100% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? - Chapter 234

Chapter 234: Chapter 234 – Graveyard of Motion
The mortal woman walked ahead of them. Her steps were careful but steady. She had left her younger brother safely in the shelters Marie crafted, promising him she would return as soon as possible.

As they crossed deeper dunes, she began to speak softly.

At first, Lucien assumed she was simply responding to Eirene’s gentle inquiries.

But soon he realized… these were not casual answers.

These were words she had carried unspoken too long, finally spilling out because someone had finally listened.

“Months ago,” she began, “mysterious practitioners passed through our lands.”

Her voice was brittle but disciplined… like a person forcing herself not to break.

“We mortals respected them. Feared them. Sometimes even worshipped them. Not because we chose to… but because that’s simply how the world works. Strength demands reverence.”

No one in the group interrupted.

“They traveled in the same direction we walk now,” she continued, swallowing hard. “Toward the place forbidden to outsiders… the sacred altar our ancestors guarded for generations.”

Several steps faltered.

“Our elders always warned us never to disturb that site,” the woman said quietly. “They said it was watched by something ancient… something that slept lightly.”

She gave a hollow laugh.

“But the practitioners didn’t care. They forced the altar open, stole whatever lay inside, and left.”

A pause.

“And then,” the woman whispered, “the desert began to die.”

A heavy silence rolled through the procession like a dark tide.

“The winds vanished. The air thickened. Our wells dried. At first we believed we were being punished… but then the neighboring kingdom attacked.”

She clenched her fists until her knuckles went white.

“Their ruler declared that if they stirred war near the sacred site, a powerful sect would grant them support. They said a single battle could buy them protection from practitioners.”

Her shoulders trembled.

“So they fought. And when the battle reached its climax… the desert swallowed everyone.”

Her voice cracked open.

“And that… is how everything ended.”

The group walked on in a silence that felt carved from stone.

Every breath weighed heavier and every step felt like trespassing into a legend older than the desert itself.

Then—

Lythrae stopped. The Stillness practitioner’s eyes narrowed sharply like the edge of a blade tasting air.

“I see now,” she murmured. Her voice held no anger, only a terrifying clarity. “Someone discovered our most revered Eternal’s hidden abode long before anyone else.”

Stillness rippled around her like breath fogging on glass.

“Not only did they desecrate her altar… they ignited conflict atop her domain. Theft and war in the same breath. If anything could rouse Stillness’s ire…”

Her eyes sharpened.

“…it would be that.”

A subtle tension entered the air as if the desert itself strained to listen.

A few practitioners muttered among themselves:

“The mortals suffered while others played at power? That’s… sinisterly strategic.”

“So they caused the ruin’s awakening…? I’m not sure if I should thank them or curse them.”

“Whoever these people were… they would invite trouble sooner or later.”

Lucien and Marie exchanged a silent look.

And in that shared glance…

They remembered the furious expressions of the Nephralis and Varkhaal practitioners they had slain… and the artifacts and fragments hidden in their rings.

A quiet realization slid into place.

‘Those bastards were the first to sniff out the Eternal of Stillness’s traces.’

Marie’s jaw tightened.

“So it was them…” she muttered. “I knew their faces screamed trouble.”

Lucien exhaled through his nose in a controlled breath.

Of all the groups in the trials, the Nephralis and Varkhaal clans had been the most aggressive, the most frantic, and the most frustrated when they lost.

Now, they know the reason why.

But Lucien and Marie said nothing further.

Revealing it now would only point suspicion toward themselves.

Eirene, silent until then, closed her eyes before releasing a long, weary sigh.

“Sigh,” she murmured softly. “So they were the reason… for the premature awakening of the ruins.”

The sands hissed faintly as though whispering in warning.

The group continued walking.

But now… every step felt like entering a story no longer theirs to shape…

A story written by an Eternal. An Eternal who had been angered. And an Eternal who was now watching.

•••

Lucien drew closer to the mortal woman.

“Does it not trouble you,” he asked quietly, “to guide us to a place your people have guarded for generations?”

The woman did not stop walking but her shoulders rose and fell with a measured breath.

“Benefactor,” she said softly, “what we call sacred… no longer belongs to us.”

Her voice didn’t tremble. It simply carried truth.

“For generations, we protected that altar. We feared disturbing whatever slept beneath it. But the moment outsiders stole from it… our duty ended. Whatever was awakened is no longer our burden to bear.”

She looked ahead toward the oppressive horizon.

