Legend of the Heroes of Another World's Divine Tower

The simple grenade, containing one-third of its capacity of sunflower leaves, was forcefully thrown by Lin Chi into the deepest darkness of the valley, where it exploded violently at the bottom!

This burst of light was more intense and pure than any before! It seemed to have reached some kind of climax.

The light was like a small sun suddenly born, forcibly pressed into the darkness, expanding and bursting instantly, illuminating a sizable valley area as if the night had been stripped away in an instant.

The sharp edges of the rocks and the gnarled branches of the withered trees cast clear, distorted shadows in the brief but domineering light, shadows that were then quickly swallowed by darkness.

Just as the light expanded to its maximum, the boundary between light and darkness became most distinct, and the light was about to begin to contract and dissipate—

"roar……!"

A low, indistinct roar, seemingly not from a throat but from a deep crevice in the earth's rock layers, or perhaps from the thick, impenetrable darkness itself, trembled and echoed up, accompanied by the last vestiges of the light burst.

The sound wasn't deafening, but it carried a heavy, tangible quality that instantly pierced the usual deathly silence of the valley at night, like a cold needle stabbing straight into Lin Chi's eardrums and seizing his heart.

At that moment, almost every hair on Lin Chi's body stood on end!

He jolted awake, his mind went blank, and without thinking, his body reacted faster than his fear. Like a wildcat whose tail had been stepped on, he darted backward from the edge of the cliff, quickly rolling into a thicket of bushes covered in cool night dew, where he curled up.

His heart was pounding wildly in his chest, making his eardrums ache, and the sound of blood rushing through his head echoed.

He lowered his body, almost completely holding his breath, with only his wide-open eyes peeking out from the narrow gaps between the interlacing blades of grass.

His pupils darted nervously around the edge of the faint halo emanating from the soul-suppressing lamp at his waist, which could only illuminate a small circle in front of him, as he tried his best to scan the direction from which the sound came.

Deathly silence returned.

Apart from his own heavy breathing, which he tried so hard to suppress, and his heart pounding like a drum, there was no other sound.

He lay motionless in the cold grass, waiting for what felt like an eternity, equivalent to dozens of heartbeats.

Lin Chi's muscles, which had been taut like a fully drawn bowstring, began to relax very slowly, but his high level of vigilance remained undiminished. He slowly poked half his head out of the grass, his face still showing lingering surprise and fear, his brows furrowed tightly.

"What...what was that sound?" he muttered to himself in a very soft, almost breathless voice, as if afraid of disturbing something. "Was it a strange echo caused by the valley's terrain? Or...is there really something else down there?"

"Are there other creatures living in the valley? But I searched carefully during the day and didn't find any trace of large living things?"

"Could it be... the boss of this floor?"

Since the forty-fourth floor was discovered and recorded, it has never been breached by any adventurer team.

The reason is not only that this is a typical "mechanic level" - you must solve specific puzzles or meet certain conditions to actually damage the BOSS, otherwise the BOSS is almost invincible.

Another reason is that no one has actually "discovered" any trace of the boss in this level. There are no prompts to trigger a battle, no health bar appears, nothing at all.

"Could it be... that the true form of this level's boss is hidden in this deepest valley? And that it only appears or becomes active at night? Everyone is used to exploring during the day and finding safe spots to hide at night, so no one has encountered it yet?"

The thought sent a chill down his spine, but at the same time, it also stirred a strong sense of curiosity characteristic of an explorer.

He carefully, like a lizard crawling, crept back to the edge of the cliff, his entire body almost flat against the ground, trying to minimize his silhouette, before slowly gazing down into the all-consuming darkness.

The light from the soul-suppressing lamp at his waist could barely illuminate the loose rocks on the cliff edge less than an arm's length in front of him. Below that was a bottomless, pure darkness, an emptiness that seemed to absorb even the gaze.

"Ah!" he suddenly exclaimed, raising his hand to pat his forehead in frustration.

"Oh no! I was so focused on hiding that I forgot to use the light to observe and record exactly how high the light rose!"

