The shopkeeper smiled. "Of course. There's Reflex, which you've already seen—works well offensively too with the movement speed and Dexterity boost. But I do have one specifically geared toward Dexterity, one for Attunement, and one that combines both."

  I leaned forward slightly. "Go on."

  "The Attunement runeword I know for chest and pants pieces isn't necessarily offensive in itself," she continued, "but it can be very useful for offensive casters. Helps sustain your damage output."

  I nodded. "And the others?"

  “Oh, they are offensive alright.”

  I clapped my hands together. “Let’s hear it then!”

  “Very well:”

  Adder - PoisonSpeedHand

  1/1 charges of [Venom]. Recharges every twelve hours.

  +15 Dexterity

  15% Enhanced Attack Speed

  Poison Length Reduced By 25%

  -10-15% Enemy Poison Resistance

  Insight - StarWaveSol

  +50% Enhanced Defense

  +15 Attunement

  +10% Skill power

  +15% Mana regeneration

  -10% Skill cooldown

  Delirium - HandStarWave

  10% chance to cast [Confusion] when struck

  +5-10 Dexterity

  +5-10 Attunement

  +20% Status effect duration

  Enemies affected by status effects take 10% increased damage

  Yeah. Alright. Either of those would give me a sweet boost. I mean, I wasn’t even wearing pants right now, and my dress—while still nice despite the missing piece—wasn’t giving me any benefits aside from not getting dirty. It also had a couple new holes in it where the arrows had struck me, which didn’t really help its overall condition. I guess it wasn’t as nice as I thought it was.

  Maybe I should ask Kasia to fix it, and reattach the missing piece while she was at it. She could fix clothes, right? Or was I imagining things?

  On the other hand, would it really matter if I bought some new pants and a tunic? It would be kind of sad not to be wearing the dress anymore. It did have sentimental value, after all. It reminded me of the time I had cleverly outsmarted a vicious spirit. One that had probably claimed dozens of lives.

  I chuckled and shook my head. I almost felt sorry for the powudnitsa. First you already have a stupid name, then one day you’re out there slaughtering innocent farmers by the hundreds, the next you try to trick a bonafide genius and suddenly you don’t have a head anymore.

  Actually, no. I didn’t feel sorry for her at all. She tried to kill me, that bitch! She got exactly what she deserved. Maybe she got less than she deserved even.

  What I was trying to say is that the dress was a testament to my brilliance, and letting go of it would be a bit sad. Maybe I could still wear it around the cathedral. For old times’ sake.

  Anyway, I digress.

  Adder was good. I’d never been poisoned before, but it could happen. Being poisoned for half the time (assuming I was wearing two pieces) seemed pretty convenient if you were poisoned.

  The decrease in enemy poison resistance worked together with [Venom], which would add poison damage to my attacks. Adding an extra damage type could be a good idea, in case my opponent was immune to fire—which seemed like something that could happen, given all the fire resistant gear I kept finding. Clearly that was a thing here. Must be because of all the Flame Adepts.

  Despite the shopkeeper mentioning Insight wasn’t strictly offensive, if I wore it it would definitely be offensive. And while I didn’t have any skills with a cooldown yet, I might in the future. If I decided to combine it with Adder, it would also shave off 72 minutes of [Venom]’s recharge time, which was pretty significant.

  As for Insight, extra power and mana regeneration were obviously extremely helpful to my build as well. You can never go wrong with more of that stuff.

  Delirium, though? Delirium was very tempting.

  Boosting both Dexterity and Attunement was pretty great for me. On top of that, it punished people for hitting me by making them confused, which was some form of justice. Even though I wasn’t sure how good [Confusion] was, “better than nothing” was still better than nothing.

  [Confusion] would benefit from the increased status effect duration, as would [Venom] when I successfully hit and poisoned my enemies. Actually, it would do wonders for my current build as well. Set someone on fire, and boom—now they are even more on fire! Longer on fire. You get my point.

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  Having my opponents take extra damage while affected by status effects was also nothing to sneeze at. 10% damage added up, especially when it was ticking away at your health or barrier every second. It would even make my normal attacks do extra damage. All in all an amazing runeword.

  Honestly, they were all good. Which was annoying, because I couldn’t exactly ask Vasil for advice. Pulling a frog out of my bag in the middle of a shop and asking him to share his wisdom with me was sure to raise more than a few eyebrows.

  Delirium kept pulling my attention back. Even ignoring all the status effect synergy, the double stat boost alone was enough to make my mouth water. Sure, there was a risk of only getting +5 to each stat, but I liked to think I was pretty lucky. I could easily see myself rolling +10 Dexterity and +10 Attunement.

  I decided I was definitely going for some Delirium pants, so that left the chest piece.

  Adder was still winking at me. The extra damage type could end up being very useful, and poison might interfere with healing depending on how strong the effect was.

  Was I willing to trade some raw power for that utility?

  …Probably.

  But double Delirium was also whispering my name and blowing kisses like the shameless temptress she was.

