Devrum didn’t stay for long. After inspecting the top of both towers, and insinuating that his minelord might be interested in taking up a contract to get certain broken areas repaired, he promised to return the next day with a cloud generator. Before he left, however, Rory got the Sigil of Calling checked.

“Can you use your Insight and see what we’d need to make one?” Rory asked Viv.

Viv hummed, then took one of April’s walky-talkies. “I’m not sure my Insight will work, but there’s no harm in trying…” She froze, then grinned. “Well, what do you know. It works.”

Rory smiled. “What does it say?”

“Uh 5 whispers, 7 shrieks, 8 yells, 3 honks, 11 grumbles, 5 cries, and 15 Espertium.”

Rory’s mouth fell slightly agape. He had known the system would show its usual quirk of naming the required materials something very strange, but this was taking it to another level. “Sounds? How in the world are we supposed to get sounds?”

“Maybe a recording?” Viv shook her head. “I’m not sure…”

“Well, I can certainly provide the Espertium,” Devrum said. “Make sure you collect the other ingredients by the time I return tomorrow, and then we can have your Sigils of Calling.”

With that, the dwarf exited the area. Rory watched him go. That had been a rather rude departure, and he wondered if he had picked up his mannerisms from his minelord boss. Ah, well. Maybe it was a differing custom thing. They weren’t malicious, which was the important thing.

“Fun guy,” Allen muttered.

Rory laughed. “I’m sure he’ll warm up to us eventually.”

The rest of the day passed without much happening. Rory wasn’t sure who ought to get the new Sigil of Inventory or how they could best use it. Considering it opened up a virtual pocket dimension similar to Samson’s Sigil of Gathering, there was a possibility to use it quite creatively by shoving undesirable things in there or carrying out things not easily luggable.

One of the former Neophytes volunteered to test it out. Rory gave it to him, though he was sure some of the others silently disapproved. They still hadn’t gotten over their mini mutinous action.

“Just test its limits for now,” Rory told Orville. “We just need to figure out its parameters and what exactly it can and can’t carry. Things like whether it can transport living things—try a plant, not a pet—different states of matter like gases or liquids. Maybe even sounds,” he added, recalling the requirements for the Sigil of Calling.

Orville’s eyes narrowed to slits as he observed the Sigil’s image on the back of his paw. “Do you think I can carry other people?”

“That’s… an interesting consideration, though I’m not sure we want to test something like that. I mean, I want to, but it’s not safe, sadly.”

Orville nodded, then walked away. Rory watched him go. Hopefully, he’d mind himself. They all would. After all, they weren’t bad people. Just a little naïve perhaps.

Later in the day, Rory checked up on Ned again.

“Show me how your crossbow works,” he said. “I gave you a Sigil of Wielding, right?”

Ned smiled widely at him. “You did. Now watch.”

He proceeded to demonstrate his new weapon. Ned had polished up the flanges and the stock to a gleam, though he hadn’t been able to rectify the minute damage all over the thing.

Nevertheless, it functioned pretty well and without trouble. Ned pointed it at a tree and as his Sigil of Wielding flared on the back of his hand, the Sigil of Quarrel Summoning glowed on the crossbow’s side. An ethereal blue crossbow bolt materialized on the stock, complete with a taut bowstring. Ned clicked on the trigger, and the string loosened, sending the quarrel thudding into his target.

“Beautiful, huh?” Ned asked, still with that wide, beaming smile.

Rory smiled back. “Looks like it’s working like a charm.”

“You’re going to have to find a way to add the elements, though, cause I think it needs Weaving to do something like that.”

“I figured it’d be something like that. I’ll see what I can do.”

Rory was able to get some Sigils of Lightning from the roof where they had established their energy source, some Sigils of Ice from his own powers, and some Sigils of Stormfire, Wood, and Stone thanks to Miles’s and Allen’s inputs. Once that was done, Rory Wove another Sigil of Quarrels from an ethereal one that Ned fired off.

Then he used his Weaving on all of the elements together with the Sigil of Quarrel. The new Sigil he received was a shiny, silver one depicting an arrow separated into evenly-sized pieces all lined up in its shape.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Elemental Quarrels. Firing regular crossbow bolts is so old-fashioned. What you need in the modern world is to call down the wrath of the gods with every shot.

[Cerulean VIII] allows creating 54 quarrels with an elemental affinity.

Stats

Type: Concept

Rarity: Exceptional

Tier: Cerulean VIII [0%]

Efficiency: High [61%]

Rory grinned as he handed the new Sigil to Ned, whose eyes were wide as he accepted it.

“This should go into the crossbow, I’m pretty sure,” Rory said. “Just like the last one.”

As before, Rory took the new Sigil from Ned and Warded it into the weapon. He had never bothered to figure out the limits of Warding Sigils into items. Something told him it was around three, but he wasn’t sure how true that case was. Well, they’d find out when they needed to.

“Do you have any remaining slots in your [Status]?” he asked Ned.

“Not anymore,” Ned said. “I’ve got the Sigils of Hooktongue, Dogfighting, and Water I told you about. You gave me the Sigil of Wielding for the crossbow and there’s also a new Sigil I got the others day—a Sigil of the Scout. It’s… very interesting.”

“Oh yeah? What does it do?”

“It boosts stats it thinks will help me scout around and increases certain other Sigils’ powers. Like the Dogfighting one, and now Wielding too. But yeah, I need to reach Cerulean personally before I can get another slot.”

