100% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? - Chapter 205

Chapter 205: Chapter 205 – 3 Days
Lucien woke to crisp clarity.

For a breath, he lay still, surprised that he’d slept at all. Sleep was an old custom he had long outgrown after shedding his mortal husk yet his body had seized it naturally.

The message was plain. Even transcendence had thresholds. Overdraw the spirit… and the vessel will collect its debt.

He sat up, rolled his shoulders once and let the silence settle.

“How long was I asleep?” he murmured.

He sighed, thinking about what had happened earlier and a satisfied grin tugged at his lips. Only when his thoughts were properly ordered did he close his eyes and will the shift.

“Time to see our gains.”

He vanished from the room. In his place, a golden sphere rose and hovered where he had been.

•••

He stepped into his inner world and the horizon of his domain greeted him like a held breath released.

Lucien blinked, now standing on a ridge overlooking his growing ecosystem. He lifted a hand and space itself parted.

“Let’s begin.”

He summoned the first harvest.

One after another, mountains of crystallized essence materialized with thunder-soft grace.

Spirit Mountains.

Thirty-three in total. Their facets pulsed like the heartbeats of sleeping giants. A grin tugged at his lips.

“Thirty-three,” he whispered. “Perfect.”

Lucien admired the condensed energy leaking out of them, already considering the best arrangement.

If clustered properly… they could catalyze one another, refining the ambient essence to the purity threshold where High-Grade Spirit Crystals would naturally form. He arranged them in a deliberate lattice near his first mountain…. Into triangular fields nested into hexagonal rings. Each node was positioned along harmonized resonance angles with his domain’s ley flow.

“Good,” he said, satisfied. “When I have my own land in the Big World, I’ll transplant a ring of these there. Or find more. With Marie’s Law of Earth mapping deep fault-veins, we can prospect entire ranges.”

Spirit Mountains were not just wealth. They were resources capable of lifting an entire nation.

He stood there for a moment with that thought then turned toward the next promise.

“Let’s see what fortune thinks of thieves.”

He drew something from his Inventory.

Two vast structures unfolded into being. They were pagodas of lacquered ebon and ember-red. Their eaves were etched in formation script and their doors were barred with seamless alloy.

He hadn’t been certain if he’d traced the real treasuries of the sects, but he had trusted the Spatial Compass when it pointed there.

And the pulse inside both pagodas confirmed he’d been right.

Lucien felt the layered protections woven into the seals. They were intricate, complex arrays filled with restrictions and self-locks.

But this was his domain. And within it, nothing could hide from his eyes.

The seals unraveled under Lucien’s will as he discerned the pattern. To access them, he would have to invoke the corresponding Laws.

He had already learned the Laws of Fire and Darkness, so it was simple.

Lucien closed his eyes and breathed. His Laws manifested, coiling through the air like serpents of gold and shadow, and shot toward the pagodas’ seals.

At once, the seals creaked and the doors sighed open.

Light poured out.

Inside the Red Pagoda…

The first floor gleamed with galleries of Spirit Crystals, from low-grade shards to mountain-cut High-Grades stacked like glacier walls. Gems and jewels embedded with faint fragments of Law glimmered in arrays of soft light.

The second floor held racks of artifacts and armaments. There were also lacquered chests banded with rune-iron. Each hummed behind stasis seals.

The third floor, however, made Lucien pause. The items were fewer but far more formidable. They were… materials from space.

Lucien’s pulse quickened. He turned to the other structure with excitement.

Inside the Black Pagoda…

It held only a single massive floor but it was vast. Near the entrance, there are gauntlets threaded with runes, shadow-veils that warped light, a dozen weapon cores sleeping in silk-steel sheathes and stacks of runic plates categorized by family: defense, mobility, restoration. Every artifact was arranged with meticulous precision.

Large chests of Spirit Crystals glittered nearby. And beyond them, again, materials and objects from space.

Lucien activated Inspect. The readings made his breath hitch. Everything was valuable. With this alone, he could build a sect.

Voidsteel Ingots – black bars that rang like stars when tapped, reflecting everything except light.

Sunfire Lattices – palm-sized frameworks that could bottle the heat of a volcano.

Nightglass Phials – stasis vials that suspended a liquid’s state indefinitely. Perfect for volatile reagents.

Moonstone Matrices – pale, porous plates that bled cool light. Ideal for focus arrays and long-distance comms.

Nebrite Cores – thumb-sized nodes pulsing with stable micro-voids. Precious material for propulsion and storage tech.

Celestium Thread – metallic filaments that carried both current and mana. Impossible to smelt locally.

Aether Bloom Seeds – sealed pods from a dead comet. Planting them altered ambient recovery rates.

Astral Sextant – a crystalline arc that locked onto ley constellations beyond the sky.

Silent Ward Bells – once rung, they made an area deaf to scrying for an hour.

Shadow-Slip Mantles – allowed short hops through anchored darkness. (The same artifact that let Varkhaals walk under sunlight without harm.)

And many, many more. Shelves upon shelves.

Lucien observed the contents, mapping and weighing every category. When he was done, he exhaled a long, pleased breath.

“Too much to hand over loose.”

He smiled.

Materials dragged across the firmament, tempered in orbit or quarried from the space were in high demand. They resisted the Big World’s Laws. They have little to no corrosion under elemental bleed, greater tolerance to compression, and cleaner throughput for power channels.

He used Perfect Calculation to divide the haul evenly. Marie deserved her share.

But he lacked storage rings large enough for it.

He opened his Craft Feature.

