Who Says I’m Not a Legitimate Adventurer?

“Come on, look at the imprint crystal in my hand.”

Lance raised the thin crystal sheet and adjusted its angle.

During his spare time over the past few days, he had already studied how this thing worked.

Once activated, it would absorb the surrounding aether frequency fluctuations within a specific range like a sponge soaking up water, recording them completely.

Speaking of which, the development history of this type of imprint crystal was tied to a rather interesting academic dispute in this world.

Within the hall representing the pinnacle of human wisdom—the 【Council of Truth】—there had long existed an ultimate question debated for hundreds of years:

What exactly was the nature of aether?

From this, two opposing schools were born: 【Aether Wave School】 and 【Aether Particle School】.

Both sides possessed experimental data sufficient to support their own theories, yet neither could perfectly explain the contradictory phenomena observed by the other.

Back then, in order to improve imprint crystal technology, the Cartographers Association funded a legendary mage from the Wave School.The success of the improved imprint crystal originated from the famous “Environmental Aether Interference Recording” experiment.

In that experiment, the mage successfully imprinted the “aether wavelength frequencies and interference patterns” of a location over five seconds, and through illusion-type field resonance technology, perfectly recreated the light, shadow, and sound recorded at the time.

This result once shocked the entire continent and earned the 【Aether Wave School】 immense academic prestige.

Because it proved that aether indeed possessed the properties of transmitting and recording wave frequencies.

However, when Lance, as a transmigrator, first read this history in a book, his expression had been extremely strange.

He knew this script all too well.

That overwhelming sense of déjà vu—it looked exactly like that ghost that had tormented countless physicists in his previous life.

If nothing unexpected happened, he had probably already known the answer to this ultimate question.

Lance had even mischievously thought that if, by the day he was about to die of old age, this question still hadn’t been solved, he would run to the gates of the Council of Truth and shout with his last breath:

“Wave-particle duality!”

Then die dramatically, leaving behind an eternal puzzle for those mages.

“…Cecilia?”

Hearing Lance call her name, Cecilia, who had been lost in thought, froze for a moment before letting out a startled “Oh.”

She subconsciously moved a little closer to him.

For some reason, the girl’s delicate face was flushed red, as if she had a fever.

What was going on?

Cecilia felt the tips of her ears heating up, the warmth spreading to her cheeks.

At the moment when Senior had removed his hood earlier, that strange feeling had grown even stronger.

Senior’s talent seemed to have become even more powerful than before.

Why did it now come with a side effect that made people’s hearts race and faces flush?

And her ears…

That tingling itch made her want to reach up and scratch them.

So annoying—this uncontrollable sensation.

“Ready?”

Lance didn’t notice the girl’s abnormal state. After adjusting the angle of the crystal, he raised his left hand and once again made that signature thumbs-up gesture.

To match the celebratory pose, he deliberately grinned, revealing eight neat white teeth, his smile exceptionally bright.

Cecilia took a deep breath, forcing down the fluster in her heart, and followed suit, extending her slender fingers in a thumbs-up.

“Three, two, one.”

Buzz…

As mana was infused, the imprint crystal let out a soft hum, swallowing and recording the scene before them along with the glow of the sunset.

“Senior, can I take a look?”

After the light faded, Cecilia eagerly leaned closer.

“Of course.”

Lance generously handed over the imprint crystal, then turned around and crouched down to organize the backpack on the ground.

“I was planning to gather a full set after all your internship tasks are done and make it into a gift for you as a keepsake, so when you return to White River City, you can use it to reminisce.”

“Really?”

Cecilia happily accepted the crystal, lightly touching it with her fingertips to activate the recorded image.

Without using those expensive projection albums, a single-use imprint crystal would only display the recorded scene in a loop on the crystal’s surface, like a slideshow.

However—

The moment she saw the content, the anticipation on her face froze instantly, then turned into extreme panic.

“If you’re done looking, give me the crystal. I still need to sort them later and make a full album for you to keep.”

After packing his bag, Lance turned around and naturally extended his hand.

“No, no, no…”

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Cecilia clutched the crystal tightly in her palm, shaking her head vigorously.

“What’s wrong?”

Lance was baffled by her intense reaction.

Why was she suddenly acting so strange?

“That… that… that!”

Cecilia’s face turned red as she stammered for a long time. Finally, as if making up her mind, she shouted:

“Anyway… anyway, since this is something you’re giving me, I-I’ll just keep it for now! We can talk about the rest later!”

Seeing her unwilling to let go no matter what, Lance scratched his head, feeling puzzled.

Did he mess up the angle just now and make the girl look bad?

That made sense—selfies from a straight man’s perspective really could turn people into meme faces.

This made Lance feel a bit awkward. He withdrew the hand he had extended.

“Then… alright.”

“Since you like it, keep it for now. Let’s pack up the remaining materials and head back.”

He didn’t insist further. Since she wasn’t satisfied, there was no need to force it and make things awkward.

Lance turned around to deal with the remaining Stone-Shell River Crabs.

Behind him—

In the hand Cecilia kept hidden behind her back, the imprint crystal continuously replayed that brief five-second scene.

In the image—

The black-haired boy faced the sunset, his smile bright and radiant.

And right beside him—

The silver-haired Half-Elf girl wasn’t looking at the camera at all.

She had her head slightly turned, her beautiful eyes secretly and intently gazing at the boy beside her.

The sunset bathed her face.

That blush was even more moving than the evening glow.

【Demi-Human Race · Half-Elf Research Progress LV2 (20 → 24/30)】

All of this was progress accumulated through Cecilia over the past few days of contact.

After completing the tedious task handover procedures in the guild hall, Lance waved goodbye to Cecilia.

He didn’t choose to go home and rest immediately.

Instead, Lance turned and headed toward the bustling Craftsman District.

The fine steel shortsword that had accompanied him for the past few days had been completely ruined during the high-intensity battles, its blade shattered beyond recognition.

That was his bread-and-butter weapon—he had to buy a new one.