Chapter 21: Treasure Hunt (3)

According to Elaine, passing the knight’s exam doesn’t mean immediately becoming a knight.

Those who pass the exam are first assigned as trainee knights and must receive lessons under the guidance of senior

knights for a period of time.

Passing such a difficult exam means that they possess all the necessary qualities.

The lessons taught by senior knights focus on knightly etiquette and behavior, essentially a form of moral training for

being a knight.

To put it simply, it’s like how new employees learn the company rules from their seniors.

However, just like new employees who have passed the interview and start with practical training, trainee knights

also learn something important from senior knights.

That something is how to handle magic.

This is also why Elaine and Grace found me unusual.

It’s a curious thing for a soldier who hasn’t even taken the knight’s exam to freely use magic.

Only after learning the basics of magic and receiving recognition from a senior knight can a trainee knight become an

official knight.

This means that anyone with the title of “knight” is a magic user, and individuals like the Northern Duke and the

guard commanders are high-ranking knights who have mastered magic.

‘Knights can all enhance their bodies with magic, right?’

Body enhancement through magic is a basic technique learned during the trainee knight period. When a knight

enhances their body with magic, they can endure longer even in a cold lake than usual.

Additionally, the mages who accompanied the expedition cast protective magic, further extending the time they can endure.

However, there are still limits.

So, I took the opportunity now, while Grace believed me, to give a hint, pretending it was a guess.

Seeing the water freeze rapidly, I suggested that something might be on the surface rather than the bottom.

Luckily, Grace listened attentively, agreeing that my theory made sense.

Even after Grace and the others entered the lake, I continued to maintain the hole by pushing in heated Obsidian

whenever the ice tried to regenerate.

If I got distracted and the hole closed, I’d end up as the assassin of the Northern Duke.

The mages that Grace brought also helped maintain the hole, so keeping it open wasn’t too difficult compared to

when we first created it.

“Hmm…?”

Elaine stood beside me, staring intently at the hole.

“Are you worried about His Excellency?”

“Yeah.”

It’s understandable to feel uneasy when the commander sends his charge underwater and remains still.

Moreover, being excluded because one can’t swim must have hurt his pride.

“Don’t worry. Team Leader 3 and the other knights went too. He’ll be fine.”

“Yeah.”

“Even if something happens, His Excellency can break the ice and come out on his own. He took his sword with

him.”

“Yeah.”

Ah, I know this pattern.

When Elaine is lacking in thoughts, she repeats the same answer.

At times like this, trying to encourage her with kind words doesn’t work.

“If it really bothers you, how about practicing swimming later?”

“???”

Now she’s finally looking at me.

This was something I found surprising after coming to this world.

To my surprise, there was actually… a swimming pool in the North.

Of course, it wasn’t a modern pool, and it wasn’t a civilian sports or leisure facility, but a military training facility.

Still, it was an indoor swimming pool. Since it was for training, the water temperature could be adjusted with an

artifact. A fantasy swimming pool—truly a reflection of the Northern people’s serious approach to training.

“I’ve tried practicing swimming before.”

“Really?”

“But it didn’t work. No matter how much I moved my arms and legs, I kept sinking.”

It seems Elaine is even worse at this than I imagined.

I feel a sense of camaraderie.

I too, in my past life, couldn’t get into the water without a floatation device.

I struggled so hard to learn how to swim because of that.

“Would you like me to teach you?”

“You?”

“Well, a little bit.”

I can float on the surface of the water and I can swim. I might not survive in deep seas, but in a 2-meter pool, I’m

confident I’d be fine.

That should be enough, right?

I guess Elaine never had a proper chance to learn to swim.

A genius who passed the knight exam at the age of 10.

Who would’ve bothered teaching her swimming?

Elaine herself is proud, so she must have been too shy to ask someone to teach her.

“If you’re willing… I’ll accept your help.”

Elaine agreed readily, likely because I offered first.

Wait a second.

I didn’t intend it, but this sounds like we’ve just made a swimming pool date plan.

Oh, I’m fine with that.

“Now that I think about it, you…”

“???

“You’re very calm. Silver Sabertus was someone I was nervous about facing, yet you approached it without fear,

immediately finding your role despite the rumors about suspicious power in the Crystal Lake.”

