Trish decided to head out before the sun was even properly up. She had gotten it in her head that the longer they waited, the more everyone who wasn’t with their group was in danger of dying. It wasn’t a wrong supposition. But it still worried Rory how obsessively she was taking it.

At least she had agreed to take Allen with her. Rory had Warded a Sigil of Calling into her Spyder’s dashboard, placing another one on a column in the main hall. They could now keep in touch in case anything happened.

“Remember,” Viv said, gripping Trish’s shoulders tightly. “Farwell Avenue. That’s as far as you get to go today, got it?”

The younger woman nodded impatiently. “Yes, yes, I’m sure Allen will remember.”

Allen tried not to roll his eyes. “I so will.”

“And it’s not just people you’re looking for,” Viv said. “We need lots of supplies as well. Food and water, clothing, medicine, weapons if you can find them, and as much Mana as you can gather.”

“Right.” Trish nodded. “Not sure how we’ll fit all that in a convertible.”

“That’s why we asked you to take the van. Or at least the pickup truck.”

Trish pretended not to have heard that last bit. “We’ll be back soon, don’t worry. And we’ll have everything you need.”

“One last thing before you go,” Rory said. He pulled out a few Sigils of Steel he had Woven. “Try absorbing these.”

Trish didn’t move. “I already have a Sigil of Steel.”

“I know. Try it anyway.”

Trish did so, letting the Sigil sink into her hand. Then her eyes widened. “What the—the Tier just went up!”

Rory grinned, hardly able to believe that his other idea was right. “What was its Tier before you absorbed the new one?”

“Seventy percent through Argent VII. Now it’s Argent VIII. Ten percent through too!”

“Perfect.” Well, maybe not perfect. Rory had hoped that absorbing another same Sigil drove up the existing Sigil’s Tier, which it clearly did. Just slower than he had expected. “I’ve got a few more I got from some of the old weapons. Try them all.”

Trish did so, eyes shining with eagerness. One by one, the new Sigils of Steel Rory had Woven disappeared into her hand, all of them looking on in wonder.

When it was done, Trish looked immensely satisfied. “Can’t believe it’s already twenty percent through Argent IX now.”

“My experiment has been a success,” Rory said, smiling at them all. “Thanks for being my guinea pig.”

“No problem, old man.”

They left soon after. Despite the feeling of positivity after his latest discovery, Rory had to work to ignore the growing knot of worry lodged in his chest. It was getting harder to not wonder about all the things that could go wrong for Trish and Allen. So, to occupy his flailing mind, Rory decided to focus on the things he needed to take care of.

There was still a lot of trapping he hadn’t done yet. After some light snacks and some water, Rory and Viv took a tour of the palace grounds, finding strategic spots to place the Sigils of Flarespike Mines.

“These things are going to need a constant supply of Mana, right?” Viv asked when they had reached the southwestern quarter.

“Probably,” Rory said. “I’m not sure, but it’s outside, so it shouldn’t be too bad. It will just use ambient Mana when the next round starts falling. We’re not going to have to go back to activate every time, at least.”

Ned started when they appeared at the back. He had been guarding the palace’s rear, keeping watch on the van and the truck to make sure no monsters destroyed their means of transport.

“I’m awake!” Ned announced as soon as he saw them. “You’re the ones sleeping.”

Rory did his best not to snort. “Son, if you need to rest your eyes that bad, just go inside and get some rest.”

“I’m not the old guy here. You go rest.”

“I did.”

“And that’s rude,” Viv added.

Ned’s face fell. “Sorry. Just don’t want to be a useless sack. Maybe if I could just get a couple of hours of sleep, I’ll be fine again.”

“No. No couple of hours.” Viv had her strictest mom and teacher voice. It just wasn’t one anybody could argue with. She could rule nations when she took that tone. “You’re going to go back inside and sleep for at least six hours. If anyone else is up, send them here. If not, just go to sleep and don’t bother. We’re going to keep watch.”

Ned looked like he wanted to argue, but he eventually gave up and went away.

“These kids are going to drive themselves into the ground at this rate,” Viv said.

Rory tutted. “And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You’ve been running around like your energy doesn’t run out. What’s going on Viv? Is it really that Sigil of yours letting you go on… indefinitely?”

“It actually is! This Sigil of Prime holds me in a suspended animation kind of state. My energy, my mentality, my health, everything. Even before you gave me that Sigil of Electrostatic Resilience, Prime didn’t let my wounds last long either. I’m in the perfect condition all the time. At least, internally it does.” She laughed. “I certainly don’t look younger.”