Scrolling through the interface, he found the perfect design. Rings with sealed arrays and inner spaces a hundredfold larger than standard. They were also blood-bound to their owner and laced with lock-runes keyed to their aura. There are also enchantments like anti-scry, anti-theft, quick-sort pockets and a Recall Mark that summoned the ring back if stolen.

Lucien selected Craft and began feeding materials manually. With mountains of resources now at hand, he could have crafted a thousand of these… but two would do for now.

When he finished, he placed Marie’s share inside.

“Marie will like the Spirit Crystals most,” he said with a faint chuckle. She loved currency but he balanced her set properly. Of course, heavier on Spirit Crystals.

He made two full hoard-sets. The remainder, he shelved neatly for later.

When the last seal clicked shut, he dissolved the pagodas back into his Inventory. The inner world fell silent again.

“Time to deliver.”

He reappeared in his room.

•••

Lucien crossed the hall and knocked on Marie’s door.

Silence.

He tried again. But nothing.

Tilting his head, he descended to the lobby.

Lanternlight pooled like warm honey over polished wood. The innkeeper stood at the counter, speaking animatedly with Marie.

Lucien paused, faintly amused. The innkeeper who was usually reserved was smiling freely with Marie. Even Eirene failed to make the innkeeper talk so much.

‘As expected of an extrovert,’ Lucien thought.

The moment Marie felt his presence, she spun and beamed.

“Luc! Finally! You locked yourself in for three days. You missed the city going crazy.”

Lucien blinked. “I’ve slept for… three days?”

Marie smirked. “Such a sleeper, aren’t we?”

He lifted a brow. “So… what happened these past days?”

Marie leaned against the counter, delighted to brief him. “Short version? A thousand people trekked into Aurion three days ago asking for shelter. Word spread like wildfire. They turned out to be slaves… freed slaves… from those two vile sects.”

The innkeeper nodded gently. “They came in cloaked, organized, guided straight to registration. Their statements were consistent.”

Marie continued with bright eyes. “Nephralis and Varkhaal denied everything, of course. Claimed someone was targeting them. They even claimed a robbery. But no one believed them… because their sects only accept their own kind. ‘How could outsiders even get in?’ the crowd said.”

Lucien’s expression remained unreadable.

“Then,” Marie went on, savoring it, “the Varkhaals blurted that the attackers used Divine Energy. The moment that rumor hit the plaza, everyone snapped—’Are you accusing the Celestials now?’—that kind of snapping.”

The innkeeper’s voice cooled slightly. “Unwise of them. That only put them under the Celestial Race’s scrutiny.”

“Exactly,” Marie said. “Then the Eternals returned from space and confirmed it—something really did strike both sects on the same day. And they were furious. They called it an organized crime, saying it was clearly planned.”

She smirked proudly.

“But to the people, that made things worse. If it was an organized group, why had no one ever heard of them? And besides, how could anyone breach those infamous formation seals?

One: Who would dare?

Two: Their infamous formations make it impossible for outsiders, who don’t have their bloodline, to enter even with keys… unless escorted by an elder.

Three: If they’re blaming the Celestials, that’s absurd. The Celestial Race is busy in space facing against the Black Mass monsters. They don’t have time to play thieves.”

The innkeeper folded her hands. “Now the sects talk of appealing to the Celestials. But doing so would expose their crimes. Their slavery.”

Marie’s grin turned razor-sharp. “Which would be… tragic.”

She coughed delicately, then leaned closer to Lucien, whispering, “I didn’t leave Luminous Rest the whole time. Sat right there, pestering Miss Innkeeper for updates every few hours. Eirene fed her, she fed me.” She winked. “Tactical patience.”

Lucien dipped his head in thanks to the innkeeper, then turned to Marie. “Come. I have something for you.”

•••

They slipped inside and latched the door. For a beat, they just looked at each other… then both burst into quiet laughter, the kind that comes only after danger has passed.

“What did you do? Nothing was traced back to us,” Marie said gleefully. “The ex-slaves are free, the sects are muzzled, the Eternals are angry but stuck. Chef’s kiss. Well… I didn’t expect the slaves to be so loyal. They didn’t reveal anything about their saviours.”

“Don’t get cocky,” Lucien warned though his eyes were bright.

She nudged his shoulder.

“Let me have this. So… loot?”

He raised his hand. Two Storage Rings floated between them.

“These are sealed rings,” he explained. “Large inner spaces, blood-bound. Anti-scry wards, anti-theft recall, pocket sorting. Prick your finger, they’re yours.”

Marie pricked her finger without hesitation. The ring flared and drank the drop. She peeked inside… then reeled.

“I’m rich,” she breathed. “I’M RICH!”

She spun in place, dancing before catching herself and whispering, “Sorry. Sorry. But also… not sorry.”

“There’s more than crystals,” he said, amused.

She peered deeper, eyes widening again. “You added level-up toys too.” Then softer, sincere: “Thanks, Luc.”

He shrugged. “You earned them.”

They paced the room, recounting the heist like partners in crime swapping footnotes.

“The mines,” Marie murmured. “The faces.”

“They’re headed to safety,” he said quietly. “That was the point.”

They spoke until the lamps guttered low. When the noise of the city finally faded, Lucien glanced at her and smiled faintly.

He was glad she hadn’t asked about his inner realm. He wouldn’t have known how to answer and he appreciated the respect in her silence.

“So… which sect is next?” Marie asked as her eyes glinted at the pile of Spirit Crystals.

Lucien rolled his eyes. “Go to sleep, goblin.”

“Rude!”