Construction workers make this look much easier than it is, to make a proper stream you can't just dig out dirt. You have to scoop some out to put along the edge while compacting it together as tightly as possible to cause as minimum loss of the water in the stream as possible.
Fortunately he lives down hill to the water so gravity is on his side, he doesn't even want to think about what he would have to do in order to get the stream to his cave if he lived uphill.
Although a three minute walk doesn't sound far, when you have to build and compact a trench from one side to the next it turns from a stroll to a weighted run. However he couldn't help but feel some pride as he continued on, this is what he was doing and making with his own two hands rather than being given it to him like he has always had.
Digging and digging he could actively see the progress of the stream he was building, as 5 hours passed he began to feel very hungry. Realizing he hadn't ate before sleeping and then performing heavy labor for hours on end, although cultivation lowers ones bodily needs for a period of time one still needs continuous nutrients to have most optimal use of internal energy.
Sitting down to eat he feels happy and content with his current situation, he loved his siblings but having to constantly take care of them and be the responsible one had caused mass amounts of stress. But here the only thing he had to worry about was himself and his needs, although it was lonely it was a freeing in a way he had never experienced before. No rules, expectations, or constant anxiety from whether or not someone had done there homework or cultivated that afternoon.
He thinks many of the people forget he is only ten years old, although highly matured due to his home life he is still a child who should be looked after not looking after others.
Finishing eating he returns back to what he was doing and continues to carve a stream out of the rocky soil underneath him. After another 2 hours his stream is completed, curving out of the water cave, down the cavern and into his cave until it stops on the right side of the cave in the empty area where he has dug a 20ft by 20ft pond to hold excess water while also having enough room around it to potentially expand if need be.
Going up to the small pond he waits for water to arrive so as to see if it worked properly, although it may take an hour or two for water to reach the pond due to ground absorption. Once the ground reaches saturation level it will begin to work as intended.
While waiting he decides to once more begin cultivating, however part way through he can't help but feel frustrated so much work for such little outcome. The more experience he gets the more he relieves how insane it is to try blocking absorption points as although he has sealed the biggest ones first, it has simply helped him sense how many more smaller ones there are. 'There has to be a faster and more efficient way to do this rather than one by one.'
So he began to experiment, first can he use his energy to block the holes temporary, no.
Can he increase his speed of circulating energy without rapidly increasing the amount of corruption, no.
One by one he marked off attempts, spending the other 2 hours to experiment only to come out with nothing. Feeling depressed he got up went to the pond and scooped out some of the little water that had arrived to water the plant once more, while subconsciously still circulating energy as he poured out water he felt a sudden increase in energy intake and froze.
Realizing he was still circulating his energy he stopped and looked around to see if anything could have cause a sudden change. Although the increase was so small it would usually written of as an energy spike, but in a dungeon with consistent energy there shouldn't be one.
Once more sitting down he began cultivating and although he had never realized it due to how subtle it was there was a small energy increase than before. He had originally chalked the increase of speed at closing a absorption point as because of getting accustomed to the action it should still have taken longer than one attempt to have such a drastic change. That meant only one thing, the energy of the dungeon was increasing, only in small increments but still increasing which meant there would be potential for more dangerous monsters to appear.
Realizing this he began to contemplate before freezing once more at a sudden thought 'why did he feel the difference so distinctly by the garden?' Like with the farm which usually only had one tunnel appear a year suddenly had a second one appear within 2 months of the previous one, the increase in energy he felt also happened at the garden where he grew plants.
Maybe the tunnel appeared in the growing bed area not by accident but because a sudden increase in energy spike occurred while the energy in the area was still active. It also explains why the tunnels have appeared less and less in less populated but well up kept areas, because everything produced energy and when it grew some would be released.
Normally it would go unnoticed due to them being partially outside but in an enclosed tight space with no exits there is no where for the energy to go but build up here.
He also had another thought, can he use this to speed up the absorption blocking. Theoretically if he circulates the energy while tending the plants the speed he can cultivate at will drastically increase as the energy he has access to will be non stagnant and still densely packed together.
He will only know when he tries later when he has to water the plants again.