Chapter 293: Exploring an Alternate Plane

The White Dragon Lord rested his claws on the suspended Magic Tower Control Core. His mental energy probed its interior, accessing the final coordinates transmitted by the Dimensional Explorer.

The coordinates of an alternate plane!

Alternate planes were scattered randomly throughout endless space. Some were staggeringly vast, teeming with resources and diverse species, much like the Nordhill World.

Others held no life at all, acting as little more than massive boulders drifting through the void. These still-forming planes were collectively known as demiplanes. Their development value was so abysmally low that they likely wouldn't even cover the cost of constructing a Portal.

The White Dragon Lord felt a flicker of apprehension. He had no idea whether the plane he had discovered held any development value, whether someone had beaten him to it, or whether hidden dangers lurked within.

But whatever the case, he wouldn't know until he investigated.

The White Dragon Lord retrieved a Planar Explorer from his warehouse, one he had prepared long ago.

A Planar Explorer was a type of magical puppet. The combat strength of the one in the White Dragon Lord's hands was only at the level of an Advanced Class, yet its manufacturing cost rivaled that of a Legendary Rank Puppet.

The Planar Explorer was a highly specialized construct. Designed using the same principles deities used to craft avatars, it allowed a user to transfer a portion of their consciousness into the puppet, replacing their true body to explore alternate planes.

Anyone qualified to explore an alternate plane was a powerhouse, so under normal circumstances, there was little danger. But the fear was always encountering the abnormal. For the sake of personnel safety, using a puppet was necessary.

The White Dragon Lord directed the humanoid puppet onto the Teleportation Platform. Moments later, elemental energy from the Elemental Pool surged into the platform.

With a brilliant flash of teleportation light, the Planar Explorer vanished.

...

In the alternate plane, a white sun hung high in the sky. However, it was only the size of a ping-pong ball, and its meager heat was far from enough to warm the plane. The temperature here was bitterly cold.

The Planar Explorer, piloted by the White Dragon Lord, stood upon a stretch of gravel. Extending its hands to gauge the environment, it registered thin air, a temperature of roughly negative fifty degrees, and practically zero moisture. The likelihood of life existing here was exceptionally slim.

This was precisely why the Planar Explorer was so exorbitantly expensive to forge. It possessed most of the senses of an intelligent creature, making the exploration of an alternate plane feel exactly as if the user were there in person.

The Planar Explorer surveyed its surroundings. As far as the eye could see, the landscape was a barren expanse of weathered crimson gravel. A heavy gale swept past, whipping up a storm of flying sand and loose stones.

Back in the White Tower, the White Dragon Lord breathed a sigh of relief.

This plane had both air and elemental energy, meaning it wasn't a demiplane. By all appearances, it was a proper sub-plane.

In the endless void, demiplanes were by far the most numerous. They formed quickly but were equally prone to danger; a single violent spatial storm could easily annihilate one.

Sub-planes were somewhat rarer, and material planes were even scarcer. Generally speaking, a sub-plane held a certain amount of development value, while a material plane was an absolute goldmine.

Thus, the White Dragon Lord's luck wasn't half bad. The very first plane he stumbled upon turned out to be a sub-plane. He truly felt he had finally shed his black dragon identity.

The White Dragon Lord's true body stepped onto the Teleportation Platform.

Since he had confirmed the target plane held no obvious anomalies, it was time for his true body to deploy. The Explorer's capabilities were limited, preventing any deep investigation of the plane, and the puppet itself needed to be retrieved.

With the teleportation sequence engaged, the White Dragon Lord materialized in the unnamed plane right beside the Planar Explorer.

He first stowed away the Planar Explorer, then focused his senses on the concentration of elemental energy in the air.

The elemental energy concentration naturally couldn't compare to Nordhill, but by sub-plane standards, it was considered excellent.

The White Dragon Lord grew even more satisfied. The higher the elemental energy concentration, the greater the probability of discovering magic-related items.

According to the experiences of those who came before him, a sub-plane with an excellent concentration of elemental energy should easily yield enough wealth to pay back the cost of his scattered Drift Bottles several times over.

Gripping an Elemental Energy Detector in his claw, the White Dragon Lord set off.

The sub-plane harbored no flora or fauna, nor did it offer a habitable environment. Its sole value lay in the various magical ores or gemstones buried deep within the earth.

As such, there was no clever shortcut to exploring it. He simply had to scour the entire plane, using the Elemental Energy Detector to pinpoint the buried valuables.

The White Dragon Lord flew at top speed. It wasn't long before the detector in his claw began to beep incessantly.

This was the detector's reaction to sensing a massive amount of elemental energy. The White Dragon Lord swiftly locked onto the treasure's location.

He landed on an unassuming patch of gravel and began tearing into the earth with his claws, eager to see what his first deposit of magical ore would be.

