Nickel began to feel… Well, he wasn't quite sure.
A strange cross between that weird feeling where you jerk awake while falling asleep, and an out of body experience. Like his brain was being separated from his body, except he didn't have a physical body in the internal world… so all around, it was incredibly disquieting.
The last thing he saw was space seeming to distort around him, then he was somewhere else.
Looking around, he found himself in a large, well-lit circular room, though he was unsure where the light was coming from.
Behind him lay a massive, ten meter tall doorway, a pair of worn doors made of black stone standing closed within it, shackled in white chains. Both the doors and the chains were carved with runes.
In front of Nickel, in the center of the room, a circular arch of rune-carved silver metal rose from the floor.
The First Gate.
—
Nickel moved to stand a few meters away from the gate. "What now, Sherash?"
[NOTE: When you're ready, I'm going to engage the gate, and you're going to pass through it. I don't know what'll be on the other side of the gate. The challenges the Trials give are random, and once it's completed, the person inside comes back through. Normally, it doesn't matter if you fail or even die while inside the gate, it'll plop you back outside either way… But since you're passing through because of the unsealing process, I can't guarantee your safety. I don't even know what'll happen if you fail.]
Nickel smirked. "Guess I just can't fail then."
His smirk disappeared from his face, a look of resolve taking its place, fire burning in his eyes. "Open the gate."
[WARNING: THE GATE OF AWAKENING IS BEING FORCED OPEN. BE ADVISED, THE SYSTEM CANNOT GUARANTEE THE CONTINUED SURVIVAL OF THE USER SHOULD THE USER PASS THROUGH THE GATE]
At the center of the silver gate, a small mass of mana began to form, crackling with power. The inner edges of the gate began to glow, energy striking like lightning from the edges of the gate to the mass of energy in the center, causing it to begin expanding outward.
A fierce wind swirled around the room, lifting Nickel's hair, and tugging at his clothes. Each time lightning struck inside the gate, another gust tore from the gate, adding to the force of the wind.
After several seconds of this process repeating, the energy reached the gate construct, a portal forming.
A shockwave blasted out from the gate, and a colossal pressure began to roll off of it, knocking Nickel back and nearly driving him to his knees. The tower began to shake like it was being struck by a titan, the giant doors behind him groaning against the chains binding them.
[NOTE: I can't keep it open much longer without doing permanent damage to your prana. You need to go through the gate, now, Nicholas!]
Nickel raced to the gate. Or he tried to. Having to fight against space itself, weighed down by the pressure of the mana inside the gate, he struggled to move much faster than a walk.
As he drew closer to it, the portal contained within began to recede back toward the center. Pushing himself to move faster, he made it to the gate. Nickel had to throw himself into a dive, barely making it through the gate as it closed.
Well, almost all of him made it through.
On the ground right in front of the gate, a shoe covered foot sat, perfectly cut off just above the ankle. No blood pooled out, the cut having been completely cauterized by the mana of the gate.
—
Unfortunately, on the other side of the gate, the leg formerly attached to the aforementioned foot, did not receive the same treatment of said foot.
Nickel was unable to take in his surroundings, too focused on not screaming out in pain, though he did detect somewhere in the back of his mind that he lay on a stone brick floor.
Rolling onto his back, he sat up and inspected his leg.
It was perfectly cut off, just above where his ankle was. Praying to the admins, or whoever created the system, Nickel attempted to use the little healing magic he knew to stop the bleeding.
"[Low Heal]"
A soft golden light shone weakly from Nickel's hands, beginning to also shine from his wound. Slowly, the wound stopped bleeding, though still not exactly healed. Ecstatic that his magic worked here, Nickel attempted to heal the wound fully. Or as fully as [Low Heal] could. Unfortunately… nothing happened.
"Haaaaah… I don't have enough mana left, do I?" A look of dejection appeared on his face. "What am I supposed to do now?!"
Taking a moment to look around, both to distract himself and to figure out where he was, Nickel found himself in a square room, around fifty meters across, constructed of gray stone.
It seemed to be lit by the same thing that was lighting up the gate chamber. On each of the four walls was a large square opening, leading out into hallways that quickly began to branch off. Near where he landed on the ground, was a campfire pit, a stack of firewood, and a small tent.
"A dungeon? Sherash did say it gave you a challenge. Let's see if I got a system message?"
Checking the system feed, he found new messages present.
[USER NICHOLAS SILVER HAS BEEN TRANSPORTED TO A UNIQUE DUNGEON]
[USER NICHOLAS SILVER HAS BEEN ISSUED A CHALLENGE.]
[CHALLENGE: CONQUER THE UNIQUE DUNGEON: ANUBIS' RESPITE]
[CONDITIONS TO CONQUER ANUBIS' RESPITE: DEFEAT THE BOSS]
[REWARDS FOR CONQUERING ANUBIS' RESPITE: UNSEALING; USER WILL BE RETURNED FROM THE GATE]
[PENALTY FOR FAILURE: DEATH]
Nickel let out a long sigh once he saw the penalty.
"Dammit. How am I supposed to conquer a dungeon with only one foot?"
[Admin Lover's Laurel: Well, I suppose we'll just have to fix that then!]