Lightning Is The Only Way

Gravis had arrived here with grand plans in mind, but everything just kept crashing down as soon as he realized how hard it actually was to comprehend a more powerful Law. He had managed to comprehend a level two Law, the Law of Suppression, but that was a Law that didn't require any level one Laws to understand.

Gravis hadn't attempted to understand a proper level two Law yet, and just thinking about the level three Law made him nearly despair. There was so much from so many different aspects to understand. He was sure that not everything he had considered would be part of the Law, but some of that stuff surely would.

Gravis sighed and looked at the ground with a troubled expression. 'Where do I even begin?' he thought.

Now, Gravis could understand why so many level five Kings never managed to become Emperors. He didn't even know what he needed to understand in order to comprehend even some Initial Laws. It was like he was completely blind.

'I'm lucky that father gave me an initial direction with the Hard Pure Law,' Gravis thought as he remembered his conversations with his father.

'Wait a second!' Gravis thought as he remembered something specific. 'Hadn't father said that he didn't want to tell me the categorization of Laws so that I don't try to only go in one direction? He also said that the Initial Laws are more important than the later ones.'

Suddenly, Gravis chuckled bitterly. 'I get it. So that's why you have told me about the Composition Law but not the others.'

Gravis sighed again. "I've been truly stupid."

His father had said that the Composition Law was one of the most powerful Laws in existence. Such a powerful Law, obviously, wasn't easy to comprehend.

What was Composition?

It was the Law that explained how Energy transformed into different matter and forces. All matter was made up of Energy, and by understanding the Composition Law, one understood how an entire world was created.

'I have tried to understand how to create an entire world,' Gravis thought with a bitter smile. 'I am pretty sure that is way beyond my ability at the moment. Father told me about this Law because it's absolutely impossible for me even to attempt to understand it.'

'He also said that I shouldn't aim for any specific, more powerful Law, but just try to gain understanding with as many Initial Laws as possible. I shouldn't set such a powerful Law as my goal but should just aim to understand one Law after the other.'

Gravis punched himself in the forehead to regain his bearings. 'If I understand ten Laws, I might not have the fitting Laws for a Low-Rank Law. Yet, if I understand 100 Laws, the chances are high that I have enough for several Low-Rank Laws. As long as I understand as many Initial Laws as possible, the Low-Rank Laws will come naturally!'

Gravis' gaze turned back to the crystals on the mountain. 'I shouldn't aim for a Law but aim for understanding. As long as I look at everything I see one at a time, I will comprehend a Law at some point!'

'Let's start with these crystals!' Gravis thought as he randomly grabbed another crystal. Right now, he wasn't aiming for a specific kind of crystal but just grabbed one at random.

And with that, Gravis properly started his 100-year-long journey to understand as many things as possible.

It took Gravis three entire months to understand and categorize all the crystals on the mountain range. After he was done with that, he nodded in satisfaction and turned his gaze to the mountain range itself.

Parts of the mountain range were so powerful that not even he was able to destroy them. Yet, there were also parts that were made up of weak stone that even a Lord could destroy. As soon as Gravis started experimenting on the mountain, he became fascinated.

He had never even seen such a wondrous mountain! Most mountains were made up of only one or two materials, but this one had many different kinds of stones all over. Additionally, the mountain also had a lot of different kinds of metal inside it.

'No wonder this is a Law Comprehension Area,' Gravis thought. 'If this mountain range weren't so special, it probably wouldn't constitute as a Law Comprehension Area for the earth element.'

Two weeks into trying to understand the mountain range, Gravis got interrupted.

"Hey, I managed to comprehend a Law," Ferris said with a smile as he looked at the concentrating Gravis.

Gravis' ears perked up when he heard that. "Already?" he asked in shock.

Ferris nodded. "I'm an Emperor, and I have already comprehended a lot of Laws. I can learn a lot of the hidden concepts by finding similarities from other Laws."

Gravis nodded. "That makes sense. What did you manage to comprehend?" he asked.

