Can a Frankenstein's monster be an adventurer?

Chapter 113 Auditory Hallucinations

The morning fog was particularly thick in the limestone canyon.

Once outside the protective perimeter of the wooden fence at the edge of the village, the surrounding air temperature noticeably dropped by several degrees.

Some abandoned mining facilities piled up beside the dirt road were reduced to huge, twisted black shadows in the thick fog, like the skeletons of some dead behemoth.

Rom walked at the front.

The experienced soldier moved with extremely light steps, his boots making almost no sound as they trod on the gravel path strewn with small stones.

He was always on high alert, and although the iron sword on his back was not drawn, it was always ready to be pulled out at the fastest speed.

Emily, on the other hand, was completely unaware that she was about to head into a dangerous area.

She flew in the middle of the group, humming an unknown tune, occasionally brushing the tips of her wings against the wildflowers by the roadside covered in dew.

Sometimes when she flew too low, she would deliberately stop on Luo Lan's helmeted head to rest for a while.

Whenever this happens, Luo Lan would reluctantly steady her steps, but her attention would always be fixed on the depths of the mist directly in front of the canyon path.

The little white cat controlled by Victor followed closely at Luo Lan's feet, its steps steady and always in sync with the pace of the group.

As the three continued deeper into the area, the gravel and grass beneath their feet receded inch by inch.

The sparse trees all around had completely disappeared at some point.

The continuous stretches of gray-white rocky landforms have replaced the soil.

All that remained were gray-white rock walls, rising steeply upwards, having been baked by the sun for countless years.

The gray-white rock surface gleamed dazzlingly in the morning light, and staring at it for too long could even make your eyes ache.

The air was so dry it made my throat tight, leaving only stone dust and a scorching heat. When I inhaled it, there was a faint, gritty sensation in my lungs.

The true, desolate face of the Gray Rock Canyon was finally revealed to Luo Lan and his group without any concealment.

Occasionally, you can still see some large, rusty railway tracks along the roadside.

These railway tracks, which should have been straight freight tracks laid on the ground hundreds or thousands of years ago, now appear to have been kneaded by some enormous force, exhibiting extremely irregular twists and turns, with some even sticking up and abruptly piercing into the rock walls in mid-air.

Rom walked ahead, raising his hand to shield his eyes from the glaring sunlight, and looked back at the group behind him: "This is already considered the main part of the mountain range leading into the Gray Rock Canyon. We'll reach the abandoned mine in another ten miles."

Upon hearing Rom's reminder, Roland's right hand naturally rested on the hilt of the broadsword at his waist.

Given that Luo Lan and his group all possessed average Gold-level strength, the distance of ten miles, even if they walked cautiously and slowly, would only take them less than half an hour.

Therefore, Luo Lan's nerves were on edge at this moment.

Previously, when fighting the goblins on the scree slope, Luo Lan used [True Sight] to carefully observe the strange goblin that could "transform by tearing off its clothes" in desperate situations.

Luo Lan clearly remembered that in the special goblin's specialty "panel", there was a troublesome ability called [Collective Subconscious Connection].

[Collective Unconscious Connections: This individual and their peers have established a unconscious connection network with higher, unknown entities. Within this network, they share some information transmission and emotional thought processes.]

Luo Lan was thinking rapidly in her mind.

If this abandoned mine area really is the goblin's lair.

Therefore, the goblin squad's annihilation at the scree slope may have been discovered by the goblins living in the mine through the effects of the [Collective Subconscious Connection] feat.

Luo Lan had no doubt that in the last ten miles of gray-white rocky desert, the cunning green-skinned beasts had likely already laid an ambush against them.

Luo Lan tightened his grip on the sword hilt, his tone becoming more serious: "Be careful, there might be goblins lying in ambush here—"

Turning to Emily, who was still floating carelessly in mid-air, Luo Lan emphasized, adding, "Especially Emily, although those goblins are unlikely to hurt you, you still need to be careful, just in case—"

Seeing Luo Lan's serious expression, Emily quickly stopped flying mid-air. The little fairy put her hands on her hips, trying to maintain a serious expression: "Yes, Emily knows when to be serious!"

At Luo Lan's prompting, the three-person team tightened their forward formation.

All three remained on high alert, slowly making their way along the broken mining roads.

Luo Lan walked diagonally behind Luo Mu, two distinctly different glints flashing in her eyes.

