It was only after a few moments of observation that the relatively small dragon seemed to lose control. Both it and its rider tumbled through there and proceeded to crash into the side of a different mountain than the one Jordan was currently on the slope of. Along with a spray of snow, loud cracks echoed throughout the mountain range as chunks of ice were dislodged and began to tumble downward.

Just making a guess, Jordan wanted to say that the pair were somewhere around a mile away from him. Unlike the giant forest, the overall structure of this environment made it pretty easy to see things from a distance with little obstruction. However, two miles was about the approximate distance he could reliably see in general. As past that was when the fog made the made the further mountains harder to make out.

Even after their crash, the dragon and stone humanoid seemed to still be moving. From where he stood, their figures were relatively tiny and harder to make out the details. Yet that was just a trick of being so far away, as Jordan could assume that just to even see general details of their forms from afar, both would have to actually be pretty large. The dragon appeared to be about three times larger in overall size, but still appeared to be struggling with the seemingly unwelcome rider that remained attached to its body.

At a certain point in its struggles, the dragon forcibly rolled in the wrong direction. Now caught by the forces of gravity and its own momentum, both of them began to tumble down the fairly steep slope of the mountain. Even so, the stone humanoid seemed to refuse to let go of its neck as they began their rapid and chaotic descent. Now, as for Jordan’s thoughts and plans about this ongoing situation?

You know… I don’t think I want to even touch that one. They seem like they’re already having fun on their own, so it’d just be rude of me to barge in and interrupt. But at the very least, maybe I could try to see if they aren’t too far and moving too fast for me to land an Appraise on the dragon, he then decided. Between the two targets almost cartoonishly rolling down the mountainside in their gripple, the bigger one should be easier to his Skill on.

Species: Frost Wyvern

Level: 8

Description: An uncommon animal found within the mountain ranges of Vervina-C. They are predators that largely spend their time flying through the air or relaxing near the peaks of mountain tops. While they hunt both regular creatures and spirits, their dietary preference leans toward the former.

“Oh, Hell no. Yeah, that’s way too dangerous for me to catch its attention. Definitely not touching that, even with a drone,” Jordan decisively said to himself. But did the beg the question. If this was the new-new record for the highest Level creature he’d seen, then just how strong was the one still holding onto it? Because from the way it looked, it seemed as if the Wyvern was actually trying to do whatever it could to get its foe away from it.

On that note, he had his drone just continue on its way. Whatever happened between them was considerably not any of his business. And even if the stone humanoid was a fellow Initial Merger and could likely be considered a person that could talk, like the Crabs, that didn’t necessarily mean that Jordan was eager to meet this individual.

Because for someone to be wrestling a Level 8 beast like that and seemingly even be winning, that was a whole lot of Experience Points that would have needed to be grinded. With what he’d known so far about what both humans and non-humans alike had been capable of to get that strong, friendless was not something that could just be automatically assumed. Not until proven otherwise, anyway.

Granted, I’m assuming that’s even another person. Could just be a more humanoid-looking monster native to this planet, for all I know. If I stare at them long enough, there might eventually be a chance where they’re holding still and I can actually use Appraise on the stone guy, without the Wyvern being in the way. But then if it is a person, they’ll feel it and know…

In any case, Jordan willed for his land drone to keep moving. Soon after turning away and driving off, he heard something that sounded like the roar of the Wyvern. But still intent on keeping out of it, he just kept it out of his mind. Perhaps if the Wyvern did win and were heavily injured, he’d send some drones over to finish it off. However, that would only be if it either couldn’t fly, or if he was way outside of where it’d be able to look. Jordan could never know when something actually smart enough to recognize him as the drones’ controller would attack, other than another person.

But soon, his land drone came to a stop. Hopping back off it, Jordan heard another sound of a distant crash that still echoed across the mountain range. Yet now that he’d actually reached the approximate area where his own Kingdom would be located, relative to where the portal was, it was time to start taking a more careful look around. In the time since he’d sent it to fly ahead, the air drone had yet to indicate that it’d spotted anything to trigger his desummon command.

Let’s see… so definitely no structures or buildings, at least that I can spot from here. So if there is a Mandate here, and granted that is a fairly decent if, it doesn’t seem to have been claimed yet. Now then, if I were a Mandate hiding somewhere in a snow-covered mountain, where would I be? The other one was in the middle of a clearing that would have stuck out like a sore thumb in the forest, from a bird’s eye view. So I should probably try to find something like that here, huh? Jordan thought to himself as he continued to scan the surrounding area.

