"This time, it wasn't your fault, but I am going to give both of you a lesson."
There was no blame in Caleb's tone, and that only made Ekko feel even more ashamed.
"And this, the petricite, I'll take it as tuition."
Caleb did not stand on ceremony with the two of them and simply pocketed the petricite.
"Fine…"
Hearing that, Jinx was clearly still a little unconvinced, while Ekko let out a long breath.
He could still explore further down the road of Hextech.
That was great.
As for the petricite, as part of today's painful memory, Ekko truly did not want to see it again.
He had actually been lured by the opponent during a match and walked straight into a trap.
The Governor's attack had undoubtedly been a shock to Ekko.
The opponent had not died, yet it had still caused such a huge commotion.
Ekko had some confidence in protecting himself, but judging from the bloodstains, the other party had probably suffered a loss at Caleb's hands.
That was something Ekko admitted he could not do.
"What you just encountered was a kind of creature from the mental realm. In more common terms, a demon."
When Caleb said the word demon, he paused and looked at the reactions of the two of them.
Ekko's face looked like he was saying, "Are you kidding me?" while Jinx, rarely enough, showed a hint of fear.
"Although it sounds a little hard to believe, that thing named Tahm just now really is a primordial demon in essence."
Seeing that neither of them seemed to fully accept his words, Caleb began explaining.
"They feed on the negative emotions of living beings, and they strengthen themselves through that."
"The one today uses greed as his way of becoming stronger. He gambled with you in Deduction Chess, but his goal was not your iron sword or Gemstone."
Caleb reminded him kindly.
This time, Ekko became completely furious.
Saying he had made a mistake was fine. But saying his iron sword had only been an extra prize?
That it had just been a method the other party had not even valued, something used to torment him?
That was absolutely unacceptable.
Ekko was so angry that he even wanted to find that so-called demon right now and beat him up.
Strictly speaking, Piltover and Zaun could both be considered relatively stable places.
But it was still inevitable that some demons liked to wander, and they had happened to run into one.
"So today can only be considered a warning bell."
"You mean there'll be more of them?"
Without realizing it, Jinx swallowed hard.
There really were monsters and demons like that in this world.
Her whole body trembled like a leaf, though it was hard to tell whether it was from excitement or fear.
"What's with you?"
Caleb also looked at her strangely.
"Nothing…" Jinx hesitated for a moment before replying.
"The twin cities will see more and more abnormal phenomena from now on."
Seeing that the two of them had mostly accepted it, Caleb continued.
"More?" Ekko asked in confusion.
"The twin cities were originally founded on the idea of staying far away from wars launched through magic, and trade connected them to every region."
With just a few strokes, Caleb sketched out the rough shape of the world map.
"And on the twin cities' road to rising, these things are indispensable."
"If this kind of contact stayed like it was ten years ago, with us never touching any of it at all, then what would be the point of developing the twin cities?"
"Fine, fine."
Ding! A new main quest has been issued.
Just as Caleb was explaining demons to Ekko and Jinx, a cold mechanical voice interrupted his thoughts.
Unify the Freljord.
"Huh?"
Seeing such an outrageous mission, even Caleb, who had seen all kinds of storms, could not help speaking aloud.
"What?"
Jinx and Ekko both looked completely baffled, not knowing why Caleb had suddenly started acting strange.
"Nothing. You two go on for now."
Caleb waved his hand and rested his cheek on one hand, sinking into thought.
After the two of them left, Caleb sketched out even more places on the paper.
Not only the material realm that existed across the entire continent.
There was also the spirit realm on which Bandle City stood.
The realm of death, where Kindred sent souls.
The celestial realm above Mount Targon, where the Aspects lived.
And the Void, lying dormant and ready at any moment to launch an attack against the material realm.
All these things were tangled together, giving Caleb a headache.
Looking at it this way, if Caleb ended up smashing the headquarters of all these major realms in the end, then asking him to unify the Freljord now did not seem like such an unreasonable demand.
Caleb thought it over.
If he only continued researching magic, he had a World Rune in hand, which could connect him to Ryze, that great mage.
He also had his connection with Janna, so even if he ran into demigod-level combat power, Caleb was not exactly defenseless.
Afterward, Shurima would rise as well. If Caleb latched onto that powerful backing, then as someone with strength himself, it would not be a problem to seek stability.
After all, no matter where wars broke out, they would not have much to do with Piltover.
They could even make a fortune off war profits.
But Caleb felt that since he had already gotten close to the truth, he naturally needed to take another step forward.
This mission looked difficult, but in truth, it was not impossible to complete.
Caleb took a deep breath. His Pillar of Ice skill and the passive from True Ice Mastery could finally be put to use.
Right. A new journey.
Of course, Caleb still had to inform the Council before setting off.
…
"You mean that empire rising in the south won't be in any hurry to compete with Noxus for the northern territories?"
After listening to Caleb's report, Mel's body also relaxed.
Her mother was still fighting in Ionia at the moment.
However, judging from the intelligence, Noxus's second eastern expedition into Ionia was far from the all-out mobilization of the first.
One had to know that even after Noxian armies occupied a small nation, they would only leave a small portion of troops behind to garrison it.
The rest would continue to the front line and keep fighting.
So compared with the war against Ionia that Swain had participated in, this war was practically a small skirmish.
The troop deployment looked like a joke, but it had still served very well to rally the people's hearts.
At the very least, people no longer shouted every day that the king needed to come back.
A Noxus like this was powerful enough to be frightening.
"There's one more thing."
Caleb felt as though he was about to grab a crucifix and start shouting, "The power of Christ compels you," but he still continued.
"I need to go out for a while soon."
"When? And for how long?"
Heimerdinger stared at Caleb, finally understanding.
No wonder Caleb had such advanced ideas and content, but had handed the final concrete work over to him and the other three.
Caleb was going out again?
"At the soonest, within a few days. At the latest, around a month before I set off."
Caleb did not hide anything about the departure time. After all, he still had to swind, no, pack up the dishes the Lytton Restaurant "accidentally" made too much of every day.
As the old saying went, you had to stock up before a long road trip.
Caleb felt he was a master of saving resources.
"As for when I'll come back, that's harder to say…"
Hearing this, the councilors' hearts went cold again.
He had only just come back, and now he was running off again?
Viktor had already made it very clear that he was not going to act as Governor again.
Then who would take over Caleb's work during this period?
After all, many things still had to operate normally even when Caleb was not here.
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