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n302 The First Gate’s Rankings

nNaturally, this made Dante curious. What did they mean by fourth-class universe? Was there some sort of grading for universes in the First Gate?

nThen Dante thought about it and felt that it should be obvious. Where there was competition, there would be rankings, whether official or unofficial. Sentient beings loved to split entities into classes in order to better identify who is superior and who is inferior. .𝒎

nHowever, he didn’t bother to search it up on the quantum networks in the First Gate, whether it was the Battlefield Space or the Gatenet. Rather, Dante did what anyone would do and summoned out his free encyclopedia, Levi.

n“Hmm? Oh hello, Daughter of Heaven 2 and Daughter of Heaven 3,” Levi greeted Beatrice who was breastfeeding, and Antonia, who glanced over at the giant bird with curiosity.

nBeatrice glanced at Levi speechlessly. “My name is Beatrice, and her name is Antonia. Call me that again, and I will cook your talons, roast your wings, and grill your thighs.”

nLevi’s casual expression hardened as he became serious. After all, as a Truth Beast, he could tell at this moment that Beatrice was not lying; she really would do it despite everything if he dared.

nAs such, Levi tipped his head respectfully. “Greetings, Madam Beatrice, Baby Antonia.”

nBeatrice nodded her head with satisfaction, while Antonia seemed amused, her little eyes narrowing with mirth.

n“Heh. What’s the grading of the universes in the First Gate, and how many territories exist in total?” Dante chuckled as he asked Levi what he wanted to know.

n“There are Nine Grades, from Ninth to First in ascending order. Universes are graded based on their number of territories and the estimated strength of their strongest combatant.”

n“To qualify for the ninth grade, the universe in question must possess at least 10 territories. Eighth grade requires 100 territories, seventh grade being 1,000, and sixth grade 10,000.’

n“Fifth grade is 100,000, while fourth grade is 1,000,000. Third, second, and first grade require 10 million, 100 million, and 1 billion, respectively.”

nLevi flapped his wings and adjusted himself slightly. “However, this is the rule used only by the Black Spire. Unofficially, there are universes in categories that are higher than they should be because of the existence of their strongest combatant.”

n“An example is the Holy Universe, praised as a first-grade universe and the number 1 publicly recognized universe, but they only have 40 million territories, not even qualifying for the second grade, much less the first grade.”

n“Likewise, our Eternal Universe is pushed to the fourth grade from the eighth grade thanks to the monstrous power of the first Daughter of… Madam Portia.”

nDante became pensive. “Even with Portia’s power, we aren’t at the first grade?”

nLevi looked at Dante seriously. “As your partner, Dante, I must absolutely say this. Madam Portia is awesome because I can tell you her stats currently surpass a billion at base, coupled with her superpowers, she is seemingly nigh invincible.”

n“But the waters of the First Gate are too deep to calculate things by numbers. Just as you exist right now with special power from the Cosmic Tree that allows you to bypass power levels and directly take down superior foes, so too do others exist like you.”

n‘The Cosmic Tree is an extremely powerful Eternal, if not the strongest, but there are other Eternals out there investing a great amount of power into lower-dimensional beings.”

nLevi glanced at Beatrice, who was listening with a solemn look, and shook his head. “No offense, but even if Madam Portia is a daughter of heaven, she cannot face off against some of those entities. Raising or multiplying her stats would not solve that problem either.”

nDante was also grave. “…you mean rule or law-based powers?”

nLevi nodded. ‘There are abilities that ignore common sense and fairness in the grand scheme of things. Lara’s authorities are a fair example of them because in as much as she may seem beatable to you, she is insurmountable to more than 99.9% of beings in the multiverse, even in this First Gate.”

n“Her authorities do not function on logic, that is why they are authorities. She does not channel, use, apply, or exert. She commands. The only reason you can face her is because of the Cosmic Tree backing you, preventing her authorities from achieving their full effect.”

nLevi lifted a talon off the ground and inspected it casually. “Similarly, there are those with powers like Brium or Dao that simply defy common sense. Against such fellows, even a powerhouse like Portia will be in trouble.”

