Young Turtle Corpses lay scattered all around Tria.
I wondered exactly what had happened as I began sweeping the items into my storage. She’d already hit level 20. Not bad at all. I had plenty of SP to burn, too. I could even buy a gun now—not that I would. Her Unarmed Combat was coming along just fine.
Her killing speed had improved by leaps and bounds. Just to test the waters, I decided to switch back to Auto Mode and let her handle a single target.
Tria spotted a stray Young Turtle and closed the distance without a second thought.
"...Spin... spin... spin... spin...!"
Standing before the Young Turtle, Tria began rotating her arm rapidly from the elbow down. It looked like a warm-up exercise, but was this... a Charge Attack?
As the thought crossed my mind, she delivered a kick while her arm continued its high-speed rotation. With a heavy thud that sounded nothing like flesh hitting bone, the Young Turtle’s head jerked out of its shell.
"Punch!!"
She didn't even wait for a counter. Her fist just plunged straight through.
It wasn't a simple strike; it was a literal skewering. Her hand sank into the creature's head with a sickening squelch. This wasn't just some canned game animation either—she had truly pierced through the thing.
She yanked her hand back with a wet shuck and gave it a sharp flick to clear off the monster's fluids. Blood splattered across the dirt, perfectly recreating the carnage I had seen earlier.
...Yeah. She could definitely one-shot these things now.
No wonder her efficiency had skyrocketed. It was wild that Auto Mode was more efficient than manual play. Maybe the game's difficulty was just balanced around that premise.
Now that she could kill them in a single blow, the experience points were rolling in. However, my joy was short-lived. A new problem arose immediately: the encounter rate plummeted. Eventually, I couldn't find a single turtle to fight.
The only ones left were those huddled around the Great Turtle as its personal guard. Even those seemed to be thinning out.
...Apparently, the Young Turtles didn't respawn right away.
To make matters worse, I couldn't find any other monster types in this starting area. It was probably some lore-based mechanic where the Great Turtle had either driven everything else away or eaten it all.
This was surely the developers' way of telling me to stop grinding and finish the Tutorial.
...Wait. Come to think of it, wasn't the Tutorial objective to "Defeat a Young Turtle"? I checked my log. Ah, it was already flagged as complete. I’d even received 10 SP as a reward.
Was there no follow-up quest? Apparently not. Talk about user-unfriendly. I wondered how other players were handling this; I really needed to check the Wiki again.
In that case, should I finally go and challenge the Great Turtle? I considered it for a moment, then remembered the Wiki and thought better of it.
This game’s balance was a disaster. People were dying for the most unfair reasons, and death meant a permanent Character Lost status and a twelve-hour lockout. I wanted to maintain an almost excessive safety margin. Given the risks, challenging the Great Turtle with our current stats was probably a bad idea.
I really have to admire my own calm and logical judgment. Gold star for me.
"...Yeah, let's put the Great Turtle on the back burner. Being able to one-shot the babies means she's gotten pretty strong, so let's aim for the Adventurer's Guild instead!"
Besides, my colleague didn't mention anything about a boss on his route. He just said he beat up some bandits, which were probably the equivalent of the Young Turtles here. I figured we'd gathered enough experience for now.
The Great Turtle was most likely a trap. There was a slim chance it was weaker than it looked, but...
"Alright! Let's head down the mountain. We'll look for a settlement first, then find the guild... Did I miss anything?"
I circled back to the starting point where the mossy wooden box had been.
I shoved aside the four rocks that had been pinning her down, only to find the crushed, rotting remains of her original limbs. Well, probably Tria-chan's. They were beyond repair, and she had a new set now anyway, so it wasn't like she needed them. Still, they showed up as loot, so I tossed them into my storage. You never knew what might come in handy later.
Just then, a speech bubble with an "!" icon popped up on the screen. It was flickering, so I tapped it.
『Spirit-sama. If I may be so bold, are you looking for a Town?』
"Whoa! A Character Chat feature? So it works even when I'm not in Auto Mode?"
『Character chat feature?』
The text updated instantly in response to my voice.
"Wait, is this actually using Voice Recognition?"
『Uhm, I can hear Spirit-sama's voice quite clearly.』
"Seriously?"
Did I grant microphone access when I installed this? I couldn't remember, but I must have. I see. This game actually supported voice commands. That was a huge help, since typing everything out was a massive pain. To think I'd been manually typing while talking to myself this whole time. Talk about a waste of effort.
"Uh... Tria-chan?"
『Yes, I am here. What is it, Spirit-sama?』
The response was perfectly smooth. Modern AI really was something else. I decided to stick with Voice Input from now on.
"Do you know the way to the nearest Town?"
『I am not sure from this exact spot, but if I can reach my Village first, I will know the way. The Village should be at the base of the mountain.』
"Close enough. Alright, I'm switching to Auto Mode. Lead the way."
『Understood.』
Once I toggled the mode, Tria began navigating the mountain path.
It seemed the AI could handle navigation and decision-making on its own. It wasn't exactly Fast Travel, but it was a nice quality-of-life feature. Still, I hadn't expected the character to make suggestions like that... though I suppose she did ask to test out a new move earlier. I guess this really was an Idle Game designed for the busy modern era.
Then, I happened to glance at the Minimap. A red dot was closing in fast.
I thought it might be a stray Young Turtle and panned the camera.
I was wrong.
It was the Great Turtle. And it looked absolutely furious.
It was charging toward us with terrifying speed, flattening trees in its path with a deafening crash.
"Is this a forced boss fight?! No way, no way, we're not ready! Tria, run for it!!"
『Understood. Tria is retreating.』
Tria’s lips moved on the screen as she spoke, and she immediately broke into a sprint.