100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full?-Chapter 366 - Awake

Lucien did not speak until they were out of the chamber.

Kaia walked beside him in silence for a few steps, then her curiosity finally won.

"Brother..." she began, then hesitated. "How do you know so much? What is your cheat, really? How are you this... ridiculous?"

Lucien kept walking.

Kaia waited, the way a child waited for a secret to be handed over.

Lucien finally slowed and turned back to her.

"Well," he said, "I only have one answer for you."

Kaia leaned in immediately. "What is it?"

Lucien bent closer, as if he were about to reveal a forbidden mantra of the heavens. He angled his mouth toward her ear, and his voice dropped into a language only they knew.

Kaia’s ear twitched.

Then Lucien whispered.

"Git gud."

Kaia went still.

Her expression held for one heartbeat, as if her mind was trying to interpret that as a profound spiritual doctrine.

Then the flame in her eyes flared.

"Damn you!" she hissed. "Just when I thought you were about to say something wise."

Lucien’s mouth twitched. He almost laughed.

"I am wise," he said without shame. "You cannot change that."

Lucien turned and resumed walking.

"Come. Let them talk. This is not our room to occupy."

Kaia followed after him, muttering a stream of incomprehensible complaints under her breath.

Lucien’s pace quickened the moment they left Lilith’s deeper corridors.

Kaia noticed.

Something had shifted in Lucien’s posture. Urgency.

When they reached their dwelling wing, Lucien stopped at his door and looked at Kaia.

"I will meditate," he said. "Tell Sister Lilith I will be busy for a while."

Kaia blinked. "Busy?"

Lucien nodded once, then slipped inside and closed the door.

Kaia stared at the door as if she could see through it.

Her expression turned complicated. Then, slowly, it softened into something like pity.

"He left so fast..." she whispered to herself. "So healing someone has a cost."

Her lips pressed together.

"Brother Luc must have suffered. Spirit injuries are heavy. He healed a spirit."

Kaia’s gaze grew into a small admiration.

And of course, it was a complete misunderstanding.

•••

Lucien did not linger.

The door’s silence fell away as he sank into his divine energy core.

The change greeted him immediately.

His inner realm felt... fuller. More complete.

The Laws were more defined now. Even the Laws he had not yet learn had thickened into firm boundaries, as if Creation itself were quietly stitching the seams of his private universe.

This would make enlightenment easier. It would make practice easier. It would make growth less wasteful.

It was beginning to resemble a real universe.

But Lucien had not come here to admire the scenery.

He was hurrying for a far more important reason.

He blinked.

Space folded.

And Lucien reappeared in a quiet region.

Two figures stood there, talking and laughing like they had never known death.

The moment they saw him, their faces lit up.

A booming laugh rolled across the grass.

"My boy!" Luke roared. "You finally decided to show up! Hahaha!"

Cienna’s smile was softer, but it hit just as hard. "Sweetheart. We have returned."

Lucien stopped.

For a moment, he did not move at all.

Then his chest loosened, like a knot he had carried for too long finally untying itself.

"Mother," Lucien said quietly. "Father."

Luke stepped forward first, shameless and loud. He clapped Lucien on the shoulder.

"You have good taste," Luke declared. He patted his own chest proudly. "This body you made for me is perfect. Young, strong, and handsome. I can already tell your mother is going to give you a sibling soon."

Cienna elbowed Luke so hard that the man’s grin wobbled.

"Stop creeping our son," she said with a smile that threatened violence. Then she reached up and touched Lucien’s cheek with a tenderness that made the world feel briefly smaller. "But yes. This body is... lighter. Thank you for the work you put into us."

Luke leaned in again.

"It is our turn now," he said. "We will grow quickly. We will not be burdens."

Cienna nodded. Her eyes shone with quiet resolve. "We will protect you too. Even if you insist you do not need it."

Lucien’s throat tightened.

He had expected to feel relief.

He had not expected to feel safe.

He let them touch him. Let the moment settle. Let the absurd reality of it become real.

The universe had accepted their return.

Finally.

They spoke for a long time.

They spoke like family does when the world is not listening.

Then, inevitably, the practical discoveries surfaced.

Luke flexed his fingers and an old pattern of light danced along his knuckles.

"Good news," Luke said. "We kept our skills."

Lucien’s gaze sharpened. "All of them?"

Cienna nodded. "They were etched into our spirits. That does not vanish just because the body changes. The vessel is new. The writing is old."