Ah.

Thanks to the novel, I wasn’t surprised by the information. But to Elaine, it must have seemed strange how calm I

was.

Even though northerners are known for their rough and fierce nature.

For a mere soldier to consider fighting a first-class monster, or to guess that there would be some special power at

the bottom of the Crystal Lake, and then act on it— it would indeed seem remarkable.

‘I did get involved a lot in this incident.’

Elaine, worried that I might get hurt in the battle, became anxious and excited to get the ice crystal sooner than

planned.

It would be awkward to act tense now, though.

“I guess I have a lot of courage.”

“I know that. That’s why you thought about embracing me.”

“1”

We’re in a public place now, is it okay to say something like that? I quickly looked around.

Fortunately, no one was around.

The mages were focused on maintaining the hole, and the guards were either watching the surroundings or looking

at the hole.

“Heh, I guess you’re not as brave as you claimed.”

Elaine chuckled very softly.

Ah, she must have teased me in a voice that wasn’t loud enough for others to hear.

I got caught there.

“It was a joke. I know that you have a lot of courage too. Who in the world would dare bet against you, sir?”

“Hahaha…”

“Still, don’t get too reckless. I’m worried you’ll rush forward, trip, and hurt yourself.”

Her tone was the same as usual, but her voice was slightly lowered.

She’d been worried about me overexerting myself since before the mission started.

And now, seeing actions that seemed reckless from an outsider’s point of view, her concern had flared up again.

“If I almost trip, will you catch me?”

“As long as you don’t go too far ahead.”

“I don’t want to fall and get hurt, so I guess I’ll have to be careful.”

Once I get the ice crystal, I plan to focus on preparing as a knight for a while.

Since this is still a time before the northern region’s events appear in the novel, I don’t know exactly what will

happen next in chronological order.

But thinking about the events that took place in the north, nothing major should happen for now.

At times like this, I need to calmly build things up.

As we exchanged these words and waited,

Poof!

Water splashed up from the hole as several people emerged.

Among them, a woman with white hair brushed her wet hair out of her face.

“Towel, hurry!”

At Elaine’s command, the guards, who had been waiting, approached with towels.

Female soldiers covered Grace with towels, drying her off, while male soldiers handed towels to the following knights

and officers.

Grace shook off the water from her hair with the towel she received and spoke.

“I’ll warm up my body and go back in. It’s getting cold.”

She’s going back in? Did she fail?

The ice crystal in the novel is described as a huge diamond.

Looking at how Grace and everyone else is empty-handed, it seems like they didn’t find it.

Even if I were trusted, it wouldn’t be right for me to ask the Duke of the North about the success or failure of the

search.

I’ll refrain from asking about the progress.

“Sir, didn’t you find anything unusual beneath the lake?”

“Ah, I found it. I did find it. But to take it, I think I need to replenish my stamina.”

Thank you, Elaine. I love you, Elaine.

Thanks to her, I was able to know the progress of the situation.

But to say she found it, but needs to replenish her stamina before taking it…

Wasn’t the ice crystal supposed to be a huge diamond?

‘Does that mean the object is bigger than what I read in the novel?’

Anyway, she said they found the ice crystal, and after replenishing their stamina, they’d go back for it, so I decided to

wait.

Wait, hold on. Does that mean we have to dig another hole?

This is going to be tough.

“I’ll have to ask you to work again, but it wouldn’t be right to ask you to do this without giving you anything.”

“???”

“Elaine, there should be a mana potion in my tent. Give it to Luke.”

“Which one should I give him?”

“Since we’re doing a task like this, I think a lower-tier red or orange one won’t be enough. Give him the blue one.”

“1”

Mana potions are categorized by rainbow colors. Red is the lowest grade, purple is the highest, and blue is the third-

highest tier potion.

It’s an expensive item that even ordinary soldiers would find difficult to look at.

As expected, our leader is a shining figure.

How many more holes should I dig?

While Grace and the lake diving team warmed up and replenished their stamina…”

I drank the mana potion granted by the chairman and recovered my mana instantly.

“Wow, the color of this cobalt-blue potion is so brilliant. And the doping effect is outstanding.”

