To the sound of musical fanfare, cheering crowds, and the ear-piercing screeches of Inti's fans, the student Mages took to the air.

From above, the terracotta vista of Cuzco revealed itself as an earthen puma, resembling a filled-in Nazca figure.

"Alright, partner," Gwen affected a northern accent. "Where to?"

"To the east!" Inti spoke for his team. "Condor's Rise isn't far. A few hours at most."

"Lead the way, brother."

Cuzco's young prince rose above his peers. As they passed Cuzco's gates, curious farmers gazed from their fields of mountain maize, marvelling at the twin formations moving in tandem.

[https://i.imgur.com/BJhWXZ0.png]

Three hours later, the assembly of students arrived.

Marcapata was a sentry town with a small population of enterprising locals living in a dozen modest mud-brick homes. It housed a hundred Incan warriors and a contingent of Mages overseeing the Teleportation Circle.

As a fortification, the township was constructed cliff-side so that the west-facing portion of the village rested on a green plateau of short shrubs and gentle cornfields. The eastern reach was a sheer drop of over a kilometre, with its jagged cliff faces halting the emerald sea.

When the two teams landed in the courtyard, their chief proctor narrowed his eyes, then walked a perimeter around the students.

"You flew here from Cuzco?"

"Yessir." Inti bowed, joined by his counterparts.

"Without drama?"

"None, sir." Tei saluted. "We're ready to proceed."

Auberon appeared at a loss for words. He spotted the Void Sorceress behind the others, chit-chattering with Cuzco's vice-captain.

"Right." The proctor scratched his chin. "Well then, let's get on with it. Split into your nominated teams; then I'll arrange your accommodations. You want to do this publically or in private?"

"Tei? Gwen?"

"Here's fine."

The teams parted.

Auberon Lucas wondered if he had underrated the sincerity of the llama luncheon.

In front of him, hiding nothing, the teams made their strategies self-evident.

Unsurprisingly, Cuzco's Explorers consisted of Tica as their squad leader. The Plant Mage was all kinds of unwilling to part from her beau, but the circumstances of the quest compelled them to take on their most suitable roles. On paper and in life, a Plant Mage with a Rainforest Sprite was a superior choice for the Explorer team, one that was wasted in the stony depth of the temple complex.

Cuzco National's next member was a scout by the name of Urqu, a Transmuter dabbling in Divination. From Urqu's feather-strewn cowl, Auberon suspected there was more to the young man than his unassuming biometrics.

Following the two core Explorers were three others. Uturunku was the Earthen Abjurer, Sumatika a Water Transmuter-Evoker, and finally, Qari was a Fire Evoker-Conjurer with an unusual Spirit.

Across the divide, Fudan's Explorers consisted of Richard as their leader, Anita on mobile defence, Jiro on offence, Eunae on utility, and Mayuree as Diviner. From the looks of the line-up, Fudan likely suspected that the lion's share of troubles would occur in the temple ruin. As such, members incapable of superior defence or instant-mobility such as Eunae and Mayuree would likely serve as hindrances. Conveniently, having a full-time Diviner and a Cleric supplementing Cuzco's Explorers was a palpable olive branch.

A few hugs later, the line-up was completed.

Inti's team consisted of the prince, the gentle giant Tupaq, the two sisters Misi and Kusi, and Mallqu, a quiet girl playing the utilitarian role.

Fudan's Dungeoneers, meanwhile, consisted of their captain, Tei Bai, Gwen Song, the Mineral Mage Petra, Rene the Magma Mage, and Lulan Li.

"Very good," Auberon Lucas ordered a proctor to take down their names. The Magister then materialised two data slates.

Richard and Tica stepped up to receive their teams' respective cartographic devices.

"The general location of the ruins has been pre-marked. Likewise, the map will record your progress," Auberon advised both Explorer teams. "If in one week you cannot find the ruins, your mission has failed, and you may use the map to trek back to Marcapata. Should you succeed in finding the ruins, mark it on your map, and we will deliver a duplicate copy to your Dungeoneering team. Once your mission is complete, return immediately to basecamp. As with your regional competitions, you are solely responsible for your safety. Any questions?"

The teams remained mum. There was no doubt that the road ahead was full of danger, but who would want to hear it from the horse's mouth?

"Well?" Auberon studied the teams, hoping for some friction.

