100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 695 - Investigation

A few days after the Lawroot Stabilizing Draught began spreading through the Echo Crucible, Virel and Aniel came to see Lucien.

Virel placed a map projection over Lucien’s table.

"Son, we finally found a suitable place after weeks of debate!"

Lucien leaned forward.

Aniel expanded the image.

The Middle Continent appeared first, then one region darkened.

It was enormous.

An entire stretch of land lay there like a wound that had never closed.

"The worldwide authority training?" Lucien asked.

Virel nodded.

"The size is suitable, but there’s one problem."

Aniel looked at the darkened region.

"The history is less pleasant."

That made Lucien more interested.

...

Actually, before the Millennia War, the Big World had not yet been divided into the five continents and the lands now occupied by the Black Mass side.

The lands had once belonged to a massive supercontinent.

The war changed that.

Primordial battles shattered coastlines, split mountains, tore apart landmasses, and altered the world deeply enough that entire regions drifted away from one another.

Most scars eventually healed.

The world repaired itself slowly.

Forests returned. Rivers found new paths. Leylines stabilized.

Even some of the worst battlefields eventually became ordinary land again.

This place did not.

...

Virel enlarged the projection.

The dead region sat deep within the Middle Continent.

Its borders were irregular.

The surrounding terrain bent strangely around it.

Several mountain chains stopped before reaching the area, as though the earth itself had decided not to continue.

Old rivers diverted around its edges.

There were no cities.

Nothing claimed the land.

"People avoid it?" Lucien asked.

"Almost completely," Aniel said. "Merchants take longer routes rather than cross it."

Virel added, "There are still faint battlefield impressions inside."

Lucien understood immediately.

That was probably why no faction had ever bothered claiming it.

The land offered nothing obvious. Only old pressure and unpleasant memories.

Lucien stared at the projection.

It was perfect.

Or at least, potentially perfect.

•••

He expanded the map again.

The region was much larger than he had expected.

The location was also relatively central compared to the outer continents.

The land itself, however, looked terrible.

Lucien studied it carefully.

The terrain around the dead zone did not behave normally.

Elevations changed too sharply.

Several valleys curved around empty ground for no obvious reason.

The old leyline maps showed nothing catastrophic.

That made it stranger.

Lucien rested one hand against his chin.

He had seen enough weird things to learn a simple lesson.

Weird things were often inconvenient.

Sometimes they were dangerous.

Occasionally, they were extremely useful.

Lootwell had become quite good at turning the third category into infrastructure.

"If no one owns it, that solves one problem."

Virel nodded.

"No faction has claimed it."

"And if something is wrong with the land?"

Aniel glanced at him.

"That is why we came before recommending it."

Lucien smiled.

That solved another problem.

He already knew who to send.

The elemental women had spent months repairing leylines across the five continents.

If there was something fundamentally wrong with a region of the world, they were the most suitable people to investigate it.

Lucien closed the projection.

"I’ll have it inspected."

Virel and Aniel exchanged a look.

Neither seemed surprised.

•••

Lucien left shortly afterward.

The elemental women were not currently in the Big World.

They had gathered many newly awakened spirits from across the five continents and brought them into one of the small worlds for training.

They had chosen Marina’s strange flat world.

When Lucien arrived, he immediately regretted appearing without warning.

The world stretched beneath him like an enormous disk inside a dome.

In the center of a large training field, tens of thousands of spirits were being disciplined.

Lucien stopped.

Then he quietly observed.

Most of the spirits had not developed proper forms yet.

Some resembled floating masses of flame. Others looked like small clouds, wandering droplets, glowing stones, twisting gusts, or clumps of living earth.

Many had begun developing fairy-like bodies. Tiny arms. Small wings. Faces that appeared only when they became emotional.

Only a few possessed fully humanoid forms.

Every single one of them was training..

Marie stood at the front. Kaia watched one side. Sylra controlled another group. Marina floated above the field.

The atmosphere was oppressive.

Lucien almost shivered.

