As I upgrade one enchantment after another, I feel that the castle as a whole is somehow changing. Maybe it is because of the connection to the plane of earth, but I can feel power flowing through the walls around me. It almost makes it feel like the castle itself is alive, although I know that isn't possible.

  It is just the energy of earth flowing through the stone and making it stronger. With all the connections tied into the enchantments, Jarvis will be able to control them. It will be up to him to keep things running smoothly and prevent the power from overflowing.

  With the enchantments to control the connections, he will be able to adjust the flow of power. That means that I don't need to build more connections to act as vents. I may have to make some adjustments later, but for now it seems to be working properly.

  Seronia says "Ash! Was that you?!"

  "Was what me? I haven't done anything!"

  Seronia says "I just felt the creation of a greater artifact."

  "And you just assumed that it was me?"

  Seronia says "Well, who else could it be? I can't think of anyone else, besides Lin, who would be capable of it and she is not that crazy."

  "As far as I know, Lin should still be in the tower's library."

  Seronia says "Exactly. So, I ask again. What are you up to?"

  "I am in my castle working on a few things."

  Seronia says "Making new magical items?"

  "Nope. The only thing I have made is some new gates."

  Seronia says "Then what else have you been doing?"

  "The only other thing I have been doing is making some improvements to the castle's enchantments."

  Seronia says "What kind of improvements? What are you doing that you don't want to tell me about?"

  "Are you familiar with the elemental planes? And the connections that can be built to them?"

  Seronia says "Yes, I am."

  "Well, I added connections to the elemental planes to the castle. Other than that, I am updating and improving the enchantments."

  Seronia says "Which elemental planes did you connect to?"

  "All of them except lightning and magma."

  Seronia says "You added connections to six elemental planes to one magical item?!"

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  "Um, yes? Why?"

  Seronia says "Connections are meant to be added to places, not items! Are you trying to make your own god domain?!"

  "No, of course not! I am just trying to add training areas for my kids."

  Seronia says "That would be fine if your castle was a place and not an item! Adding connections to it upgraded it to a major artifact! That kind of thing makes a lot of noise! Enough that some of the gods on the continent might have heard it!"

  "Even if they did, so what? They won't be able to see me. The castle is also shielded from their sight. They can search around all they want, they won't find anything."

  Seronia says "And what if in their searching they find my sister or me?"

  "You two have cloaks as well, they won't be able to find you!"

  Seronia says "No, not directly, but it still wouldn't be good to have them poking around the peninsula."

  "Well, there isn't much I can do about that. I had no idea that my upgrades would trigger something like that."

  Seronia says "I guess that's true. I should probably be glad that it wasn't some insane experiment!"

  "Don't worry. I don't have any experiments planned. I have too much to do currently to try coming up with anything insane."

  Seronia says "That is somehow, strangely comforting."

  "Okay. Anyway, is there anything else? Or can I get back to work?"

  Seronia says "That was all, I guess."

  I go back to working on the enchantments, even though I can feel that Seronia is still watching. However, if she is done talking to me, then there is no reason for me not to get back to work. Despite what Seronia thinks, I think that the castle becoming a greater artifact is awesome.

  Considering that it is a floating castle that can shrink down, I am surprised that it wasn't already one. Then again, I don't really know how artifacts are ranked, so I am not too surprised. I think I asked someone at some point, but I can't remember what the answer was.

  Not that it really matters, since I don't plan to stop upgrading the castle. Although, I will probably need to warn Seronia before I upgrade the ship next. Now that I know about connections, the upgrades for the ship will include them.

  The power that connections provide will fix a lot of issues that I was having with the planned upgrade. A connection to the plane of air will be the most important for allowing it to fly. My dream of turning it into an airship will be simple now, I just need to find the time.

  The way things are going, by the time I have the time, the ship will have already sailed. Meaning that I will have to wait for it to return before I can do the upgrades. With that being the case, I will just worry about it later, I have plenty of other things to do.

  *DING*

  Congratulations! Skill Enchanting has progressed to level 8!

  Enchanting

  Level 8

  Int +16 Wis +8 Cha +8

  You are an expert at enchanting items.

  'Ha! It's been so long since that leveled up that I had forgotten that I had it as a skill!'

  Although, with the amount of enchanting that I have done, it should have leveled up sooner. Even if the system only counts new enchantments, I have done tons of those. I really don't understand how the system judges things, I wish it had a help function.

  At any rate, I continue working on the enchantments, the skill up doesn't really affect anything. As I finish each section of the enchantments, I explain the changes to Jarvis and have him test them. I want to make sure that the changes I have made don't affect his control over them.

  I want to make sure that everything keeps running smoothly and that I don't make any mistakes. Or at least if I do then I will be able to correct them before they affect anything. There are a few conflicts that are created by the changes that I end up having to fix.

  However, there are far fewer problems than I was expecting, which makes me happy. I am almost finished when I hear the noise of some of the kids returning. I keep working, but I ask Jarvis to see who has returned and have them test a training area.

  It turns out to be Mulan, Mushu, and Nala who returned, so they go to the fire room. I finish up the enchantments and then have Jarvis check them all one more time. When there are no problems I head down to wait outside the fire room.