"Sir." Inti bowed. "Please excuse us. We're going to have a meeting."

The chief proctor twisted his lips.

Was this the IIUC, or a sanctioned Field Trip?

[https://i.imgur.com/BJhWXZ0.png]

Once the two teams made a huddle, Inti informed them that humans travelling through Amazonia had to choose a stratum between the sky and the forest floor.

Confused by Inti's words, Gwen asked for elucidation.

"I'll explain," Tica was the one who interjected. "Inti's not from this area, so he hasn't seen the true extent of what we're about to face. Coca!"

A jade-green seed pod struck the ground, materialised from Tica's pocket dimension. It dug into the hard stone, then sprouted into a little terrarium-like display.

"Is that your Spirit?" Gwen inspected the near-instant miniature rainforest.

"Not exactly." Tica smirked.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

The two girls exchanged cordial grins.

"Ariel!"

"Coca!"

"EEEE!" Ariel struck a pose the moment it materialised, flashing its new horns and brilliant mane. "EE! EE!"

"..."

An alien plant silently stood beside the contestants.

Each to each, the members of both teams surrounded their vice-captain's Familiars. Ariel swished its tail, blew out its mane, then stalked in a circle as though best-in-show at Crufts.

"May I touch it?" Even Inti appeared impressed. "Is it a dragon? No, it resembles a hound, not a puma, and it has no wings. A chimaera? A deer-weasel-fish?!"

"Ariel is a Kirin." Gwen returned politely, wondering what kind of a dragon was an oversized cat with wings.

"Ee!" Ariel huffed. It was most certainly not a weasel!

Fudan's attention turned to Tica's Coca.

"..."

The plant quivered with embarrassment. It was the strangest, most alien thing Gwen had ever seen. The questions hammering at Fudan's collective lips was "Wocao! What is that?" and "Seriously?" but they were too polite to say so.

"It's... a Sundew?" Richard suddenly spoke up. "It's an actual plant? You have an actual nature Sprite? That's amazing!"

Unsure of what to make of Tica's beast, Gwen feigned delight. The "plant" possessed hundreds of tentacles that formed a bloom some half-a-meter across. The centre had a strange pink hole, while on all the stalks a drop of sticky liquid engendered like honey. It was quite beautiful, but hardly the sort of thing a girl could hug, kiss or take to bed to cuddle.

"It's a plant!" Richard appeared genuinely impressed. "Gwen, recall that magical-plants don't usually have cores. This has to be a rare hybrid, or a unique Alraune or a Spriggan! How precious!"

Gwen clapped. She didn't even know what a Sundew was.

Tica, meanwhile, was all sorts of pleased by Richard's recognition of her Familiar's greatness, finding an unexpected ally against the absurdly dashing Ariel. When she turned to Inti to see if her beau was jealous that someone else was praising her; Tica found Inti neck-deep in the Kirin's fur, groaning softly.

"..." Tica despaired.

"..." Coca wept bitter, sticky secretions.

Sighing, Tica explained the journey ahead, using her terrarium as a diagram.

Firstly, Amazonia was enormous.

The region's outer rim was an Orange Zone, extending for about a hundred kilometres inward. The trees in this region were usually mundane, ranging from ten to a hundred meters, growing on the volcanic slopes of the Andes.

The inner segment of Amazonia, beginning where the foliage grew too dense for the sunlight to penetrate, was the domain of magical flora and fauna. From trees to fungi to predatory beasts to demi-humans like trolls, it made human exploration a farcical dream.

"Then there's the heart of the Amazonia," Tica explained. "The Quipu scripts tell us that the Apu live there and that there is a great tree larger than any other in the forest's midst. BUT, no one has seen it, and no Mage has ever penetrated that far."

For the students' current objective, the 'lost temple' was two hundred kilometres as the harpy flew from Condor's Rise. It wasn't so deep as to put them into troll territory, but neither was it close enough to be in the Orange Zone.

"Amazonia's Zone Rating changes depending on the layers..." Tica continued to instruct their Fudan allies with her superior knowledge.

In total, she explained, there were four layers.

The emergent layer of Amazonia was home to the largest collective of demi-birds in the Americas. Among the treetops of kilometre-tall mahogany and zumaumeira with the girth of skyscrapers, creatures ranging from the diminutive Yellow-breasted Thunderhawk to the man-eating Eagle-clawed Harpy ruled.

