100% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? - Chapter 222

Chapter 222: Chapter 222 – Phase 3
The inner disk was a shifting maze.

Platforms slid along invisible tracks. Segments rotated in and out of alignment. Some stairs led onto ceilings that became floors if you committed fully.

Illusionary doors opened into loops that spat you right back to where you started. One misjudged jump, one mistimed step, and the Trial reset you… or dropped you into the void, voiding your rank instantly.

And that was without the handicaps.

Lucien and Marie moved through it slowly.

Sometimes Marie’s directions faltered.

“There’s a gate ahead—wait, no, it shimmered. Illusion. Sorry—back one step, right turn—”

Each time she hesitated, Lucien didn’t rush her.

He simply stood steady.

“General heading?” he murmured.

“Forward-left,” she answered, tapping his shoulder. “But the path bends right to get there. It’s rude.”

“Then we follow the rude gate,” Lucien said calmly. “Not the polite ones.”

She snorted. “You and your loopholes.”

He reached into his Inventory and pulled out another tool.

A small compass-like device. Its needle spun wildly before settling, not toward north, but toward a floating rune only the tool could sense.

“Spatial Compass,” he muttered. “Honestly… I should’ve brought this out sooner.”

Marie leaned closer.

“Does it show the exit?”

“Roughly,” he said. “But not how many lying walls stand between us.”

“Lucky for you,” she said, raising the telescope again, “I can bully the walls.”

Together, they advanced.

When a swinging platform threatened to knock them off, Marie tugged his shoulder… and Lucien ducked mid-stride.

When a floor panel shimmered, she hissed, “Jump! Now!” and he obeyed without sight or hesitation.

At one point, a corridor folded back on itself three times. They walked it… and got spat out to the same place.

Marie cursed softly.

“I hate this hallway.”

Lucien tilted his head.

“Pattern?”

She gritted her teeth.

“Seems like… if we take the wrong turns, it spits us back. But the right one changes every time.”

He thought a moment.

“Then we don’t walk in the corridor.”

He bent his knees.

Marie’s eyes widened.

“Oh oh—”

He kicked off.

Skywalk.

He stepped onto the air, timing his movements with the shifting gravity of the disk.

He bounded diagonally, carrying them through open space.

Platforms slid beneath them, but he never landed on any. He just used their edges for momentum, trusting Marie’s tugging and breathless corrections.

“Higher—trap rune below—”

“Left—illusory wall, don’t touch—”

“Straight ahead—solid platform in three, two—now!”

His blindness turned every leap into a gamble. Her eyes and the tools turned them into precision.

From the crowd’s view, projected through the windows, the wolf-beastman leaping blind while carrying his partner looked absolutely insane.

In the best way.

The audience erupted.

“HE’S JUMPING BLIND?!”

“SHE’S GIVING DIRECTIONS FROM A PRINCESS CARRY?!”

“WHO FIGHTS LIKE THIS?!”

“VERDANT VEIL’S PAIR IS UNHINGED—AND I LOVE IT!”

“I WANT THEM IN MY SECT NOW!”

•••

Around them, other pairs battled their own chaos.

Lythrae and her Moonlit Maiden floated serenely on their cushion through shifting halls. Lythrae covered her ears as her over-tuned senses picked up the faintest hum of active gates… while the Maiden, deaf to noise, pointed out the safest physical routes.

The Obsidian scholars used their partial map and near-sight like a two-person processor, calling vectors, angles, and probabilities as they leapt between rotating platforms.

The Silent Monastery monks relied on touch… fingers to shoulders, palms on backs… to communicate balance and direction without depending on their scrambled senses.

The Dawnblade duo crossed spinning bridges with synchronized blade motions that triggered mechanisms in perfect sequence.

The Scarlet siblings tried to argue, raised their voices, and the chain shortened so violently they nearly yeeted each other off the platform.

“CALM,” the sister hissed.

“FINE,” the brother whispered back with twitching brows.

Lilith and her prodigy pressed hands together on matching runes to activate joint platforms. Her artifacts only responded when he spoke the command words.

As for the shaved-head traitor…

He was advancing disturbingly fast.

Somehow, his unconscious partner reflexively flinched or tensed whenever illusions were present, acting as a one-man alarm system.

The traitor used him like a compass for danger.

It was messy, ugly… but shockingly effective.

This trial was exactly the kind that could break or reveal a partnership.

•••

Through it all—

The two black-robed women walked.

They stepped through fake walls like mist. Glided across platforms without triggering traps. The Astral Chain didn’t hum… not even once.

Their movements were so perfectly matched it looked like telepathy.

The crowd shivered.

“They’re just… breezing through again.”

“They’re skipping the trial.”

