Extending from the entrance to stretch out like a fibrous root system was a series of mountain ranges, the sole stable structures of existence in the Brimgan Empire.
As to why they were the sole stable structures in such a massive Empire? The answer lay beyond the fibrous network of mountain ranges.
A stretch of water, extending from one end to the other of the Lotus Range. But, it wasn't a uniform stretch like a sea. No, it was a series of lakes placed adjacent to one another.
The walls of each lake spanned a thickness ranging between a kilometre to a dozen kilometres. But they weren't mountains in the sense of being stable entities. No, they were like sponges, expanding out of the ground when necessary before contracting into nonexistence.
One such lake was situated close to a mountain range. The walls of the lake reached a height of ten metres above sea level, appearing porous, resembling coral at first glance, but one covered by dirt and moss.
The lake formed as the walls protruded out of the water body, separating the water in the lake from the rest. The lake currently occupied an area of three square kilometres, nothing worth mentioning in terms of size.
It had a depth of eight hundred metres, too shallow as compared to the Brimgan Sea right beyond the Lotus Range whose depth reached close to ninety kilometres.
The strange thing about this lake was the fact that the water body there prior to the appearance of the walls had a depth close to four kilometres. At present, forming a layer underneath the lakebed was the porous wall, expanding and contracting as it pleased, with nary a pattern.
Five minutes after the lake formed, the water level within it began to recede. An hour later, the lake was empty, with the water having been drained through the porous walls. As time passed, the walls of the lake began to shrink into the ground. Once they moved below the sea level, the surrounding water gushed in.
This was the chaos happening in a single lake. Tens of thousands of such lakes were undergoing a similar phenomenon, with each of them littered next to each other.
These lakes covered the majority of the area within the Lotus Range, forming the bulk of the Brimgan Empire's territory, uninhabitable for the most part.
When water filled a lake, another lake got emptied. Similarly, a small lake would appear within a larger lake and split it into multiple portions. Or suddenly, the walls of a bunch of lakes would collapse to result in a larger lake, due to which strong tides formed.
This chaos was common in the Brimgan Empire, with the lakes changing shape, size, depth, and water level at erratic intervals, the shortest of which amounted to a couple of minutes.
It was stated that the region enclosed by the Lotus Range was once uninhabitable, as no living being was able to adapt to the region.
If a marine Pranic Beast were to enter a lake, it would find itself suffocating once the lake gets drained, causing it to writhe in pain on the dry sand bed until it dies. Similarly, if a land-based Pranic Beast were to enter an empty lake, it would drown once the walls move and send in water.
Even being an amphibian type wasn't enough, as the mineral composition in each lake differed tremendously. The mineral composition in one lake might be beneficial, but once the water there gets drained, the new water gushing in later would have a completely different mineral composition, even poisonous depending on the creature's body.
Due to this, forget Pranic Beasts, even plants had an impossible time surviving here. As a result, for a good majority of the time in Sumatra Continent's history, the region within the Lotus Range remained bereft of life.
That all changed when a certain Free Human arrived, a legendary genius unlike any other, one of the first entities that managed to cause a Mystic Empyrean Tentacle to treat him as an equal.
Records about him existed but were hard to believe. He was like a legend, a tale of myth that seemed as if a story was created around the existing environmental factors, not the other way around.
This man was an enigma, an eccentric individual who intended to peer into the secrets of Sumatra Continent. During his journey, he arrived at the Lotus Range and observed the strange phenomenon happening there.
Lakes formed and vanished, water appeared and disappeared without any source or sink, and a mysterious network of porous material that doubled down as mobile ranges and a pipeline to transport water.
This man, later coming to be known as the Brimgan Founder studied the secrets of the region for a long time. Eventually, he figured things out, understanding the secret of the lakes, information he never shared with others.
Through the secret he found out, the Brimgan Founder devised a way in which humans and Pranic Beasts could take advantage of the environment and live there. With the Lotus Range acting as their safety net, they could prosper without issues.
It might seem as if the lakes formed and collapsed erratically, not to mention the mineral composition in them changing continuously. But there was a pattern, a flow if one might ponder deeply.
