CHAPTER 480: CHAPTER 580: CALCULATIONS

As Kael, Ozia, and Exalon stood on top of the arkship, overseeing the world of heaven with hidden awe, others approached from behind.

The three of them were currently standing at the edge of the saucer-shaped arkship with Kael standing in the middle.

The arkship they were standing on was one of the gifts that had been given to Kael yesterday and Kael was now the commander of the vessel.

The lion king who gave this arkship as a gift didn’t ask for anything in return. In fact, he had hoped that the arkship would enhance Kael’s ability to act and do what he wanted to do.

Arkships were not cheap, even for tier 6 lions, Kael appreciated this gift very much.

Alas, this arkship wasn’t like his former arkships. It had few modifications and would need to be altered by those experienced in its engineering.

Things like this made him miss his first arkship which had been designed by Noel. Unfortunately, he had to leave that one behind for the sake of the lion lords and the vassals.

As they waited, thousands of arkships approached the vessel from behind. Most of them had followed Kael the moment he left Exalon.

They provided free escort service to Kael, ensuring he was protected but they also wanted to be part of what he was doing.

What is the String of Fate Coalition going to be a launchpad for everything else that would happen?

Only time would tell.

As time passed, more and more Lion Kings were approaching. Some even came without their arkships as they had been close to this place when they saw the announcement.

Soon, more than nine thousand arkships were present, forming a fan-shaped formation with Kael’s arkship at the forefront.

Meanwhile, at the String of Fate Coalition.

This headquarters was unlike any other.

One single red star hovered at the end of their vision, small and casting a deep ominous red glow on everything.

The red glow coming from the red star interfered with the hue of the multicolored sky, creating a dazzling scene that Kael could not stop appreciating.

And revolving around this red star were not planets, but multiple small islands.

Each of these islands was at most as big as a nice house but their overall numbers were incredible.

Today that Kael and his restless entourage had come to this place, they had caught the members of the Strings Of Fate Coalition unawares.

They were still having a meeting at the moment, likely due to Kael’s unannounced arrival in heaven and what it meant for the whole civilization.

Those fortune lion kings who were already part of the system had not expected Kael’s arrival either. By the time Kael officially posted that announcement with the mission linked to it, he was already waiting at their doors.

Now, each of those floating islands spinning around the red star had at least one fortune lion on it.

To join a coalition as an official member, one had to at least be a tier 6 lion king. If not, they would be treated as guests.

This meant that most of the fortune lions here -Kael didn’t yet know how many they were exactly- were tier 6 at most.

Currently, the meeting had been paused as one could practically taste the tension in the environment.

Those with the Lion system chat functions had already begun to interact and ask questions.

"How many are they?" Kael asked, his golden eyes settling on a few islands at the edge of the island formation.

"About one hundred thousand or more. Thirty thousand tier 6 fortune lions..." Exalon said, recounting information that he had personally gotten himself.

"One thousand? Out of one trillion lions, we have just one hundred thousand tier six fortune lions?" Kael asked.

He had expected more.

"Just because you see so many Lion Kings around you, don’t let it disillusion you from the fact that tier 6 lions are not that common," Exalon said, his tone carrying a slight warning.

He was worried that Kael would start seeing tier 6 lions as pawns that could be easily sacrificed.

Each of them was a valuable assets that took a lot of time to reach their power level.

Exalon was right to give Kael this warning as this would be an eventuality with the way Kael was starting to see things.

Kael blinked his eyes, the coldness somewhat reducing. He knew when to accept that his thinking was wrong.

If he treated all these Lion kings like mere pawns, it could lead to the collapse of his own faction.

Now that Kael thought about it, he had not really done his own calculations.

In heaven, to be considered a pride leader, a lion must either be a Lord, a Prince, or even a Lion King.

They didn’t allow rogue pride leaders like Eridoria who were not tied to any clan.

Becoming a rogue pride leader in heaven was just asking for trouble as other lions would definitely try to challenge any lion without any backing.

That means that the lion civilization operated under a very strict hierarchy: Lion Lords, Lion Prince, then Lion Kings.

To become a pride leader, one had to join a clan or find their own heavenly beacon.

This somewhat made it easier for the referral mission to proceed easily as power dynamics enabled more compliance.

Then, using that information, Kael tried to estimate the total number of lion kings that would be expected to exist at this time.

On average, most Lion Kings would keep about one hundred princes. And most princes would keep about one hundred lords.

Some may have more than that but it wasn’t that common.

Why a hundred? Hundred just happened to be the sweet spot number that allowed easy management of a small tribe or society for the lions.

Without religion or common ideology, princes and kings would find it harder to manage more than one hundred individuals.

It wasn’t a matter of brain power, the fact that every individual was their own person with their own thoughts and priorities was what made it difficult to manage more than that.

Every lion in that group of a hundred had its own agency and agenda. It took masterful skills in politics and social awareness to maintain the balance.

Now, if that was the case, Kael did some rough calculations within the second.

One king, one hundred princes, ten thousand lords. About 10,101 pride leaders in any given clan in total.

Then after that, most pride leaders usually kept ten or so consorts on average. Some tended to have much more but the average was ten.

That was an average of one hundred thousand consorts in total in a given clan.

That meant that in any given clan, there had to be at least 110,000 plus individuals with males being outnumbered by the females ten to one.

This was slightly different for Lion Queens though as they usually operated at a base of three instead of ten. Lion Queens would usually keep a maximum of three male consorts if they ever did.

Adding all that together and taking into consideration the estimated population of all lions and lionesses combined to be one trillion.

’That’s about nine million lion kings at most in our entirety.

Nine million, that’s actually a lot,’ Kael thought after doing the calculations in his mind.

This was just a rough estimate as not all lion kings were tier 6 and the number of tier 6 lion kings could be lower than that.

"Correct me if I’m wrong, our civilization has about nine million lion kings in total?" Kael asked.

His eyes looked ahead, noticing that some of the slightly bigger islands were moving toward them.

Exalon shook his head, "No, about seven million actually, according to the counters of the Cosmic Research Coalition.

Don’t forget that a lot of our heavenly beacons are lost from that war between Noel and Ibadon.

Many years after that war, most tier 6 could not become official Lion Kings without going out to find their own heavenly beacon.

Although we’ve recovered most of them we’re still lacking.

Good news is that the dragons also lost some of their heavenly beacons too."

Exalon’s deep yellow eyes also focused on the approaching islands as well as the lions standing on top of them.

"I see," Kael said as he brought his hand to his face and smoothed his blonde well well-trimmed beard.

"So out of those estimated seven million lion kings, one hundred thousand are members of the strings of Fate Coalition.

That’s actually not bad, considering how uncommon Fortune Lions are." Kael admitted.

"Yeah, there was a discussion to add Time Lions to the fold but that’s unlikely. Time lions don’t usually operate with common sense and can be too weird, even for lions," Exalon said.

The islands were getting closer and Kael was able to see clearly the figures on them.

Exalon’s body tensed as he sensed the presence of a powerful entity.

Kael also sensed the powerful aura, but he didn’t flinch.

"Speaking of time lions, do you know Ma’abu’s whereabouts?" He asked.

Exalon shook his head, "No, Ma’abu had been very sneaky and only his inner circle knows what he’s planning.

Although, we’ve been keeping an eye on his former mentor."

"Mentor?" Kael asked, intrigued.

Exalon nodded with a grim face, "Yes, his mentor, Memphis. Also the strongest Time Lioness in the whole civilization."

Kael’s eyes brightened with hidden intent, "That’s interesting."