Now that he'd wiped out the tribe of goblins, Nickel got to work extracting their cores.
While he did, he finally took the time to check his status. There was no change to his affinity tab, which was to be expected. But that wasn't his focus. He'd acquired new skills from the system shop.
[SKILLS]
[Utility]: [Spellcraft][Internal Storage]
That wasn't what Nickel had expected.
He recognized [Spellcraft], at least. It was a skill magic users gained once they'd learned enough about their craft. It assisted in casting and modifying existing spells, and in the creation of new ones.
[Internal Storage] was a skill Nickel had never heard of. Wanting to learn more, he willed it's description to appear.
[Internal Storage: A storage room has been created in the Imaginary tower.]
…
"What?" Nickel couldn't help but exclaim aloud.
A storage room? In the Internal World? That didn't make sense. There were only two types of items that were meant to enter the Internal World. Artifacts and monster cores.
Monster cores could enter because they were required for the Kalna technique.
Artifacts were special items that bound themselves to the user, and rested in the internal world when they were unsummoned.
But this skill implied that any old item could be taken in.
Nickel needed to experiment. If this skill worked like he thought it did, his concerns about keeping these monster cores after the trial were answered.
He finished removing the cores from the goblins' remains. Taking one into his hand, he willed it to enter his storage room.
After a few seconds, he felt a drain on his mana, and the core disappeared. Nickel felt, somehow consciously felt, that it had gone exactly where he wanted it.
The fact it required mana would be a problem, until he was fully unsealed, anyway. Once he was, he should receive all the benefits he would have received when he first awakened.
His first aspect. And a comprehensive boost to his stats. The size of the boost would also be relative to his Pathfinder Rank. All signs pointed to Nickel being a Hex, so he'd receive the largest boost possible.
From what he'd read, Sophiette Drakon's stats had more than doubled after awakening. Granted, she was only eight at the time.
But if Nickel's theory was correct, his awakening at the age of seven pointed to his potential being greater than hers. And greater potential meant a greater boost.
He was already quite powerful compared to non-Pathfinders, due to the quality of his draconic bloodline. After receiving the boost, how could anyone his age compare. Hell, he might even be stronger than First-Circle Pathfinders.
Nickel calmed himself. This was not the time to get excited.
For now, he had many more cores to store away.
It took nearly an hour, waiting on his mana to regenerate every so often.
Eventually, he was able to put all the cores he'd gathered into storage. Including those he'd acquired earlier in the dungeon. Nickel now had sixty-five goblin cores and twenty-three slime cores.
He'd have plenty to eat once he left the dungeon. Not that he was looking forward to it.
Now that he'd done everything he felt he needed to do here, he took a look around at the goblin camp. Or rather, what was left of it. Nickel's battle with the goblins had destroyed much of the simple camp.
There were a few primitive tents still standing, though they were little more than lean-tos.
Now that he took the time to notice, Nickel became sure that the room he was in sat directly beneath where he'd entered. And just like the room above, there were three remaining exits.
Inspecting each in turn, the east and south halls were barely fortified, even less so than the west where he'd entered. The north, however, was completely blocked. There wasn't even a door to pass through it.
If the goblins were willing to use up so many of their limited resources just to block that exit, Nickel could be almost certain that would be where the stairs down to the next floor were.
When he'd asked Lover's Laurel about the monster inside this dungeon, she'd said there were slimes, goblins, and… one more type of monster. She'd been cut off before she could finish.
And given their blocking off of the entire hall, it must have been monsters that goblins were incapable of defeating.
Recalling the multiple bestiaries he'd read, Nickel could make a few guesses.
It'd have to be a monster that was relatively weak in the grand scheme of things. This was still a trial meant for the newly awakened. It would also be a monster that would have reason to hunt the goblins, even going out their way to ascend to the second floor to do so. Likely a more bestial monster, that hunted for food.
Given the size of the blockade, covering the entire hall, probably a monster that could fly, or at the very least could jump quite high. The dungeon Nickel was in was a cave type dungeon. That ruled out most wolf or cat type monsters.
Perhaps… a toad-type?
That made the most sense to Nickel. Now, what sort of toad-type monsters would be in this environment?
An earth affinity toad, most likely. There was the spiraling-earth toad, the stone-skin toad, and… what was that last one? It was a boss monster, he knew that for certain. He just couldn't recall what exactly it was.
Oh well. He'd only have to worry about it if it was the dungeon boss.
He'd find out soon enough. First, Nickel would have to find a way past the wall obstructing the northern exit. Or through it.
He moved to stand around three meters away from it. Crouching down, into a runner's stance, he put strength into his legs. Nickel kicked off the ground, shattering the stone where he'd been crouched, and shot forward. He raised his arms to guard himself just before he impacted the blockade.
He broke right through it, sending dust and shattered pieces of wood flying down the hall. He slowed, but continued down the hall. As he did, he noticed something odd. This hall didn't have any branching paths. After moving down it for several minutes, Nickel approached his objective.
The stairs.
He came to a stop at the top. He was about to enter back into uncharted territory. While Nickel had been comfortable throwing out stealth when facing the goblins, that was due to them being unable to truly harm him. Or do anything against him, really.
But until he knew what he was facing, and had a strategy for it, he'd take the safest route.
So, Nickel crouched low, and crept down the stairs. Once at the bottom, he observed his surroundings. It was yet another stone hall, but this one had some rather large, glaring differences.