As I continued upward, mist began to appear once more in front of me and gather like it did in the Arena of Frost. Taking in a deep breathes of cold air and mist, I let their coldness spread through my body as I tried to adjust to it.
'I'm getting closer.' It thought as I powered through the white passageways towards the mist.
The mist got more and more thick as I went as it marked the path forward more clearly. I however, tried not to use my eyes - I still tried to only rely on my sense of coldness to guide me through the labyrinth.
I felt the slight changes in the air and the different currents cold. I felt each and every one of the nuances as I honed my senses with each decision that I made.
[Mastery: Cold Mastery] (Updated)
Current mastery: 0.002%
+ 0.2% Damage of ice/cold-based attacks and elemental resistance
...
Yes. I know.
If my stomach wasn't a ticking time bomb, I would have spent as much time mastering my new found affinity, but I couldn't.
I needed to move on.
...
After making a right, I came across something different.
A angle. A angle other than the completely unusual 90 degree, box-like walls and corridors that I had seen during my whole time in the Labyrinth of white.
It was an inclined passageway.
Like a red carpet, streams of mist slid down its slope and seemed to beckon me forward as a guest.
'We are definitely getting closer.' I thought as I felt a cool air slowly brush against my body from in font of me.
I took a deep breathe to ready myself but my peace and quiet was disturbed none other than by my stomach.
'Okay.' I replied in my head. 'But you need to calm down some. I'm hungry too. We'll get a meal soon.'
But just as I moved slightly forward, my body tensed up. Reacting quickly, pulled my body backwards and skidded to a stop.
'I don't know.' I replied quickly in my head as I didn't know what had happened as well.
Like a sixth sense or an intuition, I knew that the ramp-like passageway wasn't as simple as it looked.
I looked carefully at it. Nothing seemed out of place. The path was flat and made of white filaments like the other corridors did.
I looked at the mist. Running down in streams, it clung to the floor as some the mist seemed to disappear below it like it did in the Arena of Frost.
'Hm...' I thought as I continued to look for a clue - some indication of a danger or a trap, but I saw nothing.
Impatiently, the gluttonous voice seemed to enter my head once more.
'...' I replied again. 'Wait... let me test it again.'
Gathering a pool of mucus into my foot, I let it freeze before I tossed it forward on to the ramp as far as I could.
Nothing.
Nothing happened.
'Maybe I'm worrying for nothing.' I thought as I watched frozen ball of mucus roll back to me and gently tap against my body. 'Maybe I'm imagining things...'
Sliding forward once more, I couldn't help but feel my body tense up again.
I stopped.
'Wait... Let me try once more.' I told the voice.
'Yes.' I replied as I knew there was a reason I was feeling on edge and I trusted it.
Gathering more and more mucus under me, I let the drops freeze before I threw them upward. Like clear marbles bouncing down a ramp of rubber bands, they tumbled and bounced as were carried by gravity back towards me.
Still nothing. No reaction. No change.
But that didn't stop me as I continued. I didn't trust that the passageway would be so simple. Instead of giving up, I whipped more balls of frozen mucus upward. With each ball of frozen mucus I created, the black bar that was in the middle of my vision flashed as it shrunk.
The gluttonous voice seemed to take note of it as it grew more anxious and annoyed at my actions.
I knew that it was right, but I couldn't stop.
'Just wait... just let me try one last time. I know that this can't be a normal passageway. I just know it.' I told the voice. 'I just don't know why nothing's happening... I'm sure there must be a reason...' I told myself as I stared at all the tiny glistening balls of ice that had rolled back to me.
Seconds later, I think I knew why.
'Maybe they're too tiny?' I suggested to myself.
Not wasting any more time, I decided to listen to the gluttonous voice's advice as I gathered as many small balls of mucus as I could beneath my foot.
'Just wait and see.' I replied within my head.
Applying a pressure beneath me, I squeezed the balls of ice beneath my body as the mucus begun to melt and cling to me once more with my body heat. Slowly, it the balls began to fuse and moments later, I created a single large ball of frozen mucus.
I was ready.
Knowing that I wouldn't be able to throw the giant ball of ice upward, I clenched my body together. I gathered strength within my huge foot as I prepared to throw it upward. Using the elastic floor as well, I pulled downward before I tossed the ball into the air.
Like swinging a baseball bat, I swung my body around and knocked the ball of ice with my shell.
Bam.
The ball of ice shattered into two large pieces as it flew and landed on the ramp.
Almost instantly, strands of filaments that made up the floor beneath the two chunks snapped upward before they fell downwards and disappeared.
'See.' I said within my head and observed as the entire ramp changed before my eyes.
I felt the floor rumble as more and more strands snapped and dropped to somewhere below the ramp.
I was right to be cautious.
Sliding forward, I looked down at where the filaments had fallen.
It was a room. Similar to the arena of ice, it seemed to be cube-like in shape. Filled almost halfway with frosty mist I could only assume that that room didn't have an exit. Once an unsuspecting creature drops in, the only way out was to climb back up. Or they could stay in the mist and succumb to a chilly tomb as they froze.
<...>
Shifting my gaze from the room hidden below the ramp back towards the pathway, I slid forward. As carefully, I followed the convoluted path upwards until I reached to the top of the ramp several minutes later.
Whipping the beads of mucus off my face as I slid forward, the gluttonous voice entered my head once more.
I paused.
'You have to trust me... just like I have to eventually trust you.' I told the voice as the Reward System seemed to reward me for my actions as well.
[+1 intuition]
[+1 wit]
Full of confidence after being right once more, I slid forward once more into the new hallway that revealed itself to me without checking for further traps like a pompous idiot.
...
Snap.