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

"Hans!" Triangle cried out.

"Hans?" I wasn't sure which Lizard-folk had that name. That's what I get for not listening in the past. I kept my mouth shut about rushing the kids to plant the seed after seeing how happy they were. Spending ten minutes to say hello wouldn't be the reason we failed at the legendary quest.

"Yeah, Hans, Iris, and Falco." Triangle pointed to each of the Lizard-folk.

Fireclaw was Falco, that was easy for me to know, but the other two I was nowhere near on their names. "Hi, I'm Boulder." I waved to them.

Hans, originally I called Potholder, stuck his tongue out and laughed. "We know of you. Thank you again for your help. We've learned quite a bit since our adventure."

My brain was foggy on their original mission. Iris walked around me, but held a cloth over her nose. Her voice came out a bit muffled. "Oh, Lady Crockery did a fine job on your shield."

Her five fingers each ending in a small curved claw, tapped on the shield, tracing the outline decoration. "How interesting. Falco, look at this."

The other Lizard-folk stopped talking with Triangle and Naiad to look at my shield. I noticed Hans' tail was thinner and shorter than the others and he had a slight wobble in his walk as he came near me. I held out my shield for them to trace the design.

"How long have you used this shield?" Iris asked.

"I got it the day after we met, but I've been using it more lately."

"Humph," Complained Falco. "He knows nothing about fluids. An insult to a great work by Lady Crockery."

The other Lizard-folk bobbed their head in agreement.

"Dad needs extra help," Triangle chimed in and nodded along with the NPCs.

"What does fluid work deal with my shield? It just taking hits." I tapped the front. "It's a heater shield and does a good job blocking fire attacks."

Falco groaned at my response. Hans failed to cover his mouth as he laughed. Iris was the one to explain to me what was going on. "A heater shield is the style, not its defense."

Falco pushed down on my shield and got his elongated nose right up against my face. "Sure, sure, it can block. But there's more…"

"Hss, hss, hss," Hans said, his hissing like a snake to tell Falco to hush up. He even pried Falco's claws off, one by one. "Don't give secrets easily away to them. We could use their help."

Falco blinked. Iris whispered at his side, and I watched enlightenment bring light to his eyes.

Falco looked at his companions with a lizard-folk grin. "You should say that to them. I like it."

Iris pointed to all three of us, but paused on Triangle the longest. "You solved our fire pot problem and created us a valuable relationship with Lady Crockery. We need your help again. In exchange, we will answer your questions and let you buy our alcohol and oil."

Hans sniffed the air next to Triangle and pointed to the fanny pack. "Based on the smell around Triangle, as an herbalist, he might like to even meet our alchemist in town."

Naiad kept a hand over her nose. "You can smell something beyond the rot?"

Hans laughed, "As a track-sniffer, you get used to all sorts of smell."

This was the side quest threat I feared earlier. I didn't want to get further off the subject from our goal of planting a seed. But it would be worth it if it made Triangle happy and got him another alchemist to learn from.

I pried the Lizard-folk for more information. "What are you all doing out here? Do you know the area?"

Falco bobbed his head in excitement to talk. "Yes! As you know, we have a rat problem. Burning the forest down worked in killing many nests there."

"And chasing them to our home nearby," Iris sighed.

"The rats are stronger than when we met." Hans batted Falco's head. "We don't want to burn our home down like the Clingeo forest, we need a safer solution to keep the rats out consistently and use the firepots only when a nest forms with enough precaution."

Iris pointed to the pouch on her side. "We can't powder up the entire forest to prevent a fire. We can do small areas."

"How does this deal with the ozo bear-thing?" Naiad's hand squeezed her bow. "Will it come back this way soon?"

"We've observed that when the bear eats certain berries," Iris explained, holding out some of the small, deep red fruit in her claw. "The smoke it blows out through its nose chases away the rats." Iris explained.

"And pigeons," chimed in Flaco.

"Rats," repeated Iris. "We want to work with the bear and make it our friend and keep the ecosystem in tack."

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[Quest notification! Help the lizard-folk get a pet ozo, a bearlike creature…]

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"We accept!" Triangle cheered.

"Yeah!" Naiad agreed.

My mouth moved, forming words, but I remained silent for a moment as the quest registered in my log. Finally, my brain caught up to the kids. "You two should've read what it said first. Always read the fine print."

