100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 683 - Meeting

The medical teams completed their examinations.

Their original metal bodies were damaged to different degrees, but their souls remained stable.

Only then did Lucien distribute the prepared portions.

Each Alloykin received enough Living Alloy Essence to form a complete refinement.

The hooded monks and nuns bowed together.

"Thank you for granting us this opportunity, Lord of Lootwell."

Lucien nodded.

"Do not begin yet," Lucien said. "You can integrate the Living Alloy Essence after you meet the Lithrens."

No one objected.

They had already waited this long.

Facing the Lithrens mattered more than immediately rebuilding their bodies, and none of them wanted to enter that meeting while distracted by an ongoing transformation.

The two monks who had already integrated the essence stood as proof that the process worked.

For the others, the Living Alloy Essence would remain untouched until the meeting was over.

Just then, a message reached Lucien through the Grace System.

Riri and the Lithren elders were ready.

Lucien looked toward the waiting Alloykins.

"It is time."

The confidence they had shown inside his office weakened almost immediately.

The younger monk glanced at the others.

Several straightened their robes.

•••

Lucien led the group deeper into Lootwell’s territory.

The Lithren District stood within the protected inner regions.

Although Lootwell had opened many areas to outsiders, some districts still required authorization, an approved guide, or temporary access tokens.

That restriction was necessary.

The inner territories held vulnerable populations, important facilities, and resources that should not be exposed to every visitor who entered through a public branch.

Lucien handed each Alloykin a temporary token.

When the group passed through the public area, several outsiders nearby stopped and watched.

They recognized Lucien.

The Lord of Lootwell rarely guided visitors personally.

Some immediately began wondering who the hooded figures were and what had earned them such treatment.

The Alloykins noticed the attention.

Their gratitude deepened, but so did the pressure weighing on them.

Lucien had not merely granted them entry.

He was placing his own reputation beside theirs.

If the meeting ended badly, no one would blame only the Alloykins.

That realization made their steps more careful.

•••

The Lithrens had changed greatly.

Lucien still remembered the first time he had encountered the race.

Their bodies had resembled living mineral formations.

They had been beautiful in a strange and ancient way, but their weakened world had left them dim, brittle, and incomplete.

That was no longer true.

Their constitution remained connected to the condition of their home world.

As that world recovered within Lucien’s makeshift universe, the Lithrens changed with it.

Their bodies now shone with soft inner light.

Their hair resembled fine strands of luminous stone, glass, or polished gemstones, depending on the individual.

Even the elders had regained much of their youth.

They possessed the graceful beauty of elves, but carried something less earthly.

They looked like pieces of a living world that had chosen to stand upright.

Riri waited at the center of an open courtyard.

Several elders stood beside her.

More Lithrens gathered farther behind them, some curious, some cautious, and some visibly tense.

Lucien felt the Alloykins slow.

Many of them had imagined the Lithrens only through stories of what their race had done.

Now the victims stood directly before them.

The distance between the two groups narrowed.

Then it disappeared.

Lucien landed in the courtyard.

The Alloykins stopped behind him.

For several breaths, no one spoke.

One race had once treated the other as a resource.

Now both stood inside Lootwell under the same sky.

Lucien looked at Riri.

"I have brought them."

Riri nodded.

Lucien turned toward the Alloykins.

"This meeting belongs to both of your races. Speak honestly."

Then he looked back at Riri.

"I will leave the rest to you."

The Lithrens bowed.

Some still regarded Lucien as their savior rather than merely their lord.

That devotion had softened with time, but it had never disappeared.

Lucien did not remain in the courtyard.

At least, not visibly.

•••

High above, the Stillness Palace drifted through the skies of Lootwell.

Lucien sat at the edge of one of its broad terraces.

He took out the jade tablet and enlarged the scene below.

He adjusted it until both groups appeared clearly.

Then he leaned back.

Below, silence continued for several more breaths.

The older Alloykin monk finally stepped forward.

He removed his hood.

His restored metal body caught the light.

Then he bowed deeply.

"Our race wronged yours."

The younger monk and the rest of the Alloykins removed their hoods as well.

One by one, they bowed.

The younger monk spoke next.

"We cannot return everything that was taken from you. We cannot speak for those who committed those acts, nor can we erase what happened."

His voice tightened, but he continued.

"What we can do is acknowledge it and spend the rest of our lives repairing whatever you allow us to repair."

The Lithrens did not respond immediately.

Several expressions changed.

One elder’s hands curled at his sides.

A woman near the rear looked away.

Another Lithren stared at the Alloykins with a coldness that had not faded despite the years spent in Lootwell.

The monks had expected anger.

They had prepared themselves for accusations, rejection, and perhaps objects thrown in their direction.

Instead, they received silence.

It was somehow worse.

The older monk lowered his head further.

