The child took the two light blue mana strings and pulled them to the outer part of the iceberg. They waited a couple of minutes and carefully watched for any changes, but nothing happened.

With nothing happening with the two mana strings in the outer parts of the iceberg, the child decided to pull the strings out of the ice itself. They pulled the strings to the edge of the iceberg, one above the water and one below the water. With a breath, the child pulled the two strings out of the ice, about 50 centimetres into the water part of their territory.

Nothing happened immediately, but the child did not turn their attention away from the two strings. After about ten minutes, the molecules of water directly touching the smaller of the two strings started to solidify and form crystals around the string. Very soon, the water surrounding the string began to form a tiny piece of ice. It was only one centimetre wide, but it grew bigger the longer the string stayed there.

At the same time, the bigger of the two strings was under a different reaction. Unlike the one in the water, this mana string seemed to be forming ice from the iceberg outwards. Ice crystals grew from the iceberg outwards, following the path of the string. Slowly as the ice grew bigger at the base, the longer and wider it grew at the tip of the mana string.

These two reactions were fascinating and show clearly what the two light blue mana strings are. They are ice mana. The ice mana did not contain any of the tiny organisms that lived within their iceberg, as it was a mana string, but it produced pure ice with no organisms in it.

With a crinkle of the child’s eyes and the upturning of their mouth, a huge smile took over the dungeon core’s face.

Ice mana! Pure ice mana! Exclaimed the child. Hmm… I wonder what I can do with it?

The child was very excited about the possibility of having the two strings opened up. They still hadn’t even explored their own capabilities yet. Still, now they had another avenue to go down through the ice mana.

But the child decided to leave the ice mana strings in their current positions for a bit to see how the mana strings promote ice growth. They also want to try manipulating their own mana physically in their territory.

So they went for what they thought is the easiest thing to do: create a pond on the top surface of the iceberg.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The child chose to do it right in the centre and got to work.

Through the urging of their instincts, the child wrapped a couple lines of their mana around their hands and started digging.

Their hands went through the ice like butter, and they just kept digging scoops of ice and dumping it on the side. They continued scooping out a small pond until it was two metres wide and one metre deep. The pool was in a bowl shape and did not have any water in it yet. It was really not their intention to fill it up with water, but it helped them practice. The ice scooped out of the pond will also help them fine-tune using their mana strings and or give them extra material to work with.

With the practice pond dug out, the child turned their attention towards one of the smaller pieces of ice. It was a small enough piece of ice that it fit into their hands comfortably, around six centimetres in length and width. With the mana strings still covering their hands, they started to squeeze the piece of ice.

Tiny flecks chipped off as they squished the ice, but the ice stayed intact. With the pressure from the child’s hands crushing the ice, the ice itself grew smaller. Once the ice stopped shrinking, no matter how much pressure they applied, they finally stopped and opened their hands to see what the ice became.

In their hands is a piece of ice that was a lot smaller and a lot heavier than what their iceberg ice usually is. The piece of ice was now about three centimetres in length and two in width. The ice was also much smoother than any of the chunks of ice they scooped up. It was now a small, smooth, round piece of ice in the shape of a pebble much heavier than any of the other pieces of ice the same size.

As the child was studying this smooth piece of ice, the child gave a small yelp as a flat blue screen appeared in their view.

The child tried to turn their head, move around, swat at it, and do whatever they can to move this screen out of their vision, but nothing worked. So they studied the screen and saw these strange symbols littered across it.

As the child watched the screen and the symbols, the symbols started to shift into a more recognizable format. When the symbols began to shift, they were able to understand what the screen was telling them.

Name the dungeon material you created and register said material to your dungeon.

What the? Thought the child, as they stared in confusion at what this screen was telling them.

This was a first for them. A magical blue screen appearing with a language they could understand told them to register what they could only assume is the more dense ice as a dungeon material.

But all in all, the child just decided to roll with it. This screen clearly knew that they were a dungeon, so it must be some part of their species as a dungeon core. The child also figured that since they have yet to do much with their territory or their dungeon, this blue screen must not have had a chance so far to reveal itself.

With this realization, the child decided to just name the ice and register it, even though they had absolutely no clue how to register it. But they chose to go with what the screen told them, and they started thinking up a name.

They had taken a piece of ice and squashed it together using their mana. The pressure that the ice was put under had made it into the dense small piece of ice that triggered the blue screen.

That’s it! Thought the child, pressure! I can call it pressurized ice!

As soon as the child thought of pressurized ice, the blue screen popped into their vision again, but this time it had different wording.

The name “pressurized ice” has been registered with the system in accordance with the material created.

Pressurized ice is now a unique material found only within your [currently unnamed] dungeon