100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 686 - Work

The work began immediately.

The Obsidian Collegium took responsibility for the first task.

Law compatibility.

Its scholars began gathering record involving compatible authorities, composite Domains, inherited dual Laws, and accidental Law collisions.

The information would be copied, compared, tested, and classified.

Nothing would be released publicly until the results were reliable.

A successful merger could prevent a higher authority from fully controlling the original Law.

A failed one could destroy the bearer before the enemy ever had the chance.

Contradictory Laws were especially dangerous.

If the user lacked sufficient control, the two authorities might tear through each other the moment the Interweaver activated.

Fire and Water were not automatically impossible.

Even opposing principles could coexist under the correct understanding.

But placing two hostile Laws together without preparation was closer to carrying an explosion on one’s wrist than wielding a defense.

The Collegium would therefore divide the combinations into categories.

Stable.

Conditional.

High risk.

Forbidden without direct supervision.

Lucien had no intention of distributing artifacts that allowed impatient people to discover new ways to kill themselves.

Once the compatibility records were complete, the safe portions could be released to the world.

The rest would remain restricted.

•••

Creating the Law Interweaver itself was far less difficult.

Lucien already understood the principle.

The artifact only needed to capture a stored Law manifestation and release it into the wearer’s active authority through the same pathway, forcing both to emerge as one interwoven expression.

He had already achieved something similar himself.

The difficult part was deciding what form the artifact should take.

A pendant was considered first.

It was easy to wear, but its position made emergency activation slightly inconvenient.

A ring was too small for the number of internal structures they wanted.

Lucien could create something that small if he wished, just as he had created the Faith Ring.

However, doing so would consume an enormous amount of time and divine energy.

Mass-producing it personally was impossible.

Even registering the design in the Craft Feature would not solve the problem. It was slower than ordinary machine-assisted production

Armor could contain far more Law energy, but not everyone wore the same type of equipment.

In the end, they chose a bracelet.

It could remain close to the wearer’s circulation of energy, respond quickly, and be removed or replaced without affecting other equipment.

Seran examined the first design and immediately found a problem.

"One stored Law is too limiting."

Lucien looked at him.

Seran tapped the projected blueprint.

"A battlefield changes. The Law that works against one enemy may become useless against the next."

That was true.

A bearer of Fire might benefit from Motion when attacking, Weight when defending, or Light when facing corruption.

Restricting the bracelet to a single stored Law would force the wearer to choose before knowing what kind of battle awaited them.

Seran proposed adding multiple slots.

They finally settled on three.

The completed design resembled a simple metal bracelet set with three gemstones.

Each gemstone served as an independent Law reservoir.

Their colors would change according to the authority stored within them.

Only one slot could be activated at a time under ordinary use.

That limitation prevented several stored Laws from colliding inside the artifact.

More advanced users might eventually learn to activate two at once, but Lucien refused to include that function in the first version.

People could wait until the Collegium confirmed which combinations would not cause them to explode.

•••

The Law Anchor required more preparation.

Unlike the Interweaver, it did not merely manipulate active authority.

It needed to recognize when a Law was being taken from its bearer and react before control was lost.

That meant it had to distinguish between ordinary pressure, temporary instability, voluntary withdrawal, and genuine foreign interference.

A mistake could be disastrous.

If the anchor activated too early, it might seal the bearer’s Law during an ordinary battle.

If it activated too late, the foreign authority might already have gained enough control to resist the withdrawal.

The Abbess listened to the technical discussion for a time before speaking.

"The Silent Monastery possesses records that may help."

The room turned toward her.

"They concern teachings left by the Silent Guardians."

Lucien’s eyes sharpened.

The Silent Guardians were Primordials too.

Any knowledge they had left behind concerning authority, ownership, and suppression would be invaluable.

The Abbess continued.

"The records were sealed after the Millennia War. Now the danger of keeping them sealed is greater than the danger of opening them."

She agreed to return to the Silent Monastery and retrieve the records personally.

The Grandmaster offered Collegium scholars to assist with translation and comparison.