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The environment itself was a bit peculiar in its overall design. In that the mountains themselves all seemed to actually intersect in their bases. And in such a way that made it so that the collective base was raised to be way higher than the ground level would have been. So even the “bottom” of the area between the mountains was still a pretty high elevation that was covered in snow. While Jordan had no idea if this was normal or not by Earth's standards for mountain ranges, he personally thought it was a little odd, at least.

While he looked, two more land drones popped into existence by his side, one after the other. Since Jordan was standing there anyway, there was no reason not to take care of summoning them to bring the total number of land drones back up to four. Rather than immediately send the pair out to join their currently patrolling brethren, Jordan had them stay near him. It just felt much safer that way.

Jordan repeatedly clenched his hands while scrunching his nose. Even with his gear, the wind hitting him while riding on the drone had gotten to him. And even as he stood there, the regular breeze had also picked up a bit from what it was before. Even if the base temperature was tolerable for his current clothing, the wind chill was becoming a freezing monster of a thing.

“HWAHHH! Hahhh! Ahh. Ah.” A masculine voice echoed across the mountain range.

It was like the war cry of someone who’d just swung a weapon of all of their might. The sound was then quickly followed by an equally loud, but clearly pained screech. Without actually being able to see what had happened, it definitely at least sounded like the Wyvern had been on the receiving end of something it didn’t like.

Wait a second, is that it? Jordan asked himself as he then spotted something. Just a few hundred feet from him, there was a dark spot in the snow. One that might not have even been there initially or just hadn’t been noticeable at first, but could now be seen as the intensifying wind had blown some of the snow around. It was a gap, a hole that led… somewhere.

Good of a lead as any, he decided while hopping back on the drone. Even if it was just a few hundred feet away, no reason to waste his available transportation by trudging through the snow himself. Especially not when around here, it was more like a foot in depth that his shins had sunk way more deeply into than he’d be comfortable with. Which was not at all, for the record.

As soon as he reached it, Jordan confirmed it. The hole wasn’t just a crevice or shallow gap, either. From what little of the sunlight could get through it, there was clearly a much wider space on the other side. Jordan bent down, and began to remove the snow in order to widen it enough for him to go through. Something which proved to be… kind of a mistake. At the very least, the goal of quickly making it making it bigger was achieved, just not exactly in the way he had intended.

“Oh cra-” Jordan swore as the snow all around him began to fall in. It was a sudden collapse triggered by the bit he’d dug away by hand.

“-aaaaaa guh!” Having fallen for what was at least a few dozen feet, he hit the bottom with a wet thud. In the cave he was now in, the rocky ground was covered with snow and ice, which was now mixed together into a compressed layer beneath his body. With his body now solidly a few inches deep, he supposed that he was lucky to be on top, and not the alternative of being buried alive.

But only a few seconds later, he was picking himself off the ground. Jordan’s foot slid off for a second as he tried to get up, but he quickly managed to balance himself before fully slipping and falling on his ass. For not the first time, and what would most certainly not be the last at this rate, Jordan thanked his Endurance for being high enough to not leave him with a broken rib or three. If something like this kept happening, maybe he should reconsider the strategy for his Unspent Points were used per Level…

No, that must have been the potential concussion talking. Of course, it had to be something like that. Why else would he ever think to deviate from the course of investing purely in more Wisdom, especially now that it would lead him to more land drones?

Attempting to brush as much snow and little shards of ice as he could off himself, Jordan took a look around. Now that the hole was much bigger, more light was currently spilling in for him to see. But as his eyes adjusted to be able to see through the relatively dimmer parts where the light wasn’t directly touching, he was able to get a pretty good sense of where he was.

This area could definitely be described as a cave, at least of a kind. As he turned, Jordan tried to breathe in deeply. An action that actually made him wince a bit, as it just caused him to feel a tight sort of pain come from the front of his torso.

Glancing up, Jordan could now accurately estimate that he'd just fallen from a height of around 70 or 80 feet. It seemed that when it came to falling that kind of distance, an Endurance of 32 still wasn’t quite enough to basically give him what could be called immunity from fall damage. For the time being, he could just hope that it was something more like a bruise, and not a fractured bone or worse.

But then, when his eyes settled on what was in the middle of the cave, the pain he felt no longer mattered. Jordan moved forward, his thoughts now purely and singlemindedly focused on the object currently before him. Just like before, it was a supernatural draw that would not be denied as it forcibly took precedence above all else.

Sitting there, somehow untouched by the snow that should have buried it, was another golden crown.