"This doesn't make any sense," Bonnie gasped. She was with her tablet trying to figure out the pattern for the rooms.
"Let it go, Bonnie. I told you, trying to figure that one out is a waste of time. Not only is it a very complicated code, but it also has way too many variables for us to understand," Helena said as they kept walking up the spiral.
"But, how are we supposed to find out where we should go?" Bonnie was still noting down every room number they were passing by.
"We need to find a statue. Then we can ask them for directions. Usually, they only answer one question, but it's better than nothing," Helena explained.
"Do you guys want me to use Yarnball? I can just ask if we are going in the right direction or something," Hera pulled up her relic, ready to use it.
"Save it for later. This place is too big, and asking for the right direction can mean a lot of different things," Alex walked closer to the central pillar. There was a solid wall about a meter tall that stopped anyone from falling over, and the massive pillar made out of doors in the middle. Each of them had a different number, and almost all seemed to be occupied. From there, she could see the other floors and wanted to check if there was a corridor or something that broke off from this seemingly infinite pattern. A couple of floors down, on the opposite side of the spiral, she noticed another one of those bellboy statues with its back facing her, "Guys! Look!"
Everyone rushed over to see what Alex was talking about. When they realized what she saw, Helena started giving everyone directions, "OK, we need someone to stay here and don't look away, and we all rush down. Then the person can come to join us."
"I have a better idea," Blue jumped up and created her flying nimbus again to fly through the empty area between the door pillar and the spiral and reach the statue.
"Didn't you say that you couldn't be doing that all the time?" Bonnie had a confused expression while she watched the controller fly by her.
"Yeah, but we were resting. I have enough mana now," Blue replied without looking away from the statue.
It didn't take long for the controller to reach her destination. She was getting quite proficient with her flying nimbus. When she arrived there, Helena told her not to look away and try not to blink. They will get there soon.
"Right, if she blinks, the thing should move," Alex nodded as they started running down.
"Yeah, they are extremely quick," Helena sighed.
"Where did it come from? I mean, we were just there. How did we miss it?" Hera asked.
"When nobody is looking at them, they move faster than our eyes could see. So, in theory, they could just wait for a moment where we were looking at a door and passed by us without an issue," Helena explained as they were finishing the first lap.
"Guys? Are you close? I don't know how long I can keep going without blinking," Blue spoke through their communicators.
"Blink one eye at a time. Just make sure to always have one eye open," Alex replied and started running even faster. Hera considered using her [All In] to get there sooner, but doing so wouldn't guarantee anything. It was better for her to wait to use her skills in a situation where she actually would need it and not just to reach there before Blue ended up blinking.
Luckily, Alex managed to reach the controller fast enough so she could blink. They still had to control when they were blinking not to let the statue get away, but it was much easier with two people. Soon everyone else arrived, and they turned to the statue. The bellboy was wearing the same type of clothes as the receptionist, but Hera was unable to see its legs. It was like the coat would keep going on until it reached the floor, and its arms were moving as if it was in the middle of taking a step.
"It will answer only a single question, right?" Hera whispered to Helena.
"That is incorrect. I will answer as many questions as you have. However, the amount of information I have to give about a certain topic is limited," the statue spoke in that odd voice that kept constantly changing pitch and without moving again.
"Oh, OK. I thought it was different," Hera looked at Helena, who just shrugged.
"Sorry, it's been a long time since I came here. I don't remember everything."
"Anyway, can we ask you not to move while we ask you questions? It's kinda hard to control who is blinking and who is not," Bonnie stepped forward.
"That is unnecessary. Now that I'm aware you desire to speak with me, I will not move until all your questions have been answered. After all, doing so would be against hotel policy, not to mention very impolite. You could have said anything to me when you arrived, and I would have stopped to answer," the statue explained.
"Good to know. Good to know. For starters, can you tell us why this place changed?" Blue was rubbing her eyes. It was weird having to consciously stop yourself from blinking.
"What do you mean by changed?" the statue asked in a confused tone.
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"Like, when we got here, the layout was different. Then we went inside a room and came out somewhere else."
"I see. The rooms have multiple connections. If you enter one and complete the test inside it, the exit will change locations to somewhere closer to your own destination. If you are unable to complete the test, the exit won't change. This is more evident when the hotel adopts this layout."
"Oh… so we can arrive at our room just by doing a bunch of tests?" Bonnie asked.
"Correct. However, if you decide to just enter the first vacant room you find. It will take quite a while for you to reach your room. Using this method will require at least 35 test completions before you are close to your room."
The group looked at each other, a bit worried about that statement. When they returned the focus to the statue, it had changed positions. Now it was facing them with both hands on top of each other and its arms to the side, in a very subservient position.
"So, what's the best way for us to find our room?" Alex asked.
