Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1112 - 225: The Package at the Bottom of the Lake

Chapter 1112: Chapter 225: The Package at the Bottom of the Lake

Soon, Catherine realized she had needlessly worried. Looking down from the raft, she could see Pannis, clad in a waterproof leather suit, twisting through the water as nimble as a fish. Despite the many Twisted Souls wandering around, Pannis only needed to slightly twist his waist and kick to easily slip through the gaps between two of them. Surprisingly, he seemed even more agile underwater than on land. The bottom of the lake, over ten meters deep, was reached in less than a minute, and he had already arrived at the backpack resting on the lakebed.

"You guys really should relax. No, that’s not right, all of you, take it easy," said Dillie, lying on the raft with the warm sunshine bathing him, making him so comfortable he squinted and yawned repeatedly. However, seeing the girls staring tensely at the bottom of the lake, Dillie spoke with an annoyed tone, "Worrying about him is completely unnecessary. The biggest difference between that guy and a fish is that he can go on land. Instead of worrying about him, you’d better worry about what’s for dinner tonight. Really, I’m tempted to just burn all six of you."

"Why?" Lina asked in surprise, "We haven’t done anything strange, have we? Why would you suddenly want to burn us to death?"

"Burn, burn, burn to death," Dillie buried his face in his paws on the ground and roared: "I’ll burn you all to death."

"He’s coming up," the other girls paid no heed to Dillie’s sudden outburst of madness; Freya, lying on the other side of the raft, spoke in a low voice, "It seems there isn’t much stuff in the backpack, he looks like he’s brought everything up."

With a "thud," minutes later, a waterproof leather bag was thrown onto the raft from the water, making a dull sound upon hitting the deck, clearly indicating the contents inside were quite heavy. Soon after, Pannis lightly touched the edge of the raft and leaped out of the water like a fish, landing firmly on board. He then casually removed his waterproof hood, wiped his face, and said, "Interesting, they must have accidentally dropped their stuff down there. If that’s the case, that’s really unlucky."

"What did you find?" Only after Pannis safely returned to the raft did Catherine’s expression ease a bit. She tried to keep her tone as usual, looked down, opened the leather bag, then muttered in surprise, "A Crystal Furnace? And this is... a Crystal Energy lamp? What’s this? It looks like a block of metal with no seams, huh, it feels kind of soft. Freya, is this some kind of strange machinery?"

"Hmm, it does look like metal," Freya glanced at it casually and nodded, "Because it is a piece of metal. Big sis, have you gotten dumber?"

"Hey, watch your language," Catherine glanced disapprovingly at Freya, then tossed the metal block onto the raft, "The question is, why would anyone carry such a large piece of metal in their bag? It is square and each side is over twenty centimeters long and so heavy. Who would think to carry something like this around?"

"Big sis," Vivian looked at Catherine with a sympathetic gaze, "You just threw away five hundred thousand gold coins."

The next instant, the metal ingot miraculously returned to Catherine’s arms, even with a Demigod’s vision, nobody could catch the knight girl’s movements, as if her speed had surpassed human limits. Catherine clutched the ingot tightly, her gaze as vigilant as a beast guarding its young, glancing over the lake surface to ensure no other creatures were present, before relaxing slightly and asking, "What exactly is this metal that’s worth five hundred thousand gold coins?"

"Mithril, of course," Vivian said nonchalantly, "It’s worth about five hundred thousand in Mithril Coins."

"Five thousand Mithril Coins?" Catherine’s voice sharpened considerably, clutching the ingot even tighter, "You’re not joking, right? I’ve seen Mithril before; it’s a white metal. This thing is black and looks nothing like it. Plus, it can’t be just surface rust; Mithril is a metal that’s very hard to rust. Even a thousand years submerged in water wouldn’t normally cause this much corrosion."

"I’m not joking, this is Mithril specially treated by Mages," Vivian beckoned with her hand, "Give it here, and I’ll demonstrate so you’ll understand."

"Demonstrate what?" Catherine cautiously handed over the ingot, nervously asking, "You’re not going to damage it, are you?"

"Hey, big sis, mind your image," Freya pulled the knight girl aside with an amused yet exasperated look, "This is just an ingot; it’s not like you can break it no matter how you handle it. Calm down."

"Uh, that seems about right," Catherine chuckled awkwardly as she stepped back a few paces, watching Vivian’s movements. "I was just asking, um, just casually asking. It was a joke, haha, just a joke."