  And then there was the fact that I already had a Poison rune. If I could get my hands on a Speed and a Hand rune, I could technically make Adder myself if I ever wanted to in the future…

  I didn’t want to buy both, because I didn’t feel like carrying an extra tunic around. Maybe if I’d bothered putting points into Strength or Stamina like a normal person, I could afford to haul half a wardrobe with me everywhere.

  But I hadn’t, so I couldn’t. Not that I regretted it, oh no.

  My build was razor-focused. Dexterity. Attunement. Speed, power, precision. No wasted points. No compromises. Kasia was still breathing. I was still breathing. Everyone who had tried to kill me? Not breathing. And every problem I ran into somehow kept solving itself in a very explosive, very efficient way.

  At this point, my setup was so clean it almost felt illegal. I was half-expecting the gods to descend from the sky and tell me to tone it down. The fact that they hadn't probably meant they either approved, or were too intimidated to say anything.

  So no, I wasn’t lugging around spare armor “just in case.” If something tried to kill me, I’d kill it first. That had been working out great so far.

  And as much as my heart told me to double Delirium it, it wouldn’t make sense to put all my eggs in the setting-people-on-fire basket. With the poison damage from [Venom] I would also be able to deal with fire immunes, and the Delirium pants would still give that a bump. I had to listen to my brain, as much as it pained my heart.

  “I’ll take an Adder tunic and Delirium pants,” I said.

  The woman inclined her head. “A sensible choice.”

  It was, wasn’t it. I was being sensible.

  “Anything else?” she asked.

  “Uhh… do you have any runewords for ranged weapons”

  She shook her head. “Afraid not. We unfortunately don’t have runewords for any weapons.” She raised a finger. “We do have a runeword for shovels though!”

  I stared at her for a few moments. What the hell was I supposed to do with a shovel?

  “No, thank you,” I said. “That will be all then.”

  The woman inclined her head again. “Very good. That will be four gold then.”

  Kasia’s eyes went wide, and her mouth fell open.

  Damn. Vasil wasn’t kidding when he said runes were expensive. Still, thanks to the bwotnik’s generous donation, my coin pouch could take the hit.

  I wondered what one million gold would get me. Maybe I could fake my own death and have Kasia claim the bounty for me. Maybe I could plan a super elaborate heist and steal it from wherever they were keeping it?

  Only I had no idea where they were keeping it. Maybe Vasil knew. Maybe I could recruit a team of elite rogues who’d be able to pull it off. I’d ask him about it when we have some privacy.

  “Sounds good to me,” I said as I reached into my satchel and dug around for the coins. I couldn’t find any, but I did find Vasil. I grabbed him and shook him a bit, hoping he’d get the hint. He didn’t spit out any coins, and I was starting to feel embarrassed that it was taking me so long.

  I gave him a squeeze. “Come on you little bastard.”

  He still didn’t do anything, so I squeezed him harder. “Give me the damn coins!” I hissed.

  The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow.

  I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile before remembering the mask covered my entire face. “Just, uh.. my purse. It’s almost like it has a mind of its own sometimes, haha.”

  The woman smiled politely, then chuckled. “I know what you mean.”

  Vasil finally coughed up four golden coins, and I handed them to the shopkeeper. They were all wet, covered in frog slime. She frowned.

  “Sorry about that,” I said. “Sweaty hands.”

  As the woman started walking toward the back something else occurred to me. Runewords were apparently relatively hard to come by, and finding a shop that could actually make a bunch of them was rarer than it should be. If I was smart—and let’s be honest, I usually was—I’d take advantage of that.

  "Actually," I said, "before we go, would you be able to provide me with a list of all the runewords you can make? I'll likely be back in the future for more gear and equipment. And if you could also include combinations you don't currently have the stones for, that would be even better. I can keep an eye out for them during our travels."

  The woman's face lit up. "Of course! That's actually very smart. Most people don't think that far ahead." She turned toward the back. "Give me just a moment."

  She disappeared into the back. A few minutes later she returned with Kasia's set, my tunic and pants, and a sheet of parchment covered in neat handwriting.

  "Here you are," she said, handing everything over. "The gear is ready, and that's every runeword combination I know. The ones with a mark next to them are the ones I'm currently out of stones for."

  I took the papers and glanced at them. This was going to be very useful.

  "Thank you," I said. "This is perfect. Hope to see you soon!"

  I turned to Kasia. “Alright. We’re done here.”

  She didn’t respond. She was still standing there, staring with her mouth open like the concept of “four gold” had permanently broken her brain.

  "Kasia,” I said, waving a hand in front of her face. “Armor acquired. Time to go.”

  Still nothing.

  I sighed, grabbed her by the arm, and gently but firmly pulled her toward the door.

  “F–four gold,” she whispered.

  "Yes, yes. Very expensive. We can talk about it when we get to the inn."

  I nodded to the shopkeeper. "Thank you again."

  "Anytime! Safe travels!" the shopkeeper cheerfully replied.

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