There was a slot in the storage instantly, once he pressed the ✕ button.

One slime magic stone less, and the Horned Rabbit’s magic stone took its place immediately, filling the slot without any kind of ceremony.

He did not wait long - he switched back to the storage menu and pressed the ✕ button twice in succession, on the two slime gels.

And two lines appeared in their place.

Horned Rabbit Horns × 2

Ash looked at the completed storage entry, satisfied that the storage now had room for the horned rabbit loot. Three of them he had discarded. They disappeared completely as if they had never been collected.

He stared at the empty slot which only seconds ago held the slime gel he had just thrown away.

’The system really just deleted them,’ he thought.

He was unsure how he felt about it. It was a fair deal for him, since he abandoned the three cheaper items in exchange for something better.

But the slime materials still had some sort of value. And he was not sure if he was making a right decision or not.

He filed it into memory, deciding that maybe, when he met somebody, he would figure out the actual price of them.

He dismissed the system panel.

The golden interface folded up and away.

Something else hit the grass behind him.

He turned quickly - much quicker, in fact, than he would have done an hour ago. Now that he had agility points to work with, it became noticeably easier for his body to react before his mind did.

He knew what would happen next - and Horned Rabbit was already charging towards him, head lowered, horns directed right at the spot it calculated he was going to stand.

But he was not there anymore.

He stepped aside easily. The rabbit charged into thin air, flying past him, and, before it had even figured out that he was gone, Ash already got the card in his hand.

♥ 3 of Heart.

With the card ready, Ash directed it towards the target and did not even give it time to do its famous zig-zag.

"Flame Lance."

Card dissolved and the lance formed, moving towards the Horned Rabbit.

It turned to dust.

The wind took the dust and swept it off, leaving only the faintly glowing area of impact and two notification bubbles floating in the air one right after another.

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

[⚠NOTICE⚠]

[★Card Used: ♥ 3 of Heart★]

[Flame Lance - Lv.1]

[Mana: 242 / 300]

[✦Horned Rabbit Defeated✦]

[Rewards]

[EXP + 30]

[SP + 20]

[★LOOT DROPPED★]

> Magic Stone x1

> Horned Rabbit Horn x2

[⚠NOTICE⚠]

[Storage: 20 / 20]

[Cannot store loot from Horned Rabbit]

[Free up some space]

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

Ash read both messages with the familiar resigned expression he had minutes ago while dealing with storage.

But before he switched his attention to the storage, he paused for a moment, looking around.

The grassland was as wide and empty as always. Some trees scattered around - nothing tall or thick enough to provide shelter. Everywhere, the horizon was unbroken by anything but green grass and blue sky.

’Where are they coming from?’ he thought.

Now, he faced two Horned Rabbits in a row, and both arrived from behind him and without any warning.

He should have seen it from a good distance in the terrain so flat and devoid of anything except for the grass. But he did not, and they appeared out of nowhere, attacking him as soon as possible.

He did not have any explanation for it.

He decided to postpone it for later, and switched the storage open. He cleared one slime magic stone and two slime gels with methodical movements, opening the storage for Horned Rabbit’s loot again.

Storage rearranged itself once he put the Horned Rabbit’s loot into the slots and closed.

He called the system interface.

"System."

Golden panel gathered itself above Ash’s head once again, and he found the experience and skill points totals instantly.

Total 95 EXP. Total 230 SP.

He looked at his stats.

[STR : 45 INT : 30

DEF : 15 AGI : 65]

Clearly, the defensive stat was lagging behind all the others. He focused primarily on attacking and agility during all his previous distributions and neglected this stat considerably.

Now that he met such a fast and surprising opponent as the Horned Rabbit, he needed to balance the situation and increase his defensive stat.

He made his decision.

Sixty points into strength, sixty into agility and sixty into defense. Fifty into intelligence.

Then after he finalized his thoughts the system updated his stat immediately.

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

[✦STATS✦]

[STR: 45 > 105 INT: 30 > 80

DEF: 15 > 75 AGI : 65 > 125]