Gravis was a bit surprised that the Emperor personally escorted him to the Icy Pride Empire. Yet, his reasoning was rather solid. After all, Gravis had just killed an Inquisitor, and no average level five King would be able to keep him at bay if he decided to betray the land beasts.
Gravis didn't have anything against the Emperor escorting them since he didn't decide to betray the land beasts anyway. He had already made his promise, and he would go through with it.
After everything had been dealt with, the Emperor led the squad towards the Icy Pride Empire. Due to the squad's relatively slow speed, they took just as much time to return as they took to get here. Gravis and the Emperor could have finished the journey in a single day, but due to the others, the journey took several days.
While they were traveling, the Emperor noticed Gravis' body healing. When he noticed that, the Emperor released a sigh of relief. It wasn't that he was worried about Gravis, but that it would have been too weird if Gravis' body was actually just a head. How would he even fight? Would he simply float over to someone and bite them?
While Gravis had still been a head, he tried to land several more of his jokes, but the other beasts never seemed to react. That was, until a fateful day when one member of the squad informed Gravis of something important.
They all understood his jokes, but they just didn't react to them since the jokes were so bad. Gravis was thoroughly shocked when he heard that. Yet, Gravis decided to accommodate their poor sense of humor and didn't try to land more jokes. This whole situation was like playing the flute for a herd of swine. They just couldn't appreciate the talent and beauty of his jokes!
On their travels, Gravis also snagged an ore vein that had appeared along their path. This ore vein was, of course, a vein of peak Nascent Nourishing Rank materials. By forging this ore into weapons and armor, no level five King should be able to destroy it.
Yet, when Gravis thought that, he started to become uncertain. 'By hardening this ore, it should be a whole level higher than a level five King. Only something like the all-out attack of a Divine Beast should be able to destroy it.'
'At least, that's how it's supposed to be,' Gravis thought with furrowed brows. 'The attacks of the Inquisitor had been so powerful that one of his spires would probably still destroy around two of my new shields. Just one of these spires had been as powerful as an all-out attack by a level five Divine Beast King. He really had been a terrifying foe.'
Gravis decided to reevaluate the actual strength of his equipment. Such insanely powerful beasts as the Inquisitor surely would become more prominent as Gravis became more powerful.
Yet, if that were truly the case, why would such a classification for equipment still be prevalent in the highest world? The highest world had beings many, many times more powerful than the most powerful being in this world, but the classification still held up.
'Maybe it's the Law Comprehension materials?' Gravis thought. 'It could be that their quality rises explosively when the material reaches that Realm. Eh, who cares? I need to be a level five King either way to forge such equipment.'
As they continued their journey, Gravis transformed all of the ore into more equipment for himself. Sadly, since he had become much bigger, he couldn't create as many sets as he wanted.
'How much ore would I even need when I'm a level five King? I would be over a kilometer tall then! What when I become an Emperor?' Gravis thought but then shook his head again, confusing the squad as they noticed his weird actions. 'Let's deal with it when the time comes.'
The journey was uneventful. No Empire they passed through along the way stopped them. After all, a Leader of an Empire was leading the group.
Yet, the group still had to make some turns to evade some territories. Gravis remembered that they were not always flying in a straight line, and he actually didn't know why they did that. So, he decided to ask the Emperor.
"Those are private territories," the Emperor answered.
"What's that?" Gravis asked.
The Emperor was a bit confused that Gravis didn't know about that. How was it possible that a level three King didn't know something as basic as that?
"Not every beast wants to create an Empire or become part of the war. Some outstanding Emperors decide that they would rather not involve themselves with the Empires and simply live in their private territories. The territories are not very large since only these Emperors live in them, but they are still there. If we pass over their territory, they might very well decide to kill us," the Emperor explained.
This all made a lot of sense to Gravis. "And since they have the power to claim such territories while surrounded by Empires means that they are powerful, right?" Gravis asked.
The Emperor nodded. "Yes. Even the weakest has the power of a level two Emperor. These private territories also exist for Kings and Lords, but obviously, they don't have the power to claim a private territory that close to the core of the continent."
"How do these Emperors become more powerful?" Gravis asked. "After all, since no one dares to invade them, they wouldn't have any other beasts to kill."
"They submit an application for tempering," the Emperor explained. "All Emperors want food very badly since it's difficult to find an enemy Emperor in battle. As soon as such an Emperor submits an application for tempering, the Emperors in the surrounding Empires get asked if they are interested in fighting them."
"After every Emperor has been asked, a list with the interested ones will be sent to the Emperor in the private territory. That Emperor then chooses one of the Emperors, and they fight to the death," the Emperor explained.
"Interesting," Gravis commented. "I'm guessing that the sea beasts don't have such Emperors with private territories?" he asked.
The eyebrows of the Emperor lifted in surprise as he looked at Gravis. "How did you know?"
"Well, their territory is way smaller than ours. Due to the size of their territories, they have probably a lower number of powerful beasts, which requires them to use all powerful beasts more efficiently," Gravis explained.
The Emperor nodded. "Yes, that's exactly the case, but that only counts for Emperors."
"Only for Emperors?" Gravis asked.
"Yes. The number of sea beasts varies greatly with every increase in Realm," the Emperor explained.
Gravis thought about this for a bit and realized what the Emperor was getting at. "I think I get it," Gravis said. "The ocean is vast, and the sea beasts probably have many times more beasts below the Lord Realm than the land beasts."
"Not only that," the Emperor interjected. "They also have many more Lords than us. In regards to Kings, they have about as many as us, but when it comes to Emperors, we have around double their number."
Gravis thought some more about this situation and realized something. "So, even though the sea beasts have shown incredible progress and countless victories in the last ten years, all in all, the powerful elite of us land beasts don't care about their victories, right?"
The Emperor smirked. "Exactly. Lords and Kings might die and have their territories consumed by the sea, but the core of the world is safe. If the sea beasts ever manage to threaten the core of the world, the five Ultimates will get involved," the Emperor explained.
Gravis hadn't heard that word before. "Ultimates? Judging by the name, the Ultimates are probably level five Emperors, right?"
The Emperor chuckled a bit. "Exactly. We have five Ultimates, while the sea beasts only have two. To be quite frank, us Emperors are actually happy about the recent victories of the sea beasts."
Gravis' eyes shone with recognition. "Because if the sea beasts get more territory, they can make more Kings, and with more Kings come more Emperors. With that, there will be more food available for you."
The Emperor chuckled some more. "Exactly."
"That also explains why our Ultimates don't attack their Ultimates," Gravis said while scratching his chin in thought. "If we kill the Ultimates right now, the area of the sea beasts might shrink considerably, making it harder for more Ultimates to rise."
The Emperor only nodded with a smirk.
'It's like rearing pigs,' Gravis thought.
After this conversation, Gravis had no more questions, and everyone returned to fly in silence. Nothing else happened along the journey, and before they knew it, they had arrived at the border of the Icy Pride Empire.