Trial of retrieval begins

It's the day of the trial and after a hearty breakfast they were stood outside the walls of Kaer Morhen looking north, the Witchers stood behind them offering some words before they leave.

Geralt "Good luck."

Lambert "Both of you better come back or I'll drag you with my bare hands out of there."

Eskel "Come back in once piece... Try to stick together and not disturb the creatures out there."

Vesemir doesn't say anything and keeps a stoic face.

Aubry and Frank are off on a contract elsewhere so they aren't present.

Reima and Arie stand there in thick leather boots, leather trousers and a white long sleeve shirt... Reima was going bring a jacket of some sort to keep him warm in the cold weather but was persuaded otherwise since his plan included swimming through the lake, being weighed down too much could be a death sentence. Seems like Arie had a similar idea or advice from Eskel.

The knife they had given them was two steel 8 inches long dagger with a single bladed edge, Arie and Reima had spent most of their night sharpening them. One thing to take note is that they are not silver plated, If they try to kill a monster it's gonna take a while.

Reima and Arie looks at each other and fist bump as Vesemir gives them permission to start, Reima sprints into the forest with Arie trailing behind him... He keeps his Observation Haki on high alert looking out for threats, even if it is still relatively close to Kaer Morhen.

Eventually they approach the tree line overlooking the lakeside, Arie stops next to him and asks "See anything?"

Reima looks closer to spot anything prowling the coast but only sees a single Water hag a large distance east from them. He point at it's direction "Water Hag, steer clear or Drowners are likely to follow."

Arie nods as they both sprint to the coastline and dive into the water and start swimming towards the long end of the lake. It must be a couple miles at the least so hopefully they can bear the bitingly cold waters until then. Witchers are more durable and resistant to temperatures but swimming through near freezing water is still rather uncomfortable and dangerous.

After 20 minutes of swimming Reima spots seagulls? and some debris floating atop the water, know this must be a treasure he gets Arie to wait above the waves to keep watch for anything approaching.

Diving down he spots a small boat wreckage and a crate not far from there, a single Drowner seems to be waiting down there while it gnaws on the crate.

Reima casts a simple Axii to get it to return to it's nest and sleep for a couple days, while it was difficult to specify such commands to such a simple creature Reima managed it.

Still holding onto his breath he swims down to the wreckage and only finds broken bottles, skeletons and destroyed paper. Turning his eyes on what must be the true treasure, the crate.

Using his knife to push into the gaps of the crate to slowly pry it apart, it suddenly pops open allowing the water to rush into the previously air tight space. Reima thinks to himself that he didn't expect these kinds of things to exist outside of the Witcher 3.

On the sand in front of him is a silver sword with green glowing inscriptions, some gems and gold are also present but lacking anything to carry them Reima decides to just take the sword. Gripping the blade between his teeth he makes his way back to Arie who seems very surprised at the sword in his mouth...

Arie "How on earth did you find that!?!" He says while staying afloat

Reima "There are always lost treasures to be found. We can talk when we're on land, lets go!" He puts the silver sword back in his mouth and starts swimming, trying to swim with a great big sword in his mouth blocking some of his actions is difficult but not impossible... He still manages to keep up speed with Arie. As hes swimming Reima thinks of the looks hes gonna get from the Witchers when he tell them how he found the sword.

Eventually they both approach the shore after a couple of hours of swimming, sword still in mouth Reima observes to see if anything is gonna grab them when they get on land, seeing nothing they both go ahead.

Arie "Finally out of there, it's freezing... Still nice find Reima."

Reima throws the sword at Arie, "Take it, I can protect myself with Signs."

Arie seems hesitant but accepts, trusting in Reima's word.

They look along the coast to find the marked tree that their Masters had talked about, while looking they spot a bear being scratched and sliced by around 15 Drowners,

Reima "Must be the entire nest, it doesn't really seem worth it for a large amount of them to die to try feed on the bear..."

Arie "What if the bear attacked them?"

Reima thinks back to Geralt telling him about a possible Leshen and agrees, "Geralt thought a Leshen is in these forests, better be careful and not disturb anything sacred looking..."

They head around the ghastly scene and eventually find a marked tree with an overgrown path next to it.

Arie "This looks to be it..."

Reima "Stay focused and keep an eye out the entire time we are in there... I refuse to be the only one returning."

Arie nods as they both enter, his sword tightly held in his hand and dimly pulsing with the green inscriptions.