Conversely, in the "Canopy" lurked hordes of Fang-tooth Macaques and Star-tailed Gibbons. Should the contestants be especially unlucky, there was also the world-famous Displacer Jaguar, the highest tier of Displacer Beasts.

The "Understory" of the sea of trees, therefore, marked the safest path for human travel, as the lightless region grew into a wondrous world of luminous fungi, quasi-magical insects, reptiles and mammals. What marked this layer as different to the rest was the denseness of the foliage, making the region ill-suited for apex-fauna.

Finally, as for the forest floor, an infinite variety of spiders, slugs, and parasites occupied the sodden darkness. In the rich loam, underground aberrations grew to enormous sizes. Here and there, thickets of decaying foliage swallowed animals wholesale. And that was discounting the trolls.

Aghast at Tica's info-graphic, the teams agreed on a mutual route.

They would fly within thirty-kilometres of their target, then enter the understory to search for the three rivers that converged on the temple's ruins.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Good luck!" Gwen kissed each of her Explorers on the cheeks when all was said and done. She gave Richard her Portable Habitat, instructing him to share it with Tica's team.

"Inti's blessing." Cuzco's captain placed a golden symbol around his fiancèe's neck.

"Take care." Tica kissed Inti's lips in full view of Gwen and the others, leaving the prince flushing a sunset scarlet. "Stay safe."

"I shall."

"I'll protect him with my life," Tupaq promised. "Inti's blessing."

After more hugs and kisses, the Mages set off from the cliff, leaping from the edge like lemmings. For the first half-day, both teams would fly safely above the canopy, sparing the need to battle whatever creatures that took offence to their presence. Closer to their objective, they would then dip into the ocean of trees to dive for treasure.

"Eee! Eee!" Ariel sniffed Inti's tunic, swishing its tail.

"I hope they can work together without trouble," Gwen said. "I guess we'll find out in a week."

"Tica's a better leader than I." Inti instinctively offered an HDM to Ariel. "What are your plans for the interim?"

"Me?" Gwen grinned as she glanced at the rainforest below. "I am going to stock up, care to watch?"

[https://i.imgur.com/BJhWXZ0.png]

Auberon and his team of proctors lounged in their make-shift pavilion, watching the crystal screens display the progress of the Explorers. So far, everything was proceeding smoothly.

"How long until they hit the emergent layer?" he requested of his assistant, Lucy.

"Six hours at their current trajectory."

"A lull then." Auberon yawned. He turned to the other half-dozen proctors currently on duty. "Anything of interest?"

"No, sir."

"All's quiet here."

"They're just flying for now."

His assistant switched through the Scrys.

"Master Lucas," one of the Senior Mages raised the alarm. "Gwen Song and Tei Bai just left Condor's Rise."

"It looks like Inti and Tupaq are joining them," another proctor called out from across the room.

"Are we recording the Dungeoneers?"

"Not until there's magical activity."

"Do it."

"Yessir. I am switching to Engine Two."

"Where are they going?" Auberon asked the general air. "Get me a direct Scry."

The Divination-Engines thrummed as the Magi-tech device began to stream the activities of Fudan's captain, first showing their location, which was the forest below the Marcapata plateau, then the contestants themselves.

The proctors followed the students until they landed on the jutting stones. Once alighted, the students engaged in a brief show and tell, with Inti demonstrating the Evocation Radiant Mages were known for, and Tupaq proving his Abjuration skills by blocking Gwen's Lightning.

Then, the Void Sorceress tossed a few Chakrams while Tei took a dozen punishing bolts from Inti.

All was well until Gwen summoned her Void snake. As anticipated, a great commotion broke out when Tupaq moved to protect Inti. With a great howl, the Tupaq Polymorphed into a puma-like beast, eliciting yelps of admiration from Gwen.

The proctors found great mirth in the reaction, for they had all seen the vid-cast from Burma. When Inti almost seared Caliban on reflex, the room burst into laughter.

"Caliban needs to consume things to use its skills," the sorceress informed the prince somewhat deceptively, apparently keeping her cards close to her chest. "Please stand well out of range while I activate the feeding magic."

Two men and one half-man-half-puma retreated a ways up the cliff.

Gwen Song then walked into the jungle.

"Good Lord!" a proctor spat.

