After circling the clearing the impossible hotel was on once we returned to the spot we had started from. The clearing was just that, a wide area of grass with the hotel sitting smack-dab in the middle. The building itself was overgrown with various vines and some strange plants were peeking out from multiple windows, but curiously I couldn’t make out anything else through those windows, the gloomy interior was impenetrable to my eyes, giving me a reasonably large clue that there was something else going on here. This wasn’t just the creepiness of the forest, that could explain away the lack of everything that should have surrounded the hotel, like the access road, various hiking trails, a car park, a few trash cans, maybe a few outbuildings for utilities and similar stuff, signs of civilisation. Given that none of those signs had been present in the forest, their absence wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for this place. But that the hotel wasn’t gone, that was out of the ordinary, the impenetrable darkness within only adding to the creep factor.

“We should keep a bit of distance,” Lia suggested and I could only look at her with a bit of disbelief, I had no intention of just blundering closer, not without getting a good idea of what was going on here. Or at least do some testing, hopefully avoiding any death traps. I had no desire to become the latest victim of the plant-based insanity growing rampant in this place.

“Let’s try something simple first,” I grinned, conjuring up an Icicle before launching it at one of the dark windows. The result was frustrating to the extreme, my attack never reached the building, instead, it was smacked aside by one of the vines growing on it, similar to the way the vines of the forest struck their prey.

“Guess that is something,” I frowned, wondering just how many of those vines were the deadly variant. Getting closer to Observe any of them sounded like a bad idea, not that I was good enough at the skill to keep track of the individual vines. “Let’s make sure that those vines are gone first, before getting closer.”

With that idea in mind, I rapidly drew the runes for my favourite destructive mist, only with a little more destructive potential thanks to some of my recently learned Darkness Runes. There was little better to imbue an effect with destructive potential than the Curse Rune. Maybe if I ever managed to figure out Death Runes, those might do it, but for now, the Curse Rune within Darkness Rune Mastery was my best bet.

It took a few long minutes for the mist to surround the place and once it did, I kept it there even longer, a little confused at the lack of reaction. Normally, I could sense a certain feedback as I destroyed my enemies with this magic but here, there was nothing, as if there were no enemies within the area of effect. Which should be impossible, unless the building was an illusion of some sort, but how could an illusion destroy an icicle?

After trying a few more minutes, even after I was convinced that my magic wasn’t working, I gave up and let the effect fade. It did so quite quickly, maybe a little faster than I had expected, but I wasn’t sure, it didn’t feel like the effect had been actively dispersed, more that it had spread out further than expected in some way. Once it was gone, the hotel was still there, looking exactly as it had just thirty minutes prior.

“Well, that didn’t work,” I admitted with a shrug, looking over at Lia who looked just as confused. Some of the grass looked a little wilted, but given the amount of Astral Power and the distinct lack of vitality I could feel from the grass, this should be impossible. And I was really beginning to hate that concept, this entire place broke reality in a way I didn’t particularly enjoy.

Thinking that maybe the plants were simply immune to the mist for some unknown reason, I decided to try something else. Namely, throw Icicles at them, hoping that something as simple as sharp objects hitting them would work.

Knowing that the plants had intercepted an Icicle earlier, I went with a numbers approach, simply throwing a lot of Icicles at the same time. It took a bit of effort to conjure up enough for a volley and there was no such thing as aiming in this case, but I managed to lob some thirty Icicles at the house in a single burst of Ice Magic.

The result was both disappointing and disheartening at the same time. I had expected a couple of the many vines on the house to be carnivorous but when the volley came close, just about all of the vines on the house started to move and smash the Icicles, leaving their scattered remains all around the place. There might be some minor damage from shards hitting the vines but I had a feeling I could sit on my branch all night and lob Ice at the building without having any effect at all.

With that in mind, I began to stretch my efforts out and use every type of magic I had access to. From chunks of earth, some rocks, and even a bit of metal on the physical side to tendrils of darkness imbued with devouring force, I tried everything. Lightning, Fire even warm and cold Water, for over an hour I sat on the branch and went through my magical arsenal.

By the end of my attempts, I had a headache, was running low on Astral Power and felt the aftereffects of pushing my Death Magic a little too far for comfort and what did I have to show for?

Nothing!

I barely managed to singe some of the grass on the clearing when one of my attempts with Fire Magic fell short, literally. It was as if there was some force I couldn’t detect keeping me from damaging the hotel and the vines on it, while also keeping the grass on the clearing in good condition but that part was somewhat weaker.

“It might be similar to the slaughterhouse,” I muttered, looking over to Lia who was both impressed and a little amused at the way the stupid house had stymied me.

“You mean a dungeon?” she asked, getting a nod in return.

“Yes, to the best of my knowledge, they are somehow shielded from the outside by the system using forces I don’t understand, something beyond Astral Power based or Divinely granted magic. If the primary entrance is the door, the vines might be a challenge to keep people from moving in through the window or something like that. It would also explain why we can’t see through the darkness inside, the insides are isolated from the outside because they are part of the dungeon,” I explained, getting a thoughtful look in return.

“Sounds plausible, but what are we going to do with that idea?” she prodded, knowing that I wouldn’t want to ignore a find like this. The last dungeon had been quite useful for us, even if I hadn’t been able to make use of most of the strange items found within.

“I mean, how do we make sure that going in doesn’t mean we’ll never get back out? Can you tell if the grass around here is more of that sleep grass and will try to kill us as we approach?” she elaborated and I began to wonder about that as well.

“I’m pretty sure that if there’s a trap out here, there’d also be a way to avoid it, or at least retreat if the danger is too potent. Dungeons, at least on Mundus, weren’t really death traps, they were challenges and people actively looked for them. I hope that the dungeons on Terra share those traits, though I have no real idea how they came into existence,” I admitted, pausing for a moment to think.

“But think of the slaughterhouse dungeon, there, the challenge to enter was overcoming the Undead outside. It’s likely that, if the grass is some sort of trap, the difficulty we have with overcoming that trap is reflective of our chances inside,” I reasoned, hoping that I wasn’t too used to treating this as a video game. In video games, the developers wanted their challenges to be overcome, if the game simply killed you without giving you a chance to play then nobody would. I had no idea if the system and whatever forces were at work here followed similar principles.

“Sounds reasonable, I guess,” Lia shrugged, not sounding terribly convinced. “We should get back to the sanctuary and mark our path. That way, we can get back here tomorrow night and take our time figuring things out, right?” she continued, making a good argument. With no further disagreement from me, we turned our back on the creepy clearing and the hotel and left. At first, we moved between the high branches before descending and continuing on the ground, regularly placing markers on the trees as we went.

Tomorrow, we could get back here as a group and get a better idea of what was going on.