I now understand why characters in novels are obsessed with magical elixirs, eye-catching items, and fateful

encounters.

Drinking the mana potion increased my total mana.

It was so much that, had Elaine not been by my side, teaching me real-time mana control, I might have had a

breakdown.

‘I’m lucky that my first fateful encounter was with a Salamander’s scale.’

If I had been unfamiliar with mana or had a weak body, it could have been dangerous.

In that sense, the Salamander’s scale, which both awakens mana and strengthens the body, is the perfect aid for a

modern person reincarnated in this world.

At first, I had obtained it to survive the cold north.

But it’s proving to be more useful than I expected.

‘When Aran comes to the north, I’ll have to help him in some way.’

I felt a little guilty for taking such a valuable item all for myself.

There was also a small worry that, by taking it, the protagonist of the novel might become weaker.

Since I got the Salamander’s scale thanks to seeing his journey, I feel like I must give him some sort of compensation.

But that’s a matter for later. For now, I’ve replenished my mana with the potion.

Since Grace and the knights also regained their stamina, we started the second phase of the task.

‘Seolhan Ggeom, Yeonbaram!’

Thanks to the potion’s effect, it was much easier to dig the hole this time compared to the first.

Of course, I still felt exhausted after digging one hole, but my confidence that I could do more was brimming.

“Since your mana has increased, if you practice swordsmanship more, you’ll be able to dig holes on your own.”

Elaine, who had put away her sword, acknowledged my strength as she looked at the melted ice.

By the way, Seolhan Ggeom is a sword technique based on ice and cold winds, and even the technique’s name has

“snow” in it.

I wondered whether it would be contradictory to use heat when performing this technique, so I asked the author.

“Is that so? It’s not really an issue.”

“Doesn’t it matter?”

“Like you said, it might seem odd, but Seolhan Ggeom is swordsmanship. I don’t actually create snow with my

sword, do I?”

“Hmm…”

“If it still feels strange, you can create your own technique later. That would be cool.”

I kept Elaine’s advice in mind.

Then, swish!

A splash of water rose earlier than before, and it wasn’t Grace who surfaced, but Line, the deputy leader of team 3,

who had gone down with us.

“Please make the hole bigger! Hurry!”

She said before diving back down.

At Line’s request, Elaine and I quickly expanded the hole.

Then, swish! Swish!

Line and three knights surfaced, pulling a rope in their hands.

As they tried to pull something up, the guards nearby rushed over.

Everyone put their strength together to pull the rope, and with a huge sound like an erupting hot spring,

finally, it revealed itself to the world.

The surrounding air became so cold, it felt like it was freezing, and a mysterious glowing gem-like mineral appeared

—an ice crystal.

“W-What is that?”

I blinked in disbelief.

As I mentioned before, the ice crystal in the novel was described as a huge diamond.

Grace saying she needed to replenish her stamina and then go back to retrieve it,

the diving team suddenly taking ropes,

Line urgently asking to expand the hole…

I wondered why they were acting so strange, but I kept quiet, thinking maybe there was something else to retrieve

from beneath the lake.

‘Is this… a huge diamond?’

It was far too large to be called a gemstone.

It was massive, thick, heavy, and crude.

It was literally…

“This isn’t an ice crystal; it’s an ice boulder!”

What surfaced from the hole was a giant chunk of ice.

Even I, who was certain there would be an ice crystal beneath the lake, was stunned, and even Elaine, usually so

composed, opened her mouth in surprise.

When the ice boulder was fully pulled out of the lake, Grace, who had been the last to emerge, shook off the water

and stretched.

“Phew, this is harder than fighting.”

She seemed really stiff as she stretched her shoulders.

She approached us and said,

“You were right. There was something interesting hidden here. It doesn’t look like ordinary ice. This could be useful.”

She smiled broadly, clearly pleased.

I glanced back at the ice boulder.

“Er… well, that’s great.”

I responded with a dazed voice, unsure of how to react.

It felt like planting sweet potatoes and harvesting gold along with them.

And at the same time, I thought,

‘With an ice crystal this big, shouldn’t I share some of it?’

What was once a joke about an ice sword now seemed to be becoming a reality.