100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 677 - Preparations

Lucien arrived at the academy in Grand Confluence not long afterward.

Seran was already waiting for him.

Aurelia stood beside him with the final candidate records suspended before her.

The original list had become much shorter.

Some candidates had refused.

Lucien had expected that.

No promise of power could make incarnation sound ordinary.

They would leave their original bodies sleeping behind.

Their consciousness would awaken somewhere unknown, within a life they had never lived and a world none of them had seen.

They might remain there for years before Lucien gained enough control over the destination to retrieve them safely.

The Incarnation Support Systems could preserve their memories, identities, and connection to the Big World.

They could not promise comfort.

They could not remove every danger.

Seran had explained all of that without softening it.

That was why the names remaining on the list mattered.

Most of the candidates did not belong directly to Lootwell.

They came from allied sects, old organizations, protected clans, and wandering groups that had fought beside Lootwell during the previous wars.

Those from Lootwell had required little persuasion.

They trusted Lucien.

The outsiders had asked harder questions.

What would happen to their original bodies?

Could the incarnation reject them?

Would the new life change who they were?

What if Lucien could not reach them?

Seran had answered everything he could.

Aurelia had observed the tension surrounding every decision.

Anyone whose agreement carried coercion, hidden desperation, false courage, or a sense of obligation had been removed.

What remained were genuine volunteers.

Some wanted to explore.

Some wanted strength.

Some believed the hidden worlds might contain people who needed help.

Others simply could not ignore the chance to live beneath an unknown sky.

Seran handed Lucien the final list.

"Most accepted."

Lucien read through the names.

Every remaining entry carried Aurelia’s approval.

The first batch was ready.

Lucien looked toward the chambers beyond the hall.

The volunteers had not yet gathered there, but soon they would.

They did not know where they would awaken.

Neither did he.

The incarnation threads would find the worlds that answered them.

The support systems would preserve the connection.

Then Lucien would follow the road they opened.

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"How soon can you bring them to Lootwell?"

Seran laughed.

"I knew you would ask that."

Lucien raised an eyebrow.

"My people are already moving. Everyone on the final list should arrive within a day."

Lucien nodded.

"Good."

Seran had learned him too well.

•••

Before leaving, Lucien mentioned another matter.

"The second wave of Controlled Abyssal Tempering is open."

Seran’s expression changed immediately.

Lucien remembered that he had previously asked about placing some of the Liberators into the framework.

The first wave had now cleared the early stages.

There was room.

"How many?" Seran asked.

"A few hundred for now."

Seran’s eyes brightened.

He had far more than a few hundred people who would volunteer, but Lucien had not yet expanded the training grounds enough to accept them all.

Overcrowding would turn a controlled process into slaughter.

"I will select them carefully," Seran said.

"Choose people with stable foundations," Lucien replied. "Courage is useful, but it does not replace discipline."

Seran nodded.

He left to prepare the group.

Aurelia remained behind for a moment.

"The tension around the incarnation candidates is stable," she said. "But it will change once the roads begin forming."

Lucien understood.

Consent given before the ritual was not the end of responsibility.

Fear might rise once the thread entered the soul.

Hidden attachment might reveal itself when the original body began falling asleep.

A road could remain safe in theory and twist at the moment of departure.

"Watch them until the crossing is complete," Lucien said.

"I intended to."

Aurelia closed the records.

Lucien smiled faintly.

That was why he trusted her with this.

•••

Seran gathered the second tempering group before the day ended.

Several hundred people stood within one of the academy’s training fields.

Seran had already explained the process.

Lucien did not need to frighten them again with a dramatic speech.

He only made the risks clear.

The framework would begin with diluted abyssal mist.

Each stage would become progressively more dangerous.

Failure would not bring shame.

Anyone whose body or mind could no longer endure would be withdrawn.

No one was to hide pain, falsify progress, or resist emergency extraction.

The final baptism would not be attempted until the framework itself judged them ready.

No one left.

Lucien opened the entrance to his inner realm.

The air folded.

Beyond it waited a vast training region beneath a dim sky.

The early stages of the framework had already been restored for a new wave.

Mist drifted through the first zone in slow layers.

Farther beyond, the deeper regions descended toward the undiluted Abyssal Pool.

The volunteers entered in organized groups.

Lucien watched until the last one crossed.

Then the entrance closed.

The second wave had begun.

Hundreds more had stepped onto the road toward a Nihility Body.

•••

Lucien returned to Lootwell afterward.

Someone was waiting for him near the Origin Core Shrine.

