Honey, I've Leveled the Kids [Family-Focus, LitRPG - COMPLETE]

Work filled my afternoon with meetings that made cooking in the kitchen even harder. How did people weekly meal plan for a family? They eat so much food. By the time I had the next four days of food cooked and stored in the fridge, I was out of clean pots and pans.

I was also five minutes late, and I had to go pick up the kids from school. There wasn't time to reheat the meatballs from lunchtime. Instead, I tossed them in food storage containers and put them in Elaine's and Tristan's car seats for when I picked them up. The few I ate at lunchtime were good and had a crunchy texture on one side.

When picking up Elaine, I resisted asking questions about her lying.

"Did you have a good day?" I inquired, smiling and focusing on being welcoming.

"Yeah," she casually answered, not expanding further.

I would level up my patience today. Work on strengthening my connections with this Not-Personal-Child in order to unlock a quest. Reward, a daughter who will trust me.

"Eat up," I forced the cheerfulness into my voice. "We're going to have a busy afternoon and evening."

"Meatballs and noodles in the car? With my fingers?"

"I forgot to pack the forks! Uh, yeah, eat it that way. It shouldn't be hot."

"It's definitely not hot or cold." She closed the lid and put her headphones on.

The drive to Tristan's elementary took forever. Four minutes longer than planned because the person in front of me braked for a yellow light. Tristan was more enthusiastic about dinner in the car.

"Are we getting burgers?" He wondered.

"No, eat the noodles," I informed back.

"They're slimy," he complained. With how late it was, the noodles would be cold and starching up again.

"Then eat the meatballs," I held back on begging. I was trying to feed my kids.

"They're burned," Tristan complained.

I heard the annoying sound of the food storage lid clipping back on. "It's called seared! It helps hold the shape of the meatball together."

Another well cooked meal, unappreciated and not even tried by the kids. I should be used to this by now.

Tristan didn't stop talking. "I want fries."

"No. We're late and have to get home." Fortunately, the drive home was faster than pick up.

I offered each of the kids a breakfast bar and chips as a substitute for dinner. Elaine moved to the table, pulling out her device, loading up her homework. I glanced at the clock, seeing we only had five minutes according to my plan. Hopefully, she had easy homework. Gosh I wish there wasn't such a short timer on the quest. The game wasn't accounting for people who had schoolwork and jobs.

"Tristan, can you get Ghost out quickly?" I was spiraling, trying to think of how to speed things up to keep us on track to finish my shield quest and Naiad's scout one. But homework took priority over the game. With a bit of grumbling about responsibilities, I sat down and buckled up a supportive parent. "What is it you're trying to do?"

Elaine didn't even look over at me as she slouched to scroll through her schoolwork and said, "I wanted to work on my agriculture research essay. It's due later in the week."

"Great! Let's talk about pointers for the essay." I could see the clock move another minute.

Elaine looked at me beaming, "That would be great! I really don't know how to do these things. Our teacher gave us rubric and how to reference, but nothing on how to write an article."

I smiled back because this meant I was going up with reputation points with her. I had the same frustration when I wrote reports in school. My brothers didn't help without a fist fight, and mom was at work. I was glad to be here and now to help. "What's the article about?"

Before we could talk too long, Tristan came over and showed me his own paper work from school. "I drew you bashing the ent!"

The paper asked for him to write his name and practice tracing letters, and sure enough was a scribble drawing of the monster's head in the dirt over all of it. At least he drew me with a neck this time, and my head was as large as a boulder. In the top corner was fish spitting. A teacher note was stuck to it saying Tristan needs to focus more in class.

Elaine asked something and all I could hear was the ticking clock warning me about our little time. Calmly, I took the paper and put it on the stack on the table. With a deep breath to center myself, I said, "You know, we should have all these conversations in the game. Let's get going and we can talk about research there."

I nudged them down the hall. Elaine talked about her essay and wanted to know more about the different agriculture methods for growing a forest. The pros and cons, and I was never happier in locking all the kids into the virtual machines. I only knew that trees grew slowly.

