With a fully-fledged bronze ranker in their number, the team felt more secure as they made their way to the city’s interior. They progressed more swiftly than any of them had during the Reaper trials, for two main reasons. The first was confidence. Rather than scattered across the city and forced into makeshift teams, they had allies they knew and could rely on. Even a powerful ally like Valdis was no substitute for a true comrade when life and death were on the line.

The second reason was that they weren’t scouring the place for treasures, although treasures they still found. In spite of the people that had flooded the astral space during the trials, the team still stumbled over a small fortune in awakening stones, essences and other goods. In an old training hall they found an adept essence and a whole rack of bronze-rank magic weapons. None were exceptional, but they were valuable, nevertheless. In a library they found a knowledge essence, plus some skill books whose magic had kept them intact despite the hot, humid air. The normal books had long ago rotted away, making the skill books easy to pick out.

The central region of the city had been clearly demarked into two areas during the trials. The very core of the city was its most intact region, with the jungle prevented from reclaiming it by means unknown. In direct opposition to this, the area that ringed the centremost region was the most heavily reclaimed by jungle, as if all the growth not happening at the centre was somehow piling up around it. The buildings there were little more than rubble, and much of the ruins had been entirely engulfed by jungle.

This ring of thick overgrowth had been the location of the giant carnivorous plant that occupied a staggering amount of space underground. It had been almost entirely annihilated through the efforts of Jason and a large force of adventurers. Only a few dead remnants of the plant monster had remained after it had been annihilated by the transcendent damage of Jason’s execute power. His afflictions had never escalated to such a grand scale before, and he considered it unlikely that they ever would again. Creatures the size of a small city weren’t easy to come by, and he’d rather avoid fighting any more.

The team paused as they reached the ring of thick jungle.

“You don’t suppose it’s grown back, do you?” Neil asked.

“It has not,” Shade said, his voice coming from Jason’s shadow. “Whatever opinion one might have of Mr Asano’s abilities, a lack of thoroughness in their lethality is not a criticism likely to be levelled against them. I can assure you that the blood root vine was quite thoroughly destroyed.”

“We need to be careful, going through this section of jungle,” Humphrey said. “The jungle looks thicker than where I crossed over. From the looks of it, we’ll have to cut our way through in places. It’ll make for slow going and scouting won’t be easy.”

“There’s little point watching from above,” Sophie said. “That canopy is too thick. I could track you by your auras but I don’t know how useful that would be.”

“I don’t think the risk of showing our auras off like that is worth it. We should keep our auras as retracted as we can,” Humphrey said. “We should all stay close until we’re through.”

“Should we look for a place where the growth isn’t so heavy?” Sophie asked. “This is definitely thicker than where we went through last time.”

“The growth of this area seems to have rapidly expanded in the absence of the blood root vine,” Shade said. “At the time of the trials, none of the city had jungle this dense. It stands to reason that the rest of the central ring would have experienced similar growth during our absence.”

“Should we reconsider teleporting through?” Neil asked.

“It’s not the worst idea in the world,” Jason said. “Now that I’m looking at this jungle, I don’t fancy hacking our way through. Not when the local monsters are stronger than ever, and you can bet that any manifesting in there will make better use of the environment than we do.”

Humphrey looked into the dense foliage as he considered.

“What does everyone else think?” he asked.

“I’m a city girl,” Belinda said. “If we can skip trudging through all that, then I’m for it.”

“It’s a simple question of risk assessment,” Clive said. “Is going through monster-infested jungle more dangerous than teleporting into what is potentially the very midst of the cultists? Given that we should be able to teleport into an area of relative safety, I would say teleporting is the superior option.”

“And if they sense the magic of us all teleporting in?” Sophie asked.

“Then we fight,” Humphrey said. “We’re going there for that fight, in any case. That said, I would rather initiate it on our own terms.”

“Looks like we have a consensus,” Clive said. “I’ll open a portal to the roof of the building we stayed in before the final trials.”

Clive held out a hand and a circle of runes appeared, alternating blue and gold. Normally they would then fill with shimmering air and a blurred image of the destination, but instead the runes simply blinked out, like someone had pulled the plug on them.

“That’s odd,” Clive said.

“Could portals be somehow impeded here?” Belinda asked.

“That should not be the case,” Shade said, emerging from Jason’s shadow. “That being said, this space has undergone many changes in the months since my tenure here. We have made a number of disconcerting revelations of which I was unaware, so my knowledge of this realm is not as reliable as I believed. If there is some manner of impedance on portals, I believe your power, Mr Asano, has the best chance of retaining functionality. It is the basis for the portals incorporated into this place, after all.”

