwed. What he needed was a passive Stealth benefit.

A Sigil that he might be able to obtain when he could dig deeper into the concepts surrounding. It was, admittedly, a long shot, considering he needed to get to Viridian to enact it.

Which also meant he needed to find a way to get to Viridian fast. His progress so far had been mediocre at best, considering how much more effort it took to raise his Sigil’s Tiers now that he was at higher Tier level.

“Doesn’t matter how hard it is,” Viv said. “No point in wasting time moaning about it. Let’s get to work.”

She was right. Though, before they dispersed to get to work, there was one more matter Rory needed to see to.

“Alright, now who wants the Sigil of Lasso?” he asked, explaining the Sigil’s description.

Everyone hesitated. Rory could understand. Currently, this was their greatest weapon against the new breed of monsters, so whoever used it would be under significant pressure.

Dez stepped forward. “I can take it, if no one else minds.”

Nobody else disagreed. There was no reason to. Dez was a solid and dependable choice, someone they all could count on.

Rory nodded and gave him the Sigil, which he absorbed. “Better start figuring out how to use it.”

“If we’re going to end up fighting the monsters, then I volunteer too,” Sue said. The gears and hydraulics in her mech suit whirred loudly.

Rory nodded. “We’ll probably need you too, yeah. But we still need to work because even if we can’t use the Sigils directly against the monsters, we can use them indirectly.”

They all got to work then, turning the day into a general, free-for-all exercise about raising their Sigils’ Tiers

Of course, it wouldn’t do to put all the eggs in one basket, so some of them like Diane and Harley decided to investigate and figure out if there were other potential solutions to their un-Sigil-able monster problem. But all of them made sure to get Quests from Leo first.

Meanwhile, Rory began by helping Viv. At the palace’s rear, she disappeared in a small cloud of smoke. Rory used his Weaving on it, and sure enough, he received a Sigil of Smoky Stealth as Viv disappeared. They repeated the exercise several times, helping Viv raise the Tier of her Sigil slowly but surely.

“Have you tried focusing on, you know, just stealth?” she asked when they decided to take a small break.

“I have,” Rory said. “Doesn’t work. Here, I’ll show you.”

They repeated the action again. Viv disappeared in a burst of smoke, Rory made sure to stay far enough away so he wasn’t bothered by it, and then used his Weaving. He focused on the concept of just stealth itself, but it seemed his Sigil wouldn’t recognize it. When they finished their umpteenth round of it, Rory had once again come away with a Sigil of Smoky Stealth.

“Well, that’s not great,” Viv said.

Rory sighed. “No, it’s not. But it just means we have to keep working at it.”

“True.”

After around half an hour, they progressed to trying to Tier up Viv’s Omnipresent Thunderclaw instead.

It was good she felt no pain when Rory used his Weaving on her constructed Thunderclaw arm. That way, Rory could just obtain Sigils for her to absorb by using his Weaving on the blue, metallic-rocky arm. They didn’t need to bother with her red lightning, helping conserve some of their Mana.

That was yet another concern. There hadn’t been a Mana storm of even a Mana shower in a while. They had accumulated a strong supply of it over their stay in the palace, but at the rate they were burning through the Mana, they would run out soon if they weren’t careful.

Time was hard to tell, but they stopped after what felt like at least an hour.

“What’s your progress looking like?” Rory asked.

Viv’s eyes went unfocused as she checked her [Status]. She smiled when she focused on him again. “Teal IV for Omnipresent Thunderclaw, Teal III for Smoky Stealth, Cerulean IX for Knowledge, Teal I for Warrior, Teal III for Prime, and Teal I for Electrostatic Resilience.”

“Amazing. Although, that Sigil of Knowledge needs to start catching up.”

Viv laughed. “You’re not wrong.”

Rory left her to train for herself while he visited the others. Dez was in a sparring match with Miles, both of them causing miniature explosions to rock the area of the palace grounds around them with their flames. Blue fire met black, little fiery bursts throwing sparks in every direction.

“The way you two are going at it,” Rory said. “I’d almost suspect you want to burn down the whole place.”