Luke’s grin returned. "Also, you are going to like this. We remember the contents of Skillpedia and the Magic Book. All of it."

Lucien paused. "Everything?"

"We lived inside those constructs for more than a decade," Cienna said gently. "You do not forget a house you died in. You learn every crack in the wall."

Luke pointed at Lucien like he had won an argument. "And we are happy the codices belong to you now. I feel like they were always meant to be yours anyway."

Lucien exhaled.

That’s a great news.

Eventually, Luke’s patience snapped.

"Enough talking," he declared. "I want to train."

Cienna smiled, amused, but her gaze held the same hunger. "We have wasted enough time sleeping."

Lucien summoned two hourglasses. The Hourglass of Slowed Passage floated into their hands like obedient stars.

Then Lucien brought forth spirit crystals. A million each.

Luke whistled. "That is romance."

Cienna rolled her eyes. "That is bribery."

"It is love," Luke insisted.

Lucien’s mouth curved. "It is efficiency."

He told them about the training facility for when they reached Metamorphosis Realm.

When Lucien finished, he stepped back.

"I will not interfere," he said. "You know how to grow more than me."

Luke placed a hand on Lucien’s shoulder again, and this time his voice was quieter.

"We will be fine," he said. "Go do what you do."

Cienna nodded. "And if you break the world, at least come home for dinner."

Lucien laughed softly.

Then he left them.

Satisfaction spread through him in a way he could not describe.

Lucien drifted through his inner realm and observed the progress with a calm that felt earned.

The monster training program was going well.

Morveth had taken to teaching in a way Lucien had not expected. The old Testudon’s voice carried patience. He taught Continuance without drama, as if it was simply the proper way to exist.

Condoriano enjoyed the sky beasts, barking orders and occasionally launching a griffin into the air just to see if it would panic or adapt.

Saber’s land-beast trainees learned fast or learned painfully. No one stayed lazy under his Law.

Kira’s insect lines moved with terrifying precision. Her "students" learned cohesion the way a blade learned sharpness.

Aerolith was... also progressing. In her own way.

She sat with books. She learned runes. And she ate.

Meanwhile, the Lithrens continued widening their mana reservoirs.

Later, when Lucien bought Abyssal Core Shards from Lilith, he would push them to progress again.

But today, Lucien had something he wanted to do first. Something he had been itching to try ever since Creation had begun teaching him in the background.

Lucien sat down.

He inhaled once.

Then he activated Split Body.

A tiny Lucien appeared, no bigger than a pea.

Lucien smiled faintly.

Then they blinked away.

They appeared before the place where the Abyssal One lay as it always did.

Lucien approached then bowed slightly.

"Senior," Lucien said, "may I form a Symbiotic Fusion with you too?"

One massive eye opened.

It regarded him with a quiet amusement.

Then, its voice rolled.

"Do as you wish," the Abyssal One said. "Yet do not be greedy. Nihility and Creation are not lovers."

"It will not be a problem," he said confidently.

The Abyssal One’s eye narrowed slightly as if amused by arrogance it had seen before.

"Bold words," it murmured. "Then be careful that your boldness does not become an incision. There are wounds that do not bleed. They simply erase."

Lucien smiled anyway. "I will be precise."

The Abyssal One’s eye closed.

"Do as you please," it rumbled. "I will not move for your experiments. If you survive, you survive. If you do not, the abyss will not mourn."

Lucien accepted that as permission and warning both.

He guided his split body forward, letting its identity touch the Abyssal One’s presence in the smallest, most controlled point possible.

It extended its tiny hand. And began the fusion.

A thread connected.

The first sensation was absence.

The kind of nothing that did not wait to be filled.

Lucien’s split body trembled.

Then, he let the connection deepen by degrees.

Symbiotic Fusion began to form.

A shared boundary. A mutual agreement.

The Abyssal One did not resist. It watched with the same indifferent patience.

Lucien’s split body sank into the abyssal presence like a drop of ink dissolving into a sea, and yet it did not vanish.

Lucien felt the first true ripple of learning from his split body.

His eyes narrowed.

This was exactly what he wanted.

His split bodies could learn while he acted elsewhere.

And when they returned, their understanding would become his.

A dangerous shortcut.

But this one did not invoice the future.

It built it.

Lucien blinked away once more, already preparing to form additional symbiotic fusions with the others..

And the Abyssal One, for the first time in a long time, looked faintly entertained.

"Let us see," it murmured to itself, "whether the maker can learn to erase without becoming an eraser."