100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full?-Chapter 330 - Fire

Lucien rose slowly.

With a thought, he reached into the space where the Covenant-Breaker’s remains had collapsed and pulled something free.

Its Organ Storage.

He then retrieved the rest from his Inventory.

Only then did he extend his senses inside them.

The first sensation was wrongness. The unmistakable feeling of something that did not belong to the world it was currently occupying.

Most of the contents were materials.

Void materials preserved in jades. Dense black membranes that pulsed faintly. Threads of collapsed space wound into fibrous coils. Crystallized miasma nodules harvested from deep within the Black Mass.

There were also tools.

Bone-and-metal instruments etched with sigils designed to carve, graft, and overwrite. Needles grown rather than forged, each one humming with a faint resonance meant to pierce both flesh and concept.

Lucien’s expression darkened.

Then he found the parchments.

Scrolls bound in skin that was not fully dead. Schematics written in compressed glyphs describing compatibility ratios, rejection thresholds, and void-tolerance metrics. Notes written in multiple hands, revised again and again.

And then—

The cubes.

Black, translucent cubes the size of clenched fists.

Miasma radiated from them in patient waves.

Lucien froze.

He felt it immediately.

Life.

He extended his spiritual sense inside those cubes.

And his breath caught.

Inside the cubes were beasts.

Not ordinary monsters. Not aberrations born of miasma.

But...

Void Monsters.

A Sky Whale floated inside one cube. Its massive form was compressed impossibly small. Its vast fins were folded into layers of sleeping space.

Lucien recognized it at once. It was the same species the Obsidian Collegium scholars had once dared to ride back in the Big World.

Another cube held a colossal turtle.

Its shell was not smooth but layered like strata. A continent rested upon its back even in miniature. Forests, seas, and mountain silhouettes were etched into its carapace as living relief.

Lucien knew what it was without a name being given.

Astral Testudon.

A Void-born lifeform capable of sustaining ecosystems upon itself, a drifting refuge that could wander eternity without needing a star.

Other cubes followed.

Creatures that looked almost harmless, round-bodied beings with soft light pulsing beneath translucent skin. And others that were nightmares given shape. Too many limbs. Too many eyes. Bodies that folded inward in ways geometry did not approve of.

All of them are sleeping.

Or maybe... forced into sleep.

Lucien closed his eyes for a heartbeat.

The implication settled like a weight on his chest.

’So that’s their plan,’ he thought quietly.

The goblins were not merely hunting Void Monsters.

They were collecting them.

Studying them. Preserving them.

And worse—

Lucien’s mind followed the trail to its conclusion without mercy.

They were preparing to integrate with them.

Void Monsters were born able to survive the void. Their bodies did not resist it. They belonged to it. The void accepted them by default.

If goblins succeeded in grafting that tolerance into their own lineage...

If they learned to rewrite their genes using Void-compatible templates...

Then future goblin armies would not merely endure collapsed space.

They would thrive in it.

Lucien exhaled slowly.

That future would be catastrophic.

What unsettled him further was the cubes themselves.

They were almost identical to his own cube drops.

’The goblins really are frightening. They don’t just steal power. They learn how to bottle it.’

The difference is that these cubes sustained life.

And life can even be stored inside their Organ Storages.

Lucien had known the goblins were advanced.

Now he understood they were methodical.

...

Footsteps approached.

Lucien withdraw his senses and turned.

The others had returned.

Their expressions were grim, the kind worn by people who had just learned that surviving today meant nothing about surviving tomorrow.

"So there’s more," Kaia said first. "We were briefed while you were resting."

Darian nodded. "Another Monster Emperor. Gargoyles. Dozens of Monster Kings beneath it."

Rhazek tightened his grip on his spear. "That force would have crushed us earlier."

"But it didn’t," Seryth said calmly. "And now we know they are moving."

They were shaken.

But they were not retreating.

Lucien studied them for a moment, then reached into his inventory again.

He pulled out several rings and tossed them one by one.

They caught them instinctively.

Storage rings.

Their own.

He recovered from the goblins’ organ storages.

Kaia’s eyes widened as she inspected hers. "You found this?"

Darian laughed once. "If I had this earlier, half my spells would still be intact."

Velun flexed his fingers. "My equipment’s here. This alone makes me stronger."

Rhazek grinned. "Ten times stronger, at least."

Lucien nodded.

"You’ll need them."

The air grew heavier again.

Because no one believed the fight was over.

They had survived one catastrophe.

They had glimpsed the shape of the next.

...

Lucien watched the others disperse.

Some leaned against broken stone. Some sat in silence. Some stared into the distance as if trying to measure how close the next catastrophe might already be.

"Rest," Lucien said. "As much as you can."

They did not argue.

When the field finally quieted, Lucien turned slightly.

"Kaia," he said. "Walk with me."

She did.

They stopped at the edge of the shattered terrain.

Kaia folded her arms.

Lucien did not look at her at first.

Then he asked...

"Are you reincarnated?"

