At the bottom of the stairs, for the first time in this dungeon, Nickel didn't find a hall identical to the one he came down from.
The passage the stairs descended into wasn't much of a passage, in the first place. It was far wider, ten meters across compared to four. He wasn't sure it could really be called a hallway, anymore.
Nickel could also see to the far side of the room, roughly fifty meters away. There appeared to be a large door there.
And between Nickel and the door, were a multitude of huge toads.
Crouched low, not leaving the stairs, he observed the ones nearest to him. They seemed to be sleeping, groups of four toads resting near each other. As Nickel took another glance around the hall, he saw all of the toads were doing the same.
As for the toads themselves, they were around two meters tall, and just as wide. A dark brown color, the toads' bodies were covered in hardened gray armor plates. Between each of the plates were lines of spikes, colored the same gray as the plates.
Stone-skin toads.
Nickel was deep in thought for a moment, recalling the toads abilities and habits.
Stone-skin toads lived, fought, and died in familial groups. They were so committed to these groups that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, they would not even come to the aid of an unrelated toad.
This case was entirely reversed when it came to their unit, however. If something threatened their family, a stone-skin toad would give everything, including it's life, in order to defend them. This made them dangerous, to an upper limit.
It wasn't their behavior Nickel was worried about, though. If it was just this, and they had no abilities, he would have been confident in defeating each group of four quite easily. Well… fairly easily, anyway.
But stone-skin toads did have abilities, and while they weren't too threatening, Nickel was alone, and would have to fight, by his estimation, at least four groups to make it to what he hoped was a door.
Their first ability was where the stone-skin toads got their name, the plates of earthen armor that covered their bodies. The plates were tough, and if damaged could be restored by the toad
absorbing earth mana. It took some time to fix them, so Nickel would have to capitalize once he destroyed one.
The ability Nickel was truly wary of were their spikes. Not the spikes on their armor, though they could also launch those at threats. No, he was concerned about the toads ability to manipulate the earth around them to form sharp, jagged spikes.
His scales would protect him from the spikes of their armor, but the ones they formed from the stone around them would have enough force to pierce his scales and skewer him.
Unfortunately for Nickel, he couldn't avoid them. The toads had the ability to detect movement through vibrations in the earth. This was why they slept without any guards.
He also couldn't fly over them. The hall was only five meters tall, and the floor of the room was covered in stone dust from the toads shedding and restoring their armor. The movement of his wings would disturb the dust, and end up alerting the toads anyway.
They would just shoot spikes at him from the ground, and at that point, Nickel would rather just face them directly.
Although…
The toads considered the biggest threat to themselves not predators from other species, but other stone-skin toads. If Nickel maneuvered correctly, he could likely lead the toads into fighting each other, while he only had to deal with a single group.
Still crouched at the bottom of the stairs, Draconic wings unfolded from his back. As soon as they had, Nickel launched himself into the air.
He flew only half a meter from the ceiling, trying to give himself some room to maneuver. He passed over the first group of toads.
They sprung awake almost immediately, quickly taking stock of the situation. Once they had, the four of them turned in Nickel's direction, and fired a volley of eight spikes.
Nickel, having his head turned to face the toads, dodged to the side. As the spikes passed him by, his hand came down on one of them, altering it's trajectory and sending it flying into another group.
It hit one of them and immediately shattered apart, pelting the entire family unit with shards of stone. The toads awoke, turning in the direction they believed the attack to have come from. They completely ignored Nickel, locking onto the only other awake group.
A battle of ranged attacks began, the two groups firing spikes into each other. While Nickel continued flying toward what he now was certain was a door, other groups of toads near the two battling units also began to wake up.
The front half of the room devolved into an all out battle between the toads. Nickel spent the next few minutes flying across the room, every so often causing another battle to break out.
Eventually, he reached the far side of the room, the door clear of toads. He was lucky. Nickel had been able to draw every group of toads between the stairs and the door into the Grand Toad War.
For a moment he considered not entering what was sure to be the boss room quite yet, to claim the toads' monster cores.
Nickel quickly banished that thought.
He didn't know how long he'd been in the trial, or what was happening to him outside of it. He'd been with family, so surely his physical body was fine.
There was also the fact that Nickel was simply impatient to awaken. Or be unsealed. He didn't really view them as separate processes. He'd never really benefited from awakening anyway.
From what he gathered from Sherash's words, everything he should have gained by awakening was there, held down by the seal.
He was impatient.
Shaking his head, Nickel cleared his mind, preparing himself. Facing the double doors, he noticed it had several detailed carvings.
On the bottom of the right door was a dragon in hybrid form standing beneath a colossal tree. It was facing a horde of undead, burning them with dragonfire. It seemed to be surrounded by some sort of writhing aura. Anything the aura touched looked to be breaking down.
The bottom left carving was of a figure clashing against a formless mass, six swords orbiting them. Each sword seemed to correspond to one of the six basic elements.
One sent forth sheets of flame, one summoned massive waves. Another commanded the wind into blades, while it's partner created shields of stone. The final two crossed together, forming a beam of darkness and light.
The top image, carved across both doors, was a constellation of seven stars, swirling around a planet held in a single hand. Each of the stars contained a symbol. A devouring maw, a crown, a dragon's silhouette… Nickel couldn't make out the rest.
Was these carvings… him? Or represented him?
This was his trial. Why else would they be here?
But what did they represent specifically?
Nickel shook his head once more.
Now was not the time. He had a boss to kill. And an unsealing to complete
Steeling himself, and pressing down on his excitement, Nickel pushed open the doors.