Chapter 301: Polluted Lake

“How are we going to get it out of there?” Reinera asked their professor while staring at the large lake in front of them.

After the battle, the three of them had gotten closer to the lake and investigated what might have happened to it. They were all pretty certain that some sort of item or treasure was somewhere in the middle of the lake. However, it was very difficult to detect where it might be placed exactly.

For all they knew, it could be directly in the center of the deepest part of the lake or merely placed in one of the shallow sections.

The lake had done an excellent at defusing the mana equally through the water. Thus, it was all just a guessing game.

Julius might have been able to detect it with [Spatial Perception] if he were close enough, but the lake was pretty big, and the center of it was outside his range, even if he went over to the other side.

If only he could fly…

“Actually, I might have an idea,” he said suddenly.

Professor Rowe looked over at him with interest. “What’s that?”

“If I can scan over the water, I might be able to find out where this object is. Regardless, it is still predicated on something being down there in the first place,” he explained quickly.

“You would be able to do that? What about the mana rich water? Wouldn’t that impact your ability to sense through its depths?” The professor asked, looking very much confused at Julius’s bold claim, but also genuinely curious.

He didn’t blame the man for his skepticism either. If the man himself couldn’t sense the object, then how could Julius proclaim he could? After all, Professor Rowe was still a certified Tier 4.

“My perception skill doesn’t only rely on mana,” he said simply, not intending to explain too much about [Spatial Perception]. Of course, Reinera already knew about his insane perception, so it wasn’t news to her.

Professor Rowe looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face. “Alrighty then, I guess I can create a barrier under your feet if you want to use that to hover above the water,” he offered to Julius.

That actually would work out great. This way, it would let him hide his mana construct abilities. After all, while he wasn’t hiding that he was strong, he still wanted people to believe that he was a warrior and not a mage.

More importantly, though, using pure mana and willpower to fly was an impressive feat, according to Richard and Rebecca. Not every mage was able to do that. He was much more concerned about that.

So, without further ado, Professor Rowe created a nice thick barrier of mana just underneath his feet. It was almost like a small boat and was very sturdy. He believed that even if he struck this thing pretty hard, it would take some time to crack it.

Thus, it made him feel much safer as he was hovering over the lake. He didn’t wish to fall in. They had no clue what any prolonged exposure to this mana would do to people. It didn’t feel that awful, but it was hard to tell unless one of them decided to take a dip in it, and he wasn’t going to be volunteering anytime soon.

It took a while because of the sheer size of the lake, but when he was scanning the center of the lake, he thought he sensed something. He waved his hand at Professor Rowe to signal to stop the makeshift boat.

He had already stopped to check something before, but this time he really thought he sensed something. It was just really hard with water this condensed with foreign mana. It affected his [Spatial Perception] skill enough to make it difficult. It was like looking through a foggy bottle, and it took him immense concentration to make sure he hadn’t overlooked anything.

Sure enough, he found something. It wasn’t a very large object, probably only around the size of his hand, but he was certain that it was what they were looking for.

So with a deft control of his aura, he wrapped this object up and brought it to the surface, where he was able to see what it exactly looked like for the first time.

He could have used his still-developing ability to control ambient mana, but in this particular case, he didn’t want to risk damaging the object or potentially setting something off. Thus, he felt much more comfortable using his aura control to grab it.

He frowned as a silver ore-like object appeared, and now that there wasn’t any mana-rich water surrounding it, he was able to feel a powerful source of mana radiating from the ore.

He had no idea what this thing was, but whatever it was, he doubted it was created by this rift and further proved their theory that this thing was artificially placed here. He didn’t think a Tier 2 rift would be able to create such a powerful object. It felt like something a high-level Tier 3 rift or possibly a Tier 4 rift would have.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

When he got back to the shoreline where Reinera and Professor Rowe were waiting for him, he showed them what he had found.

“Do you know what this is?” He asked Professor Rowe.

The man in question was staring at the object with a very severe frown. Julius observed as the man took out a couple of tools from his storage ring and started to scan the ore with them. After a few moments, the man finally sighed and shook his head in disbelief.

“What is it?” Reinera asked.

Their professor looked at them with a grimace. “This is a piece of Tier 4 Adremite Ore, a very dangerous ore that infects its surrounding area with its mana. Usually, it wouldn’t be able to affect a diverse environment like this as it is typically found deep in mountains and only infects other common ores, but someone must have done something to it so that it could infect this body of water.”

“What do you mean they did something to it? How could an ore, even if it’s a Tier 4 ore, cause this level of change?”

The professor shrugged his shoulders and looked over at the lake, which was still quite silver despite them removing the object. “It’s like they enchanted it or perhaps changed the ore with alchemical methods. Whatever it is now, it’s no longer a simple ore. It is closer to an enchanted item or weapon than a piece of metal.”