Chapter 1: Cake or Party

Leander stared at his Adventurer's Guild results. He had passed the physicals, but only by the skin of his teeth. He was ranked F and knew that, had he not been an okay healer, he wouldn't have made the cut.

It was all due to, well, his chubbiness. He was overweight, some might even say bordering on obese. Honestly, with his penchant for being a bookworm who could memorize almost anything, he should have tried to become a clinical healer, rather than an adventurer.

But Leander wanted more from life than to sit in a clinic. He wanted to see the creatures that made up the supercontinent of Fluia. 

To see the savanna of Lower Alcandino. The wetlands of Odolia. And, of course, the Heart of the World.

The glacier that sat in the middle of the continent was claimed by no country but by the necromancer Asmodeos.

But with the rank of F, he would be lucky if people let him paint their fences! He didn't have much hope as he went and placed his name down in the register.

As was his wont every time he felt depressed, he went to the nearest fried banana store and bought one, with a generous serving of whipped cream and white chocolate syrup on top.

As he ate, he looked at the surrounding adventurers.

They were so thin and confident! Why couldn't he be like them?

His mother always told him he had big bones. She was also on the chubby side, but it had never bothered her.

But it was okay for a chef to be chubby, not for an adventurer! After Leander finished his fried banana, he went to a nearby faucet to wash his hands and face.

There, on the wall behind the faucet, was a poster.

Do you feel like you always carry weights around with you?

Do you want to change?

Well, change starts with you!

You have to choose: Cake or happiness!

Do the exercise in the pictures and lower your sugar intake.

A drawing showed someone running in place without lifting their feet. Leander squinted at the pictures, which had fine print below them.

For maximum effect, repeat for thirty minutes six days a week. Give yourself a rest on the seventh day. Otherwise, instead of building muscles, you will tear them up without rebuilding them afterward.

Thirty minutes?

Leander rubbed his chin. He could do thirty minutes, he hoped. That sounded like nothing!

He placed his feet a bit away from each other, like how the person in the poster was placing them, put his hands on his hips, and began slowly walking in place.

All the while, Leander stared at the poster. He had no idea what to think about in these thirty minutes, so he began to count.

When he reached the ten-minute mark, he felt his kneecaps would break!

Leander looked at that fateful sentence.

You have to choose: Cake or happiness!

With a huff, Leander persevered. He felt his fat jiggle, and he felt embarrassed, but didn't stop. People stopped to watch him, some even pointed, and a couple laughed, but he gritted his teeth and continued!

When the thirty minutes passed, Leander propped himself on the faucet and breathed heavily. This wasn't good. If he couldn't run in place for more than thirty minutes, how would he go from dungeon to dungeon?

With a determined expression, Leander slowly began to walk around Huergaz. The capital city of Alcandino offered many sights, but Leander had no interest in them.

He was focusing so hard on putting one foot over the other that he didn't notice when his feet had taken him to the library. He was about to berate himself, for he should be walking more and not wanting to go inside. But then he had a thought.

What if the poster had suggested thirty minutes of exercise because more would have caused him damage? Well, in that case, he couldn't sit idle!

He would hone his mind if he couldn't hone his muscles, as few of them as he had! He entered and showed his Alcandino multi-library card to the librarian, and he went straight for the nutrition section.

He browsed through the books, looking for something that sounded reasonable.

How to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!

Yeah, right. Leander had had plenty of cake and ate it, so he was now with burning knees.

Bread: The Brain's Silent Killer

Well, the only thing with flour Leander ate was fried banana, so the book was useless for him.

Paleo Diet.

Oh, no! Hell no! No diets. They made him fatter! He passed by the diet book section with a frown.

How to Build Muscle.

He stopped. This was promising, but what was it doing in the nutrition section? Had someone misplaced it? Leander took the book and sat down to read.

You already have a six-pack.

The book began, and Leander was just about to put it down, appalled that a book was making fun of him, when he decided to continue reading.

But it is buried under tons of fat. Without the muscles that make up the six-pack, you wouldn't even be able to walk.

Well, that sounded reasonable to Leander. He decided to give the book a chance after all.

This forty-page book aims to bring out your six-pack and eliminate fat. You will need to pour your sweat, desperation, and tears into the teachings I offer. But by the end of the year, you will be able to fit into clothes that you wore five or, in some cases, ten years ago.

Leander scratched his head.

Was it possible?

Hm, forty pages was nothing, just like thirty minutes were nothing!

So, like any being on Fluia and the universe in general, Leander put in the minimum effort.

 In his case, it was enough.