Gravis' first stop was to understand the Soft Complex materials. He needed to get his defense in order and complete the Complex Laws. Right now, he had enough time to entirely focus on them. He had nothing to do but comprehend Laws, and this would be the perfect time to comprehend Laws that required a lot of time.
Since Gravis had already comprehended the water part of the Soft Complex Laws, the next thing he wanted to check would be the liquid metals and fire. Sadly, Gravis couldn't find the liquid metals very quickly.
So, he decided to mine.
He dug a hole in the ground and used his Composition Law of the Earth to stabilize it as much as possible so that it didn't simply collapse.
With his power, digging far into the earth was not hard at all. In no time at all, he was already several kilometers underground. As he dug further and further down, he felt the gravity around him increase. It was also getting hotter, but none of the two things were an issue for his power.
After digging for 1,000 kilometers, Gravis could really feel the effects of gravity and heat. At this depth, even a Lord would have problems surviving. Yet, he continued digging.
At 5,000 kilometers, even some Kings would have issues surviving.
At 10,000 kilometers, Gravis felt like he was close to his breaking point. The heat warped the surroundings as he was surrounded by a ton of magma. Gravis didn't really care about the hole and let the magma just flow out in a volcanic explosion. Hundreds of kilometers of the area around the hole were destroyed, but that didn't matter.
As he reached this depth, he looked around for interesting materials. The magma itself was already an interesting material since it was very different from normal fire or earth. It was like a combination of fire and earth, which interested him quite a bit.
For the next 20 years, Gravis checked out all the interesting materials in the ground. He also found his liquid metal, but it was hard to discern which of the metals was actual liquid metal and which material was simply so hot that it melted.
Yet, in these 20 years, Gravis made quite some headway. In actuality…
BOOOOM!
'Interesting,' Gravis thought with a smirk. 'So, even magma has a kind of Composition Law. This is interesting indeed. Magma does not count towards any of the Material Composition Laws. Additionally, it also doesn't count towards any single element.'
'This material does not conform to any category of Law I know. I wonder how that works?' Gravis thought as he looked around.
'Well, if it doesn't fit into any category, it's probably a new category that I don't know yet. I think it's some kind of elemental fusion Law, maybe? Though, since I can't control earth nor fire, it's hard to find out.'
Gravis scratched his chin but suddenly stopped. 'Wait. There was something before that fit that category.'
Gravis' eyes shone. 'Steam! Steam is also a fusion between water and fire and doesn't conform to anything. That one Lord with water affinity managed to comprehend it back then and control it. Ferris also managed to comprehend it.'
'Does that mean that one only needs to have one affinity of a material that has two or more to control it? If a water affinity beast and Ferris can control steam, a fire affinity or earth affinity beast should be able to control magma. Of course, only if they know the applicable Law.'
Gravis looked at the magma and tried to manipulate it. He couldn't transform or control it, but he could destroy it with his Composition Law.
Suddenly, Gravis' eyes widened. He had expected the magma to turn into dust or Energy, but it actually turned into something else.
In front of Gravis, for just a split second, he had seen a solitary fire and a rock. Yet, as soon as they came into contact with the surrounding magma, they turned back into magma.
Whoop!
Gravis grabbed a chunk of magma and returned to the surface. When he arrived at the surface, he summoned the chunk of magma.
BRRRR!
The surroundings blurred as the hardened magma on the surface turned liquid again. This chunk of magma was so incredibly hot that it burned things even kilometers away.
Then, Gravis turned the chunk of magma back into fire and earth.
Now, since there was no magma around, the split parts of the magma stayed.
Gravis could see a violently burning fire to his right and a robust rock to his left. After he saw this, he scratched his chin in thought.
'Hmm,' he thought. 'I wonder…'
SSSHHH!
Gravis used his Composition Law of Earth and Fire to turn the two components into Energy.
'Sure enough, turning the components back to their base turned them into Energy. So, fire and earth are made out of Energy. Magma is made out of fire and earth. This is insane!' Gravis thought.