nThe room was silent for a while after that.

n“As for the number of territories, there are around 1 trillion. Only about 150 million or thereabout are claimed, and the rest, like your Wasteland of Death, are unclaimed or contested,” Levi continued, feeling satisfied about having shut this tyrannical duo up.

n“Huh? So why the hell do universes fight each other when there is so much to claim?” Dante asked the obvious question.

nLevi sighed. “It’s not so simple. There are three main reasons: Difficulty, Logistics, and Maintenance.”

n“In terms of difficulty, it is not as simple as placing your hand on a Black Spire or Territory Flag and simply ‘capturing’ it. You will be made to undergo a test by the claimable item, which spawns in different difficulties.”

n“To gain basic control and a basic Chaos Will payout, you need to pass the first level. All subsequent levels include multiple rewards like Spire Points, unique items or abilities, and even free superpowers.”

n“However, even the basic level is a challenge to even Portia, much less the average denizen of the First Gate. More than 95% of the universes present in the First Gate are still ninth grade because they cannot even get 1() whole territories for themselves, minus the base one given for free.”

nLevi rambled on. “In terms of Logistics, not everyone can teleport competently like you. For the most part, they either have to warp or travel traditionally using frictional movement, and you experience it with the Wasteland of Death, but territories here in the First Gate are massive.”

n‘Traveling at light speed with the fastest ship in the Eternal Universe would not be able to get one across all 474 territories the Eternal Universe owns in their lifetime.”

n(AN: 458 territories captured by Portia in her second life 15 territories captured by Portia in her first life 1 free base territory = 474 total.)

n“Because of this difficult issue, most universes prefer to consolidate what they have and acquire more worthy combatants to enter the First Gate and populate their territories rather than expand.”

n“Finally, the issue of Maintenance is mostly in terms of defense. Due to the previous two reasons, it is easier and more cost-effective for another universe to seize your captured territory than to capture their own.”

n“Capturing an unclaimed territory requires skill and cunning more than raw strength, but capturing a claimed one is all about who is stronger.”

n“Part of the reason why the Eternal Universe shot up four grades and even got intothe front page of the news for the entire First Gate was because of how insane it was for Madam Portia to capture more than 400 territories that were unclaimed on her own, in such a short time.”

nBeatrice smiled and cut in. “So I guess stats do matter, because how else could mom achieve all this? Luck?”

nLevi’s expression became slightly ugly. “Hmph, well, luck played a part as she is the original Daughter of Heaven of your universe, so it subtly guides her in all things.”

nLevi then glanced at Beatrice pointedly. “Just like you. That day, you know very well you had no reason to be near Etonia, but something just told you to go and port there for some reason.”

nBeatrice’s expression changed significantly. She didn’t say anything and slept quietly feeding Antonia, who seemed to be a bottomless pit.

nMeanwhile, Dante was mostly lost in thought. “How do I stack up in terms of capability in the First Gate?”

nLevi was speechless and raised a wing to whack Dante. “You actually dare to ask? You have the ultimate cheat called the cosmic tree, and you dare to compare?”

nDante dodged and snickered. He might not know the exact abilities of those at the top, and he was cognizant of the fact that he was nowhere near invincible yet, but whether it was himself, Beatrice, Portia, or Levi, they all understood that he had the potential to reach the top.

nThey were all confident not just because of latent potential, but because Dante was steady and wise enough not to rush it and end up in a fatal situation, dying prematurely.

nDante continued to grill Levi for more information and only stopped when he was satisfied. In the end, he also released all of his summoned beasts to let them stretch their legs.

nKillian spawned and glanced at Beatrice, his cruel expression changing to one of fear. Previously, he had thought that only Dante had the kind of stats to directly resist his anti-matter powers, but now there was another Beatrice.

nNot to mention, as a beast fond of killing and suffering, it could see a spiritual aura around Beatrice of hundreds of millions of species wailing in suffering as they were extinguished from existence.

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