I Grow Crops with a System

Zharok was stumped. "You make a valid point, then what exactly does this painting mean?"

"Let’s look around, maybe there are other murals," Ethan suggested.

"Good idea."

Zharok chanted an incantation, expanding the light orb until it filled the entire chamber, but aside from the mural of the God of Chaos and the Child of Chaos, they found nothing else, the rest of the temple looked no different from ordinary ruins.

Zharok sighed. "I thought we might find clues about humanity’s disappearance."

"Don’t rush it, we’ll find something eventually," Ethan said.

"Strange that nobody discovered this place after all these years, though."

"What’s strange about that? This is uninhabited wasteland, who’d think to look behind a rock?" Zharok dropped to the floor and fell into thought.

Ethan left him to it, he took Pearl and explored the rest of the temple.

"Found it."

"Meow? A secret passage?"

"Last time, we found the Cauldron of Blessing in a spot like this, maybe there are other treasures."

A passage led underground, Ethan walked down with Pearl, at the end, a few broken pieces of pottery, nothing else.

"There’s nothing."

"Meow, the pottery you make looks much better than these, meow~"

Ethan smiled and brought Pearl back up.

By then Zharok had finished thinking, he pointed at the passage. "Why did you go down there?"

"Just a few broken pots."

"This really is just a Record Temple, then."

"Have you seen similar places before?"

"A few, those murals were all about agriculture — nothing special, let’s go, there’s nothing else here."

The temple hadn’t yielded any treasure, but it had given Zharok plenty to chew on.

Back at camp, he sat by the fire with his chin in his hand, still deep in thought, Ethan pulled out some Honey Sweet Potatoes.

"What are you thinking about? Want some late-night snacks?"

"No need, I’m fine, don’t worry about me." Zharok shook his head.

Ethan didn’t push, he lay down to rest, Pearl curled up beside him, yawned, and kneaded at the bedroll.

"Meow... so sleepy, meow..."

"We have to set off early tomorrow, so get some rest, Zharok — don’t overthink it, sleep."

"Yeah, you guys go first," Zharok said with a faint smile, and went back to poking the campfire.

Ethan closed his eyes and was out in seconds.

When he woke the next morning, Zharok was sitting in the exact same position, same posture and the same exact spot, he looked as though he hadn’t moved all night.

"Did you not sleep?" Ethan asked.

"Ah? Oh, I’m fine, staying up a night or two is nothing for me," Zharok said, still prodding at the embers.

Ethan looked at him, shook his head, and got up to cook.

"Pearl, time to wake up."

"Meow-woo..."

Pearl stretched and padded over, still drowsy, it rolled around by the fire for a moment before flopping near Ethan’s feet.

Ethan shook his head again, then sliced the bread he had baked the previous night and set it in the pan.

"Smells so good~!" Zharok perked up at once.

"Meow... fragrant bread, meow..." Pearl mumbled.

"Wake up, we’re leaving soon."

Breakfast was butter-fried toast, Moonlight Tomato juice, and roasted Sawtooth Deer meat, Ethan finished it all in short order, he watched the other two eat, then picked up a piece of toast himself.

"Mhm... I think I need to visit that temple again," Zharok said, he seemed to have reached some conclusion overnight, his tone had gone firm.

He finished his breakfast quickly and stretched, Ethan and Pearl cleaned their plates as well and climbed onto the handcart.

"Alright, let’s move."

"Oh, we should reach the giant dragon’s territory by evening," Zharok warned.

"Anything we need to watch out for?"

"Shouldn’t be, if we do run into the dragon, act respectful, but we probably won’t."

Pearl started snickering. "Meow-haha! Every time you say things like that, it always comes true, meow~, we’ll definitely run into the giant dragon, meow~"

"No way, how could it be that coincidental?" Ethan agreed with Zharok on this one.

"Is it hard to encounter a giant dragon?" Ethan asked.

"Of course, their territory is huge, they can’t patrol all of it, how big is it, exactly?"

"How big?"

"I don’t know either, maybe even bigger than the forest we live in."

Ethan’s scalp prickled, he had been in this world for some time now and still hadn’t explored the full extent of his own forest, a territory larger than that?

"But don’t worry, the route we’re taking is safe, we won’t run into the dragon," Zharok reassured him.

"I hope so, let’s go."

Zharok pulled the handcart and ran hard, they kept it up the entire day, until the sun was about to set.

Crack!

"Ah?!"

The handcart lurched violently. Ethan nearly went flying.

"What happened?!" Zharok skidded to a halt.

"Wait, let me look."

All three of them gathered around the handcart, the axle had snapped clean through.

"Meow-woo... what do we do, meow?"

"Don’t panic, I expected something like this could happen," Zharok said.

"Can you fix it?"

A forest stood nearby, so suitable wood shouldn’t be hard to find.

"Let’s rest here first, I’m thirsty," Ethan said.

"Want me to make some juice, meow?" Pearl offered.

"No, just water, I can smell a water source that way, I’ll go fetch some."

"Then you go, meow! Ethan and I will look for materials to fix the cart, meow!"

"Alright, don’t wander too far."

"Got it, hurry back."

Zharok grabbed the waterskin and disappeared into the trees.

Ethan scooped Pearl onto his shoulder. "Can we find suitable wood?"

"Meow, don’t worry, this kind of forest has a lot of Ironwood, meow~"

"Ironwood?"

"A tree as hard as steel, meow, they don’t grow tall, and they’re very straight, perfect for an axle, meow."

"Great."

’If I can get some seeds or saplings, they’ll come in handy for building a house later.’

Ethan trusted Pearl’s judgment and followed it into the trees, not five steps in, they spotted a pitch-black trunk.

"That’s Ironwood, meow!"

The tree grew straight as bamboo, jet black from root to crown, Ethan knocked on the bark. Rock hard.

"This is it." He gave it a light pull, and the tree came out of the ground, roots and all.

He snapped off the excess branches and turned to head back.

Then he froze.

’There was nothing behind me but the broken handcart a minute ago.’

Now, seated on the cart, was an old woman with white hair and red clothes, two massive dragon horns curved from her temples, she was looking right at him, smiling.

"Hello there, young man."

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