Chapter 112: Chapter 110: Black Tower Monitoring Station

Nothing happened in the Thorn Stone Forest.

There was no Rock Giant God soaring into the sky, nor were there fireworks filling the air.

Only a sudden, faint aurora.

Shibeng sensed the powerful force within the Stone Forest vanish. Surmising that something had happened, he once again went in pursuit of fear.

Li Luo stood on the hillside, watching the mesmerizing aurora in a bit of a daze.

Meanwhile, Mo Ling sat inside the metal block, staring thoughtfully at the white bracelet on his wrist, not noticing the red bandana in the corner twitch slightly.

"Let’s go."

Li Luo’s voice broke Mo Ling from his thoughts.

"To the monitoring station."

...

The environment of the Chaotic Sand Dunes was truly harsh; Mo Ling felt it made the Thorn Stone Forest seem vibrant with life by comparison.

Boundless, rolling dunes stretched on, the sky thick with dust, making one feel as if they had entered some land of the dead.

Even after leaving the Thorn Stone Forest far behind, the landscape remained unchanged.

To Mo Ling’s eyes, however, small creatures had already begun to appear, roaming and burrowing beneath the dunes.

After traveling a bit farther, they saw some cactus-like plants. They were tall and round, standing out starkly against the dunes.

Their root systems burrowed deeper than even Mo Ling could see, and around these roots teemed a rich community of organisms. On the surface, many small animals gnawed on the plants.

Not only that, but Hunters also began to appear. Lizards scurried about the dunes, searching for the plants. Once they found one, they would rush over to prey on the small insects living on it.

Moving forward, strange floating creatures began to appear among the dunes. They looked like tumbleweeds, and a faint blue light emanated from within.

They floated at a low altitude, with a long, tubular organ extending to the ground, constantly sucking up sand and transporting it into their bodies.

Like a vacuum cleaner, once it cleared an area of sand, it would slowly drift to another spot and begin suctioning again.

The sand was sent into the blue light, where it spun and was filtered. After a while, it was suddenly ejected and scattered back onto the ground.

’It must be some kind of filter-feeder. But is there really any nutrition in that sand?’

Mo Ling even saw some flying Hunters that preyed specifically on these floating organisms.

They looked like vultures, only their entire bodies were covered in mirrored skin, and their wings were like thin sheets. Their flight paths were also exceptionally erratic.

After diving down beside a floating organism, they would first prod it with their claws. The attacked creature would instantly contract, squeezing out a portion of the blue light within it.

This blue light was clearly highly destructive, capable of whipping up the surrounding air and even creating a massive tornado.

But these Hunters were not afraid of the light. They would rush in before the light could whip up a storm and envelop it with their wings. After a few reflections, they would completely absorb the blue glow.

Then they would repeat the process, continuing to provoke the floating organism and ingest its blue light until the creature grew weak and listless, at which point they would slowly fly away.

It appeared to be a form of sustainable predation.

Mo Ling and Li Luo both watched in amazement. The 2nd Floor of the Abyss was truly incredible.

There were many more strange and captivating creatures of all kinds.

The short trip to the monitoring station took a very long time due to their frequent stops.

"That should be it up ahead."

Li Luo held an electronic screen, looking at the map. Not far ahead was the closest monitoring station outside the Thorn Stone Forest.

This monitoring station had a nice-sounding name: Black Tower.

As Li Luo tapped, a description of the monitoring station appeared on the screen:

The Black Tower was not originally a monitoring station.

It is the petrified remains of a certain type of creature. When the remains were first discovered, all the Hunters were stunned.

Its appearance was simply too jarring. Discovering a massive, black, stone-like structure in the middle of a desolate desert was bound to arouse suspicion.

However, as research progressed, people discovered that the Black Tower was composed of calcium carbonate.

It was an environment similar to a coral reef.

Perhaps many years ago, the Black Tower had been alive. But as its life faded, its calcareous body remained, gradually transformed by the forces of nature into a solid structure.

Though calcareous, researchers discovered an unknown, web-like structure within the Black Tower, making the entire thing incredibly sturdy and difficult to collapse.

Like a coral reef, a rich ecosystem formed within the Black Tower. Weaker creatures hid themselves in the cavities inside it.

The Black Tower’s sturdy structure could withstand the unpredictable sandstorms and giant creatures of the Chaotic Sand Dunes. Its internal cavities also stored moisture through the changing day and night, allowing plant life to flourish.

After humanity discovered the Black Tower, they began to study the life within it. It started as a simple outpost, but as more personnel arrived, the interior was gradually developed.

Taking care to preserve the ecosystem, humans occupied the entire Black Tower, building various facilities and passages inside to serve as a research base for the creatures of the 2nd Floor of the Abyss.

The safe environment inside the Black Tower also offered a respite to the many Hunters struggling on the 2nd Floor of the Abyss, who used it as a temporary waypoint.

And so, gradually, the Black Tower became an officially recognized monitoring station, taking on more and more responsibilities.

Most monitoring stations on the 2nd Floor of the Abyss were established this way; the Black Tower is just one example. This also serves as a testament to humanity’s resourcefulness in making use of everything the Abyss has to offer.

Although Mo Ling’s vision was limited and he couldn’t see the Black Tower in the distance, the electronic screen happened to have a few pictures of it.

In the pictures, it did indeed look like a tall tower, except its surface was covered in countless holes of all sizes.

At the base of the Black Tower was a field of smaller, scattered towers, looking very much like a sprawling coral reef.

Strange, vine-like plants grew within the cavities of these tower-like structures, weaving in and out of the openings as if they were clinging to the towers for life.

The pictures also showed numerous, indistinct flocks of birds, which presumably used the holes as nests to escape the dangers of the Chaotic Sand Dunes.

Judging by the scale, the Black Tower was truly enormous. No wonder it was able to form its own unique ecosystem.

Mo Ling guessed that some of the creatures they had just seen had likely come from the Black Tower, which would explain why the surrounding area seemed so vibrant.

Li Luo retracted the electronic screen, but instead of moving forward, she lowered her head to look at her chest.

’What’s wrong?’

He watched as she lifted her own nameplate. The strange characters on it were slowly shifting, as if about to reveal something.

Mo Ling then realized that Li Luo’s nameplate hadn’t updated since they arrived on the 2nd Floor of the Abyss.

"Looks like it only changes after you’ve spent some time on the 2nd Floor of the Abyss."

’Her title should be appearing now, right?’

A series of epic names flashed through Mo Ling’s mind, but he had no idea which one Li Luo would actually receive.

But the characters seemed to be taking a long time to settle. Li Luo’s expression grew stranger and stranger, as if she had realized something was wrong.

’Is there a problem?’

Thankfully, the twisting characters finally began to settle, and a ring of intricate patterns formed around them.

The moment he saw the words, Mo Ling was dumbfounded.

He had heard of the title on the nameplate before.

...

"Second-level Hunter, Fire Thief Li Luo."