The name hung in the air like the heat shimmer distorting the cavern—Ornn.
The demigod of the forge.
The smith who shaped mountains.
And he was standing in the heart of his domain.
The Hearth-Home.
Edison hesitated at the edge of the dark stone bridge, the rhythmic clang of Ornn's hammer echoing through the cavern.
What is he supposed to do now?
Before he could make any further movement, the Fabled Poro slapped his right thigh again with shocking force.
"Wha—."
Edison stumbled forward and looked back at the poro with a confused expression.
"What are you doing...?"
The Fabled Poro just stared and pointed toward a direction while grunting.
Following the poro's gesture, Edison finally noticed a stairwell that led a few feet lower, branching off beneath the giant hanging stone bridge that extended toward the central forge.
"It wants us to follow," Guide said calmly.
"Yeah, I think I get that," Edison whispered inside his head. "But what about..."
He glanced toward the massive silhouette at the center of the forge—the figure whose hammer rose and fell in tireless rhythm.
Guide scoffed. "What? Don't tell me you want to go up and greet him."
"That was the plan... I mean, I am kind of trespassing on his property, so it's normal to greet—"
Before he could finish, Guide cut him off, his tone unusually serious.
"Look. As powerful as Ornn is, there's no chance he hasn't already noticed you. If he hasn't reacted, that means one of two things: he doesn't mind… or he simply doesn't care."
Another shove pressed into his thigh. The poro was getting impatient.
"So I suggest we don't push our luck trying to find out which."
Edison sighed and glanced back toward the central forge. Ornn's hammer continued, each strike vibrating through the cavern.
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
The demigod hadn't turned his head.
Not once.
Edison swallowed quietly.
"...Fair point."
He turned toward the stairs.
The Fabled Poro grunted approvingly and led the way—away from the unbearable heat and away from the god in the heart of the forge.
Edison cast one last look at Ornn's massive silhouette—the braided beard, the curling horns, the sparks bursting like stars with every strike.
Awe rippled through him.
But he said nothing.
And he followed the poro without another word.
As they descended the stairs and the forge's blistering heat finally eased, Edison realized only then that he'd been holding his breath.
By the time he reached the base of the stone path, away from the central platform, Edison let out a small sigh.
"Ah yes," Guide chimed in dryly, "the sweet relief of surviving your first encounter with an actual god. I'd say you did a great job, but that would be a lie."
Edison shot him an exhausted look. "I didn't even do anything."
"Exactly."
Edison was too tired to argue.
"Now then," Guide continued, "since we are not becoming forge-ash today, what's your plan?"
Edison groaned. "Do I look like someone with a plan? I'm exhausted. Let me rest, then maybe I'll have two functioning brain cells to rub together."
He sighed. "For now, the goal is simple: don't die. After that… figure out how to keep not dying. One step at a time..."
The cavern hallway stretched before them, lit faintly by veins of red-orange minerals embedded in the walls.
As Edison moved to follow the Fabled Poro deeper inside, a sudden slam to his right made him jump.
A stone door had swung open.
Clinging to the heavy door's knob-like handle was a much smaller poro, its tiny paws wrapped tightly around the metal.
It dangled for a moment, then dropped down with a soft pomf onto the floor. With an enthusiastic trill, the little creature bounded forward—clearly delighted to see the Fabled Poro.
The Fabled Poro gave a short, rumbling grunt, answered immediately by a cute, high-pitched yelp from the smaller poro.
How do these things communicate…?
Edison wondered as the little poro tilted its head at him.
The newcomer was about two-thirds the size of the Fabled Poro, dressed in a tiny blacksmith's apron that somehow made it even more adorable.
Another grunt from the Fabled Poro snapped Edison's attention back.
He turned—just in time to see the poro jerk its beard toward the open room.
Edison blinked. "...Huh?"
The poro repeated the gesture with more force, tiny body radiating impatience.
Edison sighed and stepped closer. He peeked inside—and paused.
This room wasn't like the storage chambers he had stumbled through earlier. It felt... lived in. Or meant to be lived in.
Plain stone walls. Dust suspended in the still air. A faint, warm glow from a single embedded stone. And in the far corner, a raised stone platform—too refined to be a slab of rubble, too simple to be anything but a bed.
Edison stepped inside slowly, his boots tapping lightly on the cold floor.
"Guess this is where I stay," he murmured.
He ran a hand along the platform's edge. It was sturdy—rough, solid, and absolutely not comfortable.
Then again, comfort didn't seem to be anywhere on the priority list of whoever built this place.
He frowned. "Strange. I didn't think Ornn slept at all—never mind having actual beds."
"Maybe he doesn't," Guide replied. "But this room clearly wasn't meant for him."
