Bureau of Attribute Acquisition!
"His Majesty, the Emperor has sent in confirmation today." Standing before an auditorium filled with Royals was Amita Brimgan, addressing with power, "The Attribute will reveal itself in four years. Or to be exact, there are 1468 days for its appearance. The mining team confirmed the site but unfortunately, lost their lives in the process."
Staring at the audience, she continued, "Based on our investigative reports, there will be 16 entrances to the site in total, of which eight will be within the Empire. Task forces ought to be established for the entrances outside. It'll be dangerous to allow entry for the Pranic Beasts."
"Director, since we confirmed the site's danger, why don't we test the path using the Pranic Beasts?" A Royal in his early twenties raised his hand and posed the question, "Why should we risk the lives of our people needlessly?"
"You're right about that, but here's the issue." Amita Brimgan said and caused a Spirit Weapon to hover before her, shaped like a spiderweb with sixteen spokes. She pointed at the spokes, "Each of these serve as the entrances. But the problem lies in the fact that beyond the entrance lies a maze."
There were eleven concentric hexadecagons—a polygon with sixteen sides—connecting the sixteen spokes. The centre was a hexadecagon where the Major Treasure of Attribute existed, representing the zeroth layer.
Until then, the spokes and the remaining ten concentric hexadecagons combined created 160 compartments. Every layer had 16 compartments, with the compartments on the tent –outermost—layer spanning the largest area. The areas of the compartments shrunk steadily from the ninth, eight, and so on, until the zeroth layer, which was the centre.
Pointing at the spokes that extended beyond the tenth layer, Amita said, "Each spoke will reach the surface to form an entrance. If we enter it, we'll enter the respective compartment. For convenience, we'll number the layers and call the compartments on the respective layer with symbols from A to P."
The compartments in the tenth layer will start from '10-A' and end at '10-P' for a total of sixteen compartments. Similarly, compartments in the ninth layer will start from '9-A' and end at '9-P'.
"We'll call the centre, where the Attribute lies as Zero." Amita said and displayed the diagram, "This is what our mining team has surveyed until now. The region affected by the Major Treasure of Attribute is a flat plane divided into 160 compartments plus the centre. The entire plane spans a radius of 176 kilometres, with each layer spanning a length of 16 kilometres. The plane has a height of two kilometres. It's a massive region."
It was shaped like a disk—two kilometres thick—sporting sixteen edges. This was the region influenced by the Major Treasure of Attribute. "The reason's unknown, but the influenced region has such a shape."
"Then, based on the diagram…" One of the Royals lifted his hand to ask, "Have we spotted the Major Treasure?"
"Yes," Amita nodded, hearings bouts of shock and exclaims from the crowd. But, her following words downed the enthusiasm, "Unfortunately, even though we could see it, we're unable to near it. The region influenced by the Major Treasure has been named the Attributed Region by our bureau. The walls of the Attributed Region are made out of streamlined water, as a result we're able to see through it. It's how we managed to detect the Attribute."
"If it's just water, don't we have plenty of means to deal with it?" A Royal seated at the front asked.
"Except, a nail-sized portion of this water weighs as much as a mountain range. It also flows at speeds surpassing the Emperor's Spirit Weapon. This has personally been confirmed by His Majesty." Amita Brimgan said, "As a result, we're unable to damage it. There's a powerful force maintaining the place. So, other than heeding its will, we have no other choice."
"Which brings me to the initial problem," Saying so, she pointed at the spokes, "Suppose we enter entrance A and make our way through, we'll reach Compartment 10-A. It seems there'll be missions organised by the Attribute. If we're able to clear the missions, we'd get what are known as keys. Each key will allow us access to another compartment. From 10-A, we'll be able to gather keys for 10-B, 10-P, and 9-A."
"Only by getting the key for 9-A will we be able to progress forward. Otherwise, we'll be stuck moving through compartments on the tenth layer aimlessly." She said, urging everyone to concentrate, "The number of keys leading to 9-A are limited. Only ten of them will be available. And this number will decrease by one for every layer we head in."
There will be nine keys in compartment 9-A that would lead into compartment 8-A, so on, and so forth. Finally, there will only be one key in compartment 1-A that would lead into the centre. "So, as each key can only allow entry for one person, it means only sixteen people have a shot at reaching the Attribute. And since it's first come first served, if we were to allow Pranic Beasts to head inside first, they'll gain the keys to head to the inner layers, which prevents us from even getting close to the Major Treasure, not to mention getting it."
If ten Pranic Beasts in compartment 10-A manage to get to compartment 9-A, it would make the rest of the Pranic Beasts in the compartment gather the remaining keys to head into compartments 10-B and 10-P in an effort to get into compartments 9-B and 9-P respectively.
This means that as long as a group of Pranic Beasts head inside, they could swiftly spread across the tenth layer and gather all the keys leading into the ninth layer. Only 160 people could enter the ninth layer.
The Major Treasure of Attribute cared naught for one's strength. The first one to reach it could lay claim to it, as simple as that.
"So, it's a race." A Royal muttered innocently and asked next, "How are we able to confirm so many details when you said we cannot enter it?"
"There are monoliths engraved with the rules in all compartments." Amita said, "They have been engraved in all the languages spoken in this region. Moreover, there are monoliths present that are visible from the top of the place, the side, and even the bottom. It's impossible to miss them, for they are displayed in all possible directions."
The languages weren't limited to the ones spoken in the Brimgan Empire, but the languages used by all Pranic Beast races native to the region, whether major or minor. Based on the list of languages, the Brimgan Empire scoured through the wilds, and noted the farthest language was that of an Iron Grade Pranic Beast race that lived four thousand eight hundred kilometres from the Brimgan Empire.
This meant that the Major Treasure of Attribute intended to draw in living beings from at least a radius of approximately five thousand kilometres, since plans had been made to ensure the creatures living there too could understand the missions upon reading the monoliths.
"We even noticed Information Slips," Amita Brimgan concluded with a sigh, "This means that there will be no time wasted to understand the rules. The battle will erupt the moment we set foot within. Therefore, to increase our chances of claiming the Major Treasure of Attribute, we would have to occupy all sixteen entrances."