“Let me know when you do, and we can figure out what new Sigil you can use.”

Ned nodded. They decided to test the new Sigil Rory had Warded into the crossbow. This time, they went farther out and nearly reached the shimmering boundary of the Safe Zone. Ned hauled his crossbow higher, placed the butt against his shoulder, then fired another ethereal bolt. It exploded against a tree trunk with a burst of blue fire.

Rory grinned. “It works!”

Ned grinned back. “It does.”

“Can you see what the new Sigil shows? I’m just curious if you can pick what element the crossbow fires off.”

“I can actually. When I use my Wielding on the crossbow, I can actually focus on which Sigils I want to pick. If I go with the newer Sigil, I can focus even more and select which of the elements I want to use.”

“Interesting. Very interesting.”

They tested some of the other bolts too. Ned set one tree aflame by using lightning, wrapped up a fallen trunk with vines, petrified another with stone, and doused the entire area with water too. By the time he had finished his demonstration, Rory could barely keep his smile in check.

“This is cool and all,” Ned said a little apologetically. “But I’m still a bit scared about the Hooktongue Sigil. I still can’t control like I used to be able to. Like, some of the scales are still there…”

That did the trick of cutting Rory’s smile short. “I think I have an idea what might help with it. Dez is actually going through something similar with his Sigil of Abyssal Inferno.”

“Yeah, I heard. Poor guy. I can at least use my powers.”

“For now.” Rory didn’t intend to sound dark, but if the Sigil of Hooktongue continued to grow out of control, there was no telling what state Ned would end up in. He didn’t want to let his imagination run wild. “But I think there might be a solution.”

Ned’s eyes, which had crestfallen, now sparkled with hope. “What kind of solution?”

Rory grimaced, recalling Dez’s reaction to what he had offered. “We might need to extract your Sigil of the Hooktongue for a while.”

“Extract?”

Rory smiled. This time, it was him being the apologetic one. “Not for long. I just want to combine it with a different Sigil. If we have it, that is. It should help you control it better, I think.”

Ned frowned. Rory could tell he wasn’t fully sold on the idea. “What sort of Sigil?”

“Let’s go find out.”

He led the way back to the palace, taking him to where Alia was feeding something to her summoned Dreadraptor. The small woman greeted them with a cheery smile. Her large bird shrieked, however.

“There, there, Claudius.” Alia rubbed the back of the bird’s head until it calmed down, observing Rory and Ned with intense red eyes. It was so big that Alia had to reach up to get to its head. “They’re friends. We’re at home, remember? Everyone is safe here.”

Safe. Once more, Rory’s mind dredged up the disastrous Thunderclaw attack. They hadn’t been safe then, had they? Shaking his head, he greeted Alia. Ned followed suit, a little puzzled.

“Everything going alright?” Rory asked.

Alia reported she was making fantastic progress with her Sigil of Summoning. Rory could see the evidence of it right before him. Here summoned Dreadraptor looked a lot bigger than when he had seen it last.

“Did you come here just to check on me?” she asked, looking questioningly at Ned.

“Uh…”

Rory snorted. “No, we did have some business in mind. Ned here has an Evolution Sigil, like your Sigil of the Dreadraptor. But he doesn’t summon a Hooktongue, like you do with your big bird there. He becomes one.”

Alia’s eyes widened. “Oh wow. You can do that?”

Ned looked bashful all of a sudden. “It’s nothing. You could do it too if you used the Sigil of the Dreadraptor directly, I’m pretty sure.”

“Right,” Rory said. “But that’s not why we’re here. Ned’s going through a bit of an issue at the moment.”

“What sort of issue?”

Rory explained some of it, but he let Ned do most of the talking. He was the one suffering the problem, after all.

“And you think I can help with that, somehow?” Alia asked. “I mean, I will if I can, but I’m not seeing how exactly.”

“Have you received any new Sigils yet?” Rory asked.

“Like, through achievements and such?” Alia shook her head. “Not yet. Should I be receiving them?”

“Hopefully, you’ll get some soon, once the system recognizes just how much you’ve accomplished by bonding and taming your Dreadraptor. But that is essentially what we need. You’re essentially taming a wild creature. It’s not impossible to imagine that you might be able to obtain a Sigil of Taming at some point.”

“And you think combining my Sigil of the Hooktongue with a Sigil of Taming will let me control it better?” Ned asked.

“I have strong hopes that it will,” Rory said with an encouraging smile.

Ned nodded. “I can see how that might work.”

“That is an interesting plan, for sure,” Alia said. “I’ll let you know as soon as I get it.”

“Might help if you used your summoning outside. We’ll see if it’s safe to go out and get the rest of the groceries and the freezers, and if so, you can go with that trip.”

Alia smiled at the prospect of finally getting out of the palace grounds again. Rory wondered if there was a similar degree of connection between the summoned creature and the summoner, much the same was as there was between the Hooktongue and Ned. There was a strong degree of separation in the former—they weren’t literally in the same body like the latter—so probably not.

But it wasn’t impossible to imagine both Alia and her pet bird feeling cooped up in the palace.

Waving goodbye, Rory and Ned left the summoner. Rory smiled, heart feeling a little light. The problem with Ned might not have been solved, but they had a path to the solution, which was what they really needed for now.