Sure enough, Miri and Anne had found quite a number of valuables from the corpses—gold coins, weapons, armor, potions, spell runes, talisman runes, and many, many more.

  However, while there was indeed a lot of loot lying around, only a small portion of it was of any decent value or practical use. Most of the weapons and armor had been degraded due to the rusting of the metal and the rotting of the leather. Many of the potions that were found had also been long expired—now giving off a spoiled, putrid stench as a result.

  The only items that had received minimal damage were the runes, which were mostly intact and functional despite possibly years or even decades of neglect. It’s no wonder that there were professional adventurers out there who made a decent, sustainable living solely on hunting runes as a specialty. In fact, in the lore of this world, runes were used in ancient times as a form of currency in much the same way as many other commodities such as gold, salt, and seashells.

  “Ooh, just look at all these runes,” Miri said, ogling at the pile of runes in front of her as though they were precious jewels. “Bloodthorn Trail, Bulwark Mantle, Mage Saber, Zephyr Step—these are all some really good spell runes. And the talisman runes aren’t too shabby either—Arcane Insight, Sagetree Blessing, Dragon’s Wrath. Damn, these are some top-tier runes. We’ve really hit the jackpot here.”

  “I would have preferred if you’d be less enthusiastic about taking the belongings of the dead,” Anne said with a deadpan stare as she sorted out the bottles of scavenged potions to see which ones hadn't spoiled yet. Due to being an experienced cleric, she was able to tell the usability of a potion based on smell alone, which was quite a useful yet underrated skill to have.

  “Oh, come on. Let a girl savor a win for once,” Miri replied with a carefree grin.

  As much as the mage wanted to use all the runes she’d gotten, she preferred to use only the ones that fit her stat requirements as spells that did tend to be more effective and reliable. After meticulously sorting out which runes fit her particular set of stats, then further sort out the ones that fit her personal style of fighting, she was able to pick out these specific runes to equip: Flame Orb, Shock Orb, Chill Orb, Traversing Wind, and Void Vortex.

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  Flame Orb, Shock Orb, and Chill Orb were all single elemental projectile spells made up of the elements of fire, lightning, and ice respectively. These would be particularly useful for enemies who were weak to certain types of elements.

  Traversing Wind was a teleportation spell, allowing the user to teleport up to about 20 meters per cast, with each cast creating a small, brief whirlwind at both the starting point and the ending point that could slightly push enemies away. It was an excellent complementary spell to Miri’s playstyle as it offered an option of escape if she ever got cornered or surrounded. Alternatively, it could also allow her to re-engage an enemy by either flanking them or gaining a higher ground in order to get a better vantage point.

  Void Vortex was a spell that fired a slow-moving projectile in the form of what was essentially a magical miniature black hole. As the projectile traveled, it would pull nearby magical projectiles towards it, absorbing their energy and making itself more powerful. Then, once it collided with a hard surface, it would create an implosion at the impact point that sucked in nearby enemies before releasing all its stored up energy in a massive explosion. The more energy it absorbed, the more powerful the resulting explosion would be.

  Ahh, yes. The infamous Void Vortex. Miri had remembered this particular spell getting a lot of hate from players of the “Runehunter Chronicles” community for a variety of reasons. At first, it was because the vortex projectile was not very reliable in absorbing certain magical projectiles. Then, it was because it was moving too slow. Then, it was because it was too niche as it was only good against enemies who rely heavily on projectile-based magical attacks.

  However, despite its flaws, Miri had somehow gained a soft spot for this particular spell. In her eyes, being niche wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the existence of niche spells was what made this game more interesting to play. If every spell was good for every situation, there would be little incentive for the players to choose a good spell from a bad spell for a particular combat situation.

  By having spells like these that excelled at certain situations but did poorly at others, it actively rewarded the player’s intelligence when playing the game. Besides, under the right conditions, this spell could absolutely wipe the floor with some pretty powerful bosses, ones that would have otherwise eviscerated any player with a standard set of equipment. This spell knew what it’s good at and it did that incredibly well, so it’s not that big of a deal if it’s a little underrated.

  After sorting everything out, Miri and Anne proceed to resume their exploration of the keep.