Ferris laughed loudly. "I learned the Law of Steam!" Ferris said with pride.

Gravis blinked a couple of times in confusion. "How?" he asked. "You have the fire element. Isn't steam part of the water element?"

Ferris nodded a couple of times. "I also thought that learning this Law was a bit too easy, but when I thought about it more, it actually makes sense."

"You see, I've fought a lot of water beasts in my life, and naturally, a lot of them have the water element. So, it happened quite often that my fire clashed with their water, creating steam in the process. Without me knowing, I have learned a lot about steam during these fights," Ferris explained.

Gravis scratched his chin in thought. "Huh, that actually makes a lot of sense," he commented.

Ferris smiled. "It does, doesn't it? It's been a while since I've managed to comprehend a new Law, and this one came way easier than most of the others."

Ferris also scratched his chin as he looked with thought to the sky. "I think it's because I've been too hellbent on learning more about fire. I've ignored a lot of the level one Laws and only looked at fire, which made it harder than necessary."

Funnily enough, Ferris was wagging his tail in excitement. "You know what's even funnier? By comprehending the Law of Steam, I managed to understand something about fire that I hadn't managed to comprehend in the past 50 years. It's not a full Law yet, but it's progress!"

Gravis thought about these words for a bit. "So even seemingly opposite Laws can allow someone to comprehend something about the other one." Then, Gravis looked at the mountain with furrowed brows. "That means it's also possible that understanding more about this mountain won't make me understand more about the crystals."

"So?" Ferris suddenly said. "You explained to me the usage of learning different kinds of Laws. The Law of Steam won't help me at all in combat as long as my opponent doesn't use steam. Yet, this Law gave me insights into a Law that is very useful to me."

Gravis blinked a couple of times in surprise. "Huh," he simply uttered, "if you put it like that, it sounds like there is no wrong Law to comprehend."

"There isn't," Ferris said. "The more you understand, the more you learn about the world, and the more you learn about the world, the more powerful you become. There is no useless Law."

Gravis nodded. "Exactly," he said and then turned back to the mountain. "I will continue with my experiments."

Ferris realized that Gravis didn't want to talk right now and simply waved him off. "No problem. I'll also continue. Just tell me if you want to go somewhere else, but I honestly don't mind. Staying here has proven quite fruitful to me already."

"Will do," Gravis said with a nod as he continued probing the mountain.

Then, Ferris flew away.

The mountain proved to be way more complex than the crystals. There were simply way more materials in it. There were even other kinds of crystals inside the mountain that Gravis hadn't seen yet. It seemed like the crystals he had already understood were literally just the tip of the mountain.

Six months passed as Gravis looked more at the mountain with interest. The more he looked at it, the more interesting the mountain became.

"Hey, I managed to comprehend another Law!" Ferris suddenly said as he flew to Gravis.

"Another one!?" Gravis asked in shock.

Ferris nodded a couple of times in excitement, his tail wagging wildly. "Yes!" he shouted with excitement. "This time, I learned something about wind! I noticed how my fire made the wind move, and that allowed me to understand a lot about it!"

"That's really great, Ferris," Gravis said. "I still haven't understood even one Law. I'm trying to understand the materials in this mountain, and it is rather difficult."

Ferris turned to the mountain with interest and grabbed one of the crystals. Then, he looked at it, used some fire, and melted it. After that, he grabbed another one and did the same thing. But when he tried out the third crystal, the crystal suddenly split apart into two different kinds of materials.

One of Gravis' eyebrows twitched with annoyance. 'That crystal has taken me 27 tries to understand!' he thought with frustration.

"That's also interesting, but I'm more interested in something else," Ferris said. "See you later!"

And with that, he was off.

Another six months passed in which Gravis understood more and more about the mountain. He guessed that he had already gone through about 80% of its materials, and he felt delighted with his progress.

"Gravis, I comprehended another Law!"

Gravis heard the shout and gritted his teeth.

'This fucking guy!'