by Jeff Sproul
He realized, in the bottom of his vision, his shield necklace had triggered, which helped limit some of the damage from the explosions. His hold on the foam-user lessened. Initially, he gripped tighter, but realized the cloaker was dissolving into particles.
An item fell off him as he stood and pulled out of the burning foam. He didn’t waste a breath before throwing his cord out at the last cloaker, who was almost to the exit.
The ember-user maneuvered behind a stone jutting out of the floor, and avoided Riley’s attack.
A rapid ‘click click click click click click,’ came from across the room.
Bang!
A second later, the last PKer stumbled forward, planting face-first into the dirt.
“That’s for Chase,” came Laura’s stern voice, as the last cloaker’s body dispersed into orange and black particles.
The repugnant odor of the dingy underground was now replaced with sulfur and smoke.
Chase was gone. But so were the five cloak-wearers.
Riley stood there, his stamina’s limit had dropped to about thirty percent.
Laura lowered her pistol, only three of her duplicates were still standing.
Riley looked over to Carla, as she lifted her arms into the air and brought her hands in front of her face.
“Guys?” she asked, her voice trembling.
Laura looked over, as Riley stepped towards her.
“What’s going on?” Carla pleaded.
There was a flash of golden light. Then, a pair of matching multi-colored tattoos appeared on the palms of her hands. They were in the pattern of a spiral, their colors changing from start to finish.
Since Carla was in Riley’s party, he could see her health. He could see the word change above her head.
The name ‘Carla,’ dissolved.
The words ‘Chromatic Lotus,’ appeared in its place.
“You just got your sigil,” Laura breathed, her eyes wide.
“My sigil?” Carla spoke, then her eyes went wide as well. “I got my sigil!”
Riley watched as Carla gained her sigil and reached ‘tier two.’
She’d become a paragon.
Chapter 23: Dibs
Carla looked between her hands. She reached over with the left and traced the spiral tattoo on her right.
“This is so awesome,” she whispered as she quickly pulled up her status screen to see what she’d gained. Upon hitting tier two, which was also referred to as ‘becoming a paragon,’ she’d gained ten stat points to place as she wished.
“I wonder what triggered your Sigil?” asked Laura.
“She obliterated those PKers,” said Riley.
“I’d like to think I helped in that regard,” Laura huffed.
“Sigil Online is pretty random towards how you gain your Sigil,” said Riley. “Killing one of the people who killed—”
Riley’s eyes widened. He turned back to look at the smoldering dirt where Chase had been.
“What about Chase?” he yelled. “They killed him! What’s he going to do?”
Carla dismissed her screen and looked over to Riley. “He’s going to have to reroll, it sucks,” she said. “I’m going to miss those crit dice.”
Riley’s jaw had lowered, hearing Carla speak so dismissively towards Chase’s death. “What the hell?” he asked. “Chase just lost his character! And all you can say is that you’re going to miss his powers?”
“Riley, relax,” said Laura as she stepped towards him. “It’s not that big of a deal!”
Riley looked over to Laura. “What are you talking about? He has to start over again! What’s he going to do for money? You guys are getting close to level seventy or eighty, aren’t you? How is he going to cover his expenses? Does he have savings?”
Laura walked over and grabbed Riley’s shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “Calm. Down,” she said in a stern voice. “Chase has always played Sigil for fun. His wife works in the IT department for one of the news agencies in the city we live in. She makes more money than all three of us combined. He’s not going to lose sleep over this! He’s going to be just fine.”
Riley took a moment to swallow and take a breath. He couldn’t explain it. All the emotion from his own death, had welled up inside of him again at the thought of Chase having to start over, just as Seth had. But at least Seth’s friends were all there to help support him in-game and outside of game, he had a part-time job which covered most of his living expenses.
Riley shook his head. “Sorry, I...I guess I never knew about his home life.”
Laura patted his right shoulder. “I know the real world can be pretty crappy at times, but a lot of people still just play Sigil for the game it is. Does Sigil really mean that much to you?” she asked, her brow furrowed as she released his shoulders.
Riley looked away. He saw Carla turn and walk around the room, but he didn’t pay her any mind. “Sigil is my life,” he said. “Sigil is how I pay rent and everything. There’s no jobs around, except ones that won’t amount to enough to pay to live alone where I’m at.”
Riley blinked at him. “How old are you?” she asked.
“I’m sixteen,” Riley answered.
“Sixteen? And you’re living on your own?” Laura asked. “Did your parents kick you out or something?”
Riley’s lips parted, but then he swallowed again. There was a tightness in his chest. He wanted to say to Laura, that he didn’t want to talk about it. But besides Aaron, he never talked to anyone about his home life. Well, except for Wendy, but that had been a while back.
“I never knew my parents. They were killed in an accident the year after I was born. I lived with my grandmother,” he said. “But she passed away about eight months after Sigil came out. I had nowhere to go, and I had been helping her pay the ever-increasing bills at her small apartment, but...there was no way I could stay there on my own. I’ve never even left the city I grew up in. So I found a small apartment with the money I’d earned. I ended up playing Sigil even more, for longer hours. If I didn’t, then I’d end up on the streets. Or worse.”
