100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 770 - What Changed

Lucien looked toward Lootwell in the distance.

People moved through the city as they always had.

Training fields remained active. Instant Teleportation formations flashed. Merchant districts stayed crowded.

Someone somewhere was probably arguing with Clara about chapel placement.

It looked peaceful.

That was the strange part.

The world had become calmer precisely when the things beyond it were becoming more dangerous.

Lucien had spent years building layers of protection around everyone.

Now Alanthuriel was telling him that Extinction Grade was not some triumphant endpoint.

It was simply the point where Lucien finally possessed enough connection to reality that the Abyss could no longer dispose of him casually without causing consequences.

Lucien almost laughed.

Apparently, survival had qualifications.

He had just passed one.

•••

The pressure settled over him again.

He had felt it before.

Every time another threat appeared, another responsibility seemed to find its way toward Lootwell.

The five continents. The conquered worlds. The Liberators. The Grace System. The ancient beasts. The Black Mass.

Now the Prime Continuum.

And apparently, at some point, Alanthuriel intended to involve him directly in resisting whatever the Abyss planned to do with the timelines.

For one brief moment, Lucien understood Vorren perfectly.

Leaving sounded attractive.

He imagined disappearing into some forgotten corner of the universe where nobody knew his name, nobody needed a system repaired, and no Primordial entity had any reason to care whether he existed.

Then he remembered that Vorren had already tried something similar.

The danger had followed the universe instead.

Lucien abandoned the fantasy.

Alanthuriel watched him quietly.

Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.

"You are thinking as though you must carry everything yourself again."

Lucien looked at him.

Alanthuriel continued before he could answer.

"You do not."

His voice lost some of its earlier severity.

"You have people you can trust with you, remember."

Lucien’s gaze shifted toward Lootwell again.

That was true.

More true now than it had ever been.

There had been a time when every dangerous problem eventually became his problem because nobody else possessed the strength or authority to handle it.

That was no longer the world they lived in.

Astraea and the ancient beasts could protect entire fronts.

Lootwell had commanders capable of operating without him.

The Liberators were growing rapidly.

His parents had reached Eternal.

The Grace System could guide millions without Lucien personally answering every request.

Voidwatch allowed distant worlds to defend themselves without begging Lootwell for help every time something moved in the dark.

Even Vorren had begun walking toward danger instead of immediately fleeing from it.

Lucien had spent years trying to build a world that did not collapse when he looked away.

Perhaps he should occasionally remember that he had succeeded.

Alanthuriel spoke again.

"You should trust them."

Then his gaze sharpened.

"And yourself."

Lucien raised an eyebrow.

Alanthuriel seemed amused by the reaction.

"If there is anyone in this timeline capable of repairing what should not be repairable, it would be someone as paradoxical as you."

Lucien nearly laughed.

There was that word again.

Alanthuriel had used descriptions like that before.

Lucien still did not understand what exactly made him one.

His first instinct remained the obvious explanation.

Earth.

His previous life.

The fact that his existence had begun somewhere outside the framework that currently recognized him.

Perhaps that was enough to create irregularities.

Perhaps not.

Lucien had long since learned that ancient beings could say one sentence and accidentally create several years of questions.

He decided not to ask.

Alanthuriel probably would not answer anyway.

The weight did not disappear, but it became manageable again.

That was enough.

Lucien looked down at his hands.

Extinction Grade authority remained there.

Living Creation moved more naturally than before.

His Divine Energy Core had grown.

The Tree of Creation could finally regenerate Fruits.

The forces under Lootwell were stronger than they had ever been.

Whatever came next, he would not face it as the same person who had nearly died by merely being stared at by Oblivion.

That mattered.

Alanthuriel watched him reach that conclusion.

Then he nodded.

"You are doing well."

Lucien looked up.

Praise from Alanthuriel was rare enough that he briefly wondered whether something had gone wrong with Time.

Alanthuriel ignored the suspicion on his face.

"Continue what you are doing."

He turned as though preparing to leave.

Then stopped.

"And boy."

Lucien waited.

"You should examine yourself more carefully."

Lucien frowned.

Alanthuriel looked directly at him.

"Inside you."

Those words made Lucien’s expression change.

Alanthuriel continued.

"You have changed more than you realize."

Lucien instinctively turned his awareness inward.

His Divine Energy Core. The Tree of Creation. The worlds contained within. The Omnigenesis Vessel.

All of them had changed over time.

He had examined each of them repeatedly.

At least, he thought he had.

"What am I supposed to look for?"

Alanthuriel smiled.

It was exactly the expression of someone who had no intention of answering.

"You will know when you find it."

Lucien stared at him.

Then Alanthuriel vanished.

Space and Time folded together so smoothly that even Lucien’s newly improved senses could only follow part of the transition.

He remained standing there for several seconds.

Then he sighed.

Ancient experts truly had an extraordinary talent for arriving with bad news, offering incomplete explanations, and disappearing before anyone could ask the useful questions.

Lucien respected the consistency.

•••

Eventually, he returned to his residence.

He did not begin meditating immediately.

For once, he simply sat.

There was something inside him that Lucien had somehow failed to notice despite possessing Parallel Thoughts, Perfect Calculation, and an increasingly unreasonable awareness of his own inner world.

That last part annoyed him most.

He leaned back.

"Fine."

Nobody answered.

Lucien looked inward again.

He had no intention of chasing Alanthuriel’s clue recklessly.

But he would examine himself.

The Omnigenesis Vessel had already shown him that Extinction Grade was not the end of whatever path his body was following.

The Tree of Creation had just become more complete.

Living Creation had crossed another threshold.

His connection to the universe had apparently become strong enough that even the Abyss now had to consider consequences before killing him.

Those things might be separate.

Lucien doubted it.

Whatever was happening inside him had grew quietly while his attention remained fixed on everything outside.

He closed his eyes.

Whatever the Prime Continuum brought would come when it came.

The same was true for the Black Mass.

Lucien could not control the timing of either.

What he could control was what kind of person would be waiting when they arrived.

And if he truly was one of the people tied to the survival of this timeline, then he had one very selfish reason to keep preparing.

Lucien wanted to live.

That had always been enough reason to become stronger.

Now he simply had more people he intended to keep alive with him.