Gravis had thought that magma was simply molten stone. After all, if something was heated enough, it would turn into a liquid or gas either way. Magma hadn't seemed remarkable in any way since it was just another state of stone.
Yet, Gravis had been mistaken. Apparently, there was more to the materials than he had thought.
Gravis thought about what he had learned for a while and then thought about the uses that controlling such a Law would bring.
'That's actually insanely useful for a fire or earth Cultivator,' Gravis thought. 'Magma isn't as powerful offensively as fire, and it also isn't as powerful defensively as earth. Yet, controlling it allows the Cultivator or beast to rectify their weaknesses.'
'Fire has nearly no defensive capabilities. The best it can do is evade or destroy an attack with an attack of its own. Controlling magma would allow the fire Cultivator or beast to create a barrier of magma around them. It would be similar to the earth shield that the Inquisitor has used against me, just not as powerful.'
'Earth, on the other hand, nearly has no offense. The only offensive method that earth has are spires and stones, but that's about it. An attack with a spire or stone would count as a physical attack, similar to punching or biting someone. Yet, if the spires or stones were replaced with magma, an elemental attacking component would be added to the attack, making it harder to defend against it.'
'So, we already have two mixed elements that exist. This probably means that there are way more,' Gravis thought.
Then, Gravis looked at the world again as he tried to imagine how a combination of different elements would look like. 'Water and earth make mud. Wind and water probably make some kind of storm. Lightning and water? I actually don't know. Water and metal? Not sure, but it could be liquid metal, I think.'
'Fire and lightning? Could be maybe some kind of hot lightning or something, not sure. Lightning and earth? I think it has something to do with charges and unloading, maybe some kind of loaded earth. Wind and lightning could just be a faster version of lightning but with a weaker offense. Metal and lightning could have something to do with electricity. Fire and wind could be heat.'
'Metal and fire make just a heated version of metal. I make that stuff all the time to forge my equipment. This probably means that metal and fire just create something that is part of the Hard Complex Law. Earth and Metal also sound like they would produce something that is part of the Hard Complex Law.'
'What about wood? Wood is a connection between souls. Normally, I wouldn't have any idea what would happen, but, luckily, I have precedence case.'
'Ferris. Ferris has learned something about the soul. The wood element is also intrinsically connected to the soul. Maybe, with understanding the Composition of the Wood Element, I can gain insights into the soul and then combine the soul with different elements.'
Gravis continued scratching his chin. 'Speaking of, could it be that the wood element is a base form of the soul or something? The wood element is very connected to the Life Laws. Maybe, the wood element is the gateway to learning about complex life, not just simple biological life and Life Energy.'
Gravis frowned. 'I don't think that the wood element can be fused with other elements just like that. I probably need to upgrade it to soul first. What about light and darkness? Realistically, I couldn't imagine anything that could fuse with these two elements. Yet, there may be some very advanced forces and materials that contain the forces of light and darkness.'
'Yet, I'm pretty sure that these forces are beyond my current scope of understanding. They are probably for the future.'
Gravis recounted his thoughts. 'That leaves me with eleven level one Laws of potential elemental fusions. These are obviously part of the Composition Law category. I just hadn't been able to see it before.'
'They probably require an understanding of the different elements to truly understand and use them. In the past, I have already theorized that eight of the nine elements would fuse into two level two Laws, which would be the Force Elemental Law and Matter Elemental Law.'
'Back then, I also theorized that these two level two Laws would make the level three Law of the Elements. Yet, it also seems rather barren. I only need to know two level two Laws to understand a level three Law?'
Gravis' eyes shone. 'I probably also need the Complex Elemental Laws. These fusions are all level one Laws, and with eleven of them at once, I could probably create another two level two Laws. Then, these two fuse with the level two Pure Elemental Laws to create the level three Law of the Elements.'
Gravis looked at the ground with fiery eyes. 'Let's get right to it!'