For one brief moment, the similarity of the name almost amused him.

Lucian stood beneath the shrine’s golden light.

He had grown considerably.

The boy who once followed Edric and Sylvia through Lootwell had become a composed young man.

His posture was straight.

His robes were simple.

Several thin books were tucked beneath one arm despite the existence of storage artifacts.

Lucian had always preferred holding whatever he was studying.

It helped him think.

"You were looking for me?" Lucien asked.

Lucian nodded.

Lucien regarded him with quiet satisfaction.

Edric and Sylvia had raised him well.

Lucian had always been studious, but his dedication had deepened after he began studying the Law Books in the Grand Archives.

He had not merely read one.

He had examined almost everything he was permitted to access.

That diligence was necessary because of the Law he had integrated.

The Law of Axioms.

It was not a Law that rewarded empty intelligence. Nor did it become powerful simply because its bearer reached a high realm.

Its authority depended upon principles that had been understood deeply enough to withstand contradiction.

A false conclusion gave it nothing.

A shallow truth produced only shallow authority.

Even an Eternal who possessed the Law of Axioms would remain helpless if he relied on declarations he could not justify.

Lucian understood that.

So he studied.

He gathered evidence. He compared systems. He tested what he learned against reality.

Every piece of knowledge became another possible foundation for an axiom.

Lucien had watched his growth with pride.

He was not related to the Silvermine family by blood, but that had never mattered.

Edric, Sylvia, Lucian, Maxim, and Ellenwen had long since become family to him.

Lucian also treated Lucien as an older brother.

That was why he had come personally.

"Big Brother, I am ready to attempt the Celestial Realm," Lucian said.

Lucien examined him more carefully.

His Domain was stable.

His Law had reached the necessary depth.

His soul showed no sign of haste or instability.

This was not a young man asking for permission because ambition had made him impatient.

Lucian had prepared.

Lucien had told the people closest to him to come directly to him before attempting the Celestial Realm.

Edric, Sylvia, Maxim, and Ellenwen had already crossed that threshold earlier.

At the time, Lucien had used the Empty Vessel method to help them form Nihility Bodies through the Abyssal Pool.

These days, they were training again.

The previous war had affected them deeply.

They had been protected inside Lootwell not because they lacked courage, but because their strength had not been sufficient for the battlefield Lucien faced.

None of them wanted that to remain true.

They did not want to become decorations preserved behind Lootwell’s barriers.

They wanted to fight.

More than that, they wanted to carry part of Lucien’s burden.

Lucian was no different.

Lucien smiled.

"You want to help your Big Brother so soon?"

Lucian did not deny it.

"You have done enough alone."

The answer was simple.

Lucien did not tell him that it was not his responsibility.

That would have been dishonest.

Lootwell belonged to all of them.

So did the dangers approaching it.

Lucien placed one hand on Lucian’s shoulder.

"I have another method prepared for you."

Lucian waited attentively.

"It is slower than using an Empty Vessel," Lucien explained. "But I think the process itself will benefit you."

Lucian’s expression became thoughtful.

"The Law of Axioms grows through tested understanding."

A book could teach Lucian how Nihility behaved.

It could describe abyssal mist, the erosion of existence, and the principles used to resist it.

But reading those truths and experiencing them himself were entirely different things.

The framework would temper him gradually through five stages.

At every step, Lucian would personally observe how the body adapted to Nihility, how identity endured its erosion, and how different protections prevented existence from collapsing.

The Empty Vessel method could grant him a Nihility Body faster.

The Controlled Abyssal Tempering Framework would allow him to understand how one was formed.

For someone who cultivated the Law of Axioms, that experience might prove more valuable than speed.

Lucien explained the principles behind the framework and handed him a Quiet Vein Draught.

Lucian smiled.

"This is not merely body tempering."

"No," Lucien replied. "For you, it will also be study."

A faint light appeared in Lucian’s eyes.

That was the correct answer for someone like him.

Lucien opened the entrance to his inner realm once more.

Before bringing Lucian into his inner realm, Lucien stopped him.

"Do not try to prove yourself by advancing faster than the others."

Lucian looked slightly embarrassed.

Lucien knew him too well.

"An axiom formed from arrogance is still wrong."

Lucian lowered his head.

"I understand."

"Good. Learn with them."

Lucian entered the first stage.

The abyssal mist closed around him.

For a moment, his figure remained visible within the gray.

Then he sat among the other participants and began adjusting his breathing to the framework’s rhythm.

Lucien watched him settle.

A scholar had entered the Abyss.

What returned might become something far more dangerous.