The Abbess accepted without hesitation.

•••

The third project remained the largest.

Worldwide authority training.

Lucien could build pressure trials.

The Echo Crucible could reproduce the presence of hostile Primordial echoes.

The ancient beasts could reconstruct battlefield conditions from the Millennia War.

The problem was scale.

Training a few thousand people was easy enough.

Training representatives from every major faction across five continents was another matter entirely.

Training enough people to spread that experience throughout the Thousand Races required a location large enough to become a temporary city.

Lucien turned his attention to Lilith and Anvil-Horn.

They were already nearing the completion of the World Fortification Network, which meant the people most capable of organizing another massive construction project would soon be available.

The worldwide authority training would require an entirely separate site, along with new arenas, protection formations, observation systems, and emergency measures.

It would become their next major undertaking.

Lilith sensed his gaze before he spoke.

Her shoulders stiffened.

She knew that look.

Lucien had just discovered another enormous project that would somehow become her responsibility.

Lilith closed her eyes briefly and accepted her fate.

A moment later, however, her expression brightened as she began considering what reward she might demand.

Her mood improved immediately.

She licked her lips while staring at him.

This time, Lucien was the one who felt uneasy.

Lilith noticed.

Her smile became brighter.

Lucien turned away and returned his attention to the projection.

There were some negotiations better postponed until witnesses were present.

•••

Virel and Aniel proposed using the emergency assembly world in the vast void.

The location had several advantages.

It was enormous.

The Thousand Races had gathered there frequently.

The Celestials still held administrative authority over the world, making large-scale construction easier.

It was also isolated enough that authority-pressure trials could be conducted without endangering ordinary populations.

For a moment, the suggestion appeared ideal.

Then the problems surfaced.

"Training" would not last a single day.

Participants might remain there for weeks or even months.

Moving a large portion of the five continents’ strongest forces into the void would leave the Big World dangerously exposed.

The enemies had already demonstrated its ability to observe weakness and exploit absence.

If the world’s defenders gathered elsewhere, the enemy might attack major cities, hidden worlds, transportation networks, or weakened continental borders.

If something changed while the strongest forces were gathered in the void, returning everyone quickly might become difficult even with Lootwell’s transportation systems.

The emergency world remained useful as a retreat point.

It was not the right place for the main training grounds.

The proposal was set aside.

Virel and Aniel accepted the decision.

They then offered another solution.

The Celestials would search the Middle Continent for a suitable region.

It needed to be vast enough to hold participants from all five continents.

The Middle Continent was also symbolically appropriate.

Lucien approved the proposal.

The Celestials began searching before the meeting ended.

•••

Once the location problem had a direction, the projects divided into separate workstreams.

The Collegium handled Law compatibility.

The Silent Monastery opened the sealed teachings of the Silent Guardians.

Lucien began building the first Law Interweaver prototypes.

Lilith and Anvil-Horn continued the World Fortification Network.

The ancient beasts prepared authority-pressure records based on the Millennia War.

The Echo Crucible was assigned new trial structures.

The Celestials searched the Middle Continent.

Vivian and the administrators began estimating the resources, personnel, and time required to host representatives from every major faction.

By the end of the following day, the first blueprints had already appeared.

They covered the central table in the office.

The plans were still rough.

Some contradicted one another.

Several required materials that had not yet been secured.

But the shape of the project had begun to emerge.

It was no longer merely a discussion about surviving suppression.

It was becoming an event capable of gathering the entire world.

Lucien stood before the projected designs.

The public would eventually hear about competition, rewards, and champions.

They would not hear every reason behind the trials.

Not yet.

Panic would weaken the world before the enemy arrived.

Hope could strengthen it.

The tournament would provide that hope.

At the same time, every match, team trial, rescue exercise, and authority-pressure test would prepare the participants for the war approaching beyond the seas.

The Thousand Races would believe they were gathering to determine who stood above the rest.

Lootwell would quietly teach them what to do when the authority they trusted most no longer answered.

Lucien looked at the blueprints.

The preparations had only begun.

But the world was already moving toward the same place.