"We do not ask for forgiveness."

Riri watched them calmly.

"That is good," she said. "Because forgiveness is not something you can request from an entire race at once."

The Alloykins accepted the words without protest.

An older Lithren stepped forward.

"My brother died in the extraction fields."

The courtyard grew colder.

One of the Alloykin nuns closed her eyes.

The Lithren elder continued.

"My parents died before him. For a long time, I believed every Alloykin should answer for that."

No one interrupted.

"Part of me still does."

The honesty struck harder than shouting would have.

The younger monk raised his head.

"You have the right to feel that way."

The elder studied him.

"But you were not there."

"No."

"You did not command those who enslaved us."

"No."

"Then why are you standing here?"

The monk’s answer came slowly.

"Because the guilty damaged more than their own names."

He looked toward the Lithrens behind the elder.

"They damaged what your people would think whenever they saw one of us."

The elder’s expression shifted slightly.

"We cannot demand that you forget," the monk continued. "But we can decide what you see from us next."

The courtyard became quiet again.

High above, Lucien stopped adjusting the jade tablet.

That was a better answer than he had expected.

•••

The Lithrens had changed during their years in Lootwell.

Safety had given them time to heal.

Their restored world had strengthened their bodies.

Their work in the chapels, districts, and facilities had brought them into contact with races they had never known existed.

They were no longer the frightened survivors Lucien had first rescued.

But healing had not erased memory.

Some still carried anger.

Others carried grief that would never fully disappear.

Lucien’s presence had convinced them to attend.

It had not forced them to forgive.

That distinction mattered.

They trusted Lucien enough to believe that he would not knowingly bring enemies into their district.

They knew his habits well by now.

Had the Alloykins before them been cruel, deceptive, or loyal to the enemies, Lucien would not have personally escorted them into the heart of Lithren territory.

`

He would have dealt with them somewhere far less comfortable.

That trust gave the Alloykins a chance to speak.

What they did with that chance remained their responsibility.

Riri looked toward the elders beside her.

Then she faced the Alloykins.

"Our people will not all react the same way."

The older monk nodded.

"We understand."

"Some will refuse to work with you. Some may never trust you."

"We understand that too."

Riri’s expression softened slightly.

"But if you truly came to help, there will be places where help is needed."

The Alloykins raised their heads.

One of the Lithren elders sighed.

"Our old world is still recovering. Many structures cannot be restored with Lithren methods alone."

His gaze moved over the Alloykins’ metal bodies.

"You understand metals."

The younger monk blinked.

"That is true."

"You understand structural."

The older monk glanced briefly at the fractures that had only recently vanished from his own body.

"Better than before."

A few Lithrens reacted to that.

The tension loosened.

Another elder stepped forward.

"The past cannot be repaired by pretending it came from misunderstanding alone."

His tone was firm.

"The Alloykins who harmed us knew enough to understand that we were alive."

The monks did not deny it.

"But ignorance between our races made it easier for others to justify what followed," the elder continued. "If we remain strangers, the same kind of excuse may be used again."

Riri nodded.

"Lithrens and Alloykins are not the same, but our natures share certain similarities."

She looked toward the silver-gray patterns moving beneath the monks’ restored bodies.

"Perhaps learning how each race lives will prevent others from reducing either of us to materials."

The older monk’s posture changed.

"We would welcome that."

A Lithren woman near the back crossed her arms.

"You say that now."

The younger monk looked at her.

"We will have to prove it later."

That answer earned him the first genuine smile from the Lithren side.

It was small.

It did not mean forgiveness. But it was a beginning.

•••

The discussion continued.

It did not suddenly become warm.

The Lithrens asked difficult questions.

The monks answered without defending what could not be defended.

In return, the Lithrens explained which kinds of assistance would be useful and which would be unwelcome.

By the time the sun shifted across the district, the two groups were no longer standing in opposing lines.

Lucien considered that an excellent sign.

•••

Lucien lowered the jade tablet. Then he closed his eyes.

He sensed countless faint connections spread across the world.

The burden surrounding the Alloykin race had not vanished.

A single meeting could not erase generations of fear, exploitation, and resentment.

But one of the tightest knots had loosened.

The karmic pressure was changing.

If the relationship between the Lithrens and the innocent Alloykins continued to improve, the rest of the world would eventually notice.

Suspicion would remain for some time.

Discrimination would not disappear overnight.

But the Alloykins would finally have evidence that their race was capable of becoming something other than what the Void-Walkers had made it.

Lucien looked across Lootwell from the edge of the floating palace.

Countless races lived below.

The end was drawing closer.

Lucien could feel it in every report, every awakening sign, and every preparation that no longer felt early enough.

When that day arrived, the Thousand Races could not afford to meet extinction as divided peoples defending separate graves.

They needed to become a world.