Lin giggles and kisses me, which leads to us delaying breakfast for a couple of hours. When we finally make it downstairs, the kids have already eaten and are busy watching cartoons. When we ask, we find out that they are not planning to go to the shadow plane today.

"Why not?"

Mulan says "We decided to take a break and do some training instead."

Lin says "Training in watching cartoons?"

Albion laughs and says "No. We were waiting for you to wake up."

"Oh? What do you need?"

Mulan says "We wanted to use the soulscape to train. If that's okay?"

"Of course. I'll open one as soon as we are done eating."

Lin says "What kind of training are you guys planning on doing? Do you need my help with it?"

Mulan says "We are all getting stronger. We want to try out some new things where there is no risk and we won't damage anything."

Albion says "We also want to be able to work on our teamwork with them if the new techniques work out."

Lin says "That is a good plan. Well, since it sounds like you don't need my help, I am going to go read."

"Alright. Jarvis, deactivate the time dilation please."

Jarvis says "Done."

With the time dilation off, we quickly finish eating and then Lin heads to her library. I create the soulscape and then invite the kids in to help them with their training. I spend the next several hours creating enemies for the kids to fight against.

I watch as they test out the new abilities that they have come up with. Where I can, I offer some advice to them since I have experience creating abilities. I also do my best to give them suggestions on how to work together better.

To be honest, this advice isn't coming from personal experience, but from games. After all, I don't fight with others very often, but I used to raid all the time in games. For the most part, I leave my suggestions as general things and let them work out the specifics.

There are quite a few times where things don't go well, but they are very entertaining. I end up laughing several times, but it is a good learning experience for the kids. They have played in the soulscape many times, but this is different since they are being serious.

In fact, their level of seriousness about training manages to impress me quite a bit. They keep at it until they are all mentally exhausted, then I end the soulscape and have Jarvis reactivate the time dilation. Only about an hour has passed outside, but the kids still end up taking a nap afterwards.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

They have certainly earned it, so I quietly read some manga while they sleep. When they wake up I have lunch with them and then they go back to watching cartoons. Once they are absorbed in the cartoons I sneak upstairs and cuddle with Lin while reading.

We come down several hours later to have dinner with the kids and then spend some time with them. Once the kids are in bed we head back upstairs and have some fun together. Again I only sleep for part of the night and then spend the rest of it working on my core.

Core Upgrade Progress: 81%

At this rate I will be able to upgrade my core again fairly soon, but I stop working when Lin wakes up. We kiss and cuddle for a bit and then we head downstairs to have breakfast with the kids. After breakfast, the kids head to the shadow plane and we go back to reading.

Lin says "You are going through those manga really fast. How many do you have left?"

"Only two more series, but it's alright."

Lin says "You're not depressed that you are about to run out of new manga to read?"

"Well, maybe a little bit. However, I wouldn't have gotten to read them at all without you though, so thank you."

Lin says "You're welcome, but you don't need to be depressed."

"What? Why not?"

Lin says "Because I have been practicing with the spell. Mainly because I wanted more music, but I also got you more manga."

"Really? I love you!!"

Lin says "I love you too. I have seen how important manga is to you and how much it helps you relax. I will do my best to keep supplying you with new ones to read."

"Thank you! Soon enough, you will catch up with everything that is currently out, so don't stress too much about it."

Lin says "Still, I will get as much as I can. I have also started getting anime for the kids to watch once they run out of cartoons."

"Sounds good. They will definitely enjoy that and so will I. However, I will only be relaxing for a couple more days at most."

Lin says "Oh? Have you decided what you are going to do?"

"Only partially. In a couple of days I need to start having meetings with Myria and some of the others. I need to check on how things are going and start getting some new plans in motion."

Lin says "Anything I can do to help?"

"Not at the moment. Although, I will need your help once we get back. There are going to be a lot of things going on and I won't be able to deal with everything myself."

Lin says "Alright. I will do anything that I can to help."

"I know that and I appreciate it. Things will probably get annoying and I should warn you, politics is totally not my thing."

Lin says "No? Really? I never would have guessed!"

Her sarcasm leads to me chasing her around the castle until I manage to catch her. That of course leads to a few hours of playing before we settle down to read. We eat lunch as we read since the kids have yet to return from the shadow plane.

However, I am not worried yet, I am sure they are just taking their time. After watching them practice in the soulscape, I am a lot more confident in their ability to take care of themselves. That and I trust Chloell to do everything she can to protect them and keep them safe.

We keep reading until it gets close to dinnertime, then I start to worry. Luckily, before I get to the point of doing something about it, the kids return. As they tell us about it over dinner, it turns out they had quite the adventure.

Apparently, they ended up meeting one of the shadow drakes, but didn't have to fight it. Because Mushu was with them the drake was curious enough to talk first. In the end, they actually managed to make friends with the shadow drake.

When the shadow drake found out why they were in the shadow plane he decided to help. He told them what the best things were for Ekard to eat and where to find them. That is the main reason that they were gone so long, they went looking for the good food.