Chương 134: Mwah!

The man shoved the bag forward with a rattle. When he opened it I saw it was filled with runestones. The ones I could identify from first glance were three Flames. If the entire bag was filled with Flame stones it would be kind of woah, but not super woah, because really, what was I going to do with twenty Flame runestones? Nothing I couldn't do with the two I already had.

"My, uh… guy… Are these all Flame?" I asked.

"It's Igor, Lady Aurelia," he answered.

"Huh? These are all Igor runestones? They kind of look like Flame." The man started shaking.

"Yes, I mean, no. I mean, they aren't." Sweat formed on his brow.

"They, aren't all Flame."

"Oh, thank the Goddess. So what does Igor do?" The man looked from left to right, desperately avoiding my eyes.

"Thank you. I uhh… I'm Igor. Whatever you wish of me."

"Oh." I peeked into the bag again.

"So are they all Flame or aren't they?"

"They aren't."

"Why didn't you just say so?" Igor stood there trembling, rattling the bag with runestones, but he didn't respond anymore. He dropped his head and held the bag closer to me. I grabbed it, careful not to touch his sweaty hands. He was dripping wet at this point, and the shaking had only gotten worse. I spotted an empty box, walked up to it and turned it upside down. I emptied the bag on top of it. Igor was right, they weren't just Flame runestones.

I picked one up that had what appeared to be a little four leaf clover on it.

"Haven't seen this one before," I said, inspecting it closely. I cast [Artifact Index]. [Clover Runestone] Increases Luck Right. The one stat I never even looked at. I didn't need luck. I had skill. So this runestone was basically worthless to me. I also didn't know of any runewords that incorporated this particular rune, which made it doubly worthless. So I had a bunch of Flame runestones, which I didn't need more of, and a Clover runestone, which I didn't need at all. Off to a bad start.

"E-everything alright?" Igor asked, startling me. I was so focused on checking these runes I didn't notice him sneak up behind me.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You look upset," Kasia said.

"I'm not upset. That's just how my face looks sometimes. I'm great. Who wouldn't want a bunch of useless runestones?" Igor whimpered and took a step back.

"What's his problem?" I whispered to Kasia. Bogumir snorted.

"He probably thinks you're going to blow his head off for wasting your time."

"What?! Why? That's not something I do." Kasia shrugged.

"That's not something I do to people!" I objected.

"Hah!" Bogumir said.

"It's not something I usually do to people! I mean, I do it to bad people! And monsters." Igor started crying. I walked up to him.

"No! No!" If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He dropped to his knees, closed his eyes and cried even harder.

"Igor, no! I didn't mean it like that!" I put my hand on his shoulder, hoping to reassure him that I wasn't going to blow his head off, but it only caused his howling to go up an octave. I started to sweat.

"Igor! I'm not going to shoot you in the head! I'm not! Don't listen to Bogumir. Or me. Wait. Do listen to me, but focus on the part where I said that I wasn't going to blow off your head." I looked around to see everyone staring at me with their mouths open.

"No!" I yelled, raising my hands.

"I'm not going to blow anyone's heads off. I mean, I will, but not yours! You're my people! By the Goddess, why can't you understand that?" Igor opened one eye.

"You're not going to blow my head off?"

"No! Why would I?"

"Because I wasted your time by giving you runestones?"

"No! No! I love runestones. Can't get enough of them. Even lame—I mean Flame and Clover runestones. They're great, really. Any runestones you got, give 'em to me. Yeah. They're never a waste of my time."

"But," Bogumir said.

"If you do waste her time, that's a guaranteed one-way ticket to Floppy Earlobe Town." Everyone gasped. Kasia laughed, then clapped a hand over her mouth with a guilty expression. I flicked Bogumir in the ear.

"Bad Bogumir! Bad head! Don't scare them." I turned to my people.

"He was kidding. He's a kidder. He likes to joke. I'd give you a warning first. Before Floppy Earlobe Town. Alright? So, no worries."

"Unless—" Bogumir started.

"Shut up!" I interrupted.

