100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full?-Chapter 398 - Discovery

The world returned in a single blink.

The group stood again on the broken terrain where they fought the five Eternals.

Lucien steadied himself, then lifted his hand.

Origin Rewrite unraveled.

No one spoke for a moment.

Morveth stood still, and the space behind his eyes looked deeper than before.

Inside him, the shell-city had swollen.

Hundreds of thousands of lives now moved beneath his Continuance.

Lucien’s gaze lingered on Morveth.

"Uncle, you have a lively city inside you now," he said quietly.

Morveth’s human throat released a low rumble.

"A city is a vow."

The others turned to him as well.

Aerolith hovered near Lucien, expression bored and mildly offended at how long adults took to breathe after doing something important.

Morveth lowered himself to the ground.

He sat like a mountain choosing to become still.

The air around him thickened with Continuance, but it felt different than in battle.

It was quieter and more intimate.

A shelter-law rather than a war-law.

Lucien understood the mechanism before Morveth explained it, but the explanation mattered.

A normal creature housed people like cargo.

Morveth housed people like a pact.

Within his shell-space, distance was negotiable. Time was negotiable. Even "outside" was negotiable.

But "ownership" was not.

Morveth could not simply absorb hundreds of thousands of lives and call it power. Not without breaking the laws that made his shell-space stable.

So he did something more elegant.

He offered a covenant, a non-coercive agreement that allowed their presence to become structure.

It was similar to Symbiotic Fusion, but fundamentally different.

He did not fuse with them.

He let them become part of his shell’s definition.

In exchange, he granted them Continuance within his domain. Protection. Sustenance.

A promise that inside him, they would not be dragged backward into chains by someone else’s Law.

The people inside did not need to know the terms in scholarly language.

They only needed to accept one simple truth.

Inside this shell, they could live in peace.

And the one who held them would ensure their "home" remained protected.

A mother pulling her child closer and whispering, "We are safe."

A fighter said, "I will not run again."

A wounded man believing for the first time in days, "Tomorrow exists."

Each belief was a thread.

And Morveth gathered threads the way a void being gathered stars.

Lucien exhaled slowly.

Not all lives anchored equally.

Some were too broken to believe. Some were too numb to accept shelter without fearing it was another trap.

And some, despite being mortal, carried fierce cores that could become load-bearing pillars inside Morveth’s shell.

Morveth’s aura rose.

It climbed in slow, deliberate steps.

Pressure pressed outward and the world’s dust shifted under it.

Condoriano’s feathers bristled, then settled again as he judged the rise and found it acceptable.

Saber’s gaze narrowed, pleased in the way predators appreciated allies who grew sharper.

Kira watched with the expression of someone who respected procedure more than ceremony.

Aerolith drifted closer to Lucien and tugged lightly at his sleeve.

"Are we going again soon?" she asked.

Lucien glanced at her.

"Soon," he replied.

She nodded, satisfied, and floated back to hovering boredom.

Morveth’s aura climbed toward the threshold that tasted like extinction, the edge where the world began to treat you as a calamity rather than a person.

Then it slowed.

Then it stopped.

It held at the entrance.

Morveth opened his eyes.

"I could only do so much," he said. "The shell accepts quantity. The shell demands quality."

Lucien nodded.

"So you need stronger anchors," he said.

"Stronger convictions," Morveth corrected. "Or stronger beings. If one with greater weight lived inside me willingly, my shell would learn a heavier definition."

Lucien felt the team’s mood stabilize.

This was a win.

An extinction-grade ally at the entrance of his old terror was still an extinction-grade ally.

Even the entrance was enough to fend off packs of Eternals if needed.

It changed the math.

As Morveth consolidated his strength, the others lowered themselves to recover as well.

Lucien sat as well, and forced his thoughts into order.

His mind wanted to chew on Virel and Aniel again.

It wanted to dig into the impossible.

He did not let himself drown in it.

Not yet.

Then, like a hand tapping his skull from the inside, a voice brushed his mind.

[Little brother. Are you there?]

Lucien’s eyes widened a fraction.

Astraea.

He answered immediately.

[Sister. I am here. How are you?]

Her reply came fast.

[We escaped the Black Mass monsters. I am in the West Continent.]

Lucien’s gaze sharpened with sudden, bright intent.

West.

[Great. Please stay there. I will return soon.]