"I can give one of two pieces of information as per hotel policy. I can inform you of the direction you should follow to reach your room by foot, or I can give you a hint about the rooms you should try to stay in until you find your destination. Which information would you like?" the statue replied in a monotone voice.
"What do you guys think?" Alex turned to the group.
"I think the second option is better. Just knowing the direction won't do much for us now. Especially since we have no idea how far the room would be, and I'm assuming you can't tell us that, right?" Bonnie turned to the statue.
"Correct. The information I can give is limited as per hotel policy."
"I agree. Like Bonnie said, we have no idea how much we'll have to walk even if we know the direction we should go," Helena nodded.
"I'm fine either way. I don't think we'll get much farther having gone inside a single room," Hera called her blades over and asked them to look at the statue, "Excuse me, do they count? As trying to talk to you, I mean," Hera asked the figure.
"You mean your weapons? No, they don't. Your snake is able to see me and stop me from moving, but she can't communicate with me either."
"It was worth a shot," Blue patted Hera's back.
"OK then. Well, take the second option. What hint can you give us about the rooms?" Alex asked.
A light came from behind the statue that made them all close their eyes. When they opened, the stone had changed. Its arms were now wide, showing three sets of elbows on each arm and fingers too long to be natural. Its mask was cracked, and the hair behind it was long, just like Alex's. Its clothes were tattered, but it was still made out of rock, but it looked like cloth and even sawed gently with the breeze. Hidden inside the skirt, they could see three sets of knees coming to the sides in a spider-like way. Suddenly a shrill voice started to speak inside their minds, "The key you have is something to wonder. Be wise not to make a blunder. Those that match will show you the path, but a near perfect fit will make you split. Look for the numbers, not the letters, and pray that you won't find your betters," for the first time, the pitch of the voice didn't change while it was talking.
Another flash of light made a party look away, and when they returned their attention to the statue, its form had shifted again, back to the bellboy appearance that it had before. Everyone was a bit shell-shocked, but Hera and Bonnie managed to snap out of it to write down the riddle they had just heard.
"Is there anything else?" the statue asked.
"Can you explain the riddle to us?" Blue looked over to the stone creature that still had a cracked mask.
"The hotel policy stops me from doing anything beyond what I've done. You are free to look for other employees who would be better equipped to answer your questions."
"OK then, I guess we should keep going?" Blue looked back to the rest of the group, who nodded in response.
"I can't think of anything else to ask. Not right now anyway, and we have just about 12 minutes left. We should keep moving to see if we can find a vacant room. If anyone figured out that weird riddle say something so we can narrow the search," Hera looked at the timer on her tablet. She didn't want to have a close encounter with the Housekeeper again.
"I mean, it's kind of obvious, isn't it?" Alex asked.
"Is it?" Bonnie turned to the assassin.
"Yeah. It's telling us that we need to find rooms that have a close match to our numbers. But we need to be careful not to enter rooms that have the same letter, and if it is the same number with a different letter, we might end up splitting up," Alex explained with a shrug.
"But what about the something to wonder, and the part about finding your betters?" Blue asked.
"I don't know. Maybe there are doppelgangers here? Or a place where we have to be to a certain score that somebody else left or something, I don't know. All I can say is that we should keep going so we can find our room," Alex added.
"Then, let's head up again. Keep an eye out for a vacant room that has one of the numbers that our key has," Helena said as they started walking.
Hera turned back to the statue, but it wasn't there anymore. At some moment during that conversation, the bellboy had left. She sighed and said, "Thank you for the help," not actually expecting it to hear.
"You are very welcome. We are here to make sure our guests have the best possible experience," the statue replied in Hera's mind.
The group continued going up the spiral. About 5 minutes passed before one of Hera's blades was able to locate an empty room that matched part of their room number. It also had 4 numbers and started with 85. The full room number was 8517T. A close match but not a perfect one. That could lead them closer to their destination, and it was all they wanted.
Everyone entered the room, wanting to take some more time to discuss what happened and how they could find another place that would take them closer to their destination. Luckily, this room was an actual hotel room. There were three beds, a bathroom, a walking closet, and a table that the group could use to sit and discuss their ideas. This particular test was very simple. The lights would get dimmer and dimmer until they vanished completely, leaving only the timer above the door. After only five minutes, they completed the test, and all the lights in the room were off. However, nothing stopped them from using light spells to illuminate the area. This test only allowed them to gain two extra minutes, and they were following Helena's idea. They would stay in the room until they had half an hour to look around. Since they were in a very dark room, Blue and Alex decided to lie down and ended up falling asleep while the rest continued discussing their ideas about searching the hotel. They even managed to find a small fridge with several snacks that they could eat. They were off-brand and didn't taste quite right, but they weren't bad, nor good. Still, it was better than nothing, especially for people who were staying in a dark room watching the clock tick.