The Tutorial Boss

—On my phone screen, the battle between Tria and the Great Turtle began.

Honestly, leaving it to auto-mode probably had better odds than me controlling her.

I didn't even know when to tap. It was beyond my ability to time it right.

Maybe if there were bars and notes like a rhythm game, I could manage somehow.

I'm not good at action games. I'm the type who dies a few times to learn patterns on the first attempt.

But I didn't want Tria to die. In this game, one death means game over.

Beyond the 12-hour penalty, I'd grown somewhat attached to Tria, whom I'd raised this far.

Tria dodged the Great Turtle's attacks with rolls while punching its front legs.

She rolled again to avoid a stomp, then punched its head.

It seemed to be going well, but she got caught on the sword-like spikes and took damage.

Tria was barehanded, and challenging a clearly high-durability Great Turtle to a damage race was nothing but a bad move.

However, the eyes… if it was the eyes, one hit should crush them.

That was Tria's assessment, anyway.

"Grrr, is all I can do just watch…?"

Having said I'd leave it to auto-mode, there was nothing I could do now.

If I tried to take control mid-battle, I could only see a future where that opening got her killed.

No, wait. I suddenly thought.

Even now, I could manipulate the game screen.

For example, inventory. No healing items like herbs, but I might be able to throw out Baby Turtle corpses as obstacles. Of course, I'd need to time it carefully not to interfere with Tria herself.

And SP. Levels had risen from hunting Baby Turtles. Skills had risen too, but more importantly, SP had accumulated — if I used it well, maybe I could turn this situation around.

Just then, the Great Turtle withdrew its head and limbs.

Is that even allowed? Show your weak point, you… No wait, that's not it!

"Tria, fall back! It might be some kind of special attack!"

"Yes, Spirit-sama!"

Tria backsteps away from the Great Turtle. Immediately after, water gushed from the limb holes and the shell began spinning at high speed. What is this? This is bad.

"Climb a rock! It's probably going to charge!"

I threw several Baby Turtle corpses from inventory. The corpses placed in Tria's backstep path were knocked away and shattered by the charging Great Turtle, just as I'd imagined. It only bought a fraction of a second.

But — using one of those corpses as a stepping stone, Tria escaped onto a rock in that brief moment, then successfully leaped to another rock just before that one was gouged apart.

Mowing down the surroundings in a spiral trajectory like mosquito coils or snail shells, the Great Turtle stopped spinning. A wide area had been flattened. Using its starting point as the center, quite a large swath had been destroyed.

What is this? Way too much destructive power. This is not an appropriate boss for a tutorial.

"The balance is all wrong here… Ah, but. Maybe we can escape by going up?"

"Up?"

Up meaning go back the way we came and climb the mountain.

… What to do after that was completely undecided. But for now, focus on escaping. Survive. Everything else comes after.

"I'll enhance Tria's legs with SP. With that included, I want to believe we can escape for now. We'll search for civilization down the mountain after."

"Understood. Tria believes. I believe, Spirit-sama."

She has no choice but to believe, does she. Her life is on the line.

I opened the menu and used SP. The target — leg enhancement. This wasn't the time to be stingy, so I used everything I could. I didn't know how many points I used, but I mashed to enhance, leaving only 2 points remaining. Tria's legs were enhanced.

"It's regrettable that we couldn't kill the Great Turtle."

"We can come back for revenge eventually."

"Yes. Someday, I will offer the Great Turtle to you, Spirit-sama."

Not being able to defeat the boss was probably part of the tutorial.

… Clang, clang — I could see the Great Turtle putting its hands on the rocks. Apparently still locked on. It seemed determined to chase relentlessly.

"Whoa, the Great Turtle is climbing the rocks!? Ugh, it's looking this way. Let's run!"

"Yes, Spirit-sama… May I have just a moment?"

"Hm? What?"

Tria picked up a fallen stone — no, at soccer ball size, it was more of a rock. She lifted it. Perhaps because her level had risen, she showed no strain, lifting it as naturally as picking up an actual soccer ball. Then, she let go.

And kicked. The stone.

A flash of a side kick — the launched rock flew straight into the Great Turtle's right eye and shattered.

"BMOOOOO!!"

The Great Turtle recoiled. A scream never heard in the battle until now. A deep, bovine cry.

Recovering its stance, the Great Turtle's right eye was bloodshot red but still intact, glaring this way with fury.

"… I was too naive. I'm sorry. Tria cannot crush that yet. Let's run. Spirit-sama was right after all."

"Ah, yeah, true."

After that, Tria ran up the mountain with ferocious momentum, ignoring tree roots and mud, sometimes kicking through branches.

Mobility is justice. Using her enhanced legs, Tria left the Great Turtle behind and escaped successfully. She was moving about twice as fast as before.

… Yeah. I totally should have enhanced her legs from the start. Being stingy never pays off.

As a result, she got lost in the forest, but mountains don't go on forever.

Going straight would eventually lead outside the mountain. And while in actual survival you might wander in circles and never escape, we had a minimap, so going straight wasn't difficult.

Of course, there was the possibility that the path ahead led to depths with even stronger enemies…

But for now, I was satisfied with escaping from that Great Turtle. Time for a brief rest.