Gravis was happy that he could finally talk to Orthar again. Orthar had been his first friend in this world, and he still remembered how alone he had felt when Orthar and Silva had left. Back then, he had felt quite lonely again since he hadn't had any other friends or comrades.
Of course, ever since then, he had managed to make a lot of new friends. Azure, Styr, Ferris, and Meadow were all beings that Gravis counted as his friends. Additionally, he also had three wonderful children now.
"You have lived quite a high-profile life, Orthar," Gravis said. "I've seen your influence basically everywhere."
"The warfare amongst beast is simple, crude, and inefficient regarding the greater collective," Orthar answered. "Proving the effectiveness of my strategies was easy and had little noteworthy opposition, except for the Light Ultimate."
Gravis chuckled a bit. "Makes sense. After all, for beasts, an individual's power has the same importance as the greater collective's goal."
"Different strategies have their appropriate times to be used," Orthar said. "The sea beasts were outnumbered and still managed to survive due to them being valuable to the land beasts. However, betting their survival on the fact that this situation might continue is foolish. Therefore, following the traditional strategy is more akin to stagnation than progress."
Orthar had always talked very logically and absent of emotion, which was something that Gravis quite enjoyed. It felt good to hear him talk again. "So, tell me. What happened after we parted ways?" Gravis asked with interest.
Right now, Gravis sat on the floor with Orthar standing or sitting in front of him. It was hard to judge if an octopus was sitting or standing.
"After the River Tribe split up, I have taken most of the sea beasts to the ocean outside the continent. I still remembered the map you have shown me of this world, so I knew that there should be a part of the ocean stretching into the continent. I led the group to that stretch," Orthar said.
"We met heavy opposition from the Tribes when we arrived, but that was only a minor hindrance. The power of the members of the River Tribe was beyond any Tribe we met, which allowed us to create a stable foothold."
"My Tribe rapidly expanded, and I became more powerful along with it. This had gone on for five years until I was leading a level four Tribe. We wanted to expand further into the continent, but we met a powerful roadblock."
"Oh? Tell me," Gravis said, excited to hear about Orthar's story.
Orthar turned to the direction of the sea inside the Life Ring. "Access to the deeper regions of the ocean had been blocked by an association comprised of several level five Lords and their Tribes. No new Tribe was allowed to expand inward. The only way to travel in further was to split up the Tribe so that the level five Tribes could assimilate my Tribe."
"Interesting," Gravis said as he scratched his chin. "Such a far-reaching roadblock couldn't have happened if the Kingdoms or Empires didn't allow it. However, I can see the advantage of such a roadblock."
Gravis also looked at the sea in the Life Ring. "The association was probably controlled by one or more Kingdoms. After splitting the Tribes up into individual beasts, they would get a lot of new members. I expect that this roadblock mainly existed to get Lords to live in the contested territories."
"Correct," Orthar said. "Back then, I required level five Lords for tempering, but if I attacked one of them, the other level five Lords would join the fight. I had the ability to take on two, maybe three, but there were over 20. Attacking would have been suicide."
"But when attacking doesn't solve the issue, other tools are required. I ordered my Tribe to wait and left it. Joining one of the Tribes wasn't an issue with my power, and as soon as I had secured my spot, I challenged the Tribe Leader and killed her."
"I took her position as the Tribe Leader and joined the association. Then, I fused my old Tribe with my new one and created a Tribe more powerful than the other Tribes."
"When the association noticed, they sent three of the level five Lords to force me to hand over 80% of my forces. Of course, all of this was within my calculations. They didn't have the freedom to send many members to negotiate with me. Sending two Lords would have already been enough in their eyes, but three also made not much of a difference."
"After a long and dangerous fight, I managed to comprehend a second level one Law and managed to emerge victoriously. By consuming the level five Lords, I have also become a level five Lord myself. With my newfound power, the association posed no danger anymore."
"I invaded the other Tribes, killed half of the level five Lords, and forced the others into servitude. Then, I abandoned 90% of my territories to keep the Tribe as small as possible. Making the Tribe too big would attract Kings."
Orthar had chosen a different path to Gravis. Back then, Gravis had let his Tribe attack anything wildly, while Orthar kept everything under control and only attacked appropriate enemies.
There were a lot more difficult situations and complicated wars that Orthar told Gravis about. With Orthar's knowledge about advanced warfare, he was winning every war. Yet, there was something that Gravis was a bit confused about.
"Why did you decide to win the battle instead of tempering your members?" Gravis asked.
"Their Battle-Strength doesn't concern me," Orthar answered. "The Tribe was a tool to increase my own power. The numbers and Realm of my servants took higher priority to their Battle-Strength."
Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "There surely have been members that realized that you were basically forcing them into mediocrity. Inexperienced beasts don't know the negative effect that only fighting against weak opponents has. Yet, your Tribe should have been already powerful enough that a significant number of beasts should have realized that."
"Every member that realized the danger was sent on a suicide mission or was disposed of discreetly," Orthar answered evenly.
Gravis blinked a couple of times. "Including the previous members of the River Tribe?" he asked.
"I killed all previous members of the River Tribe before I even met the association," Orthar answered directly.
Gravis took a deep breath and released it. "Why?"
"I had had this plan before I even reached the ocean, and they were a danger to my plan. Dangers must be dealt with immediately," Orthar said.
Gravis looked at the sky. He still remembered a lot of members from the River Tribe. He hadn't been very close to them, but such an end was truly sad. Yet, Gravis also remembered that Orthar had always been like this.
Orthar had only cared about his own power and used every means necessary to achieve it. One could say that the previous members of the River Tribe that had trusted him had never had a future as soon as they followed him.
Gravis was not a fan of sacrificing comrades for his power at all. He had always given the River Tribe the freedom to choose their opponents and to become powerful.
In comparison, Orthar was a cold and logical machine. Yet, Gravis still considered him a friend, even if he disagreed wholeheartedly with Orthar's morals and ideals.
"So, what happened then?" Gravis asked, but his interest had been dampened by Orthar's display of ruthlessness.
"One year later, a level one King appeared to deal with the Tribe. I couldn't flee, so I was forced to risk everything. This had been the most perilous fight in my life, and I only managed to win after understanding a third level one Law."
"After consuming the corpse, I realized that my evolution didn't happen. This corpse should have been more than enough for me to become a King, but my evolution just didn't occur."
"The mandatory procreation," Gravis interjected.
"Correct. I hadn't come in contact with Kings before, which was why I didn't know about it. The inability to become a level one King forced me to re-evaluate my plan. So, I fled my Tribe and left it to die."
"Yet, two weeks later, a level three King found me. That's when my whole life changed."
