100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 740 - Breakthrough

Astraea had been the first to cross the threshold.

Her breakthrough had happened months earlier inside the Monster Small World.

Lucien still remembered arriving there shortly afterward and barely having enough time to understand what had changed before Astraea appeared in front of him in her human form.

She had been smiling so brightly that Lucien immediately knew something had happened.

Then she wrapped her arms around him and lifted him cleanly off the ground.

Lucien froze.

For someone who had faced Primordials, ancient monsters, and far stranger things without much hesitation, being picked up like an overgrown child somehow managed to embarrass him more than most of them.

Astraea did not seem to care.

Her joy was too obvious.

The pressure surrounding her had changed completely. What had once been overwhelming even among ancient beasts had crossed another boundary, becoming heavier and more complete in a way Lucien immediately recognized.

Extinction Grade.

Astraea had finally reached it.

Lucien’s embarrassment faded quickly.

He let her celebrate.

Considering how long she had existed and how difficult that final step had been, she deserved it.

More importantly, Lucien could feel exactly how stable the breakthrough was.

The blood pools had worked.

His own blood, mixed into them in carefully controlled amounts, had helped push an ancient existence past a barrier that had held for far too long.

Lucien smiled at the memory.

His blood had been spent well.

•••

Astraea’s breakthrough became the trigger.

Once one ancient beast crossed the threshold, the others seemed to become even more determined.

Condoriano followed.

Then Saber.

Kira reached it afterward, and the remaining ancient beasts began closing the distance one after another.

Even Vaelcar, who had joined much later than the others, advanced considerably under the same environment and eventually crossed into Extinction Grade as well.

None of the breakthroughs were casual.

Ancient beings did not simply wake up one morning and decide to become Extinction Grade.

They had accumulated power, instincts, Laws, experience, and monstrous foundations over spans of time that most races could barely imagine.

The Monster Small World had given them something they had lacked.

A place where they could push themselves constantly without worrying about devastating ordinary territories around them.

The blood pools supplied another advantage.

Lootwell’s resources filled the remaining gaps.

Once Astraea proved the barrier could be broken, the others attacked it with renewed confidence.

By now, each of them had spent enough time consolidating their new strength that the difference was obvious.

Their pressure was heavier.

Their movements contained less wasted power.

Even casual actions carried the weight of beings that could now stand beside threats once considered capable of ending entire civilizations.

By now, the ancient beasts were even more satisfied with the Concord Pact.

They had already benefited greatly from their connection with Lucien, but reaching Extinction Grade was different.

For beings who had remained at their previous level for so long, finally breaking through was enough to make the value of that decision obvious.

The blood pools, resources, and training available to them had given them the opportunity to push past limits that had held them back for ages.

Lucien could feel their satisfaction clearly.

At this point, none of them had any reason to regret forming the Concord Pact with him.

•••

The ancient beasts were not the only ones who had changed.

The younger monsters inside the Monster Small World had grown with them.

Calling them a collection of monsters no longer felt accurate.

They resembled an army.

The difference was not merely strength.

The ancient beasts had spent months forcing organization into creatures that originally understood battle mostly through instinct.

Now formations appeared naturally when commands were given.

Larger monsters knew when to anchor a position instead of charging forward.

Faster species understood when scouting mattered more than killing whatever happened to be nearby.

Predatory monsters learned to hold themselves back even when blood filled the battlefield.

More intelligent species had begun interpreting orders rather than waiting for every instruction to be explained.

That was the improvement Lucien valued most.

An army that obeyed only literal commands was fragile.

Real battle changed too quickly.

He wanted monsters capable of understanding intent.

If they were told to protect a route, they needed to know when holding the route required advancing, when it required retreating, and when preserving the people behind them mattered more than killing another enemy.

The ancient beasts had trained that into them relentlessly.

Communication had improved along with it.

Species that once barely tolerated one another could now operate together.

Instinct had not disappeared.

Lucien did not want it to.

A monster that lost the qualities making it dangerous in the first place would be pointless.

They simply had better control over those instincts.

That distinction mattered more as their strength increased.

Many had already reached Eternal.

Lucien had been especially strict before allowing any of them to take that step.

Becoming Eternal was not merely another increase in destructive power.

