Still can't believe I could rush the King with this one.
The basic strategy revolves around the Wand, the cotton and the ring of Doom. The cotton makes the wand unusable for 1 turn, but that's not important.
You start each fight using this sequence:
Ring --> Wand --> Ring x 6 --> Ethereal Shiv --> Key Sword X 3. You're free to replace sword attacks with Shield uses, since you could be taking a considerable damage afterwards...
Anyways, this build exchanges time for power, because the ring allows you to basically use it for free once per turn. The book is barely of any help since it poisons you and that's 3 HP you don't get back with the sword. I got the conductor for beating the boss and I must say that it looks very very nice for the build. 