[While he finishes carving the carcass of the wolf king, Master Brightflame tells you the story of how the wolf race was affected by a racial lock following the death of the Great Wolf Ancestor…
The martial elder tells you to continue leading the way, and you begin traveling again…
You arrive at the log where you found the spiritual mushrooms, and you begin traveling to the northwest, in the direction of the pond and the harvest tree…]
As his simulated self passed by the log where he had found the spiritual mushrooms, Lem could not help but feel a thrill come over him. Ever since the conflict with the wolves, he had been infused with an irrational confidence that his simulated self would live to see the harvest tree.
Now, although they were still about a day away, it felt like they were on the last leg of the journey. They were also crossing through a part of the forest where he had not encountered any dangerous beasts in the past. From his memory, he had only seen a small jade-eyed spider.
The sun was still high in the sky, but he doubted they would make it before it fell.
They continued traveling.
Lem came out of an unproductive meditation session. He saw that his simulated self had begun stealing glances at Master Brightflame.
It was impossible for him to understand their relationship. Every action the martial elder took felt like it contradicted the last.
Lem was just about to sink into another meditation session, when he saw alarm come from his simulated self.
His eyes had been scanning the forest as a matter of routine procedure, when he detected slight movement in his periphery from a cluster of branches high up in the treetops.
Lem's simulated self focused on the moving branches. He could immediately tell that the patterns of motion were unnatural, clearly caused by a beast.
A tyrant sloth?
Moments later, his suspicions were confirmed. A sloping arm with long claws moved into view before disappearing behind leaf-cover.
Lem's simulated self opened his mouth.
He was about to point the tyrant sloth out to Master Brightflame, when the martial elder shook his head.
"You don't have to say anything, I see it," he muttered.
[As you are traveling with Master Brightflame, you see a tyrant sloth high above in the trees. You and the elder both notice it, but it does not come down, so you keep walking…]
As a few minutes passed without sight of the sloth again, Lem's simulated self became relaxed again.
There were a number of times over the course of his simulations that he had seen tyrant sloths from afar without being attacked.
Perhaps this time was just like…
A couple of nearby trees began to shake violently, and a five-meter long tyrant sloth suddenly leapt down from above. The trees were pushed aside and broken by its massive girth.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
As it plummeted, its arms grabbed onto the damaged trunks to control the fall, snapping them like rotten wood in the process.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
From his detached perspective, Lem wondered whether the tyrant sloth would be difficult for Master Brightflame to handle. It was large, but it was extremely slow when compared to the martial elder. Somehow it seemed inferior.
His simulated self did not have such thoughts. He was only filled with a natural fear that came from a difference in life level.
"We are only passing through," Master Brightflame said loudly, his eyes fixed on the sloth.
It bellowed aggressively in response as it neared ground level. The answer was unequivocal.
Each arm was large enough to dwarf both of them in size. And the claws at the end…
Master Brightflame glanced angrily at Lem's simulated self. He shrunk back.
"If I die, then you die," the martial elder said plainly, before turning his attention back to the sloth.