"We listened," Naiad said. "Make friends with a bear."

"Maybe I can make it my pet!" Triangle didn't want to hear a word of my lecture.

"How do you think we friend a bear?" I asked my teammates and the Lizard-folk. The images of an ancient traveling circus came to mind, with a bear performing on stage.

"If we knew, we wouldn't hire you." Hans crossed his arms, annoyed with the question.

Shrugging off his response, I asked another question to better prepare my team. "What about the Mark of Valiha?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The lizard-folk exchanged looks, and I was preparing for another they won't share and tell response.

Falco got approval from Iris to share the information. "The mark allows the ozo to know where you are in its territory. To avoid detection, the three of us remained unmarked and stay out of the fog. But if a friend who joins us gets marked, the ozo will chase them down… for food or to fight off its land."

"How have you been trying to friend it if you don't touch its fog?" I wondered how much effort they actually put into this. Probably the same as the firepots.

"We leave gifts with our scents and symbols. The ozo takes some gifts, but usually only the berries. If you get us useful information, or even bring the ozo to us, we will share our knowledge back with you about our shield."

Hans tapped his nose and winked at Triangle. "Plus trade some goods for making potions."

"Do you know where we can plant a tree secretly? We need a large enough area in these mountains," Naiad asked.

I'm glad she beat me to the question. I also wanted to finish the big quest with the looming deadline. That way, everything we did wouldn't be pointless. But I also had to respect what my kids wanted to do in the game. It was great we were on the same page.

"Hmm, go over that hill, and we can keep it safe for a time being. While you focus on our request," Iris replied. "It is already our meeting point for another group."

"Another?"

Falco chirped, "Yup, we want to gather information fast to stop using the firepots."

I checked on the kids, who were calmly following the lizard people across the hill.

[Team Chat]

[Boulder: Keep an eye out for this other group of players. We don't know who they are, or how powerful they are.]

[Naiad: Or how friendly they are. Don't AssUMe about people. CheezWiz wasn't like that.]

I gripped my axe at my side. Paranoid and well prepared were sides of the same coin. But Naiad was right.

Hans talked to Triangle while Iris and Naiad chatted. Falco wanted to know more about my shield, how much heat it could handle, if I tested it with fire or not.

"Only glow light magic so far, no fire. What's so special about my shield? I thought it was only a design on it." I prodded him, the weak link of the group, for information.

"It is a brilliant design. You're not using it properly, which is a dishonor to Mrs. Crockery. Such a shame." Falco looked at Iris, but straightened at the glare she gave him. "I'll tell you when you make friends with the ozo."

Falco was going to be harder to crack open. We were going to have to finish this side quest. At least someone would defend our seed, as long as the other players didn't try taking it.

With all the noise our group made going through the forest, I assumed monsters left and right would attack us, but having the lizard-folk with us, nothing came near us. I only felt a little nervous as Triangle started throwing pinecones randomly into the woods and pretending they were bombs by making explosion sounds.

Still, nothing came after us. The trees thinned out, and we got to a depression area. A steep section in the south was low on trees because of the lack of sunlight, but it was an open area. There were a few trees growing off the cliff sides where we stood. Their roots desperately holding on for dear life. The ground further down was patchy, even grass wasn't thriving here. Only a few yellow flowers survived in the low land near the tiny creek formed there. Only moss grew near the rocks and water.

"That's perfect!" Triangle called out while he dug into the soil. It came up clumpy in his hand. A mix of dirt and rocks. "Dad, get the seed out."

I pointed to the obvious problems, but I wasn't the one who worked with an herbalist. "What do you mean, perfect? It won't get that much light, and the ground looks too rocky for a tree to get its roots deep."

The three guides climbed down the cliff side, showing us the safe path. According to my map, we had back tracked south a bit to get to this area. Further south was a steep rocky side to get closer to the city of Fanamel.

Hans put his hands out and caught the jumping Triangle.

Naiad paused before climbing down further and looked up at me to say, "How do we know it's a tree? We got it from a vine covered rocky area in hell. It came from a big giant flower."

Iris turned her head to us, the smile she wore a second before replaced with a serious line. She heard the word "hell."

Through a lying laugh, I waved my hand at what I hope appeared nonchalant. "Yeah, that was a hellish terrain we climbed on that mountain then."