Jason tried his portal ability, but had no more success than Clive. The obsidian arch appeared, but the shadow gate did not fill with the darkness, instead retreating without activating. Humphrey tried to teleport them, but likewise achieved nothing.

“My short range teleport works fine,” Humphrey said, vanishing and reappearing close by to prove his point. “Jason you haven’t had any issues shadow-jumping, right?”

“It’s been working just fine,” Jason said.

“These results suggest one of three possibilities,” Clive said. “One, as Belinda posited, is some manner of environmental interference. We know that the portals to leave this astral space are currently non-functional. My best guess is that it’s related to the changes in the ambient magic and may be affecting our portal abilities in the same way.”

“That makes sense,” Humphrey said.

“The other possibilities,” Clive continued, “are the usual reasons that portal abilities fail. As we all know, a portal destination must be somewhere the person with the portal ability has visited in the past. They must also be able to clearly visualise that space, however. If the space is too generic to be memorable, or if time and failing memory warp the recollection, it won’t work.”

“That’s why big cities have portal stations,” Humphrey said. “They make them memorable, visually striking places so that they are easy to remember form only a single visit.”

“That makes sense,” Jason said. “When I was finding way points across the desert to portal to for when I travelled to Sky Scar Lake, I had to find landmarks that stood out. I don’t think I could portal to a random patch of desert, just because I happened to have passed through one time.”

“I remember that place quite well, though,” Humphrey said. “I remember the view from the rooftop very vividly. The square full of adventurers, the huge trial tower.”

“Which brings us to the third possibility the portals failed,” Clive said. “If the destination has significantly changed, then the visualisation will be wrong and the portal will fail. It’s not enough to redecorate a room, but if you demolish the building the room is in?”

“Shade, you said the tower has most likely been destroyed already,” Jason said.

“That is correct,” Shade answered. “The dimensional spaces within will likely have collapsed, to destructive effect.”

“It could be that the destruction was widespread enough that our building was badly damaged,” Humphrey said.

“It’s only a few kilometres, right?” Belinda said. “Sophie, couldn’t you air-jump your way up high enough to check?”

“Does it really matter what causing it?” Sophie asked. “Whether the magic has gone weird or the building was knocked down, we can’t do anything about either.”

“You’re right,” Humphrey agreed. “Whatever the reason, portals can’t get us where we want to go. We can do some testing later, but for now, we have to make our way through this jungle. Shade, can we rely on you to do the scouting for us?”

“Of course, Mr Geller. It would be my pleasure to contribute.”

The rough terrain was the result of more than just thick jungle. The ground was wildly uneven, from overgrown piles of rubble to areas where the ground had collapsed into deep holes. The team followed the path of least resistance as best they could, relying on Jason’s map to keep them headed in roughly the right direction. Sometimes it was just too rough, forcing Humphrey to hack their way through the undergrowth with his sword.

“These holes look relatively recent,” Clive observed. “I suspect there may be significant spaces beneath the ground that were previously filled by the plant creature. Jason annihilating it entirely with transcendent damage may have left the ground here unstable.”

“The going definitely wasn’t this rough during the trials,” Humphrey said. “It was definitely easier to find a path through.”

“When we were looking for a way to get past the plant monster,” Jason said, “Jory told me that the plants in this astral space have adapted to feed on the heavy magic saturation. Maybe the plant monster was soaking most of that up and now it’s gone. It could be that the remaining plant life has been gorging, leading to the explosion in growth.”

“I’m more concerned about the monsters,” Sophie said.

“What monsters?” Neil asked. “We haven’t seen one since we entered this thick patch of jungle.”

“Exactly,” Sophie said. “The only other time we’ve gone this long without a monster coming at us is when we’ve stopped for the night.”

“It has been a while,” Humphrey agreed. “I would have expected at least some kind of snake monster by now, in terrain like this.”

“Maybe we’re just lucky,” Neil said.

“Or maybe the local monsters know something we don’t,” Sophie said.

Most of the team were city folk. Jason had grown up in a small beach town, while Neil, Belinda and Sophie were all city folk. Humphrey had mostly grown up in the delta, but the carefully landscaped Geller Estate was hardly the open wilds.

While they had all spent time adventuring in the delta, it was the academic Clive who turned out to be the most comfortable in the terrain. He had grown up in the proper delta, on the family eel farm. He was the surest of foot and the most observant of their surroundings.

