100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 697 - Preservation

A few days later, Lucien received the report from Marie, Kaia, Sylra, and Marina.

He opened it expecting another strange geological explanation.

Instead, he stopped halfway through the first page.

The dead region was not truly dead.

It was a memory field. A vast one.

The battlefield scars, the distorted terrain, the diverted rivers, the strange familiarity buried beneath everything, all of it pointed toward the same conclusion.

The region was preserving something.

Lucien continued reading.

Then his expression changed.

The traces surrounding the field carried Creation. Familiar enough that the four elemental women had connected it to one existence.

The Primordial Slime.

Lucien read that section again. Then a third time.

The report did not claim certainty.

The traces were too ancient for that.

But the possibility alone was enough.

The Primordial Slime might have created this entire preservation field.

But why?

Lucien leaned back.

That question immediately bothered him more than the discovery itself.

Why would the embodiment of Creation preserve a battlefield for thousands of years?

What did it gain from doing so?

And what exactly was it preserving?

Lucien had no interest in building more conjectures from a report.

He wanted to see the place himself.

It was not every day that he found another clue connected to that strange slime.

And if the Primordial Slime had deliberately left something behind, then Lucien doubted it was ordinary.

•••

He arrived above the dead region not long afterward.

The moment he crossed its boundary, something inside him tightened.

Lucien slowed.

The sensation was faint, but it was there.

Familiarity.

The land felt as though it knew him.

Lucien looked down.

From above, the region lived up to its reputation.

Cracked plains stretched beneath him.

Blackened ridges cut through the horizon.

Old scars divided the earth in impossible directions.

Faint battlefield impressions still moved through the air.

Residual Laws twisted around one another in places, so weakened by time that they no longer formed complete attacks, yet still strong enough to make ordinary travelers avoid the region entirely.

The place looked dead.

But after reading the report, Lucien could no longer see it that way.

He expanded his perception.

The region was enormous.

Even from high above, the horizon failed to contain all of it.

Then he searched deeper.

Past the battlefield residue.

Past the lingering Laws.

Past the old damage.

And there it was.

Creation.

Lucien’s eyes narrowed.

The trace was unbelievably faint.

If he had encountered it years ago, he would never have recognized it.

But he had delved too deeply into the Primordial Slime’s authority now.

He had felt Creation in too many forms.

He knew its rhythm, and this was related to it.

Lucien exhaled slowly.

The four women had noticed this before he did.

Their perception of the region really was exceptional.

Then again, perhaps that was not surprising.

Whatever Creation had done here had touched Earth, Fire, Air, and Water deeply enough for all four of them to feel it.

•••

Lucien descended.

Marie, Kaia, Sylra, and Marina were waiting underground.

When Lucien entered the chamber, he immediately noticed something strange.

None of them spoke. They simply looked at him.

Lucien slowed.

Their expressions were controlled.

There was something behind their eyes that he could not quite read, then relief passed through all four of them at once.

As though seeing him standing there had confirmed something they desperately needed to confirm.

Before Lucien could ask, they crossed the distance between them.

Marie hugged him first.

Marina followed.

Then Kaia.

Sylra joined last.

Lucien stiffened for a moment.

That was unusual.

The four women were affectionate with him in their own ways, but not always like this.

Not all at once.

Not with this strange weight behind it.

He considered asking what had happened.

Then he decided against it.

They would tell him when they wanted to.

For now, Lucien simply let them stay there.

After a few moments, they stepped back.

Lucien looked around.

Then everything inside him seemed to stop.

The chamber.

The broken stone.

The angle of the walls.

The place where the ground had collapsed inward.

Lucien knew this place.

He had seen it before...

In the Mural World.

His breathing slowed.

He looked toward the center of the chamber.

That was where the Human Ancestor had fallen.

That was where the final conversation with the Primordial Slime had taken place.

Lucien stared.

The memory returned with uncomfortable clarity.

The Human Ancestor dying.

The Primordial Slime beside him.

The strange silence between them.

The final exchange.

And this exact place.

Lucien had stood here before as an observer inside that old echo.

Now he was standing here again.

For real.

His throat tightened.

His heart began pounding.

Lucien frowned.

He did not understand the reaction.

He had already seen that memory.

He already knew what had happened here.

So why did his body feel as though it had just recognized something before his mind did?

The four elemental women noticed.

Marie looked at him carefully.

Kaia’s eyes sharpened.

Sylra’s expression changed slightly.

Marina stared at him with a strange light in her eyes.

None of them spoke.

Lucien looked around again.

His heartbeat refused to settle.

•••

Just then, the pieces began moving together.

The Human Ancestor died here. The region had been preserved. Creation surrounded it. And the Primordial Slime was involved.

Lucien’s thoughts accelerated.

Why preserve the battlefield?

Why preserve this chamber?

Why preserve traces of the Human Ancestor?

Unless the battlefield itself was never the real target.

Lucien’s expression slowly changed.

A possibility appeared in his mind.

It was absurd and yet, impossible to dismiss.

His eyes moved toward the center of the chamber again.

"Could it be..."

The four women remained silent.

Lucien swallowed.

"Was the Primordial Slime preserving the Human Ancestor’s soul?"

The words sounded wrong the moment they left his mouth.

But once spoken, another memory struck him.

The Reincarnation Disc.

The artifact the Primordial Slime had stolen from the Abyss.

Lucien froze.

The two discoveries collided inside his mind.

A preserved death site.

A Creation field that refused to let the region forget.

A trace of the Human Ancestor that had survived for ages.

And an artifact specifically connected to reincarnation.

Lucien’s heart slammed harder against his chest.

His eyes widened.

"Is this why it stole the Reincarnation Disc?"

No one answered.

There was no proof.

But Lucien could no longer dismiss the possibility.

The Primordial Slime had been the embodiment of Creation.

Its closest companion had died here.

And, it had taken an artifact from the Abyss capable of touching reincarnation itself.

Lucien suddenly felt cold.

If those events were connected...

Then the Primordial Slime might never have accepted the Human Ancestor’s death at all.

And if the dead region truly was preserving something of him...

Lucien looked down at the ground beneath his feet.

For some reason, his heart would not stop pounding.

The four women watched him quietly.

None of them said what they were thinking.

But the strange light in their eyes had become impossible to miss.

Something in this place recognized Lucien.

And perhaps, somewhere beneath the battlefield, something had been waiting for him to return.