100% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full?

"Is anyone there? Call five male servants for me!"

Noctra's voice rang sharply through the door.

But the truth? It wasn't Noctra at all.

It was Sebas, wearing her face and voice through the Mask of a Thousand Faces.

To everyone's surprise, he was very good at it.

The tone.

The cadence.

Even the sharp arrogance.

The others exchanged amused glances and Lucien nearly burst into laughter at the sight.

'Did he pull tricks like this back in his assassin days? Maybe undercover work…' Lucien mused.

Sebas cleared his throat, a little embarrassed at their stares.

Moments later, a knock came.

"Enter," Sebas said, still in Noctra's voice.

Five servants stepped in.

"Madam, you called for—"

They didn't finish. Lucien used Sleep and they collapsed into unconsciousness.

Without hesitation, the group copied their faces and changed into their clothes. Conveniently, one of the servants had a build almost identical to Lucien's.

In truth, they didn't need to sneak around. Their strength was more than enough to crush anything in this place. But caution had its value.

And the idea hadn't even come from Lucien. It was unexpectedly Edric who had pressed for it.

"You don't know how crafty nobles can be," he warned. "Especially rotten ones like these. The moment we're discovered, they'll trigger failsafes. One alarm and every trace of their crimes goes up in smoke."

It's as if he was speaking out of experience.

In the end, they went with Edric's plan.

Lucien hadn't expected him to be so cautious but it made sense.

Before moving out, they secured the room.

Locks were reinforced with magic and barriers were layered so that even if Noctra or the servants woke up, they wouldn't escape.

With that settled, the group began their search for evidence.

The infiltration went surprisingly smoothly. The other servants hardly gave them a second glance, assuming they were simply carrying out Noctra's orders. With no powerful guards left in the mansion, they slipped through the hallways like shadows.

Lucien had an advantage. The Memory Orb he'd crushed earlier. Its fragments had revealed the general layout of Coalheart Mansion, the key rooms, and where to start looking.

The first stop was the private quarters.

They tore through it with methodical precision.

Cabinets flung open.

The space beneath beds checked.

Hidden compartments pried into.

But nothing.

Nothing that tied the Coalhearts to their crimes.

Only gaudy displays of wealth and a few… personal indulgences.

"Yuck. This is disgusting!" Edric muttered as his face twisted.

The others glanced over, drawn by his tone.

On the floor lay a magazine. The pages were filled with naked handsome men, proudly displayed as though it were treasure.

Perhaps it belonged to Noctra. Perhaps Harold. Nobody wanted to know.

"Let's move on. I'm getting chills just standing here," Edric said, shoving it aside.

He reached for another hidden compartment... only to pause.

He froze when he glimpsed a long, sleek object tucked inside.

The others caught sight of it too. A tense silence fell over them.

Lucien grimaced. 'Fuck. They keep things like that here too?!'

He clenched his jaw, fighting the urge to vomit.

They didn't need to say anything. They all agreed to leave the quarters immediately.

And so, they moved on to the study.

At first glance, it looked… ordinary. Almost too ordinary.

They began rummaging through the shelves, the drawers, the desks. They searched for anything that could serve as proof.

But again. Nothing.

Maxim flipped through the ledgers. All in order.

He scanned the documents. Spotless.

Everything was clean and perfect. Unnaturally perfect.

Lucien's patience was wearing thin.

'Did we come here for nothing after all?'

Just then, Sebas's voice broke the silence.

"Young Lord. That wall... it's hollow. I used BURROWER'S EYE."

Lucien's eyes lit up. He moved closer, narrowing his gaze.

There it was. A faint miama seeping from the cracks.

'Damn… the air here is already so saturated with it that I missed the leak entirely.'

He hadn't expected the mansion's foul atmosphere to mask something so important.

Lucien turned to Sebas. He raised a thumbs up in approval.

"Well done, Madam!" He jested which earned laughter from the group.

But then… a problem.

They had no idea how to open the hidden door.

Brute force didn't work. The wall didn't so much as crack.

Cielius tried several spells but the surface resisted every attempt.

"I can break it with advanced magic," Cielius admitted. "But the noise would be immense… and whatever's inside might be destroyed in the process."

Before frustration could set in, Maxim stepped forward.

He ran his fingers along the wall, stopping at a shallow, oddly shaped indentation.

"It's a keyhole," he said. "But not for any ordinary key. Look... its design is peculiar."

The others gathered around and recognition struck instantly.

Lucien's eyes sharpened.

Without hesitation, he reached into his INVENTORY and pulled out Noctra's ring.

He pressed the front of it into the strange opening.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the wall pulsed with a sickly, dark glow. A mechanism groaned to life.

With a heavy click, the door finally creaked open.