Laura watched him. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess it’s easy to assume things about people you don’t know. So, you weren’t put into the foster care system, after she passed away?” Laura asked.
Riley shook his head. “In my region, the age of being an adult and being able to make decisions for yourself is sixteen. So, I dropped out of school and made Sigil my full-time job to make ends meet. I was doing alright for myself, until I was killed in that first fight with the Weevil.”
Laura sighed. “That’s a bad break,” she said. “But things are looking up for you, right? I know it’s been two weeks since the invasion event, but you made some money, right? I know you’ve been hunting with us and Seth’s group, are you starting to pull in better income from your item sales?”
Riley nodded, looking back to Laura. “Yeah, things are getting better. I’m...optimistic. When I was playing as Radiance, I didn’t really make friends with the people I played with. It all felt like I was just working with others to turn a profit. But with Seth and you guys, It feels different. I’m not sure how to explain it.”
Carla walked up to them from the side, her arms filled with six different items. “That’s called having friends you care about, and who care about you. Ya scrub.” Carla said, shaking her head.
Riley couldn’t help but smile as the vocal young woman voiced the fact of the matter.
“Carla, you have such a way with words,” Laura said with a smirk.
“I know, I’m fantastic,” said Carla. “So, if you’re all done with your background story, we have loot to split and figure out. But let’s get the hell outa here first, alright? I don’t wanna get jumped again.”
Riley shook his head at first, but Carla had a point. “Sounds good to me,” he said. “Let’s get somewhere safe.”
Riley sat at a table in the corner of Bunker 7. To his left, sat Laura. To his right, sat Carla. Their return from the
Underground had been thankfully uneventful. No monsters, no traps, no PKers. Carla had grabbed the five items dropped from the PKers and snagged the item Chase had lost when he died, so she could hold onto it until he returned.
“Should we wait for Chase?” asked Riley.
“Screw that,” said Carla. “He’s probably eating dinner with his wife right now.”
“He probably won’t get back here until tomorrow,” said Laura. “Knowing him, he’ll make his character in the morning.”
“His wife will probably transfer him some money to turn into SC so he can get himself another apartment and a ride over,” said Carla.
“To be honest, I think he was getting tired of his power,” said Laura. “He enjoyed damage-dealing a lot more.”
“Damage dealing?” Riley asked. “The dice thing wasn’t his original power?”
Laura shook her head as she rested one arm on the table, and held her chin with the other. “Oh no, he’s had...two? Other powers. I think this is his third death. He started off as a healer, but not a hybrid healer, just a straight-up healer. He didn’t really like it, and I think he was happy when he lost the character and had to start over. Then, he was a damage-dealer, but we fought a rare spawn that was a little too tough for us, and we got cornered and he ended up dying, which he was a bit upset about cause he enjoyed the powers. Then, as you know, he gained support powers in the form of those dice. I think he was envious of Carla because Carla got to blow stuff up, while all he could do was throw dice.”
“Everyone wants to be me,” said Carla with a smirk. “Wait till he finds out that I hit paragon.
“Now he’s going to be envious of Chromatic Lotus,” Riley added with a half smile.
“That’s right!” Carla spoke up. “I need to demand that everyone start calling me that now. Else I just won’t respond.”
“I think I’m going to just call you Chrome,” said Laura. “Your new title is a mouthful.”
“Nope, you gotta say the whole thing!” Carla demanded. “Else I’m not sharing all that loot I picked up!”
“Could just call her Lotus,” Riley offered.
“Nope, the whole thing!” Carla reiterated.
Laura sighed. “Fine, Chromatic Lotus, please show us the first item for inspection. It’s getting close to my dinner time as well, and thinking about that mushroom risotto Chase was going to make for his wife, has got me dreaming of food.”
“Hmm, maybe we can just say Lotus in combat and you can call me Carla in social settings,” she said as she lifted her hand and tapped at her inventory.
Riley rolled his eyes as Carla was already changing her mind about it.
“Won’t that get confusing?” asked Laura. “You know what, forget it. Just...bring out the first item.”
“First item is...this thing,” said Carla as she materialized one of the items she’d picked up from the cloakers. She placed it on the center of the table. It looked like the iconic black hooded cloak that the PKers were all wearing. “We’ve actually got two of them, the stats are similar on them.”
Riley and Laura reached out and touched it, to see for themselves.
-
Cloak of Concealment
On-Use Effect: (Focus)
Stealth
Movement speed is reduced to 50% (While Stealthed)
Max Stamina is reduced by 20% for 10 minutes after leaving Stealth
(Stealth allows a player to remain hidden from sight. Nearby light-levels and powers, will help break concealment.)
(Cannot enter Stealth, if a monster or non-partied player is looking at you, or if you’re in direct light.)
-
“I guess it could be useful at times,” said Riley.
“Yeah, but we’re not PKers,” said Laura. “We should only focus on items that actually help us all the time, otherwise we should sell them.”
“That’s true,” said Riley.
“So what’re we doing with it?” asked Carla. “Like I said, there’s two.”
