After circling the building once, just to make sure there was no backdoor or anything else we had missed, we stood back at the front entrance. The brush growing out of the interior was still there and now, from up close, I could see that it was a thorny mess that one didn’t want to tangle with. Not unless one was forced to or had some incredibly sturdy equipment, anything else would get torn to shreds unless one was very cautious.

Letting out a huff, I looked at the others for a moment before we decided on our approach. The more I looked at this supposed dungeon, the less comfortable I felt. This one wasn’t like the other dungeons I had experienced so far, it was almost as if the building itself was trying to keep us out and had been magically reinforced to do just that. It went against all my understanding of the workings of reality, but for all intents and purposes, the building seemed to be impenetrable to everything I could throw at it. For a moment, I considered conjuring up a massive crash of Icicles, similar to the one I had used to wipe out the Withered, but I wasn’t sure if I should. Even if it worked, the only thing achieved would be the destruction of the building, though maybe I should try something in between the volley I had used the day before and what I considered my nuclear option.

“Anyone got any bright ideas?” I asked, hoping that one of them had noticed something. When I only got shrugs from Lia and Alex and outright negative responses from Luna and Silva, I raised an eyebrow, looking at the two.

“There might be a way up on the roof and maybe we can get in that way,” Lia explained, while Alex chittered a little at her, maybe explaining what they had in mind. Once Alex was done chittering, Lia spoke again.

“And Alex suggests they’d be able to get in through the windows, especially if you can give them some covering fire. Also, have you tried to use the shadows to get in?” she asked, making me pause for a moment. There were shadows inside the building, of that I was certain, but stepping into them? I wasn’t sure that was a good idea, especially with the creepy sensation I had experienced earlier. Out of curiosity, I decided to take a peek under the hood, so to speak, only to recoil in shock and land on my behind.

“Okay, nix that idea,” I shook my head, feeling my pale complexion fade even further as I considered what I had just seen. The shadows were thin here, and by the looks of it, the vines all around us were partially within them. And in there, they were joined by many other tentacles and it even felt as if there were eyes watching from within the house. I wasn’t sure if the sensation came from the fear effect I had suppressed earlier and had taken the full brunt of when looking into the shadows or if there really were beings here, maybe something similar to the Gravehounds, but I was certain that I would only enter the shadows here as a method of last resort. And not as last resort for entering, if it came to that, I’d rather just leave this place be and go look for something interesting elsewhere. There might be things inside the hotel that were too much for even my curiosity.

The others observed me with a bit of amusement but mainly fear. They knew few things could shake me, so I had a feeling that seeing me in my current state told them quite a bit about what I had seen.

“How do you think you can get to the roof? Not like either of us can fly, my own method to achieve flight is currently beyond my powers,” I asked, looking at Lia.

“No need to fly, remember how you conjured the bridge between buildings a while back? Couldn’t you make an arch, one that ends atop the roof, and add some stairs to it? That way, it wouldn’t get too close to the walls and the vines,” Lia explained her idea and I looked back and forth, thinking whether that could work. It would take a while, but it might be possible unless the stupid vines could extend or something. Or there was some additional defence atop the roof, maybe we should test for that first.

With that idea in mind, I began to lob a few Icicles at the roof, trying to figure out if there was a way up there. Or, maybe, if it wouldn’t be easier to simply use the front door, as my current ideas were all fairly wild and out there. Sure, I could conjure enough Ice to create the equivalent of a siege tower but it would take a lot of time and effort for possibly very little reward. Still, it was a fairly amusing idea, but maybe not a very practical one.

“You know, let me try something else first,” I looked at Lia before pushing a little extra Ice Magic into the shield I had conjured earlier, sending it flying into the shrub that grew out of the main door. The result was almost disappointing in its simplicity, the shrub was struck by the flying shield and pushed back, allowing the door to swing open easily. There was still a faint haze blocking my sight from the interior, confirming my idea that this was almost certainly a dungeon, but there didn’t appear to be any additional obstacles.

“Door’s open? We could just go at it the usual way,” I grinned, not quite sure if we had been making a mountain out of a molehill or if we had been smart to explore paths less travelled.

Silva, on the other hand, let out a bark that could almost pass as a laugh, before making her way to the door. Sniffing the air in front of it, she hesitated only for a moment before padding inside.

With her leading the way, the rest of us soon followed, entering the decrepit hotel and immediately the box I had expected popped up, informing us that we had entered a dungeon called the Waldhof, that we were the first to enter and that for the next six hours, our rewards would be increased. The usual stuff.

Looking around, I could only shake my head at the incongruity of it all. The lobby we were in looked fairly normal, a little dusty and in dire need of a lot of tender loving care but it was in far better shape than the outside of the building suggested. There was a counter, with a few keys hanging on hooks behind it, the destroyed remains of a computer and a door marked employees only. In addition, a stairwell led upstairs in one corner of the room while another door and a long hallway led deeper into the building.

Gesturing to the others, we moved into our usual formation, with me in the back, Silva in the front and the others between us. Normally, I’d have preferred to have Lia guard my back but given that we’d be fighting in narrow passages, forcing her to push past us all would be detrimental. If there even was a fight, so far, the entire place was eerily quiet, even more so than the graveyard we had visited not too long ago.

Cautiously, Silva advanced further in, constantly sniffing the air to make sure nothing was nearby. In addition, her ears were flapping almost like a pair of tiny wings as she tried to get the best reception possible. If not for the sombre mood and the need to remain quiet, I might have giggled, something Luna only prevented by biting into her fist.

When Silva approached the counter, some strange, elongated appendage, either a tentacle or vine or something along those lines, shot out from a small hole near the ceiling, something so unremarkable we all had missed it. Silva managed to jump aside, while the tendril slammed in the floor before vanishing almost as quickly as it had appeared.

For a second, none of us dared to move, wondering just what the best way to proceed might be. Silva let out an annoyed growl and Lia, in response, used her hook chain to try to open the door behind the counter, so we might be able to bypass the endangered spot. Sadly, the door appeared to be locked and even with Lia’s quite prodigious strength, she was unable to force it, at least from a distance. She briefly glanced behind the counter and at the keys hanging there, before shaking her head, these were not the keys we were looking for.

Deciding to test the door myself, I conjured a bit of Ice, slamming it against it in an attempt to get an idea of its stability. The feedback I received made me shake my head, the door was just as impossibly sturdy as the rest of the place.

We’d need the key to open the door and somehow, I doubted that simply conjuring a bit of Ice and fitting it into the lock would do the trick. But I was willing to try.