The clatter of pebbles announced the arrival of a crab monster when James was about halfway to the pond. He turned to meet it and it ran sideways up to him with no hesitation, claws waving in the air until it was close enough to try to grab his ankle.

But as it made its charge, the Smith was prepared. In one swift motion he raised his hammer, and with unbelievable speed he struck the crab right in the center of its body, cracking its shell. Pebbles scattered and its legs splayed out in all directions as it was pounded into the ground, and with three more strikes the monster was dead. A quick scan around revealed no other monsters nearby; only some of the white bird monsters were stalking around the beach closer to the lake, about a hundred yards away. So James bent over, thrilled to be able to do so without shooting pain in his side, dug out the Water Magic Crystal, and left the rest of the carcass there, to be retrieved on his way back from the pond.

As James returned his focus to the pond, he readied his shield and triple checked that his [Reflect] enchantment was active and ready. He recalled the way the gentle waves of the lake had shifted, a ripple forming before the attack was launched. There would be no time to dodge if another struck, and the Enchanter would have to rely entirely on his enchantments to survive.

But the pond was still. Oddly still, even. Although the blue streaks of undine essence flowed and shifted almost playfully throughout the pond, the surface of the water itself was still enough to act as a mirror.

James walked up to the edge of the pond, foot sliding on loose pebbles as usual, and peered down over the top of his shield. A vision of the worst knight James had ever seen looked back up at him.

At a glance, the green-tinted black armor was asymmetrical. And not just because one pauldron was intentionally thicker and more durable than another. His helmet itself was lopsided. The visor was crooked, although it did provide full coverage. He stepped aside from his shield, confident since it had been a minute and there had been no attack from the pond. His breastplate was more symmetrical but still not completely so. The armor skirt looked ridiculous, although it had proven its worth and saved James quite a bit of time in designing joints for his armor, especially around the hips. The range of motion it provided made it worth it, but… It was disappointing compared to the knights James had seen training at the Baron's manor all those months ago.

The approaching sound of squawking pulled James from his depressing reflection. He looked back and saw that the bird monsters were flying down and hopping around the carcass of the crab monster, about twenty yards away. They seemed to show no interest in him, rather, they were all focused on claiming the carcass for themselves. They batted each other with their wings and pecked with their somewhat long, oddly shaped beaks. Judging them next to the crab monster carcass, James figured they must be as tall as his naval, perhaps his chest compared to himself.

Big bird monsters.

He turned back to the lake, eager to conduct his essence experiments. First he pulled out an ingot of each type of iron save green, which he was out of, and laid them on the ground. He also pulled out an iron knife, so see if having already been forged would affect anything.

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He dipped the knife into the water, completely submerging it held in his hand. The water felt the same as ever to James' hand, but he could see the blue streaks swirling about, almost as if they were investigating his hand and the knife.

After a minute, he withdrew the knife.

[Appraisal]: Iron Knife, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 5/5, Water Essence Contamination

He shook the water from the knife and looked at it closely. There were swirls of undine essence on the knife's surface, but they seemed to only be on the surface, rather than embedded in the metal of the knife. He took out his jug of Pure Water and poured it over the knife and saw the blue swirls mix into the water and leave the knife.

After only a little rinsing, most of the water essence that had collected on the surface of the knife had been washed away by the Pure Water. There was still a little bit, but that was no matter.

The pond, still as it was, appeared to be quite deep. James wanted to lay the knife and his iron ingots in the water, but the slope leading down to the pond steepened immediately at the water's edge. He didn't want to set the ingots down and have them slide to the bottom of the pond, irretrievable. Although James had grown up near a river, it was more of a creek, nowhere near deep enough to actually practice swimming.

In the end, James propped up his shield in the direction of the lake and ensured the enchantment was still active. He set the magic bag on the ground and, with an ingot in each hand, counted to fifty to see how each type of iron took up the essence. First, regular and blue iron.

After the count of fifty, he withdrew his hands, shook off the water, and looked at them both. The regular iron had taken up some of the water essence, but unlike the knife it seemed to actually penetrate into the material.

[Material Identification]: Iron Ingot, Water Essence

By comparison, the Blue Iron Ingot seemed to have taken up far more of the essence. It was practically teeming with the essence, although it was unevenly distributed in random patterns.

[Material Identification]: Blue Iron Ingot, Water Essence

Next, James repeated the process with a Brown Iron Ingot and a Red Iron Ingot.

The Brown Iron ingot had absorbed about half as much of the water essence as the regular iron ingot. The Red Iron Ingot, by contrast, had barely absorbed any, and what little there was was a very thin layer on the surface of the ingot. James tried pouring Pure Water on the Red Iron Ingot and saw the blue streaks of water essence leech out into the Pure Water almost immediately.

[Material Identification]: Brown Iron Ingot, Water Essence

[Material Identification]: Red Iron Ingot

James returned the ingots to the magic bag and was about to take out another set of ingots, this time to count to a hundred and see if they would absorb even more water essence, when he heard the flapping of wings and the rustling of feathers.

That was the only warning James got.

With a thudding impact, James' feet slid on the unstable pebbles, he lost his balance, and he was tackled into the pond of water by a dive bombing bird monster.

With a splash, water rushed over James and he started sinking.

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