Hello, dear readers! Here's chapter 41! Wholesome is life!
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‘Demian Mikhailov, along with his three perks, his cultivation path and his loved ones, will have to grow his power in a complicated world, filled with superhumans, crime syndicates and other mysterious beings.’
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The Highlands, New Jersey, USA.
Ben's P.O.V.
Once the couple arrived downstairs, they moved to the office room before sitting side by side on random chairs. Booting up the Holo-Computer set up on the desk in front of him, Ben swiftly selected the file Basic Information and started accumulating the knowledge he so desperately lacked. For a few hours afterward, he successfully memorized great amounts of information, all due to his great Mind Power. Of course, the fact that everything on there was around Basic Level also helped.
At one point in the morning, the couple was joined by Madeline and the three kids. The four noticed them instantly and quickly came over before the two shared with them the content of their previous conversation about how they should deal with the kids' education. Once they were done explaining, Madeline pondered for a moment before saying. “That sounds good to me. The world is going crazy anyway, so it seems to be better for them if they get to learn useful things instead of wasting their time in a normal school.”
Ben and May agreed before the former asked MJ, and Peter what they thought about it. Gayle was a bit too young to truly understand the implications of everything, so he did not bother consulting her. Also, knowing how she was, he understood that as long as she could do the same thing others were doing, she would be happy.
“What do you two think about it? Do you want to follow a normal school program, or do what we just talked about?” As his voice halted, the silver-eyed man started to examine the reactions of the two older kids. Peter, as Ben expected, looked positively thrilled at the prospect, while Mary-Jane looked more resigned than truly excited.
As the two were about to answer, another lovable voice resounded in his ears, prompting him to move his gaze toward its origin. “What about me, Uncle Ben?” Gayle asked with a curious look on her chubby face. The image drew a smile on the middle-aged man who replied playfully. “What do you want to do, my little princess?”
His pet name for her made her giggle happily before replying. “I want to be very strong to beat up the bad guys. So, no bad guys can bully Mom, Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Big Sister, and Big Brother. All my family will be safe!” Softly petting her little head, Ben responded. ”That sounds like a wonderful goal to have. I'm sure you'll become that strong one day.”
As his words reached her delicate ears, she tightened her fists and muttered. “I'll be super strong!” Chuckling at her adorable antics, Ben turned toward the two older children, noticing the envious looks on their faces, with MJ's being more obvious than Peter's. With an amused smile on his face, Ben patted the two's heads before teasing them. “How could I forget my other two little princesses.”
“Uncle Ben!!” Peter shouted in protest while MJ lowered her eyes and blushed, but she instead seemed to lean into the caress. Facepalming exaggeratedly, he replied in an 'innocent' tone. “You're right, Pete. It should be my little Prince, right?” His joking remark made the young teenager roll his eyes before muttering sullenly. “It's a terrible nickname.”
Their reactions made the three adults chuckle softly, while Ben was thinking wistfully. 'Who'd have known that I'd one day considered three kids as my own, despite none of them being biologically mine... The wonders of life, I guess...' A discreet smile appeared at the wholesome thought.
“How about this, kids? In the morning you'll work on the theory and after lunch, you'll cultivate for a few hours. You'll be free to do whatever you want from 5 P.M. til your bedtime. As for weekends, we'll need to think about it.” The three kids nodded their heads obediently, even Mary-Jane, who tended to be lazy when it came to schoolwork.
Madeline then intervened. “I think they'll need to cultivate at least a minimum amount, even on weekends. After all, the stronger they get, the safer they'll be.” Nodding her head, May replied. “I agree. They don't have to study, but cultivating is a must.” Seeing the two women agreeing with each other, Ben could only follow in their decision. Not that he was against it, anyway. After all, he was even more aware than them of the importance of strength in this world.
Clapping his hand once, Ben declared. “It's decided then.” Pausing for a second, a warm smile appeared on his face when he claimed. “You kids can start now then.” He then instructed them as to what they should do before asking Madeline the same thing he asked May previously. Unsurprisingly, her response was similar. “I don't want to be a burden for you guys, so I'll follow your instructions.”
He thus gave her the same directions, which were to focus mostly on cultivation, while taking some time to learn fighting techniques and some basic information. Since both his cultivation Level and Mind power were much better than the two adult women, he volunteered himself to be the one accompanying Gayle that morning.
He did not want May and Madeline to slow down their cultivation because of having to teach the little chipmunk how to read. Especially Mady who did not have any cheat like his Perks. Taking Gayle on his lap, the man picked a file that he spotted the day prior called 'Children's education'.
There was a lot of information inside with one of them being a method to teach children how to read. 'Thank God for that! It'd be a real challenge for me otherwise.' The two then spent the next few hours together, with the little princess happily learning while Ben was doing his best to help her when she was stuck.
The method took a fun approach which successfully kept the little girl's attention until noon arrived. After they were done, Gayle exclaimed. “It's so fun! Will you do it again with me tomorrow, Uncle Ben?” Her question drew a warm smile on his face as he hugged her tiny body inside his sizable arms, making her almost disappear from view.
“Of course, chipmunk!” Bell-like giggling followed his words before the little girl exclaimed with her chubby little arms in the air. “Let's go eat! I'm super hungry!” With an amused smile, Ben lowered her to the ground before standing up. Turning his face toward the others, he asked. “You guys coming?”
