I Grow Crops with a System

Chapter 78: Temple

"Then let’s go together."

The three outsiders prepared to explore the abandoned mine, Ethan was worried the Fox Beastmen might be displeased, but Ash didn’t seem to mind.

"I will lead you to the entrance, let’s go," Ash said.

"Are you going to guide us personally?"

"Everyone else cannot stand the stench."

"Will you be alright?" Ethan asked.

"This is the duty of a chieftain, there is no need to worry," Ash said.

"That’s good, let’s go."

Under Ash’s lead, Ethan’s group arrived near the mine entrance, although Ethan hadn’t smelled anything yet, as they got closer, Ash’s complexion grew worse and worse.

"Ugh... I can only take you this far." Ash pinched his nose.

They had reached the entrance, but Ash truly couldn’t endure the stench any longer and had to stop.

Ethan was very grateful to him, he nodded and said, "We’ll head inside by ourselves from here."

"Alright, go in and see exactly what is going on," Ash said.

"Understood."

"Meow-meow, it stinks so bad..." Pearl also caught the scent.

Ethan wanted to put Pearl down, but it clung to him, covering its nose and refusing to get off, Ethan had no choice but to carry Pearl and walk into the mine.

As they descended the stairs, the stench grew thicker and thicker.

Walter tilted his head in confusion and muttered to himself, "What is... this smell?"

It was Ethan’s first time smelling something like this, and he looked around curiously, Walter focused his attention, sniffed carefully, and his expression turned grave.

Pearl struggled to say, "It’s the smell of Chaos, meow...!!"

As soon as Pearl finished speaking, strange things appeared around them.

"That’s..."

Grayish-white mist gradually coalesced together, that nauseating stench, coupled with bone-chilling malice, made Ethan instinctively grip the Scythe of Gaia.

The Scythe seemed to sense the hostility as well, instantly growing to a massive size.

"Wrath of the Earth!" Ethan growled softly.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!

Dozens of thick stone spears pierced through the grayish-white mist with the force of a thunderbolt.

Ethan thought to himself that even the most powerful monster couldn’t possibly withstand an attack from so many stone spears, right?

He stared intently at the mist, placing his hand on the Holy Sword, ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

"Here it comes!" Walter warned.

The mist pierced by the stone spears didn’t dissipate; instead, it began to writhe violently.

The white haze slid off the stone spears and gradually coalesced into a hideous and terrifying monster, it had six arms and three heads, and it glared at Ethan’s group with vicious eyes.

Seeing this, Walter immediately launched an attack.

Swish!

His blood magic acted like a sharp blade, tearing a massive gash across the monster’s chest, blood spurted out as the monster clutched its chest in pain and staggered backward.

"Thunder Strike, meow!!"

Rumble!!

Accompanied by Pearl’s angry roar, a bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking the monster with perfect precision, struck by the powerful electric current, the monster’s body swayed unsteadily.

Just then, its six eyes flashed with a cold light, abruptly firing six beams at Ethan.

Ethan swung the Holy Sword and blocked the attack.

Clang!

The beams fired from the monster’s eyes were deflected by the Holy Sword, instantly melting a large hole into the cave wall.

"What a powerful attack!" Walter marveled.

Ignoring the damage, Ethan seized the opportunity and dashed in front of the monster, rapidly swinging the Holy Sword.

The monster swung its six arms in an attempt to block the attack, but it was too late.

Squish!

It failed to block Ethan’s attack, and one of its arms was sliced clean off, it let out a silent scream, just about to roar in anger.

But Ethan had already leaped high into the air. "Hah!!"

He stepped on the monster’s thick leg, jumped into the air, and swung the Holy Sword, a flash of white light zipped past, and Ethan sheathed the sword.

Thud!

The monster’s three heads were sliced clean off, and its massive body crashed heavily to the ground.

Ethan stepped back a few paces and looked at the fallen monster, the monster’s body gradually dissolved into grayish-white mist and dissipated without a trace.

"The smell of Chaos is gone, meow!" Pearl took a deep breath.

"So that was the thing emitting the stench?" Ethan asked.

"Exactly." Walter nodded, his expression grim, he seemed to know what it was.

Ethan looked at him, Walter sighed. "That was a Minion of Chaos."

"A Minion of Chaos?"

"They are servants created by the Chaos that yearns to destroy the world, soldiers that guide everything towards destruction."

’That powerful monster was merely a soldier?’ Ethan stared at Walter.

Pearl tilted its head. "Meow, but Minions of Chaos only appear when Chaos itself appears, right meow?"

"What do you know?" Walter asked.

"Lady Witch said that when Chaos descends to destroy the world, Minions of Chaos will appear on the battlefield as the vanguard, meow, but if Chaos hasn’t appeared, its minions shouldn’t appear either, meow," Pearl said.

"Then why did one appear here?"

They couldn’t draw any conclusions just yet, Ethan and the grave-faced Walter continued onward.

They walked for a long time, Ethan looked at the structure before them, tilted his head in confusion, and asked, "Is that... a temple?"

"Indeed, it is a Temple of Goddess Gaia." Walter paused to think.

"Although I’m not entirely sure, I’ve heard that Goddess Gaia is the Earth Goddess in charge of production and creation, therefore, in order to obtain the ores nurtured by the earth, people would build Temples of the Earth Goddess inside mines."

"Meow, it’s said that you can determine who built a mine by the temple inside it, meow," Pearl added.

"If there is a Temple of Goddess Gaia inside the mine, then the mine was built by humans."

"If there is a Temple of Hephaestus, the God of Fire and Iron, then the mine was built by Dwarves, meow!" Pearl said.

Having listened to their explanations, Ethan walked inside, this temple looked very similar to the ruin he and Zharok had visited before, it was smaller in scale, but felt even more sacred.

"It’s much cleaner inside than I imagined."

"Meow-meow, there isn’t a speck of dust, meow," Pearl observed.

"Perhaps the Fox Beastmen cleaned it?" Walter guessed.

"I heard the Fox Beastmen haven’t entered the mine for a long time." Ethan frowned.

"Even if they cleaned it regularly, it’s impossible for there to be absolutely no dust, right?"