I manage to find a place to camp, but it ends up being a not so restful night. I had forgotten how hard the ground is to sleep on, I have gotten spoiled. Since I built the castle, I didn't bother to make myself any new camping equipment.

  That was a mistake that I need to rectify just as soon as I get a chance. If I am going to run off alone on adventures, I definitely need to have camping gear. Luckily, some of the materials from the beasts should be just about perfect for that.

  So, the plan for when I get back to the fort is going to be to spend some time crafting. Especially since my pouch is now almost completely full thanks to the beast materials. I definitely don't want to go running around with limited space available in my pouch.

  Then again, Myria is probably going to do her best to keep me from running off again. At least I didn't get lost or stuck this time, so she doesn't have much ammo to use against me. Not that I think that will stop her, she has plenty of my bad decisions to use against me.

  However, she can't watch me all the time, so I am sure that I will get a chance to sneak off again. It might not be right away, but it will happen, so I want to be prepared for it.

  After some breakfast, I take to the air and start searching for Lord Dra's castle. I see plenty of demonic beasts, but for now I just ignore them since I don't want to hunt yet. Although, after a bit of flying, I notice that the beasts seem more numerous in one direction.

  Of course, with my curiosity, I turn in that direction because I want to know why. As I fly that way, I am seeing more and more demonic beasts until the land is covered with them. They are all moving, spreading out from a single point of origin from what I can see.

  Following them back to the source, I find both Lord Dra's castle and the gate I was worried about. However, the gate seems strange, so I don't approach it immediately and just watch. The gate isn't stable, it keeps flickering and changing for some reason.

  It looks like it is rotating through connections to different planes every few minutes. Whenever it connects to hell, hordes of demonic beasts come pouring through. When it changes, other things come through, but the beasts swarm and kill them.

  From the beings that I see come through, I manage to figure out some of the planes. The portal seems to be connecting to the elemental planes and a couple of others. One of which looks like the shadow plane, when that one connects the beasts go absolutely nuts.

  What surprises me the most is that I don't see any demons around the gate. It doesn't look like they are managing it or trying to fix it, which doesn't make sense. The only thing I can think of is that they don't care, but how could that be?

  Stolen story; please report.

  The gate should be really important to them and they should be guarding it. Unless there are other gates, then this malfunctioning one wouldn't be important. If that is the case, then we are in a lot more trouble than I thought we were.

  However, since there are no demons around, this gives me the chance to study the gate. It is completely different from the gates that I use and I really want to take a good look at it. That is going to be a problem though, there are far too many beasts around the gate.

  While I could probably kill all of them, it would take far too long and attract more. Not to mention that I couldn't kill them all before the gate connected to hell again. That would add even more enemies, maybe enough to wear me down.

  There are also flying beasts that have come through the gate, but there are less of them. They are staying lower to the ground so I haven't been spotted by them yet. I need to get close enough to physically touch the gate and I will need at least a few minutes.

  There is no way I will be able to analyze the gate while I am being attacked by beasts. I could probably use a big spell to wipe out the beasts, but that might damage the gate. I really want to avoid doing that before I have had a chance to study it.

  The beasts get distracted anytime something else comes through the gate, but I doubt that would be long enough. Unless something a lot stronger comes through that they can't kill easily. It looks like my best option is going to be to figure out a way to sneak over to the gate.

  It is early morning, so there are plenty of shadows, but most beasts depend more on scent. Maybe I can create some kind of wind barrier to keep my scent from spreading? That sounds like it should work, and a wind barrier is simple enough to create.

  Looking around, I spot a rocky area that doesn't have tons of beasts on it. So, I land there, shapeshift into bunny form, and then work on creating a wind barrier. Since I am only trying to block scent and not attacks, it really is easy.

  With the barrier around me, I start sneaking from shadow to shadow. A lot of the beasts have weak vision, so I actually have no problems sneaking to the gate. Once there, I tuck myself into a shadow at the base of the gate and then start studying the gate.

  Just as I start taking a look, the gate changes again and connects to the shadow plane. A flood of shadow beasts rushes out of the gate and a massive fight starts. However, what interests me is that through looking at the gate, I can see the position of the shadow plane.

  I can already gate to the shadow plane, but that is only because I have been there before. If I hadn't been there, this positioning that the gate uses would allow me to. With that being the case, I decide to wait and let the gate cycle through all the planes it connects to.

  This way I can learn the positions of all those planes and will be able to gate to them later if I want. It should also increase my understanding of the planes and how they are organized. Even if not, it will give me plenty of new places to explore, which is quite exciting.

  Over the next hour, I learn the positions of the elemental planes of fire, water, air, and earth. Of course, I also learn the position of hell, but that is not somewhere I want to explore. Although, having the option to open a gate and throw some bombs through is exciting.

  Watching the gate connect to hell a few times also allows me to see why it is so hard to escape hell. Even when coming from this side, the gate has a hard time connecting to it. This is actually a part of why this gate is so unstable, it can't maintain the connection.