BOOM!
The ruined stone giant's massive foot stomped down onto the ground right in front of Ethan.
The ground was instantly trampled into flying shards of stone. Quite a few fragments pelted Ethan, the feeling like being hit by countless rubber bullets, hurting so much that Ethan bared his teeth and sucked in a breath of air.
But right now, forget casting spells. At this moment he did not even have the strength to run.
"Daji, if you can escape, then escape on your own!", Ethan slumped on the ground and said to Daji, "In the future, find a place and live well. I think that Nightmare Rat's cave from before is pretty good."
"Meow~"
Not only did Daji not leave, it even nudged its way toward Ethan's chest.
Ethan raised his hand. Daji immediately burrowed into Ethan's arms, then turned around in a little circle inside his embrace, curled itself up into a ball, and nestled in.
"Meow~"
Daji lifted its head and rubbed Ethan with its small head, making it clear it absolutely would not leave.
Ethan helplessly patted it, then lifted his head to look at the ruined stone giants. At this moment, countless stone giants had already stepped over their companions' corpses and were advancing toward Ethan.
And their huge feet were all lifting one by one, about to stomp Ethan into a pile of meat paste.
Rumble~
But in the very next second.
Just as one stone giant had lifted its huge foot, Ethan saw…
Countless stones rolling off the stone giant's foot, like a collapsing stone mountain, rapidly disintegrating.
Boom!
Boom! Rumble~
Stone after stone rolled down.
The expressions on the faces of countless stone giants all turned to terror, and then they froze in place.
∑（〟〇О〇）!?
As the green light in the middle of the stone giants gradually went out, the stone giants began to fall apart one after another.
And when Daji saw this, it hurriedly ran out of Ethan's arms, then spread its whole body flat and lay on top of Ethan, directly petrifying itself into a wall, blocking those stones from hitting Ethan.
BOOM!
Clatter!
Countless sounds of stones smashing into Daji rang in Ethan's ears.
Ethan could only keep comforting himself in his heart. Daji itself was stone too. It should be fine.
Until…
Crack!
The sound of a stone slab shattering rang out in Ethan's ears.
Only then did Ethan's eyes widen sharply. He stared hard at Daji and said in a trembling voice, "Daji, are you okay?"
Unfortunately, Daji in its petrified state could not respond to Ethan at all.
Until, the earthshaking sound of falling rocks gradually faded away.
Only then did Daji turn back into its soft cat body, lying limply on top of Ethan.
"Daji!"
Ethan hurriedly sat up and helped Daji up.
He saw that there was a trace of blood at the corner of Daji's mouth. It was likely injured internally by the stones.
"Meow…"
Daji's voice was weak.
Ethan hurriedly picked it up, not even having time to deal with the stone giants' corpses all over the ground.
He was just rushing to send Daji back to the villa so it could rest properly. But after Ethan had only run a few steps, Daji lifted a paw, pointed in a certain direction, and suddenly let out a "meow".
"Is there still a monster?".
Ethan was startled badly and hurriedly shifted to dodge.
However… Daji slightly shook its head, then pointed toward the south again.
( •̥́ ˍ •̀ू )
Following Daji's pink little paw, Ethan looked over and only then noticed that within a pile of stones to the south, there was something glittering gold.
If not for Daji's sharp eyes, Ethan probably would have had to collect all the stone giant corpses before he could see it.
"You want me to collect the treasure chest first, then take you over?"
"Meow!"
Daji nodded.
Ethan was still a bit worried, "Daji, are you really okay?"
"Meow…"
Daji nodded slightly.
Hearing that, Ethan could only do as Daji asked.
Although he did not know why Daji insisted on him opening the chest, since Daji said it was fine, then open it he would.
The path toward the golden treasure chest was already blocked by stone giant corpses.
Ethan could only walk while clearing the road.
"Collect!"
[Stone +100]
[Advanced Stone +5]
[Earth-element Beast Core +1]
[Metal-element Beast Core +1]
[Mud +1000]
[Earth-element Beast Core +1]
[Stone…]
After clearing the way all along,
Ethan discovered a pattern. Stone giants that had not been hit by the Soft Squishy spell would drop stone, advanced stone, and beast cores.
But stone giants hit by Soft Squishy would only drop mud and beast cores.
It seemed the Soft Squishy spell really could cause a qualitative change in materials.
Directly turning stone into mud.
By the time he collected everything up to the golden treasure chest, Ethan had collected a total of.
[Stone +3800, Advanced Stone +180, Earth-element Beast Core +54, Metal-element Beast Core +24, Mud +9000]
Who would have thought that just clearing a street would bring such decent gains.
And then,.Ethan finally cleared a path to the golden treasure chest.
This crappy road could finally be driven on.
However, when he was about to reach out to open the golden treasure chest, he noticed there was a strange layer of green vegetation covering it.
And on the vegetation there was a red exclamation mark.
[Golden Treasure Chest: The surface is covered with highly poisonous Tentacle Kelp. Proceed with caution.]
[Tentacle Kelp: A moss-like plant, but its surface is densely covered with short, fine barbs. The barbs contain a deadly poison. Once lightly pressed, they will release the toxin, which invades the skin.]
[PS: Although highly poisonous, it grows extremely fast and has excellent cold and drought resistance, so it is very popular with witches! Witches usually plant it around their houses to prevent monsters or enemies from invading. It is an even better natural defensive barrier than poisonous thorns.]
"That was close! Almost got screwed!"
Ethan knew it. Now, anytime he saw even the slightest oddity, he had to be careful!
'This world is too bizarre…'
There were even places that could devour system prompts, like the Gray Ore Mining Area.
The spatial cutting effect there could even block Ethan's prompts, making it impossible for him to see the prompts within the space, nearly getting him killed, almost sliced into several pieces.
"This Tentacle Kelp isn't bad though. If I plant a circle of it around the villa..."
Ethan raised an eyebrow.
ψ(｀∇´)ψ
"Collect!"
[Tentacle Kelp +99]
[Tentacle Kelp Seeds +1000]
It even produced seeds.
'Not bad! Not bad!'
Ethan was very satisfied, but for safety's sake, he did not rashly touch the chest. Instead, he wrapped his hand with a piece of beast hide, and only then did he flip the chest open in one go.
"Collect!"
[Skill Book · One-Blade Style +1]
[Hard-as-a-Rock Spell Book +1]
[Whirlwind Shoes Crafting Blueprint +1]
[Intermediate Evolution Pill +1]
[Magic Ring Crafting Blueprint +1]
[Spirit Stones +100]
[Gold +10]
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