Miles grinned as both he and Dez shut off their Sigils. “It’s made of stone, gramps. It won’t go down that easily. Not to fire, at least. Now, if I’d tried an earthquake, hmm.”

“You’ve given him a bad idea,” Dez said with a little smile.

“Alright, enough chitchat.” Rory clapped his hands. He felt, ridiculously, like a fitness instructor about to show his pupils some special moves. Maybe he ought to stop clapping. “Time to absorb more Sigils, boys.”

They fell into line. One after the other, Dez and Miles both used their Sigils of Chthonic Inferno and Stormfire, respectively, and Rory obliged by using his Weaving. They obtained several of the same Sigils that they used, absorbing them quickly to raise their Sigils’ Tiers.

Only after they had both reached Teal IV, which had taken almost another hour of effort, did they pause.

“I’m getting too old for this kind of continuous effort,” Rory muttered as he leaned against the nearby wall. His legs were cramping, and his back was threatening to ache. He needed rest.

“We appreciate it, you know,” Dez said.

Miles nodded. “Yeah, you’re the best gramps.”

Rory wiped off some sweat and smiled. “Glad you think so.”

“But I’ve got to say, weird we’re raising our Sigils’ Tiers when the monsters we might have to fight won’t even be affected by them.”

Rory sighed. “That’s right, in a sense. But think about it. Maybe your fires don’t work on them directly, but the effects of your fires might do some damage, right?”

Dez and Miles stared at each other, slow realization working onto Miles’s face. On the other hand, Dez just had a satisfied look. Apparently, they had already had this conversation.

“We can break things,” Dez said. “Or melt them. Or cause some other kind of mayhem. And that mayhem can then take care of these monsters for us.”

Rory nodded. “Exactly. It’s why we need the Sigil of Lasso too. We can use that to throw stuff at the monsters, which should take care of them, depending on what we throw.” That reminded Rory that he hadn’t seen the Sigil of Lasso in action yet. “Dez, have you tried out your new Sigil?”

Dez raised his hand so that the Sigil of Lasso’s image glowed on the back of his hand. It was accompanied by the blue-green circle with one lone triangle at the top, indicating its Tier—Teal I.

“Watch,” he said.

Dez raised his arm above his hands, holding his hand in a fist. A snap preceded a branch hovering into their midst from over the wall, wrapped in a light skein of brown energy. It stared circling Dez as though he was a planet and the branch was its moon.

“Interesting,” Rory said. “How fast can you make it go?”

In answer, Dez focused more. He closed his eyes as the branch started revolving with greater speed, twirling in the air and creaking as it flew. Rory and Miles both stepped back a little nervously.

The branch’s revolving speed was getting faster and faster every second. In moments, it was a blur. Rory even felt buffeted by a small wind.

“Okay, now that’s amazing,” he said, shaking his head a little in wonder.

Dez opened his eyes and grinned. A second later, the branch flew out of the circle it had been following, striking the same tree it had been torn off as though it had been fired from a cannon. The entire tree shook like it had been it by an earthquake.

Miles slowly clapped. “Whew. That was something else.”

Dez smiled at them both. “I need to do some more testing to figure out how heavy I can go, though I guess the description basically said three times as heavy as me.” He grinned. “Good thing I’m a big guy.”

Rory laughed. “The more important thing to test is how fast you can make heavier stuff go, and whether that speed is dependent on the object’s weight or not. If everything you throw can be incredibly fast, then those monsters are goners. But if the speed is weight-dependent, then we need to figure out more options.”

“Good considerations, yeah.”

Before Rory left him to figure out his Sigil stuff, he helped both Dez and Miles Tier up their other Sigils too.

Apparently, Miles’s new earthquake obsession had come from observing his Sigil of Earth’s potential via the Sigil of Progression Blueprint. He needed to raise it by two more Tier levels to hit Viridian, but once that was accomplished, he’d be able to set off earthquakes.

That was a little bit scary, in Rory’s opinion, but he didn’t fault the guy. What he did grimace a little at was the fact he was forced to leave several gigantic holes in the ground when he Wove Sigils of Earth into being.

Miles tried to cover them up by using his Sigil, but of course, they didn’t last for long. Sigil effects vanished unless one used the Sigil of Permanence in conjunction.

