As I completed the first trial, I felt my body suddenly relax as the chains that locked me down disappeared.
"Ha..." I sighed in relief as I felt the coldness and strength of my body return to me.
Thinking that it would be simple to exit the trials, I closed my eyes and ushered myself to leave in the same way that I would have left my mental world.
"Hmph..."
"Hmph..." I called out once more as if I was trying to pass the hardest bowel movement that my tiny snail body could handle. But all jokes, aside, it didn't work. Instead, a path lit up in front of me and seemed to usher me forward towards the area of the next trial.
'Didn't the ancient snail say that I could stop between trials?' I questioned myself as the red hue in the room brightened to a dark orange. 'Why is it forcing me to continue?' I thought.
But in hindsight, it was probably because I ate the seed instead of implanting it somewhere in my body like I was supposed to.
Oops.
...
I took the brief interlude and rested. Expecting the unknown, I knew that I had to heal up the hole in my shell that was created from the icy spear first before I moved.
I didn't waste any time and sit there and stare blankly at the glowing path that was placed before me. Instead, I contemplated over the trials.
'My ancestor... The ancient snail had only completed one trial...' I recalled as I tried to remember what the ancient snail had said about the trials as I was pulled away. 'That means that she got stuck on the second trial...' I deduced as I made a sudden realization. '... for such a powerful and experienced snail to fail to complete even the second trial... doesn't that mean that it'll be quite hard and tough?'
I squinted my eyes and looked ahead, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was going to come, but I saw nothing. 'Maybe the next trial is even more dangerous... it seemed like I lucked out on my last trial where I regained control of my emotions... I'm sure there was another way to clear the trial... But... what's next?' I thought as I continued to look down the lit-up path in front me.
In fear, I decided not to brazenly slide forward in hopes of getting a clue of what the next trial was about. Although I was getting anxious as my situation got clearer and clearer, I didn't want to start the next trial prematurely so I held myself back.
Silence ensued as I waited. 'It seems like it's been a long time since I've been completely alone, huh.' I thought as laid in the dark space in complete silence. 'Whatever happened to the gluttonous voice?'
"Gluttonous voice!" I called out hoping to get an answer to some of the questions that lingered on my mind. "Oh, stomach!" I called out once more, but the gluttonous voice didn't answer me. It seemed that I was truly locked within the trials and even something that was a part of me wasn't allowed in.
'That's strange.' I thought because the metallic voice that I heard could pass through my head, but the gluttonous voice couldn't.
It was a mystery. Slowly, I passed time as I continued to think to myself as I waited and healed.
...
'Let's go.' I thought as I picked myself up and slid forward along the path. Strangely the path wasn't straight nor flat like the path I took for the previous trial. Instead, it curved and spiralled downwards into the floor beneath me.
'Interesting.' I thought as I looked down beneath. A bright orange light glowed from below and seemed to welcome me as a warm breeze hit my body. 'Down... I guess?' I thought as I cautiously continued forward.
Around and around, I went. Like I was following the edges of a screw, I continued downward as the air... slowly heated up.
I was entering an oven.
Flashes of orange appeared in the air next to me. Cinders of what looked like the edges of flames whipped through the air as it floated upward and past me.
'Is this a trial of fire?' I thought as I remembered the sun that burned my body just a few days after I was born...
As I moved, I tried to produce as much mucous as I could. I had cold resistances, but I barely had any heat resistance.
[Tempering: Heat]
Mucus built up over my body as I began to pant in the heat. I fought against myself as my vision continued to blur due to my mucous. But I continued to move downwards and as I did, the heat seemed to remain the same as my body got more and more used to it.
It took what felt like hours before I reached the bottom.
'There's... nothing here?' I thought as I looked upwards towards the dark circle above me. 'This can't be the trial... but if this is... what am I even supposed to do?'
...
"Brother?"
"Child?"
"Reee?"
...