100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 653 - Progress

The rare attribute seeds would not ripen in a day.

So Lucien left the farming small world in Aerolith and Green’s hands.

Aerolith would maintain the continuity of the seeds.

Green would maintain the sanity of the farmers.

Both tasks were equally important.

Lucien gave only one instruction before leaving.

Report once the first stable fruit ripened.

Only then would Lucien return to judge whether the Rare Attribute Seed Program had truly succeeded.

After that, he left the farming domain.

His next destination was the monster small world.

•••

The moment Lucien entered, he noticed the silence.

The entire world was strangely quiet.

That was more unsettling than roaring would have been.

Monster territories were rarely quiet unless something stronger had entered, something terrible had passed, or every monster present had learned to control its instincts.

This time, it was the third.

Mostly.

A familiar pressure filled the air.

The scent of blood, storm, earth, scales, fur, feathers, and old beast aura spread across the world, but none of it was chaotic.

Lucien stood above a ridge and looked down.

The blood pools had expanded.

What had once been a few controlled tempering zones had become a vast network of basins, channels, stone rings, and beast formations.

The monsters soaked within them.

Scaled creatures lay half-submerged with trembling claws.

Winged monsters folded their wings tight while golden threads entered their bones.

Gargoyles stood motionless inside stone-lined basins as their bodies absorbed pressure through cracks and mineral veins.

Slimes floated in separate pools, their bodies glowing like strange stars beneath the surface.

All of them were changing.

Lucien watched quietly.

The world itself now felt like a training ground where blood had become weather.

Lucien moved toward the largest pressure source.

Astraea was there.

•••

She was in her Storm Roc form when he arrived.

The moment Lucien appeared, Astraea opened her eyes.

The pressure of an ancient beast stirred.

Then she transformed.

Her Storm Roc form compressed into her human form, and she stepped out of the pool with a brightness in her eyes that made Lucien immediately suspicious.

She was far too happy.

That usually meant something expensive had worked.

Lucien smiled.

"How is it, Sister?"

Astraea beamed.

"Outstanding."

Only one word.

For Astraea, that was already praise.

For this result, even that word seemed too small.

She looked across the blood pools, then back at Lucien.

"The blood works better than expected."

Lucien followed her gaze.

He could already feel it.

The aura of the monster small world had changed.

The ancient beasts were no longer merely preserving old strength. They were moving again.

For many of them, progress had slowed for millennia.

It’s not because they lacked talent.

But because ancient beasts were difficult to advance.

For a human, a bottleneck might be a wall.

For an ancient beast, it was a mountain that had decided to sit on their bloodline.

Lucien’s golden blood did not remove the mountain completely.

But it taught the mountain how to become a road.

Living Creation flowed through the diluted blood pools, not as simple nourishment, but as permission.

Grow.

Adapt.

Remember.

Continue.

Become more of what you already are.

That was why it worked.

Astraea explained the results simply.

The ancient beasts’ Law comprehension had surged.

Bottlenecks that had resisted them for millennia had loosened.

Old instincts that once acted as limits had become guides.

Bloodline memories became clearer.

Their bodies accepted Law pressure more smoothly.

Their beasts’ cores were no longer merely storing power, instinct, and soul. They were learning how to align with the Law they carried.

Lucien nodded slowly.

He had guessed some of it.

But hearing it confirmed made the result heavier.

The Golden Blood Tempering was not just raising levels.

It was correcting evolutionary stagnation.

That was far more valuable.

•••

Lucien studied Astraea’s aura.

She had grown sharper.

Her storm was no longer a storm only because it was violent.

It had layers.

The shape of her Law had become clearer.

Lucien narrowed his eyes slightly.

The Eternal Realm stretched from eighty-one percent to ninety-nine percent Law comprehension.

That range sounded small to people who did not understand it.

It was not.

Each step after eighty percent became more difficult than the last.

The difference between eighty-five and ninety percent was not a few points.

It was a gap large enough to bury geniuses.

The difference above ninety percent was worse.

Lucien had already formed his own estimate.

Those who reached ninety-one percent and above could begin contending with Extinction-Grade entities.

Still, even Lucien understood that reaching such depth would not have been simple for him without the Tree of Creation. The Tree passively fed him comprehension.

Even then, his path was different now.

His Law of Creation had branched into Living Creation.

His comprehension was no longer only a climb toward a fixed peak.

