The three beings started exploring every inch of the water side of their iceberg. They seemed perplexed at what they found.

Oh, the child had no clue what they were saying or even if it was a language. However, from what they could see by their body language, they took it to mean that they were perplexed and curious about the iceberg and the fauna living around it.

"Clllicckk cclick click cllicck ccllliicck ccliicck," said the tallest being, the apparent leader.

"Ccliicck clllicckk cclick clickccliicck, cclick ccliicck cclick cclick cllicck cclick cclick ccliicck cclick ccliicck." Pointed the one with grey feathers at the small hole leading to the set of chambers that they use to store the aquatic species that lived within their territory, outside of their dungeon.

The shorter one, with a dark blue plumage, perked up at what the grey feathered one said and swam over to the hole and stuck his head and part of his shoulders into the hole. Then, looking all around the room, he popped out and responded, "Click clllicckk cclick ccliicck cclick cclliiicckk cllicck ccliicck."

"Ccliicck cclick cclick cllicck cllicck," responded the leader. And with that, the group of three swam to the surface and located the entrance to the dungeon.

The child didn't know if they could get to the tunnel, but their fears were struck as they watched the three skillfully climb on top of the edge of ice around the entrance and slowly crawl into the tunnel.

Unlike their first visitors, the three beings were a mix of being cautious and not cautious. It was like they were taking it slow, but it looked like they didn't feel anything different within the tunnel. Or at least they didn't hesitate as they made their way through the tunnel.

As they entered the first room, they were met by a small group of ice krill.

Before the krill monsters could even attack, the leader yanked a shimmery net from a small bracelet on his wrist, netted the monsters, and dropped them in his mostly empty knapsack.

"Ccliicck go. We ccliicck cclick ccllliicck ccliicck." As the leader clicked, the child began to understand more and more of the language. But the three did not stay any longer, as the clicks seemed to call them to leave their dungeon.

The three climbed back through the tunnel and swam away from their territory.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The child watched the go, though. They watched as they neared the edge of the northern-facing part of the plateau and disappeared into the depths.

They waited a bit to see if the three beings would come up or if another of their kind, but after an hour, the child returned to their mosquitoes and mana adapting their seventh floor.

Their previous attempts had left the mosquito dead, their cells rapidly reproducing, leaving chunks of overgrown flesh or having no effect on the mosquito itself. But the child finally figured out how to do it.

Taking a small portion of their saliva, the child mixed in some healing potion before placing it along the mosquito's needle. They did this process multiple times on the same mosquito before they noticed that the healing potion was now being produced within the mosquitoes. The child called it the "healing mskagok mosquito." They quickly set the mosquito to breed with the other mskagok mosquitoes in hopes of breeding more healing mosquitoes. This would help make the healing mosquito even more indistinguishable from the swamp version of the mosquito.

As the healing mskagok mosquito went off and did its things, the child continued on with mana adapting.

Using a water mana string, they managed to change the skimmer dragonfly into a more powerful predator. Unlike most of their mana-adapted creatures or plants, the dragonfly didn't really grow bigger or gain extra body parts. What the water mana string did was allow the dragonfly to be able to manipulate water into creating extra water body parts. The first dragonfly that they mana adapted gained a different set of wings, the second had longer grasping legs, and the third reinforced their fangs with water. Either way, the dragonfly gained a unique way of using water mana by incorporating water as a part of their body. Other than the use of a water body part or water-enforced body part, the dragonfly still obtained very similar features to the skimmer dragonfly. So the child decided to call it the "wai dragonfly."

The next creature that they mana adapted is the grey water snake using their heat and water mana strings. Using these two strings led to an exciting mana adaptation that allowed the snake to glide from grate to grate across the floor using steam. The snake used heat mana to heat up the water mana that created steam that they held, and it helped propel and glide in the air. Along with the ability to produce steam, the snake's scales also turned silver-grey. Their skin is a light orange-red colour that can be seen between the scales. Looking over their new snake, the child named it the "damascus snake."

The last of the land and air creatures that they planned to mana adapt was the cold water bee. The child really had hopes for this insect, ideas about what they could do with them had been floating in the back of their mind for a while, and they were excited to finally try doing stuff with it. So, taking an ice mana string, they took one of the smaller hives of the bees and started adapting every single one of them.

Usually, they would have just let their mana-adapted creature breed by itself or would just adapt a few initially. Still, the child wanted to adapt the whole hive at once.

With multiple ice mana strings, the child inserted them into the bees and circulated them throughout the thirty bees of the hive. As the water mana string circulated, the child watched as the bees started to change. They grew to four centimetres long, and the thick hair turned into a shade of dark blue. But that was not the only change that the hive went through.

Internally, the bees' wax glands changed to produce a soft ice wax that allows the worker bees to shape the ice before it hardens to an ice wax just below the strength of pressurized ice but still very light. Along with the change in their wax glands, the bee's honey has become tinged with a bit of the ice mana that, if consumed by itself, can burn portions of interior organs. But if dissolved and then consumed, it is safe to drink and soothe minor skin irritants briefly. With all the changes, they called them the "ice honey bee."

Pleased with the results, the child looked over each of their new creatures and chose to add the mosquitoes to the fifth and sixth floor and the dragonfly to the sixth floor.

After ensuring everything was settled and all of their creatures were okay in their new environments on all floors, the child got to work on selecting a few aquatic species to evolve and change.

I don't know why, thought the child, but this is enjoyable.