100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full?-Chapter 365 - Father

Just then—

Lilith leaned closer to Lucien. It was the kind of movement a predator made when it sensed a shift in the air.

Her eyes narrowed as if she were trying to focus on something just out of sight.

Lucien flinched when her face came too close. He lifted his brows slightly and leaned back an inch.

Lilith’s expression slipped from composure into open curiosity.

She inhaled once.

Before Lucien could ask what she was doing, Lilith spoke.

"You..." she said slowly. "Why do I feel like I’m getting stronger just standing near you?"

Lucien blinked.

Lilith felt it clearly now. The closer she stood to him, the more her Law stirred. It was like a tuning fork had been struck somewhere inside her, and her own resonance had begun to hum in response.

Her Law recognized something.

And that recognition was... pleasant.

Before he could answer, Kaia hopped forward from behind him and leaned in as well. Then, her eyes went bright with sudden excitement.

"Brother! It’s real!" she blurted. "My flames aren’t fighting each other anymore. The new one I learned is settling in. Everything feels... aligned. What in the flat earth is this?"

Lucien froze for half a second.

Then understanding clicked.

The sapling.

It was not just feeding him. It was harmonizing what came near him. Laws were agreements, and the sapling was an agreement so old and stable that other Laws adjusted themselves instinctively in its presence.

He kept that thought to himself.

"This?" Lucien said mildly. "You’re probably imagining it."

Kaia stared at him.

Lilith raised a brow.

Lucien continued, straight-faced. "It’s likely a placebo effect. When people see someone handsome, they tend to feel better. Must be something like that."

Kaia’s mouth opened. Then closed.

"...Narcissist," she muttered.

Lilith rolled her eyes but she did not step back. She studied Lucien again as if testing the sensation deliberately.

"If that’s the case," she said dryly, "I’ll keep you."

Lucien coughed hard and immediately turned away.

"Anyway," he said quickly, "you didn’t come here just to compliment me. I haven’t seen you for a week. Did something happen?"

Lilith laughed softly and stepped back at last.

"Yes," she said. "Several things. And none of them are pleasant."

She gestured for them to sit.

Once they did, Lilith’s tone shifted. The amusement drained away, replaced by professional focus.

"Remember the merchant group I told you about?" she asked. "The ones selling miracles."

Lucien nodded.

"We managed to obtain their products and my alchemists dissected them," Lilith continued. "And they found the cracks."

She raised one finger.

"First. The pill that pushes someone into Transcendence."

Lilith’s eyes hardened.

"It works," she admitted. "But we just discovered... It doesn’t bring enlightenment, it substitutes."

She explained that those who consumed the pill did break through, but their understanding was hollow. Worse, repeated use created dependency.

"They found an addictive compound," Lilith said. "Not to the pill itself, but to the sensation it induces. A hallucinogenic catalyst that simulates insight."

Lucien’s gaze sharpened.

"So the Law reacts to the intrusion," he said.

"Yes," Lilith replied. "The pill forces a false epiphany. The Law the practitioner is trying to integrate reacts defensively, tightening itself to reject the disturbance. The world misinterprets that reaction as a breakthrough."

She scoffed.

"They don’t understand the Law. They’re bullying it."

She raised a second finger.

"The potion that forces Celestial breakthrough is worse."

Lilith leaned forward.

"A body must be tempered in layers to survive the void. Gradual reinforcement and structural adaptation. That potion skips all of it."

She described how the potion used a foreign substance that masked structural flaws from the world’s perception. Reality was deceived into allowing breakthrough even when the vessel was unready.

"It doesn’t strengthen the body," Lilith said. "It lies for it."

Lucien exhaled slowly.

"And the void doesn’t forgive lies."

"No," Lilith agreed. "Those who used it will eventually suffer cellular erosion. It’s only been in circulation for a few years, so no cases have surfaced yet."

She raised a third finger.

"The crystal that enhances Law comprehension."

Lilith’s lips pressed thin.

"That one is a parasite."

She explained that the crystal latched onto the practitioner’s Law directly, agitating it violently. The Law responded by overexpressing itself, flooding the user with sensation and clarity.

"They feel enlightened," Lilith said. "But it’s just the Law trying to shake something off."

She leaned back and sighed.

"These aren’t miracles," she said. "They’re shortcuts that invoice the future."

Lucien was silent for a long moment.

Then he spoke quietly as realization settled in.

"Someone is sabotaging the practitioners of the Big World."

Kaia nodded grimly. "And not for the better."

Lucien clenched his fingers. "If this continues, the future will be bleak. An entire generation of practitioners built on shortcuts and lies."

Lilith hesitated, then sighed again.

"There’s something else."

Lucien looked up. "What is it?"

"My father," Lilith said. "My people can’t find what’s wrong with him."

She explained that his internal energies were stable. His body was intact. His foundation showed no obvious flaws.

