Early the next morning I can already see people making their way to the city. I try my best to not be seen by any of them as I continue exploring. I'm determined to find out where this road goes and why it's so popular.
After a few hours of travel, I can start to see buildings on the horizon. These buildings don't have the protection of a wall though. As I get closer it becomes obvious why people would go to the town every day. This place is barely big enough to count as a settlement. There is only around 16 building in the entire place. Most of those I'd be willing to bet are houses for people who can't get a house in the city. They still need to work though so they are forced to walk to and from the city every day. That along with people going there to shop or to sell things as well as those just passing through the settlement to get to the city would explain why the road is so busy.
Slowly I made my way around looking for the food storage area or at the very least the place where food was prepared to be stored. You see even in my old world, lots of easily accessible food in one place tends to attract pests like mice and rats among others. I plan to use this to my advantage and grab a few levels before returning to the city. If doing so happens to lessen their pest problem, well that just means they'll be less likely to try and stop me.
It takes a while, but I am eventually able to spot a rat that seems to be sniffing the air and eyeing one house in particular. I'm guessing that house has either a root Cellar or a lot of cured meats, possibly both. Either way I decide to pull up the rat's stats while it is distracted.
Name Rat Level 7 Attack 17 Defense 10 Speed 12
Just rat! Really, that's it? Not plague rat or pack rat? Not even forest rat or field rat? How basic can you get? It doesn't even have any skills. Not sure why I expected anything different but for some reason I had thought it would turn out to be more than just a normal rat. At any rate I begin to slowly inch my way closer to it. I'm not exactly stealthy though so it soon spots me. AS soon as it does it charges right at me. I barely have time to pull my head into my shell before I feel the rat start gnawing on the front of the shell. Thinking fast I use mirror shield to reflect some of the attack back at it. This apparently stuns it for a second as it whips around and tries to figure out where the attack came from. Taking advantage of the opportunity I launch my own attack biting the rat's butt. This causes the rat to turn back around and resume gnawing on my shell. Which in turn causes me to use mirror shield yet again.
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This pattern repeats a few times until the rat seems to realize what is happening. The next time I launch mirror shield it whips around as usual but then immediately whips back around. I'm guessing it was hoping to catch me off guard. What it ended up doing instead was give me access to its throat instead of its butt. After that the fight was over pretty quickly.
Defeated Rat Received Experience 6
Not exactly a ton of experience but a few more fights like that and I will still be able to level up. Not that I got away from that fight completely unscathed. It's nothing I can't handle though. Especially after I level up and my defense gets a little higher. For now, I'll just endure it and let my regeneration heal what it can as I search out more opponents.
It only takes a few minutes of searching the area nearby to spot another rat that I can only assume was attracted to this area by the same thing as the first rat. This one seems to be a lot more cautious than the first one though and doesn't immediately charge me. Even better it appears to be standing in a small puddle. I'm not sure where the water came from since it hasn't rained the entire time I've been a turtle. I'll take any good luck I can get though, and soon reach out with my water manipulation skill to have the puddle gently grab onto the paw that's already in it. The rat doesn't seem to notice at first and just watches me approach for a bit longer.
Eventually I guess it decides that I've gotten close enough and attempts to lunge at me only to find its back paw caught on something. While it's trying to figure out exactly what it's caught on, I take full advantage of the rat's momentary confusion to run up to it. By the time it realizes what I'm doing I've already got its throat in my beak.
Defeated Rat Received Experience 6
Another rat gone and another step closer to a level up. This is turning out better than I could have hoped. It takes a bit longer to find my next opponent. When I do it becomes apparent that the last few fights might have had a few witnesses. The reason I say that is that this rat seems unusually cautious. Even the last rat I fought wasn't this cautious. As I continue to approach it turns and scurries off. At first, I think it retreated but then it returns a short time later with four level 6 rats and seven level 5 rats.
This could get messy.