The child pushed their mana strings further and further away from themselves. Finally, after a bit, they made it farther than they have ever done so.

They successfully pushed their territory 20 metres wide, five metres into the air, and 15 metres down into the water. After they expanded their territory, they took a short break and tried again. Except for this time, they focused downwards. The child wanted to go as far down as they possibly could.

They didn’t know how far down it was to get to the bottom of the ocean, but the further down they got, the better chance they could find new things.

After they rested for a bit, the child continued to expand, but they focused their efforts only downwards. Little by little, they were able to increase the depth by another ten metres.

Thoroughly exhausted, the child stopped their efforts in expansion. As they stared at their borders, they noticed they were much closer to three different icebergs of various sizes. The first was about three metres away from the end of their territory, the second was five, and the third was about six.

It’s curious how I once wanted the icebergs surrounding me for the ice and potential expansion, but now they are just curiosities that may hold unknown things.

As the child stared at the icebergs surrounding them, the child had a thought.

What if I pull an iceberg to me, search it, and then release it back outside without claiming the ice?

It was an appealing idea. They could search it with mana strings if they could pull just enough of an iceberg into their territory. Then, if there is anything interesting or new, they could pull it entirely into their territory.

But how to get to them. The child continued to think of how to do this as a swarm of crystal krill swam past them.

That’s it! Exclaimed the child. I can use the krill!

It was straightforward, that is, if it worked.

The child could force a bit of the krill swarm out of their territory with their mana strings connected to them, direct them to an iceberg, attach the strings and pull the iceberg to them.

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Collecting a swarm of around 100 krill, the child attached many mana strings to each of the krill and pushed them out of their border.

The child picked one of the krill out of the swarm, and with great force and resistance from both the krill and their border, they managed to push the krill out of their territory.

Instantly, the child felt their connection to the krill diminish, but they could still feel the krill through the mana string. As soon as it was forced through, the krill shook slightly but seemed okay.

They repeated this with the rest of the krill swarm. Once the krill swarm was across the border, the child directed the krill forward. The krill started swimming forward and soon reached the closest iceberg. The child led them to stand on the ice of the iceberg before the child attached the 100 strings to the ice and started pulling.

It took a bit of time and a lot of pulling, but the child was able to pull fifty centimetres of the iceberg into their territory. As soon as they pulled it somewhat into their territory, the child sent even more of their mana strings to explore every inch of the territory. While their mana was exploring, the krill swarm was released and allowed to swim around their territory again.

What they found was amazing. The iceberg extended deep into the water while barely having any ice breaching the surface, with a bunch of natural tunnels and a dome which seemed to be hosting a small habitat of a few different species.

The child quickly latched more mana strings onto the iceberg and dragged it fully into their territory.

Once it was fully in their territory, the child studied the multiple creatures that lived within the dome and tunnels that provided them with protection.

The first creature that they studied was made up of many smaller ones. It was light blue with some hints of yellow and was three centimetres wide. The creature had hard branch-like protrusions that are made up of these very small creatures that made up this structure. One very interesting thing is that this creature anchored itself to the ice. The child found three of these throughout the iceberg. They took a mana string, inserted it, and circulated enough of their flecks that the creature they now knew as a coral became one of theirs.

The next creature they found within the start of one of the more extensive tunnels. The creature and they definitely knew it was a creature, was very plant-like. It had a stalk that was surrounded with fury, and very flexible tentacles, that surrounded the creature’s mouth at the top of the stalk. The animal was attached to a small rock with thick roots and looked quite battered. Some of the tentacles were ripped in half, and some roots looked like they were ripped off of the rock and smashed. The creature was deep blue, almost black, and the child could only find one of them. Quickly, the child took their mana string and made the creature theirs, and they found that it was a type of sea lily.

After continuously scouring the iceberg, adding the corals and sea lily to their domain, the child found two small types of fish. The first was a grey, seven-centimetre-long fish with small red spots throughout its body. The fish’s fin along the spine had ten spines in it, with many small tassels coming off the tips of the spine. The second fish was a long but skinny fish, around five centimetres long. This fish is black with two stripes along its body, yellow on the top and blue on the bottom. They had two fins along their spine, and the two fins on their sides were nearly transparent. Every time the child found one of these fishes, the child quickly added them to their domain. There were a total of seven grey fishes with red spots and five fishes with two stripes within the iceberg.

Once the child finished going through the iceberg, they carefully removed the sixteen creatures.

With many strings, they carefully picked them up or directed them into the rooms. In the case of the sea lily, the rock was also taken. Once they were settled, the child started to name the creatures. The coral became “ice coral,” the sea lily became “blue sea lily,” the grey fish became the “grey tassel,” and the black fish became the “striped goby.”

After the creatures were settled and living within the rooms, the child had an idea.

The coral and the other creatures would make a great environment for the second floor. I should probably start on it soon.

With that, the child looked to the next iceberg.