Edison looked around again. The proportions. The height of the platform. The dimensions of the doorway. All sized for someone like him.
"You think... the Hearthblood used this?" he asked quietly.
Guide hummed thoughtfully. "Seems likely. A home meant for them, before Volibear wiped them out."
Edison sat down slowly on the edge of the platform. The stone was hard and cold beneath him.
Not exactly cozy, but he can't complain.
He leaned back against the wall, letting out a long breath.
Edison had just started to relax against the cold stone wall when—
DING!
A blue screen materialized before him, flashing the text:
[Survival Points Awarded!]
[+1000 SP]
[Current SP: 1002]
The numbers hung in the air, glowing faintly in the dim chamber. Edison's breath caught in his throat as he processed what he was seeing.
"Wait. What?"
"Congratulations," Guide said dryly. "You just got paid for not dying."
Edison scrambled to sit upright, the stone bed forgotten. "How the hell does sitting in a dusty room earn me a thousand points?"
"Correction," Guide said, summoning a secondary screen filled with scrolling text. "You didn't get points for the room. You got them for surviving an encounter with Ornn—one of the most poweful beings of Runeterra. The system typically award a lot more for surviving direct interaction with this level of entities, but since your survival involved approximately 90 percent luck so the payout was... adjusted."
Edison let out a laugh, running both hands through his hair. The sudden windfall felt unreal. "Well that solves our food problem.
"Oh, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Guide said, his tone shifting to that particular brand of cheerful malice that preceded bad news.
"Let's break this down properly," Guide said, summoning a glowing ledger in the air. "Your basic survival now costs five SP per day for food rations—that's the bare minimum calories to keep you moving. Then there's one SP daily for clean water, unless you want to climb out of here and melt snow, or drink whatever mystery water they use for smithing."
Edison opened his mouth, but Guide plowed on.
"So we're looking at thirty-six SP per week for food and water alone. That's your baseline just to stay alive."
The numbers floated between them, glowing ominously.
"At that rate," Guide continued, "your thousand SP gives you about twenty-six or twenty-seven weeks. Roughly seven months if we're being optimistic. And that's before accounting for—"
Edison leaned back slightly, tension easing from his shoulders. "About seven months just for basics? That's… actually not terrible. Gives me time to figure things out."
Guide continued, unimpressed. "Don't get comfortable. That bare-bones budget doesn't account for everything else. You're not planning to just eat and sleep like a pig, right?"
Edison rubbed his temples as the numbers swirled in his vision. "Okay, so I can't just hibernate like a bear for six months. I need to earn more SP."
"Well," Guide's voice sounded again. "There is a way, now that you pass the 1K SP point. You've unlocked challenge mode. Complete them, earn SP, don't die - simple as that."
Edison perked up. "Okay, now we're talking. Tell me more about this challenge mode."
"Let me break it down for you," Guide continued, summoning a glowing display in front of Edison. "There are four difficulty tiers, each more likely to kill you than the last."
"First we've got Delta challenges - your basic beginner stuff. Rewards range from 10 to 1,000 SP, and the survival rate is... acceptable. These are the only ones I'm recommending you try right now."
"Next up is Gamma," Guide continued. "After that came Beta and Alpha."
He paused.
"I won't bother explaining them in detail," Guide said flatly. "You're not capable of taking on any of those yet."
Edison frowned, opening his mouth to ask further—but Guide cut him off.
"They're drastically different from Delta challenges. Delta is about survival. Endurance. Adaptation," Guide explained. "Gamma, Beta, and Alpha are not."
There was a faint edge to his voice.
"When you reach the point where Delta challenges are no longer considered challenges," Guide finished, "then you can move on to the next tier."
Edison stood there in silence as he digested all that information that the Guide had dumped on him.
"So," Guide's voice snapped him back to reality, "wanna try a Delta challenge now?"
Edison blinked. "What, like... right now?"
"Why not?" Guide's tone was disturbingly cheerful. "Your fight-or-flight response is already cranked to eleven after everything that's happened today. Perfect state to survive your first challenge before the adrenaline wears off."
Edison opened his mouth to protest, then closed it.
Then finally, a deep, resigned sigh escaped his lips. "...Fine."
"Wonderful!" Guide chirped. "Let's start with something simple - a Delta challenge even a baseline human like you might survive." The interface scrolled rapidly before locking onto one option. [Challenge Selected:Tier Delta]
[ Soul Relocation in Three... Two... ]
Edison's eyes widened. "Wait, soul relocat—"
[ ...One ]
A wave of absolute darkness slammed into Edison.
Then reality snapped back with the force of a thunderclap.
The smells of salt and sweat hit him, then the sound of crashing waves.
Edison blinked and looked around.
"What... the fuck..."