Iris's eyes narrowed, which looked odd with a lizard's eye that closed side-wise, but they still became slits.

Naiad joined in on the lying with a smooth voice and no fumbling on her part. "It wasn't fun at all and I hope we don't go back."

"What was it you didn't like about it?" I inquired.

"I missed my brother." Naiad continued with the truth as she climbed down the short cliff. "It's fun to be together again."

Iris's face lit up. She put a gentle claw to tap Triangle's hat as he ran past to go to the valley before she said, "I understand that. Being separated from our tribe while we looked for a solution to stop the rats was horrible. Do you need our help in planting the seed?"

"Nope, we are good," I answered. I had some hell dirt left to keep the seed hidden from the gods. Not enough dirt for a sapling. I didn't know how Iris felt about the gods. "What's our plan for finding you if we befriend the ozo?"

Hans pointed to the ground beneath the cliff. "Make the bear release fog here on the spot. We'll come and collect the ozo, and then we can talk more."

We had all just finished climbing down the cliff. Naiad looked at the ground, mumbling about a rune, but I wasn't certain. Triangle was running down the hill poking at the dirt in various spots. I stood awkwardly next to the Lizard-folk, expecting them to say more.

Finally, I waved goodbye. "We'll get started then. Bye."

The Lizard-folk moved to the other side of the depression. We had to scout out this area before the seed grew and the boss appeared. Or whatever happened when this seed grew up. Triangle's handiwork skills could prove useful here with trap making, too. We had to be ready for anything.

Triangle pulled out a shovel from his inventory and started digging a couple of yards away from the stream, just right at the edge of the shadow line. I grabbed the rocks out of his way while Naiad pulled the seed out of her inventory to see if we had dug deep enough. We stopped once the seed stuck slightly out of the ground just by a few bristles. I covered the top with the last of the hell dirt in my inventory.

"That's it?" I asked the kids.

Naiad shrugged. Triangle brushed his hands on his pants to clean them and declared, "We need to go make a bear friend!"

I stared at the seed, surprised by the whole… normalcy of it. Part of me hoped flashing lights, a list of achievements, something. This was part of the ten day legendary quest. I wanted some fan fare for defeating my past demons and actually being a dad again. For doing this game with them and for their fun.

Silence sat between our group. Triangle picked his nose as he put his shovel away and Naiad tapped her fingers, waiting impatiently.

That's why there were no achievements. This is how things should be in a family, without any gaming goals. I didn't need the game nudging me. I pulled out my shield and smiled at the kids. "Okay, so we have five days left on the Root and the Seeds of the Problem Quest. Who's ready for…" I trailed off as I watched Triangle run to the stream down below.

He was already taking action as he filled up his watering can before returning and pouring water next to the seed and around it, avoiding to get any water above it. His watering can vanished and he burst out into song. "We're going on a bear hunt!" singing the old childhood song. "Look! Large cliffs. We'll have to go over them."

"I'm not scared," I chimed in.

"I'm terrified of the upgraded sticky bombs," Naiad didn't join in on the song. "I can see and smell it. But Dad lost the buff. Why?"

Triangle pulled out Goldy and pointed it at us. I hid behind my shield as he explained. "My bubbles clean it off! Pop!" he pretended to pop a bubble.

"Will a river or lake wash the goop off?" I peaked my head around, the foot tall archerfish terrified me.

"Nope, you need my bubbles," Triangle shook his head

"Your goop is going to make this quest easy," I praised Triangle.

As we walked away from the demonic seed, a delayed notification popped up.

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[Welcome to the farming tab! Go to the general market to pick up your free farmer's hat. In this tab you will see what plants you have growing and how long on them. The status they were in the last time you saw them and the last time you watered them. You can add notes and your own timer to each seed right here to keep track of what works best.]

[New Achievement! Farmer John: You've successfully planted your first seed!]

[New Achievement! You're a Jon: Johnny Appleseed was known for planted apples across the country. He's always pictured with these large juicy apples, not the Red Delicious type, but a better one. What he actually planted was crab apples throughout the Midwest. You are a bar beneath that. You planted an invasive seed to this land, and this domain. It will not thrive.]

[Seeds growing:

Demonic Seed from Hell, a daughter of the goddess of Leith (count 1). Time Remaining: 6 days, 10 hours, 24 minutes, and 33 seconds.]

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