[Day 24: You feel significantly weaker due to the evil power consuming your vitality…

You continue traveling around the ravine.

The end of the ravine is in sight…]

Both Lem and his simulated self had been keeping track of the distance they had covered. They were aware that they had nearly traversed the entire ravine and made it to the other side.

When his simulated self turned around, he could see roughly where he had started out, all the way across the ravine.

It was so distant that the trees in the area were no longer discernible. They were only a green line on the horizon.

Suddenly, Lem’s body was seized up by a malicious presence.

Terror radiated through every inch of him, and he fell to his knees. His spear dropped to the ground a moment later.

Lem was familiar with the feeling, and he reacted calmly.

Last time it had occurred, the source had never made itself known. The malicious presence had run through his body for a few minutes, and then it had disappeared. Surely, this time it would be the same.

Lem took the time to study the reaction his body was giving him.

If he was being affected by some dark form of energy, perhaps he would be able to locate it.

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[As you are walking, you are overcome with terror once again. You sense the presence lurking in the ravine, and get the feeling that it is emerging…]

Just like the first time, Lem could only tell from the screen that his simulated self was in the throes of another mental hallucination.

However, he could not detect anything anomalous in his body outside of the feeling of terror itself.

He continued to study it, noticing that the terror was already fading by nearly imperceptible amounts.

The feeling continued to dwindle until Lem’s simulated self was able to gather his wits again.

[After a time passes, you realize that the presence has disappeared again. You continue walking, happy to leave the ravine behind…]

The day passed by uneventfully.

As his simulated self walked forward, Lem continued to think about the origin of the fear.

He was beginning to doubt whether there was really a conscious entity at all.

After all, the ‘entity’ had affected him twice, but both times it had not taken any further action.

If it was conscious, then he imagined that affecting him once would be sufficient to fulfill whatever purpose it had in mind, whether it was to mark him, or satisfy its curiosity.

If there was a reason for inflicting multiple hallucinations, he did not know what it was.

For this reason, Lem was coming to believe that the feeling was a passive effect caused by some profound object within the ravine.

This made him wonder how the ravine had been created in the first place.

Looking at it, he could imagine a meteor flying through the sky and landing in a giant explosion that had devastated the area and produced the giant crater.

Of course, this was all Lem’s speculation.

He did not have much faith that it was actually true.

As Lem’s simulated self passed by a copse of trees, he stopped abruptly.

Lem moved his attention to what had just appeared in front of him.

What an utterly bizarre sight!