100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 782 - Disclosure

As the temporal zones expanded, Lucien opened them further.

Dawnbinder entered. So did the Solar Concordium. The Lunareth Sect followed, along with other factions that had repeatedly stood beside Lootwell.

Lucien refused to pretend every group improved at the same pace.

Some adapted quickly.

Others needed months simply to unlearn habits that had worked against weaker enemies.

A few talented people entered with impressive reputations and discovered that reputation did very little against a simulation designed specifically to exploit whatever they were proudest of.

That humbled them.

Usually.

Occasionally, it made them angry.

Those people were given another simulation.

Lucien found that repeated failure was remarkably educational.

The important thing was that progress continued.

Every internal time produced people who reacted faster, coordinated better, and understood the difference between individual strength and useful strength.

Even Lucien occasionally found the overall change difficult to measure.

He would leave a training region for what felt like a short period, return later, and discover that a formation team had solved a problem he had mentally filed away for the future.

The temporal zones were no longer merely accelerating people.

They were accelerating institutions.

That mattered more.

•••

Lucien did not allow everything happening inside his inner universe to distract him from the five continents.

The unease outside had never truly disappeared. The Black Mass was still changing, and every newly exposed stretch of the corrupted supercontinent gave people another reason to speculate about what would happen next.

Communication networks filled with theories almost as quickly as official reports could correct them. Some insisted the invasion would begin within days, while others claimed the transformation might continue for years.

None of them knew.

Lucien understood why the uncertainty was becoming a problem.

Silence had been useful when Aurelia’s divinations were too fragile to reveal without risking unnecessary changes, but the situation had already shifted.

The Black Mass was openly transforming now, and the Thousand Races had seen enough with their own eyes to know that Lootwell had been preparing for something long before the rest of the world understood why.

Keeping everything hidden no longer served the same purpose.

So Lucien decided to tell them part of the truth.

He did not reveal Aurelia’s identity. There was no reason to place that kind of attention on her, especially when enemies might eventually realize how valuable her ability had become.

Instead, Lootwell announced that it possessed access to a diviner whose visions had helped guide some of its preparations over the years.

Lucien made the limitations clear from the beginning.

Divination did not reveal an unchangeable future. What someone saw was only one possible direction shaped by the circumstances that existed when the vision occurred.

People could make different choices. Factions could alter their plans. Enemies could react to information they were never supposed to receive. Even the act of revealing a future could introduce enough variables to make that future useless as a guide.

That was why Lootwell had never treated Aurelia’s visions as prophecy.

They were warnings.

Possibilities.

Something to prepare around without assuming the universe had already decided what would happen.

The explanation answered more questions than Lucien expected.

For years, people had wondered why Lootwell kept preparing for disasters that had not yet appeared.

They remembered the training facilities, the evacuation routes, the defensive networks, the simulations, and the constant insistence that factions learn how to cooperate before cooperation became necessary.

Now, for many of them, those decisions finally made sense.

The reaction was not entirely grateful.

Some people were relieved to learn that Lootwell had not simply been preparing for catastrophe out of paranoia. Others were frustrated that such information had been kept from them for so long.

Lucien had expected both.

He did not blame anyone for being uncomfortable with the idea that Lootwell had known more than it revealed. If their positions were reversed, he probably would have asked the same questions.

But he also knew what would have happened if every uncertain vision had been announced the moment Aurelia saw it.

Kingdoms would have changed policy.

Factions would have stockpiled resources.

People would have fled places that might never have been threatened.

Enemies could have reacted to plans they were never meant to know.

The future would have shifted before anyone understood whether they had prevented something or simply created something worse.

Lucien would rather explain the secrecy afterward than bury people because he had revealed too much too early.

Once the reasoning was clear, even many of those who disliked it understood why the decision had been made.

Then Lucien told them what mattered now.

According to the latest divination, the greater war was not about to begin immediately. The Black Mass was still transforming, and the forces within the corrupted supercontinent appeared to be reorganizing rather than preparing for a full invasion.

That did not mean the five continents would be left alone.

Smaller hostile forces might come before the true war began. There could be raids, infiltration attempts, probes against their defenses, or other efforts meant to create instability while both sides continued preparing.

Lucien did not hide that possibility, but neither did he allow it to become another reason for panic.

Lootwell had spent years preparing for exactly that kind of pressure.

When his message finally reached the five continents, his voice remained calm.

"If hostile forces come, Lootwell will meet them."

People across cities, sects, settlements, and distant territories listened.

Lucien continued without trying to turn the announcement into some grand declaration.

"We are not asking anyone to pretend there is no danger. There is. But danger does not mean that everything we built suddenly stops mattering."

He reminded them that the defensive networks were active, that evacuation systems had already been prepared, and that every faction willing to defend its people would have Lootwell standing beside it.

If civilians needed to move, the Lifeline Routes would open.

If corruption approached populated regions, Tidewatch and the purification networks would respond.

If hostile forces came to test the five continents before the greater war began, then those forces would be facing a world that had spent years learning how not to collapse under pressure.

Lucien let that settle before finishing.

"The war has not begun, so do not live as if it already has."

That was the part people remembered.

Not because it promised that nothing would happen.

Lucien had made no such promise.

It reminded them that preparation was meant to protect life, not replace it.

Over the following days, the effect became visible.

The training grounds remained busy, but the markets did too. Families continued checking emergency plans without abandoning their homes. Children returned to lessons, traders resumed ordinary routes where it was still safe, and factions maintained their heightened readiness without turning every hour into an emergency.

The fear never disappeared completely.

Lucien had not expected it to.

What changed was the way people carried it.

The Black Mass no longer dictated every conversation or every decision. The Thousand Races remained watchful, but they also continued living.

That was enough for Lucien.

Inside his inner universe, weeks of training continued accumulating while barely any time passed outside. Across the five continents, preparation continued without swallowing the lives it was meant to preserve.

Somewhere beyond the receding darkness, the enemy was also using the time before the greater conflict began.

Lucien knew that.

He simply intended to use his better.