In the Land of Leadale (Volume 1) – Just Do Whatever You Want!

Keina woke in a strange yet familiar place. When she looked at herself, she saw the face of her avatar from the World of Leadale, a VRMMORPG in which she had become one of the strongest players. Was this for real?

In the Land of Leadale (Volume 1) – Just Do Whatever You Want!

What happened?

A young girl came into her room and told her that breakfast was ready. However, Keina was confused and took some time to assess the situation before heading down. She ate well for the first time in years and got some information from the landlady, Marelle. After breakfast, she returned to her room and spent the entire day trying to work out what was happening. Luckily, her AI support was still with her and was able to help shed some light on the situation. It confirmed that there were two strange events the previous night. A strange power outage caused her life support to shut down and also severed her connection to World of Leadale, the VRMMORPG she has spent the last four years playing.

After finding her silver tower, she learnt that many of her friends had probably died as they were mostly human characters and it had been several hundred years since she had last been active in the game. The guardian defending her tower asked her to check in on the other guardians since they were likely to have been left without any magic for centuries. She agreed to help. She also learnt that she had three children and, at some point, she will have to see them. After returning to the village and saving a hunter from a horned bear on the way, she spends a bit of time trying to work out what she wants to do. She decides that she will help the villagers and make their lives better.

In the Land of Leadale Volume 1 Keina can't drink

What did you think?

I watched the anime back in the first quarter of 2022 and was left with some mixed feelings. There were parts that I enjoyed and parts I didn’t, but the overall feeling I came away with was that there wasn’t actually a story. There were no goals or stakes. So, I’m not entirely sure why I decided to pick up the manga, but I did, and I’m really glad that I did. Early on, we get a much better sense of what happened to Keina in the real world and I think that builds a lot of sympathy for her. It was truly tragic. So, seeing her get a second chance at life where she gets to start based on the effort she put into the World of Leadale which was her only escape from the awful circumstances that befell her was heartwarming.

I also found that the manga was able to explore things in more detail than the anime managed. For example, being an elf, Cayna got boosts whenever she was in a forest. It also meant that she could hear the voices of the plants and every time she stood on the grass or bent a branch out of her way, they complained and moaned. That was brilliant and led to some interesting moments where Cayna needed some wood to build her well and bath house. I thoroughly enjoyed the first volume. I’m not sure quite how I’ll feel once her children are in it, but it was a great start.