Clive was also the most educated about the potential threats, with a knowledge of monsters second only to the Magic Society records he had spent so much time cataloguing. This allowed him to spot something that the others overlooked, and he stopped to examine it.

“What did you find?” Humphrey asked as Clive peered intently at some white residue on a large, green leaf. Clive looked around, spotting more of it.

“Not sure,” Clive said. “Some kind of secretion, probably from a monster. This is old, so it’s hard to be sure. If you look close, there are some lingering traces of magic.”

Most of the team had magical senses, so they joined Clive in peering at the residue.

“I can barely sense it,” Neil said. “You have no idea what this could be?”

“I have hundreds of ideas of what this could be,” Clive said. “I need more information to shave them down before I’d be comfortable making any kind of guess.”

The team continued onward, still not encountering any monsters but occasionally spotting more of the residue. They found some that was fresher, dangling from a tree branch like string. The residual magic on it was stronger and Jason rubbed the substance between his thumb and forefinger.

“Should you be touching that?” Belinda asked. “I’m pretty sure the first rule of dealing with mysterious magical stuff is not to touch it.”

“I thought I felt something in the magic,” Jason said. “Blood magic.”

“And that made you want to touch it?” Neil asked.

“I’m definitely getting a feel of blood magic off of this,” Jason said. “Not essence magic, like mine, though. Some kind of monster power.”

Humphrey spotted Clive’s frown.

“What is it?” Humphrey asked him.

“It’s still early to speculate,” Clive said.

“Something just popped into your head,” Humphrey said. “We trust your instincts.”

Clive gave another, reluctant frown.

“This residue,” he said. “Does it look like old spider web to anyone else?”

“Could be,” Humphrey said.

“This residual magic had lasted long enough that we’re likely looking at something silver rank,” Clive said. “If we combine that with blood magic and webs, then something does come to mind. Something I would rather be wrong about.”

“Which is?” Neil asked.

“Have any of you heard of a blood weaver?”

Humphrey let out a low breath, while the others shook their heads.

“What’s a blood weaver?” Jason asked.

“A spider monster, as you might surmise from the webs. It’s silver rank, and more intelligent than most lower rank monsters. It’s still more animal cunning than real intellect, but it is very much capable of planning and long-term thinking.”

“That’s not what it’s famous for, though,” Humphrey said. “After it feeds on a normal animal or monster, it can turn them into a deathless servant. Zombies, but there is something worse.”

“Why is it always something worse?” Neil asked. “Why can’t it ever be something better. Like cake.”

“Oh, I could go a nice fluffy sponge cake,” Jason said.

“Did you bring one?” Neil asked hopefully.

“Yes, but you can’t have it until you rank up.”

“Do try and keep on topic, boys,” Belinda chided.

“Sorry,” Neil and Jason said together.

“As I was saying,” Humphrey said, “A blood weaver can turn regular people and animals into undead, shambling husks. Nothing too dangerous. A monster or essence user, though, it can turn into a vampire. A blood puppet to go out and collect more victims for the blood weaver to consume.”

“So, you’re saying these cultists might be vampires, now?” Neil said.

“It’s only a possibility,” Clive said. “Given the environment, current magical density and the blood magic in the webs, though, it all fits.”

“Can we even fight the cultists if they’re vampires on top of everything else?” Neil asked.

“Actually, they would be easier to fight,” Clive said. “Individually, anyway. They have vampiric powers, but they can no longer access their essence abilities. They still have those abilities, because the soul is still in there, but they can’t use them without the body they no longer control. The body will still be effected by passive powers, but the controlled body can’t use any active abilities because it can’t control the soul, which is essentially trapped.”

“I know what that feels like,” Jason said darkly.

“What about the tracking stones?” Belinda asked. “If the cultists were turned into undead, would their stones still show them as alive?”

“I’m not sure,” Clive said. “It’s possible, since they do still have their souls. Or I could be wrong about all of this, there’s no blood weavers and the cultists are off playing cards somewhere.”

“Can you think of something worse it could be rather than a blood weaver?” Neil asked.

“Not off the top of my head,” Clive said.

“Then that’s probably what we’re dealing with,” Neil said. “It always turns out to be the worst possible option.”

“I can think of something worse,” Jason said and the team all looked at him. “They could have called it a vampider.”

The team continued on, the white residue becoming more and more evident. It quickly became clear that it was definitively remnant webs and they found a clearing where the trees were draped with webbing like curtains. There were old web sacs, the size of people and larger, that had been burst open from the inside. There was dried blood caked inside them, that still reeked.

“An old nest,” Clive said. “It’s definitely a blood weaver.”