Instead of speaking immediately, Mel fell silent for a moment. When Arthur made a frustrated noise deep in his throat, she shook her head a little, dismissing whatever thought had taken her away from the moment.
“Clan seals allow you to establish a clan. You need, however, a clan building—one, minimum—to activate the majority of functions in the clan. Until you establish that first building, a lot of the abilities will be locked out for you.”
Arthur nodded, having guessed that much at least.
“There’s a second lock in place, until you clear your first Tower. And, as we understand it, there are thresholds for new buildings that allow the activation of additional abilities. It’s certain there’s a difference between those clans or guilds that clear a second Tower—”
“Multi-tower guilds,” Arthur added. He knew that was one of the ways people looked at guilds in the real world—how many Towers they had influence in.
“—and there’s likely other thresholds beyond two. We just don’t know what they are.” Mel paused, then added, “Yet.”
“Okay, so establish a guild building here and then on each floor and get another unlock when I’m done with this Tower. Got it.”
Mel pursed her lips, before continuing. “There are two other things you might see right now. Aspects and Sigils. Yes?”
Arthur nodded, confirming her guess.
“Aspects are unique bonuses for a clan or guild. There is some overlap, but for the most part, each Aspect is different for a clan or guild. The combination of Aspects makes a guild unique and often dictates the long-term goal of the clan.” Mel turned her hand one way, then the other. “You can have Aspects that relate to creativity or bonuses to healing. Or that improve training time, or the speed that individuals learn new cultivation techniques.”
“Or increase their likelihood of getting unique beast cores, or stumbling across rare or hidden aspects of a Tower,” Arthur said. “Combat, exploration, crafting, healing, guardianship . . .” He ticked his fingers off, recalling the big drop-down forms that were used to sort out guilds that he occasionally perused for fun.
“Exactly, though Aspects—like Perks—can also affect things that are less visible than Sigils. So, creative Aspects, trickster or charm-based ones, mercantile Aspects or blessings . . . Of course, there’s arguments about exactly how powerful some of these less numerically-specific Aspects are, but it’s clear they have some effect.”
Nothing new there. It was well known that the most powerful Perked Guilds were mostly quite specialized. All but Valorant, of course, which had the advantage of being the first mover and having very deep pockets, thus managing to offset their lack of specialization in Perks by just hiring the best.
“I got that, but how do I get an Aspect? Do I need, perhaps to inspect the Aspect?” As usual, his audience did not get his wit.
“We believe the first one appears when you register the clan,” Mel said.
“And the others?” And there were only five such Aspects or Perks available. After that, the other Aspects or Perks would no longer be active, though they might still be gained. Rumors were that even non-active Perks could provide a bonus, with such Aspects combining to become a lower-grade Aspect or Perks of the same sort. That was the base assumption anyway, from reviewing the various Perks guilds had shown, but it had yet to be confirmed.
“Unknown. Probably at each step unlocked,” Mel said.
“So the first one chosen is going to be very important,” Arthur said with a nod. If they weren’t going to get another one until he cleared the Tower, he could expect the first Aspect to weigh most heavily.
“We were going to choose an Aspect of guardianship or safety,” Mel said, before Arthur could push her for more details on Sigils. She met his gaze, flatly. “Even if we managed to clear this Tower, and that was a big if, the influence of such an Aspect in the outside world could be significant. If nothing else, because of the reputation we could garner.”
Arthur bobbed his head. He was not completely ignorant about some of the politics around women, the misogyny they faced, especially in Malaysia and after the shift towards a UBI. There had been significant pressures placed upon them to take up more traditional roles, as homemakers. Not just among the Malays and Indians, but even the Chinese population—which had a hardline, old-guard group.
The argument to push women back into the house had increased significantly, because there was no need for two incomes now, each individual’s basic needs were supposedly taken care of, and there was an increased demand for stretching every dollar. That the logic almost made sense, when one didn’t look at it too closely, had made the pressure ever greater.
Thus groups like the Thorned Lotuses. Thus their departure into the Tower. But such escapes were only for the few and brave, the lucky who managed to sneak in without being stopped by parents or husbands or “caring” families.
And even then, as evidenced all too recently, there was no guarantee that being in here was any safer. At least the Tower seemed to have an overall sterilization field running, since Arthur had never heard of a single child born within the Tower.
Which, of course, led to the stories of women being bounced off the Tower when they tried to enter it while pregnant. Sometimes to their dismay.
“Will you do it?” Mel’s voice came now, more insistent than ever when Arthur had stayed silent too long, thinking this all over.
He blinked, trying to recall the thread of the earlier conversation, the question that she had asked. He remembered it now. And truth be told, it was not entirely surprising that she had asked it.
“Will I take an Aspect like that?” He paused, looking at the much diminished group. Remembered the lives lost, stared at the wounds that covered the others, Uswah’s lost limb, and the ragged tear along Mel’s torso that was barely held together by a badly stitched patch. He weighed his options, his answer, and his own needs.
Thought about the allies he required if he was to survive, thought about the target that was now branded on his hand. And most of all, he thought of the kind of world and the kind of person he wanted. Because, for the first time, it was not just about making do for himself. He had a chance to make a real change, affect more than his own survival.
And wasn’t that a thought?
“Yeah. Yeah, I think I will.”