The air snapped.

Kaia’s presence sharpened instantly. Heat rose like a flame deciding whether to leap.

Lucien raised one hand calmly.

"Do not misunderstand," he said. "I am as well. That is why I was recruited by the organization.."

Her eyes widened before she could stop it.

"...That explains it," she said slowly. "Your thinking. You do not move like someone born into this world."

She studied him now, openly.

"So you noticed me too," Lucien said. "The Law of Fire is destruction by default. Yet you heal with it. That is revision."

Kaia snorted softly.

"Well," she said, "I suppose I do not have to lie to someone who already sees the cracks."

Lucien smiled faintly.

"Then allow me to be direct. Is it all right if you tell me about your cheat?"

She stared at him for a long moment.

Long enough that weak men would have grown uncomfortable.

Lucien did not blink.

Finally, Kaia sighed.

"Fine," she said. "But only if you tell me about yours afterward."

Lucien nodded.

Kaia exhaled once, then spoke.

"My system is called Ember Authority," she said. "It governs manifestation, refinement, and conversion of flame."

Lucien listened without interruption.

"It lets me access different states of fire," she continued.

She raised one finger.

"Red fire is baseline. Destructive combustion. Efficient and cheap. That is what you saw in battle."

A second finger rose.

"White fire is purification. It burns conditions instead of matter. That is what I use to counter corruption and hostile effects."

A third.

"Gold fire is restoration. It converts thermal output into regenerative feedback. That is how I heal."

Her gaze hardened slightly.

"There is also blue fire," she said. "Compression. Extreme density. It burns slower, but it pierces almost anything. I rarely use it around allies."

Lucien nodded. "Friendly fire."

She grimaced. "History of it."

Then she hesitated, and added quietly, "And black fire. Entropic flame. It consumes fuel without light. It terrifies people. Including me."

Lucien absorbed that.

"And the system?" he asked.

"It optimizes conversion," Kaia said. "Mana, vitality, emotions, even ambient phenomena. The stronger the flame state, the higher the cost. I can also... become fire itself."

Lucien looked at her.

She met his gaze steadily.

"Intangibility. Invulnerability. I exist as flame. Nothing can touch me."

"And the price?" Lucien asked.

Her jaw tightened.

"It drains me," she said. "Mana, stamina, and... lifespan if I am reckless. I cannot hold it long."

Silence settled.

Then Kaia tilted her head.

"What about you?"

Lucien did not hesitate.

"My domain is special," he said. "We are inside it right now. It can mimic a world completely. This is a superior domain. That is why no one else could deploy their domains earlier."

Kaia’s breath caught.

"That... explains everything," she said slowly. "The suppression. The way the battlefield responded to you."

She did not doubt him.

There was no reason to.

Then Lucien asked the question he had been circling.

"Your power is overwhelming. Why did you not use it earlier?"

Kaia’s expression darkened.

"You already answered that," she said. "It is not suited for team combat. And my mana vessels were corroded earlier. In the void, recovery is miserable."

She paused.

"But your domain feels... alive," she added. "Like a real world. Especially with divine energy flowing. I can recover here."

Lucien exhaled quietly.

Because that energy they were absorbing was his.

"You are not surprised I wield divine energy?" he asked.

She shrugged.

"Not really. Some Liberators can. Baptism by the Celestial Race exists, though it is rare."

Lucien fell silent.

Since the others could wield divine energy and some had even been baptized by the Celestial Race, Lucien found no reason to doubt their character.

If anything, he had the unsettling feeling that among all who carried divine power, he was the most evil one.

He pushed that thought aside. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"There is something else," he said. "Your Will of the World. Has it awakened?"

Kaia shook her head.

"It stirred earlier," she admitted. "But never fully. The organization does not know a clear method on how to wake them. Some say intense emotion. Some say time. Some say it is already awake, just... waiting."

Lucien’s eyes sharpened.

"Let me try."

She hesitated. Then nodded.

Lucien explained what the system had told him.

"Sit cross-legged," he said. "Place your palms against mine."

She did.

The moment their hands touched—

[Ting!]

[Starting Resonance. Please hold on.]

Fire erupted from Kaia.

Not a burst. But a flood.

It surged up her arms and poured into Lucien’s palms.

Kaia gasped and tried to pull back instinctively.

Lucien closed his fingers around hers.

"Trust me," he said calmly.

The fire bloomed over Lucien’s body.

But it did not burn.

It warmed.

Kaia stared, stunned, as Lucien remained unscathed.

Then she felt it.

Something inside her shifted.

Resonant.

She closed her eyes.

Seconds stretched.

[Ting!]

[Operation Successful.]

Lucien released his hands.

Kaia remained still, breathing slowly, as if listening to something long unheard.

Lucien understood then.

Her fire had always been too absolute. Without someone who shared the Law of Fire, no one could safely resonate with it.

Even he would have died without that Law.

He stepped back and left her to meditate.

Whatever had awakened would matter in the next battle.