The Void Sorceress soon stood amidst a dark pool, conjuring forth a viscous liquid that writhed and churned.

"Ah." Auberon whistled. "Nice."

The perspective changed. Now the scene was one in which the Eye of Providence hovered directly over the girl.

"Sir." Auberon's assistant, a minor noble by the name of Lucy Pritchard, opened her eyes wide with alarm. "How can she activate high-consumption Void magic without Clerical support?"

"How indeed." The chief proctor measured the girl on the screen with his eyes. "Get us closer. Run diagnostics. Get me vital readings."

The scene zoomed in. The sorceress seemed to catch something in the air. She turned to face the screen, then flashed a winning grin.

"I almost forgot she's a Diviner as well." Auberon smiled back.

On their vid-casts, the Void Swarm erupted.

A few of the proctors let loose audible gasps as waves after wave of swarming lamprey-things sallied forth into the jungle. When one of the proctors zoomed out to the furthest limit the Eye allowed; what they saw chilled their bones.

"The rainforest!" Lucy shivered. "It's dying!"

Auberon's mind took a second to catch up. Where there had been a verdant undergrowth of trees licking at the dark granite base of Condor's Rise, now a clearing began to rapidly develop. It was as though the forest had suddenly wilted, receding into the viridian surf like the waning tide.

"Sir, a megafauna is incoming," a proctor directed their attention to the edge, where an enormous constrictor covered in scabby skin emerged into the new clearing. With a mighty sweep of its tail, it crushed two-dozen lampreys. Its beady eyes then locked in on the fair-skinned sorceress, tasting her vitality through the polluted air.

"How convenient, a tier 6 titan boa." Auberon made sure the group was recording. "Let see how-"

"Shaaa! Shaa! SCREEEE!"

A creature charged toward the titan.

Where it had burst through the trees confident as anything, instinct now bade the boa to flee.

The Void Familiar, however, closed the distance in an instant, transforming into a spindly, ten-limbed spider, landing on the gigantic predator with both fore-limbs fully extended.

"SHAA!" A scorpion's tail stabbed into the boa's forehead.

"... never mind." Auberon's query ended when the Void swarm smothered the trapped snake within a minute.

The girl hugged herself, shivering in delight, her cheeks a rosy-pink.

Not far, Inti and his guardian-shaman watched with complex, unreadable expressions.

"Eric Walken, you devious prick…" Auberon mouthed under his breath. When his alumni had informed him that Fudan would be working with Cuzco, Auberon had scoffed. Now, Auberon's eyes had been opened. This display had shown him what a Void Mage was capable of in a place which was choked with biomass.

"Sir?" Lucy, his assistant, was pale as a sheet.

"It's fine, Lucy. All within expectations." Auberon dismissed his assistant's unease. "Although, I dare say those codgers at Oxbridge are going to have to review their papers..."

[https://i.imgur.com/BJhWXZ0.png]

Five hours in, Richard's Explorers came upon their first test of faith.

"Do we help?" Anita questioned their squad-leader.

Below Fudan, combat had been joined between Cuzco and a group of half-bird, half-humanoid creatures Tica had named Copper-claw Harpies. Currently, a dozen of the winged beasts were testing Cuzco's patience, flying in and out of range, swooping back and forth to harass their shields.

Cuzco's Abjurer was proving his proficiency, throwing up yellow-tinged barriers to deflect their screeching assailants.

"Don't attack!" Tica's voice came through Mayuree's Message relay. "If they mark us, the whole flock will emerge. Remember, this is their home. They'll defend it to the death."

"Hold your positions." Richard coolly observed the action below. "Jiro, put your Firebird back in its house."

"We're not attacking?" Jiro furrowed his brows. "I reckon we can do it."

Richard mentally scanned through the entries from Gwen's bestiary. These particular creatures were unknown, but there was a general entry for Harpies of the Amazon. One annotation affirmed Tica's statement that the death of one or more harpies was sure to bring more.

If he were here with Gwen, Richard would not have hesitated to begin a wide-area bombardment, but alas.

"If we attack, the whole flock will likely emerge from those trees," Richard pointed to what he suspected to be a nest. "Mia?"

"There's a lot," Mayuree interjected before Jiro could answer. "I am sensing a super-dense clump of magical mana. Potentially, there could be thousands."

"All the same to me." Jiro was eager to finally show off. "My fire can't be doused."

