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

Chapter 34 - A Divine Quest



As I pulled into the grocery store parking lot, my finger tapped away on the steering wheel. My anxiety was high, but my anger with myself was higher. This was the most important quest. I had one important mission.

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[You have a Divine Quest

Help Tristan Processes his Feelings

Description: You've been missing what's been right under your nose all this time. Your child has become scared of a game that YOU put them in - and the fear is hitting reality. Help him feel safe and happy again.

Reward: Being a Dad.]

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Once we were in the store, I grabbed a basket and squatted down to be at Tristan's eye level. "Today is about you. Here at the store, you can grab whatever you want to eat. We can fill up this entire basket."

His brown eyes wandered back to the entrance of the grocery store, where the carts waited. "We could get more with one of those."

I laughed and stood up, making my knee pop. "But our stomachs wouldn't be able to handle it all today."

"The food would be for later."

"And our fridge and cabinets can't hold it all. Lead the way to the booty."

"Arr!" Tristan watched enough pirate television to get my reference. He ran off into the grocery store, giving me time to grab a second basket meant for the entire family.

The less processed foods are on the edges of the store. Tristan dove for the dead center where the chips sat. His favorites were crispy, crunchy, curly, and covered with a powder of cheese. A family size bag took up a third of the basket already. He nabbed his favorite pretzel sticks and then moved to find his next target.

"Yo-ho-ho it's a pirate life for me!" Tristan bellowed out and ran around an older woman pushing a cart.

She looked up from her paper grocery list and smiled. "You're doing great with him."

I nodded my head, not sure how she thought that in the few seconds, but I appreciated the compliment. I wanted to be better.

We roamed through the breakfast section, grabbing oatmeal bars and some cocoa sugar cereal. Next, the kid did good and got peanuts, not plain, but hey it was something healthy-ish.

We were getting our step count in as we backtracked to the chip section, grabbing a box of popcorn.

I called out to him. "This is why I come here with a categorized list and follow that so I don't go back and forth."

Tristan didn't hear me as he was off to the topping area and grabbed the goodies needed for ice cream. I nabbed a case of coconut water for the family on an end aisle.

With a twirl here and a pivot there, our basket filled as we covered all the aisles. From cones to sprinkles and ice cream galore. I grabbed a jar of cherries and fudge toppings in case we made sundaes. Those went in the family basket.

With Tristan's basket overfilling, he looked at me with the biggest puppy eyes as he held a king size bag of red licorice. I couldn't say no after everything I did. "Put them in my basket, but that's the last of it."

"Yay!" He broke off into song again and boogied it right there as we waited our turn to check out in the "20 items or less" lane.

We were at twenty-two and it was a workday. The only people here were old retired folks this early in the morning. As I grabbed the cherries to put on the conveyer belt noticed the basket was short fruits and veggies.

"Shoot," I cursed. "Tristan, mind going to grab the bananas and a good veggie to snack on?"

He shook his head. "I don't want veggies in my basket."

"It'll be for mine. Go quick and get a good yellow batch."

Again he said, "I don't want to."

I sighed, "It's for the sundae."

"Oh! Okay." He took off, pushing the old lady's cart behind us out of the way.

She gasped in surprise. With the speed he went, he would be back just as I would need to pay.

Or should've been.

The old lady looked up at the "20 items or less" sign and at my full bags with a grumble. The young man working the register stopped drinking his water and asked, "Want me to call for help?"

"No, thank you." I sternly said.

The old lady sighed and looked over her list again, then at her watch. She licked her bright red lipstick and opened her mouth to say something when Tristan finally showed up.

He carried a bag of yellow bell peppers and the greenest batch of bananas that made my grass jealous. I didn't send him back because of the growing line.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I got lots of bananas so we could eat lots of sundaes." He held up the very firm and unripe bananas.

"You did. Thanks." I mentally noted in the future to teach him how to pick produce.

Tristan hopped over to the toy dispensers. "I want one. It will make me happy."

My eyes narrowed. Cheeky little kid. I scrounge out a quarter, but then couldn't find the second one. "Sorry, I don't have enough coins on me."

"But I want one."

"I don't have the coins. But come on, we can play when you get home."

Tristan didn't move initially. He remained by the toys, spinning the handle.

"We can play super heroes and cars." Adding more clarity to what I meant, I didn't want to touch the game with how he was. I shook the grocery bags to get his attention. "Then we can have the sundaes for lunch."

"Yay!"

The sweet dessert successfully bribed him.

I played his favorite songs during the car ride home. He yammered away about his favorite characters and asked about mine. I listened to every detail in.

Iceman from one power show. Romeo was the best, even though he was a villain. Maggie was super cool.

He only stopped once we got inside the house because he stuffed his mouth full of chips. I poured him a glass of coconut water and one for myself. Together, I clinked our glasses.

"What's that for?" He spoke between bites, sending crumbs flying.

"For doing a good job. The grocery store is one battle done."

"And we won! Look at our rewards." He took a sip of the coconut water. "What's this?"

"Coconut water." I explained.

"No. Coconuts flake." He said, sipping more of it, but pointed to a white chunk sitting floating around in the glass.

"That's their fleshy part. In the middle is some water, which is where this came, before getting put in the can."

"Coconuts are yummy!" He chugged down the rest of the drink.

