100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 678 - Incarnation Process

While Lucien waited for Seran to gather the compatible volunteers, he did not remain idle.

He returned to the Stillness Palace and descended directly toward the Abyssal Pool.

The first expansion of the Controlled Abyssal Tempering Framework had already proven useful.

It had also revealed its greatest limitation.

Capacity.

A few hundred people could enter each wave, but Lootwell possessed far more reliable soldiers who could benefit from forming Nihility Bodies.

Allowing the early stages to remain a bottleneck would waste time.

Lucien had no intention of doing that.

So he worked without interruption.

One reservoir became two.

Two became four.

Around them, he began shaping the foundations for additional training regions.

They were not complete frameworks yet.

Each would still require diluted mist channels, isolated chambers, emergency withdrawal formations, and a final connection to an undiluted baptism pool.

But the expansion had begun.

•••

The next morning, a message arrived from Seran.

The compatible volunteers had gathered.

Lucien stopped his work immediately.

He returned to the Liberator Academy in Grand Confluence.

The main training field had already been cleared.

Several dozen people stood in orderly groups beneath the academy’s high stone terraces.

They turned almost at once when Lucien arrived.

Everyone knew him.

Even those who had never entered Lootwell had seen his face through reports, public projections, or records from the previous wars.

Greetings rose across the field.

Lucien acknowledged them with a nod.

Then he noticed two familiar figures near the front.

Their scaled armor, broad frames, and long tails made them difficult to miss.

The Sskavyrn duo from the Stillness Expedition.

Lucien smiled.

The last time they had separated, the two warriors had declared that they would meet again if fate brought their roads together.

Apparently, fate had taken that statement seriously.

Seran noticed where Lucien was looking.

"They were one of those that accepted before I finished explaining."

That sounded like them.

Lucien approached.

The two Sskavyrn studied him with open curiosity.

Recognition did not come immediately.

Lucien had not worn his true appearance during the expedition.

Then he spoke.

"It has been some time."

Both warriors looked at him uncertainly.

Then Lucien added, "Your Wolf Brother almost thought fate had forgotten your promise."

Both warriors froze.

Their nostrils flared.

One leaned closer with absolutely no concern for personal space.

"No wonder."

The other struck his companion’s shoulder.

"His scent was familiar."

Understanding spread across both faces.

Then they laughed loudly enough to draw attention from the surrounding volunteers.

"So the Wolf Brother from before was Lord Lucien."

"You became much less furry."

Lucien decided not to respond to that.

"It seems fate brought us together again."

The first warrior thumped his chest.

"We said it would."

The second nodded solemnly.

"Fate listens when Sskavyrn speak loudly enough."

Lucien suspected that was not how fate worked.

Still, seeing them again improved his mood.

•••

Most of the remaining volunteers were also familiar in one way or another.

Some belonged to allied sects.

Others came from clans that had fought beside Lootwell.

Several were unaffiliated practitioners who had earned Grace through their actions during the wars.

Lootwell citizens stood among them as well.

Their origins differed.

But all of them possessed Grace Systems.

Seran had already explained the dangers, the uncertainties, and the possible duration of the incarnation.

Lucien did not repeat everything.

He stepped before them and spoke plainly.

"First, thank you for accepting."

The field quieted.

"This plan cannot proceed without people willing to take the first road."

Some volunteers straightened.

They had expected another warning.

Gratitude caught them slightly off guard.

Lucien continued.

"You will also be compensated."

That produced a stronger reaction.

Several people looked at one another.

The Sskavyrn duo became visibly more attentive.

Lucien almost smiled.

"You are taking a risk for Lootwell and for worlds none of us have reached. When you return, your contributions will be recorded. You will receive priority access to suitable resources, opportunities, and any inheritance recovered from the world you help locate, provided it is compatible with you."

The restrained excitement across the field became difficult to hide.

They had volunteered knowing the risks.

Most had not expected Lucien to promise anything beyond protection.

The rewards were not merely payment.

They meant that Lucien would remember who had opened the first roads.

That mattered more than many treasures.

•••

Lucien then repeated the details that could not be misunderstood.

Their original bodies would remain with him under protection.

They would not be left unattended.

Their breathing, souls, consciousness, and vitality would be monitored throughout the incarnation.

"If your memories are sealed when you awaken, do not panic. Well, you won’t know about that," Lucien said. "The seal exists to help the destination world accept your new identity."

Several volunteers became more serious.

"You may begin without remembering who you were. The Incarnation Support System will release what you need gradually, once your soul and body can endure it."

The system would not shower them with power.

It would protect identity, record the new life, and prevent the incarnated consciousness from being consumed by the role it entered.

Lucien raised one hand.

Small points of light appeared above his palm.

Each resembled a star enclosed within a transparent shell.

"These will accompany you."

The volunteers’ eyes brightened.

"This is called the Incarnation Support System. They are connected to me, but they are not complete Grace Systems. They will not direct your lives. Their purpose is protection, memory preservation, communication when possible, and maintaining the road back."

Lucien allowed the support systems to fade.

Then he addressed the fear most of them had been reluctant to voice.

"If your incarnation dies, your original body will not die with it."

The field became completely still.

"Your consciousness will return. The memories of that life will return with you."

Relief moved through the volunteers.