Everyone agreed except Marco and Flint who mentioned the fact that they weren't hungry. “As you wish.” Ben then started walking slowly toward the stairs leading upstairs before he heard Gayle yelling while passing by. “I'll be the first upstairs!! Big bro and Big sis you'll never catch up to me!!”
Her challenge was met by two protesting voices before the two started running behind the little girl. “No way I'm letting you win, little Sis!” “Gayle, you cheated!” The three adults had warm smiles on their faces at the view of those three bundles of energy. As something amusing suddenly came to his mind, he turned his head toward the two women and asked. “Why don't we race too?”
May and Madeline were about to respond before Ben took them by surprise by grabbing both of them and lifting them with one on each arm. “Let's go!” The two women clearly did not expect his action as they both feebly complained. “What are...” “Ben, it's...” He, however, did not let them finish and instead started taking off quickly behind the running kids in front.
As his movements were a bit abrupt, the two women fumbled a bit, but quickly found a way to hold on to him tightly. In addition to having a lot of fun from watching their reactions, he could not help but enjoy the sensation on both his arms and upper body. 'Mady's is definitely bigger... But May's seemed more... springy?' Was a random thought he had before shoving it aside to check out the reaction the three kids would have when they saw him passing them.
Of course, the middle-aged man did not run full speed since he did not want to hurt the two beauties in his arms and he was not planning on crushing the kids' morale either. It was just a game after all. “We're winning the race, kiddos.” He exclaimed as he started passing the three kids on the stairs while laughing childishly.
“NNNOOOO!!! UNCLE BEN YOU'RE CHEATING!!!!!” Little Gayle shouted while looking like Ben had deeply wronged her. Only a second later, Ben passed Peter and Mary-Jane, with the two having almost reached the kitchen but failing at the last moment with his arrival.
As his feet touched the kitchen floor, Ben yelled while chuckling merrily. “We won!!!” Before gently setting down the two flustered women. As their feet touched the ground, the two simultaneously let out a sigh of relief before they looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Mom and Aunty! You've cheated!” MJ protested vehemently. “MJ's right! We can't win against Uncle Ben, so that's against the rules!” Peter added. Right after, Gayle arrived before falling dramatically on the floor while trying to catch her breath for a second. Holding her hand in the air with her finger pointed at the ceiling, she declared. “Next time, I'll be the one held by Uncle Ben!” Cocking his brow, Ben asked amidst the two middle-aged ladies' giggles.
“I thought being held by me was cheating?” Turning her body to have her stomach lying on the floor, she lifted held her head in her hands, and exclaimed with a mischievous smile. “It's cheating if it's Mom and Aunty who do it.” Chuckling softly, he continued his line of questioning. “What about Peter and MJ?”
She seriously pondered his question for a few seconds before replying. “It's also cheating.” “So only if you do it, it's not considered cheating, right?” “Yes! Because I'm still little and big bro is a big boy and big sis is a big girl. Do you understand, Uncle Ben?” The 'innocent' look on her face as she explained how cheating was only okay for her to do made him want to burst into laughter but he held it in and instead decided to play along.
Putting on a 'serious' face, he replied, nodding. “That makes complete sense. I never thought about it that way.” Standing up quickly, the little girl came close and patted his leg while having a 'sincere' look on her face. “It's okay, Uncle Ben. I'm a very smart girl, so I can teach you.” Her words broke his ' solemn facade' and replaced it with an amused smile, mirrored by the other two adults.
Before he could answer, however, MJ also came close and took one of Ben's hands before looking at her younger sister and claiming in a 'compassionate' tone. “Look, sis. I can't let you bear the guilt of cheating alone, so why don't I take your place instead?” Shaking her head like a rattling drum, the younger girl retorted strongly while holding Ben's other hand.
“No, no, no, no! No! Way!” A mischievous smile, which was incredibly similar to her younger sister's, then appeared on the older girl's face as she changed her proposition. “Since you don't agree, why don't we BOTH let Uncle Ben hold us? That way it wouldn't REALLY be cheating, right?” A pondering look appeared on Gayle's face as she muttered. “I think it works...”
“Hey! What about me?!” Peter protested weakly. The two sisters then turned toward the boy and said simultaneously. “No way!” Before MJ said while trying to hold back her smile. “You're a strong boy, Pete! And we're just frail girls. So we need Uncle's help to win the race.” Freezing in place for a brief moment, the teenager then mumbled under his breath. “Frail, my ass!”
“Peter Parker! Language!” May admonished, prompting the young boy to lower his head and state. “Sorry, Aunty.” Shaking his head slightly at the two girls playing a prank on his nephew, Ben claimed. “Alright, kids. There's no need to fight. I will not hold any one of you, that way everything will be fair.”
The girls looked depressed, while Peter had a look of schadenfreude on his face when he looked at them. “Let's eat instead of arguing about cheating. What do you say?” Madeline exclaimed with an amused smile on her face. “Kids, uh?” May replied. “And we even got a big one too.” She added as her gaze was directed at the Silver-eyed man who just chuckled at her teasing remark.
“That we do.” May retorted. The two women then started to tease him, which was, in his opinion, a way to take some revenge for the not-so-delicate way he held them while running wildly. As a mature adult, however, he chose to keep mostly silent and started making some lunch for everyone with the help of the three chatty women.
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