100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 741 - Training

Astraea and the others had not been the only ancient beasts watching those breakthroughs.

Once several members of the first group reached Extinction Grade, the remaining ancient beings outside the Monster Small World stopped treating Lucien’s method as an interesting possibility.

It had become proof.

Lucien could help ancient beasts cross that threshold.

That changed everything.

By the time the first group finished consolidating their strength, another batch had entered the Monster Small World.

Some had spent ages stuck below Extinction Grade.

Others had once believed they would eventually cross the barrier on their own.

Watching Astraea, Condoriano, Saber, Kira, and the others succeed one after another made that confidence considerably harder to maintain.

Jealousy helped.

The Red Dragon felt it more openly than most.

Several ancient beings it considered peers had already surpassed it.

That was apparently unacceptable.

Now it sat inside one of the blood pools with the others, its body submerged beneath the crimson liquid while Creation surged through every drop.

Lucien’s blood was mixed into the pool.

Even in diluted amounts, the effect was obvious.

The blood of an Eternal already carried qualities ordinary blood did not possess.

Lucien’s was stranger still.

Creation spread through the ancient bodies soaking within the pools, nourishing weaknesses that had remained untouched for centuries and encouraging changes that brute accumulation alone had failed to produce.

The Red Dragon had stopped complaining shortly after entering.

Lucien considered that a promising sign.

•••

Of course, none of them had been allowed inside immediately.

Lucien was generous.

He was not stupid.

Helping another ancient beast reach Extinction Grade meant potentially creating something powerful enough to devastate enormous territories if it ever turned hostile.

The Millennia War had already taught the world what happened when beings at that level chose the wrong side.

Lucien had no intention of contributing to a second version of that disaster.

So he established one condition before anyone received access to the blood pools.

A Concord Pact.

Those willing to form one could stay.

Those unwilling could leave.

There was no negotiation beyond that.

Lucien did not need every ancient beast in the world.

He needed allies.

If he was going to spend his own blood, resources, and time helping someone cross into Extinction Grade, he wanted certainty that the result would not eventually be pointed back at the Thousand Races.

Some complained.

Lucien expected that.

Ancient beings did not enjoy being given conditions, especially by someone vastly younger than them.

The complaints lasted until the Red Dragon stepped forward first.

That changed the atmosphere.

The Red Dragon was hardly known for surrendering its pride easily.

If even it was willing to form the pact for the opportunity, continuing to protest became considerably less convincing.

One after another, the others agreed.

Even Dark Shade eventually accepted.

No Concord Pact meant no breakthrough.

The decision was simple enough.

•••

The pact offered benefits of its own.

The ancient beasts discovered that quickly.

Once connected, a Concord Link formed between them with Lucien serving as the central anchor.

It was not ordinary communication.

Words did not need to pass through the air.

Intent could move directly through the link, allowing those connected by the pact to understand one another without shouting across a battlefield or relying on communication devices.

Only members of the Concord Pact could hear it.

That alone made it useful.

Ancient beasts were enormous.

Their battles were often louder than natural disasters.

Trying to coordinate verbally while mountains were collapsing and Laws were tearing through the sky was not particularly efficient.

The Concord Link removed that problem.

Warnings could pass instantly.

Positions could be shared.

A retreat, interception, or change in target could spread through the group without alerting anyone outside the pact.

The Red Dragon tested the link several times before finally admitting that it was useful.

Lucien considered that close enough to praise.

•••

The transformation benefit drew even more attention.

Members of the pact could adopt forms based on their partner.

For the ancient beasts, that meant something unexpectedly practical.

They could become human.

The first attempts were uneven.

Some copied the form completely.

Others were less comfortable with forms that left them without their usual scales and natural armor.

The Red Dragon belonged to the second group.

When it finally transformed, the enormous dragon body disappeared and was replaced by a tall humanoid figure.

The horns remained. So did the tail.

Lucien stared at him for several seconds.

The Red Dragon looked pleased with himself.

Apparently, becoming human was acceptable as long as nobody forgot that he was still a dragon.

The others experimented afterward.

Some kept horns, scales, unusual eyes, tails, claws, or other features.

Others preferred completely human appearances.

What surprised several of them was how useful the smaller bodies could be.

They could enter cities without destroying streets.

They could use buildings without requiring someone to rebuild the entrance afterward.

Training beside humanoid forces became easier.

Even controlling power at smaller scales became a useful exercise.

The transformations were not replacements for their true bodies.

Their original forms remained better for many kinds of combat.

They were simply another option.

For beings that had spent most of their lives solving problems through size and overwhelming force, having more options was not a bad thing.

Before long, even the most stubborn among them had grown accustomed to changing forms when convenient.

Then the real training began.

•••

Lucien benefited from the Concord Pact as well.

The Beast Forms had become one of its more interesting advantages.

Through the connection, Lucien could temporarily take on aspects of the beasts linked to him.

He had experimented with several already.

The results varied dramatically.

With Astraea and the ancient beasts he trusted most, the transformations were stable.

Power flowed naturally.

Physical traits formed without resistance.

Their instincts remained distinct enough that Lucien could use them without feeling as though his own body was rejecting the change.

Newer connections were different.

A Beast Form could still appear, but it felt less complete.

Features shifted unevenly.

Power fluctuated.

Sometimes the transformation demanded considerably more concentration than it should have.

Lucien understood why.

The Concord Pact was not merely a contract written onto two existences.

The connection mattered.

Trust mattered.

The better Lucien and the other party understood and accepted one another, the more naturally the Beast Form responded.

That meant he could not simply gather ancient beasts, form dozens of pacts, and immediately use all of their abilities perfectly.

Lucien actually liked that limitation.

Anything involving this much borrowed power probably deserved one.

So he trained.

He spent time with the newer members.

He learned how their Laws moved, how their bodies reacted under pressure, and how they preferred to fight.

Slowly, the unstable Beast Forms began improving.

•••

Lucien did not allow all of that to replace his own training.

No matter how many allies he gathered, how many Laws the Tree of Creation helped him understand, or how many forms the Concord Pact offered, his foundation still belonged to him.

Living Creation remained his focus.

The other Laws required much less direct attention now.

The Tree of Creation continued feeding knowledge into him, organizing fragments of understanding and steadily improving his comprehension without demanding that Lucien divide himself across every Law he possessed.

That allowed him to concentrate almost entirely on Living Creation.

Progress came steadily.

Sometimes through direct experimentation.

Sometimes through creating things he had never attempted before.

Sometimes simply through realizing that a concept he once treated as complicated could be expressed through a much cleaner clause.

His control improved.

His efficiency improved with it.

Creation responded faster.

Structures that once required several steps could now be assembled almost instinctively.

More importantly, Lucien’s understanding of what Living Creation actually meant continued deepening.

It was no longer simply about creating matter, life, weapons, or constructs.

Every successful experiment pushed him closer to understanding the authority beneath all of them.

Lucien still could not see the wall separating him from Extinction Grade.

Not yet.

That did not worry him.

If there was one thing he had learned from watching Astraea and the others, it was that a threshold did not need to be visible before someone began approaching it.

His progress remained steady.

The ancient beasts were growing.

The monster armies were growing.

The Thousand Races were preparing.

And Lucien himself was still moving forward.

There was no reason to force what was already working.

For now, patience was enough.