100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 794 - Reason

After some time, another thought surfaced.

This one was more personal.

Lucien opened his eyes.

"Senior Alan."

Alanthuriel looked toward him.

"Did you help me because you thought I could become an Omniarch?"

Alanthuriel’s expression changed.

Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.

It was a tired expression.

"I wondered when you would ask that."

Lucien waited.

Alanthuriel looked at him for a long moment before shaking his head.

"Our first meeting was not something I arranged."

Lucien remembered the Stillness Prison.

He had been vastly weaker then.

His Omnigenesis Vessel had not even existed.

The inner universe had been nothing like what it was now.

Alanthuriel could not have looked at that version of Lucien and somehow known where everything would lead.

"Our paths crossed because circumstances placed us in the same place," Alanthuriel continued. "Call it fate if you prefer."

He paused.

"I knew you were unusual long before I understood how unusual."

Lucien smiled slightly.

That sounded much more believable.

Alanthuriel continued.

"And you give me too much credit."

Lucien raised an eyebrow.

"I warned you when warning was useful. I interfered when circumstances required it. Most of the road between those moments was crossed by your own feet."

Lucien considered arguing.

He decided against it.

Alanthuriel had saved him from ignorance more than once, but he understood the point.

There had never been someone quietly arranging every step ahead of him.

That realization removed a tension Lucien had not known he was carrying.

Alanthuriel looked back toward the void.

"I am also not of one mind with the other Arch-Lords."

That much Lucien had known for a long time.

"What they want is stability through control."

Alanthuriel’s eyes became distant.

"I have watched controlled things fail for longer than you have been alive."

He turned toward Lucien again.

"If an Omniarch is ever born, I would rather that existence stand because no one succeeded in placing strings upon it."

Lucien understood.

Alanthuriel continued in the same calm voice.

"An Omniarch who belongs to another is merely a greater weapon."

His gaze sharpened.

"One worthy of that realm should be the existence holding the threads."

Lucien smiled.

That sounded considerably more like Alanthuriel.

•••

Something inside Lucien finally settled.

He had wondered more than once why Alanthuriel continued appearing whenever the situation became dangerous enough to matter.

Part of him had suspected there was some hidden calculation beneath it.

Perhaps there still was.

Alanthuriel was far too ancient for Lucien to believe he understood every motive the man possessed.

Yet he no longer felt as though he had been walking through someone else’s carefully prepared path.

Alanthuriel wanted him to reach farther.

That was enough.

Lucien looked down at his hand.

Omniarch.

The word no longer felt like a distant curiosity.

It had become a possible destination.

A terrifying one.

He thought about his parents, important people, his companions, Lootwell, and the countless people now living inside his universe.

Even the two new lives beginning a race on a world that had never existed before.

The reason he needed strength had never changed.

Every new realm simply increased the scale of what threatened those people.

If Primordial became necessary, he would reach it.

If Omniarch stood beyond that, then he would walk toward Omniarch.

Lucien released a quiet breath.

He was becoming tired of discovering that the ceiling had another ceiling above it.

Alanthuriel glanced at him.

Lucien smiled faintly.

"Senior, I really thought becoming Extinction Grade would give me some time to relax."

Alanthuriel actually laughed.

"You chose a poor universe for that."

Lucien could not argue.

•••

Alanthuriel’s expression soon returned to seriousness.

"Continue what you are doing."

Lucien looked toward him.

"Your world, your people, the strength you have gathered around yourself. Do not abandon those things because you have learned the name of a higher summit."

Lucien nodded.

That warning was unnecessary, but he understood why Alanthuriel gave it.

The discovery of Omniarch could easily make someone obsess over reaching it.

Lucien had no intention of becoming that careless.

Alanthuriel continued.

"If the Abyss moves against this timeline in a way you need to know, I will inform you."

Then his gaze changed.

Lucien noticed immediately.

"There is something else?"

Alanthuriel remained silent for several seconds.

"When the time comes, I may require your strength."

Lucien’s expression grew serious.

Alanthuriel rarely asked him for anything.

That made the statement heavier than it otherwise would have been.

"What kind of strength?"

"I cannot tell you yet."

Lucien expected that answer.

Alanthuriel looked toward the distant void.

"It concerns whether this timeline survives what is coming."

Lucien felt his chest tighten again.

Then Alanthuriel added quietly,

"And there are circumstances where you may be able to do what neither the Abyss nor the Primordials can."

Lucien did not respond immediately.

He closed his eyes for a moment.

There would have been a time when those words would have sounded absurd.

Now he had an independent universe inside him, an Omnigenesis Vessel he still barely understood, and a possible path toward a realm the universe had never produced.

Absurdity had become an increasingly poor reason to dismiss something.

Lucien opened his eyes.

"Then I will keep preparing."

Alanthuriel nodded.

That was all either of them needed to say.

•••

Alanthuriel finally looked around the surrounding void.

"We should leave."

Lucien glanced toward him.

"Is something wrong?"

"We have remained here long enough."

Alanthuriel looked toward a distant region of darkness.

"This area lies closer to the Abyss than I normally bring you."

Lucien followed his gaze.

Only then did he notice it.

The darkness ahead was wrong.

The void had always been dark, but this was different.

There was depth to it.

Layer upon layer seemed to exist where his senses insisted there should only be emptiness. The longer Lucien stared, the more he felt that something beyond the visible darkness might eventually notice him staring back.

He immediately stopped extending his perception in that direction.

So that explained the uncomfortable feeling he had ignored earlier.

Alanthuriel watched him.

Lucien looked at him.

"Senior, you could have mentioned that sooner."

A faint smile returned to Alanthuriel’s face.

"You were occupied."

Lucien sighed.

Some things apparently remained unchanged no matter how serious the universe became.

Space shifted around them.

Before the Abyss could notice that an unusually curious Extinction-Grade human had been standing far too close to its territory, Alanthuriel brought Lucien away.

Lucien carried far more questions back with him than he had brought into the void.

For once, however, he also carried several answers.

The Abyss wanted an Omniarch.

The Primordials feared something beyond the universe.

The Origin Core would matter when that distant threat finally arrived.

And Lucien himself possessed a path that might one day place him above every structure he currently understood.

He had no intention of rushing toward it.

The world in front of him already had enough problems.

For now, he would continue strengthening everything he could reach.

When the day finally came that even Primordials and Abyssal Arch-Lords were forced to look beyond the universe with fear, Lucien wanted to make sure he would not be looking with them helplessly.