[You assume that the harvesters have left, and you look around the area for signs of their work…

You see a clearing with many broken trees, and human footprints in every direction..

You try to identify the direction that the harvesters came from, but it is beyond your abilities to discern.

You are forced to randomly choose a direction to begin searching for their trail. After a brief moment of thought, you decide that you will travel west…

As you begin walking, you are suddenly reminded of something that you heard in Willow Tree Village. You vaguely remember someone telling you that Lang Town was built on a river. Whatever the truth was, you decide to search for rivers in addition to searching for signs of the harvesters…]

Ah, right!

As Lem read the screen, he was similarly reminded.

Lang Town was built on a river!

His memory had always been poor due to the effects of the evil. It had also been several years since he had heard it, so it was easy to forget.

In fact, the more Lem thought, the more unsure he was that he had recalled it correctly.

There were many invented stories that the villagers would pass around from generation to generation.

Most of them were cautionary tales that reminded the young children of various taboos, for instance not to pet a baby dust cat, or cry for help near the forest fringe.

There were also stories that were pure fantasy, tales of princesses and immortals, ruthless kings and swordsmen who fought to extinguish the evils of the world.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

These stories mentioned fictional towns.

Was one of them on a river?

Even if Lem had remembered correctly that the rumor was about a real town, he was not certain that it was about Lang Town specifically.

There were a dozen towns scattered in the forest around Pilgrimage City.

Occasionally, one or another was brought up in conversation.

Or was the rumor there was a riverway system that connected all of the towns together?

Thoughts passed through Lem’s head, as his simulated self traveled through the forest.

[Night falls, and you have not seen anything of note. You eat from your rations and fall asleep…]

[Day 11 …You continue traveling in a western direction…]

Lem passively observed his simulated self.

He had long stopped trying to remember the origins of the rumor, and was now thinking about the [Nine Bull Fist].

What was that?

His attention was suddenly drawn back to his simulated self.

A good distance away, it appeared that a fallen tree had shifted, catching his simulated self off guard.

He stopped in place.

Was that really a fallen tree?

It moved again, and suddenly he could see it better.

Oh no!

A diamond-shaped head moved up brushing aside nearby branches, and a tongue flicked out. Behind it, he could see another head.

He was staring at the coils of a gigantic snake! A two-headed python!

His only solace was that the python had definitely already eaten. The coils were extremely bloated, and it was clear that its movements were lethargic.

The python’s head slowly turned towards Lem’s simulated self, revealing a massive hole in the ground behind it.

He wanted to run, but he was paralyzed by fear.

There was a large distance and many trees between him and the python, but he knew that it meant nothing.

Such beasts could traverse several dozen meters in a flash, breaking everything in their path!

As the python finished turning its head, it fixed its glassy, brown eyes directly on Lem’s simulated self.

The tongue flicked out.

He was staring at death itself!