100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full?-Chapter 442 - First Act

Lucien gathered those who would go with him.

Like he had promised before, the ancient beasts would come. Even if battle did not happen immediately, Lucien felt safer with them nearby, and more importantly, their presence alone could change the outcome of negotiations, intimidation, and sudden conflict.

So they were included at once.

Eirene also had to come.

The cure production would continue even without her direct supervision, but only because Lucien had already prepared for that. Inside his divine energy core, he had created the refinement chambers and medicinal workspaces necessary to keep the process moving.

Verdant Veil’s people would continue under the structure she had already imposed.

Even so, Eirene herself remained essential.

For alliances.

The Lunareth Sect trusted her.

Dawnbinder would listen to her.

In a campaign where legitimacy mattered as much as force, that alone made her irreplaceable.

The Liberators Astraea had rescued earlier also insisted on joining.

They still belonged to the organization, after all, and now that action was finally beginning, none of them wanted to remain behind and hear about history secondhand.

Seren spoke for them.

"Let us help."

Lucien looked at her for a moment, then nodded once.

That was answer enough.

The four elemental women came as well.

That part, too, was inevitable.

Then there was Lilith.

Before departure, Lucien went to speak with Anvil-Horn about the construction effort. The work in Lootwell would continue even in his absence.

Enough systems had already been put into place, enough beast labor was organized, and enough reliable commanders remained that the territory would not stall simply because they walked away for a time.

That was when Anvil-Horn mentioned it.

"Lilith wants to come."

Lucien had not answered immediately.

He remembered something. He had taken from her the path by which she might once have become some future "hero" in the world’s old rhythm.

He still did not fully know how she had managed to bend that possibility around herself in the first place, but he knew enough to understand that keeping her confined would not fix anything.

And perhaps—

If she gained enough true experience, she might yet become something greater than whatever role the world had first prepared for her.

So in the end, Lucien agreed.

Before they moved, they planned.

And that part mattered more than enthusiasm.

The obvious target was Maereth Region.

That was where the Exchange’s hold in the West was strongest.

That was where old routes crossed.

That was where influence, medicine, commerce, and fear were packed tight enough to shape the rest of the continent.

If one looked only at the board, Maereth was the king-piece.

Which was exactly why Lucien rejected the idea of striking there first.

They met over a projected map, the major routes and pressure points of the West marked in shifting light. Shadow stood across from Lucien, the puppets silent behind him. Eirene stood at his left, and the others listened in varying degrees of stillness and impatience.

"Maereth is the center," Shadow said. "If it cracks, the whole western structure destabilizes."

Lucien nodded.

"Yes," he said. "Which is why the Exchange expects us to want it."

That made the room quieter.

Lucien raised one hand and the projection changed.

Trade arteries glowed. Routes appeared. Resource flows. Dependency clusters. Known Exchange concentrations. Regions where the miracle drugs had penetrated deeply enough to shape local politics. Regions where the hold was strong but not yet absolute.

"Sareth Region first," Lucien said.

Marie blinked. "You’re not going for the throat?"

"I am," Lucien replied. "Just not by aiming at the face."

He indicated the Sareth Region.

"This is where we stand. That matters. We already have a secure base here. We already have internal production here. We already have personal legitimacy through Sister Eirene, senior Dawnbinder, and the Lunareth Sect. If we move from Sareth first, we do not look like invaders arriving to seize a region. We look like the region curing itself."

Shadow’s eyes sharpened.

Lucien continued.

"Politically, that is cleaner. Logistically, it is safer. Militarily, it is smarter."

He began pointing out the reasons one by one.

"If we strike Maereth first, the Exchange can frame us as an external destabilizing force attacking the heart of order. Local powers will hesitate, not because they love the Exchange, but because no one trusts sudden saviors in a central region already thick with vested interests."

His finger shifted.

"If we stabilize Sareth first, we gain proof instead of promises."

Another shift.

"We restore those already wavering under the drugs. We win over healers, lesser sects, independent practitioners, and transport circles. We turn one region into a functioning example."

He looked at Shadow.

"Then every lie the Exchange tells becomes more expensive to maintain."

Eirene spoke next.

"And Lunareth and Dawnbinder?"

Lucien nodded.

"We gather them first. If they stand with us, then the Sareth Region stops being just our base. It becomes a coalition region."

That was the genius of it.

Not merely spreading the cure.

Spreading legitimacy around the cure.

Maereth could be attacked later. But Sareth could be made to condemn Maereth first.

Shadow folded his arms.

"And while we stabilize Sareth, the Exchange regroups."

"No," Lucien said. "While we stabilize Sareth, the Exchange is forced into the wrong response."

He expanded the projection again.

"If they ignore us, then Sareth becomes proof that their dependency system can be broken."

Another line of routes lit up.

"If they attack too early, then they expose themselves as afraid of a region curing its own people."

More lights.

"If they retaliate economically, they lose trust among neutral traders."

Another cluster pulsed.

"If they move their stronger assets here, they weaken their confidence in Maereth."

Now even the ancient beasts were listening with more focus.

Lucien’s expression did not change, but his tone sharpened.

"We do not rush Maereth. We isolate it."

He began laying out the true plan.

First, secure Sareth.

Second, restore health and trust.

Third, draw in local allies and independent healer groups.

Fourth, expand the cure through controlled corridors into the neighboring regions that fed Maereth’s trade and personnel networks.

Fifth, intercept the Exchange’s narrative by forcing witnesses, testimonials, and healed practitioners into circulation before Maereth could lock the flow down.

And only then—

Corner Maereth.

As a starving center whose outer supports had already defected.

The point was not to prove the Exchange evil.

The point was to make serving it more expensive than abandoning it.

Shadow stared at the map in silence for a while.

Then he exhaled once and said, "That would force them to defend the appearance of stability while losing the structure that actually sustains it."

Lucien nodded.

"Exactly."

Marie grinned. "So we’re going to suffocate them with medicine."

Kaia smiled faintly. "That might be the cruelest thing we’ve ever done."

Lucien did not deny it.

Prioritizing the other regions first was the right move.

Because it made Maereth Region easier to kill later.

And once that decision was made, the others moved.

Lucien placed most of them inside his core first.

That was simply the most efficient method of transport.

For the journey, they took Void Craft.

Naturally, Marie seized the controls before anyone else had fully sat down.

"I missed this," she said, settling herself with the joy of someone reunited with an old vice. "No other ride has this kind of taste."

Shadow sat further in with his puppets, composed once more.

Eirene took one side of Lucien.

Lilith, with suspicious smoothness, took the other.

Lucien sat in the middle and immediately felt something was wrong.

Or rather—

Something was symmetrical in a way that felt dangerous.

He looked left.

Eirene stood with her usual calm, but her hands were folded a little too neatly.

He looked right.

Lilith wore an expression of composed innocence so polished it could only be false.

Before he could talk, Marie’s cheat activated.

The Void Craft was already fast.

Now it surged.

Its speed doubled so suddenly that the outer scenery of Lootwell blurred. The craft cut across the air like a thought moving ahead of itself, smooth yet brutal in acceleration.

Marie laughed harder.

"Yes," she said. "This is how travel is supposed to feel."

Lucien leaned back slightly as the craft sped toward the first place they intended to save—

And weaponize.