"Beelzebub, are you alright?" I asked quickly, far more worried for him than myself. I cupped him gently, checking his tiny body. He blinked up at me with sleepy eyes, perfectly unharmed, and a wave of relief loosened the tension in my shoulders.

I pushed myself up, a little dizzy from the impact. That fall did not feel natural. A part of me wondered if something had nudged me, but maybe I was imagining things. Ice could be treacherous. Sometimes you simply lose your footing without warning.

Then a faint sound brushed past my ears. So soft I almost dismissed it as a trick of my mind. A low, continuous hum, like wind trapped behind a sealed door. I held my breath and listened, waiting for it to return, but the sound faded into the cold and left nothing behind.

[Exploration: 22%]

At this point, the mist climbed to my thighs. I felt it seeping through my clothes, turning the fabric stiff around the edges. Frost traced the hem of my skirt, slowly creeping upward. My fingers, however, remained warm, a slow, stubborn heat rising from within me.

The walls here were no longer stone at all. They had turned into pure ice. Clear, layered, ancient. Strange shapes were frozen inside, like bubbles caught mid-motion, or fragments of something that once moved through this place and now slept forever.

I leaned close to one patch, squinting. For a moment, I thought I saw something like a hand, stretched out and reaching. When I blinked, it melted back into random shapes.

"I can't be imagining things…" I muttered, feeling a thin thread of suspicion crawl slowly up my spine.

The arrow pulsed again, brighter, faster. It wanted me to hurry.

[Exploration: 25%]

The temperature dropped further. My breath turned thick, white clouds rolling out of my mouth with every exhale. I rubbed my arms out of habit, even though my body held better than any human's would. If Elira were here, she would already be shaking, teeth chattering. Part of me was glad she took the other path. This one did not feel like it was meant for her.

It felt like it was meant for me.

The tunnel opened into a wider chamber at last. The ceiling arched high above, lost in darkness, while the floor was covered in a smooth sheet of ice that reflected the arrow's glow in shimmering waves. In the center of the chamber, a pillar of ice rose from floor to ceiling, thick and almost translucent, with veins of pale blue light running through it.

The arrow floated straight toward that pillar and stopped there, hovering beside it.

[Exploration: 29%]

"So this is the center of attention, huh…?" I whispered, stepping closer.

The closer I came, the stronger the cold grew, but it was different here. It did not feel like an enemy. It felt like a presence, watching me, waiting to see what I would do. The ice pillar hummed softly, sending vibrations through the floor and into my bones.

I lifted my hand and hesitated for a moment. Touching random glowing things in mysterious caves was usually a bad idea, but since when had I cared about that?

My fingers brushed the surface of the pillar.

It felt alive.

A jolt of cold shot up my arm, freezing hot, if that even made sense. I sucked in a sharp breath, but did not pull away. Frost bloomed around my palm, then spread across my fingers, winding around my wrist like a bracelet.

[Exploration: 30%]

A new system window burst into my vision, bright enough to blot out everything else.

And the ice beneath my feet cracked.

A faint rumble vibrated through the chamber, soft at first, barely enough to register. Then it grew, rolling through the ice under my feet like a pulse waking something deep within the frozen walls.

The pillar flickered with a brighter glow.

The mist coiled tighter around my legs, climbing higher, turning denser than ever. It no longer drifted lazily. Now it moved with purpose, swirling toward the far end of the chamber in a slow spiral. As if being pulled. As if called.

"Don't tell me something is going to pop out again, like always with these system quests…" I whispered quietly, my voice barely carrying past my own breath.

Beelzebub shifted on my shoulder, his tiny claws clinging to my collar. His fur rose slightly, a soft, nervous tremble running through his small frame. I gently cupped him with my hand, calming him as best I could.

"It's fine. It's fine," I murmured softly. "Probably..."

The mist parted in front of me. A narrow path unfurled like a carpet of frost, cutting straight into the dark corridor beyond the chamber. Tiny ice crystals sparked faint blue flashes the moment my foot brushed over the edge.

[Event triggered: Kill the creature ahead]

[Reward: Temperature Control skill]

"I knew it," I muttered, my voice dripping with tired sarcasm. "A death quest."

The chamber's far tunnel exhaled a soft breeze, but the air wasn't warm or gentle. It carried a cold so sharp it sliced through my skin like a thin blade, making a fresh shiver run up my spine.

A shadow shifted inside that darkness. It wasn't human. It wasn't even close.

The creature stepped forward with an eerie calm, its outline forming piece by piece from the swirling frost. An enormous shape, half-corporeal and half-solid, like a beast sculpted from frozen mist. Long limbs of jagged ice, a wolf-like skull with glowing blue eyes burning like lanterns inside the hollow sockets, and teeth made of needle-thin shards.

The temperature dropped instantly, enough to crack the floor beneath it.

Beelzebub whimpered softly.

"Yeah, I know…" I whispered. "I don't like this either."

The creature inhaled. The frost on the floor slid toward it as if drawn into its breath. The air around me froze mid-motion, the mist crystallizing into tiny shards that drifted like slow snow.

My fingers curled, nails sharpening with a slow crack. The system arrow vanished, and only the beast's glowing eyes remained.

"What are you looking at? You want to fight?" I cracked my frozen knuckles slowly, the sound echoing faintly in the icy tunnel. "Fine… I'll fight. It's not like there's anywhere to run anyway."

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