100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 664 - Abyssal Tempering Method

Lucien took a portion of the Abyssal Pool.

Then, he brought it into his Divine Energy Core.

The special force will refine their Celestial Bodies inside.

If anything went wrong, he would rather it happen inside a realm where his authority was strongest.

Out in the Big World, failure meant casualties.

Inside his inner realm, failure might still mean casualties, but at least Lucien could grab reality by the throat before it finished making a mess.

...

The Abyssal Pool appeared above a sealed region in Lucien’s inner world.

He created a separate field far from the Cycle Merit Web.

A black plain formed beneath him. The ground was layered with formation arrays so densely that the field looked like a dark mirror etched with constellations.

Lucien did not let the Abyssal Pool descend directly.

A thin stream of Abyssal Pool essence flowed down, enough for the first experiment.

Blackness settled inside a test basin, sinking downward with a pressure that made the surrounding arrays hum in warning.

Lucien watched calmly.

Then he opened his palm.

A drop of golden blood flowed out.

His blood fell into the test basin, and the diluted abyssal essence reacted instantly.

The black depth surged upward like a verdict rejecting contradiction.

Creation met Nihility.

For one breath, the entire basin screamed without sound.

Lucien’s eyes sharpened.

Living Creation pressed down.

His golden blood dissolved into the abyssal liquid, not by being erased, but by teaching the diluted essence that existence could enter it without immediately becoming an insult.

Slowly, the violence settled.

The blackness remained black. But now, buried within it, faint golden veins moved like roots beneath night.

Lucien nodded.

That was the first step.

Abyssal refinement had always been dangerous because the Abyss did not temper gently. It erased what could not endure and left behind what refused to disappear.

That worked for empty vessels.

It was unacceptable for living people.

For mass refinements, the pool needed stages.

This would be like a gradual baptism.

...

Lucien created five basins around the test field.

Each will hold a different dilution. Each contained a different ratio of Abyssal Pool essence, stabilizing formations, golden blood, and law protection.

The first basin was almost mist.

The second could touch skin.

The third could enter bone.

The fourth could circulate through blood.

The fifth approached the real thing.

Beyond them, at the center of the formation field, the true Abyssal Pool remained sealed.

Undiluted.

That one was not part of training yet.

That was the final trial.

Only those who survived the five stages without losing identity would be allowed near it.

Lucien stared at the sealed pool for a long moment.

Then he reinforced its seal until even his own curiosity felt insulted.

•••

The stages settled into structure.

The first stage was Abyssal Mist Breathing.

The candidate would not touch the pool directly.

They would breathe mist refined from the lightest dilution, allowing the body, spirit, and soul to learn the taste of Nihility without being devoured by it.

The goal was not resistance yet. It was recognition.

The second stage was Nihility Skin Tempering.

The outer body would be exposed to a stronger dilution. Flesh, skin, and surface vessels would learn how to remain present while touched by a force that preferred absence.

The third stage was Null-Marrow Washing.

That stage was dangerous.

The Abyssal force would enter bone and marrow, scraping away weakness, unstable energy residue, hidden corruption, and shallow vitality that could not survive deeper transformation.

The fourth stage was Void-Blood Circulation.

The diluted abyssal essence would move through the body’s circulation under strict control. Blood, mana vessels, and energy pathways would adapt to the presence of nothingness without collapsing into it.

The fifth stage was Nihility Body Condensation.

Only then would the body begin taking on the true structure Lucien wanted.

A living Celestial Body capable of standing before erasure and remaining alive.

After the fifth stage, if the body, soul, and identity remained stable, the candidate could attempt the final baptism in the undiluted Abyssal Pool.

...

Lucien tested each basin again. Then again. Then again.

The Abyss did not forgive arrogance, so Lucien gave it no chance to be impressed.

He adjusted the dilution levels.

He strengthened the array rings.

He added emergency extraction lines.

Then, he connected each basin to a Life and Death separation field, so "dying" and "being erased" would not be treated as the same process.

His Laws guided everything.

Stillness slowed Nihility corrosion.

Continuance preserved identity when the Abyss tried to turn a person into an unfinished sentence.

Living Creation kept the body alive without feeding the Abyss too much energy at once.

Life and Death separated injury from nonexistence, allowing Lucien to heal damage without accidentally healing the Abyss itself.

The formations became a layered defense around a training method that should not have existed.

Lucien looked at the five basins.

This method was slower than refining using the empty vessels.

But still, this method could produce living fighters with Nihility Bodies.

Not one. Not two. But a whole force.

For the current situation, mass refinement mattered more than speed.

•••

The pools were not enough.

The Abyss erased energy.

That was the central problem.

Lucien needed a way to temporarily suppress their active mana, spiritual power, and volatile internal energy without harming their foundations.

A drug.

Something that would make the body less "loud" to the Abyss during the early stages.

That meant Seraphine.

Naturally.

Lucien left the inner realm and found her in her research chamber, surrounded by notes.

She glanced up before he spoke.

Her eyes moved over him once, then narrowed slightly.

"You found something dangerous again."

Lucien smiled.

