Vaile continued his merry jaunt across a narrow path that ran across the edge of a very steep mountain, and he had to stop himself from occasionally looking over the edge. Unfortunately, this was one of those times where Human Nature got the better of him and he just could not help himself from wandering close to the unguarded edge and stealing a glance over the near-vertical drop.

“Jesus!” he yelled as he recoiled and forced his back up against the cliff face across from the edge. “That just scares the shit out of me every time!”

Though his body, due to the gamification of his current predicament, would not only easily survive such a fall, but allow him to also walk away nearly entirely unscathed, he still was only human, and a drop of more than a mile and a half was something his human mind found absolutely terrifying.

Of course, there were some humans who would get a kick out of that, but Vaile didn’t have either a wingsuit or a parachute, nor did he have any other way of enduring beyond his Level, his Stats, and his Items. Every single time he looked over the edge, he was overcome with the urge to run back around the width of one and a half standard carts to the opposite side and force his back up against that solid surface there.

He understood fully that this was a stupid thing to be afraid about, especially given his own power, but it was still scary, nonetheless. He did have bigger things to be scared about, though, and those let him put things into perspective every time he was able to divert his attention from the near 90-degree shift in angle to something more… dangerous.

“Hooooh….” Vaile exhaled and stood up straight, his right hand resting against the cliff face beside him. He shook his head and let his mind drift from the potential fall to something else, which immediately put things into perspective. “At the very least I’m not up here and dealing with them.”

He looked around and shuddered. “Speaking of, I wonder where they are?” Vaile said aloud, referring to the five crazy rat ladies that he had not had the displeasure of needing to run from as of late. He took a breath and let it out, hoping that his next words would not raise any flags. “I just hope I don’t see them again anytime soon.”

Turning his head to the side where the road gave way to a sheer drop, Vaile felt a sense of unease grow inside of him. It was not the unease one would feel when they sensed doom or even a quintet of insane super-powered rat people baring down on them, but instead, it was one that made him feel like he had best find someplace to hunker down and wait out an incoming storm.

Looking back at the cliff face next to him, Vaile let the cogs in his head turn for a bit before he thought of an idea.

“I hope this works…” he grumbled as he fished through his Inventory/ Item Bag before pulling out yet another Event Item with next to no uses outside of a certain single gameplay event. What he had withdrawn was a drill mounted on a crank, akin to the kind of one used by a certain Digger in an old Anime back before that character had discovered a giant head that was also a mech.

Placing the tip of the drill against the cliffside, Vaile began to turn the crank and, at the same time, the drill. One rotation caused a vertical crater about two meters wide and a foot deep to appear where once was solid rock, and each subsequent turn only deepened the hole that was cut into the rock, all while reinforcing the sides of the hole to prevent collapse.

After a few dozen more turns, Vaile had drilled out a decently sized miniature cave that he could hide out in, and rather than let the wind get in when the inevitable storm came, Vaile found it appropriate to take a massive chunk of rock out from his Inventory and place it where the entrance was. The rock fit snuggly, but not so snuggly as to block all airflow, and Vaile then took to placing a few bits of cheap furniture around the hollowed-out space to make his stay a bit cozier.

Just as soon as he had finished setting down the last chair, a massive gust of wind that seemed to be entirely unending began to buffet the improvised door, causing the multi-ton rock to jiggle back and forth while a powerful surge of air forced its way through the few gaps that the stone did not cover up. Vaile felt the wind fill the man-made cave and saw it toss his cheap furniture around like toys and so, due to being rightfully annoyed at this, he walked over to the stone, struggling against the blowing wind, and set up a minor barrier to keep the wind from doing any more damage to the stone or the interior decorating he had done.

At this, the wind died down immediately and Vaile set about righting the numerous toppled chairs, tables, and more. He had nearly finished when the audible whooshing of the wind ceased, as if it was never there to begin with, which gave Vaile some cause for concern. He may not have been the most knowledgeable when it came to meteorological matters, but he did know a thing about ‘flags’.

And this was definitely a flag.

“Fuck.” He muttered, fearing the worst before yelling, “Nobody’s home! Go away!”

He expected that the rock would be blasted away by emerald lighting, or smashed to bits by other means that would allow five maniacal rat people of unusual size to rush in, but instead, he was met with something else.

Laughter.

And not the manic, crazed laughter he had expected to hear, but instead the deep, booming, masculine laughter that came from a man who obviously was powerful and old. The laughing went on for a bit before Vaile heard a knocking on the rock.

“Nobody here but us dust bunnies!” Vaile yelled.

“And nobody here but this old man who also happens to be a dragon!” came the reply.

Vaile paused and looked down to his and that still held a chair halfway up from where it had fallen. He turned his gaze back to the rock, ad then back to the chair, and then back once more to the rock.

“I hope I don’t regret this…” Vaile muttered as he finished putting the chair back into place before going to temporarily remove the rock. Before he could do so, however, another massive gust of wind decided to make him glad that he hadn’t.

“What the fuck is it now?!” Vaile yelled before that gust died down as well.

“Just an old dragon and his daughter.” Replied the elderly person o the other side.

Vaile paused again, took a deep breath, and rubbed his fingers against his temples. He knew damn well where this was all almost certainly destined t go, and though it vexed him greatly, he was so through with trying to avoid it at this point that he decided to just say “fuck it” and roll with the punches.

“Well…” Vaile muttered before removing the rock. “Let’s get this shit show on the road, I guess.”