Two dozen meters away, tucked behind a few trees, there was an enormous bone that was roughly the size of a house. It was bleached white with a slight silver tinge.

Multiple trees were growing inside of it, pushing out past a natural opening on the top of the bone.

After studying it for a moment, Lem guessed that it was once a piece of a hip. What would have such a massive skeleton, he could not even guess, but it was surely a goliath of a creature.

He approached the bone slowly, not knowing whether something had taken up residence inside of it.

He saw a few spiderwebs in the crevices, but the gossamer was too thin and insubstantial to belong to jade-eye spiders so he wasn’t worried.

The forest was still. There was no sign of movement from around the bone.

The village did have certain texts on beast anatomy, but he had never studied them, so he was not able to identify any characteristics of the beast it had come from. He was not even sure that it was a hip bone.

However, he was reminded of the feather that he had seen nearly two weeks prior.

The proportions of the two seemed compatible to his untrained eye.

Was the bone related to the feather?

Was there one gigantic bird that had been killed and eaten a long time ago?

In either case, he wondered where the rest of the skeleton was.

As Lem drew within arm’s reach of the bone, he noticed that there was no feeling of warmth and pleasantness.

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He touched it.

The bone was smooth and cool beneath his hand.

Regardless of whether it had ever been a spiritual bone, it was clear that it did not have any spiritual energy remaining in it now.

Lem continued to study it for a few minutes, before he continued along his way.

Whatever it had been in the past, now it was just a fixture of the environment. Just like every tree, rock, and hill he had passed before.

[As you are walking, you come across a strange bone that is roughly the size of a house. You do not sense any spiritual energy, so you continue walking…

After traveling for a period of time, you feel paralyzed by fear.]

As Lem’s body transmitted its feelings to Lem, he was not overly alarmed.

The terror he had felt from the abyss had been a completely unique sensation, whereas the sensations he was currently experiencing were much more similar to his encounters with powerful beasts.

His situation was not without danger, but it was far less threatening than it would appear.

Such creatures did not care about someone as weak as him after all.

If he died, it would likely be unintentional, from the shockwaves of a battle, for instance.

His simulated self kept his head down.

He had the ability to resist the fear that was coursing through his body and run away, but he did not dare to do so.

He did not want to unintentionally offend whatever was passing by.

A noise suddenly exploded through the air, pressuring Lem’s eardrums.

ROAR!

He nearly fell to the ground in shock.

For a moment, it felt like he was about to be eaten, but nothing happened.

It was clear that the roar had not been aimed at him.

The echoes soon disappeared, along with the pressure.

[You do not dare look up, and a moment later, you hear a tremendous roar. The pressure fades away, and you continue walking…

You come across a bush full of ordinary berries. Your rations are running low, and you are hungry, so you eat most of them, hoping that they are not poisonous. You pick the rest, putting them with your dwindling rations…

You fall asleep…]

…