100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full?-Chapter 437 - Coordinates

As a sign of respect, Shadow handed over the trade first.

He placed three things on the table between them.

A jade slip.

A set of parchments bound in black cord.

And a heavy bag filled with seeds.

"The jade slip contains the coordinates," he said. "The parchments contain the treatment sequence, ingredient structure, and the cultivation conditions required for each batch. The seeds are the first stock."

Lucien did not reach for the jade slip immediately.

That, more than anything, made Shadow understand how much discipline the man across from him truly possessed.

Instead, Lucien stored it calmly inside his inventory and picked up the parchments first.

He unfolded them one by one.

The contents were dense.

Ingredient names. Hybrid pairings. Soil conditions. Flow temperatures. Infusion stages. Stabilization intervals. A full sequence of how the cure’s botanical components had to be raised before they could even become usable medicine.

Lucien read through several pages in silence.

Then a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"You only need to wait," he said. "Give me a few days. The West branch will have more than enough raw cure material to work with."

Shadow’s eyes sharpened a fraction.

That answer was too confident to be arrogance.

Lucien had already seen the method.

And more importantly—

He had already seen the solution.

•••

Soon after, they separated.

Shadow took the opportunity to tour Lootwell for himself.

The deeper he moved into Lootwell, the more absurd the territory became.

He saw Eternals helping in construction as though such labor were ordinary.

He saw ancient beasts carrying structural loads that would have required siege-grade arrays elsewhere.

He saw slimes hauling materials with cheerful efficiency while humans, monsters, and craftsmen worked around them as if all of this were perfectly normal.

It was ridiculous.

Then came the facilities.

The library alone made Shadow stand still for several breaths.

It was not merely larger than what the Liberators possessed.

It was better.

It was built as if the entire district had been designed by someone who thought learning should be sharpened into a weapon.

And the training grounds were no less outrageous.

Everything was arranged not only for battle-readiness but for accelerated growth.

It was the kind of infrastructure that made ordinary sects look provincial.

Shadow exhaled slowly.

"The longer I stay here," he muttered, "the more offensive this place becomes."

Then he met the Liberators Astraea had rescued.

At first, he thought they would be eager to return with him to the branch.

They were certainly happy to see him.

Too happy, perhaps.

Then the truth appeared.

They pulled him aside, each talking over the other, and before Shadow understood how the conversation had gone so wrong, he and his four puppets had been assigned to help with construction.

Not asked. But assigned.

Shadow stood there in silence for a while as a bundle of formation beams was pushed into his hands.

Seren clapped him on the shoulder and said, "It’s good that you’re here. We’re short on precise hands in this section."

Another added, "Your puppets are perfect for this. Alpha and Gamma can carry, Beta can sort, Delta can stabilize joints. You’re basically a one-man workforce."

Shadow slowly turned his head.

The puppet called Alpha was already holding a stack of cut stone.

Beta had somehow acquired tools.

Gamma and Delta stood ready, awaiting instructions as if this indignity were now official.

Shadow looked up at the half-built structure above him.

Then at the workers.

Then at the sky.

At last he said, with the solemn despair of a man who had seen too much in one lifetime,

"I came here as an envoy."

Seren grinned.

"And now you’re useful in two capacities."

Shadow had no choice.

So he and his puppets joined the construction effort.

••

Meanwhile, Lucien called for Eirene.

He already knew what he needed to do.

Mass production of the ingredients would not be solved through ordinary farming. These were hybrid medicinal plants raised under cultivated conditions, and their growth requirements were too delicate to leave to chance.

For this, Eirene was indispensable.

As a Floran, her affinity for plant life far surpassed anything he could reproduce through drops or tool assistance. And with her Law of Equivalence, she could do more than nurture growth.

She could balance conditions into accelerated blooming.

When she arrived, Lucien simply held up the parchments.

"We need a great deal of these," he said.

Eirene glanced through the instructions.

Then she looked up at him.

"How much is a great deal?"

"Enough to support the branch of the Liberators while they destabilize the Exchange."

Eirene smiled faintly.

"Then we should not waste time."

Lucien pulled her with him into his divine energy core.

