100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 728 - Priorities

By the time the rescue operations ended, the rankings had shifted in ways many factions had not expected.

Some of the strongest forces had performed well, but raw power alone had not carried them very far.

Teams that protected evacuation routes, preserved their healers, and made difficult decisions early often finished above groups that had destroyed far more enemies.

More importantly, the results exposed weaknesses that ordinary training had hidden.

Several factions discovered that their healers were positioned too far from the people who actually needed them. Others realized that their scouts were treated as support until the moment their information became critical. A few commanders learned, painfully, that hesitation could cost more lives than making an imperfect decision quickly.

Those lessons followed everyone out of the rescue sectors.

The observation districts remained busy well into the evening as factions reviewed recordings and argued over what they should have done differently. Some commanders defended their choices. Others admitted where they had misjudged the situation.

Lucien did not interfere.

That was part of the value.

The rescue operations had forced them to think beyond defeating an enemy. They had to preserve people, protect movement, choose what could still be saved, and understand when continuing toward one objective would endanger another.

By the time the final rescue rankings settled, the purpose of the next stage had already become obvious.

Saving people from a crisis was one thing.

Keeping an entire force functional while the crisis continued to change was another.

•••

The battlefield simulations began the following day as the second and final part of the Team Trials.

The same registered faction forces and independent coalitions that had taken part in the rescue operations were allowed to continue, although commanders could adjust roles and formations based on what the previous stage had revealed.

Unlike the rescue operations, which had placed each force inside a contained crisis with lives to extract, the battlefield simulations would test whether those same forces could function across a larger and constantly changing warfront.

...

This time, the Team Trials expanded beyond isolated rescue scenarios.

Each registered force entered a battlefield where several problems were unfolding at once, and the situation could change depending on what they chose to prioritize.

A force defending a river crossing might begin by protecting an allied withdrawal, only to discover that enemy movement farther upstream threatened to cut off the retreat entirely.

Another group escorting supplies could find the safest road blocked and be forced to decide whether to clear it, abandon part of the convoy, or take a longer route while hostile forces closed in.

In a forest sector, a beast coalition had to keep communication between separated positions intact while attacks repeatedly forced parts of the formation to move.

Elsewhere, damaged defensive lines had to be held long enough for reinforcements to arrive, while other forces entered with allied units already trapped behind hostile positions.

The objectives differed, but the principle remained the same.

The battlefield would not wait for them to finish solving one problem before presenting the next.

And unlike a tournament designed around equal combatants, Lootwell never reduced anyone’s realm to make the encounters look fair.

The strength of the opposition, the pressure of the terrain, and the complexity of the mission were calibrated to the force being tested.

Stronger factions kept every advantage they had earned.

They simply faced situations difficult enough to demand that strength intelligently.

That was what Lucien wanted to see.

•••

The commanders quickly became more important than anyone had expected.

Powerful individuals could still change a battlefield.

That had never been in doubt.

The problem was that they could also ruin one.

A high-realm participant abandoned his assigned position after spotting an opportunity to destroy a large hostile formation.

He succeeded.

The spectators watched the enormous manifestation tear through the enemy line.

Then another hostile group crossed the position he had abandoned and reached the team’s supply route.

The damage he caused was greater than anything his companions had accomplished.

His team’s situation still became worse.

On another battlefield, a faction possessing fewer exceptional combatants behaved very differently.

Its strongest members remained where they had been placed.

Scouts continuously reported movement from the outer approaches.

Reserve forces did not rush toward every disturbance.

When the enemy finally committed its heaviest assault against the center, the commander moved the reserve group for the first time.

The line bent.

It did not break.

Their objective remained intact until the timer ended.

There was nothing particularly mysterious about the result.

The people on that battlefield had simply followed the same plan.

That turned out to be much rarer than it sounded.

•••

The independent coalitions produced some of the strangest successes.

They lacked generations of shared doctrine, which made their formations rougher than those of established factions.

They compensated by changing them faster.

One coalition discovered during the first hour that its original command arrangement was too slow.

The commander reorganized the group into smaller units and gave each one enough authority to respond without waiting for every minor instruction.

Another group had formed from participants originating from four different regions.

Their communication habits were completely different.

After two early mistakes, they simplified everything.

Reports became shorter.

Orders became clearer.

Their performance immediately improved.

Established factions noticed.

Some did not like what they noticed.

A few independent groups that had existed for only weeks were adapting faster than organizations that had existed for centuries.

