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For today’s dinner I ended making something simple yet tasty, Chop Suey with white rice. There was a ready-to-cook mix of vegetables for Chop Suey in the minimarket, it included bean sprouts, green onions, carrots chopped into small parts, broccoli and Colliflower, and I added chopped chicken breast, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and a tiny bit of honey to add to the delicious sweet taste. I even added chopped mushrooms and also some almond and nuts. Despite the weird mix that some people that had not eaten this preparation might think is odd, is actually a very tasty and easy to make food. The fluffy white rice also went very well with it, and Elena ended eating three bowls of it because she said that lunch was very little.
“Phew, that was… it was tasty… ugh.” Elena’s stomach was all bulged.
“You ate way too much…” I sighed.
“But your Chop Suey is the best, mom…” She said. “I couldn’t help but eat it all, it can’t go to waste.”
“Hehe… I am glad you like my food.” I said with a pleasant smile. “But don’t eat too much Elena, or you’ll end like your mother, all fat…”
“Fat? You? You’re so tall that nobody can even tell…” She said.
“Eh?! Look at my belly, it is big!” I said, showing her my belly.
“Well, it looks like that because you had a child, right?” Sighed Elena. “Also it looks cute…” .
“C-Cute? A belly?!” I wondered.
“I bet Mark likes that part of you as well…” Said Elena.
“H-He does?!” I asked. “Why would he like it…?”
“No idea but if he hasn’t complained that you’re fat then you’re probably still alright.” Said Elena. “A-Anyways, I’m off to my room… Thanks for the meal…”
“Remember to tell your friends about coming to the countryside with us, and I hope you respect them if they don’t want to, everybody has different lives after all, Elena, don’t force them, okay?”
“Okay…”
After I washed the dishes, I took a relaxing warmth bath and felt slightly sleepy, but I wanted to play the game so I ended taking a tiny coffee to stay woken up a bit more through the night, and quickly got my VR headset, starting the game.
FLASH!
The moment I logged in, I found myself inside my own house. Yep, through this time, although I had little time to play, I used the help of the Mushroom Brigade to build a small two-floor house made entirely out of wood! I used a bit of my own body’s wood, but we mostly chopped nearby trees for it.
“Phew, here we are…!” I said, looking around.
The house had yet to even get a bed as I didn’t slept in the game to begin with, but it had a few things such as a cauldron I got from the Squirrel-kins, and several bookshelves where I saved books I got from them as well. Aside from that, there was a rustic kitchen and a long table with dozens of chairs, we used this place to eat with the mushroom brigade and anyone else invited.
I have been earning EXP little by little with the small time I could play each day, but the EXP requirements for Level 17 are very big, and because I have yet to move to a higher-level area outside the forest (as I am not really interested), I’ve been simply accumulating EXP from low-level mobs and cooking, fishing, and farming. Indeed, farming gives EXP! Each healthy veggie that comes out of the dirt after a few days seems to give me EXP when I harvest them. Of course, it only works with the ones I planted and took care of.
Nonetheless, after that big dungeon exploration, there hasn’t been anything crazy going on. I did see from the forums that my existence became even more obvious, and that there were various guilds now searching for me. I had even read that people were moving to the Forest of Beginnings, which is very far away from literally everybody else… I am quite nervous, but it has been a while and nothing had showed up, so perhaps they were all just saying and never came here? There’s no way moving from such a long distance would take them so long, this game can’t just waste people’s time this much! Right?
…Well, maybe those that wanted to come had yet to come due to preparing themselves or something? Or perhaps they got into adventurers in the middle of the road and lost their target? Whatever’s the case, life in here is very simple, calm, and nice. Today I planned to go see my crops and probably check my Skills and Stats… the guider said that it could be good to save my Skill Points until I reach Level 20, as I might be able to unlock a new Skill Tree after evolving and changing my Job Class.
And as for new Quests through my Title? I’ve been able to give some to Rita and Titan, and even the Mushroom Brigade and the Squirrel-kins, but they were all about protecting my farm, hehe. This is my way to “pay” to them. Although I am not in full control of this quest-giving power, it activates whenever something that could trigger a quest happens. Asking someone to take care of my farm while I’m offline is one.
But I need to find ways to get more EXP… Well, I’ll just keep cooking and doing the daily stuff even more intensively, I just had a single hour and a half at most, so now that I got many hours to paly, I’ll go hardcore in my grinding with Alchemy, Fishing, Cooking, and Farming! I’ll go all out!
I walked outside my home to see the night. Oh right, the day and night cycle is connected to the real world… Ah, I wish I could see my farm at day. Oh well.
“Sunlight Spirit Summon!”
FLASH!
There was a Sunlight Dragon Vein nearby, so I quickly summoned a little friend.
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