- Dad! Time to wake up!

[- Aaaaahhhhwwwwwwn!] - Jack yawned. He had slept well.

The bright sun on his back, the sea washing his scales, the mushroom-men hitting his entire body with their mushroom caps… it was like receiving a massage while at the beach! His entire body felt invigorated!

… not that he ever felt fatigue, not with his stats but, regardless!

Jack looked at his cute daughter.

How many years had it been now? Ten? Twenty? No, more…

Ah, no matter. It was nice seeing her. He had been asleep most of the time ever since his mother took him on this trip of hers, so the time the kids spent sleeping itself wasn’t of his concern.

Truly, it was only a few years on his view. And, for some reason, that wasn’t too much.

- Get up, get up! Mom is waiting for us! - Sandra said, while posturing with her claws lightly bend inwards - the draconic equivalent of crossing your arms.

The little girl had become a teen? Already?

[- Okay, ok, I’m going! Also, be… ]

The young dragon hit a mushroom cap, toppling the small thing. It didn’t even have had a chance to react.

“These things are even weaker than I thought!” - Such a thought went through Jack’s head, as he prepared to rise from the sand.

The place they were now was called “Mushroom Kingdom”. It wasn’t part of any Kingdom or Empire, truly, but that was how the devs had named this region.

It was a long strait connecting two big nearby salt-water lakes, laded on both sides by high cliffs over two kilometers tall.

At the cliff’s bottom, by its time, lived the race called “Mushroom people”. They were usually harmless when found in nature, but their Level 250 bodies and skills packed quite a punch for those who wanted to intrude on their little villages.

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As for Jack… well, he didn’t have to worry about it. Not to mention his natural constitution, his level was way above 250 and his stats were ridiculous.

[- Aaah… what a pain…] - He said, while propelling his body upwards. However, it seemed that, as more he pushed, the farther from ground level he got.

…

He tried pushing with a lot of strength this time, but that only meant him being submerged into the strait’s muddy waters.

***

- What took you so long? - Elicia said, while using a rug to clean Pietro’s face - keep still son, it’s almost over!

- Mooom! Common!

- Shh!

[- Ah, I got stuck.]

- And that explosion was… - Elicia looked at him.

[- He.]

His wife sighed, determined not to look at the old Mushroom People’s Kingdom. Jack was sure to have made a mess there.

In total, this trip was completely worth it, except for…

*System Message: One of your tributary dungeons has been destroyed*

“Urgh, again?!” - Jack closed the System pop-up, a little bit annoyed. How many hundreds of times had that happened so far?

Not that he cared. All of the dungeons which had been destroyed were located in the mainland, so, why care?

It had been fun conquering them and expanding his own, but that was just that.

Also, he had already collapsed all main entrances five hundred kilometers from the Demon Kingdom’s borders, so… yeah, that should do it.

- Do you know where is your mother? - Elicia said, while releasing her boy.

The kids had been growing up. Still, Jack didn’t notice it. It was a “sleeping trip”, after all, and he wanted, more than anything, to do that: Sleep.

Maybe if he was back home, he would have paid more attention to that. Maybe, just maybe, he would have realized that over a hundred years had passed already.

His middle and youngest children had already reached their teenie years. As for the oldest, he had grind enough sleep resistance to stay awake. This should say enough about his capabilities.

The most saddening fact, however, remained how he didn’t know even the minimum about the conditions his family had been living on.

He really let himself go all out, and slept with no concerns at all.

[- Mom? Isn’t she with you guys?] - Jack answered, however, his doubt didn’t last long.

- I’m here! - Said Sasha, while hovering in the skies. Her tone was mild and young. It was as if she had gained many years of life.

***

Parties where supposed to happen in every special occasion. Well, Jack waking up and they moving around could be considered as such.

At the beginning, he and Elicia were overly concerned about the children’s safety. They would be always vigilant, however… nothing happened, and then nothing kept happening. They just didn’t need to worry, so, they left the worry behind them.

Regardless, a small feast was in order.

The elemental butlers, with their methodic precision, could only roll their eyes at the sight of year another “family meal” that was arranged on a formal-dinner fashion.

Still, this time, differently from the others, something bothered Jack. He felt a strange sadness in the air. A disconnection to the moment, as if he was seeing a movie.

“Who… are these people ?” - was one of the thoughts in his mind. The thought that made him realize the fact that, indeed, he didn’t know any of them anymore.