The ride back to the palace wasn’t easy. There were too many Neophytes for them to take in one go, even with the pickup track jam-packed. They had to make another trip after the first one to get everyone into the palace grounds.

At least Rory was able to get the achievements that had been delayed so far in the pickup.

New Achievement!

Dream Team! You have successfully vanquished a foe as a team without suffering any significant damage. Onwards, to your next enemy.

Rewards

Party members get boosted stats with more members in the party. Stacks with diminishing returns.

New Achievement!

Monstrous Saviour! You have rescued monsters! Truly, your heart is one that angels envy. Make sure it doesn’t get you killed, though.

Rewards

Looter perk now can be selected to work for monsters as well

Those were some interesting achievements. The first meant their group outings would now need to involve more people to boost their stats, up to a certain number. They’d have to see at what point the diminishing returns made it pointless to add more people to a team.

The second was even more intriguing. If his Looter perk now worked for monsters, did that mean all the Neophytes had received Sigils as well? None of them in the back of the truck had reacted yet, though they’d been acting senseless for a long time now. He realized it might work for the Wraith lord’s followers now as well, though he hadn’t rescued any of them.

Also, the achievement had said it was selectable. Maybe Rory had to choose whether or not a group of monsters got Sigils.

Rory arrived at the palace with the first group. He did his best to explain to everyone there everything that had gone down at the destroyed school. Credit to Dez, he forced them all to remain calm upon seeing weird monsters inside the palace, and after Rory was finally done explaining, he saw several faces were dismayed.

The really old couple were none too pleased with Rory’s decision, and he could see that Bo’s face grew dark too. Malcolm dragged his little girl closer to him as though the Neophytes would come for her at any second.

Rory sighed. He supposed he hadn’t expected anything different. They were going to have to test out the Sigil of the Stormscale soon.

They decided to place all the Neophytes together in one place. It was dangerous outside, what with all the traps that could have gone off at the slightest accidental contact, so Rory decided to pile everyone inside the palace, much to the chagrin of the others. The palace exploration group had found a large storage room, which Rory decided would suffice temporarily.

Now to figure out how to fix the Neophytes.

“Gather around, everyone,” Dez said after Rory had told him his intention. “We need to clear up some things.”

Most of them arrived in a large huddle in the gardens. Rory noted all the curiosity, the consternation, and a general sense of relief at seeing them all return in one piece. He was grateful for that last one.

Taking a deep breath, he explained his intentions. “I believe we need to try to help all the people we brought in. I know they look dangerous, and I know many of you are wondering if it’s worth the risk, but aside from the fact that you know we’re going to do our best to keep things under control, ask yourself this—if you’d been forcibly turned into monsters and was desperately hoping someone would help find a cure, how would you feel if everyone abandoned you?”

Calling out hypocrisy always hurt right in the guts. Almost everyone looked uncomfortable at that, though Bo was undaunted.

“But I heard it wasn’t forced on them,” he said. “They made the choice to become whatever it is they are now.”

“Wouldn’t you, if you were trapped under a thousand tons of debris, say, the whole palace crashing on top of you, and the only way to freedom was by accepting a monster’s help?”

Bo had no answer to that. As of course he better had not. But Rory wasn’t really done. He could sense their reluctance, and it was fine to harbour concerns, but he wasn’t about to let any sort of apathy take root. Not while he was the leader and responsible for the lot of them.

“Thing is, it’s up to us to help them because there’s no one else here who can,” Rory continued. “Yes, it’s dangerous. But that doesn’t mean we can just let these people rot. First, we’re going to see what we can do, then decide whether it’s a lost cause or not.”

Deciding that he had spoken enough to make them sick of him, Rory adjourned the little meeting and told everyone to carry on. He had the newcomers to attend to.

The first order of business was finding someone who was willing to not only try out the Sigil of the Stormscale, but also ensure that they would use it to its full potential.

Strangely, Diane was the first to pipe up that she wanted to have a go at it. Since they didn’t exactly have a means of determining who was best suited to a Sigil, at least when it came to the newer people who didn’t have any other Sigils to synergize with, Rory decided to give it to her before any others laid a claim. He really had no intention of mediating any silly arguments.

“This is exciting,” Diane said as the white Sigil sank into her hand.

“It’s not exciting for them,” Trish muttered, staring at the Neophytes.

Diane frowned at the draconic beings staring blankly. “I’m ready.”

Rory gave her the Sigil, and her hand glowed with blue-and-white light. Her eyes lost focus for a moment as she checked the description of her new Sigil. When she was back with them again, she still looked uncertain as to how to go about it. Rory wished he could help, but he had no more clue than her.

Eventually, Diane mustered her courage and stepped forward, a little hesitant in the face of all the half-monsters. As her Sigil glowed brighter, she placed her hand on the nearest Neophyte’s arm. The greyish blue scales crackled and peeled away.

Leaving normal skin.

Everyone was hushed for a moment. Diane stepped back in surprise. There was a minute frown on the Neophyte that said some part of it had registered what had just happened. But it didn’t react further.

“Go on,” Rory said, voice quiet in anticipation. “I think it’s working.”

Diane continued. She didn’t rove her hand over the Neophyte’s whole body as Rory had expected. Instead, she pressed down on the same area as before, white energy sizzling at the contact with human skin. The half-monster’s frown slowly grew a little deeper, but it made no move to stop her.

“What are you exactly doing?” Evelyn asked. Rory thought he detected something akin to professional curiosity.

Diane shook her head. “I’m not sure…”

“Can you tell how your Sigil is working? Or why you’re using it on the same area as before?”

