Hmm... I just walked in there purist and didn't have too much trouble. My god was MA, but all I used her for was one shot of magic and Mystic Balance. I bought an early fine sword to kill and found an early IMAWAL. Soon after I picked up a compression seal, Penance, Bound Sword, and a Pendant of Health. I also used WONAFYT to popcorn bowl my level 1s and 2s. I ran out of exploration at level 5, but I was only a few exp short of leveling, so I used that level up to take out a level 9 wraith with IMAWAL. I used that level 6 hp bar to hit the boss, then mid-fight leveled up to 7, then mid-fight leveled to 8, then used my potions to finish him. I ended with 1 health potion and 3 mana potions. I had 114 health, 15 mana, and 66 attack (at level 8).
EDIT: I'm not sure what the lesson is, but it is something along the lines of get a lot of mid-fight dings and only buy the best stuff. EM would have been better than MA as entanglement is ridiculous and you don't even need to find IMAWAL, not to mention clearances vs the boss. Also, I only IMAWALed higher level monsters that I wasn't going to kill (level 9 zombie, all level 8s, etc).