Although, since this is a cavern system, they should be able to explore here. Knowing my luck, this would not be the gate that they choose to explore first. That thought keeps me on task and I use the remote to return as soon as I sense the connections.

  Once I am back, I immediately head to the main room and explain things to the kids. They are disappointed that they can't explore together, but some of them are still excited. Those being the few who have powers from a primary element like fire or air.

  Kechara says "That's only good news for a few of us."

  "It's alright. After visiting the main planes I am fairly sure I can make gates to the subplanes. That should help everyone but Ekard and Haku."

  Haku says "Right. There is no plane of light, is there?"

  "Honestly, I don't know for sure. It isn't an elemental plane, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. In fact, if it does exist, I would expect it to be connected to the shadow plane, not the elemental planes."

  Ekard says "In that case, you can explore with me, Haku. We can go to the shadow plane while the others are in the elemental planes."

  "That's a good idea. Since there are cities there you might be able to find information about the planes that I don't have. The other option is that the plane of light would be one of the higher planes. It might be a while before we can explore them."

  Haku says "Alright, I will explore with Ekard."

  "Keep in mind that understanding shadow could still help you understand light. After all, shadows can't exist without light."

  Haku says "I will keep that in mind."

  Mulan says "Alright, Mushu, Nala, let's go explore the plane of fire!"

  Albion says "Father, what plane should I explore?"

  "I feel that it would be best for you to explore the plant plane. Although I don't know why I feel that way."

  Albion says "Alright, I will try it once there is a gate."

  "In that case, I will go build the other four gates right now."

  Mulan, Mushu, and Nala all rush off to start exploring right away, but Kechara doesn't. She is more patient and waits with the others to keep them company. Asuna seems tempted to explore the plane of water, that is until I describe it.

  After that, she is more than willing to wait until I have built a gate to the subplane of ice. She likes the cold, but hates getting wet, it is fairly amusing. Now that I don't have to worry about the kids, I head back to my workshop.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Making four more gates isn't a problem, but getting them connected turns out to be. Knowing the general location of the subplanes isn't the same as having coordinates. I end up having to guess at the coordinates and try multiple times to locate the target.

  Luckily, I only need to guess right once and then the gate is locked on the subplane. What confuses me is that the subplanes are not directly between the planes they connect to. That is until I take a real look at it, magma is closer to the fire plane and lightning is closer to air.

  When I look at it that way it actually makes sense since the sub elements are not purely half and half. Once I figure that out, it becomes easier to guess where the other two should be. As soon as the last gate is locked onto its target, I finish the rest of the enchantments.

  Then I move the gates to the tower and test all four of them. This time I simply go through and then return to make sure everything works. Then I head down and inform the kids that the rest of the gates are ready so that they can go explore.

  Now that they all have things to do, I need to decide what I am going to do. I can either build my soul palace and go to the soul city, or I can go explore the lightning plane. Both are things that I want to do and will bring me benefits, so it is hard to choose.

  In the end I decide to go with the lightning plane since that will bring immediate benefits. I can build the soul palace later, once the kids are safely back from exploring. I am hoping that if I am also in an elemental plane I will be able to sense if they get into trouble.

  If I had thought of it sooner I would have made them items to allow me to track them. I may still do so when I finally get around to doing some crafting. For now, I head into the tower and go through the gate to the plane of lightning.

  Like the plane of air, there is no ground in this plane, just storm clouds and lots of lightning. It doesn't make sense from a scientific viewpoint, but it is an awesome sight. Directly ahead of where I arrived there are two layers of clouds with lightning between them.

  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of lightning strikes happening every second. However, it is strangely silent, there is no thunder to accompany the lightning. I am rather glad of that, that much thunder would be really painful.

  When I fly forward, between the layers of clouds, the lightning immediately starts hitting me. It is hitting me both from above and from below and it feels great. The strikes are hitting me fast enough that it is basically constant.

  +5 Evolution Points!

  Core Upgrade Progress: 15%

  'Not only is it giving me evolution points, but it is working on my core for me. That is awesome!'

  Being able to simply fly around and make progress is a great feeling. The lightning hitting me also feels good, making this my new favorite place. If this keeps up, then my next evolution might not be as far away as I thought it was.

  +5 Evolution Points!

  Core Upgrade Progress: 30%

  Although, at this rate I am going to rank up again before my next evolution. My only worry is that I might find that I have a maximum capacity for lightning. If that happens, I won't be able to train here constantly, but it is still useful.

  I will just have to find a way to discharge the extra lightning so that I can keep training. Maybe I can make a crystal or something similar to hold lightning energy instead of mana. Oh, I bet I could make a really nifty lightning bomb, that could be fun.

  +5 Evolution Points!

  Core Upgrade Progress: 45%

  I hope that the kids are finding the elemental planes to be as beneficial as I am. If so, then between that and their levels, they should be a lot stronger than normal beasts. Then again, according to Kechara they should already be just due to having ample food.