Before the child had expanded into the dark navy blue expanse of water, they knew what their territory was composed of. But, they did not realize its true expanse.

They could see the territory from the inside looking out, but not from the outside looking in. But with their territory extending into the water, the child was able to finally see what their territory looked like from the outside.

The piece of ice that once was the only part of their territory was magnificent in the child’s eyes. Moreover, seeing the floating ice allowed them to figure out exactly how big it was.

The ice was tall. It reached above the hands of the expanse of water that surrounded the child’s territory on all sides. The ice was almost like a rectangle. The top that faced the air was mostly flat with some divots, while the bottom that faced into the deep expanse of water was a lot less flat and had much more dips and peaks.

As the child looked at the ice, a word came to mind. Iceberg. It just seemed right for the child to not call the ice “ice” anymore.

Just like how the word iceberg flowed into their mind, the child felt something flow from their bond with the gem. This information that flowed into the child’s head was the ability to measure.

The child found that this measurement ability allowed them to look at the iceberg and tell how tall and long it was just by sight.

They did not know why this information was given to them, but they knew that it was helpful and would continue to be beneficial in the future.

With this new knowledge, the child looked at their iceberg and found it to be 10 metres tall and 15 metres long. Though six of those metres lay underneath the waves.

The child continued to stare at their iceberg, taking in every divot, bump, corner, sharp edge, and the shades of blue splashed throughout the ice. As they stared at the iceberg, the child noticed something flowing through the ice.

It was quite surprising to the child that there was something that appeared very similar to their own mana within the iceberg, as they had looked over the iceberg multiple times. But there is a new type of mana that was not their own circulating within the iceberg.

There were only two strands of it, and they were a very pale, almost transparent, blue colour that almost camouflaged them into the ice. They also weren’t very long, one was about five metres long and the second was about three metres long.

Unlike with their own mana, this type of mana stayed strictly with the ice and did not really have a set circulation path.

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As the child watched the pale blue mana move through the ice, they noted that the mana slowly zig-zagged within the center of the iceberg and did not really go close to the edges of the iceberg. It was quite hypnotizing in a way as they watched it. The light blue mana had no predetermined course, unlike their own mana, which circulated throughout their territory and back to their core.

The child did not know how long they watched the light blue mana flitter about. Still, they snapped out of hypnotically watching it flow and into discovery mode.

I wonder, thought the child, what exactly it does? I wonder if it will be useful?

The light blue mana brought up multiple questions for the child, mostly about what it does and how useful it will be for their territory.

The child chose the closest light blue mana string to them and grasped the mana string. As soon as they grasped the string, the mana string started to jerk and wiggle within their grasp. But this did not dissuade the child, and they kept their grip on the mana string strong.

Unknown to the child, when they gripped the light blue mana string, part of their own mana was used to keep hold of the other mana. The light blue mana string was already somewhat subdued when the entirety of the iceberg became under the dungeon core’s control, but it was still wild. But once the child actively gripped the string, parts of its own mana were used to make the light blue mana string part of their territory.

Once the jerking and wiggling calmed down and stopped, the child started experimenting with the string. With a small push, the child was able to move and shift the mana string in another direction. Slowly, the child started to practice manipulating that one mana string.

After continuously practicing, the child was able to manipulate the string into any shape that they could think of. They had even created a little outline of their iceberg’s silhouette.

With their ability to manipulate the string into shapes, the child figured that they should really find out what the light blue mana string was for, even though they found a lot of joy in making those shapes.

When they were watching the two light blue mana strings, the child noticed that the two strings stayed only around the middle part of the iceberg and tended to avoid the outer parts of the iceberg. So the child figured that the best way to figure out what the two light blue mana strings may be to bring the mana strings to the outer part of the iceberg or out of the iceberg entirely.

So the child went to grab the other light blue mana string that they had left alone before, and just as they went to grab it, they noticed something slightly different about it.

The one that they had not touched did not change. But the one that they had grabbed did. When the child looked carefully at the one they had been manipulating, they saw little bits of light gold sparkle.

The child found it very interesting because the light gold sparkles were the exact same colour as their own mana strings. For some reason, they felt the light blue string with light gold sparkles when they concentrated on their territory, but not the other light blue mana string.

I wonder why…, thought the child. Wait a minute, is it because I touched it?

The child pondered this change and eventually realized that somehow when they touched and manipulated the mana string, a bit of their own mana was inserted into the strings. When they came to this realization, it made much more sense to them, as they could feel the string itself when they concentrated.

The child knew that they needed to do the same with the other light blue mana string, so they gripped the string and watched very carefully for any changes. As the string jerked and wiggled, they still held on tight, and they watched as the light blue string slowly calmed down. And as the string calmed down, the child could spot a couple of light gold sparkles appearing within the light blue colour.

To make sure that it worked, they concentrated on their territory and felt the slight presence the two strings gave off.

With both strings now having light gold specks in them, the child started to try to figure out what exactly they do.