Vivian rolled her eyes and ignored the knight whose intelligence seemed to have plummeted because of the 500,000 gold coins, snapping her fingers casually, and a blue flame immediately rose in front of her. With her hands shielded by a Mana Shield, the young mage held a metal square in the flames and heated it for two minutes, then extinguished the fire and placed the metal ingot on Catherine’s Shield with the words, "The temperature should be about right now, big sis, take a look."

As Catherine watched with wide eyes, Vivian gave the metal ingot a twist and, to her surprise, easily broke off a corner. The metal had become as pliable as resin. With her head bowed, the young mage repeatedly kneaded the piece of metal in her hands like one would with clay, and quickly, the small chunk of metal was shaped into a perfect disc—Catherine was familiar with this shape because many of Vivian’s Arrays were inscribed on similar discs, the only difference being the color. Without a word, Vivian pulled out a bottle of grey potion from the pockets of her utility skirt and poured it directly onto the black disc. As it sizzled, a big puff of black smoke rose from the disc, and when the smoke had cleared away, the once black disc was now a shining white, just like the portable Arrays Vivian often carried around.

So, the metal ingot found its way back into Catherine’s embrace, with the girl shouting "Hot!" yet firmly refusing to let go. Vivian said with a pained smile, "See? What I have here is a product of treating Mithril during forging with a special material. Normally, altering Mithril’s shape would require a very high temperature and a long time to heat, barely allowing us to forge it, but after this treatment, it’s much more convenient. Mages can make Mithril items to meet their needs at any time. However, this special treatment is actually much more troublesome than normal forging, so adventurers prepare a bit of it for trips, but aren’t often willing to use it. Big sis, put it down. It’s not going anywhere."

"Alright, huh?" It was only then that Catherine noticed that the raft had started moving again at some point, and Pannis had already taken off his waterproof coat and gone to the back to push the boat. But the joyous knight was too lost in her happiness to care, smiling foolishly for a bit before carefully placing the Mithril ingot aside and rummaging through her leather bag again. Unfortunately, apart from that one Mithril ingot, the bag only contained other heavy metal equipment.

"Could they really have accidentally dropped the leather bag into the lake?" Finally regaining her composure, Catherine spoke with a hint of doubt: "Although not very valuable, this equipment is frequently used in adventures. It’s unlikely they were discarded on purpose, right?"

"Just by this Mithril ingot, it’s unlikely it was discarded intentionally," Freya shook her head. "But what puzzles me is, even if they accidentally dropped the bag into the lake, why wouldn’t they go down to pick it up?"

"Not everyone has Kyle’s excellent swimming skills, and for most people, it’s quite dangerous down there," Dillie spoke from the front of the boat. "For adventurers of at least Legendary Rank, when comparing 500,000 gold coins to their lives, most would choose the latter, of course. You’re an exception, and so would your grandfather have been. Yeah, it is a bit strange. Even if others didn’t care, your grandfather should have gone to retrieve it."

"I guess it’s like the Wood Essence," Catherine’s face turned red again, and Pannis cleared his throat before continuing, "They probably belonged to those two clients, just on loan to Old Field. If everyone decided not to dive in to avoid unnecessary trouble, then no one would really have a position requiring them to retrieve the items."

"That does make some sense," Dillie tilted his head, thinking it over before saying, "But it still feels like a bit of a stretch."

"Then all we can do is hope we’ll find another clue later on," Catherine sighed, harboring a deep desire to learn about her grandfather’s past but lamenting the lack of opportunities thus far. Shaking her head in resignation, she turned her attention back to the pile of objects in front of her: "Shame, these devices have rusted beyond use; otherwise, a little repair could have saved us a thousand gold coins."

"Big sis, you..." Lina covered her face, looking as if she could hardly bear to watch: "Thank goodness there’s no one here but Mr. Dillie, or you would be so embarrassing."

"Frugality is a virtue," Catherine said earnestly. "So, in order to..."

"Hold off the jokes for now, Kyle, stop again," Dillie, who had been lying at the very front of the raft, suddenly stood up and shouted, "I think we got our guess wrong; they didn’t accidentally drop their backpacks."

Following Dillie’s gaze, another backpack lay quietly at the bottom of the Lake of Termination, and further off, there seemed to be more unmoving parcels on the lake bed.

"What happened here?" the girls wondered blankly at the sight of the continuous appearance of underwater parcels: "Could there have been a shipwreck? But it doesn’t seem like it—the parcels are too scattered."