In the morning, I intentionally sleep in and let Lin be the one to wake me up. Then we have breakfast in bed together before Lin heads for her tower and I head to my workshop. As I pass through the main room, I see the kids all watching cartoons together, so I let them be.

What I really want to do is immediately start reading another manga series. However, I know that if I do that, I won't accomplish anything else for the rest of the day. Therefore, I plan to work for at least a few hours on things before I start reading.

Picking up where I left off earlier, I start making the remotes, although they don't look like remotes. They are simple rods made of metal and covered in runes, but I still think of them as remotes. Once they are made, there is only one thing left to do, they need to be tested.

I inform Jarvis of what I am planning to do, just in case Lin comes looking for me. Then I open up the gate to the shadow realm and step through once it is open. Not only is the gate perfectly stable, it goes to the shadow plane exactly as planned.

It is easy to tell that it is the shadow plane just from how it looks, but I wasn't too worried. The part I am worried about is the remotes, but since I can gate home on my own, it isn't a big deal. However, the first thing that I do is scan the area with my mana looking for beasts.

The scan shows a few beasts, but they are far enough away to not be an immediate threat. Just to be sure I use a detection pulse, but it doesn't show anything hidden. This means that the gate succeeded in opening in an area away from any life, just as planned.

Once I verify that, I pick a random direction and fly for a few minutes to reach a new area. After all, testing the remote in the same place the gate already opened isn't a proper test. Once I am a decent distance away, I land again and activate the remote.

It takes a little time, but the gate does open a few feet away from where I am standing. When I walk through the gate I end up back in my workshop, exactly as planned. Both the gate and the remotes worked perfectly, which was not expected.

I was sure that there would be at least one or two things that I would need to fix. It looks like I am getting better at coming up with new magical tricks and items. Then again, I have already done a lot of work and experimenting with gates.

I will have to talk to Brightfire later and see if she wants to take some elves through to get more exp. As long as they are careful, it shouldn't be a problem to explore the shadow plane a bit. For now I make some more remotes, five total should be enough I think.

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If we have more than five groups going through at once then I can make more. Although, that would increase the odds of two groups trying to use the remotes at the same time. Only one gate can open at a time so I am not sure what would happen.

The odds of it happening are fairly low, but I should plan for it just in case. The solution is simple as all I need to do is add a que to the gate so whoever hits the remote second just has to wait a bit. I made sure that the remotes have their own mana, that way someone without mana can still activate them.

I can't think of anything else that I need to account for, so back to reading it is. I still need to read through all the books about armor created by spells. Knowing that I have new manga to read makes these spell books even more boring.

It is a struggle to get through each page and I have to force myself to keep reading. It makes it even worse when the spell I am reading about doesn't give me any useful information. Still, I force myself to finish the book and start the next one, luckily this one is a bit better.

Once I finish the second book, I head upstairs to have lunch and spend some time with the kids. They are still watching cartoons, but I don't mind, as long as they are having fun. Once I am done eating I finally let myself start reading the next manga series.

I read the first two books in the main room, then I take a bath while reading the next ones. I fly through three more books while I am in the bath and then move to the bedroom. Luckily, this series is complete and I am able to read all the way to the end.

When I finish the series it is already well past time for dinner, at least inside the castle. Outside, it is just barely past breakfast, it is really strange trying to keep track of the time difference. Going by the time inside the castle, I have another two days before I have to open the soulscape.

Lin walks in and says "Done reading?"

"Yep. I finished this series. You?"

Lin says "No, but I am too hungry to keep reading."

"You skipped lunch, didn't you?"

Lin says "I guess I did."

"Alright. Let's go eat."

Lin says "Sure. Did you do anything besides read today?"

"Oh, I made a gate to the shadow plane."

Lin says "You what?! You made a planer gate? How?!"

"I just made a more advanced version of the platform."

Lin says "But how did you even know where the shadow plane was?!"

"Oh, I've been there before. How do you think I got Ekard?"

Lin says "You never told me this story. Come on, spill!"

So, as we are eating dinner I tell Lin about my brief adventure in the shadow plane. Once I am done she asks me a bunch of questions, but I can't answer any of them. It turns out that Lin has never left this plane, all she has done is read about other planes.

"Do you want to explore the shadow plane?"

Lin says "Yes, I do, but not with you. You are too powerful, you would take all the fun out of it."

"Alright, I understand. How about you take the kids with you?"

Lin says "I can do that. In fact, I think I will do that tomorrow."

"Alright."

Since she is going to be using it, I make sure to explain how the remotes work. Not that I am worried, Lin should be able to gate back on her own if she needs to. Actually, it would be better for one of the kids to hold onto it in case they get separated.

Once we are both done eating and talking, we head up to bed and have some fun. The next morning, when we head down for breakfast, Lin asks the kids if they want to go. Of course, they all answer in the affirmative and so the plan is set.