The stronger a creature became, the more disastrous poor self-control could become.

Lucien refused to send a monster into the void for its Eternal breakthrough simply because it had accumulated enough power.

It had to meet Lootwell’s standards first.

It needed enough intelligence to understand orders.

Enough control not to attack allies when hunger or instinct surged.

Enough discipline to operate around civilians and weaker races without becoming a walking disaster.

Only then would Lucien approve the advancement.

He wanted powerful monsters.

He did not want an army of uncontrollable catastrophes that happened to recognize his name.

Balance still mattered.

•••

His pets had benefited just as much.

Most of the creatures originally born from Monster Cards had reached Eternal earlier than the ordinary monster forces.

Skittles was among them. So were Oreo, Nyxis, several of the gargoyles, and many of Lucien’s other long-time companions.

Their growth had been considerable.

Skittles had become particularly ridiculous.

Lucien had known that high-level Eternals could create new life through their blood and essence.

What he had not expected was for the slimes to gain that ability almost immediately after reaching Eternal.

The process was expensive.

Creating another slime meant surrendering a portion of the accumulated essence.

But Skittles could recover it with enough time and resources.

The first time Lucien saw the result, he still stared for considerably longer than necessary.

Skittles had not produced another Rainbow Slime.

Instead, smaller slimes had appeared. Each carried one of the six colors represented within Skittles.

Skittles had been able to split its body before thanks to the skill Split Body, but this was different.

This was more like giving birth to entirely new slimes.

They were not as special as their creator.

That did not make them weak.

More importantly, once Skittles recovered the essence it had spent, it could do it again.

Lucien looked at the new slimes with growing satisfaction.

Apparently, the Slime Legion had found another way to become ridiculous.

•••

Oreo developed something similar.

The Light and Dark aspects within the slime could be separated into new offspring, producing Solar Slimes and Shadow Slimes rather than another slime identical to Oreo.

Nyxis followed with Void and Temporal Slimes.

Spryn and Drayn remained the strange exceptions.

Neither had produced another Life Slime or Death Slime.

They could feel the possibility.

The structure existed.

The problem was their essence.

Whatever fragment of the Primordial of Eternity remained within the two of them was not enough that attempting to separate it into another living being failed before the process properly began.

Lucien refused to force it.

Instead, he sent both slimes to Deadman.

Deadman’s connection to Eternity had changed considerably since becoming its new successor.

If anyone could help Spryn and Drayn understand the essence inherited from the Primordial of Eternity, it was probably him.

•••

Then there was Morphy.

Morphy had spent an absurd amount of time helping Lootwell construct things.

Whenever a massive project appeared, the Mimic Slime somehow ended up becoming part of the workforce.

Entire structures had benefited from its ability to imitate forms and reproduce useful working bodies.

For once, there were no continent-scale construction projects demanding every available hand.

Morphy finally had time to train seriously.

Lucien immediately encouraged it.

Partly because Morphy deserved the chance to grow.

Mostly because he had another reason.

If Eternal Slimes could reproduce through essence...

Lucien wanted more Mimic Slimes.

A great many more.

He imagined entire construction crews capable of changing shape according to whatever work was required.

The possibilities were ridiculous.

Morphy had always been useful.

A legion of Morphies might become one of Lootwell’s most unreasonable labor forces.

Lucien considered that a perfectly respectable military objective.

•••

The Monster Small World no longer looked like the place he had created years earlier.

Ancient beasts carrying Extinction-grade pressure moved through enormous territories.

Eternal monsters trained younger forces beneath them.

Gargoyles crossed the skies in disciplined formations.

Slime colonies multiplied in districts specifically prepared to survive whatever unusual abilities their parents passed down.

And throughout it all, the monsters behaved less like isolated creatures gathered by coincidence and more like something belonging to the same force.

Lootwell had armies across the five continents.

It had Automatons.

It had faction allies, ancient beings, and countless trained practitioners.

Now it had this as well.

Lucien stood above one of the training regions and watched two monster formations collide under the supervision of Saber.

The impact shook the distant mountains.

Neither side lost formation.

Lucien smiled.

When the Black Mass finally stopped testing the borders and came properly...

It was going to find a very different world waiting for it.