“I vote we sell them both,” said Laura. “I just don’t think we need items like this. Not to mention, the loss of stamina would hurt any of you. I also can’t give my clones anything other than weapons. They gain their base attributes from me.”
“I’ll vote sell,” said Riley.
“Alright, we’re selling both cloaks,” said Carla as she grabbed it and then dematerialized it back into her inventory. “Let’s take a look at—” She materialized a ring and set it in the center of the table. “This.”
Again, Laura and Riley reached out to touch it to read the details.
-
Ring of Expert Climbing
Easily climb any surface, no matter how smooth or tough.
Increase Endurance by 2
Increase Dexterity by 4
-
“I don’t really need it,” said Carla. “My current rings are better.”
“I don’t think my clones gain benefit effects from my gear, I think they only get stats,” said Laura. “But it might be sell-worthy, depending if Riley doesn’t want it.”
“I’d be able to position better if I had it,” said Riley. “Which means more buffs for everyone.”
“Yeah, but it could also separate you further from the protection of the party,” said Carla. “It sucked when that frost-user grabbed me. Think about that happening to you, after you’ve reached some place the rest of us can’t easily get to.”
“That’s true,” Riley sighed.
“Let’s set that aside for now and see the rest,” said Laura.
“Alright, here’s the next one,” said Laura as she removed an item from her inventory, which looked like a fragment of metal, on the end of a necklace. She set it on the center of the table as Riley and Laura touched it.
-
Bomb Shell Necklace
Increase throwing speed powers by 35%
Increase Power Stat by 5
Increase Stamina by 3
-
“Oh damn, this is totally mine,” said Carla.
“I use throwing powers too!” said Riley.
Carla sighed. “Yeah, but yours don’t gain any benefit from the power stat. Not to mention, I burn through Stamina super quick.”
“Yeah, but you already throw your lotuses really fast! I could buff everyone so-much faster with this!” said Riley.
“To be fair,” Laura spoke up. “Your cord already moves really fast. It’s actually the essence-stealing thing you do, that takes the longest. I’m going to have to vote Carla on this one.”
Riley reached up and scratched at the side of his head. “Sorry, you’re right...I wasn’t thinking. It should go to Carla.”
“Sweet,” Carla said as she grabbed it and put it on immediately. “I’m going to be a total badass. Like, a paragon badass.”
“What’s the last item?” Riley asked with a sigh.
“Right, here it is,” said Carla as she pulled another ring out of her inventory and set it on the table for Laura and Riley to touch.
-
Ring of Strong Endurance
Increase Endurance stat by 8
Increase Power stat by 4
-
“Hmm, an all-around good item,” said Riley.
“Yeah, would be useful for any of us,” said Laura.
“I like my rings better, you two can fight over it,” said Carla.
Riley looked over to Laura. “So what’re we thinking? We’ve got the ring of climbing, and this endurance one.”
Laura’s lips quirked to the side as she stared at the two rings on the table. “I think the ring of endurance is worth just a tiny bit more,” she said. “I could really use the extra endurance to keep all my clones alive, and you don’t use power as a stat, whereas the climbing ring gives you some dexterity.”
“I’m kinda in agreement,” said Riley. “I’ve got some decent defensive items already, and I can only equip one more ring.
“You still using that three-dex ring Carla traded yo
u?” asked Laura.
Riley nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, I’ll be trading a four endurance, two stamina ring, to equip this new one. I’d offer you my old one, but I’m thinking of letting Chase borrow it to help keep him alive.”
“That’s fine with me,” said Riley. “Like I said, I’m good on defence, but eight was pretty enticing.”
“As long as you’re fine with it, then it’s settled,” said Laura. “You’ll take the climbing, I’ll take the Endurance, Carla claimed the necklace, and we’ll sell the two cloaks.” Laura then looked to Carla. “Don’t forget to give Chase that item you picked up that he dropped.”
“Yeah yeah,” said Carla. “It’s nothing I want anyway.”
Riley reached for the ring of climbing and put it on. Carla had a point. It could put him in situations where the others couldn’t reach him, but it could also put him out of harm’s reach if enemies tried closing in. He figured it was going to help him, more than it’d hurt him. Besides, he had decent defensive items to keep himself alive.
“Sucks that we lost Chase today,” said Laura. “And that we didn’t find a rare down there, but at least we cleared out five PKers and got some decent spoils from them.”
“Yeah, they won’t be going around screwing with other players for a while, too,” said Carla.
“They were the ones that jumped Seth’s group,” said Riley. “I guess...in a strange way, I owe them for my current powers. If they wouldn’t have attacked, we would’ve just gone into the next room and that rare spawn might’ve eaten someone else. But, I’m glad we ended them. They deserved it for killing Seth.”
“PVP is one thing,” said Laura. “Where two guilds fight for whatever reason. But going into dungeons and hunting players who are fighting bosses, that’s just vile behavior.”
“What if we’re fighting a boss, and another group comes in, helps damage it, and then takes the item drop for themselves?” asked Carla, looking over to Laura.
“That’s different!” she claimed. “That’s just stealing! We’d obviously attack them, if they didn’t give the item up.”
