Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 82: Hellish Noise

"There’s something seriously wrong with this place!"

While the abyss guide didn’t shout, his voice went a whole octave higher than usual, making it pretty clear just how emotional he got in a matter of just a few moments after stepping through the gate.

A fact that Callane didn’t miss nor fail to point out out loud.

"Losing your wits so soon?" she commented as she pulled away from the edge, not wanting to put herself in the way of this powerful mana radiation any longer than she actually had to. "After all the praises the abyss sang about you, I thought you would be a lot…" she paused for a moment to look the man up and down, "better than that."

The guide turned on the spot, giving the lady an annoyed look a tired parent would produce when dealing with a naive child thinking they were the smartest person in the room.

"Listen up, young lady, this isn’t my first time on this side of the gate!" the man protested, his cheeks growing slightly redder over his agitation. "But this?" He pointed at the nearby hole before moving his hand to point at all the other dents in the ground, equally as perfect in shape even if much smaller in scale. "This? This I’ve never seen in here before!"

Callane opened her mouth, ready to keep arguing with the man…

But this wasn’t her world. This wasn’t the place where she could just flaunt her wealth or influence to make whatever problems stood in her way go away.

No.

This was a place where her money was worthless and her influence non-existent. And while she could still command the mercenaries as she wished, even their loyalty would only last for as long as her commands and behavior made it clear that she was their best bet at surviving this adventure.

That’s why, rather than arguing with the man, Callane forcibly killed her emotions and took a few moments to analyze all that the man said.

"Let me be clear," she said after taking her time to think of the answer. "This scale of… terrain manipulation?" She pointed at the big, square hole. "I know of maybe a few mages back on the right side of the gate capable of doing it. And by the favor of their ability, they are pretty much immune to all the political games—the games that brought Theodore Evilbane over here."

"What are you trying to say, my lady?"

Noticing the change in Callane’s voice and the look on her face, the guide calmed down himself, eager to find out more about the situation he found himself in.

His experience or not, judging by what the noble lady said, whatever information she was about to share could be the make-or-break for his survival in the next three days he had to stay in this accursed place before his sentence would end, allowing all of them to return.

"Theodore was a great mage, comparable to the archmages only known in history… But terrain manipulation?" she asked before shaking her head. "This couldn’t be any further away from what he specialized in. Or, in other words…"

"There’s a force here that we simply cannot fathom," the guide finished Callane’s words, easily able to deduce what she was trying to say even before she said it all. "What are the chances he never revealed the full extent of his abilities and this…" He pointed at the hole in the ground, "is but a…"

Pam

A distant noise came from the forest out in the distance. A noise that rustled some treetops quite some distance deeper into the forest, growing to nothing but a small sound by the time it reached the ground.

"What the hell was that?" One of the soldiers took a step back, the short sword in his hand trembling a little as everyone’s attention locked in on the direction the sound came from.

"I don’t have the faintest idea," Callane muttered, already arming herself with her trusty mace while fixing her grip on the handle of her full-steel buckler.

"My lady, what are the chances this is a product of the abilities Lord Theodore never revealed to the world?" the guide asked again, this time spelling out the full question before anything or anyone could stop him.

"That…" Callane momentarily turned her head away from the forest in the distance and gave the hole yet another lingering stare. She then pressed her lips together as a slightly sad expression appeared on her face. "That I don’t know. If he wanted to hide his abilities, there’s hardly a person alive in this world that would be able to tell."

For a moment, the red-haired noble lady and the abyss-guild guide stared at each other, both slowly digesting all that what she said meant or could mean in their current circumstances.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The noise came again, this time much, MUCH louder, as if whatever it was that dulled it out before had suddenly decided to cease its operations, unleashing the full might of the sound at Callane’s full group.

And then….

BABABABABANG!

Several of those noises mixed together into one, constant sound that only ended after several seconds!

The changes to the forest were also obvious, with clouds of smoke and dust now rising above the treetops while some of the tree crowns suddenly started to vanish, sinking below the forest top.

"Any idea what that could be?" Callane asked, gripping her weapon in her hand as she stared in the direction the unfamiliar sounds were coming from.

"Not a clue," the guide gritted his teeth, drops of sweat trickling down his forehead. "The question is, would you rather give up on your mission and stay here, where all we have to deal with is the noise, or…"

At this point, the guide grew nervous to the point of openly gulping down his saliva as he locked his eyes on the spot in the forest out in the distance where all of this weird mayhem was coming from… with no signs of lessening but all the signs of only growing in intensity with every passing second.

BABABABABABABABBBBBABBABNG!

By now, the cries of whatever monster was capable of producing them grew so rapid, repeating so quickly one after the other, they all just mixed into one constant noise comparable to nothing less than a demonic roar.

And yet…

’What sort of a beast would be capable of creating such noise, such destruction,’ Callane thought, watching how more and more trees suddenly vanished out in the distance, leaving an empty scar on the otherwise perfectly green carpet of the treetops, ’all without even the slightest wave of mana reaching us?’

But the guide wasn’t done asking his question.

"Or would you rather risk all of our lives and go into the woods where the deadly monsters roam, all in a bid to figure out what this noise is?" the guide asked, without any actual change to his face.

He wasn’t trying to suggest an answer by a special choice of wording or anything like that.

He was simply offering Callane the two choices she already had but was maybe unable to see.

"And what would you recommend?" she asked instead of answering, eager to seek the advice of the only person in her group that actually had prior experience with this place.

Hearing the question, the guide squinted his eyes.

"I’ve never witnessed anything capable of making that kind of noise," he muttered silently as the noises coming from the forest only continued to grow louder, more intense. "But I’ve never met anyone capable of creating such a massive hole in the ground for seemingly no reason. And it might just be my instincts talking, just like it might be the God of Fate leading me astray so that I shall pay for my past crimes, but…"

This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.

The guide gulped his saliva again.

"If it was me, I think this noise…" He shook his head. "I think its source is exactly what we should seek if we wish to survive in this hellish place."