A faint red flush appeared in her right eye as she activated [Thermal Vision], capturing heat source feedback from the surrounding environment.

His left eye shone with a deep blue light, and the underlying analytical vision of [True Vision] was activated and maintained.

Two distinctly different, keenly observant perspectives intertwined in my eyes.

Luo Lan warily guarded against the small, green-skinned monster that might jump out from the cracks in the rocks or the ruins of the mine tracks.

Before he could even encounter a single goblin, strange noises suddenly entered Roland's ears.

At first, it was just a very faint whisper, like a hallucination coming through a very thick wall.

But as Luo Lan and his group approached the abandoned mine on the map, the sounds became clearer and clearer.

Luo Lan could even roughly distinguish the specific timbre and which race it came from.

He had a rough, hoarse voice, sounding like the booming laughter of a dwarf, deep and muffled:

Ha! The quality of this cluster of Fire Marrow Magic Crystals is enough to rim a nobleman's wine glass!

This was followed by a high-pitched, rapid string of mutterings, full of the goblin's characteristic shrewdness and urgency:

Conveyor belt number three's rotation speed decreased by 5%, so mining efficiency should be able to be improved further. Those damn gears need some lubrication.

Before the complaint could even finish, a stern, deep, and powerful voice rang out, like the booming voice of an orc:

Aside from the chaotic conversation, there was even the crisp "clang" of a metal pickaxe striking the rock.

And the clanging sound of heavy steam locomotives slowly rolling on the rails.

The sound became clearer and clearer:

If this entire batch of ore is sent to Hearthburg, the shipping costs will go up again—and we can't negotiate with those stubborn high-ranking officials in the Federation—

"Hey old man, your back's acting up again? I told you not to overexert yourself while moving ore, get the rune transport truck here."

Are you afraid of making something? This salt isn't much, and it's only salty enough for me to fill a pot. These sounds are extremely vivid, surging in from all directions, intertwining together, and there's even someone humming a strange miner's chant.

Luo Lan felt as if she were walking in a bustling, fully operational mega-mine.

The strange situation made Luo Lan pause, her fingers gripping the hilt of her sword tightly as she looked around.

However, in Roland's simultaneously operating [Heat Vision] and [True Vision], there was no sign of any biological activity other than the white rocks and lifeless metal remains, not even a single desert insect.

Those noisy sounds just echoed in the air out of nowhere.

Emily, seeing Roland suddenly stop and look around, curiously lowered herself: "Roland? What are you looking for? Did you find those ugly green monsters?"

Rom, who was walking ahead, heard the noise and immediately turned around.

The veteran quickly retreated, stepping aside to block Luo Lan's path. His gaze, sharp as a hawk's, swept across the desolate white rocks around him, his voice low and solemn: "An ambush?"

Seeing Emily and Rom's puzzled looks, Roland asked in return, "Didn't you hear those sounds?"

Emily hovered to Luo Lan's left, tilting her head and extending her slender hands to make a sound-amplifying gesture near a pair of pointed ears. She quickly released her grip, looking utterly confused. "No, there's no sound at all. Luo Lan, are you hallucinating because you're too nervous?"

Although her words were teasing, Emily quickly drew a graffiti magic circle in mid-air with her finger, which was shimmering with red and blue light.

The veteran drew his heavy iron sword, keeping the tip pointing diagonally to the ground—a perfect defensive stance to respond to any sudden attack from any direction.

Luo Lan stared at the lifeless, gray-white rocks around her, then raised her hand to signal everyone to stop: "Something's not right, let's wait a bit."

Luo Lan asked in her mind via [Psionic Communication]: "Victor, didn't you hear that either? Some background noise, like miners chatting as they go down the mine. And the sounds of shovels, mine carts, and conveyor belts dragging—"

Just a second later, Victor's emotionless, synthesized voice echoed in his mind: "None. Wait a moment, I'll start data sampling—"

Luo Lan's shoulder slumped as the little white cat leaped from beside his feet onto his right shoulder. The eerie blue data light stream in its cat-shaped pupils began to flash rapidly as it carefully observed the cat using its [Data Vision] specialization.

After a few breaths of silence, a steady, neutral synthesized voice sounded in Luo Lan's mind again: "Observation: The environment around the abandoned mine has a faint chaotic aura emanating from it. The chaotic aura does not manifest as the common purple mist, but rather as the disordered time afterimage unique to the [Time Vortex Rift].

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