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POV Unnamed Dungeon

???, Day Eight

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The metallic chafer beetles dragged what remained of the worm back to the melted ice room for the rest of the population to feast on what remained.

It was what the beetle population needed. A few minutes later, the females began to lay eggs throughout the room. There were many cylindrical dark grey eggs, except two were different. Nellie thought that the changes in the eggs were probably some variation or something that happened to them that made them misshapen. Deciding not to speed up their growth, Nellie continued with expansion, focusing on expanding upwards, trying to get to the surface.

Getting entranced in the process, Nellie began the methodical process of increasing her Outside territory.

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Two days passed as she systematically increased her territory until she touched the solid barrier that prevented any movement outside her territory.

But that didn't matter.

The fact that she gained an additional 15 metres of height and 10 metres of width to the Outside territory before hitting the barrier made her happy enough. A smile of glee spread across her face as she finally broke through to the surface and gained a glimpse of where she ended up after the System took over the Earth.

She raced to see her location as soon as her territory touched the air. Basking under the heat of the sun as the rays caressed her body, Nellie took in the sights.

She was on an island, or at least what looked like an island, just a bit bigger than two football fields. It was then that Nellie knew that she had ended up where she was selected on the spinning globe. If the location was the same as she chose, then Nellie ended up just off of the northernmost island of North America. Little did Nellie know, she ended up on not exactly an island, but an island that was able to float and move with the ocean. The island was somewhat of a shrubland-type environment, but very much so in a Northern Canadian way that was not quite yet artic. No trees could be seen, but Nellie could practically feel the life and potential that this place had for her.

There were bushes and shrubs, different grasses and flowering plants. From just looking at the surface part of her territory, Nellie could see a few insects and signs that other, bigger animals had walked through this area. Farther out was a pond about fifty meters towards the island's north end. About ten metres wide, twenty metres long, and very misshapen looking. Whether it was fresh or saltwater, she didn't know. But the prospects of it and the rest of the island made Nellie hopeful for what she would find and gain as her Outer territory grew.

From the island and the spot her territory emerged from, only a small part of the northernmost island was visible to her. Almost the whole skyline on the northwest side was filled with rocky shores, and tall trees lined the edge of the skyline. Huge trees, at least 50 metres tall. But that mainland island is very far away. Only edging along the skyline.

Everything else was just water. Cementing the fact that the body of water the island that held her territory was located in is an ocean.

She couldn't see into the water, as the part of her territory that breached the surface of the island was not near the edge of the island, so she didn't know what was inside it or what the depth of the ocean was, but it made her more excited to continue expanding her territory to reach the ocean and cover the whole island. She knew she could reach it if she had the chance, but Nellie had to wait for the barrier to release her before she could continue extending.

But that left her more time to figure out what she wanted.

Honestly, the days had passed by so quickly that Nellie really had no time or forethought to mourn her previous life.

The pain and sadness were there but tempered by what she was now. Most of her memories and thoughts connected to her past were tempered. It was like the System decided that she should not be greatly influenced by her past. At least, that was what Nellie chose to believe, as she did not want to think that maybe, just maybe, she was better suited as a dungeon core. That the way she lived as a human was somewhat irrelevant now. Like she was highly adaptive in her emotions and memories. It puzzled Nellie, as that thought that maybe she had a mild personality disorder considering her lack of freakout and panic when she was brought to her Inner territory.

Nellie sat at the top of her territory looking at the views around her as the waves slowly lapped at the island as the cold breeze ran through her. She sat there, just staring and thinking. Trying to pull herself together enough to continue with what she needed to do to survive and prepare. She only had one year, 365 days, until those that survived the System Trials came back to Earth, bringing who knows what and doing who knows what. The timed unknown that is going to happen, not for a while, was something that Nellie kept at the back of her mind. But she didn't really know what she was really doing.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Honestly, for the last ten days, she has just been stumbling around, doing what her instincts pushed her to do and what she somehow figured out. And that's what she's been doing. But at this point, Nellie would start something, then get pulled to another thing, and over and over this would happen.

As she sat on the island thinking, she realized that she needed to get her priorities straight.

The first thing she knew she had to do was to claim every single living being that was now within her territory. She couldn't wait.

The humming and buzzing of organisms that were not HERS sounded in her mind. The bigger the organism, the more pronounced the humming was.

But that humming led her to all the organisms in her territory, leaving no soil unturned and no organism left behind because Nellie couldn't see it or sense it.

Very quickly, Nellie began circulating multiple strings of purple sparks throughout the surface of the island. Adding hundreds of individual beings and what looked like to be 20 new species she didn't have before.