“If this… sleeping power has truly risen, then it is not mortals like us it will notice.” She glanced briefly at the practitioners walking behind them. “Its storm will fall upon people like you. And perhaps… for the first time, our suffering might mean something.”

Her words were blunt. They fell into the desert like offerings.

No one responded. There was nothing to say.

And so they continued walking.

The group followed in solemn silence.

But after barely a kilometer—

The air shifted.

It thickened. Not in temperature… but in presence.

As if something unseen watched every grain of sand they disturbed.

Lythrae of the Lunareth Sect was the first to halt. Her eyes narrowed.

“…The Law of Stillness has touched this place,” she murmured. “This weight in the air… it’s condensed silence. A sign its source is close.”

Her fellow Lunareth disciples exchanged sober glances. They were the foremost practitioners of Stillness in the West Continent. If anyone could identify its manifestations, it was them.

Eirene stepped beside them. Her fingers brushed the pendant at her neck.

“This density…” she whispered, “it’s like waves of stillness deposited over time.”

Her tone carried a familiarity.

Marie nudged Lucien subtly.

“Is it just me, or does Eirene sound like she has a PhD in Stillness? Clearly, she was practicing a different Law.”

Lucien whispered back, “Maybe, she wrote the thesis.”

…

They pressed on.

After several more kilometers… The world began to change.

Not suddenly… but gradually, like a dream hardening into reality.

The dunes no longer flowed in smooth waves.

The sands became stiff. Unnaturally stiff.

Then the Lunareth Sect’s young disciple gasped.

“Senior—look… the ground.”

They all looked down.

The sand beneath their boots was no longer sand.

It was stone-sand… crystallized grains fused together mid-motion, frozen as though time itself had been strangled.

A dune to their right had frozen mid-collapse, forming a petrified wave of stone-sand suspended in eternal descent.

Even the Celestial Proxy inhaled sharply.

“An entire section of the desert… petrified.”

Marie whispered, “Holy crap…”

Lythrae stepped forward, touching the crystallized sand gently.

The mortal woman’s eyes widened in shock.

“This… it wasn’t like this before,” she whispered. “All my life I thought the elders’ warnings were just stories, but now…”

Her breath hitched as she looked at the crystallized dunes.

“There really is a god sleeping beneath this desert…”

Her pupils trembled as she looked ahead.

Further ahead came the remnants of a war.

Spears had crystallized mid-shatter. Each splinter hovered in the air as if captured in a painting. Banners that once flapped in the wind had become rigid glass sheets. There are weapons scattered around.

Lunareth Sect disciples murmured prayers under their breath.

“These structures… they’re not destroyed,” one whispered. “They’re arrested.”

Eirene added softly, “Stillness doesn’t break things. It unmakes movement.”

Even the Celestial Proxy grew grave.

“This confirms it. This is… the ruin’s influence.”

And deeper still…

The crystallization intensified.

Rocks became glass-like. Fragments of weapons gleamed with a faint silver sheen with the law of Stillness lodged inside them.

The Lunareth Sect disciples grew solemn.

“These fragments…” Lythrae said, “they’re filled with immature Stillness Law. Not enough to harm, but enough to alter matter.”

The Celestial Proxy nodded.

“This confirms we are at the boundary of the true site. When artifacts act as natural repositories for Stillness, the source is very near.”

A vast expanse lay before them.

Nothing moved.

Not the air. Not the ground. Not even the specks of dust.

It was a graveyard of motion.

Everyone halted instinctively.

Even seasoned Ascendants found themselves holding their breath… as if the sound itself was forbidden here.

Marie whispered, “Okay… now I’m scared.”

Lucien answered, “…No comment.”

Eirene closed her eyes. Her pendant glowed faintly.

“The ruin is close,” she whispered. “But… it hasn’t chosen to reveal its entrance yet.”

The Celestial Proxy scanned the landscape then gave a firm nod.

“We will retreat to the settlement for now. The other groups must arrive before we decide anything. And the ruin may require multiple perspectives to decipher.”

The others murmured in complaint.

They were so close now. So many believed it was better to search for the entrance immediately.

But the Celestial Proxy spoke before impatience could take root.

“Do not let proximity deceive you,” he said calmly. “Rushing into an Eternal’s domain is the fastest path to becoming its first offering. The ruin may reveal more of itself with time… and we would be wise to observe rather than blunder.”

The authority in his tone cooled the rising restlessness.

And so, with one last look at the crystallized horizon, the group turned back toward the temporary settlement—