As Yajirobe started running he felt energetic and ready to do anything even though the rock constantly weighed him down.
After an hour and a half he came to a halt and put the stone down gently. He climbed it and sat on it to recover some stamina. Then, he noticed that the landscape had changed quite a bit. The trees slowly decreased in proximity to each other, the earth became drier and drier slowly changing colour.
After resting for a while and drinking some water from the river, he picked the rock back up and continued to sprint upstream. Slowly but surely, the amount of trees decreased little by little until he couldn't see a single one before him. The colour of the earth had completely changed from a healthy brown to a sickly yellow with no signs of life. If anyone were to say, the area looked like a barren wasteland.
However, weirdly, it didn't look completely like a desert due to the presence of the river and giant, tall, purple-blue mushrooms that were as tall as six floored buildings.
In Yajirobe's mind, the mushrooms made the desert more bearable to travel through, thanks to the shade provided by them.
After all, it was near midday and it was boiling, especially in this area of the wasteland. After a few more minutes of running he finally saw the edge of an isolated small town.