"All signs point to the spirit," Lilith said. "But there are no established remedies. Spirit injuries are hard to treat."

Lucien stared at her.

He was silent for a moment.

Then he said simply, "Take me to him."

Lilith blinked.

"I know a thing or two about spirits," Lucien added calmly.

Lilith studied his face. She found neither hesitation nor exaggeration.

After a long moment, she smiled. It was unreadable and sharp.

"Alright," she said. "Then come."

She stood.

Kaia jumped up immediately. "Ooh. We’re doing something serious."

Lucien followed Lilith without another word.

•••

Lilith led them downward, past corridors that were not on any public map. The air changed the deeper they went.

She pressed her palm against a rune-locked wall.

The formation recognized her instantly.

Space parted. And they stepped through.

Inside was a chamber built for survival. Layer upon layer of defensive arrays overlapped the room.

At the center lay a single bed.

And on it—

An older Solhorn.

His horn was dulled and scarred. His frame was broad even now, muscles carved by decades of battle. He looked like someone who had stood in front of armies and refused to move.

Even unconscious, his presence pressed outward.

Several figures in healer robes stood nearby, mid-discussion. The moment they noticed Lilith, they stiffened.

"That will be all," Lilith said flatly.

"Lady Lilith, we were in the middle of—"

"Leave first."

Her voice did not rise. It did not need to.

The healers exchanged uneasy glances, then withdrew quickly. None of them looked relieved to go.

When the chamber was empty, Lilith turned to Lucien.

"Your secrets are safe," she said calmly. "And there will be no misunderstandings."

Lucien smiled. "You know me well."

He stepped forward and grabbed a thin, translucent sheet from his inventory.

Breathglass Film. A rare drop from the Lungmirror Moss.

He lifted it carefully and angled it toward the Solhorn’s body.

Through the film, the man’s internal energy pathways revealed themselves in sharp, terrifying clarity. Channels of power branched cleanly. There was not a single blockage or corruption.

Lucien studied it for several seconds.

Then nodded.

"Hm. Your healers were right," he said calmly. "There’s nothing wrong with his internal energy."

Lilith frowned. "How can you be sure?"

Lucien handed her the Breathglass Film.

Lilith hesitated, then looked.

Her breath caught.

The clarity was absurd.

"This is..." She stared harder. "It surpassed Starforge’s best diagnostic tools by a humiliating margin."

Her merchant instincts flared visibly.

Lucien raised a palm before she could talk.

"Keep it."

Lilith’s surprise melted into a slow smile. Then her expression tightened again. "So if it’s not his body, and not his energy..."

Lucien’s eyes had already shifted.

"Then it’s his spirit."

Lucien closed his eyes.

His spiritual senses extended outward.

And Lucien now stood within the Solhorn’s conceptual space.

At first glance, everything looked... normal. The spirit stood tall, whole, and stable.

It was no wonder no one had found the problem.

But Lucien was no longer limited to "looking."

He activated Structural Insight.

The spirit dissolved into strings.

And the truth surfaced.

Lucien’s breathing steadied as his perception sharpened.

There, deep within the man’s spiritual lattice, was the problem.

A foreign construct had been lodged into the flow of the spirit. It clung to the strings, exploiting natural junctions without altering their structure.

A Voidwalker’s method.

They used Starlit Codex as a weapon.

The spiritual attack had been applied like a lens, forcing the spirit to observe itself endlessly. Every attempt the man’s identity made to rise into awareness was reflected back, folded inward, and stalled.

A perfect loop.

Lucien understood immediately.

’They didn’t damage him,’ he thought. ’They locked him.’

Healing it with brute force would tear the spirit apart.

Removing it blindly would collapse memory.

Lucien’s eyes narrowed.

"This is clever," he admitted. "And cruel."

Then his gaze hardened.

"And fixable."

Lucien exhaled.

Then he activated the Starlit Codex.

Lucien did not tear the foreign strings out.

He corrected context.

Using Creation, he introduced a higher-order agreement, one that made the voidwalker’s clause obsolete rather than opposed.

The foreign anchor trembled.

It tried to assert itself.

Lucien let Luminous Will flow as authority.

The void clause could not argue.

It unraveled quietly like a contract invalidated by a superior law.

Lucien guided the spirit gently, reinforcing its original self-recognition, letting it remember how to move forward instead of remaining perfect and asleep.

The Solhorn’s spirit breathed.

For the first time since it was sleeping—

It stepped forward.

Lucien withdrew.

His eyes opened.

The old Solhorn gasped.

His chest rose sharply. His horn flared faintly with instinctive power.

Lilith moved instantly. "Father!"

The man’s eyes opened slowly.

"...Daughter?" he rasped.

Her composure shattered.

She grabbed his hand without caring who saw.

Lucien stepped back in silence, firmly pulling Kaia along with him and out of the room.