Grinding Turtles

"Tria-chan, I'm back～"

When I finished work and returned to the game, the Baby Turtle was dead.

Even though it was called a Baby Turtle, it was about the size of a table… and in front of its corpse, she'd been doing crouch, stand, jump — crouch, stand, jump.

The Baby Turtle was mosaiced though. Woah, the shell's cracked open.

And her stats had properly grown quite a bit. Her martial arts skill proficiency too.

"Alright, today's about exploring the surroundings. Let's aim for the Adventurers' Guild!"

Starting with the Baby Turtle corpse, I examined the area.

Time to harvest from the Baby Turtle corpse while it was still fresh. No tools, so I did it barehanded.

I obtained shell fragments, turtle meat (Freshness: Fair), Baby Turtle innards (Freshness: Poor), turtle bones, and such. Tossed them straight into my inventory.

… Looks like innards lose freshness quickly. Wonder if I could cook and eat them? Well, I can at least check whether freshness degrades in inventory too.

After finishing the harvest, the Baby Turtle vanished without a trace. Very game-like, I thought, though the blood-covered hands showed some odd attention to detail.

"Gotta wash up somewhere with water. But hey, if I can take down one Baby Turtle, that means I can hunt them one at a time."

Water source aside, it'd be good to actively hunt Baby Turtles and farm experience. There was also the option to head straight for the Adventurers' Guild… but there's no downside to leveling up.

"Can't say what happens if I get surrounded by two or more, but I won't know until I try. Let's find a Baby Turtle first."

I controlled Tria to search for nearby Baby Turtles.

… …

I found a water source below a cliff, and what I was looking for was there. But it wasn't just Baby Turtles.

There was something like a pond, and occupying the water source was the Great Turtle.

Imagine a Baby Turtle made more ferocious and scaled up to the size of a large truck. The edge of its shell was serrated with spikes.

Given the size, those "serrations" were more like a row of swords, but the turtle's sheer scale made distances hard to judge.

The entourage of Baby Turtles actually looked like Baby Turtles in comparison.

I'd have to accept it if someone called that thing a Land Dragon.

No way I could win. At least not right now.

"… Gotta either have to learn some ranged attacks and chip away at it or level up martial arts enough to punch through head-on."

In other words, time to level up by hunting Baby Turtles.

"Still, it's just the first field boss. Should be beatable with an overnight session. Alright, today's plan is Baby Turtle hunting!"

So I started hunting, picking up stones suitable for throwing while searching for any stray Baby Turtles.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

Seeing the turtle at the water source below the cliff, Tria's blood ran cold. Well, she was currently a halo without organs, but that's how frightened she felt.

An obviously unbeatable monster. The fierce-faced Great Turtle-sama was there… It wasn't far from the shrine location, and she'd been leisurely training after killing a Baby Turtle in such a place. It was a miracle she'd been safe.

"… Gotta either have to learn some ranged attacks and chip away at it or level up martial arts enough to punch through head-on."

But the spirit showed no sign of losing heart.

Rather, they were aggressively considering how to take it down.

"Still, it's just the first field boss. Should be beatable with an overnight session. Alright, today's plan is Baby Turtle hunting!"

Such incredible confidence. There was probably reasoning behind it.

And so, the Baby Turtle hunt began.

Finding the first one meant running all over the mountain, and then it took quite a while to beat down. The shell was tough and damage wasn't getting through… but she managed to defeat it.

The spirit grumbled, "30 minutes to encounter, 10 minutes to kill… Is this really acceptable as a game?" It was probably frustration at her inadequacy. Feeling apologetic, she resolved in her heart to train her body more.

They also harvested it, obtaining fresh meat and innards. The spirit mentioned that the meat stored in their subspace had degraded, so they should process meat sooner in the future.

Additionally, the spirit was puzzled that the Baby Turtle hadn't fought back. They'd probably expected it to counterattack, but since it was convenient, they shelved the thought for now. "Probably because it's a tutorial, they're just sandbags!" — they said.

Then the second one. They barged into a pair of them and started punching a Baby Turtle. But this time, the other Baby Turtle tried to bite them, so they hastily fled.

A rock got gouged out where they'd dodged, and seeing the unfavorable odds, they decided to run.

"So they counterattack if it's not one-on-one. Maybe because they can see their friend being hit? They're slow but have attack power. Tutorial for pulling, I guess? Yeah, let's do them one at a time."

They waited from afar for the turtles to calm down, then threw a pebble to attract just one. Using Baby Turtle innards as bait seemed questionable, but the Baby Turtle came without hesitation. Apparently they didn't mind cannibalism and would eat meat, especially guts.

The spirit must have known or deduced this. Truly perceptive.

After that, they punched it down like the first one. When alone, the Baby Turtle retreated into its shell to weather the storm rather than fight back. And then it died.

"Phew… Did I beat that one faster?"

As the spirit said, it felt faster than before. Specifically, they said "10 minutes down to 8 minutes."

Then they beat down the other one from the pair. This time it was apparently down to 6 minutes.

"Yeah, growing steadily… or rather, my stats are skyrocketing… Does that mean these aren't enemies I'm supposed to be able to beat at my level?"

At the spirit's murmur, Tria wanted to nod. She had been a girl who'd never fought anything, let alone monsters — not even animals. The Baby Turtles were monsters, and the growth from defeating them was immeasurable.

Plus, the limbs granted by the spirit were sturdy enough to destroy even a Baby Turtle's hard shell. Her original hands would definitely have shattered first.

So Tria thought they should leave quickly and flee to somewhere safe, but the spirit thought differently.

"—In other words, bonus enemies! This is a great farming spot! Even if it's a bit risky, grinding here will make things easier later. Baby turtle hunting festival, confirmed!!"

And so it was decided.

The spirit's thinking was surely correct.

"Oh, while we're at it, I want to use the turtle meat too. I'll use the innards as bait… Can't I cook and eat the meat? In games like this, cooking monster meat for buff food is pretty standard."

Wait, eat a monster? Tria thought — but the spirit's thinking was surely correct… Her old common sense probably wasn't useful anymore.

After all, her old common sense never could have imagined becoming a halo or defeating monsters.