Two hours later, the White Dragon Lord had excavated a crater massive enough to bring an excavator operator to tears, and he finally extracted his prize.

The White Dragon Lord held a chunk of yellowish-brown ore in his hand. With just a gentle squeeze, the ore crumbled into a pile of fine sand.

It wasn't because his grip was overpowering, but rather because the ore's composition was inherently soft.

Yellowish-brown, soft to the touch, rich in earth elemental energy, and containing a unique metal.

Referencing these traits, the White Dragon Lord quickly identified the magical ore.

Cobalt Sand Ore!

The White Dragon Lord was quite satisfied. While Cobalt Sand Ore wasn't particularly rare across the multiverse, it was notoriously scarce within the Nordhill Plane.

As a result, its value in Nordhill was multiplied several times over. After all, the same commodity commanded vastly different prices depending on the location.

The White Dragon Lord resumed his flight.

Over the next ten days, he uncovered more than twenty locations with magical reactions. As for what types of mineral veins they were, he didn't bother checking. He simply recorded each one meticulously, noting down their coordinates and energy level reactions.

At this point, he had explored less than one percent of the plane's total area, given the limited detection range of his device.

Yet he had no intention of pressing on. The magical mineral veins he had already discovered were far more than enough to cover the cost of a Portal.

Although he didn't know the specific contents of these veins, a higher energy reaction generally indicated greater value. He could roughly estimate their total worth based on this metric alone. As long as that sum exceeded the cost of an Interplanar Portal, this venture was a guaranteed profit.

The White Dragon Lord's scouting expedition had confirmed the plane's value would cover his costs—an absolutely crucial step.

There was a famous cautionary tale from another plane: a High-Tier Legendary Mage discovered a sub-plane, checked its magical energy concentration, and found it to be high-level. Overjoyed, he immediately teleported home and built a Portal. Yet when his subordinates finally explored the entire plane, they realized its total value couldn't even cover the Portal's construction costs—a revelation that left the mage so infuriated he vomited blood.

From then on, that High-Tier Legendary Mage became a laughingstock and a negative example. Naturally, the White Dragon Lord took this as a stern warning.

All that remained was to establish a stable Portal. The rest of the exploration and mining tasks could be left to his subordinates.

The White Dragon Lord returned directly to White Castle and immediately summoned Gurgalu.

Upon hearing the news of the alternate plane, Gurgalu was overjoyed. Outside of the Madilan World, White Castle finally had another alternate plane under its belt—and one free from the severe restrictions that plagued the Madilan World.

"Master, we will need a massive number of miners."

"Indeed. That is exactly why I called you here."

Both mining and transportation demanded an enormous labor force. Furthermore, the sub-plane's air was thin and completely devoid of oxygen. The weak wouldn't even possess the baseline qualifications to survive there, let alone perform hard labor. Because of this, White Castle's usual workforce of kobold miners was entirely useless.

This necessitated a new breed of miner, leaving them with two options.

The first was to purchase large quantities of undead from the Black Robe Wizard's Association, much like the Cult of the Dragon did for their mining operations. The advantages were clear: they were cheap, required no maintenance, and could just be tossed aside when they broke. However, they were foul to be around, brought a certain degree of moral risk, and undead creatures were notoriously easy for outsiders to tamper with.

The second option was to purchase a massive batch of alchemical puppets from the Emerald Tower. They offered boundless strength, extreme durability, and unshakeable loyalty. But on the flip side, if an alchemical puppet broke down, it required specialized technicians to perform repairs. Because of their staggering production costs, even the lowest-grade Clay Golem went for a hundred thousand gold coins, while the works of an alchemy master commanded an even higher premium.

However, the White Dragon Lord intended to pick neither. He chose to establish his very own golem production line.

The reason alchemical puppets were so prohibitively expensive was because the prerequisite for learning Alchemy was the Mage class, and the number of individuals capable of becoming Mages was inherently small.

Even if one was a Mage and wanted to learn Alchemy, there was no guarantee anyone would be willing to teach them. After all, Alchemy was advanced knowledge; without the right connections, it was impossible to learn.

And even if a teacher was found, the student couldn't necessarily afford the tuition. "Poor Warrior, rich Knight, money-burning Mage, bankrupting Alchemist"—that old proverb didn't come from nowhere.

Even if the money was spent, there was no guarantee they would actually learn the craft. Magical puppets were hailed as the pinnacle achievement of Alchemy, requiring the mastery of a colossal amount of knowledge, including inscription, structural mechanics, and mana conduction...

And even after mastering the craft, there was no guarantee of turning a profit. The first major hurdle was the success rate. A novice alchemist's success rate was generally abysmal, meaning the sale of a finished puppet might not even cover the cost of the raw materials.