It was becoming an endless path through existence itself.

That was an advantage.

It was also a burden.

For others, the climb remained brutal.

Astraea had climbed anyway.

Based on her aura, Lucien guessed that she had reached around eighty-seven or eighty-eight percent comprehension.

Not yet Extinction-Grade.

But close enough that the distance had become visible.

That mattered.

A monster that could see the next mountain was far more dangerous than one still trapped at the foot of the previous one.

The other ancient beasts were catching up as well.

The Monster Legion beneath them had also advanced.

Celestial monsters soaking in the lighter golden pools had begun loosening their bottlenecks. Some had already gained clearer instincts toward their next stage. Others had stabilized their foundations after previous rapid growth.

The blood was feeding them.

Not literally.

It was not blood as food.

It was Living Creation carried through blood.

The right nutrient for evolution.

The right pressure for transformation.

The right reminder that a body did not have to remain trapped in its previous answer.

That was why the world felt so quiet.

The monsters were not resting.

They were listening to their own future.

•••

Then Lucien noticed a difference among them.

The monsters born from Monster Cards responded differently.

They are not better in a moral sense. But structurally different.

Their bottlenecks were lighter.

Their adaptation was faster.

Their loyalty remained absolute, but that was not the point right now.

Their bodies accepted growth with an ease that ordinary monsters did not possess.

It was as if the Monster Card origin had simplified something in their existence.

A monster born from a card carried an already condensed pattern of monsterhood. Their body, instinct, role, loyalty, growth path, and potential seems to have been compressed into a form, then unfolded into life.

That might be why they advanced so cleanly.

They were not free of limits, but their limits behaved more like gates than walls.

Lucien watched a few of them absorb the golden blood pressure with almost frightening smoothness.

Skittles, Oreo, Nyxis.

The gargoyles.

The others who had begun from cards.

Lucien’s thoughts paused.

Monster Cards.

He suddenly wondered, not for the first time, what principle had allowed those cards to exist at all.

A monster was not a weapon.

Not truly.

A loyal beast was not a tool.

Yet the drops had once given him monsters as cards, and those cards had become living beings with absolute loyalty, growth, personality, and paths.

What had the system actually condensed?

Lucien stared for a moment longer.

Then he shook his head.

That question was too deep to solve while standing beside blood pools full of evolving monsters and one suspiciously happy ancient beast.

Monster Card origin or not, it did not change how he treated them.

His pets were his pets.

His companions were his companions.

Those born from cards, those tamed later, those allied by oath, and those who chose Lootwell through their own will all mattered.

The method of arrival did not decide the value of the bond.

Astraea watched him carefully.

Then suddenly, her expression changed.

Her eyes became rounder, softer, and tragically hopeful.

Lucien immediately felt danger.

"Sister," he said slowly.

Astraea said nothing.

She only looked at him.

Then she looked at the blood pools.

Then back at him.

Lucien’s eyelid twitched.

"You already expanded the pools."

Astraea nodded with pride.

"You already have enough for the current cycle."

Astraea’s expression became even more pitiful.

Lucien stared at her.

The ancient Storm Roc, a terrifying beast whose aura could frighten armies, was looking at him like a child requesting one more sweet after stealing three jars.

Lucien knew exactly what she wanted.

He also knew he was going to give it.

That was the irritating part.

With a sigh heavy enough to deserve documentation, Lucien took out another sealed vase of golden blood.

Enough to continue the next phase.

Astraea’s expression brightened instantly.

The transformation from pitiful ancient beast to victorious thief was seamless.

Lucien handed it over.

"Controlled dilution. No reckless feeding. No experiments without reporting."

Astraea accepted the vase with both hands.

"Of course."

Lucien narrowed his eyes.

She smiled beautifully.

He decided to leave before he was emotionally robbed again.

•••

The golden blood vessel was carried away under heavy seal.

Astraea immediately began reorganizing the next tempering cycle with the satisfaction of someone who had won a negotiation by weaponizing affection.

Lucien looked once more across the monster small world before leaving.

The sight was no longer simply impressive.

It was strategic.

One day, this world would not only contain monsters.

It would contain a legion capable of standing before disasters that once required heroes.

Lucien intended to make that day arrive before the next ending tried to knock.

Then he left.

His next destination was the academy.

Deadman was there.

And Lucien needed to understand the Reincarnation Disc more deeply.