I walked back toward where we'd left the Powudnitsa's body. The dress was still there, pristine and clean despite everything around it being covered in mud and filth.

  "What are you doing?" Vasil asked.

  I took off the Scythe. "Getting new clothes." I started taking off what was left of my tunic.

  Vasil immediately turned around, and I swear I saw him blush.

  I laughed at his sudden awkwardness. It wasn’t like the sad remnants of my tunic were covering much before.

  I peeled off the rest of ruined fabric and tossed it aside, then picked up the spirit's dress. It was surprisingly soft, and aside from the piece I'd cut out of the side at the bottom, it was in perfect condition. I slipped it on. It fit well enough, though the missing section showed quite a bit of leg. I was lucky I hadn’t cut off the piece in a different spot, that could have been tragic.

  How was it possible that it was still clean? Oh no.

  I cast [Artifact Index] on it.

  [Summer Dress of Eternal Cleanliness]

  This dress can never get dirty.

  I screamed in frustration.

  Vasil spun around wide-eyed. "What's wrong?! What happened?!"

  "This dress can never get dirty and I cut a piece out of it!" I shook my fist at the heavens. "Why must the gods always conspire against me? Why?!"

  Vasil stared at me. "To me, it looks like the gods answered your prayers by delivering you new clothing that couldn't get dirty. And instead, you spat in their face—not only by cutting a piece out of it, but also by complaining about it."

  He was clearly wrong. The gods didn’t give me this dress. I outsmarted a vicious evil spirit intent on sucking out my soul to get this dress. I fought for this dress, with great peril to my life!

  If the gods were involved they obviously wouldn’t have let me cut a piece out of it. Unless… unless it was Dolion playing a trick on me, but even that felt far-fetched.

  I shook my head. No, the gods had nothing to do with this. This was just another encounter with one of the many evil-doers that had nothing better to do than try to make my life worse. It started to make sense to me now. I was the last bastion of light in this dark, dark world, and the forces of evil would stop at nothing to keep me from shining. They feared my brilliance. My potential. They knew that if I was allowed to reach my full power, unchallenged and unhindered, I would bring about a new age of prosperity and justice. So they sent their minions—like this spirit—to chip away at me. One dress at a time.

  “Nothing?” Vasil asked.

  “Shut up.”

  Time to check what the hand and scythe would do for [Headhunter]—if they did anything at all. I pulled out the hand and unwrapped it, mentally placing it in Mēnē’s offering slot.

  [Headhunter - upgrade preview]

  Offering: [Powudnitsa Hand]

  Resulting modifiers:

  Totems bound to gear give

  + 5 Attunement

  + 10% Mana regeneration

  + 10% Resistance to mental manipulation

  + 10% Resistance to heat and fire damage

  Totems bound to weapons give

  + 5 Attunement

  + 10% mana regeneration

  + 5% chance to apply [Heat Stroke] on hit

  + 5% chance to apply [Forced Dance] on hit

  Oh wow, this was ridiculous. Amazing Attunement gain, and with 10 totems bound to my gear I’d be completely impervious to fire. Try fireballing me then, church guys! Then again, I only had one right now, and I’d still have to survive until level 50 to pull that off.

  The mental resistance didn’t impress me much. I was already immune to manipulation, obviously. On account of being a genius.

  The weapon bonuses felt a bit underwhelming at first. No extra damage, just overheating people and making them dance. Kind of lame to be honest. On the other hand, it would be hard for my opponent to kill me when they were dancing and dying of heat stroke. Maybe it wasn’t the worst after all.

  Now what if I also added the scythe to the mix?

  [Headhunter - upgrade preview]

  Offering: [Powudnitsa Hand]

  Offering: [Lady Midday* - Scythe]

  Resulting modifiers:

  Totems bound to gear give

  + 8 Attunement

  + 10% Mana regeneration

  + 10% Resistance to mental manipulation

  + 10% Resistance to heat and fire damage

  + 20% Proficiency: Dance

  Totems bound to weapons give

  + 8 Attunement

  + 10% mana regeneration

  + 25% Enhanced Damage

  + 25% Increased Attack Speed

  + 5% Life or Barrier stolen per hit

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  + 5% chance to inflict [Madness] on hit

  So combining offerings gave slightly different, but better modifiers. And applied to every single head? This skill was totally awesome. With enough heads I could even take a stab at being a professional dancer if shooting people in the face didn’t work out.

  …But the more I looked at it, the more it bugged me.

  If these two offerings already boosted [Headhunter] this much, there had to be better ones out there. Surely these wouldn’t be the best I could do.

  I asked the System if I could change offerings later.

  [Offerings can be replaced at any time. Cost is one upgrade point. Original offering cannot be recovered.]

  So if I committed now, I’d have to burn an upgrade point to swap later. And since I only got one every five levels, they weren’t exactly growing on trees.

  I decided to hold off for now. Rushing into an upgrade without checking what other options I had could only lead to regret.

  What I did really need right now was some mobility, since I might have slightly overestimated my ability to kill stuff, and slightly underestimated my need for evasion. Getting mauled by a bear made that painfully clear.

  I petted the little bear head hanging from my pistol. “Thanks for the lesson, little guy.” It really did look cute.

  I scrolled through the available skills, looking for anything related to mobility or movement. There had to be something.

