Kade walked to his desk, having to scrummage around a bit, before finding and pulling out a blank sheet of paper and pen.

Thoughtfully, he scribbled a few things down onto the beginnings of his list, before heading to the shower. While that capsule kept him clean, rested and fed there was something special about having a shower to clean off.

Later, dressed and back at his desk he looked down at the quick list he had made.

What I want to be:

Strong

What I need to do:

Build my house Unlock more magic

Things I need to be careful about:

People

Other:

Food

It was a rough summary of what he could remember. He picked up the pen and wrote down something before crossing it out.

What did he want to be? What were his aims? So far he’d winged it, but he’d already realised that it wasn’t enough. There was a massive difference between invading an unprepared village and having to protect his forest from serious players.

He had no doubts that they would come. His forest was at the edges of the known world, meaning that a) people had already explored this far out and b) other players would eventually come, exploring the outer reaches of the known world. It was not a matter of if, but when.

He needed to become strong enough to fend them off when the time came. That meant he needed to specialise. He’d already realised the immense potential of synergistic skills. If someone pursued a specialised path, then they were going to become more powerful in their field. With the absence of levels and level suppression it was more than possible for synergistic skills to make up that stat gap. That meant that passives were key. He wrote that down under ‘Other’ – Passives.

So, what made him different from other players? Actually, he wasn’t overly sure. In terms of titles and unique skills he had [Status], [Elemental Mana], {Sinner}, {Heretic}, {Master of Status}, {Rune Master}, {God Watched} and {Lord of the End Forest}.

[Status] was definitely unique to him. It had been proven by the notifications, including {Sinner}, {Heretic}, {Master of Status} and {God Watched}.

He grabbed another sheet of paper. What advantage did this bring him?

He could see his status. Why did that matter?

He could see when and how he levelled. He wrote that down on his original list – Leveling. He thought about his other titles. {Sinner} and {Heretic} didn’t seem to matter much at the moment, so he dismissed them.

{Master of Status} didn’t benefit him. It allowed him to grant other’s status, but at the moment there were no other players. Not that he wanted anything to do with them. Idly, he wondered if he could grant the NPCs [Status].

{Rune Master} was a title, who’s effects he hadn’t used yet, but it confused him. Originally, when he’d entered the game, he’d assumed that he’d need to use runes in order to use magic, but that had been disproven. The sudden appearance of runes left him baffled. If you didn’t need them to use magic, what then?

He scratched that down onto his main list – Test runes. That left {God Watched} and {Lord of the End Forest}. Neither helped him in terms of combat. So far none of his ‘God’ related titles had done anything. No divine lightning, no angels, or reaper coming to claim his soul.

{Lord of the End Forest} itself hadn’t done anything really besides giving him an overview of the forest. The skills it had given him, [Lord’s Domain] and [Lord’s Insight] were more utility than combat. But assuming the forest he was in was the ‘End forest’, then that meant that they were unique to him. He sighed and added them to the growing list. Test Lord skills.

He looked at the list so far.

What I want to be:

Strong Not care about other people

What I need to do:

Build my house Unlock more magic

Things I need to be careful about:

People

Other:

Food Passives Leveling Test runes Test Lord skills

He read it through, relatively satisfied.

Intending to take a short break, he went to the fridge, before realising that it was empty. He checked his cupboards, finding them similarly devoid of snacks. Sighing, he slipped into his shoes and left for the closest convenience store.

Oblivious to his surroundings, he kept on thinking about his list.

His three greatest strengths so far had seemed to be [Status], his magic and his position as ‘Lord’. [Status] gave him a chance at power leveling, while magic gave him a form of attack. His ‘Lord’ skill [Lord’s Domain], from the description seemed to give him an oversight of his domain, the forest.

Of all of his classes his ‘Lord’ class was an outlier. It was the only class he hadn’t earned through an achievement, or skill, but it had still given him status points. He wondered whether the ‘Lord’ class was completely dependent on the villagers, or whether he could level it some other way. He ran a hand through his hair. It seemed he would have to visit the village.

Somebody jolted into Kade as they walked by, knocking him out of his thoughts and he found himself in the convenience store, a shopping bag already half filled with stuff. It seemed he’d been running on autopilot. Checking the bag, he found his usual assortments of frozen food, two-minute noodles, chips, muesli bars and energy drinks.

He looked at them for a moment, before returning them all to their respective aisles. He just didn’t feel like it at the moment. Instead, he packed more fresh fruit and vegetables into his shopping bag than he’d eaten in the last year.

After having visited the mountain at sunset and thinking things through, he’d realised that this wasn’t who he wanted to be anymore. He wasn’t going to give up on life anymore. Mentally he added Jogging to ‘Other’.

With new purpose and a bag full of paid shopping, Kade stepped into his apartment. He’d almost forgotten the feeling of being motivated. He’d been living his way of life for far too long.

Staying at home, gaming, eating snacks, reading and collecting minifigures was only an acceptable lifestyle in one case and that was manga. Isekai manga to be exact, but he had no intention of meeting a truck. No siree, not for him.

With a little extra spring in his step, he turned on the radio and pulled out a chopping board. It was time to cook.

Moving in time to a catchy tune Kade whipped out a frying pan, dribbling it with oil, before dancing around the kitchen with a knife. Maybe not a good practice, but hey, nobody was around to tell him off.

Onions, garlic and ham all got diced, before being thrown into the hot oil. The onions brought tears to his eyes, but they were tears of joy. It felt so good to cook again. People tended to forget the pleasure of the simplest things. Funny that.

Sliced mushrooms, diced capsicum and grated carrot also found their way into the pan, mixing in with the now gold-brown onions and crispy ham. He breathed in deeply. So good.

Finally, he cracked two eggs into the pan, mixing them in with the vegetables and finally adding salt and pepper with a flair. He let it cook, chopping up some spring onions while he waited.

Flipping the omelette onto a plate he threw on a handful of spring onions and looked at the dish. An omelette had never looked so good. He threw the pan into the sink and grabbed a fork.

It was time for dinner.