Chapter 302 The First Gate's Rankings
302 The First Gate's Rankings
Naturally, this made Dante curious. What did they mean by fourth-class universe? Was there some sort of grading for universes in the First Gate?
Then 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.
However, 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.
"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.
Beatrice 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."
Levi'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.
As such, Levi tipped his head respectfully. "Greetings, Madam Beatrice, Baby Antonia."
Beatrice nodded her head with satisfaction, while Antonia seemed amused, her little eyes narrowing with mirth.
"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.
"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."
"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.'
"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."
Levi 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." noVeLbIn
"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."
'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."
(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.)
"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."
"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."
"Capturing an unclaimed territory requires skill and cunning more than raw strength, but capturing a claimed one is all about who is stronger."
"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."
Beatrice smiled and cut in. "So I guess stats do matter, because how else could mom achieve all this? Luck?"
Levi'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."
Levi 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."
Beatrice's expression changed significantly. She didn't say anything and slept quietly feeding Antonia, who seemed to be a bottomless pit.
Meanwhile, Dante was mostly lost in thought. "How do I stack up in terms of capability in the First Gate?"
Levi 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?"
Dante 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.
They 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.
Dante 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.
Killian 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.
Not 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.