100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 747 - Invasion

For months, the five continents had been preparing for a war that refused to begin.

That had almost become its own kind of normal.

The pressure remained.

Everyone could feel it.

Yet the expected blow never came.

Until the first reports arrived concerning something no one had been watching closely enough.

They were not about the five continents.

They were about what was happening in the void.

•••

Lucien was reviewing several Grace System expansion reports when a priority message entered his communication network.

He opened it without much concern at first.

A few breaths later, the other reports were forgotten.

His expression gradually hardened.

The message had come from one of the Shadow Spies planted within a major faction.

One of that faction’s conquered worlds was under attack.

Black Mass monsters had appeared beyond the outer barrier in numbers large enough to force the stationed defenders into battle.

The world had long been protected by layered formations and a spatial barrier.

Those defenses had held at first.

Then the Black Mass began striking them repeatedly.

One section of the outer barrier had already fractured.

The faction had immediately dispatched several elders to reinforce the defenders stationed outside the world.

There had been casualties during the fighting.

Lucien read the report twice.

Then another message arrived.

Different faction.

Different conquered world.

Same enemy.

His eyes narrowed.

Before he could finish that one, a third report entered.

Then a fourth.

The pattern became impossible to dismiss.

Lucien immediately pulled the Shadow Information Network’s recent intelligence into one place.

The reports came from different continents and different powers. Some of the factions involved were allies. Others barely tolerated one another. Their conquered worlds were scattered across distant regions of the void and had no obvious geographical connection.

Yet all of them had begun encountering Black Mass activity within a remarkably short period.

Some attacks were still small enough to contain.

Others were not.

One mineral world had lost two outer defensive stations after Black Mass monsters overwhelmed the guards positioned beyond its barrier.

Another faction reported that creatures had gathered around the main void route leading toward one of its conquered worlds, forcing reinforcements to fight their way through before they could even reach the boundary.

A third world’s barrier had been struck hard enough that three sections failed in succession before emergency formations sealed the gaps.

One faction had already lost an elder while preventing Black Mass monsters from breaking through.

The details varied.

The direction did not.

Black Mass activity in the void was increasing.

And it was no longer limited to wandering creatures or isolated sightings.

Something was attacking the outer defenses of the conquered worlds.

•••

Lucien leaned back.

The room around him remained quiet, but his attention had already moved far beyond Lootwell.

Conquered worlds were not decorative possessions.

Many large factions relied on them.

Some worlds produced ores that could barely be found on the five continents.

Others supplied medicinal resources, rare monster materials, special plants, energy crystals, or substances needed for formations and high level crafting.

A powerful faction could sometimes sustain entire branches of its economy through only a handful of such worlds.

Those places also held populations, industries, warehouses, transport hubs, and generations of investment.

Their barriers existed for precisely this reason.

The void was dangerous.

Even during peaceful periods, strange creatures, spatial storms, and unstable phenomena could threaten a world from outside.

Against the Black Mass, however, ordinary precautions were being tested in a way they had never been designed to endure.

If a barrier failed completely, the monsters would gain direct access to everything behind it.

No faction could simply wait for that to happen.

They had to respond before the boundary broke.

That was precisely what was happening.

Elders who had been preparing for the approaching crisis on the five continents were leaving for the void.

Elite combat forces followed.

Formation masters were being reassigned to repair damaged barriers.

Additional resources were being sent outward to reinforce defensive stations.

None of those decisions were irrational.

That was what bothered Lucien.

The Black Mass did not need to conquer those worlds immediately.

It only needed to threaten them convincingly enough that the factions had no choice but to react.

•••

Lucien did not act immediately.

There was still a chance this was a trap.

So he waited a little longer, watching for more reports before making his move.

More intelligence continued arriving through the following seconds.

Lucien compared the timing.

He compared the targets.

He compared how the Black Mass behaved around each boundary.

Some attacks focused directly on the barriers.

Others targeted defensive nodes floating beyond the worlds.

Several groups repeatedly struck the same weakened sections instead of spreading themselves evenly.

In one case, Black Mass monsters ignored an approaching faction fleet long enough to damage a spatial anchor supporting the outer formation.

That detail stayed with Lucien.

These were not merely creatures throwing themselves at the nearest obstacle.

At least some of them were choosing important points.

That suggested several possibilities.

Perhaps they were trying to break through and seize the resources inside.

That was the simplest explanation.

Lucien did not think it was enough.

The attacks could also force the Thousand Races to split their attention.

They could drain barrier resources before the true war began.

They could make every faction keep powerful elders beside its conquered worlds instead of concentrating them around the five continents.

They could test which defensive formations were weakest.

They could measure how quickly reinforcements arrived.

How many Eternals responded.

Which void routes they used.

Which barriers recovered fastest.

How much pressure was required before a faction committed its strongest people.

Lucien’s fingers stopped against the table.

That possibility was worse.

An invasion did not always begin by breaching a wall.

Sometimes it began by learning exactly how many times the wall needed to be struck.

•••

The last large confrontation with the Black Mass in the void had allowed different powers to concentrate their forces.

That advantage was disappearing.

A single large monster force could be surrounded.

Strong fighters could gather quickly.

This was different.

The conquered worlds were separated by the void.

Some were close enough that travel between them remained practical.

Others were separated by enormous distances.

Their barriers had been constructed independently.

Their defensive doctrines differed.

Their reinforcement routes differed.

If ten factions were attacked in ten different directions, combining their strength became much more difficult.

If twenty were attacked, the problem became obvious.

And if the number continued increasing...

Lucien’s expression darkened.

The five continents could remain perfectly untouched while their strongest defenders were slowly scattered across the void.

•••

Lucien finally acted.

There was still a chance the attacks were meant to lure their strongest forces into the void.

But he could not keep waiting while more defenders died before the real war had even begun.

If this was a trap, then he would respond carefully.

If it was not, delaying any longer would only give the Black Mass more time to press the advantage.

Lucien contacted the affected factions through official channels.

He did not simply send his people toward their conquered worlds.

Those were still sovereign territories.

Even during a crisis, suddenly appearing beside another faction’s protected boundary with several ancient Extinction Grade beasts was an excellent way to create a second problem.

Permission arrived faster than expected.

Some factions accepted immediately.

Others requested details first, then agreed as soon as they learned what kind of reinforcements Lucien intended to provide.

Nobody was especially interested in defending diplomatic pride while Black Mass monsters hammered at barriers protecting generations of wealth.

Lucien activated the Concord Link.

The ancient beasts responded almost immediately.

Astraea was among the first.

She had spent months consolidating her strength after reaching Extinction Grade, and although she had participated in training and preparation, facing genuine Black Mass enemies was different.

Several others felt the same.

The ancient beasts had survived eras of conflict.

They understood what happened when an enemy was allowed to keep striking defensive lines without consequences.

Assignments spread through the network.

Lucien matched each group carefully.

He did not send every ancient beast toward one location.

That would only help the enemy divide them more efficiently.

He distributed them according to the danger level of each boundary, pairing them with faction forces already present and ensuring that every deployment maintained access to Lootwell’s emergency transportation network.

Astraea departed with one group.

Condoriano and Vaelcar took another.

Saber and Kira joined separate responses.

Other Concord Pact beasts followed where their abilities were most suitable.

Lucien retained enough strength around the five continents.

That was important.

He refused to answer a distraction by emptying the place the enemy might actually want.