Lucien considered that useful embarrassment.

•••

The beast factions created their own solutions.

Massive beasts became moving defensive positions.

Flying clans handled reconnaissance across enormous distances.

Smaller creatures moved through gaps larger beasts could not enter.

Some groups communicated through ordinary devices and formations.

Others combined them with bloodline signals, sound, scent, or instincts outsiders could barely follow.

The methods did not need to look the same.

They only needed to work.

That was another lesson the Thousand Races needed before anyone tried organizing them for a real war.

Unity did not require uniformity.

•••

One of the most watched simulations began with an allied unit already surrounded.

The participating force had enough strength to attack the encirclement directly.

Several members clearly wanted to.

Their commander refused.

A frontal assault could break the enemy line.

It would also leave the trapped unit inside the battlefield while the fighting continued around them.

The scouts found a weaker section farther south.

A formation team prepared a narrow breach.

A fast group struck the opposite side hard enough to draw attention.

Only then did the main rescue force move.

The opening lasted less than a minute.

It was enough.

The trapped unit escaped through the breach while the stronger combatants covered the withdrawal.

The enemy force recovered shortly afterward, but by then there was nothing important left for it to surround.

The simulation ended without the participating team destroying even half of the hostile force.

Their score was among the highest in the classification.

The response from the audience was immediate.

Several weeks earlier, many spectators would have remembered only the force capable of breaking the encirclement head-on.

Now they were arguing over whether the diversion had begun several seconds too early.

Lucien found that change more encouraging than the score.

•••

The Team Trials continued only long enough for every registered force to complete its assigned operations.

Lootwell did not add more stages merely because the competition could support them.

By then, the differences were already obvious.

Some factions possessed tremendous individual strength but poor command.

Others had excellent structures that allowed weaker members to contribute far beyond what their personal rankings suggested.

Independent coalitions proved that unfamiliar people could become functional units when roles and responsibilities were clear.

Several beast factions demonstrated battlefield methods nobody outside their races had seriously studied before.

The rescue operations had shown whether a team could protect lives while under pressure.

The battlefield simulations had shown whether that same team could remain organized when information changed, objectives conflicted, and stronger individuals had to obey decisions they might not personally prefer.

That was enough.

•••

When the final simulations concluded, the rankings appeared across the preserved region.

Overall placement still mattered.

So did the achievement boards.

Best Command Performance drew immediate attention.

Highest Rescue Rate followed.

Best Battlefield Coordination, Lowest Preventable Losses, and Best Logistics Management produced names that had rarely appeared during the combat-oriented portions of the competition.

A healer from a minor faction suddenly found herself being discussed across several continents.

A scout from an independent coalition gained more attention in one afternoon than he had earned during the entire individual competition.

Several commanders who had never been considered great fighters became names major factions wanted to investigate.

The contestants themselves reacted differently.

Some celebrated.

Others immediately began reviewing what had gone wrong.

A few commanders looked more exhausted after giving orders than the people who had actually fought.

Lucien could understand why.

Responsibility consumed its own kind of strength.

•••

The results mattered less to him than what happened afterward.

Factions began revising battlefield procedures before leaving the grounds.

Healers demanded better positions in their formations.

Scouts gained greater authority to interrupt command meetings when their reports were urgent.

Combat specialists who had once complained about retreat orders now wanted clear conditions for when they should withdraw.

Independent coalitions discussed remaining together after the competition ended.

Several groups from different continents exchanged communication methods and rescue procedures.

Nobody had become a perfect army in several days.

Lucien had never expected that.

What mattered was that their weaknesses were no longer theoretical.

They had seen them.

They had failed because of them.

And in many cases, they already knew how to improve.

Days of preparation had not transformed the Thousand Races.

The Team Trials did not accomplish that either.

But the competition had done something far more practical.

It had forced powerful people to practice being useful as part of something larger than themselves.

The individual stages had tested what they could do alone.

The Interweaving Trial had tested whether they could continue when their own Law was taken away.

The Team Trials had shown whether those same people could follow commands, preserve one another, and complete a battlefield objective without mistaking destruction for victory.

Lucien looked over the final records.

That was enough.

The Grand Intercontinental Competition was never supposed to become the center of everything.

It was preparation.

And with the rescue operations and battlefield simulations complete, the Thousand Races were beginning to look less like countless powerful factions gathered in one place and more like forces that might one day be capable of fighting the same war.