The moment I loaded into Seconds-Over, I saw Naiad holding on to Triangle. He was squatting on the ground crying, holding his fish.

"What happened?" I asked, gripping my shield and looked around for the threat.

The naked, burned down black forest surrounded us was desolate of all types of life. Clingeo Grove was no more with the ashen land. I wondered how long it would take before the game let it grow back. For now, there was nothing in the sky or on the ground, only silence greeted us as we gathered in our camping area. It was terrifying to think we damaged an entire region of the game because we combined NPC lizard-folk and a Rat King in one zone. The risk of casting fireballs, or Triangle's bombs, made it too easy to destroy environments.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"This is how I found him." Naiad answered.

Her clothes and gear turning black from all the ash. The crying half-gnome on the ground got caked in a cloud like a cartoon character. I wasn't any better off as I kneeled down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder and asked, "Hey bud, mind telling me what's going on?"

"No!" He broke down and cried more, burying his face in his fish.

This level of a sudden meltdown was unlike him, or at least he hadn't had one in a few years. Tears ran down his face and a bit of hiccups followed from the overwhelming emotions. Each one hurting me a bit more.

"Do you want me to pick you up and take you to the guildhall?" I suggested. I knew he wanted to work there today, I'd help carry him to get him there.

His big gray eyes perked up, looking at me, and the barest of nods happened. The young round face of the gnome made him look years younger, not seven, pulling more at my heartstrings. I picked him up in my arms and we crossed over the white perimeter of the camping location.

The moment I stepped over the white safety circle, the protection vanished. Creaking sounds and a gust hit us as the weakened branches of the forest seemed ready to snap. The large wildlife was gone, leaving only the smallest of critters and bird in the sky looking for food. The sudden change in the calm environment caused Triangle to whimper again in my arms. His older sister came over and patted his arm.

"Don't worry, we got you." She comforted him. "You and I already took care of the Rat King Boss yesterday, too."

I silently mouthed to Naiad, asking if she knew what was going on. She didn't shake her head no, but shrugged, meaning she did and was again hiding something. I squeezed the small boy one more time in my arms as we walked through the woods.

"Stay on the lookout," I instructed Naiad.

We weren't too far from the original rat nest location, following the path we took on our maps yesterday to avoid any new adventures. With the forest fire, there couldn't be too much.

The game had other plans.

Saying nothing, Naiad ran over to a tree snapped in half. Claws scratched at the trunk and a deeply dug out pair of trenches were in the ground in front. "Oh, something fought here."

She picked up an enormous light brown feather the size of her forearm. "Think I can use this to make arrows? Ah! My quest updated."

"Maybe? I don't know how fletching works. We can find out in town," I replied, nodding to Triangle in my arms. "For now, let's get back and avoid triggering another fight until we're ready."

We still didn't have supplies from yesterday and we were down a team player right now, the worst situation. With an overly exaggerated sigh, Naiad agreed. "As long as we come back."

"We will." I promised. I avoided bringing up how her quest in the prairie was a farce, remembering Uncle Rick's advice to let it go.

We made it safely to the city gates. The guards at the entrance didn't even acknowledge us as we passed through the archway of the wall. The sheep and wolf banner waved above our heads and welcomed us into Fanamel city. A few NPC brick and mortar houses and buildings lined the middle of the street, forcing us to go down a side street to get where our guildhall sat in a cul-de-sac.

An invisible red line sat on the ground, signifying an illusion. Only Shrimp Guild members saw it was a guildhall that magically adjusted to size as our guild building grew. Others would see more game generated buildings and couldn't attack our base. A place where support players could craft while their adventuring guild members went elsewhere in the world. It also allowed us to stay connected to CheezWiz and his friends with enough keys.

