100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 844: Invitation

“You heard about the caravan, right?”

Lucien nodded.

“You probably heard that we were performers.”

Seran looked toward Aurelia briefly.

“That was true.”

Then he looked back at Lucien.

“It just was not the whole truth.”

Lucien remained silent.

Seran leaned against a crate.

“Most of them were retired mercenaries.”

Lucien’s expression sharpened.

That changed everything.

“They stopped taking contracts years ago,” Seran continued. “Some were too old. Some were tired of killing. Others simply wanted something different.”

His mouth curved faintly.

“So they became performers.”

Lucien understood immediately.

A traveling troupe made sense.

People who already knew how to move across dangerous roads, protect supplies, fight bandits, and survive in unfamiliar territory could travel more safely than ordinary entertainers.

“They taught you?” Lucien asked.

Seran nodded.

“Everything useful.”

His fingers tightened slightly around the blade.

“Fighting. Disguises. Reading people. Running when staying became stupid.”

Aurelia lowered her eyes.

Seran continued.

“When her family came after us, they helped us escape. When we crossed dangerous roads, they protected us.”

His voice became quieter.

“Some of them had fought for decades.”

Lucien already knew where this was going.

Seran looked directly at him.

“But they could not hurt it.”

The warehouse felt colder.

“The dragon?”

Seran nodded.

“We tried.”

The word carried more weight than everything else he had said.

“Spears broke. Arrows barely mattered. One of them managed to strike beneath the jaw where the scales were thinner.”

Seran swallowed.

“It did nothing.”

Lucien fell silent.

That was more useful than any rumor from the pub.

The caravan had not been helpless.

They had been experienced fighters.

People who understood violence.

People capable enough to survive years as mercenaries and then protect a traveling troupe across kingdoms.

And they had still failed.

Lucien thought about the creature near his village.

Its scales.

Its size.

The complete absence of magical reinforcement.

A body that simply existed at that level.

Seran looked away.

“They stayed behind because somebody had to.”

Aurelia reached for his hand.

He let her.

For a moment, Lucien stopped seeing the clever con artist.

He saw someone who had watched his entire family die.Someone who had survived because other people decided he should.

Lucien understood that feeling far too well.

“That is exactly why I am looking for people like you,” he said.

Seran looked back.

Lucien’s voice remained steady.

“Ordinary methods failed.”

Seran said nothing.

Lucien continued.

“Then we need something that is not ordinary.”

A faint humor returned to Seran’s eyes.

“That sounds very convenient.”

“It is not.”

Lucien smiled.

“It is going to be extremely troublesome.”

That earned a real laugh.

Lucien glanced toward the warehouse entrance.

“It is late, and I do not think discussing dragons loudly in an abandoned building while a gang searches for you is the best plan.”

Seran raised an eyebrow.

“You have a better one?”

“We leave for my village at dawn.”

Aurelia looked at him.

Lucien continued.

“Come with us.”

Silence followed.

Seran’s expression became unreadable again.

“You are not worried about the Iron Jackals following us?”

Lucien smiled.

“We are discussing how to kill dragons.”

Seran waited.

Lucien shrugged.

“I refuse to be frightened by a group of thugs with political connections before we even begin.”

Seran stared at him.

Then he laughed.

“We?”

Lucien smiled.

“You noticed.”

“You already included us.”

“You have someone you want to protect.”

Lucien looked briefly toward Aurelia.

“So do I.”

That removed some of the humor from Seran’s expression.

Lucien continued.

“If the world is changing, then hiding forever will not solve anything.”

Seran looked down at Aurelia’s hand in his.

Aurelia said nothing.

She did not need to.

After several seconds, Seran sighed.

“At dawn?”

Lucien nodded.

“I’ll be leaving from the inn near the eastern market. My companion knows the place.”

Seran’s eyes narrowed.

“You travel with Mirelle?”

Lucien noticed the recognition.

Another question for later.

“Yes.”

Seran shook his head slowly.

“This keeps getting stranger.”

Lucien smiled.

“You have no idea.”

Seran looked at Aurelia, then back at Lucien.

“We’ll see you at dawn.”

Lucien nodded.

That was enough.

He turned toward the entrance.

Behind him, Seran spoke again.

“Champ.”

Lucien looked back.

Seran’s smile had returned.

“If this turns out to be a trap, I am stealing everything you own.”

Lucien considered his current possessions.

“That would be disappointing for both of us.”

Aurelia covered a small laugh.

Lucien left the warehouse smiling.

•••

By the time Lucien returned to the inn, most of the building had gone quiet.

A few late drinkers remained downstairs, but their voices had softened. The kitchen had closed, and only a handful of lamps still burned along the corridors.

Lucien climbed the stairs carefully.

Mirelle’s room was silent.

So was Tavian’s.

Auren had apparently fallen asleep quickly enough that Lucien could hear faint snoring through the wall.

For once, nobody stopped him to ask where he had been.

Lucien entered his room and closed the door.

Then he stood there for several seconds.

This had been one ridiculous evening.

He had gone out intending to gather information.

Instead, he had learned that Seran was a con artist raised by retired mercenaries, Aurelia was a runaway noblewoman working as a fake fortune teller, their caravan had been destroyed by a dragon, and both of them might be coming back to the village with him in the morning.

Lucien sat on the edge of the bed.

Then there was the sound.

That mattered more than everything else.

He lay back briefly.

Sleep did not come.

His thoughts kept circling.

The resonance had appeared again.

This time, it had done something new.

It had given him direction.

Lucien sat up.

That single change bothered him too much to ignore.

He crossed his legs on the bed and settled into the closest thing his current body could manage to meditation.

He did not possess the same mental abilities he once had.

But he still had experience.

He still knew how to think.

Lucien closed his eyes.

He began reconstructing young Lucien’s memories.

Not just the obvious moments, but everything.

The first time the sound appeared beside the river.

The days when young Lucien stopped walking through the forest because something distant seemed to catch his attention.

The moments when he became distracted around Tavian, around Mirelle, and around Auren.

Other occasions followed.

Places.

People.

Days that seemed meaningless.

Lucien went through them one by one.

Slowly.

He refused to force the pattern.

That had been his mistake before.

Every time he heard the sound, he had asked the same question.

What is here?

Who is nearby?

What location does this correspond to?

Those questions had never produced a satisfying answer.

The sound appeared around people.

Then it appeared in empty places.

Lucien had assumed there must be one physical thing connecting all of them.

Perhaps the Origin Core.

Perhaps a hidden energy.

Perhaps some ancient object.

Nothing fit.

He opened his eyes.

The moonlight through the window had shifted.

More time had passed than he realized.

Lucien closed them again.

This time, he changed the question.

Not what had been there.

What had happened there?

His thoughts slowed.