"They may have shamans as well," Mayuree warned. She had likewise read the bestiary. "The more intelligent harpies are worse than trolls."

"Mia, any orders from our friends?"

"Nothing," Mayuree reported.

"I think they're testing us," Richard scoffed. "Untrusting buggers."

"What should we do?"

"Play along." Their squad leader licked his lip. Silently, he summoned his Familiar. "Lea, if they turn on us, I want a water prison on all of them. Jiro, you see the girl with the blue shawl? That's their Water Mage. If Lea imprisons them, I want her disabled. I'll take care of the rest."

"Got it. Let's buff up!"

"Crystalline Armour!" Anita encased her team's combat suits with semi-opaque plates. She then touched each of her team members with a lower-tier protection buff against unforeseen status effects. "Resistance!"

"Bless!" Eunae bolstered the team's physical and mental conditions before turning to Mayuree and herself. "Sanctuary!"

A faint glyph appeared and disappeared, making the two supporting mages less conspicuous.

"Tica, its Richard." Fudan's squad leader fired off a Message. "Six-o-clock's the nest, where the two trees arch. We'll follow your lead. I am coming in with a slowing AoE to discourage the birds. Get Sumatika to mist the area. I'll need as much water as possible."

"Got it," Tica's voice came through. "Suma?"

"Yes, Aclla Cuna." The Water Mage obeyed.

Besides Richard, Lea's long blue lashes battered as she transformed into a fine mist before coiling about his body.

Richard took a deep breath. "Fudan! Follow my lead!"

[https://i.imgur.com/BJhWXZ0.png]

"Screeee!" Came the cry from a harpy-beast, extending both talons to rake the flesh from Richard's back. As the half-woman, half-condor approached, however, its wings grew suddenly sodden, so much that its feathers began to bead.

The bird fell.

"EEK!"

Where it had fallen, there was a blur.

"CAW—"

Two simian-shaped beasts snagged the harpy before it could again take flight, dragging it into the canopy. Where they had disappeared, a great hoot of blood-curdling howls indicated an impromptu feast was taking place.

"Mia!" Richard sent another bird to its certain doom. "What can you see?"

"There's too many of everything!" Mayuree was controlling her Arcane Eye, trying to find a path down into the understory. "We'll have to push through!"

"Urqu!" Tica commanded their team's scout, a local of the Antis region and a hunter who had trained in the forest since his Awakening. "Can you lead us down?"

Even as she spoke, Tica kept the birds at bay. As soon as she had seen Richard's tactic, she adjusted her own. Where she had harried the harpies with long, whip-like vines reminiscent of Gwen's Dark Tentacles, she now disabled the fliers with globs of sticky residue that sent them reeling below into the awaiting simians.

Besides her, Urqu wrapped his feathered shawl around his shoulders, transforming into the likeness of a sparrowhawk, activating a spell with an aura alien to Fudan's Spellcraft knowledge.

"I can," Urqu Messaged mid-descent. "It won't be easy though; if we lose someone..."

"Anita!" Richard gave the command.

"Warding Bond!" Anita activated a rare, party-wide Abjuration she had learned after Burma. At her tier and Affinity, she could daisy-chain five friendlies aside from herself, displacing the damage received among her allies.

"Faithful Guardian!" Eunae gestured quickly, equipping the agile flier with a reactive insurance barrier.

"Any last words?" Richard joked at Cuzco's expense.

Ignoring his ill-humour, Tica held out an inscribed sun-burst figurine. It was Inti's necklace.

"No one will die this day. Inti's relic will keep us safe." Her face glowed with confidence. "The Sun's blessing be upon us."

Richard blinked.

He had initially dismissed the token as a one given out of love.

Now she's telling him it's a relic?!

The bloody Cult of Inti could produce relics?

In his short stint as the Pretorian of Prince's, he had seen relics in the chapels of the Four Houses and the Priests who put them to good use. The divine items weren't rare, but they were exclusive in the extreme, possessed only by trusted members of an organisation's leadership. Based on his limited contact with scriptural magic, producing a relic was complicated in the extreme. First, a unique Creature Core was required as the housing material. Then, a high-tier enchanter inscribed upon the Core consecrated runes. Finally, the sanctified items were kept in a place of worship to collect the ambient mana of the faithful. Then, and only then, servants of the faith could call forth phenomenon divorced from the Imperial System of Magic.

