As usual, I wake up before Lin, but after last night I decide to let her sleep. So, I quietly leave the room and head down to the main room where I find Mulan awake. The rest of the kids are still curled up, asleep in the nest, so I try to be quiet.

"Morning, Mulan."

Mulan says "Morning, dad."

"Do you want to join me for breakfast?"

Mulan says "Sure, but if you take out food the others will wake up."

"That's fine, they can eat with us."

As soon as I start taking food out of my pouch, Mulan is proven right as the others wake up. They join us for breakfast and then after they are done they start playing. I head back to my workshop, grab the books, and then return to the main room to read.

Even if I am not playing with them, the kids deserve for me to be around as much as I can. At one point, when I am watching them, I notice that Mushu has gotten bigger. Since Ekard still hasn't grown any, it means that Mushu is growing because of the fire energy.

That means that I need to find shadow energy to feed to Ekard for him to grow. The problem is that I haven't really run into any shadow energy other than in the shadow plane. I wouldn't mind taking another trip there, the problem is finding the time to do so.

If I can't find the time, maybe I can send someone else there to collect energy. Either cores from beasts or water from that river would be best based on how Ekard's egg acted. The problem is, who would be best to send into the shadow plane?

My first choice would be Kechara, but she can't be away from the mountain for long. Asuna would be my second choice, but she is too easily distracted by things. I definitely can't send her alone, but maybe if someone else went with her.

I will have to think about that more after we get back to the peninsula. It is either that, or Ekard is going to need to go into the shadow plane himself. Of course, he would need someone to go with him and protect him.

With all the experience I have had, making a gate that leads to the shadow plane should be easy enough. In fact, I can probably make a device that will allow other people to go there without me. That would probably be a good idea and I will need to make something to allow people to return.

Now that I think about it, the shadow plane would actually make a decent training ground. At least, it would for the stronger troops, which includes my kids. Although, I'm sure that by now the beastmen troops will have gotten a lot stronger.

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After all, they have basically been fighting a war against the empire all this time. Those that have survived are sure to have gotten stronger, otherwise they would have died. A war is not something you survive just based on luck, although luck certainly helps.

After making up my mind, I put aside the books and start making a new type of gate. The base is just like the other platforms, but then I add a large ring above it. The ring will act to control the size of the gate and make it easier to keep open.

Luckily, the shadow plane is already connected to this world, so it easy to target. For any other plane I would first need to figure out where it is in relation to this world. That isn't entirely impossible, but I would need to go to that plane first.

I program the new gate to go to the shadow plane, but I leave room to add other destinations. The main problem is that I cannot target a specific location on the shadow plane. That means that each time a gate is opened it will open at a random location.

However, the only other option would be to go to the shadow plane and build a destination platform. The problem is that if I did that, it would then need to be guarded all the time. I don't want to have to station people in the shadow realm, so I will stick with random.

To make it a little safer, I am pretty sure I can make it only open where there are no lifeforms. That should prevent the situation where someone gets attacked as soon as they step through. That should be enough, the people who will be going through are not going to be weak newbies.

Now I just need to figure out how they are going to be able to return easily. After thinking for a few minutes, I decide to create a remote control that will call the gate. It will activate the gate, but act as the destination so the gate opens nearby.

That will be much easier than making them go to a specific spot to be able to return. It will also act as a means of quick escape in case anyone gets into a dangerous situation. That should make exploring the shadow realm a little bit safer, as long as they don't lose the remote.

Thinking of that, I need to add some safety features to the remotes so no one else can use them. I will also give each one a unique mana signature so they are easy to find if they get lost. While I am working on the remotes, I try to think of anything else that could go wrong.

Lin runs in and says "I did it! I did it!"

"Good morning. You did what?"

In answer, Lin holds up a couple of CD cases, still with the plastic wrap on them. At first, I don't even recognize them and even once I do it takes me a minute to realize what it means.

"Wait, you summoned those?!"

Lin says "Yes! These are what I need for music, right?"

"Yes, those have music on them. You figured out how to use the spell to summon items? Alright, hold on."

I quickly create a soulscape, invite Lin, and then create a typical store that would carry CDs. Then I proceed to show her how to tell what music is where so she knows what to target. I also show her what CD players and speakers look like so she can get them too.

Lin says "Alright, I will go summon more! Is there anything else that I need to get?"

"Nope. Once you get a player, I will enchant it so that it will work. Oh, did you figure out how to send people back?"

Lin says "Yeah, that is actually really easy. Figuring out how to target just the items I want is what took me so long to figure out."

"If a person is returned using your spell, will they retain their powers?"

Lin says "Yes, they should. At least, I am fairly sure that they will, but I don't have a way to test it. Why? Do you want to go home?"

"No, never. That place is not my home. My home is here with you. I was just curious. I plan to offer the chance to go home to all of the other summoned."