[Good.] Astraea paused, then her tone shifted into mild amusement. [I met a feisty young lass here. I think you mentioned her before. Marie, was it? She has an odd power.]

Lucien went still.

[If it is a weird loud girl, then yes. That is probably her.]

A long silence followed.

Lucien could almost feel Astraea staring at whoever was beside her.

Then she spoke again.

[She is quieter than your description. But when I said your name, she became... energetic. She wanted me to send a message.]

Lucien’s brow furrowed.

Marie, quieter, was suspicious.

[What message?] he asked.

Astraea hesitated.

[I do not understand the language. She insisted I repeat it exactly. I will attempt.]

A pause.

Then Astraea, with the solemnity of an ancient being reciting a sacred text, said in crisp English...

[Motherfucker, you are alive!]

Lucien froze.

Then, without permission, a smile formed.

That vulgar joy was Marie’s signature more than any scream.

A short breath escaped him, almost a laugh.

[Sister... yes. That is her.] Lucien’s smile lingered. [Tell her to wait. I have a way back. Tell her to build strength.]

Astraea’s response came with a slight delay, as if she was relaying it to the side.

[Done.] Another pause. [She says you will be surprised by a gift when you return. She and "Eirene" will be waiting.]

Lucien’s eyes softened.

Eirene.

He assumed it must be about the land she had promised.

He had not forgotten.

[Then I will finish my business here quickly.] His voice in the connection turned steady again. [Wait for my good news.]

Astraea’s presence shifted, already moving.

[Good.] Her voice carried faint amusement. [This continent is also in chaos. I will teach some toys a few lessons first.]

Lucien recognized the meaning behind the casual phrasing.

Astraea was about to solve problems violently.

As she should.

Her connection withdrew.

Lucien opened his eyes.

Morveth rose slowly.

He looked heavier now.

Stronger in the way fortresses became stronger.

Lucien stood as well.

The others followed, one by one, like a pack re-forming after a hunt.

"The next destination," Lucien said, voice calm and procedural, "is the small world split-open site."

Kira’s eyes narrowed.

"Do we fight?" she asked.

"No," Lucien replied. "I just need to look for a while."

Anvil-Horn’s horn gleamed faintly.

"Then we walk again," he rumbled. "And see what the world has nailed shut."

Aerolith bounced once in the air, excited that they were finally moving again.

Moments later, they set off.

And as they stepped toward the split-open site, Lucien felt the brand on his spirit pulse faintly, as if something far away had noticed the shape of his movement and begun to smile.

His eyes narrowed.

He had already split a part of his thoughts away, assigning it a single task. To dissolve the mark branded onto him.

As they walked, that fragment of thought worked continuously, eroding the brand layer by layer.

Yet even under the Law of Nihility, the progress was slow.

A mark left by an extinction-grade existence was never meant to fade easily.

He had already attempted another approach earlier. Structural Insight had unfolded within him, searching for weak points to edit or collapse.

But the structure had resisted him. Every time he tried to tug at it, the backlash had been immense.

It felt like attempting to punch a hole through an indestructible pillar.

In the end, there was only one viable method.

Gradual erosion.

He would reduce it to nothing, grain by grain, with Nihility.

Still, despite his composure, a quiet unease lingered in his chest.

He shook his head, forcing his thoughts back into order.

Then he reached into his Inventory and retrieved the Spatial Compass.

He activated it and fed it a single directive. Locate the Liberator who had emerged from the small world.

The needle stirred.

Lucien’s eyes brightened.

For a brief moment, it angled decisively—

Then it did not stop.

The needle continued to turn.

Slowly.

North. East. South. West.

A full rotation.

And then another.

Lucien’s expression shifted from anticipation to sharp confusion.

’What does this mean...’

The Spatial Compass was not malfunctioning. He could feel its logic running smoothly.

The needle’s motion was not erratic, unlike when he had used it back in outer space.

It was measured, as if communicating something more complex than direction.

It was pointing everywhere. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

At the same time.

Lucien’s gaze narrowed.

"Could it be..."

If it was indicating every direction, then the conclusion was not mechanical failure.

It was multiplicity.

The presence he was tracking was not fixed to a single coordinate.

It was diffused.

Distributed.

Lucien exhaled slowly as understanding settled in like cold rain.

"No wonder even the Eternals failed to locate her," he said quietly. "This human... has chosen a method that does not exist on a map."