"I'll count…"
Caleb looked over the group and felt a little troubled.
More people meant more food consumption.
Right now, all these people had their attention on him. If he pulled food out of the system inventory when the time came, he would probably get questioned.
"Me, Kai'Sa, and Yuumi. That was the original group."
Caleb counted them one by one.
"Then there's Ashe from the Avarosan tribe, and Tryndamere, who's protecting her as her oathfather."
"And Sejuani from the Winter's Claw, Olaf, who's looking for a glorious death, and Udyr, who came back under the call of the animal spirits."
Altogether, that made seven people and one cat.
There was also a massive pig.
Bristle at least had a sturdy stomach. Basically anything digestible could be tossed into its mouth as scraps.
But with a pig that huge, its daily food intake was a problem too.
Caleb felt a faint headache coming on. The Iceborn were good at fighting, but they were not especially good at hunting.
This would drag their travel pace straight to the limit.
But the good news was that they had two Iceborn with them, and they could almost be confirmed as descendants of the Three Sisters.
With their help, when Caleb faced those troll tribes, he would at least have something to rely on.
If things truly reached the point where they had no choice but to fight, having allies go bring reinforcements was naturally a good thing.
"We leave tomorrow morning."
Kai'Sa simply did not give the two Warmothers a chance to hold a meeting with Caleb. She went to negotiate the departure time in Caleb's place.
"That soon?"
Caleb had thought they might leisurely spend a few days here.
But that worked too. With snow and wind everywhere, he was not exactly in the mood to build a snowman. If they stayed, he would just end up bored out of his mind.
It was more comfortable to set out early.
At least then there would be something to do every day, travel a little, feed the pig a little.
Caleb owned almost nothing, and there was nothing he needed to pay special attention to.
As for clothes, they were all in the system inventory, and he had plenty of them.
Caleb did not like wasting time on laundry, so he simply threw clothes away after wearing them.
This fully proved how easy it was to move from frugality to luxury.
But to Caleb, resources that could help others were naturally good, but those "wasted" things would not magically transfer into the hands of the people who needed them the moment he threw them away.
Even if they could, what then? Would people born in barren places be able to just sit back and enjoy ready-made benefits, living off someone else's leftovers?
Caleb had always believed it was better to teach a man to fish than to give him one.
Rather than endlessly dumping "surplus" resources onto others, it was better to teach them how to become self-sufficient and avoid internal conflict.
Caleb refused to believe that the region with the most demigods and animal spirits truly had no resources at all.
Could it really be that even beings with demigod power would simply watch, or even instigate, humans slaughtering one another?
If there really were demigods like that, Caleb would never let them have an easy time.
Why was Janna also a demigod, yet even while weakened, she still protected Zaun from Darkin attacks?
Even among demigods, there were differences.
What Caleb yearned for most were still the Ascended of Shurima.
He had heard that only those who served their nation and people, and whose hearts were clear and upright, could successfully undergo the Ascension ritual and become god-warriors who protected their country.
It was not as simple as being granted power at birth.
Caleb did not like power existing in the hands of people, or gods, who did not deserve to wield it.
And yet there were probably far too many gods like that. Caleb silently clenched his fist.
If someone granted improper power to people or gods, causing countless living beings to suffer, then whether they were gods or demons, Caleb would kill them.
His current strength was still insufficient. But even if he had to play every trump card he had, Caleb would fight to the death to kill the other side.
With the power of the World Rune, Caleb still did not have a clear definition of the upper limit of his overall strength.
After all, that thing touched the foundation of the world itself. In terms of the power it could unleash, its potential was limitless.
It was not like Yaanogel's spear, which came with enormous drawbacks. That violent method of attack was almost like tearing Caleb's body apart.
Even with blood magic supporting him, that kind of all-offense, no-defense fighting style was still too much of a burden for Caleb.
But when Caleb looked at the World Rune, it did not seem quite so dangerous.
Although something that touched the world's origin like this was probably the kind of thing that made you addicted as you used it, until you lost yourself in the pleasure of your power skyrocketing.
When that time came, Caleb only hoped he would not end up drooling from the corner of his mouth and doing nothing but shouting "my precious" or something like that.
That would make him look way too brain-dead. He would lose all dignity.
They said there was no need to bring anything, but he still had to keep up appearances and take something like a tent.
After all, that little bit of weight made basically no difference to Caleb.
If something urgent really happened, he could just toss it aside.
Caleb thought over the route. Along the way, they would pass through canyons, glaciers, lakes, and mountain peaks.
It could be said that all the dangerous terrain types were gathered together.
And precisely because of that, this journey seemed extraordinarily dangerous.
For Caleb, searching for Ornn was only the public explanation for this trip.
He had only told Kai'Sa his true goal, and she was clearly not the kind of person who would leak secrets.
The Void.
The Void lying dormant, ready to awaken at any moment, was the true urgent crisis of the Freljord.
Previously, Shurima had paid such a heavy price before it could suppress its own Void threat until now.
The Void creatures that appeared there now could almost all be dealt with by Kai'Sa alone.
It was only when a Void creature like Rek'Sai, with burrowing abilities, appeared that Kai'Sa found it somewhat difficult to handle.
As for creatures at the Xer'Sai's level, Kai'Sa would slaughter them mercilessly.
But Caleb knew that the Void buried here, with the tribes of the Freljord constantly exhausting themselves through internal conflict, was definitely not something they could withstand once it began its corruption.
And even if the Freljord united, Caleb still had no confidence that they could repel the Void with absolute certainty.
After all, ancient Shurima's strength was obvious to everyone. Caleb had no confidence in whether they could suppress the Void again.
The Freljord had many demigods, which made this region extremely powerful too.
However, before the Void, the Freljord was still only a part of the material realm.
He had heard that Avarosa had also once sought power from the Void, attempting to grasp a portion of it.
But the price was that she lost her hearing.
As one of the greatest threats on the entire continent of Valoran, the Void was something Caleb had only brushed against before through Rek'Sai, and Rek'Sai was merely a small pawn.
The truly terrifying things were still behind her, very far behind her.
Apart from Shurima at its peak, almost no force could stand against the Void.
Although they had demigods holding the line, Caleb still felt uneasy.
Whether those things would help him or not was another matter entirely.
Caleb sank into worry, and Kai'Sa quietly watched this man.
Both of them knew very well how terrifying the Void was.
The Void absolutely could not be allowed to draw near the world. When it came time to fight the world, the material realm had to be fully prepared.
Caleb understood this point very clearly.
The Mecha Project had not even been realized yet. How could they possibly allow the Void to invade now?
"Everything packed?"
Early the next morning, people were already standing outside Caleb's tent.
Caleb poked his head out, only to see that the snow was falling even harder.
It slapped right across Caleb's mouth.
"We're just waiting for your word."
Sejuani held Bristle's reins, ready to mount up and set off at any moment.
"Then let's move out."
With the idea that one more person meant one more bit of strength, Caleb still brought this group along.
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