The child did not expect the expansion only in length, as every time their sub-dimension expanded, it did in height and length. But the child was happy that it expanded, especially with the new addition to the screen, saying that the sub-dimension will grow compared to their power.

But it did not really bother the child, and they went back to observing the movements of the humans and human-like beings beyond their territory.

As they were doing this, the child started a slower expansion process, where they multi-tasked, watching the movements and expanding their territory.

As the child watched, they noticed that more and more ships were coming and going, the area where they started to build on the first island was expanding, and more people were living there. Though none had entered into their territory, there was still a patrol around their territory by the humans. It didn’t work to keep them inside their territory.

Once their expansion reached these patrolling humans on the boats, it seemed to send them into a tizzy. They started blasting these bright lights into the air, and it was then that they noticed that one of them had a tiny, fine mana string within them. It was just outside their territory, but the child quickly snatched and used their strength to pull it into their territory, temporarily stopping their expansion.

The string was an ever-changing colour from light orange to bright orange. It was only fifteen centimetres long, but it gave off different heat intensities, leading the child to consider that the orange mana string was a heat mana string. Quickly, they used their mana strings, entwined them with the heat mana string, and pushed their golden flecks into the string.

It took a bit of time, but the heat mana string soon became a part of them. They quickly got the mana string to start circulating around the air portion of their third floor before going back to watching the humans and expanding.

It seemed as though the expansion of their territory was causing some concern, especially for the humans on the two ships anchored right before their territory. They watched as they quickly moved the boats to the humans’ new living area on the furthest island from them, and as they watched, the child realized that they had extended their territory enough to just hit the inland portion of the closest island.

They had wanted to explore the islands but hadn’t specifically extended their territory to reach the island, so it was a bit of a surprise that they hit the edge of the first island.

The child went through their new territory with a fine toothcomb, looking for anything new and exciting, and they found something. Other than the new plants and animals, they encountered a small mammal with a lithe and slender body, short legs, and a long flat tail swimming in and out of their territory. This was not just an ordinary animal. As they watched it, they noticed that the creature was using mana. It seemed to manipulate this mixture of sand, mud, and water from the ground, roll it into a ball and throw it at a fish, killing it. Within the ball was a tiny murky brown-green mana string. Just about one centimetre, but the child saw it, and when it hit the fish, it seemed to start to circulate back into the environment.

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Just as the child was about to make the small mammal a part of their territory, they held their hand. They remembered what they had done with Ivory, her ease with exiting and entering their territory on her own will, and her great help with gaining new plants and animals.

So they waited until the mammal was out of their territory before they attempted to make it a part of their territory. As the creature consumed the fish, the child quickly snatched that one-centimetre brown-green murky mana string and started to make it their own. Once the mammal finished eating, they swam out of the child’s territory, and that was when the child struck.

Armed with multiple mana strings, the child quickly inserted them into the mammal and pushed as many golden flecks through the strings as possible.

As they inserted and pushed their golden flecks, the mammal fought back. It thrashed and started hitting the child’s mana strings with its claws. This surprised the child, as their claws were able to shift their mana strings. Studying their claws, the child realized that the mammal was enhancing their claws at that moment to fight off their mana strings and golden flecks.

But the mammals’ struggles were for not, as after a couple of minutes, they were now a part of the child.

Once a part of them, they found that the mammal was an otter, and they confirmed that the otter had the same ability to easily move through the walls of their territory.

After confirming this, the child carefully checked over the otter to see what other changes the murky brown-green mana string had. Along with the enhancement of claws, the otter’s tail was also enhanced to allow the otter to almost swim through the water stealthily without disturbing it as a non-enhanced animal would.

Just like with Ivory, the child decided to name the otter, who is male, Fisher. Once they gave Fisher the order to go collect animals, plants, objects, really whatever catches their attention, and bring it back to them, they went back to combing the edges of their territory.

Carefully the child combed the very edges of their territory for any hints of this new type of mana string, and they found a bigger string right outside of their territory. The string was just over 10 centimetres long. Unlike their own mana strings that circulate in a certain pattern, the mana string didn’t appear to have any circulation pattern.

They waited and watched as the string started to come closer to their territory, then it would change directions, but it never left the muddy area that made up the shore of the island. Over and over, this happened until just the tip of the mana string entered their territory, and that was all the child needed.

Grabbing the string, they quickly yanked it into their territory and started the process of making it a part of them. It took a bit of time, but they made it a part of their territory,

The child went to go place the string and circulate the brown-green mana string within the water portion of the third floor, but they noticed something different.

The air in the room was warmer, far warmer than every other floor and warmer than the air outside their iceberg.