Chapter 3: First day on the zone

After Thomas ate his breakfast. Which consisted of a slice of bread, one egg, two slices of ham, eight cherries, and six almonds. He felt better. His mind was clearer. He knew that must be because he had eaten sweet food.

With sure steps, he walked out of his home, and towards his workplace. Thomas passed by other people, rushing pass him. There were also wagons, which were filled with people who were about his size.

He shuddered as a wagon passed that carried a single person, the horses straining under the weight of the woman. This could be Thomas, if he didn't get his ass in shape. Had he begun to use the public wagons, he knew it would have surely been him.

He made it to the guild hall, with fifteen minutes to spare. Leaving his things behind the front desk, he took off towards the training hall. Wanting to do his exercising before he got to work.

Lucius was there, this time jumping rope. Thomas didn't understand why the vampire tried so hard. Vampire anatomy made sure that the people who were infected were always in the shape they had been when they got infected.

Lucius had been in top shape, before he had been bitten, some thousands of years ago. Yet, he kept at exercising as if his life depended on it. That is, when he was not out in the field.

Thomas took the kettlebell from the stand, and began to do the swings. When he was done, he felt warm all over. His mind clear. With a smile, he went to the vampire. Intending to say hello.

"How do you feel?" Lucius told him, when he saw him approaching.

"So full I can burst," Thomas told him. It had been a struggle to polish off the cherries.

"That is good. When did you have your breakfast?" The vampire asked next. Thomas thought on it a bit.

He had woken up at six in the morning, and had gone to take a shower. After that, he had eaten. Normally, he took a shower for fifteen minutes and dressed during the other fifteen.

"At six-thirty," Thomas said.

"Good, then your next meal should be in four hours after the breakfast. At ten-thirty," Lucius said, and Thomas blinked.

"But, my job," Thomas protested. If he took more meal breaks, then the guild master would notice.

"I will tell the guild master that you are on my diet. He owes me a favor. Besides, it is not like you take an entire hour to eat, do you?" Lucius asked, and Thomas shook his head.

"Fifteen minutes, at the most," he would need to do an extra hour, because of the two odd meals. Or, he could always work during his actual lunch break? That sounded doable.

"Good, good. Now, there are some side effects that you need to know about," Lucius told him, and Thomas paled.

"Like, what?" He asked, fearing the worst.

"The first week because you won't get enough fiber, you might get constipation," Lucius said, and Thomas made a mental note to go to the herbal shop on his way home. To stock up on cleansing tea.

"And?" Thomas wondered what else. He felt fine, after the breakfast, if a bit stuffed.

"Your pimples will clear; your skin will become less oily. Your hair will be less greasy, if at all. What you will lose the first couple of days will be water. But, after that, just fat. Your body won't begin to eat at your muscles because you would be eating enough carbohydrates," Thomas smiled at that. This diet sounded like a dream come true.

"Do you think that, one day, I will be fit enough to become an adventurer?" Thomas voiced his dream.

"Well, sure. But, not a frontline fighter. How good is your biology knowledge?" Lucius asked him.

Thomas looked down. Biology and alchemy had been his weakest subjects at school.

"I... not good at all," Thomas had to admit. He could already guess Lucius's next words.

"Not a healer, then. Shame. There are so few of them, it would have been nice if you could become one. How is your mana control?" He asked next.

"Well, I haven't practiced in a while," Thomas admitted again. He was a receptionist. It was not like he had needed to keep up with his practice.

"While you still practiced, how good was your control?" Thomas became thoughtful.

"Well, once, I managed to move the front desk with mana. That was when I was still starting out at the guild. Three years ago," Thomas said. He didn't know if that was good or bad.

"We will need to test if you can still use mana as well as you used to," Lucius told him, and he pointed at the clock over the door. "But, not now. You have just five more minutes to get to the front desk."

"Oh, goodbye then," Lucius waved him off, and began to jump with the rope again. Thomas rushed back out, almost running. He didn't like how his fat wobbled around his midsection. How his legs couldn't pick up the pace. He was 109 kilograms, not 200. He should be able to move faster.

He made it to the front desk right as the green light on it blinked, to show him that his shift had begun. An adventuring party got off their seats and made their way towards him. There was a bloody sack at the back of the tank.

"Hey, Thomas, how goes the diet?" Jacklin, a dual sword wielder, and one of the friendliest people in the guild, asked.  

"I started a new one. Lucius couches me," Thomas told her with a beaming smile.

"Oh, great. Many lost weight with this diet ten years ago. It is such a shame that Lucius doesn't give seminars to just about anyone. It is like he can smell if you are about to quit, and won't bother with you," Thomas blinked. Lucius believed in him? Why?

Still, he handed the form, and took the bloody sack. Opening it to confirm that there were indeed goblin heads inside, he placed it in the waste disposal section behind the desk, and waited for Jacklin to fill out the form.