Richard's mind was quick to accept the new reality.

Indeed, Inti WAS an object of worship. Likewise, Tica without a doubt, a priestess. It was fruitless to fuss over why a Chaplin could deliver a miracle in the heat of a despairing battle.

"When we're in the thicket," the priestess intoned haughtily. "I shall invoke the protection of Inti."

"Long live Inti, eh?" 

The two leaders measured one another's response; Tica questioned Richard's sincerity, while Richard's eyes were as placid as a mirrored lake.

"I'll tether us." Tica waved her free hand. "Coca!"

Nine tendrils whipped out and touched each of the contestants with supremely sticky tips.

Richard fought down an impulse to Grease himself right there and then, allowing the vine to grasp his wast. Drawn by the sudden flurry of magic, all around them were now harpies that had taken offence to their entry.

"Ladies first," Richard silently ordered Lea to shadow Tica. In the worst-case scenario, the relic had to go.

"Follow me!" Urqu appeared to transform his arms into wings, then dived downwards in the likeness of a great condor.

Parting the feathery sea, the two groups began their downward descent, with Richard slowing the flocking harpies and Tica glueing their opponents to trees. The others managed with shields and barriers, leaving the butchery to the monkeys.

From the emergent layer, they entered Amazonia.

"SQAWWWWWRK!"

The sudden trill was enough to shatter their eardrums and terminate all thought.

In Australia, summer galahs made enough noise to drive green-keepers mad. Compared to that, the cacophony that now arose from atop the canopy was set to a hundred-times the decibel.

"Mass Healing Word!" Eunae flooded the party with a feeling of warmth, dulling the pain from their bleeding ears, then furthermore invoked a heal-over-time. "Mass Rejuvenate!"

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of birds entered the fray, crashing into the party with great bell-beats of metallic wings clanging against crackling mana barriers. The commotion was enough to send an avalanche of leaves and branches crashing below, eliciting howls of fury from the lower denizens.

"CLOSE UP!" Mayuree channelled Richard's command. "Lea! Water SHIELD!"

A semi-dome of crashing water fed by Lea, Richard and Sumatika opened the path forward.

"Lea, Jet Blast!!" Richard commanded his Familiar, releasing a great geyser of blue-green liquid to disperse the harpies, pushing away the frenzied flock.

"We're almost to the canopy!" Mayuree guided them with Arcane Eye while Urqu threaded the party through the crisscross of branches with his supernatural senses. "Forty meters!"

In the open air, a Mage could cover forty meters in a matter of seconds. Now, it felt as though they were pushing through a wall of mud, only the murk was composed of beak and claw.

"Gust!" Urqu freely poured his mana forth, aiding Richard's efforts. "Aerial Ram!"

Thanks to his liberal use of Jet Blast, Richard's mana dropped to half. He summoned an injector in one hand and waited for the divine intervention from their competitor.

"We're through!" Mayuree warned them. "Watch out for the monkeys!"

There was a violent tug on their waists from Tica's vines, then both teams burst through the flock into the canopy.

"HOLY SHIT!" Richard swore the moment his eyes adjusted.

What awaited them was a sea of simians big and small, hooting and hollering at the top of their lungs. Where the birds had made their ears bleed, now the noise was enough to burst their hearts.

"The Sun shines eternal!" Tica raised the symbol high with one hand. "INTI PROTECTS!"

A brilliant light erupted above the team, bathing the dappled canopy with blinding radiance, drowning out even the hoots from the howling simians.

"HOW FAR?" Richard shouted despite himself. The silence was deafening.

"Another hundred meters!" Mayuree's voice echoed in their heads. "Hold on, I am guiding Urqu through the lower levels!"

The radiance continued to burn behind the contestants even as they travelled away from the portable plasma orb.

When finally the air around the contestants grew soggy with the scent of fecundity and the sweet odour of decay, they knew that they had arrived at the understory. If Gwen had been present, she would have gone giddy with joy at the sight of the quasi-magical microcosm, a world within a world.

Amazonia, alas, was no earthly rainforest. Here was a realm inhabited by mystical flora and magical fauna, where perennials ranged from hundreds to thousands of meters from root to treetop, so dense with mana that the regions between them grew distorted, dilating space and time, becoming Dungeons in themselves.