Only once their success rate improved could an alchemist truly be considered to have survived the grind.

With all these factors stacked on top of each other, how could the price of alchemical puppets be anything but sky-high?

But the White Dragon Lord had a method to slash those costs. All he had to do was design a modular prototype puppet that could be easily replicated, split the manufacturing process into separate components, and assign specific Mages to practice crafting each individual part.

The White Dragon Lord said sternly, "Gurgalu, go and gather a group of Mages who are absolutely loyal to White Castle. Remember! Their skill level doesn't matter, but their loyalty must be unquestionable!"

"As you command!"

After dismissing Gurgalu to make preparations, the White Dragon Lord teleported to Sky City.

A newly discovered sub-plane needed to be registered internally with the Council. Once registered, the ownership rights to the plane would be guaranteed.

Even if another organization's Drift Bottle landed in this sub-plane in the future, ownership would securely remain with White Castle. Furthermore, if an entity from another plane ever invaded, the Council would step in to resolve the issue free of charge.

Naturally, all these rights came at a price, which was exactly ten percent of the entire plane's profits.

That was right! The Council took a proportionate cut across the board. The system made the White Dragon Lord sigh in admiration—standing at the top of the food chain truly had its perks. White Castle discovered a plane, and the Council took a ten percent cut. The exact same held true for any plane discovered by any other organization.

A hundred planes meant a hundred ten-percent cuts. A thousand planes meant a thousand ten-percent cuts.

In return, all the Council actually had to do was maintain order and intervene if a plane was ever invaded by a foreign enemy—and the probability of such an event was exceptionally low.

The Council practically lay back and did nothing while sitting on a mountain of wealth.

Even so, the White Dragon Lord was perfectly willing to hand over this ten-percent share.

Without the order maintained by the Council, the various factions in Nordhill would operate on the sheer law of the jungle. If a powerful, evil-leaning organization like the Black Robe Wizard's Association decided to force a transaction, White Castle would be on the receiving end of a tremendous loss.

Sometimes, it was only upon losing them that people finally understood the precious value of peace and order.

Moreover, a massive portion of the profits handed over to the Council went directly toward protecting Nordhill as a whole, making the White Dragon Lord an indirect beneficiary.

The registration process was straightforward. The White Dragon Lord provided the plane's coordinates, and once the Council confirmed they had never been claimed, they dispatched personnel to investigate. Upon final verification, the plane was assigned a designation number, and the registration was complete.

Inside his private lounge, the White Dragon Lord savored the beverages provided by the Council as he waited for the final results.

"Hello, Councilor Amos. The plane NO.324591, which you discovered, has been fully verified. As its discoverer, you hold the naming rights for this sub-plane. Would you like to exercise your naming rights?"

"Hmm... Let's call it the Redstone Plane."

"Duplicate name detected. Please choose another name."

The White Dragon Lord fell speechless. "..."

"Then let's call it White Castle Plane No. 1."

"Name accepted. Please confirm the use of this designation."

"Confirmed."

"Plane NO.324591: White Castle Plane No. 1. Discoverer: Amos Aldrich. Affiliated Faction: White Castle. Plane Coordinates: [...]. Discovery Date: [...]. Archiving complete."

The lingering echoes of Tower Spirit One's voice had barely faded before the White Dragon Lord clicked his tongue. Registering an entire plane in just a few minutes—the efficiency was truly commendable.

"Tower Spirit One, I would like to purchase some magical puppet blueprints. How many types of blueprints does the Council have for sale?"

"Functional Types: 1,256. Combat Types: 3,215. Special Types: 89."

The White Dragon Lord was thoroughly astounded. To have so many... The Council's foundations were truly unfathomably profound.

"I need the mining sub-category from the Functional Types."

Tower Spirit One listed eleven puppet design blueprints suitable for mining. As the White Dragon Lord browsed through them carefully, he discovered that the majority were hybrid puppets. They could be used for mining, but also for combat or other tasks.

In the end, he chose one from the three puppets specialized exclusively in mining. While hybrid puppets offered more functions, their costs were also proportionally higher, and White Castle currently had no shortage of low-to-mid-tier combat power.

Since he had already committed to building a puppet production line, he figured he might as well select a few more. The White Dragon Lord flipped through the other functional puppets.

Chef types, tailor types, cleaner types, RBP types, companion types... There was a puppet for every conceivable profession. The White Dragon Lord selected over a dozen practical ones before turning to the combat category.

Sentry types, ranged-attack types, melee types, and defensive types.

The combat category had far fewer sub-classifications, yet it boasted the highest overall quantity—a full 3,215 types. Furthermore, even the weakest combat puppets were comparable to High Tier professionals. However, there were only 13 types at the Legendary Rank Level.