The child could feel that only a few of the seeds were viable, but they did not want to ignore the non-viable seeds. The seeds, whether they provided something new for them or not, to ignore and not even try to grow the non-viable seeds did not make sense to the child.

This was going to be their project for a little bit, and they are willing to put their time and resources into this.

The child placed each of the seeds across the room on top of the soil, and they split 20 mana strings and inserted one into each of the different seeds. With the strings inserted, they started pushing their golden flecks into the seeds.

After about 30 minutes of doing this, one of the seeds that had a spark of life after being frozen started to pierce through the shell.

A dark green nub pierced the shell and grew taller into a stem. As the stem grew, it started to become thicker, more stronger. The stem did not grow very tall; it only reached 30 centimetres tall before the main stem stopped growing, but the stems did grow leaves. As the stem grew, branches started to shoot off the main stem, with leaves growing off the stems. The leaves themselves had an interesting appearance. They were a dark green with long light grey hairs that were drooping off of the leaves, giving the leaves a beard appearance.

Once the plant stopped growing, the child withdrew that mana string and looked at the plant. The plant was around 40 centimetres wide and 30 centimetres tall and was very bushy looking. This was not surprising as information from their core told them that the plant was a bush. Going with the key characteristic, the child called the plant the “bearded bush.”

The child took a couple of cuttings and grew three more bushes around the room but not too close to the other seeds.

The child waited another 30 minutes for another seed to sprout, but nothing happened. So they turned their attention elsewhere.

Who knows how long these seeds will take to sprout, thought the child. Better to focus on other things for a bit.

So, with that in mind, the child turned their attention to the one area of the iceberg that they have not touched since the beginning, the place where their core is held.

Their small, one-centimetre, violet, green and blue core was encased in ice within the middle of their iceberg. But the child did not want to leave their core like that. In the back of their mind, a twinge pushed them to build their “core room.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

They wanted the room to be three metres by three metres, somewhat partially filled with water, have a column holding up their core, and some ledges higher up for any potential plants that they would want to place.

But first, they started by digging out the room and creating pressurized ice walls, floor, and ceiling. Once that was done, the child began to condense some of the leftover ice into a pressurized ice column to have a secure column holding their core one and a half metres above the floor.

After the room and column were reinforced with pressurized ice, they took the leftover ice and made pressurized ice pebbles.

With the bones of the room made, the child started to build a tunnel, 30 centimetres wide and 20 centimetres tall, to the fourth room. The tunnel started at the bottom part of the wall from their core room to the bottom of the fourth room. The spot where the tunnel started in the fourth room was entirely hidden by a good amount of sharp seaweed, and the tunnel was mostly hidden from sight, and one would have to search for it. The tunnel continued upwards until it reached the entrance at the bottom of their core room.

Once the tunnel was open, water started filling up the tunnel and the room. But the water only filled up 25 centimetres of the room, not the one metre they wanted it to reach. This was a problem for the child. They knew that it is a situation that would continue to happen to them.

So they went at the problem the same way they’ve done things so far, using their mana strings. However, they also wanted to use a type of mana string they did not have, water mana strings. It made sense to them that they could do this, as they have two ice mana strings. Suppose they could somehow cut and convert part of the larger ice mana string into a water mana string. In that case, they could potentially pull the water upwards.

They grabbed the larger ice mana string, severed it in half, and pulled both pieces into the outside waters within their territory. Once they were both in the water, the child started wrapping one of the ice mana string halves around the other. As soon as the child was satisfied with it, they began to pull the mana string wrapped around the other off of the other half. Just like how they removed the ice and turned it into the water, they hoped to remove the ice mana and convert it into a water mana string.

They pulled with all their might, and slowly the string started pulling off the other. They pulled and pulled and pulled and were finally able to remove the last bit of string from the other. What was left in its wake was a deeper colour blue string, almost the colour of the top part of the outside water.

The child, hoping this was successful, watched that string slowly re-orient itself and slowly start circulating with the rest of their mana. They watched as the deeper blue string circulated throughout the water and in the water portions of their rooms.

Yes! Thought the child. I can’t believe that it worked! Oh, I hope that it works the way I want.

As soon as they knew that the string was now a water mana string, they grabbed it and pulled it through all the rooms and tunnels into their core room.

They then used the string to pull the water into the room. It was slower than if the room was naturally filled, but slowly the water level filled the room to one metre before they stopped pulling it in.

They let the mana string go but still watched it for a bit. As they watched, the child noticed that the water within the series of rooms and hallways was circulating with the mana string from the rooms to the outside water.

The water seemed to have a current flowing inside and outside. It made the rooms seem more natural and not stagnant in the deeper rooms of the iceberg. They watched as the water slowly flowed in and out, and with that flow, the tiny organisms that lived within the water were brought with the current. This also allowed the animals to have more of a supply of the tiny organisms in the deeper parts of the iceberg rooms, where fewer were within the water.

Once the water level was sorted out, the child continued with designing and building their core room.