The Red King quickly found a replacement for Kara. The new beast was also a King, and Gravis felt its level. 'Level three King,' he concluded. It would be incredibly easy for this beast to keep watch over him.
Ironically, this beast was another cat, but white instead of black. She also looked kind of similar to Kara, but with a different aura. This new cat radiated a rather peaceful and tranquil aura instead of Kara's malicious one. Gravis guessed that these two probably had some kind of rivalry going on.
"Hello, I'm Cynthia, and I will remain by your side for the next five years. Nice to meet you," the white cat said with a polite tone.
Gravis was quite surprised by the friendly tone of Cynthia. This was completely different than nearly every other beast Gravis had met. This Cynthia probably wasn't simple. But hey, as long as she didn't act like a stuck-up prick, why not?
Gravis nodded. "Hello, Cynthia. My name is Gravis," he said.
The Red King was still present but perked up at these words. He realized that he had never heard Gravis' name before. Though, he wondered if Gravis would have even told him his name if he asked.
Cynthia nodded with a smile. "What do you want to do first, Gravis?" she asked. "Of course, the restrictions that my King has put in place still apply. So, please, don't make things hard on me, okay?"
Gravis shook his head a bit. "It's okay. As long as no one flaunts their power in front of me in order to intimidate me or force me into something I don't want, I have no problems," Gravis looked at the Red King with a cold gaze.
The Red King huffed. "Cynthia, try to keep him in check," he said.
"Yes, my King," Cynthia said.
The Red King nodded and flew back into his mountain. Meanwhile, Gravis looked all around the Red Kingdom. "First, I need to regenerate my limbs. After that, I need to search for ore."
Cynthia looked a bit surprised. "Oh, so this isn't your normal form?" she asked.
Gravis laughed bitterly. "No. Have you ever seen a beast that only consists of a head, a torso, and a tail?" he asked.
Cynthia's tail was lifted the entire time to show friendliness. Gravis wasn't sure if that were her genuine feelings, but it was fine as long as she didn't antagonize him. At least, he didn't need to spend his entire time alone.
"Well, my King said that you are a special beast. So, having no limbs sounds more reasonable, I think," she said with a slight laugh.
Gravis shook his head a bit. "I lost my legs in my last fight, and your colleague, the black cat, cut off my arms in order to intimidate me," Gravis said.
Cynthia huffed a bit as her tail lowered and moved from side to side. "That sure sounds like her. She believes that everyone needs to pay her ample respect for her power. That might be true in some cases, but when dealing with something delicate, it isn't helpful."
Cynthia laughed a bit as her tail raised again. "Though, I must thank you for teaching her a lesson. She and I don't get along very well. Seeing her so dejected felt very refreshing."
Gravis nodded. He had expected something like this. "Do whatever you want. I will remain here for the next 24 hours until my body has fully healed. I won't leave during that time," Gravis said.
Cynthia smiled a bit sheepishly. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that. I need to keep watch over you. This means that I need to remain close to you for your entire stay," she said.
Gravis nodded. "That's fine. Though, it will be boring," he said.
"No problem. I'm used to boredom," Cynthia said.
With that, the conversation ended as Gravis "sat" down. While he waited for his body to regenerate, he simply thought about what he should do for the next five years. Five years was a long time for him, and waiting such a long time felt like an incredible waste.
Yet, he had no other choice. He was surrounded by Kings many times more powerful than him. Even if he gave his best, he wouldn't be able to flee. Though, not all the surrounding beasts were powerful Kings. There were also a lot of Lords running around.
The higher the power of the individual beasts got, the rarer they became. There were some Kings, but the majority of the Red Kingdom were still Lords. Yet, this was still quite impressive.
A level five Lord would probably have a ton of Lords under them, but a level five King didn't have as many Kings under them. One shouldn't forget that the Red Kingdom was probably one of the most powerful Kingdoms out there. After all, the Leader of the Red Kingdom was a level five King. If the Red King achieved a breakthrough, he would already count as an Emperor.
When Gravis was finished thinking about his future plans, he started watching the CMO again. After all, he had nothing better to do. Additionally, he really hated the fact that he couldn't heal himself effectively in a fight. His current method of healing reduced his Realm, which weakened his Battle-Strength.
The opponents that Gravis fought were so powerful that it was basically impossible to win against them cleanly. He would always receive some injuries in these fights, and he needed a good method of dealing with these situations.
Gravis had already watched the CMO for several months back when he had been the Leader of the River Tribe. Yet, the more time passed, the more he saw the vastness of life. He learned something new constantly, but the more he learned, the more he felt like his knowledge was inadequate.
By now, Gravis was pretty sure that he wouldn't learn any kind of Life Law in the next several years. The knowledge seemed just too vast. It felt even more complex and grand than all his knowledge regarding forging and materials. Gravis guessed that he wasn't only gaining insight into one specific Law, but gained many small insights into many different Laws regarding life.
'I think that's what father meant when he said that knowing the roadmap of the Laws would only damage me. If I knew the classifications of the different Laws of life, I would probably focus on only one aspect. I might learn that Law sooner, but I might miss some clues regarding the other Laws,' Gravis thought.
'Speaking of, what was the name of the Law I have comprehended again? I think father called it Middle Hard Pure or something. I don't remember the full name, but it was rather long,' Gravis thought and snorted a bit, eliciting a confused glance from Cynthia. What was he doing?
'He said I would be able to make a hardened edge as soon as I can smelt every material on the first try. Yet, being able to smelt every material on the first try means that I need to understand the Law. What a smartass. Why didn't he just say that I need to comprehend the Law?' Gravis thought to himself.
Then, he shook his head a bit. 'Actually, it doesn't matter. An armor wouldn't have been useful to me previously, but that has changed now. By understanding the Law, I can make full use of the materials. Like this, my weapons and armor won't be directly destroyed after a single clash.'
'Additionally, my new weapons will even be able to injure level five Lords. The biggest issue with my enemies has always been their defense. In order to kill them, I always needed to unload a ridiculous amount of lightning into them. After all, their defenses were just too powerful.'
Gravis' eyes shone a bit. 'But with this new Law, I can make weapons that can injure my enemies even without using a Lightning Crescent. This gives me a lot more options. Thanks to this Law, my Battle-Strength has increased by a whole level.'
'Except for these few Divine Beasts that can fight two levels above themselves, I should be the most powerful Lord in existence as soon as I reach the Middle Unity Realm. Yet, this would make tempering really difficult,' Gravis thought as he tried to scratch his chin. Sadly, he didn't have any arms right now.
Cynthia saw the slowly regrowing stump of Gravis' right arm wiggle a bit and giggled. In comparison to Gravis' wide chest, the tiny wiggling stump looked comical.
'I would either need Divine Beasts to temper myself when I become a level three Lord or directly become a level four Lord. At that time, I could try tempering myself against level one Kings,' Gravis thought.
Gravis continued thinking for multiple hours. Day turned to night, and night turned to day.
And, finally, Gravis' body had fully regenerated.
BANG!
Gravis stomped on the ground with his new feet and stretched his arms. Additionally, now that he had some time to cool down and think, he also realized that his Will-Aura had become much more powerful than before.
He fought against two level four Lords where he had nearly died, and he had fought against an overpowering opponent directly after that. Gravis guessed that his Will-Aura nearly reached the Middle Nascent Nourishing Realm.
When he felt his Will-Aura, Gravis realized that some of his motivation, which he had lost when he arrived in this awful situation, returned.
With burning eyes, he looked over into Cynthia's eyes.
"Let's go," he said.