At once, a foul stench rushed out. It was thick enough to make them recoil.

The miasma spilled forth. It was heavier and sharper than before.

Lucien's gut twisted with revulsion. The others stiffened and their auras flared instinctively against the oppressive presence.

Before them yawned a pitch-black passage.

They paused, steadying themselves, then saw it... A narrow staircase leading downward into the dark.

A descent… into whatever secret the Coalhearts had been hiding.

They began their descent.

With each step, the staircase groaned beneath them. One by one, the torches lining the walls flared to life with an eerie glow, illuminating their path.

Finally, the stairs gave way to a wide chamber.

And then they saw it.

A sight that froze them in place.

At the center loomed another gargoyle statue. And all around it, scattered across the ground... were bones.

Human bones. More than thousands of them!

It was as if hell itself had clawed open a wound in the world and spilled its horrors into this room.

Even Lucien, who had seen far too much already, felt his stomach churn. It was worse than the catacombs he remembered from the modern world.

More raw. More personal. This wasn't history. This was slaughter.

The group's faces turned grim. Lucien nearly gagged but he forced it down, refusing to show weakness.

The statue pulsed faintly, bloated with the miasma it exuded as if it had been gorged on endless offerings. The air itself quivered with its sick hunger.

"This is…"

Lucien swallowed hard.

"Enough to destroy Coalheart. Completely."

This wasn't just evidence. This was a death sentence for the entire family.

And yet, he didn't dare touch anything. Not yet. Evidence needed to remain untouched.

They spread out, scanning the chamber for more evidence.

And then… they found it.

In the far corner stood shelves, lined with books.

They moved toward it cautiously. Each step was a grim ordeal as the bones crunched beneath their boots like brittle twigs. The sound echoed in the chamber.

Lucien reached out and pulled free a volume. The moment he opened it, his expression darkened.

Inside was a list.

Names. Hundreds or even thousands of them. Each with notations of skills, magic attributes and "uses" for strengthening Coalheart Territory.

And then the marks.

Some names were crossed out, labeled with merciless scrawls. "Good for sacrifice."

Lucien's jaw tightened and rage boiled beneath his skin.

But that was only the beginning.

The other books were worse.

Detailed plans lay within. Blueprints for conquering neighboring territories. The Soilwyrm. The artificial famine. Strategies for rooting out families that stood in opposition. And many more methods.

And the "useless" ones, those who had no strategic value, were offered to the gargoyle statue.

One book chronicled the attempt to conquer Lootwell and its failure. It outlined the dungeon they intended to seize.

Lucien's hand shook slightly as he turned the pages.

Then his eyes froze on a passage.

His name.

The entry documented the slaughter of one hundred lives, all offered in a ritual meant to curse him. At the bottom of the page, a single word stood starkly.

Failed.

Another entry followed. Plans for a second attempt, halted only because there weren't enough sacrifices yet.

Lucien's vision burned red.

His hands clenched the book so tightly the spine nearly cracked.

Seething, he forced himself to hold back the urge to tear everything apart.

This wasn't just corruption. It wasn't just cruelty. This was the systematic butchery of innocents. Planned, recorded and filed away as if they were ledgers of grain.

They read on. Page after page. Book after book.

And that was when something strange became clear.

There was nothing about Golddust.

Not a single mention.

No ties.

No hints.

Even the recent artificial dungeon break was completely absent from the records.

"They're good at this," Edric's voice was edged with anger. "Too good at hiding."

The group pressed deeper into the shelves, searching for anything more.

Eventually, they found it.

A set of diagrams. Lists of magic circles, many of which even Lucien didn't recognize. Each one described in detail, with effects that grew darker the further they read.

Circle of Silent Chains — robs the victim of voice, scream, even spellcasting.

Circle of Pale Hunger — devours mana, light, and warmth alike.

Circle of Aberrant Tide — the very circle that caused the dungeon break.

And many more.

The group flinched as the implications sank in.

They all knew the truth. These came from Golddust.

But there was no direct evidence. No smoking gun that tied the two together.

Even so, this discovery was invaluable. A weapon they could wield against Coalheart.

Lucien exhaled slowly. He slipped the documents into his INVENTORY.

The evidence was damning. Now the real battle would be convincing the people to believe it.

Edric broke the silence first.

"Nephew, we must act quickly. This cannot stay buried. We must present this to the King and have the registry updated to place this territory under your name. If Harold returns, he'll find his claim already stripped away."

Maxim gave a sharp nod. "True. He still holds the Coalheart Seal which gives him a voice here. But with this evidence and the people on our side... his power will mean little."

Edric then added. "But of course. Before we can move the King, we must first move the people. Their voices will make this truth undeniable."

Lucien's eyes narrowed. He gave a steady nod.