Lightning Is The Only Way

Chapter 538 - 538 – Categorization Of A Powerful Law

Gravis spent the next two months understanding the remainder of the mountain. After he was finished, he felt like he knew a lot more about the different kinds of materials on it. Additionally, he had developed a feeling that allowed him to assign different materials to different Laws. Just by looking at a new material, he could already see to which category it belonged.

The mountain had everything except soft materials. This meant that Gravis had already learned an incredible amount about Medium Pure, Medium Complex, and Hard Complex materials.

When Gravis was done, he looked at the mountain while thinking. ’This mountain has nearly all the Hard Pure materials. I can say that for certain since I already know the Hard Pure Composition Law. Yet, does it have all the Hard Complex ones? It definitely has a lot of them, but there are a lot more alloys left that I could create.’

Gravis’ eyes shone with motivation. ’I think I should aim for a specific Law now instead of just generally understanding. I think I should first aim for the Hard Complex Law. After all, my father has already shown me the information on all the alloys I could create in a middle world.’

After thinking that, Gravis went to work. He collected samples of all the Hard Pure materials he could find on the mountain. After that, he gathered a lot of Hard Complex materials and split them up into different materials. Sometimes, alloys needed components that were not Hard Pure, and Gravis could create a lot of these components by splitting the Hard Complex materials on the mountain.

After finishing his preparations, Gravis looked over all the materials and sighed. ’This will take forever,’ Gravis thought but quickly shook his head to distract himself from the negative thought. ’Time to start!’

Then, Gravis started to combine all the materials with each other. Sadly, the number of different materials was truly gigantic. At least, he already understood all the present materials, which made fusing them rather easy.

Over two years passed.

After over two years, Gravis was very good at fusing materials. By now, he managed to create a new Hard Complex material with only two tries. Gravis guessed that the progress on the Hard Complex Law was probably similar to how he had progressed on the Hard Pure Law in the past.

Back then, Gravis’ goal had been to forge a new material in only one try. When he had achieved that, he had understood the Hard Pure Law. After all, in order to perfectly forge the material in one try, Gravis had had to know the workings behind the material, which required him to understand the Law.

Gravis also tried to create hardened edges when he used the alloys to create weapons. That had proven impossible without understanding the Law. Compressing these edges always left imperfections that would prove fatal for the weapon. After all, a weapon was only as powerful as its weakest point. If a weapon were put under a lot of stress, the weakest part would break.

As time progressed, Gravis found it harder and harder to make progress, and after these two years, Gravis completely stopped. He had realized something.

’This is way harder than it should be,’ Gravis thought with narrowed eyes. ’Since I already have understood the Hard Pure Law, the Hard Complex Law should come to me even easier than the Hard Pure Law. After all, father has already given me all the information on alloys.’

’It feels like I’m really close, but after learning multiple Laws, I know that this is just an illusion. I’m pretty sure that I’m not close at all. I also don’t feel like I’m about to understand it.’

The Red King, the Empress, and the Grand Elder had developed the ability to see if a beast was about to understand a new Law. By now, Gravis also had developed this ability. Gravis was very sure that he wasn’t even close to the Hard Complex Law.

His progress gave the illusion that he was about to understand it, but thanks to his experience, Gravis was sure that understanding the Hard Complex Law was impossible for the time being. Something was missing!

Suddenly, Gravis’ eyes widened. ’Something is missing?’ he thought. ’It feels like I’m missing a lot of understanding, but the Hard Pure Law has already basically fully integrated into the Hard Complex Law.’

Then Gravis narrowed his eyes. ’Fully integrated?’ Gravis thought. ’How can one level one Law be fully integrated into another level one Law? Additionally, I have learned so incredibly much about Hard Complex materials. This is not the complexity of a level one Law.’

’Is the Hard Complex Law a level two Law?’ Gravis thought and then remained unmoving for a long time as he thought about many things.

’There are way more Hard Complex materials than Hard Pure materials. Additionally, the rules and complexity of Hard Complex materials are also way more diverse than the Hard Pure Law. I think the Hard Complex Law might actually be a level two Law.’

’This changes everything!’ Gravis thought.

If the Hard Complex Law were a level two Law, then the Medium Complex and Soft Complex Laws would probably also be level two Laws. As Gravis thought more about it, he realized that this made much more sense.

In order to properly control and create Hard Complex materials, Gravis had to know Hard Pure materials and Medium Pure materials. Some of the alloys even needed Soft Pure materials.