There, they found Aerolith sprawled shamelessly on the ground with one hand over her stomach, looking like someone who had eaten herself into temporary philosophical enlightenment.

She had grown again. Taller now.

And when Lucien saw her true body, her Sky Whale form had become larger as well.

When Aerolith noticed him, she sprang up at once.

"Brother," she said, eyes already brightening, "did you bring more food?"

Lucien stepped forward and lightly knocked her on the head.

"Food is all you think about."

Aerolith touched her forehead indignantly.

"That is slander."

She could talk back now as well, which made Lucien sigh.

Eirene chuckled softly behind him.

Soon, Lucien handed Aerolith part of the seed bag.

"Come help us plant these. You can eat later." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Aerolith’s eyes glowed.

"I will plant them beautifully."

The three of them moved to one of the prepared cultivation fields inside Lucien’s core.

The work began quickly.

Aerolith had grown surprisingly skilled at planting.

Or perhaps "terrifyingly" was the better word.

Where others planted carefully to avoid waste, Aerolith planted with absolute confidence. Her Law of Continuance flowed through the soil in invisible waves, extending vitality through root, shell, stem, and unborn bud alike.

Under her hand, nothing wished to die.

Weak seeds straightened. Damaged shells softened and opened. Even doubtful sprouts pushed upward as if stubbornly convinced that survival was now mandatory.

Eirene watched one particularly miserable-looking seed split and emerge into a healthy green shoot.

"She makes failure feel embarrassed," Eirene said.

Aerolith lifted her chin proudly.

"As it should be."

Lucien, for his part, discovered that his newly integrated Plant Attribute was far more useful than he had expected.

He had successfully integrated the new attributes into his body.

It had been easier than he expected. He did not possess mana vessels, so the attribute settled directly into his divine energy core instead.

Once he understood that, the integration became simple.

The moment Lucien touched the soil, he could feel imbalance immediately.

Which root wanted deeper pressure. Which stem needed warmth. Which leaf-structure would rot if overfed. Which seedlings needed more divine energy, and which would be ruined by even a breath too much.

He could see what the plants needed the way a smith saw tension in metal or a healer saw weakness in vessels.

"Interesting," Lucien murmured, adjusting the energy flow to one row. "With this, I can tell when growth is healthy and when it’s merely fast."

"That difference matters," Eirene said.

Then she stepped in.

And the field changed.

Her Law of Equivalence moved without grand display, but its effects were almost unfair. Conditions balanced instantly. Moisture, heat, nutrients, ambient force, root pressure, and internal vitality reached a perfect relation with one another.

Flowers bloomed. Pods ripened. Medicinal leaves thickened with concentrated potency.

What would have taken weeks under ordinary cultivation happened in moments under her law-guided correction.

Aerolith gasped happily.

Eirene only smiled and moved to the next row.

Soon the field looked ridiculous.

Lucien planted.

Aerolith guaranteed survival.

Eirene accelerated maturity.

Together, they had become a traveling injustice against normal agriculture.

After enough of the fields were stabilized and the process no longer required all three of them at once, Lucien stepped back.

"You two can continue without me?"

Aerolith hugged a seed pouch to her chest.

"Yes."

Eirene gave a small nod.

"We have the pattern now."

Lucien left them to it.

Only then did he finally retrieve the jade slip from his inventory.

Lucien let his spiritual sense enter.

The information within unfolded instantly.

Coordinates. Plane drift corrections. Subtle notations from the diviner on instability and access angle.

Lucien froze.

Several breaths passed in silence.

Then his expression changed.

’These coordinates...’

They lay beyond the same region where he had once felt that unknown presence lock onto him across planes.

Lucien’s fingers tightened around the jade slip.

He had been moving in the correct direction all along.

He had been close.

Closer than he ever realized.

And between him and his small world—

there was that thing.

That unknown watcher.

That impossible, plane-sensing presence that had noticed him even when he had thinned himself almost to nothing.

Lucien exhaled slowly.

This would not be simple.

His eyes sharpened as he looked down at the coordinates again.

At last, the path home was no longer lost.

But now it ran straight through something frightening enough that even memory of it still made his instincts tighten.