100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 684 - Brainstorming

The day of the discussion arrived.

Lucien gathered everyone inside one of Lootwell’s most secure private chambers.

The administrators of the main branches were present.

Vivian sat with the western records before her. Seraphine was with her. Seran, Aurelia, and Deadman were here too. The other administrators sat with them.

Lilith and Eirene had returned from their assignments. The Celestials and representatives of the Lunarians occupied one side of the chamber, bringing with them records preserved from older eras.

Anvil-Horn had also been recalled.

The ancient beasts arrived soon afterward.

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Astraea and the others had interrupted their training the moment they learned what the discussion concerned. None of them complained. They had lived through the Millennia War and understood better than most what a hostile Primordial authority could do.

The Grandmaster of the Obsidian Collegium arrived with the Abbess of the Silent Monastery of the Ninth Bell.

Behind the Grandmaster came scholars carrying Collegium records.

The Abbess brought silent monks bearing preserved accounts from the Millennia War.

Lucien noticed something unexpected.

The Grandmaster and the Abbess knew each other.

They greeted one another without ceremony and began speaking in the relaxed manner of old acquaintances who had not met for a very long time.

"You are still collecting records no one else believes matter," the Abbess observed.

The Grandmaster glanced toward the records carried behind her.

"And you are still preserving memories while pretending you have no interest in worldly affairs."

Neither sounded offended.

Lucien decided not to interrupt.

It was reassuring to know that the two people bringing some of the oldest records in the world would not waste the meeting arguing over pride.

Once the last participants arrived, the doors closed.

Layers of formations sealed the chamber.

The discussion began.

•••

The first task was not finding a solution. It was understanding the threat.

A large projection unfolded above the central table.

At first, it contained only empty spaces divided into several categories.

Known hostile Primordial Incarnations.

Confirmed Laws.

Uncertain records.

Contradictory accounts.

The ancient beasts spoke first. They did not rely on books.

They remembered battlefields.

Astraea described the authority of an Incarnation whose Law had turned entire advancing formations against their own momentum.

Condoriano recalled an Incarnation capable of silencing all movement within its range without using the Law of Stillness itself.

The others added names, manifestations, and battlefield effects.

Some of the Laws were already known.

Others had been mistaken for techniques, Domains, or artifacts during the Millennia War.

The Celestials followed.

Virel and Aniel’s knowledge was less complete, but several of their records filled missing sections.

The Lunarians contributed observations preserved through moon archives and inherited memories.

The Grandmaster’s scholars compared every testimony against Collegium inheritance records.

The Abbess and her monks provided the most disturbing material.

The Silent Monastery had preserved the final memories of people who died facing the hostile Incarnations.

Those memories revealed what the witnesses had felt just before losing control of their Laws.

The sensation that the authority they had spent their entire lives mastering no longer recognized them.

By midday, the projection had become crowded.

Law after Law appeared.

Some matched the old Evershade rankings exactly.

Others sat close enough to require investigation.

A few possessed similar names but clearly different authorities.

By the time they finished cross-checking the records, they had created the most complete known list of hostile Primordial Laws since the Millennia War.

The room did not become calmer afterward.

It became quieter.

•••

The Grandmaster placed one hand against the table.

The projection changed.

The list of Laws remained on one side.

Numbers appeared beside them.

The Collegium had spent years recording major inheritances across the five continents.

It knew which Laws were common.

Which factions taught them.

Which bloodlines carried them.

Which authorities had spread rapidly after appearing on the Evershade rankings.

The numbers were ugly.

Some threatened Laws had only a few hundred known bearers.

Others had tens of thousands.

Several had spread through major factions for generations.

A few had reached numbers so large that no one spoke for several breaths.

And those were only the people the Collegium knew about.

The true total would be higher.

Much higher.

Lucien stared at the projection.

"If even a fraction of these people lose control at the same time," Vivian said, "some factions will collapse before the enemy arrives."

No one disagreed.

The real discussion began after that.

•••

Ideas filled the chamber.

Many died almost as quickly as they appeared.

Someone proposed sealing every threatened Law until the war ended.

The suggestion failed immediately.

No one knew when the hostile Incarnations would fully awaken, and permanently sealing such a large portion of the world’s upper forces would weaken the Thousand Races before the battle even began.

Another suggested separating all threatened bearers into distant regions.

That would only create isolated concentrations of vulnerable experts and make them easier to eliminate.

A proposal to hide Law signatures through formations had promise, but only as a temporary measure. The moment a bearer used their authority openly, the concealment would begin to fail.

Someone suggested creating substitute inheritances.

That was dismissed as unrealistic.

A Law integrated into the soul could not be discarded safely, and rebuilding an expert’s entire foundation would require time they did not possess.

Others proposed artifacts that would forcibly suppress foreign authority.

The ancient beasts rejected that idea.

An artifact strong enough to directly contend with an Extinction Grade authority was not something the world could mass-produce.

Even if Lootwell somehow created one, there would never be enough for the millions who might need protection.

The Collegium scholars suggested resistance formations.

The Abbess pointed out that formations could be broken, disrupted, or bypassed.

Anvil-Horn proposed striking the hostile Incarnations before they awakened fully.

That remained desirable, but it was rejected.

The seas remained dangerous.

The rejected ideas continued accumulating.

Some were useful only for escape.

Some depended on advance warning.

Others worked only if the enemy behaved exactly as expected.

By late afternoon, the table was covered in incomplete answers.

Lucien did not become discouraged.

That was the purpose of the meeting.

A bad idea spoken and destroyed here was better than a bad idea discovered on the battlefield.

Then Eirene spoke.

"What if we are preparing for the wrong enemy?"

The chamber quieted.

Lucien looked toward her.

Eirene studied the projection of hostile Primordial Laws.

"We are building methods against the Incarnations whose authorities we know."

She moved one of the records aside.

"But the Keepers carried Laws belonging to the Thousand Races."

Several people frowned.

Eirene continued.

"They were engineered to suppress Laws that did not belong to the hostile Primordial Incarnations themselves."

The meaning reached the room all at once.

The discussion stopped.

During the Keeper War, many Keepers had controlled or suppressed Laws commonly used by the Thousand Races.

No one fully understood how the Black Mass had created those authorities.

They only knew it had been done.

If the enemy had accomplished it once, there was no reason to believe the Keepers were the final attempt.

There could be other engineered beings.

Other artificial authorities.

Other methods prepared specifically to counter the Thousand Races.

They might spend months defending against the known hostile Primordial Laws, only to discover that the enemy had developed control over something entirely different.

The Grandmaster’s expression grew more serious.

"The list identifies the immediate danger," he said. "It does not define the limit of the danger."

The Abbess nodded.

"A defense tied only to known enemies will fail against the first unknown one."

Several earlier proposals became far less valuable.

Concealment methods based on specific signatures would not be enough.

Artifacts designed to resist a single authority would not be enough.

Even compatibility plans built only around the known hostile Laws would leave too many gaps.

The chamber changed.

The problem was no longer:

How could they protect the bearers of the so-called Superior Laws?

It became:

How could any person prevent an outside authority from taking control of the Law within their own soul?

Lucien leaned back slightly.

He felt a trace of satisfaction despite the seriousness of the situation.

This was why he had gathered them.

Smart people did not merely answer the question placed before them.

They noticed when the question itself was too small.