Dr. Mundo was a little troubled.
He had woken up in an empty room.
He was dressed in white, and whenever those people came in, they walked toward him carrying syringes and scalpels.
Slowly, he felt like he was beginning to understand everything.
These people were doctors and nurses. They treated the sick. They used knives and pills to cure patients.
The clothes he was wearing, the ones that restricted his movement, were the same color as the doctors'.
Mundo had every reason to believe that he was a doctor too.
Sadly, after his operations, the patients still did not get any better.
He ate a little something while thinking hard about where things had gone wrong.
The scalpel? He looked at the bloodstained bonesaw in his hand. Maybe it needed to be cleaned. Sterilized.
Maybe the medical equipment was inadequate, so he picked up a defibrillator and a leather bag and strapped them onto himself.
Oh, right. How could he not have medicine?
Mundo gathered armfuls of bottles and jars and stuffed them all into the huge leather bag.
Mundo believed he could heal patients now.
He walked out the door, planning to look for more sick people.
...
As Caleb stared at the Hexcore in front of him, he instinctively felt... disgust.
"The Hexcore... it's almost like a living thing."
He frowned. With the limited game knowledge he had from his past life, he still could not make sense of what he was looking at.
"What is it?" Jayce asked. "Is something wrong?"
By now, Caleb could practically be considered Jayce and Viktor's senior when it came to Hextech.
If even he thought something was wrong, then the situation might truly be serious.
Caleb stared at the pulsing core. It was twisting and stretching, deeply unsettled, as if it were trying to unleash its power in self-defense.
He had seen that color before. It was not Hextech's runic blue. It looked far more like the hue of Void creatures.
"Destroy it." Caleb glanced at Jayce, who was holding the Mercury Hammer, then took two steps back.
"Fine by me." Jayce tightened his grip and charged up the weapon in cannon form.
With a deafening blast, the Hexcore flared with violent light of its own.
Amid the fierce shockwave, Caleb thought he heard someone whisper in his ear.
"We... will return here..."
The voice was hoarse, but he had definitely heard it.
He stared wide-eyed at the core as it shattered apart before him.
Was it something guarded by the Brackern, or a whisper from the Void?
When the dust cleared, Caleb looked at the wreckage scattered across the floor and fell into thought again.
"How much do you still have in reserve?" Caleb asked, turning to Jayce with a sharp look.
"Mm... if it's only being used for the Hexgates, we've got enough for about ten more years."
Jayce had no idea why he was asking.
"Can you pause the mining for now?" Caleb said quietly.
"Of course." Jayce sounded full of confidence. At their current rate of use, Piltover's stockpile of Hex crystals was more than enough.
"Then stop mining for now. The Brackern may come for revenge."
Caleb sank into memory. As far as he remembered, the Crystal Vanguard was a pretty obscure champion.
So all he could recall was that the Brackern existed to protect something, and that the Vanguard was meant to guard the Hex crystals.
As for what stood behind the Brackern, or when they might come, Caleb did not know a thing.
At moments like this, he really hated that the system was basically mute.
Even a little lore dump would help.
He let out a long sigh, suddenly feeling helpless.
He would have to solve this mystery himself later. Better that than stirring up unnecessary panic.
"Councilor Talis. Mister Caleb. Sorry to interrupt."
A voice appeared out of nowhere, ghostlike, right beside the two of them.
"Who's there?!" Jayce jumped, and Caleb spun around as well, only to find himself looking at the smiling face of a woman.
"Allow me to introduce myself. Camille Ferros. My disappointing younger brother has caused trouble for you both."
Ferros? Jayce stared at the tall, slender woman in front of him and frowned.
"I remember he's almost seventy, isn't he?" Caleb said, immediately picturing the balding man.
"You're saying you're his... sister?"
Jayce could not hide his confusion.
From the first time he had met the councilors to the day he joined the Council and began leading the city, he had never once heard of such a sister.
"And you are..." Caleb hesitated. He knew asking a lady's age was rude, but he still forced himself to say it. "How old, exactly?"
"Seventy-three." Camille brushed a hand through the hair behind her head.
Both Caleb and Jayce sucked in a sharp breath.
Seventy-three?!
Councilor Cassandra still had her elegance at forty, sure, but time had still left its mark on her face.
The woman standing before them looked thirty at most, yet she was actually in her seventies?
Seriously?
Seeing the disbelief on both their faces, Camille simply covered her mouth and laughed. She was clearly used to it.
"Hard to believe, isn't it?"
"Hard to believe?" Caleb blurted out before he could stop himself. "That doesn't even begin to cover it."
"A lot of people say that," she replied, the amusement in her eyes deepening.
Jayce, who had at least seen a little more of the world, was the first to regain his composure. "Let's get to the real matter. What exactly did you come to see us about?"
"My expedition teams have brought me another batch of Hex crystals," Camille said, getting straight to the point. "I want to cooperate with Piltover."
"Hex crystals can't be mined anymore!" Caleb said immediately, his tone intense. "I hope your clan will stop extracting them from now on!"
"As you and Councilor Talis wish." She answered with a warm smile.
Word had already spread among the great clans—Caleb would be Zaun's next leader, and Jayce was now the Council's leading figure.
"There's one more thing. After a great deal of investment and experimentation, we discovered a method for mass-producing Hex crystals, though the output is weaker."
She continued calmly.
Because Caleb had only ever been Silver in his previous life, he barely knew anything about Camille as a champion. So even though he recognized the famous Steel Shadow standing in front of him, he still knew very little else.
And this was yet another moment when a system that could pop up useful information would have been incredibly convenient.
"This is important," Caleb said. "Both Piltover and Zaun will thank your clan for this."
"The only issue is the air pollution it creates..." Camille glanced out the window, clearly implying something.
"Dump it into Zaun. I'll handle it," Caleb said with a nod.
Dirty air could be cleaned up eventually. The kind of equipment Hex crystals could power was beyond imagination.
Then the woman who looked nothing like someone in her seventies dropped one last sentence that made both their hearts pound.
"I look young because I underwent hextech body augmentation."
"Viktor may need the same. Clan Ferros is willing to share that with both of you."
"Good!" Jayce and Caleb answered almost in unison.
Her meaning could not have been clearer. Piltover and Zaun would owe Clan Ferros a debt this enormous.
Whether that debt was repaid in glittering gold, rare goods from across the world, or new scientific breakthroughs—
none of that mattered to either of them.
If it could save Viktor's life, then it was worth anything.