“Are they even alive?”

Lucien, sensing the faint brush of their presence through his dulled instincts, frowned inwardly.

‘If the handicaps couldn’t affect them… then what exactly were they?’

•••

The black-robed women reached the Phase Three gateway first.

A golden arch unfolded before them, accepting their presence.

They stepped through without a sound.

1st Pair to Enter Phase Three:

The two Black-Robed Women

The words painted themselves in gold across every viewing window.

The crowd roared with mixed awe and dread.

“Of course they’re first!”

“I’m scared of them.”

“I hope I don’t have nightmares tonight.”

Meanwhile…

Lucien and Marie pressed on.

Their path brought them to a field of moving hexagonal tiles, each one lighting faintly underfoot.

“If we step on the wrong one, I think we fall,” Marie murmured.

“You think?”

“I really don’t want to test it.”

He chuckled.

“Then pick right on the first try.”

She squinted through the telescope.

Some tiles shimmered faintly. Illusions.

Some had thin edge runes. Traps.

A few looked completely plain but the air bent oddly above them.

“There,” she tugged. “Step on the ones the light avoids. The tiles that look boring.”

Lucien obeyed.

One tile.

Then another.

A phantom gate appeared to their right.

The Spatial Compass needle jerked toward it then jittered wildly, unsure.

“Luc, we found the exit! But… why is the compass acting weird?”

“Because that path might be fake,” Lucien said immediately.

“How do you know?”

“It’s trying too hard.”

Marie grinned.

“Look at you, judging doors by personality.”

Truthfully, it was because Lucien trusted his tools far too much.

They veered left.

Another sequence. Another puzzle. Another leap.

And then—

One final landing on a narrow platform suspended in the void.

A golden arch opened before them.

The Phase Three gateway.

Marie’s fingers tightened around his shoulder.

“We made it. This one’s real… I can feel it.”

Lucien nodded once.

“Then let’s not keep it waiting.”

Together, still bound by the Astral Chain, the blind wolf and the crippled mage stepped into the light.

Outside, viewing windows shook from the thunder of the crowd’s roar.

A new line blazed across the sky.

2nd Pair to Enter Phase Three:

Verdant Veil

The arena went wild.

“SECOND AGAIN?!”

“HOW DID THEY DO THAT WITH THOSE HANDICAPS?!”

“VERDANT VEIL’S WOLF PAIR IS CRAZYYYY!!”

Phase Two had tested trust.

Lucien and Marie had answered with something very simple.

I move for you.

You see for me.

We don’t let go.

And the Trial acknowledged it.

•••

Light swallowed Lucien and Marie once again and the world reassembled around them like falling shards of glass.

FWOOOOOM—!

Marie gasped as strength flooded back into her legs.

Lucien blinked as sight and instinct roared to life like awakening dragons.

Their handicaps shattered.

Marie stretched her legs and nearly cried in joy.

“I CAN FEEL MY LEGS AGAIN—!! Luc, you can put this princess down now.”

Lucien snorted.

“There’s no loud princess.”

“RUDE.”

But their banter died instantly when the world around them came into focus.

…

They stood on a massive circular arena suspended in the void.

Above them rose the Ascension Spire. It’s a colossal tower of floating stone rings, turning runes, and shifting stairways that defied gravity.

At the very top… glowed the Ascension Gate, their final destination.

Marie stared up.

“…How do we even reach that?”

Lucien can’t answer.

Because the entire spire shifted. The paths flickered, platforms realigned, bridges spun like sawblades, and staircases rotated sideways then righted themselves.

And on the air… carved by golden runes, a single rule manifested:

[ ASCENSION GATE REQUIRES A KEY ]

That was it.

No fuss. No long explanation. Just that.

Marie whispered…

“…So somewhere in this nightmare… we need to find a key.”

Lucien nodded.

“And we better be fast… We don’t know how many keys exist.”

Just then…

THUD.

The shaved-head traitor appeared, dragging his partner by the collar.

The partner immediately whacked him.

“YOU KNOCKED ME OUT—AGAIN—?!”

“We got third place because of it!”

“THAT DOESN’T JUSTIFY ASSAULT!”

“Winning justifies everything—!”

The crowd HOWLED with laughter.

Marie snorted.

“They’re unbelievable.”

Lucien muttered,

“And dangerous, unfortunately.”

“Well, that skinhead speaks trouble. Better stay away from him.”

One by one, the other pairs blurred into existence.

A faint chime swept across the spire.

The chains around every pair’s ankles tightened.

Marie clicked her tongue.

“So the Concordium wants us glued together till the end.”

Lucien adjusted his stance.

“Means strategy matters more than speed.”

And soon… the search for the keys has started.