"I found something useful."

"That is what dangerous things call themselves when they want funding."

He had no good answer to that.

So he gave her the problem.

Seraphine listened.

Her expression changed from suspicion to interest, then from interest to the dangerous brightness of a doctor who had just been handed a disease arrogant enough to deserve punishment.

Abyssal refinement required a temporary suppression drug.

It had to lower active energy expression without damaging the realm.

It had to calm mana, spiritual power, divine energy residue, and law fluctuations.

It had to allow the body to remain alive and responsive while making it less attractive to erasure.

Seraphine accepted the challenge.

•••

For three days, they worked.

Some of that work happened over tables covered in formulas, herbs, abyssal residue samples, diluted golden blood, restorative reagents, and notes written too quickly for anyone else to read.

Some of it happened behind closed doors, where exhaustion, inspiration, affection, and Seraphine’s alarming ability to make Lucien forget academic priorities became part of the research process in ways that would not be included in any official report.

By the end of the third day, the drug existed.

Quiet Vein Draught.

It did not seal the realm. It softened the expression of power.

Mana sank into stillness.

Spiritual energy folded inward.

Divine energy quieted.

Law fluctuations dimmed without disappearing.

The user would feel weaker for a time, but their foundation would remain intact. More importantly, the Abyssal Pool would not immediately treat them like a bonfire thrown into dry darkness.

Seraphine tested the recovery curve personally through controlled samples and nearly offended three different branches of medicine by succeeding too neatly.

•••

When everything was ready, Lucien summoned the special force.

One moment, they were in their assigned preparation halls.

The next, space folded around them and brought them into the sealed abyssal training field inside his Divine Energy Core.

Hundreds of warriors stood beneath the dark sky of the isolated plain.

They stood before five abyssal basins, one sealed final pool, and a formation field that looked like a battlefield built by someone who disliked accidents.

Their expressions changed.

Awareness.

They could feel the Abyssal Pool. Even diluted, it carried a pressure that made instincts scream.

Lucien did not give them a grand speech.

They did not need one.

He explained the truth.

The process would hurt.

The process would be dangerous.

No one would be forced.

Anyone could withdraw before beginning and suffer no punishment, no shame, no loss of standing.

Once a stage began, they had to follow instructions exactly.

Panic would be contained. Recklessness would be punished by extraction. Concealing instability would endanger everyone.

The goal was not to become monsters.

The goal was to remain alive where erasure said they should not.

That was enough.

No one withdrew.

Lucien had expected that.

He still gave them time.

Consent given too quickly in front of comrades could become another kind of pressure.

So he made them wait.

He ordered them to read the stage records, review the risks, and think.

Only after that did he ask again.

Still, no one withdrew.

This time, Lucien accepted it.

...

The first group stepped forward.

Quiet Vein Draught was distributed.

Each soldier drank.

A subtle change moved through the formation field.

Their energy dimmed.

Their auras folded inward like banners lowered before a storm.

Several clenched their fists.

One staggered slightly.

Another breathed hard through his teeth.

None panicked.

They trusted Lucien. That trust landed heavier than praise.

Lucien raised one hand.

The first basin opened.

Abyssal mist rolled outward.

It moved low at first, black and thin, threaded with faint gold from Lucien’s blood. It curled around the candidates’ ankles, then rose to their knees, waists, chests, throats.

The first stage began.

Abyssal Mist Breathing.

The candidates inhaled.

The mist entered their lungs.

Every formation ring lit at once.

One candidate’s outline blurred for half a breath before Continuance snapped him back into definition.

Another began coughing black vapor, and Living Creation immediately wrapped his lungs before Nihility could scar the tissue.

Stillness slowed the corrosion.

Life and Death separated injury from erasure.

The Quiet Vein Draught kept their internal energy subdued enough that the Abyss did not frenzy.

Lucien watched everything. Every breath. Every pulse. Every flicker of identity.

The mist circulated once through their bodies. Then twice. Then the formation field absorbed the excess.

The first group remained standing.

More importantly, something had changed beneath their skin.

Adaptation.

Their bodies had learned the first syllable of Nihility and survived pronouncing it.

Lucien nodded once.

The first stage was viable.

Behind the first group, the rest of the special force stood straighter out of understanding.

This would not be easy.

•••

The baptism continued.

Group after group finished the first stage.

Lucien adjusted the mist concentration between groups.

A little less for those with unstable souls.

A little more for those with stronger bodies.

Different breathing rhythms for warriors, mages, and body refiners.

Seraphine’s Quiet Vein Draught performed better than expected.

The formation field held.

The five basins remained stable.

By the end of the first cycle, every member of the special force had passed Abyssal Mist Breathing with no casualties.

Lucien stood above the field and looked at the special force.

This was only the beginning.

Nihility Skin Tempering would be worse.

Null-Marrow Washing would be cruel.

Void-Blood Circulation would make many of them question their life choices.

Nihility Body Condensation would decide who could attempt the undiluted pool.

But the path existed.

Soon, if they endured, the Big World would have hundreds of Celestial warriors capable of resisting erasure.