As Amy started looking around, she realized something, it was warmer than before. She was previously floating in what was freezing, or if she was back on Earth, it would be like swimming in the Arctic ocean. The ocean temperature was now closer to swimming in Nova Scotia in summer.

On top of that, Amy could also see a lot more wildlife around her. She could even see the bottom of the ocean. With her enhanced eyesight, Amy was able to see some type of rock, maybe coral structure, about maybe 20 kilometres down. And she couldn’t wait to explore it. But before she could explore this new environment, there were a couple of things that she had to do first.

During the meditative state that she went into during the storm, she realized many things about herself and what she has done. First, looking back to when she came to this world and when she became a dungeon core, she wasn’t as freaked out as she should have been. It was like that being a dungeon core muted or reduced certain reactions that Amy knew that she would have had if she was still human.

This even translated into what she realized she was doing with her creatures and plants within her territory, her area. When she looked back, Amy saw that what she was doing could look very like mind control. Mind control, no matter what, is a very iffy topic, especially back on Earth. It was considered to be something of a taboo subject of trying to control another person. But, now, as a dungeon core, Amy had no qualms about using whatever she had in her repertoire to make sure that she thrives and continues to survive. And yes, she knew that she would probably have to kill and, depending on the future, kill many sentient and non-sentient beings to survive. If everything that she has read about back on Earth somehow translates to Terra, then she knew that she would fight for her life at some point. But she will cross that line when it comes to it. And Amy knew that there would be no workaround with killing, and she was quite willing to do it to survive and live another day. This, too, the readiness to kill that she would not normally have back on Earth as a human, to her new species as a dungeon core.

Breaking away from that dark strain of thoughts, Amy knew that before she did anything else, including exploring the new environment, is to use the creatures and plants that she hasn’t touched or has put aside and worked with them before anything else. The salamanders, the birds, the moss, the shrimp, and the snails were all of the plants/creatures that she had basically pushed aside to focus on other things.

Amy first sent the three yellow-striped penguins to go hunt for local plants from the surrounding area. But, unfortunately, the single ocean swallow that lived within her territory was the only long-distance flying creature that she had access to and was male. So if Amy wanted more of the species, then she would either have to gain more or have the male breed with a female of a similar or of the same species. But that was for a different time. As she was in a new environment, she needed to know if there were any land masses anywhere close to her location. So, she sent the swallow to search and bring back something from said landmass to prove there was a landmass.

Now then, one of her most underrated plants, the arctic moss and rime moss. Amy figured that the moss would be one of the most versatile plants she could probably attain, and she hasn’t used it. So what she did with the two moss species is cover practically half of the ice surface that was not underwater or facing outside to the ocean. So what would look like an iceberg on the outside would look like a habitable environment of blue and green covering the ice. Amy even put some of the rime moss into the rooms with freshwater filling it to see if she could adapt or evolve the moss into something different.

What she also did with the rime moss was place it into the tunnels that her grey shrimp filled. The tunnels that the shrimp lived in were small but very numerous. The saltwater tunnels crisscrossed throughout a large portion of the underwater section of her iceberg while having numerous smaller openings to the ocean. The best thing about the shrimp living in these smaller tunnels is that if they are threatened, they will produce a secretion that hinders visibility, like squids that squirt ink. If Amy gains a creature or plant that can be used for defence in these tunnels, then the shrimp, plus future creature/plant, would be great for security against intruders meaning to harm her.

The snails, well, Amy had no idea what to do with the snails. As she looked over all of the snails, she noticed some peculiarities in the population. A couple of the scaly-foot snails were two times bigger than their relatives and were slightly blue in colour. This change in this population reminded her of the affinity she chose, the adaptation affinity. Now, she knew that this affinity actually worked, that it would not start having an effect far into the future. It was working since the second that she chose the affinity. And that made Amy so very happy. For this meant that there could be anything within her territory that was being affected by her adaptation affinity.

With the new snails, she pulled up the description and was very happy with the new snail.

Ice Scaly-Foot Snail

An adapted species of scaly-foot snail species. This species feeds not only on algae but will substitute its diet with ice mana. The snail will store it within its shell and release it, creating a small but powerful blast of ice.

Oh, Amy liked this. A potential time bomb would release a blast when the snail’s capacity to hold ice mana reached its limit. The ice scaly-foot snail had a lot of potential that she couldn’t wait to see in effect.

Amy then turned her attention to the three types of salamanders that she had. Each of these salamanders should be living in different environments within her iceberg. So, she placed the glacial salamanders near the top of her iceberg, where they will live on the surface and caves that connect directly to the surface. The deep freeze salamanders are different. They are more connected to ice mana and naturally cool down the surrounding area. So, the deep freeze salamanders were placed in the bowels of the iceberg. The last type of salamander, the sodden salamander, is a semi-aquatic species that could live both in and out of water. So, Amy placed them in rooms, both underwater and not, that had entrances and exits into the ocean.

Amy let out a big sigh. She had finished working with the creatures and plants that she had put on the back burner. With that done, she could start looking and collecting from this new environment of hers.