My phone buzzed. I glanced at it to see more responses to my forum post on how to build our team came in. Even another payment tip. Yesterday's stream income easily covered today's snacks. I read the forum responses again, and they stung. The conversation never answered where I could find an adventure quest for my group. Instead, it attacked my pitiful gear and how my team needed to rebuild. We didn't have to because Seconds-Over was a fun game, not a competitive esports event.

"Dad!" Tristan shouted.

"What?" I flipped my phone over face down on the table.

"I said, what was your biggest battle?"

My phone distracted me again, and I missed a moment with him. Today was supposed to be about Tristan. Nothing else, not even the game.

Another notification buzzed from my phone like a siren.

"Hold on Tristan, let me take care of this."

I got up from the table, muted my phone, and put it in the dining plate cabinet. Out of sight and mind. Then I sat down with him. "My biggest battle? What do you mean?"

"Where you went 'Aaaaaa'" he stood on the chair, balling his hands into fists and bringing them near his chest, charging up, and looked ready to punch the air, "and defeated your foe!"

I studied Tristan's face as I spoke. He wasn't smiling during that. His jaw was tight, waiting for me to tell him how I was an untouchable.

I thought of one. "Oh, definitely had some fun fights where I needed to use my largest attack to take them down. The full team supporting me. But sometimes, the smaller attacks, well placed, can do the biggest critical hit." I leaned in and waved him closer. "Like I know the best… SPOT TO TICKLE YOU!"

I got him right in the armpits and followed up with a neck. Through laughter and effective swatting, he pushed my hand hard enough away - along with the bowl of chips. The prized food fell and landed on the ground and the bowl rattled about it.

"Noooo!" Tristan cried.

Ghost ran over, elated.

"Off Ghost! Leave it." I ordered as I got the broom. Ghost half listened. He ran off with one chip as a prize. "I'm sorry, Tristan. Let me clean up this mess."

Tristan sat in his chair, then jumped down, crunching a chip underfoot. He lifted his foot and saw crumbs all over it. "Oops."

"It's okay. We can clean it."

He stood there, unsure of what to do. "You're like the cleaning fairy."

"Yup."

"Why don't we have one?"

"Because they aren't real, but this mess is. I still have to take care of it."

"Oh. Everything in the game is not real," he stated.

"Yeah. Thanks for the reminder." I told him, trying to hand him power over his fear. To tell myself the same.

Tristan carefully picked up the rest of the chips with me and was happy when I popped open the pretzels.

"You've been spending a lot of time at base. You mentioned a vision potion. What else have you been up to?"

"Uh." Tristan's brain computed the request. "The monster vision potion! I need to test that tonight."

"How did you get the ingredients?"

"Flying type monster's eyeballs were really helpful." He used a pretzel to point at his eye.

"How did you get those?" I couldn't recall when we fought anything but rats in the city. Tristan's last run out was against Dam Rodents and the other land rodents. Maybe there were a few birds?

"They are really cheap on the market! I go over there and can buy anything for a coin or lots of them. As long as the number isn't red. When the number turns red and I try, the merchant gets grumpy."

"You need more coins if it's red. Was there something I could get you?"

"I'm trying to buy the last dragon claw. But the player is asking so much for them. It hasn't sold in days."

A dragon claw. That's later game material. I don't even know where around the city you could get that unless someone outside of the city brought it in? That sort of thing was an impulsive purchase for Tristan.

"What do you need the dragon claw for?" I asked for more clarity.

"To explore new potions? Elaine told me about these cards I'm collecting! Each one seems to unlock a new skill and help with my crafting."

"Oh?" I had no clue how crafting worked. If you could level it up by collecting cards, that would make it easier to do. With the right card stack, I could unlock better gear instead of having to buy it.

"Yup! On the back of them, they tell you the supplies you need and then the steps to create it."

I laughed at my over-thinking of how the cards worked. "Recipe cards! Oh man, I have a tome for you!"

"What's a tome?" Tristan smiled, but didn't get why I was laughing.

"It's a big, old book. Hold on. I have a few above the fridge."

I reached up there, grabbing the largest one, Home for the Holidays. A good layer of dust had settled on it since we last pulled one out. The fridge doors acted as our mosaic display of our favorite recipes printed from the internet.

I passed the old cookbook over to him. Pages were dog-eared, marking which one's Beth hoped to make or have one holiday. Hopes of the past that were gone and lost to dust as new hopes arrived and got stuck to the fridge.

In a professor's voice, I said, "This is a tome. Also called a recipe book. Where your cards only hold one recipe, this holds a ton more."

"Oh! I want that! Can you make this?" He pointed to the gingerbread house, then a pomegranate juice recipe. "This looks like a potion I can make. What's po-me-grant-ee?"

He tried sounding out the word. "Pomegranate, it's a type of fruit. Next time I go shopping, I will buy it. I'll add it to the list. How are you doing coin wise?"

"Um, the dragon claw was thirty thousand. I have five thousand." He drew the number with a few zeros in the air. "Yeah."

Coconut water caused me to cough and came out of my nose at hearing his number. My kid had over ten times the coin I did. All of my kids were richer than me. No way he got that money from killing rats. I had to know what adventure Tristan had been up to. "Where are you getting that money?!"


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