“Congratulations! A Dungeon has been assigned to you!

Dungeon Name: Dragon King’s Dungeon (2)”.

[- Eeeh… BABE! WHAT HAPPENED?!]

Jack had a bad premonition as his Dungeon got back into his hands. It was supposed to stay with Elicia kind of… forever.

At least he didn’t intend on dealing with it. It was too much of a hustle.

- SORRY, PRESSED THE WRONG BUTTON! - Elicia’s answer came as loud as thunder. Why did she choose to yell instead of using the messaging function?

Probably because that was what Jack had decided to do.

In the end, it isn’t usual for someone to yell at someone else which is in the kitchen. Yelling would bring a sense of familiarity for those used to it.

[- OKAY! GONNA SEND IT BACK TO YOU, OKAY?]

- …

Jack’s premonition got worse.

His trembling finger approached the player screen, and he lightly touched the “change Dungeon Master” button.

Nothing happened.

[- Eeh… what?]

He pressed it again.

[- Wait, wait…it can’t be…]

As Jack scrolled through the panel, his view stopped at his Friend’s List. Elicia wasn’t there.

Of course, they were still married and well. However, one’s Friend’s List didn’t necessarily include one’s children and wife.

It was weird, thinking that one wouldn’t be a “friend” while being someone’s son, daughter or wife, but it was just an instant messaging list after all…

[- WAIT!]

Jack looked at his friend’s list in a daze.

There was no one there!

He used to have tons of friends, Elicia and the kids included!

That could only mean that…

[- Shit!]

Jack slowly creeped his way back to his favorite gold pile. With his stats and skills, it would be impossible for someone to listen to him getting down from it.

- JACK!

Still, one couldn’t change someone else’s understanding of their behavior.

A figure stood by the door. It seemed young and energetic, differently from how it had been in the past five years.

[- Ah… hi, mom!]

***

Sasha. Half-elf. Jack’s mother. Also, someone who hadn’t been around in the past fifteen years, as she went around the world doing a multitude of tasks at a snail’s pace.

Only she would be able to plot something like this.

Jack, after all, had plenty of friends on his list, even if most of them had been silent for years!

He was even part of a couple of chat groups, and posted stuff from time to time. Of course he would have friends!

However, what bothered him was…

[- Eeeh… was this necessary, mom?]

Did his mother actually think he would dare be giving the dungeon to anyone else but she herself and Elicia?

Wasn’t this underestimating his brain a little bit too much?

- Of course, it was! You have been sleeping so much you don’t even know which month we are in, and you want for me to believe that you care about your wife and children?!

Jack almost spat a mouthful of blood. That hurt!

[- Wha… of course I do!]

- That’s right grandma! Papa likes us! - Sandra answered, a little bit angry.

- I am sure he does, pumpkin. I just don’t think he would care if he had to go live in a dumpster or prefecture shelter somewhere else! After all, that’s exactly what he did a hundred or something years ago!

“How cruel!” - Jack felt like his liver had been smashed by a rock. Did she need to bring his dark history?

- Ah, okay!

Sandra’s happy compliance was the deathblow. Jack felt his souls leaving his body, never to return again.

The six of them were currently on Red Dragon form, while seated around a big metal table full of food.

Sasha’s Avatar original form may be that of a bulky male swordsman, as it was Jack’s spare Avatar, but she would rather walk around on female form, usually as a Half-Elf. It suited her nature more, since she had been born and raised as a female.

As for the current Sasha which towered as tall as Elicia and looked even more ancient?

She had obviously transformed in order to be together with her family in the kids’ original forms.

She liked to look at them as they really were, as these forms would show their true bodies and ages - not like a human form which could be changed as one pleased.

Take Sandra, for instance. She liked to appear with big, round eyes, with long eyelashes, almost unnatural for a human being. It was as if she was wearing make-up. But then, as one looked at her real form, it was the one of a small dragon, fit for her mentality and age.

Plus, her eyes even looked a tiny bit lacking in eyelash matter. Not that dragon eyes had eyelashes, but one could compare them to a dragon’s secondary eyelid, the one which existed under the heavily-protected-by-scales one.

Regardless.

This was a festive situation, especially for the kids - as they hadn’t seen Sasha for most of their last two awoken-periods.

It just happened that she had been out for the last fifteen years, and before that she had to deal with a situation right after getting home - so they hadn’t seen her in the last two of the years they had spend awoken, which were the roughly the same as not seeing your grandma for a whole two and a half years.

It was kind of heartbreaking for small children used to have a grandma with them.

- Now, now, I have to admit that you have improved your cooking skills, Jack. Your slowly-roasted whole cow with spices has indeed become way better than before.

[- Ah, thanks !]

Jack’s answer was somewhat stiff. He was glad that his mother was enjoying the gold-infused spices he had invented, but she hadn’t talked to him like that in years.

Ever since…