Rory left them to train and figure out their Sigils while he went to check up on the others. April was trying help Bo improve his fighting skills, both parents cheered on by their children. Rory joined in on the cheering before deciding to help raise their Tiers.

“You’re not here to try to convince me to use Sigils directly again, are you?” Bo asked.

“Bo!” April admonished.

Rory only laughed a little again. “It would be rather ironic if I tried to do that now, when we know Sigils themselves aren’t going to help a ton.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying.” Bo turned to his wife. “We could try regular weapons for a change, right? Maybe those will help.”

“But Bo, we have tried regular weapons on other monsters. They were useless.”

Rory couldn’t deny that previous experiences didn’t support the use of regular weapons against Otherworlder creatures. But then again, these monsters had turned the game upside down. For all they knew, regular weapons were exactly what would work.

“Do we have any weapons, besides some of the guns and rifles?” Rory asked. “As far as I know, most of the old palace weapons aren’t in a good enough condition to be used.”

“Yeah, that’s another thing,” April said. “Even if we did decide to use more mundane weapons, we don’t have any in a good-enough condition.”

Rory didn’t have an answer to that, and neither did April or Bo. He helped both of them raise the Tiers of their Sigils some more before moving on to some of the others.

“Have you thought about making your own weapons, then?” Ferdous asked.

Rory had been helping her raise the tier of her Sigil of Gale. She’d had the idea of combining Sigils of Wind and Lightning into one, which Rory was happy to provide. The new Sigil had displayed the image of wind interspersed by jagged forks.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Gale. Lightning never strikes the same place twice, but what if you blasted someone with some wind first? Easy cheat to strike them with bolts multiple times.

[Teal IV] allows creation, manipulation, imbuing, embodying of element in a 63-meter radius.

Stats

Type: Element

Rarity: Remarkable

Tier: Teal IV [0%]

Efficiency: High [62%]

“I don’t think any of us know how to make our own weapons, to be honest,” Rory said.

“Well, yes, of course.” Ferdous pulled her eyes from the back of her hand, where her Sigil’s image was glowing. “But you have Sigils, don’t you? Aren’t there Sigils that can make things like that?”

Rory frowned as he thought. There were Sigils that could create the kinds of weapons Ferdous meant. Trish regularly created axes and javelins with her Sigil of Reinforced Steel. Even with her Sigil of Permanence added to the mix, they tended to disappear before long. Sigils weren’t the solution. Well, not their current Sigils.

“Maybe we can find Sigils that can help us with that,” Rory said. “Hmm. I’ll have to think about it, but it’s a good idea, Ferdous.”

She smiled at him, adjusting the shawl she typically wrapped around herself. “When you figure out a way to make that kind of crafting a possibility, please let me know. I want to try my hand at it.”

“Crafting, huh? But yes, I’ll let you all know when I find something.”

Rory spent the day helping raise everyone’s Sigil Tiers, increasing his Weaving’s effectiveness alongside. It was slow going. With the amount of effort now required to increase their Tiers, Rory only got to the middle of Tier IV by the end of the day. Just as he had feared, it wasn’t efficient enough. They’d cut down over a tenth of their Mana storage.

So, as the day started to wane into the evening and they all paused, Rory began wondering if crafting could be their solution.

He didn’t get to think a lot about it. As they all settled down to have dinner, the familiar shout that announced newcomers rolled into the main hall.

Rory glanced at Viv. It was strange to consider who might have arrived at a time like that. Several of them went outside, Rory in the lead.

People. Their guests were Homeworlders, a group that looked near-death. Several were injured, and all were looking around terrified, as though monsters were going to pop out of thin air. Rory recognized some of them. There were Sylvia and Aaron, both unconscious after grievous wounds.

“We need to get them some help,” Rory called loudly.

Everyone got to assisting the Homeworlders. The injured were led or carried to the infirmary inside the palace, which left only a couple of Homeworlders who hadn’t suffered any outright damage.

Rory accosted them, swallowing as he expected to hear the worst. “What in the world happened?”

“Monsters,” the man said. “Monsters who couldn’t be harmed by Sigils.”