Aaaahhhh. Moaned out Nellie as suddenly the hunger inside her quietly screamed for her to continue adding living beings to her territory, to her control, and became quite full from everything that got caught in her territory. But she wasn't finished yet.

Bouncing from buzzing organism to buzzing organism within the mostly soil and ice environment. She added fifteen different beings and ten new species to her domain.

Looking at what she gained from her territorial expansion and the headway she was making, Nellie knew that she had to continue moving forward.

One thing she definitely knew she could do to move forward, make progress, and grow stronger, was that the more she did with her Inner territory, the more wiggle room she got with the barrier blocking her expansion of her Outer territory. And that, after large changes and killing invaders like that worm, seemed to give her more room to expand her territory.

Along with expanding her territory and making changes, one of the things that soothed her instincts was the addition of animals, plants and fungi to her territory. To see and feel them in her territory satisfied something deep within her, not to add the fact that adding more types of beings to her territory fed her dungeon core instincts.

Nellie sat, thinking about what she needed to do, and fiddled with her hair as she distractedly stared into space.

Nothing is more important right now than finishing the Inner territory. Decided Nellie as she flowed and moved through the portal into her Inner territory, the most powerful physical part of her dungeon.

Coiling a mana string, she increased its speed and continued melting the ice, creating the room. Nellie originally wanted to do something like a swamp environment, but that wasn't something she currently could do. But she already figured out what she was going to create.

As the ice melted, her vision of the Inner territory came alive.

Keeping a small layer of ice to cover the void that held her core territory, she finished melting a two-metre wide and two-metre tall room along the top of the cube. Looking at the water pooled at the bottom of the room, Nellie began the second room.

This room wouldn't be the exact height for the whole room. The ceiling became a steep hill along the northwest side of the room and was a lot taller than the southeast side. The room was not going to be completely filled with water. The northwest side of the room was two metres and 70 centimetres tall, while the southeast side was two metres tall. The room was four metres and 90 centimetres wide.

Each room was smooth, but not perfectly smooth. Each having some grooves and ridges throughout. And both of the rooms were completely filled with water.

But there was too much water, especially in the top room.

With mana strings coiled in her hand, Nellie began creating large and small chunks of ice throughout both rooms. The water level halved in the bottom room, but the top room still had a third left. She already had a plan for this, though.

Nellie dug some small indents on the floor of the top room before she began melting five small tunnels that served and curved downwards into the bottom room. Each of the tunnels was only five centimetres wide and as small as one centimetre wide. And as soon as the tunnels connected to the bottom room, a rush of water poured down, crashing into the previously stilled water of the bottom room. In the top room, little mini whirlpools, like you see in bathtubs, spun around on top of each of the tunnels as the water level drastically lowered.

Quickly, the crashing of the water slowed to small drips as the water began to settle in the bottom room once again. With the water level reaching about ten centimetres up the hill, air filling the rest of the room.

Within the top room, the few small indents were the only water that remained, other than what dripped down the walls and lay on the ground. The largest of the indents, just on the edge of the room, had one of these tunnels that was completely filled with water. For some reason, the water level seemed high enough that it wouldn't continue to drain what was left in the indent and tunnels. But Nellie decided to keep it like this, as once she found some aquatic fauna, at least something small, it would be able to travel through the tunnel into the small indent and even some of the other tunnels that didn't fully drain.

As the drips of the still soaked rooms continued, she was continuing on with finishing the rooms.

Condensing half the ice chunks in the lower room, she squeezed a small pile of ice pebbles that she spread out across the room. With the other half, she created small columns of ice that acted like mangrove roots throughout the watery part of the room. In the small area that just had air, she added a few small ridges around the walls.

In the top room, Nellie focused on developing the ice into the room's environment. She sewed ice chunks and shaped them into long edges and ledges. Creating different shelves and such that hung along the walls and even one that hung down from the ceiling. Squeezing the smaller chunks of ice, she made three large condensed ice pieces that Nellie was going to use as stones with a bunch of condensed ice pebbles. The stones she placed along three of the puddle indents. The rest of the pebbles she scattered around.

Stepping back, Nellie adjusted a few things. She realized that she would have to drag soil through the bottom room, through the water and up to the top room because of where her portal was located. But that was realistic. The soil would completely spread through the water, and she would lose the majority of what she had brought in.

Does it move? Thought Nellie as she grabbed onto the edges of the portal and began to try to push it upwards.

Straining against the portal, Nellie managed to push it centimetre by centimetre until the portal lay fully in the top room.

Huffing, Nellie began to gather enough soil around her Outer territory before digging a path back to the portal and depositing it around the top room.

As Nellie finalized the room, she felt something nudge at her attention.