“It’s like… like thawing something that’s been frozen solid, you know? The surface might look normal now but dig underneath, and it’s still the same as before. Frozen. That’s why I’m trying to get this healing all the way through.”

“That’s interesting.”

“And I’m not sure I need to move the point I keep contact with anyway. At least, it keeps spreading outwards over the whole body.” She paused for a moment. “Going to need more Mana soon, though.”

She was right, on both counts. Rory hadn’t noticed before, but now that he was peering closer, he could make out the energy swimming outwards underneath the Neophyte’s scales, a faint glow emanating from beneath.

Her Mana was fast disappearing too. About a third was already gone. She was going to need more, and fast, considering all the Neophytes she was going to have to help.

“I’ll go get some.,” Allen said.

Diane continued. The transformation from monster back to human was strange, to say the least. More scales started to peel off and clink to the ground, revealing skin so pale that it had to be newly-grown. The physiology changed too. As Diane’s power grew, the Neophyte’s limbs grew shorter and lost the claws, and the snout reduced back into the shape of a regular mouth. The torso widened and the chest area filled out.

As the scales continued to peel off, Rory was suddenly aware he was seeing a lot of skin.

“Bring a blanket, or cover, or something,” he said to no one in particular.

Thankfully, Dez acted fast. He rushed downstairs and returned in a couple of minutes with a large white sheet. Evelyn spread it over the scale-covered woman who was still looking dazedly everywhere.

“Has anyone considered the issue of clothing?” Viv asked.

Rory sighed and shook his head. Of all the things they had done their best to salvage so far, clothing hadn’t been very high on the list. “We’re going to need more scavenging trips.”

“Too true.”

Despite facing the problem of having a bunch of naked newcomers stuffed in a storage chamber, Rory smiled. The Sigil of the Stormscale was working.

Their first step had been to see if they could turn the people back to regular humans, and that was turning out fine. Sure, the former Neophyte still looked like she was stuck in a vegetative state, but they’d worry about the mental aspects after the physical ones were taken care of.

“Since everything here looks alright, I’m going to go downstairs and work on Settlement stuff,” Rory said. “Let me know when you guys finish up.”

Viv nodded. “I’ll go organize a party to get more clothes.”

“I’ll do it,” Dez said. “With all due respect, professor, you need some rest.”

Rory smiled. “He’s right, you know.”

Viv rolled her eyes but relented anyway.

Rory headed downstairs and got himself to the column with the Warded Sigil of Settlement. It glowed with a soft blue radiance. He pulled out the Sigil of Learning and Warded that right onto the spot where the Sigil of Settlement glowed. Then he checked the [Settlement Status] again.

[Settlement Status]

Belcourt Palace

Type: Camp

Leader: Rory McIlroy

Tier: Cerulean II [80%]

Stats

Population: 56

Area of Influence: 65m2

Treasury: 17,350 Mana, 110 Credits

Defences [Selectable]

Passive Reconstruction [Major]

-

-

Components

Sigil of Shelter: Ordinary, [Argent VIII]

Sigil of Finance: Uncommon, [Argent X]

Sigil of Security: Remarkable, [Cerulean IV]

Sigil of Produce: Exceptional, [Cerulean IV]

Sigil of Healing: Remarkable, [Cerulean V]

Sigil of Learning: Exceptional, [Cerulean VI]

-

When Rory focused on the Sigil of Learning again, he didn’t really find anything new or exciting. That was when he remembered he could set a certain location in the palace as an area of learning. Of course, that was done through the Zonal Configuration.

Rory accessed it through the Sigil of Shelter and found out he had a new assignable category—Learning. He didn’t need long to decide what the best area for that would be. The library was an easy choice. He was curious to see what sort of transformation the system caused there.

As soon as Rory picked the location for learning, he received another achievement.

New Achievement!

Literacy Raiser! As a pioneer of education in your homestead, you need materials with which to perform your teaching duties. Go, check your shop!

Rewards

Three free Learning Shop items.

That was a strange, highly specific reward. Rory was curious, however, and he quickly made his way to the [System Shop] to check what all that was about. There were all the old things he had already perused, the upgrades, materials, Sigils, and decorations that he didn’t have enough Credits to use on. So, Rory focused on the new category he had been given.

[System Shop]

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

Learning

Advanced Farming: Techniques to raise the proficiency of existing gardens, find new cultivatable space, and explore new plants with different growth requirements Art of War: Skills and martial practices that benefit all kinds of combat, including field operations and siege defending Frontiers of Technology: Guides on how to incorporate Otherworlder materials, laws, and technological advancements with Homeworlder applications Civic Exploration: Knowledge about the best practices regarding economic ventures such as trading, business, law, and the like

Rory frowned. Just his luck that he was given three choices but four options. Sighing, he read over all the potential things they could learn about a few times more.

All of them would be useful, one way or another. Advanced Farming should help up whatever they could grow on their own, Art of War would help improve their combat prowess, and Frontiers of Technology sounded like an amazing way to use alien technology.

Civic Exploration sounded beneficial too, especially considering Rory was aiming to be a merchant to keep their Settlement from being shot down by the system. But it might be something they could do without more than the others. The benefits wouldn’t be as great as it would be with the first three choices. So, Rory decided to go with the first three options for now.

When he was finally done with the Settlement stuff, Rory pulled himself back and sighed, deciding to rest for now. He really needed to get some food in him soon.

For the moment, he relaxed a bit in contentment. Six Sigils. The Settlement was almost full. Just one more Sigil, something different from the ones they already had, and they would be set.

Rory could finally create the Safe Zone.