  [Enhanced Leap]

  Type: Mobility

  For when obstacles are simply beneath you.

  Increases the user’s jumping distance. Possible distance scales with Dexterity. Low mana cost.

  [Haste]

  Type: Mobility

  Why run when you can run faster?

  Increases the user’s movement and attack speed. Duration and increase scale with Dexterity. Low mana cost.

  [Blink]

  Type: Mobility

  You were here, now you’re there.

  Instantly teleports to a location the user can see. Possible distance scales with Attunement. High mana cost.

  All the skills were still pretty basic, but they were still good. At the same time I was hoping more stuff would open up at higher levels.

  There was no denying that [Blink] appeared to be the best of the bunch, but it had the exact same ridiculous mana cost as [Clean Entry]. If I put at least two of my three free stat points into Attunement I would be able to use it four times in a row.

  With enough Attunement I would be able to blink around my enemies like a ghost. Dismantling them before they even realized I was behind them. That did seem pretty flashy. I think Perry would have approved.

  [Haste] was tempting. Faster movement and attack speed for a low mana cost? That sounded like exactly what I needed. The only question was how long it would last—for some reason the System was pretty stingy with information until you actually got the skill. Since I was planning to dump points into Dexterity anyway it might actually become exceptionally good as time went on.

  I pictured myself as a blur on a battlefield, everything else moving in slow-motion. Rows and rows of heads popping like overripe pomegranates as I sped past, cocky grin plastered on my face, a whirlwind of smoke trailing from my revolvers.

  I closed my eyes and slowly nodded, smiling. “Yeah.”

  [Enhanced Leap] was... jumping. Better jumping, sure. I could already see myself trying to jump out of a sticky situation, cracking my head open on a ceiling, or cutting my neck open on a particularly pointy branch and dying a violent, totally undeserved death.

  I clicked my tongue and shook my head. “Fucking trees, man.”

  “What’s wrong with the trees?” Vasil asked.

  I blinked, snapping out of my thoughts. "Oh. I'm trying to decide between [Blink] and [Haste]."

  "What do trees have to do with that?"

  "Huh?" I looked at him, confused. "What trees?"

  Vasil stared at me for a long moment, then sighed. “Never mind. They’re both good skills. If you have the mana for it, you’d probably be best off taking both eventually. You’ll probably want to start with [Haste] and later on get [Blink]”

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding thoughtfully. “That’s probably smart.”

  I looked at [Blink] on the screen. "Don’t worry, I'll come back for you later when I have more mana." I reached out and patted the skill description like I was petting a dog.

  [Skill acquired: Blink]

  I took in a deep breath. Yep. This one was on me.

  “So… you want to test out [Haste] now? See how it works?” Vasil asked.

  I straightened, cleared my throat, and pretended this was all part of the plan. “Actually, I decided that [Blink] is more my style. It's more... versatile. And I have so much mana anyway, I’m basically swimming in it. It would be a waste not to use a skill that really takes advantage of my strengths. [Haste] is good, don't get me wrong, but [Blink] is just objectively superior in terms of tactical positioning and combat flexibility. Plus, teleporting is way cooler than just running fast. Anyone can run fast. Not everyone can literally teleport. That type of skill and finesse really suits my combat style I think.”

  I held my hands out flat, framing the air between them. "For example, if I'm fighting someone and they're about to hit me, I can just [Blink] behind them. Boom! Dead. Or if I need to get somewhere quickly—like, say, across a river—I can just [Blink] across instead of wasting time looking for a bridge. Or if there's a really tall wall, I don't have to climb it, I just [Blink] to the top. Or imagine getting surrounded by enemies. They blink, I [Blink]. Boom! Gone! Or if someone's eating the last piece of cake—[Blink], it's mine now."

  I gave myself a congratulatory nod. “The applications are endless.”

  Vasil looked at the floor, then back at me. “Okay, Hecate.”

  "I feel like you're not seeing the potential here, Vasil. This is a game-changer. Do you understand what this means? I can be anywhere, anytime. I'm basically untouchable now. The tactical advantage alone is worth ten [Haste] skills. Twenty, even."

  "Twenty?" Vasil asked. "Can you use [Blink] twenty times in a row?"

  I let out an exaggerated laugh. "Please. With a skill this powerful? I only need one, baby. Quality over quantity."

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “If you say so.”

  I inclined my head. "I knew you'd see reason."

  I pulled up my stat allocation. Three free points to spend.

  Since I'd just taken [Blink], I figured I'd skip Dexterity for now and just put my points into Attunement. Might as well maximize what I had.

  I took a look at my status.

  Strength: 2 (1 + 1)

  Dexterity: 16 (13 + 3)

  Barrier: 11 (1 + 10)

  Attunement: 26 (20 + 6)

  Stamina: 1 (1 + 0)

  Luck: 1 (1 + 0)

  Chaos: 1 (1 + 0)

  Headhunter Totems Equipped: 1/1

  "Alright." I cracked my knuckles. "I'm ready. Let's find more stuff to kill." I leaned closer to Vasil, squinting. "Is that a chunk of liver on your head? Or just regular bear guts?"

  He looked at me for a few seconds, then sighed. "Let's just go back to the cathedral."

  "What? Why? I just got a new skill. I need to test it out."

  "Hecate, I’ve had enough for today."

  I shrugged. "Hmmm. Well, okay. If you're tired."

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