Not complete relief.

Death remained death to the incarnation living through it.

Pain would still be real.

Loss would still be real.

But the death of the new body would not erase the person who had volunteered.

One practitioner near the center raised his hand.

"What about the people we meet there?"

Lucien looked at him.

The question carried more weight than fear of death.

"If we die in that world, will we ever see them again?"

Others turned toward Lucien.

They had only just begun imagining the lives ahead.

Yet the possibility of family, friendship, and attachment had already reached them.

Lucien answered honestly.

"If I successfully locate and recover that world, then yes."

Hope appeared across several faces.

"You may be able to return in your original body. You may even stand before the people who knew only your incarnation."

The thought was strange enough that some volunteers laughed nervously.

A person could live an entire life in another world, die there, awaken in the Big World, and later return as someone completely different.

The Sskavyrn duo seemed delighted by the idea.

One whispered something about meeting his own descendants and demanding a feast.

Lucien ignored that.

He looked toward Aurelia.

She had been watching the volunteers from the edge of the field.

Her eyes held faint threads of starlight.

For several breaths, she examined the tension surrounding each person.

Then she nodded.

No road had twisted.

No one’s agreement had collapsed under the reality of what they were about to do.

They were afraid.

That was natural.

But they still chose to proceed.

Lucien turned back to them.

"Then we begin."

•••

He brought the volunteers into his inner realm.

They appeared upon a wide circular platform prepared beside the Reincarnation Disc.

Their original bodies would remain there after the crossing.

Separate resting chambers surrounded the platform.

Each was connected to formations monitoring soul, vitality, memory, and identity.

The Reincarnation Disc floated above the center. Its rings turned slowly.

This time, Lucien was not guiding dead souls toward their next lives.

He was opening temporary roads for the living.

The distinction changed everything.

The volunteers settled into their assigned positions.

Aurelia stood outside the circle.

Seran remained beside her.

Lucien moved to the center.

The prepared incarnation threads appeared around him.

Each thread had been grown for one specific soul.

They did not resemble ordinary string. They were impossibly fine paths of pale light, visible only because the surrounding space bent around them.

At one end waited the volunteer.

At the other, nothing yet existed.

Lucien raised his hand.

The Incarnation Support Systems descended first.

They entered the spiritual space of each volunteer and settled beside the soul without merging completely.

The transparent shells opened.

Memory seals formed. Continuity records awakened. Emergency severance marks connected to Lucien’s authority. Destination anchors remained dormant.

Only after every safeguard stabilized did Lucien release the incarnation threads.

They did not pierce flesh. They passed through it without resistance and entered the deepest layer of each volunteer’s consciousness.

The moment a thread touched its chosen soul, it changed.

It absorbed no great portion of the soul. Instead, it gathered an incarnation imprint.

Identity. Memory pattern. Will. The shape of consciousness.

Enough to create a true continuation in another life without tearing apart the original soul sleeping behind.

The volunteers felt the connection.

Some inhaled sharply.

Others closed their eyes.

The Sskavyrn duo looked fascinated until both of their tails went rigid at the same time.

Lucien waited.

No rejection appeared.

The threads accepted every imprint.

Then the Reincarnation Disc awakened.

Its slow rotation accelerated.

The inner rings aligned first.

The outer rings followed.

Space folded above the disc into countless half-formed directions.

Each incarnation thread rose from its volunteer and entered the turning light.

For a moment, all of them remained gathered above the disc like pale roots searching through empty soil.

Then they began to move.

The incarnation imprints resonated through the threads.

Far beyond the Big World, hidden foundations answered.

One thread trembled.

Then another.

A third bent toward a direction that did not exist in ordinary space.

The first road formed without sound.

The thread stretched.

Space yielded around the path, layer after layer, as the thread followed a resonance only it could perceive.

It crossed the boundary of Lucien’s inner realm.

Passed beyond the Big World.

Entered the darkness between planes.

Then disappeared from ordinary sight.

The destination anchor within its support system awakened.

A point of light appeared before Lucien.

The first hidden world had answered.

More threads followed.

Some traveled together before separating into different depths.

Two curved toward similar directions, though Lucien could not yet tell whether they had found the same world or neighboring ones.

One thread stopped suddenly.

Aurelia’s eyes sharpened.

The tension around its volunteer tightened.

Lucien did not force it forward.

He held the road in place.

The volunteer trembled.

Fear rose, then steadied.

After several breaths, the person opened his eyes and nodded.

The choice remained.

Only then did Lucien allow the thread to continue.

The road crossed.

One by one, the destination anchors awakened.

Stars appeared in the darkness around the Reincarnation Disc.

Each represented a hidden world.

Or perhaps a hidden destination within one.

Lucien still could not see what waited there.

He could not know whether the volunteers would awaken as humans, members of another race, newborn beasts, or something stranger.

The compatible soul and the hidden world would decide the form together.

The support systems followed the incarnation imprints through the completed roads.

Only after they reached the other side did the Reincarnation Disc begin the final separation.

The volunteers’ bodies relaxed.

Their breathing slowed.

Their consciousness withdrew from the surface.

They entered a protected sleep.

Within each soul, the original continuity remained anchored to the body.

Across the roads, the incarnation imprints descended toward lives that had not yet begun.