“Yeah, it’s crazy enough as it is.”

This time, her laughter was all pure mirth. It made Rory smile. Viv sobered too quickly though.

“You need something to defend yourself with, dear,” she said. “Of course, I’ll do my best to protect you, but it’s still not ideal.”

Rory sighed. “I know. I’ve been waiting to get another Sigil slot so I can get Wielding and start seeing what I can do with the lich’s staff.”

Viv looked sceptical. “You think it’ll work?”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“I’m not saying it won’t. But it belonged to a monster. We don’t know the extent of all the Sigils it had.”

“True, but remember, the lich didn’t have many Sigils glowing on it, unlike the Knight. I think a lot of its powers came from the staff itself. I just need to be able to use it, and then we can see just how useful it can be.”

They completed their circuit of the palace, Warding the trapping Sigils as they went. The others had risen. Dez was leading a group to excavate the debris in the gardens and clear up an open path for them. They all waved when Rory and Viv passed by. Eventually, they reached the driveway, where Rory Warded more of the Sigils into place.

Rory clapped his hands to rid himself off dust and stretched, glad to be finally done. Best of luck to any monsters trying to surprise them now.

“Can you use your Weaving on my sword?” Viv asked.

“Pretty sure I can,” Rory said. Then he smiled. “Do you want to raise your Sigil’s Tier as well?”

“I’m pretty close to breaking through to Cerulean. That’s the one after Argent, right?”

“Oh, wow. Didn’t know you were that close. You’re amazing.”

Viv smiled, then bit her lip as though to prevent it from growing too wide. “No need to butter me up, dear. But yeah, if we’re going to be dealing with less monsters thanks to all these traps—which is great, by the way, don’t get me wrong—then I might need an alternative way of raising the Sigil’s Tier since it’s so close.”

“How close are we talking here?”

“I’m over halfway through.”

“Oh! Then why are we waiting? Throw it at me!”

Viv laughed, then summoned her Omnipresent Sabre. The sword glowed a brilliant crimson in her grip, its light shading the whole area scarlet.

Rory approached and used his Weaving on the sabre’s end. Soon enough, the white lines of his Weaving had broken off the top half of the red sword, turning it into a Sigil that looked like it was made out of rubies, an image of a white sword gleaming on its surface.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Omnipresent Sabre. You may not have ever needed a sword made of unstoppable red energy that allows you to teleport, but here you go, have one anyway.

[Argent X] allows summoning 1 Crimson Sabre and 5 teleportation charges for 100 seconds.

Stats

Type: Magical

Rarity: Mythic

Tier: Argent X [0%]

Efficiency: High [60%]

Rory stared at it. A Mythic Sigil. He knew his Sigil of Weaving could create those now, but he hadn’t expected Viv’s Sigil to be of Mythic rarity. It made sense, though. The things he’d seen her do was nuts.

“Interesting,” Viv said as she accepted the Sigil. “I can keep reproducing my sabre and you can keep Weaving it into more Sigils. The only thing we lose in exchange is Mana.”

“Seems like it. Not sure that I like using up all this Mana.”

“Hey, we haven’t had a shortage yet, have we?”

“Well, there was the bank.” Rory grimaced a little, remembering how much they’d had to scrounge around for the Mana they needed. They’d learned their lesson and was gathering every tiny speck visible to them. “Don’t want to go through that again.”

“True.”

The turn in conversation had subdued Viv a little. That was the last thing Rory had intended though, so he encouraged her to absorb the Sigil. She did so.

“How much did it improve?” Rory asked.

“Let me see…” Viv’s eyes lost focus for a moment. When they sharpened again, Rory caught a gleam of excitement. “Almost at sixty percent. That was a big rise. Can you make some more?”

“More Sigils of Omnipresent Sabre coming right up.”

They repeated the exercise. Rory Wove away chunks of Viv’s red energy sword, creating more Sigils she could absorb. The fact that he was Weaving Argent X Sigils meant that his Sigil of Weaving was at Argent X as well. So close to Cerulean.

Which, it turned out, what Viv had achieved.

“I’ve got it,” she yelled without warning.

She showed him her hand, and the smile that broke across Rory’s face was unstoppable. Instead of the silver circle he had grown used to, the red Sigil of Omnipresent Sabre was surrounded by a blue circle with a single triangle.

Viv had reached Cerulean I.