There existed a network of operations that caused tens of thousands of lakes to change every few minutes, a problem of complexity deemed impossible to solve. The sole exception was him, the Brimgan Founder.
He genetically created an existence that allowed life to be sustained on these ever-changing lakes. It could be called a plant, a tree, or a leaf. All were apt identifications suitable for it.
Geyser Cup!
A leaf-shaped object resembling a cup, acting as a boat that stayed afloat on the water. Each Geyser Cup spanned an area ranging from four hundred to ten thousand square metres. It had a mysterious property in that it had an affinity towards a certain type of mineral composition.
Thereby, it was drawn in that direction, rowing itself towards the flow of water bearing the respective mineral composition, able to travel from one lake to another promptly. And its structure made it hard for it to sink even when powerful waves slammed into it.
Geyser Cups became platforms for people in the Brimgan Empire to live. Depending on the material composition it was designed for, the Geyser Cup created a land environment within its cup portion, having accumulated soil there by absorbing minerals for hundreds of years.
Each Geyser Cup sported a unique soil texture and environment. Living on some were Pranic Beasts; houses were constructed in the others; many were left to contain wild forests, etc.
The Brimgan Founder's story seemed absurd because it was quoted in his legend that he had personally created every single Geyser Cup.
Being plant life, Geyser Cups grew clones of themselves on their border. Over time, the clone matured and took charge while the original wilted and was then consumed by the clone. This way, maintaining the same structure and genetic composition, the Geyser Cup was reborn again and again innumerable times.
Thanks to these, it was possible for life to sustain itself in the region within the Lotus Range.
And once the Brimgan Founder created the Geyser Cups, he also genetically modified Pranic Beasts and made them adapt to a life on the Geyser Cups. Following that, he created the first version of Gold Kinesis Art, the cultivation technique employed by the Brimgan Empire Royalty.
Due to the sense of safety posed by the Lotus Range, not to mention the rich, almost endless reserve of minerals being pumped into the lakes every few minutes, Free Humans flocked to the region. Eventually, the Free Humans formed a group under the banner of the individual that practiced the Gold Kinesis Art, labelling themselves the Brimgan Kingdom.
It eventually became an Empire and stood tall to this date.
But shockingly, the Brimgan Founder had disappeared mysteriously. No matter how much they had searched, they were unable to find any traces of his existence, as if he had been erased. Countless eras spanned past after that. And today, the Brimgan Founder was a mere legend.
There must have been a founder for the Brimgan Empire. It was this logic that adhered to the existence of the Brimgan Founder in the minds of the citizens, but no one knew anything beyond that, treating all legends regarding him as another drunkard's tale, one among the tens of thousands of lies that had been weaved over time.
'But, the Brimgan Founder was real. And he didn't vanish mysteriously.' Inala thought as he set foot into the Brimgan Empire, seeing a mountain range stretch forth before him. To the side lay a series of lakes that extended without an end, appearing and disappearing erratically.
Inala stared at the lakes and muttered, "A man that became one with his legend."
The Brimgan Founder didn't vanish for no reason. Rather, being the eccentric individual that he was, he desired more secrets regarding Sumatra Continent. And the conclusion he ended up at was the Bolt of Transcendence, a streak of destructive lightning that also contained a sea of knowledge.
He wanted to absorb Bolts of Transcendence, as much as possible, taking advantage of all the secrets he had unveiled until then to conceptualise a plan. Once ready, he began his breakthrough to reach the Transcendence Stage, summoning Bolts of Transcendence towards him.
That wasn't enough. He wanted more. More! And even more! Using all his knowledge, the Brimgan Founder was able to draw in Bolts of Transcendence dozens of times greater than what was necessary for him to become a Transcendent.
And obviously, he had swallowed more than he could chew, losing his life in the process. Fearsomely, he came frighteningly close to success, becoming a terrifying Transcendent had he succeeded. But since he died right at the cusp of success, his gains were refined by the Bolts of Transcendence into a Major Treasure.
That was none other than the Major Treasure of Attribute!