A small fire spirit failed to maintain its shape.

Kaia looked at it.

The fire spirit immediately corrected itself.

A wind spirit drifted slightly out of formation.

Sylra turned her head.

It returned so quickly that it nearly collided with another spirit.

None of them complained.

That was the disturbing part. They obeyed naturally. Almost instinctively.

As if recognizing the four women as something above them had been carved into their existence.

Lucien suddenly understood why the training progressed so efficiently.

He also decided he did not want to know the details.

Then the four women noticed him.

The change was immediate.

Marie’s stern expression softened. Kaia relaxed. Sylra smiled. Marina descended from the air.

A moment earlier, they had looked like terrifying elemental sovereigns drilling an army.

Now they surrounded Lucien like mischievous spirits who had never frightened anyone in their lives.

The trainees stared.

Lucien watched several of them visibly freeze.

Apparently, they had learned something important.

There was someone their terrifying instructors treated differently.

That discovery spread across the field almost instantly.

Marie noticed the staring.

Her gaze sharpened.

Hundreds of spirits straightened.

Then, as though someone had issued a silent command, they turned toward Lucien.

Their greetings came in a chaotic mixture of voices, elemental sounds, flickering lights, and excited movements.

Lucien rubbed his forehead.

He had questions.

He decided not to ask them.

•••

"My prince, what brings you here?" Marina asked.

"You could have told us you were coming," Marie added.

Kaia and Sylra nodded in agreement.

Lucien looked at the four of them.

Then at the spirits behind them.

Then back at the four women.

"I have another job for you."

Their attention sharpened immediately.

Lucien glanced toward the trainees again.

"You can bring them."

Several spirits brightened.

One small water spirit bounced excitedly.

A fire spirit spun in place.

A cluster of wind spirits began circling one another.

Kaia looked over.

The entire group became disciplined again.

Lucien almost coughed.

That was impressive.

Terrifying, but impressive.

•••

Lucien projected the map.

The dark region of the Middle Continent appeared above the training field.

The four women stopped smiling.

Their expressions changed almost together.

Lucien noticed.

"You know it?"

Kaia studied the projection.

"We have been there."

Sylra pointed toward the edge of the region.

"When we repaired the leylines, we passed through this area."

Lucien looked at the map.

"And?"

"The leylines are not broken," Sylra said.

Marie folded her arms.

"They are not even especially unstable."

That was stranger.

Lucien looked toward Marina.

She stared at the center of the dead region.

"We did not investigate deeply before."

They had been repairing disasters across five continents at the time.

If a region was not actively collapsing, poisoning nearby lands, or threatening the leyline network, they had no reason to waste time on it.

Kaia narrowed her eyes.

"The land felt wrong."

Sylra nodded slowly.

"But not because of the leylines."

That caught Lucien’s attention.

Marina smiled.

"Maybe something is buried there."

That was apparently enough.

Interest replaced caution almost instantly.

Something had existed inside their territory of expertise and escaped their attention.

The four women did not seem offended.

They looked excited.

Lucien knew that expression.

He had worn it himself too many times.

It was the expression of someone who had just discovered a problem they desperately wanted to open.

•••

The investigation was decided quickly.

Marie and the others would travel to the Middle Continent.

The spirits would accompany them.

That made the trip their first real assignment outside supervised training.

The reaction among the younger spirits was immediate.

Excitement rippled through the field.

The elemental women turned toward them.

The excitement became disciplined silence again.

Lucien watched the transformation.

Maybe the spirits would be fine.

Probably.

The four women began preparing almost immediately.

If the region was safe enough, Lucien would have his training ground.

If it was not safe, then Lootwell would finally learn why.

Either result was useful.

Lucien looked once more at the dark region floating above the field.

A battlefield from the Millennia War.

The rest of the world had moved on around it.

That land had not.

Lucien smiled faintly.

He had only wanted somewhere large enough to train the Thousand Races.

Apparently, even finding empty land in this world could become an investigation.

Still, he had sent the right people.

They would bring back good news.

Probably.