Right at the entrance were a few benches and potted plants that sat around the clay practice fighting arena. A small barracks where we could rest was red and a sign of a bed sat on the door. An archery area for those to practice on range targets and a small stone shack that had a wooden sign out front with a small skull on front saying, "Proceed with Caution." Our guildhall was still small and growing along with us with each key purchase.

Entering our guildhall, Triangle wiggled out of my arms. "Put me down." He ordered.

The sadness of before switched off to the comfort of his tinker station. The child ran off to his safe place and put a ton of items down on the bench. Most of the guild's keys went into this station to make it a level three, keeping everyone safe from the explosions that often happened inside the little building station.

Naiad and I wandered over and did the same. I gave him some of the Leaves of the Fallen and the antlers of Eight Points, and a Bark of Resilience items. "Why don't you experiment with these and see what you can make?"

A frown grew across his face, and he shoved the antlers back. "You can have all of those."

"Alright… Do you want to talk about stat points? I've held off on mine for now, but for you, focus on intelligence. Maybe toss one in constitutional after that start-"

"Done." He declared.

With a sigh I finished, "And try to focus on a support class stats."

Naiad came over and emptied her scrap items for her brother, and picked up the eight points and bark. "Would this work for crafting gear?" she asked.

"We can look. Let's head to the market and restock up for you. Even hit the hidden rat nests in the area for more funds. Then go out and finish Naiad's quest in the woods." I filled them in on my plan for the first hour of the game. The second hour depended on getting Triangle a new class quest unlocked.

"I'm staying here," Triangle blurted.

"What why?" I asked. "There's so much out there, and- "

"Dad," Naiad cut me off, "he's shaken up from yesterday."

"What, no?" I defended my brave kid. "It's okay. We just weren't ready for that big event yesterday, which made it a fun challenge. We'll do better if we train and plan for it."

"I got scared." Triangle didn't look up at us. He was messing around with some scrap metal to form a new jingle bell bomb, avoiding full recognition of his hard feelings.

I came around and stood next to him, but he ignored me. "Hey, remember, this is all a game. You can't get hurt."

Finally, he looked up at me, water gathering around his eyes. "You said it all ends if I die. And all the lights were flashing so much when I got hurt."

I let out a breath of relief. Tristan didn't feel pain. The settings for kids were different and protocols were in place to keep them safe. "Yeah, but your body outside of the game was fine. Nothing came of it. I want you here and we're good to go."

"But what happens if your health drops? It got low yesterday, same with Naiads."

I kissed his head. "Let Dad do the worrying. You need to focus on playing the game. You will want to be here when more big stuff happens. Just have fun and keep slaying those monsters."

He grimaced at my last word. "I don't want to play."

"This is a family thing. We need you to support us. Why don't you go play in your workshop?" The clock was ticking. Naiad and I needed to go out leveling. I also promised Beth I'd keep an eye on Tristan. If he played the game, I could still do that. He was in the system next to my body, safe and not causing chaos in the home. He could cause all the chaos he wanted in the game. "Or I can carry you on my back."

He ran to the other side of his bench away from me and so I couldn't see his face. A strong 'no' to my question. He made his choice clear. This was something I had to adjust and account to.

This was still a family time. We were playing a game together. For now, Triangle needed another distraction until he was ready to fight the monsters with us.

His hands paused on the small metal time bomb. "Could I have the rat map, please?"

I pulled the map out instantly, proud that my speech worked for him. "That's the spirit! If you want us to join you, we will. We'll be in town shopping here. You only need to message us in the guild chat and we'll show up. Unless you want some solo leveling." I couldn't help but smile.

Triangle didn't echo the same emotion back, instead keeping his head down. "I'm going to go get bugs for Goldy and stay near the base."

I sighed, as this conversation would not get too far. Triangle needed time and I couldn't give that, only space. Naiad and I could go finish our quests. I informed everyone of the new updated plan. "Everyone, keep your eyes out for an NPC that starts a healing quest. Naiad, you and I are going to go shopping and head out of town to finish your quest. Triangle, keep us posted and we can bring you supplies and support you."

We'd still be together in our home.