I must draw my sword immediately!

Chapter 22 Card Friends
[Achieved Rank E: Experienced Quack Doctor.]

[Note: On your medical journey, you've failed again. You feel lost, helpless, and cold, overwhelmed by immense guilt. Yet, deep within you surges an emotion called resentment; you want to prove yourself, telling yourself it's just a fluke. But—why are you laughing?]

[Gained job skill: Precision Misoperation.]

[Precision and Accidental Injury: Increases your Agility bonus by one level, granting you surgical-level experience. Your medical instruments will involuntarily deviate towards vital areas. Damage inflicted when treating vital areas is doubled.]

[Method: Continue accumulating experience from treating patients who have died; this will grant you a new D-rank class: Heartless Healer (2/100), and a class-specific Craft Essence.]

You've taken another step on the path to legend!

The battle is over.

The enhanced state attached to the body disappeared.
An overwhelming sense of fatigue and soreness surged through my entire body.
Although I really want to complain about this new method I just acquired.

But Suya simply had no strength left.

Life force was dwindling, physical strength was almost exhausted, and the magic circuits imprinted on the body seemed to be constantly devouring the little physical strength left.

He collapsed onto Xiu Gu Si's corpse with a thud, feeling his eyelids drooping.

The pungent smell of blood woke him up again.

Now is not the time to rest.

He struggled to his feet, supporting himself on the ground, and looked around.

in the wilderness,
The two warhorses, which had collided, lay motionless on the ground, no longer rideable.

The ruined city, shrouded in smoke in the distance, stood there like a fleeting illusion, visible but unattainable.

And their destination was even further beyond that conquered city.

Suya stared blankly into the direction beyond the ruined city, lost in thought.

And then,
"Hey, are you okay?"

Meryl's voice came from behind. Suya turned around and saw her standing up shakily, supporting herself on her hands and knees, and walking towards her.

Despite having just gone through such a fierce battle, her clothes were still so clean that Suya was envious.

Suya instinctively wanted to reply, "I'm not called 'Hey,' I'm called '..." but then she realized the whole scene felt like something out of an idol drama.
That's absolutely disgusting.

I'm determined to become a tough guy like Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger, or at the very least, a protagonist like Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin.

So, although the wounds all over his body made him wince in pain, Suya still turned his back, crossed his arms, and mumbled a "hmm."
"Fortunately."

Meili looked at Suya, whose demeanor had suddenly hardened, with a strange expression.

No, there are no spectators here.

Why do you look so determined, like you're about to ride off on horseback, draw your spear, and charge into the army of conquerors?

Mary rubbed her forehead: "What are you thinking about?"

Suya turned her back and remained silent for a while, then asked expectantly:
"I was thinking, do you have a magic conch shell or a magic broom, you know, or even a magic flying carpet? We can ride those back to the capital, and then I'll inherit the throne and appoint you as the chief archmage of Britain!"

Is that the plot?

"How could such a thing possibly exist?!"

"I'm a magician, not a sorcerer," Meryl said.

"But without that thing, how are we supposed to escape!?"

Suya turned her head, her expression almost breaking down, as if she were squeezing out an ugly smile from extreme despair and pain.

He drew the silver reins of his treasure weapon.
Am I riding you?

"I'm going to bite you to death!"

Mary resolutely gritted her teeth and refuted:

"If you continue using your Noble Phantasm, you will die, and your condition no longer supports continuing the battle."

"So?" Suya stared at him blankly and asked.

"The horse is gone, and we can't run anymore. Are we just going to wait here to die?"

"Foolish!" Mary scoffed.
"If we lose a horse, we can just steal another one. If it can't run anymore, we can just stop running."

There are always more solutions than problems!

"Okay, listen to me, we'll head back later."

"Going back?" Suya raised her voice, looking at Meryl with a shocked expression, wondering if the sand had sheltered them from the wind.
Mary took a deep breath, nodded solemnly, and stared intently at Suya with her rose-red eyes, revealing an expression that said, "I really can't do anything with you."
“We’ll just stay here, annihilate this Conqueror King’s entire army, then steal a horse and ride it back to the capital.”

Suya thought to herself, "Sure enough, this sand shelters me from the gusts of wind."

Is this due to excessive magic consumption? Can excessive magic consumption lower intelligence? Do you realize how naturally clueless you look right now?

Suya couldn't help but laugh: "You really are a genius of ideas!"

Meryl paused, then asked, "What's 'Idea King'?"

"I'm praising you."

"Humph."

Suya stared blankly at the proud, undeniable expression on Meryl's face.
Then, he laughed heartily.

If this is a dream,

But just before the dream ended, I was surprised to encounter such an interesting person after such an exhilarating battle.

"Then, let's stop here."

Although I want to continue on this journey, and although I want to continue this wondrous adventure in this world,
but,

If it ends like this...
Suya clenched her fists, feeling the emotion rising from the bottom of her heart.

Sure enough, will I still feel resentful?
At this time,

In the distance, the thunderous roar of warhorses could already be heard.

At the edge of the horizon, at the location of the western pass, a black dot suddenly appeared.

Then, more and more black dots appeared, converging into a tide.

A cavalry regiment of over a thousand men charged forward at breakneck speed, dancing like the Grim Reaper!
Faced with this situation, Suya couldn't help but swallow hard, while beside her, Meryl's expression also turned serious.

Do you know how to play cards?

Suya thought she was hallucinating, blinked, and suddenly turned around.

"what?"

No, what are you talking about, woman?

Why would you ask me if I know how to play cards at such a critical moment? Besides, playing cards... Britain is supposedly a fictional medieval kingdom corresponding to the 5th century AD, a time when playing cards shouldn't have been invented yet, right?

"I'll ask you one more time, do you know how to play cards? Or rather, are you willing to learn how to play cards?"

Mary looked quite serious, as if this was something very important to her.

Suya was confused, but instinctively nodded.

I had a hallucination that I had traveled to a bizarre movie set where a magical girl was about to be tricked into signing a contract, and then pulled out her magic wand and started transforming.

"I can still play Dou Dizhu, but as for playing cards..."

"It's not Dou Dizhu, what's that? Never mind, what you need to learn is—"

Mary spoke with a serious expression:

"21 point."

Are you willing to learn?

Suya thought for a moment, "Blackjack is also a type of poker game."
That is, using four decks of cards (208 cards excluding the Jokers), the player's goal is to make the sum of the points in their hand not exceed 21 and to make it as high as possible.

The reason Suya, who rarely gambles, remembered this poker game was because in "Dragon Raja 4," Senior Brother Chu won against the legendary gambling king Vincent by forcibly memorizing 12 decks of cards right from the start.

But what does blackjack have to do with the current situation?!
Do you think you can defeat a group of Macedonian cavalry just by knowing how to play cards?

"I can learn, but you can't expect me to be as good as Chu Zihang. I'm not good at memorizing cards."

"Chu Zihang, who is that?" Mei Li frowned in surprise, then nodded.

"That's enough."

"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to my important card-playing friends—"

With a serious expression, Mary raised her arm, extended one index finger, and pointed it at the approaching cavalry army of her allies.
"Next, I will unleash a very powerful attack to force them back. Then, you seize the opportunity to steal a horse, understand?"

(End of this chapter)