“Oh wow,” she said, her eyes unfocused. “These achievements are something else.”

“What’d you get?” Rory asked.

He didn’t need Viv’s answer. Somehow, just Weaving those few Sigils had been enough to send his Sigil of Weaving into Cerulean I as well.

New Achievement!

Tier Buster! You’ve broken through the silver shackles of Argent and reached the sky-blue freedom of Cerulean. Incredible. There are no limits to how high you can go.

Rewards

You can turn any one of your Sigils to Cerulean I

Rory didn’t even get to celebrate before he was sunk into a selection screen. Apparently, the system was either in a rush, or it was so excited that it needed him to pick now. At least it gave him the option of seeing where his current Sigils were at.

Viv cleared her throat. Rory hadn’t tried it before, but now he noticed that he couldn’t make Viv out through the letters appearing before him. “Rory… did you get a Sigil to Cerulean too?”

“I sure did.”

Rory quickly looked through the Sigils he had. Apart from Warding, which was now at Argent VII already, his Sigils of Stats and Knowledge were both advancing steadily—at Argent VII and IX respectively. The only Sigil really holding him back was his Sigil of Mercantilism, which was still at only Argent III.

Maybe it would have been cooler to have one of his other Sigils at Cerulean I, but Rory needed his personal Tier at Cerulean as fast as possible. That meant raising the average Tier level higher.

Rory sighed, and selected his Sigil of Mercantilism to be raised to Cerulean I.

New Achievement!

Corporate Climber! You’ve taken a major leap in your profession. Nothing will stop you until you’re a part of the 1%.

Rewards

Your profession now benefits from any of your applicable stats and vice versa.

Rory wasn’t sure how that was supposed to help. If his stats were higher now thanks to his improved profession Sigil, he didn’t feel any different. Neither his Spirit nor his Fortitude had any noticeable effect that he could see.

“Have you checked your [Status]?” Viv asked. She was looking at his face carefully.

Rory flushed, realizing his expression was scrunched up. “Not yet. Let me check.”

[Status]

Rory McIlroy

Race: Human

Class: Grand Weaver

Profession: Veteran Merchant

Tier: Argent IX [20%]

Perks: Rescuer, Stalwart, Looter, Venerable

Stats

Spirit: 18 [Argent VI]

Fortitude: 18 [Argent VI]

-

Sigils

Sigil of Weaving: Legendary, [Cerulean I]

Sigil of Warding: Mythic, [Argent VII]

Sigil of Stats: Ordinary, [Argent VIII]

Sigil of Knowledge: Exceptional, [Argent IX]

Sigil of Mercantilism: Exceptional, [Cerulean I]

Items

Staff of Deadly Winter

-

-

So close. Rory could almost taste his personal Tier clawing past Argent IX and X to reach Cerulean I. It was a tiny bit frustrating to see that he was still a little ways off, but he did his best to focus on the fact that he was nearly there. Just a little more Weaving and Warding, and he’d reach Cerulean I.

It was interesting to see that both his Profession and his Class had changed their titles a little. And his stats had risen a lot. It must have been that Achievement reward giving him the bonus he needed.

“Congratulations.” Viv bumped his shoulder with her own. “Stop frowning so heavily and loosen up a bit.”

Rory blinked, then laughed. “You’re telling me to loosen up?”

“Come on.” She started pulling him back towards the palace. “Let’s go inside.”

“What did you pick?” Rory asked as he followed along. “As the one to raise to Cerulean I, aside from your Omnipresent Sabre, I mean.”

“The Sigil of Worldly Release.”

“Oh! Good pick.”

“What about you?”

“The Sigil of Mercantilism.”

She gave him a slightly incredulous look.

“I was being tactical!” Rory explained his reasoning. “It’s a long game, you see.”

Viv laughed. “You’re acting like this is a business too.”

“You never know, it might just be one at that.”

Another weird look as they reached the palace proper. They went past the five-foot tall barricades easily, Dez and his crew having cleared up the debris from the gardens. Their rations were running low, but Rory was still hungry for a decent breakfast.

Before he could poke Viv about it, Miles came running up.

“I’ve got another idea,” Miles said, excitement basically sparking off him like electricity. “And I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to think about.”

“Slow down,” Rory said. “We’re going inside to get some food. Why don’t you tell me about it over breakfast?”

“Sure, sure. But just hear me out while we walk.”

“Alright, fine. Spill.”

“Quests and experience. It’s time we figured out how to make this RPG system really work for us.”