"Or you're going in the bag!" Bogumir grunted disapprovingly, but didn't finish his sentence. I glanced at the runestones, but at this point I was afraid that another disappointing stone would cause more problems for me. Now I even had to watch my facial expressions, just in case someone would misinterpret… or in this case interpret it perfectly, and think I was unhappy, causing them to freak out. I sighed.

"Hubert, please get over here and make a list containing all these runestones and their quantities. Give it to me after you're done. Then put them all back inside the bag. Thank you." He scurried up to the box.

"I will do so immediately, Lady Aurelia." I pointed at Hubert.

"See guys, be more like Hubert. No crying. Just doing." Once more Hubert swelled with pride. I turned to Kasia.

"Alright, while Hubert—""Excuse me, Lady Aurelia," Hubert said, holding up a piece of parchment.

"Yes?" He handed me the paper.

"It is done."

"It is? Already?" I looked at the paper.

"It is. Wow, Hubert. Color me impressed. That was fast!" Hubert proudly pushed up his spectacles.

"It is one of my many useful abilities, my Lady." I nodded approvingly.

"Definitely be more like Hubert, everyone." The man was a master at counting stuff. Which was great, because I was not a master at counting stuff. I was more like a… journeyman? At counting. Definitely above apprentice level, but also no master, if I was being honest. And I was always honest. I looked at the list again. Flame: 3 Frost: 2 Shock: 2 Poison: 2 Cloud: 1 Fist: 1 Hand: 1 Bubble: 1 Wave: 1 Foot: 1 Clover: 3 Square: 1 Heart: 1 Total: 21 So I may have misjudged my bag a little. So what? It happens.

It was actually really good. Having such a wide variety of stones probably opened up a lot of options. It didn't let me build Desecrate, or Court of Flame, or Hiellal's Bargain, but that was fine. I mean, it wasn't super fine, but it was pretty fine. I was certain I'd find something that made use of some of the ones I'd just found. It would probably be even better than any of those runewords. Yeah. It probably was super fine after all.

In fact, I was willing to bet that somewhere in those boxes there were scrolls and scrolls full of combinations I hadn't even dreamed of!

"Woo!" I said with a fist pump.

"Woo!" my followers echoed, pumping their fists.

"Woo!" Bogumir laughed. I slowly nodded.

"Yeah. Alright." Somehow everything that had happened had not only caused Kasia to come out of her shell, but even Bogumir felt like a different person. When he was joking around, making fun of me it almost made me feel like he was part of the team. Like he wanted to be part of the team. His words didn't feel malicious anymore, it felt more like friends ribbing on each other. Was Bogumir growing on me? I hoped not.

I wouldn't want to start feeling bad for him, because then I might want to find a way to restore his body. Then I'd lose his enhancements, and that would be bad. Unless… Unless the strzyga matriarch had a bunch of super cool enhancements? Now that I thought about it, I was level 22! I could wear four heads! I'd totally forgotten to check what that matriarch head did and even left a slot open. I waved Vasil over.

"Get over here. I'm going to check out the matriarch's head. Let's see what this thing can do." He hopped closer.

"You should also have gained a good amount of stat points. Perhaps now would be a good time to balance your build a bit. Invest some of those points into Strength and Stamina." I hesitated.

"Eh… Maybe you're right. Maybe I should. Maybe putting all my points in just two stats was…" I frowned and bit my lip.

"Maybe it was…"

"Dumb as hell?" Bogumir asked.

"Not dumb as hell," Vasil said.

"It was a sound strategy at the time, but times change. We must be flexible. We must adapt. We must be ready to deal with everything the world throws at us. That means sometimes the best thing to do is deviate slightly from our original plans in order to make our build more robust." I nodded.

"Yeah. I'm just being robust. If putting all my points in Attunement was dumb as hell, you wouldn't be hanging from my belt right now, Bogumir. And it was fun, and smart as hell, but now it is time to be robust." I made the strzyga matriarch head give Bogumir a fake kiss on his forehead.

"Mwah! But first I'll see what your lover can do." Bogumir grunted, defeated.