Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 84: Silence before the storm

Ten minutes earlier

"What the hell is this…?"

Ultimately, Callane ended up following the instinct of her guide.

It all boiled down to the simple question of experience.

Contrary to any of Callane’s mercenaries or the girl herself, this wasn’t the first time for their guide to be in this forbidden realm.

In the zone where none of the usual common sense applied, an instinctive feeling of someone who was here before had greater value than even the best stratagems Callane could try to come up with.

After all, no matter how great of a plan she would come up with, it would all be based on rules that no longer applied.

And now, rising up several meters into the sky, a robust ring of robust stone walls proved the guide’s instincts correct.

"I…"

At this point, however, not even the guide appeared to have the first clue as to what the hell was going on.

"I assume it’s not something you’ve encountered before?" Callane whispered as she approached the wall, reaching out as if to place her hand on it, only to stop just a few inches short.

Just like her body would tense up with every step she pushed deeper into the forest, when reaching out for the stones of the wall, she…

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She couldn’t help but hesitate.

There was no actual force stopping her from touching this strange, pragmatically impossible wall.

But…

It was a solid wall that no big city would be ashamed to display. But while a city would have every resource and manpower necessary to build such state-of-the-art defenses, out at the outskirts of this wild, forgotten forest?

Who built this wall?

Where did they get the materials for it?

How could an entire crowd of builders necessary to erect such a wall safely remain in the forest, where Callane, a great warrior herself, couldn’t stop feeling tense over every step?

Ultimately, however, it was a different question that continued to flash up in Callane’s head.

’For all the effort, materials, money, and time necessary to build such a wall…’ she gulped her saliva down. ’What would they do that for?’

Taking in a deep breath, she reaffirmed her hold over the handle of her mace while throwing a nervous glare around.

But just like one would expect from a forest, there were only trees and bushes around, locked in the endless war for which plant could monopolize more of the sun’s warm rays. At the same time, though…

"Is it just me, or is it weirdly silent?" one of the soldiers asked, causing Callane to freeze.

For now that she paid attention… that was true indeed.

The roaring noises from before cut short, sparing them the pain of approaching the source of such loud noises while they were going on. But the silence that ensued ever since this banging stopped…

It wasn’t the natural, noisy silence one would expect from an active forest, filled with the chirping of birds, calls of various animals, or even the never-ending song of the tree leaves rustling in the wind.

Right now, all of those sounds were nowhere to be found, as if the forest itself was bracing for what was coming.

"I don’t like it," another mercenary commented while taking a step back, swinging his short sword in a bid to chase the danger away. "I don’t like it at all!"

"Stay still, y’all!"

Raising her voice only a little bit, Callane froze according to her own orders, standing as still as she could so as not to obscure even the tiniest noise, the tiniest hint of the coming danger.

Only to then realize just how blinding this silence was.

Because while she focused all of her attention on searching for a potential noise, she didn’t realize the obvious threat she could feel through her mana sense!

"Over the wall!"

Sparing not a second of her time, Callane struck down her own hesitation as she rushed up to the wall, speeding up with just a few steps before jumping, taking a step against the bottom of the wall, and then launching herself even further up before grabbing the wall’s edge.

First, she reinforced her grip, then she added her other arm to the hold before pulling herself up over the wall’s top, only to then lay down on it and reach down to where the mercenaries attempted to scale the wall in all sorts of precarious ways.

Some just jumped, confident in the strength of their own legs. And while a few succeeded, the rest only ended up sliding down the wall’s side.

This swift retreat, brought forth by the screaming of Callane’s instincts, took them quite a bit longer than she had hoped. And by the time the last mercenary finally caught the hand of his companion before climbing up the wall, well over fifteen seconds had passed!

By the time they’d all jumped down on the wall’s other side, there wasn’t a single noise coming from the forest left, not even the tiniest one.

Only the cracking of the bushes beneath the mercenary boots as they all turned their sights to the guide… and then to the young lady, when the guide appeared as shocked and clueless as the rest of them.

’What now?!’

Whoever built those walls… No, whoever had the strength to complete such a massive project smack-dab in the most dangerous part of the known world, Callane could only hope they wouldn’t mind their small, fear-born intrusion.

For just from the way the mana in the forest’s air distorted all around her, Callane knew what was coming was well beyond the scope of anything she had ever experienced.

And as if that wasn’t enough, it was coming in perfect silence.

Still.

’What now?!’

Gritting her teeth, Callane withheld a stressed-out yelp as she quickly looked around, desperate to find some clues, some potential ways to save her small group from the coming threat.

Through this nigh-perfect silence, the sound of her heart beating grew loud enough to deafen her.

Then, still a few seconds before the mass of mana that loomed just beyond their range of sight would crash into them…

BANG!

With a momentary flash of light coming from where Callane had just seen some semblance of order and much smaller, perfectly geometric shapes…

The world exploded all around her.