Three wolves.

All charging at once.

Ash went right into it.

The first one sprang from the ground with distance between them. A real, determined leap, jaws stretched wide open. Ash raised the rusted sword and rammed it, driving the blade between the open jaws.

No hesitation. No pause. Just use. Twisting his wrists, he used his own momentum to turn the animal sideways, sending it to the road. The impact was enough to leave it stunned for a moment but alive and ready to move.

The other two attacked right after.

Or attempted to.

He dove underneath the first one, allowed it to pass over his head, faced the second one and drove his sword through its body with a single powerful thrust. Through. Clean. The blade was already free from the body before it collapsed on the road.

The system appeared.

---

[✦Fang Wolf Defeated✦]

[Rewards]

[EXP + 200]

[SP + 30]

[★LOOT DROPPED★]

> Magic Stone x1

> Wolf Fang x2

---

He didn’t stop for it. He was already turning.

Turning around, he faced the last two.

Two more left. The first one deflected and stunned in a previous round got on its feet quickly and started to charge. Its counterpart tried to flank him from another direction.

Two animals in coordinated movement against him, trying close off his retreat. There was something almost intelligent in the way they moved - not the blind aggression of animals acting on instinct alone, but something that resembled strategy.

Something that had learned from watching the first one fall and decided to adjust. He filed that observation away without dwelling on it.

Allowing them to move forward, he took a few steps toward the second one and waited for the first one to lunge.

With the first one committed, he stepped inside its range and stabbed right through the throat with a quick strike and turned to meet the second one, swinging the sword in an upward arc to open up its chest and the body to turn to dust right away.

Both animals turn to dust instantly. Their loot appeared right in front of him.

He looked at his system panel this time.

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

[✦Two Fang Wolves Defeated✦]

[Rewards]

[EXP + 400]

[SP + 60]

[★LOOT DROPPED★]

> Magic Stone x2

> Wolf Fang x4

[⚠NOTICE⚠]

[Storage: 30 / 30]

[Cannot store loot from Fang Wolf]

[Free up some space]

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

’Full again.’

He breathed deeply through his nose, exhaling in a quiet sigh of acceptance, not quite frustration or anger - the kind of sigh that comes from a problem with no immediate solution.

Loot accumulation required him to start selling his goods soon or risk having nowhere to store new loot.

Adding this task to his mental list, he turned his attention back to the weapon he had found on the ground.

The rusted sword proved more durable than it had any right to be against three attacking monsters, which was more than expected considering how corroded it was on the dirt road when he picked it up.

Fencing with the sword felt different from using cards. Shorter distance between the intention and action, fewer steps involved in using the power of the blade.

No need for mana or concentration, only muscle and intent. Cards required a moment of construction - a reaching inward for something, a deliberate pulling of mana into form.

The sword required nothing of that kind. It simply was, and all he had to do was move it. That directness was something he had not expected to value as much as he did.

He enjoyed it.

"Rest in peace," he said to the sword, saying it sincerely but knowing better than to do it literally. As he watched, it broke.

There was no external force that shattered it. Only the fact that it was broken, unable to sustain itself anymore. One half of the sword fell on the road. The other half stayed gripped tightly in his palm, leaving the hilt in his hand.

He held onto it for some time.

In the next moment, he let it fall.

Before it had fully landed, the notification arrived, larger and brighter than previous notifications, its golden color slightly warmer with dense borders.

-----------&-

[✦LEVEL UP✦]

[Level 6 > Level 7]

[★STATS INCREASED★]

[STR : 125 > 132 INT : 80 > 87

DEF : 75 > 82 AGI : 155 > 162]

[★NEW CARD★]

> ♣ 2 of Clubs 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Wind Slash - Lv.1

Deck : 05 / 54

[★NEW SKILL★]

> Quick Step

[HP: 500 > 600]

[MP: 400 > 500]

[★STAT POINTS★]

[SP: 95 > 120]

120 Points available

(Distribute your stat points)

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

Level seven.

He read through it, from top to bottom like he always did with every single system message he received. Level increases were always predictable and standard, seven points across the board, automatically distributed and requiring no further interaction. Good, but not necessarily interesting.

A new card interested him.

Club Two. Wind Slash. Level one. A new element. With Fire in Hearts and Water in Spades, he had now acquired a third element - Wind in Clubs.

With a third suit, the framework he’d suspected since the beginning was now confirmed. Four suits. Four elements. The pattern had been there from the start, waiting for the third data point to make itself undeniable. Now it was.

Moving to the next item, he focused on his new skill.

Skill. Quick Step. A skill name, implying something related to movement and agility. It was not listed as costing anything, so it must be a active ability enhancing Agility in an unspecified way.

He would check it out when there was time.

HP increased to six hundred and MP to five hundred, which was exactly what he needed. One hundred and twenty stat points. He closed the panel.

He kept reading when a voice came from his right.

"Hey. You."

Straight and simple with no sugar coating. That tone of voice usually meant one thing - immediate acknowledgment.

Before he even turned his head, he knew perfectly well who it was. He had heard that voice enough times by now to recognize it without needing to look.

"What are you looking at?" Lissa said.