“Of course,” Gora said easily, “you may change your mind any time before purchase. What about a weapon? I’d hate to send you out adventuring without one. The starter pack comes with a knife, but it is designed merely for cooking and survival.”

“No,” I said flatly. “No weapon.” I could already tell that would be a waste of time. Even with my strength enhanced, I was still smaller and weaker than most rissians. My run in with those muggers proved that. I didn’t need to worry about a strength difference. All I needed to do was get in close. Once I made skin to skin contact, the fight was basically over. A weapon wouldn’t help me do that, and besides that, all the weapons I’d seen so far were enormous two-handed behemoths. I wasn’t strong enough to wield them now, let alone in a few months, when my cancer got worse.

“I strongly advise you to get a weapon to defend yourself with if you plan to go adventuring,” Gora reiterated.

“I’d rather spend my money on Brands,” I said. “My Skill gives me extra MP, remember?”

Gora sighed. “As you say. I won’t waste breath on a warning unheeded. Let us discuss Brands. You mentioned Manifest Inspiration. That Brand costs 2,880 Crosses, which would bring your total up to 7,068 Crosses.”

I clicked the coin icon in the corner of my vision to check on my current funds. As I did, it started doing the math immediately on what I was intending to spend.

11,154 Crosses, 2 pennies – 7,068 Crosses 4,086 Crosses, 2 pennies

Now my overlay Skill was doing math for me. It was simple math, but it still made me wonder what the limitations were. Could it calculate math problems I didn’t know myself, or would it just be guessing at the answer? Not important. I still had plenty of money to spend, though I was second-guessing the necessity of armor after seeing what a big chuck of my funds it was taking up. “Looks like I’ve got about four thousand left,” I said. “Any Brands you would recommend for a new adventurer? I’m willing to defer to your expertise on this.”

Gora smiled. “A wise man. The first Brand I encourage all adventurers to purchase is one capable of healing. We sell a few basic ones, and they will absolutely save your life more than you expect. Even a minor cut can become deadly if it festers without healing for too long. As I’m sure you know, your Brands will stop working if they become too damaged. There are a small group of healing Skills that can repair a Brand in those cases. They are not as effective as some more popular options, but essential for anyone that wants to use a lot of Brands.” He turned his head to look over his shoulder. “Isn’t that right, Feeney?”

One of the hooded hunters looming quietly in the back of the room cleared his throat. In a low voice he said, “Yeah. I use one. It really helps when I get injured.” The way he said it sounded incredibly rehearsed. I just rolled my eyes.

“What makes those type of healing Brands less effective?” I asked. “Less effective than what? That makes it sound like some Brand don’t work the same, but I thought they all just did one specific function.”

“They do,” Gora confirmed. “Their function will remain unchanged. It is the Brand itself that will be the problem in some cases. You don’t have any active Brands yet, so you might not know this, but whenever a Brand is activated, the skin grows hot. It can be quite painful. If a Brand becomes damaged, it will get hotter than normal. Eventually, a Brand not given enough time to cool between uses risks getting burned out. When that happens, it will be no different than if you had injured the Brand on a blade.”

“Good thing I don’t have to worry about the pain,” I said.

Gora pursed his lips. “You should not ignore the pain entirely,” he said. “It serves as a useful warning when you have pushed a Brand too far. I have never seen someone without a pain-dampening effect burn out their Brand. With a Pain Taker active on you, you will be in a high-risk category for that type of injury.”

“Define too many times in a row,” I said.

Gora shrugged. “It depends on how thick the skin is. Sometime it can be three times in five minutes. Sometimes twice that.”

“And I assume this healing Brand you wanted to offer me can repair this type of burn out damage on my Brands?” I asked.

Gora nodded. “Precisely. There are other options, of course. I could offer you a passive Heat Resistance Brand that will increase your skin’s resilience to the kind of burning Brands do. But the better way of managing your Brands is just to get a wider variety, so you can switch between them to spread out the heat. Only a few Brands even have a low enough mana cost that you’ll need to be careful about burning them out, MP being what it is.” Of course, that would be Gora’s suggestion. The one that involved spending more money. But… it did make sense. If the solution to a Brand burning out was to buy a special Brand that was only good for helping your other Brands, it was pretty obvious just getting an actually useful Brand instead would be a better use of the money.

“Okay. Healing magic,” I said, getting back on track. “I’m convinced it’s useful, but for other people. Not me. The professor I talked to at Oxenraith told me that some healing Skills would make my cancer worse.” I dug through my pockets. To my surprise, I actually found the slip of paper Professor Lightglow had sent me out of his office with. I would have to thank him for it if I ran into him again. I slid the note across to Gora. “He said I should only get healing Skills on this list.”

Gora read the list of Skills, nodding to himself. “Hmm. No. That one would heal the scar tissue. That’s no good.”

“Scar tissue?” I asked.

“Some healing Skills can heal scar tissue,” Gora said without looking up. “Do that to a Brand and you lose it. We must be careful when selling healing Brands. Many are effectively useless in Brand form, and passive regeneration Brands are all but impossible. Ah, here we go. I think this one is probably your only option in your price range. Healing Touch. 1,152 Crosses.”

“How does that Skill work?” I asked.

“It is a low-impact healing Brand. Its price is extremely competitive. It only heals what the user touches. No more, no less. That is part of why I recommend it to keep on hand to repair damaged Brands.”

I was pretty sure that the reason that healing Skill was on Lightglow’s list was because of how weak it was. The fact that it only healed on touch meant it was less likely to heal any of my rebellious pancreas cells. “I’ll take it,” I said. “Any other Skills you would recommend?”

“Fireball. Extremely popular with adventurers. I sold a copy to Ferrith a while back, so you might have seen it work. It can function as a ranged attack, a light source, a heat source, and a fire starter all in one. And it’s cheap enough to cast many times.”

“I’m convinced,” I said. “How much?” I knew it wouldn’t be expensive. Ferrith had used it after all, and he was as cheap as they come. I’d been pretty damned impressed by the thing when Ferrith had used it once to save me.

“864 Crosses,” Gora said. Expensive, but affordable. “If you insist on not purchasing a weapon, I hope you will consider spending that saved money on a second combat-capable Brand. It is always useful to have a back-up, in case you end up in a fight where the Brand you need most is deactivated.”

“And that’s not going to be a problem? Buying Brands specifically for combat? I don’t want to be accused of using black magic.”

“We would never sell black magic Brands,” Gora said easily. “You heard how many alternative functions a Brand like Fireball has? I assure you. All our Brands are just as useful.”

“So what’s a Brand I can get that will defend against pursuer beasts?” I asked. “I had a run in when I first got to this world and if I see them again, I want to be prepared.”