’I think that’s about it,’ Gravis thought. ’I first need to understand these three Laws until I can even attempt the Hard Complex Law. It also makes sense strength-wise. Some alloys are definitely more powerful than Pure materials. This would mean that the Hard Complex Law is superior to the Hard Pure Law since it can exhibit a way higher power.’

Then, Gravis turned his gaze to the river in the distance. ’What Laws do the Medium Complex and Soft Complex Laws need?’ Gravis thought.

’I have created some Medium-Complex materials by mixing some materials, and I see the same requirements for them. Hard Pure materials can also be made into Medium Complex materials.’

’How could all this work?’ Gravis thought.

Luckily, he came to an answer rather quickly as he realized a possibility. ’I think I may have been blinded by the classification of Laws in this middle world. Father hasn’t told me how Laws are classified or how higher-ranked Laws are composed. All my understanding regarding their workings comes from this world.’

’If I think outside the box, I can see a very reasonable explanation. There are not two ways to create a more powerful Law, but three ways.’

The first way was to combine three or more Laws into one Law.

The second way was to understand something very complex all at once, like the Law of Suppression or the Law of Pride.

The third way, which Gravis had just found out, was a combination of the two. It required the understanding of some Initial Laws and then learning something additional that exclusively belonged to the Low-Rank Law.

The knowledge one required to learn for these Laws could be described with land in an Empire.

There could be an association or organization of three Kingdoms that worked together closely. Together, they could be powerful enough to count as an Empire. Yet, the territories didn’t fuse into one. They were still three Kingdoms with three different leaders. This represented the first way, creating a level two Law by understanding three level one Laws.

If there were only a single Empire with only a single leader, one could liken it to the second way of understanding Laws. It was one cohesive thing.

Yet, there could also be a mixture of both. This was if an association or organization between three Kingdoms were created and one of the Kingdoms’ leaders became an Emperor. The area of the Emperor’s Empire would grow until it was bigger than the associated Kingdoms. Yet, the Kingdoms might still exist and still have their association with the Empire.

This meant that one could see all of this as two Empires or one Empire. One Empire would be the powerful Emperor and their territory while the other Empire could be that Empire plus the other two Kingdoms combined.

’I see,’ Gravis thought as motivation returned to him. ’The Soft Complex, Medium Complex, and Hard Complex Laws all need the full understanding of Soft Pure, Medium Pure, and Hard Pure Laws. Then, I need to learn some additional knowledge that these Laws don’t have.’

’But then, what about the classification of the full Law?’ Gravis thought. ’If I understand the Soft Complex, Medium Complex, and Hard Complex Laws, I could probably combine them into a level three Law, which would be the Complex Law. Its full name would probably be the Middle-Tier Complex Material Composition Law.’

Gravis took a deep breath. ’Then that means that the Middle-Tier Material Composition Law, without the Complex, is probably not a level three Law, but a level four Law.’

Gravis looked at his surroundings. ’If the Complex Law is one component of the level four Law, there must be other components as well, which are just as powerful.’

’I think I can categorize everything better now with my increased experience. Water, Metal, Wood, Earth, Air, Fire, and Lightning are probably part of this overarching Law. Maybe even Darkness and Light. I think fire and lightning don’t fit water, metal, wood, air, and earth. Fire and lightning are some form of matter, but a little different from the other five.’

Gravis’ eyes shone more as he finally saw a categorization that made sense. ’The Composition Laws of Water, Air, Wood, and Earth probably combine into a level two Law. Metal is probably already inside the Complex Materials. The Composition Laws of the other four probably create another level two Law. Then, by combining these two, I would probably get something like the Elemental Material Composition Law, another level three Law.’

’Then, I probably also need to learn the Composition Law of all living matter. Composition of Organs, Blood, Bones, Muscles, and Skin probably makes the Living Body, or Animal Composition Law, which would be level two. Then, I probably also need to learn about the composition of plants, which would make the Plant Composition Law, which would also be a level two Law.’

’Another thing would probably be the Composition Law of Micro-organism. I’m powerful enough to see these small things that make mortals sick, but I can’t assign them to animals or plants, which probably means that they are their own thing.’

’The Composition Law of Animals, Plants, and Microorganisms probably fuses into the Composition Law of Living Matter. Then, the Composition Laws of Living Matter, Complex Materials, and Elements probably fuse into the Middle-Tier Material Composition Law, which would be a level four Law.’

Gravis smirked.

"Finally, I know what I need to learn."