The dust was gone.

Seconds had been enough for the wind to clear the area and carry the last of the dust left behind by the creature away from the grasslands. Except for two things left behind in the flattened patch of grass.

The magic stone. Small, hard, giving off the same subtle shimmer all magic stones seemed to share.

Right next to it, the horns - two of them, coiled and whole, neatly detached from their source, lying there in the grass like they had been placed there intentionally.

Ash glanced at them, but then the notification popped up.

-------------------

[✦Horned Rabbit Defeated✦]

[Rewards]

[EXP + 30]

[SP + 20]

[★LOOT DROPPED★]

> Magic Stone x1

> Horned Rabbit Horn x2

-----------------

He glanced through it.

Thirty EXP. That was good. Twenty SP. He’d received fifteen EXP and ten SP from one slime creature.

The horned rabbit had given him twice that much for defeating it, showing him all he had needed to see to prove just how powerful that particular beast was compared to the slimes.

It was a more powerful creature, with more speed, greater agility, and a willingness to use those qualities in a way that caused the maximum amount of pain.

The numbers did not lie.

Another notification popped up.

-----------------

[⚠NOTICE⚠]

[Storage: 20 / 20]

[Cannot store loot from Horned Rabbit]

[Free up some space]

-----------------

He looked at it.

It was not news that his storage capacity was full. The system itself had told him the minute it reached twenty out of twenty after he completed the slime quest.

What he still did not know, however, was how to get around that problem. The system had provided the storage skill, leaving it to him to figure out exactly how it worked.

He looked at the magic stone and the pair of horns resting in the grass.

’Whatever they’re worth, it must be more than what I’m storing,’ he mused.

Clearly, the horned rabbit was at a higher tier than the slime - that much was obvious. This meant that the loot dropped by the former was likely to have a higher value, too.

A magic stone of the slime creature and slime gel was only basic loot - the horns of an animal that could move so fast and deliver such damaging blows were bound to have a higher value.

He had to clear some space first.

Standing there and gazing at the notification, he did absolutely nothing.

Nothing happened.

"System," he finally spoke, using the term he’d heard in books to address it.

He wasn’t sure whether it would work - he hadn’t tried addressing it directly yet - but he had no other choice since he wanted access to the storage interface.

Each time before, the system had popped up by itself, whenever it had something to show him and then promptly dismissed its presence when it was done.

The interface appeared.

Ash blinked. Then accepted it and moved on.

The golden main interface hovered in front of him, completely up-to-date - he had already been awarded thirty EXP and twenty SP as rewards for killing the horned rabbit. His finger tapped the storage skill.

The storage menu opened.

-------------------

[Storage: 20 / 20]

[Slime Magic Stone × 10]

[Slime Gel × 10]

-------------------

It gave no indication as to how one could remove something from there. Not even the simplest delete or drop buttons. He tapped on the magic stone entry and the items listed beneath it split into separate lines.

-------------------

[Slime Magic Stone × 1 ✕]

[Slime Magic Stone × 1 ✕]

[Slime Magic Stone × 1 ✕]

[Slime Magic Stone × 1 ✕]

[Slime Magic Stone × 1 ✕]

[Slime Magic Stone × 1 ✕]

[Slime Magic Stone × 1 ✕]

[Slime Magic Stone × 1 ✕]

[Slime Magic Stone × 1 ✕]

[Slime Magic Stone × 1 ✕]

[Slime Gel × 10]

--------------------

An ✕ appeared next to each magic stone.

Ash looked at the last one on the list and tapped on the ✕ icon.

The line disappeared. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"So that was how it worked."