The sudden growl completely disrupted his experimental rhythm and concentration. He grimaced helplessly and could only pull back the vines hanging from the cliff edge, which were used to mark the height.

Using the stable but limited light source provided by the Soul-Suppressing Lamp at his waist, he carefully examined the scratches of varying depths on the vines from the previous tests. He used his knuckles to trace the spacing between the scratches, and mentally deduced the pattern of how the height of the light burst changed as the volume of the grass blades increased.

"At one-tenth of its capacity, it's about this high... At one-eighth, it's a bit higher... At one-sixth, the increase seems to be slowing down..."

He muttered to himself, his fingertips moving across the rough surface of the vines.

"Yes, roughly speaking, with each increase of a fixed amount of grass, the rate of increase in height gradually decreases and tends to plateau..."

Based on this trend, he quickly estimated in his mind the approximate height range that the "one-third capacity" grenade might have reached.

At the corresponding location on the vine, a special, wavy mark was carefully carved with a small knife to distinguish it from the previous actual observation records, indicating that this was only an "estimated value calculated based on the trend".

"Let's continue," he took a deep breath, trying to suppress the lingering unease and growing curiosity in his heart, and focused on the experiment at hand.

In the next test, he threw even more cautiously, not missing any unusual signs.

However, once awakened, that eerie growl never seemed to fall asleep again.

After that, every time a grenade exploded, the moment the light tore through the darkness, that low growl would "punctually" come from the abyss of darkness, like the cold echo of light.

This sound became a recurring, chilling "background noise" accompanying his explosion tests.

When the third-to-last grenade, which was also the last one in his routine test, exploded, Lin Chi quickly and skillfully pulled back the vines.

He squinted and, under the light, carefully compared the new markings on the vines with all the previous records.

Ignoring the incessant, unsettling roar, a clear, general relationship between the volume of the sun-drenched grass blades and the range (height) of the hallucinogenic light burst was already unfolding before his eyes!

A mixture of the sense of accomplishment from the successful experiment, the excitement of cracking the clues to the puzzle, and a touch of pride in making progress alone in the dangerous darkness welled up inside, temporarily diluting the eeriness of the surrounding environment and the constant fear.

"It's done!" He couldn't help but clench his fist tightly, and a small, triumphant smile, typical of a boy his age, involuntarily curled up at the corner of his mouth, though he quickly suppressed it with his habitual caution.

"This way, we can precisely calculate how many blades of grass to put in based on the required hallucinogenic or lighting range! It will be much more efficient and much safer. However..."

His smile gradually faded, and his gaze involuntarily fell once again on the silent and dark valley below. His brows furrowed slightly, and the eerie growl echoed in his mind like a persistent ghost.

"This roar... is definitely not some valley echo. It's so 'alive,' and it always comes with a burst of light."

"If it really is the BOSS of this floor... then combining the previous rumors and the current situation, it can be almost certain that the key to the mechanism of this floor must be related to 'Sunshine Grass'."

"Moreover, the threshold capacity for triggering the mechanism or affecting the BOSS is likely to be greater than 'one-third'."

But lacking more direct clues and evidence, it's impossible to piece together a complete picture based solely on shouts and guesses.

He shook his head, temporarily suppressing this major question and vague sense of excitement.

Bathed in the steady, soft glow of the Soul-Suppressing Lamp, he quickly and neatly recorded all the day's test data in his notebook. The handwriting appeared somewhat messy in the dim light, but the key figures were clear and accurate.

When he recorded the key data point of "one-third capacity", he paused for a moment and drew a striking circle next to the data point with red ink.

A soft "snap" sound.

He closed the notebook, wrapped it again in the oilcloth, and carefully tucked it back into his pocket. When he looked up again, his eyes had regained their calm and focused expression, even carrying a sharp glint of a researcher's or inventor's eye as he prepared for the next phase of testing.

"Alright," he muttered to himself, his tone filled with eager anticipation. "Next..."

He reached into another thickened and reinforced leather pouch on his side.

"It's time to test the practical effects of my 'new invention'."