Lightning Is the Only Way

Years passed.

The number of customers from the beast side decreased over time, but that was to be expected. Gravis knew that a drought of customers would come as soon as he sold his Forging technique to the beasts.

First of all, Narcissus no longer sent beasts to the Gravitas. One had to remember that nearly all the past customers had only come under the orders of Narcissus. Now that the Gravitas had served several customers, the growth would come naturally. Of course, that would still take a long time.

The second and more significant reason was that the powerful beasts that were interested in equipment had heard from their Wave Leaders that the beasts would soon forge their own equipment.

The payment that the beasts gave the Gravitas didn't matter to the beasts. However, the reason why the beasts rather traded with other beasts was loyalty.

Gravis and that human that served them most of the time didn't feel trustworthy to the beasts. The Gravitas was on the edge of the human territory, and the fact that the Gravitas had a human was already suspicious. 

The beasts would much rather buy expensive and worse equipment from their own camp than buy cheap, excellent equipment from a stranger. 

So, over the next century, the Gravitas got maybe one customer per year. 

It was a significant drop from the earlier one customer per day.

However, Gravis knew that he only had to wait. He was certain that the beasts wouldn't be able to forge useful equipment in the next 50,000 years.

So, Gravis waited for many years.

After a century, nothing much had changed.

After 500 years, everything was basically still the same. The only difference was that the customer base dropped even slightly more, but not by much.

And then, 1,000 years after Gravis had started waiting, everything changed.

The customer base suddenly exploded.

Now, there were over 30 customers per day!

Why were there suddenly so many customers when there had been nearly no customers for a millennium?

Two reasons.

The first reason was that the Forgers that the beasts wanted to create still weren't able to forge useful equipment. The beasts had heard that they only had to wait, and they could buy equipment from their own camp.

However, 1,000 years was a lot of time, even for Immortal Kings. 

1,000 years for an Immortal King was about as much time as a bit less than one full year for mortals. 

Imagine you were told that you would get something you desperately wanted soon.

Yet, even a year later, there was no news.

Eventually, you would run out of patience, especially when you could get something even better from somewhere else.

The second reason was a tournament.

About every 500 years, a tournament for the geniuses amongst the beasts was held. Every participant was a Peak Immortal King, and the winner would gain access to a level five Law Comprehension Area until they comprehended the Law.

The opening of the Gravitas had been perfectly timed since that tournament was held just a year after the Gravitas received its first customers.

Who won the tournament?

That one silver tiger, the Gravitas' first customer!

Then, the next tournament 500 years later had happened. 

A normal beast had won, but the ones that used the equipment from the Gravitas placed far higher than what they should have reached.

The beasts were quite angry, but they believed that they would soon get their own equipment. After all, their Wave Leaders had told them that their Forgers were trying their best to learn Forging.

Yet, the years passed, and the Forgers made no progress.

Then, the next tournament was about to arrive, and there was still no news from their Wave Leaders.

So, the beasts had enough and charged towards the Gravitas.

They couldn't allow the other beasts to win!

Gravis smirked when he saw so many customers arrive successively.

Big money was about to roll in!

And even more, the more beasts went to the Gravitas, the higher the pressure on the leadership of the beasts. After all, the leadership also didn't know the background of the Gravitas. Only Narcissus knew the background, and he hadn't told anyone. 

The leadership of the beasts already suspected that their ore was transferred to the human side. Losing their ore was not an issue, but they didn't want the humans to get it. They knew that humans needed ore desperately, and the more they had, the more powerful their Cultivators were.

So, every time they saw a beast go to the Gravitas, they imagined the equipment of humans upgrading by a rank. 

Their Forgers made nearly no progress, even after a thousand years. Sadly, the beasts weren't willing to admit that they had essentially bought a useless Forging technique. This resulted in the most prosperous ten years for the Gravitas.

Sadly, after eight years, an issue appeared.

It was an issue that Gravis had not foreseen, and this issue made it very hard for the Gravitas to continue earning Immortal Stones.

What issue?

Underworld and the Purist Sect had run out of money.

The prices of all ores on the human side dropped by nearly 70% due to the overabundance of supplies, and it was hard for Underworld and the Purist Sect to turn a profit.

Underworld and the Purist Sect now had mountains of ore that they couldn't sell. 

All their powerful Immortal Kings were already fully decked out in powerful equipment, and the frontlines were as safe for humans as never before.

But only on the eastern continent.

The other fronts hadn't changed at all. 

This gave the leaders of the beasts a lot of important information.

First of all, it was confirmed that their ore went to the humans. 

When the leadership got the confirmation, they immediately asked Narcissus why he was supporting something like that. The humans were their enemies! Why would they willingly strengthen the humans!?

Narcissus said that the beasts also became more powerful. Even more, the most important aspect was the techniques that Gravis was selling to them. As long as they purchased all the techniques, they would have all the ore. What could the humans do then?

The beasts couldn't argue with that.

The second thing that the beasts learned was that the ore was only transported to the east. This meant that the eastern front was isolated from the rest of humanity. After all, if the humans on the eastern front worked together with the rest of humanity, the average equipment on the other fronts would have also been upgraded.

So, what did the beasts do when they realized that the eastern front was now much more dangerous than the other ones?

One would imagine that they would pull back their own warriors from such a perilous front.

However, if they did that, the eastern front would collapse, and parts of their Great Forest would be burned down. This meant that the beast territory would shrink.

So, the beasts sent their armored beasts to the east.

This resulted in a vast disparity between the eastern front and the other ones.

In the east, the most powerful and most armed geniuses of the beasts would clash with the armed Cultivators from the Purist Sect.

Money was clashing with money, and the most powerful beasts went there.

The other fronts became a bit weaker, but it was still manageable for the beasts. 

Right now, the eastern front was the beasts' biggest concern.

Luckily, this decision had another positive side-effect. 

Since the beasts sent all their most powerful and armed beasts to the east, the remainder of humanity felt that the beasts became a bit weaker. Additionally, they also hadn't seen many armed beasts. This meant that the change among the beasts had been hidden from humanity.

The beasts were silently gaining power without humanity knowing of it.

Yet, all of this put even more pressure on the leadership of the beasts.

They had to make their own equipment!

They couldn't allow the remainder of humanity to also gain more power!

So, 1,010 years after Gravis had sold his Forging technique to the Black Demon, the Black Demon returned.

The leadership couldn't wait any longer.

They had to get the Forging techniques, no matter what!

Gravis smirked when he saw the Black Demon return.

'The Gravitas has reached its crescendo. We have enough Immortal Stones for everyone to become a Late Major Circulation Immortal Emperor. We have enough ore to last us until we leave this world. We have access to a ton of level five Law Comprehension Areas.'

'The Gravitas will now secure its last trade before it dissolves. It has served its purpose.'