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Heimerdinger's proposal glided through the Council with a unanimous vote. Even Mel Medarda, Jayce's most ardent supporter, raised her hand in favor. Mel was a predator of opportunity; while she was personally invested in the Arcane, she was a politician first. She wasn't about to let Piltover miss the next Great Leap Forward just because she favored one inventor over another.
After the session, Mel tracked Jayce down in his lab, the golden light of the setting sun catching the concern on her face.
"...I still believe your Hextech is the future, Jayce," she admitted, "but your new competition isn't some street-corner tinkerer. Heimerdinger is putting his full weight behind them now."
Jayce looked up from a schematic, his jaw set with a confidence that bordered on arrogance. "Innovation isn't a zero-sum game, Mel. Our Hextech won't lose to a bunch of pistons and magnets." He looked over at his partner. "Right, Viktor?"
Viktor shrugged, his eyes never leaving the micro-stabilizer he was adjusting. "We won't lose. But we've officially entered a race. We need to accelerate."
Jayce nodded. He had an ace up his sleeve that Heimerdinger didn't know about yet. "The Professor's hang-up is safety. He's haunted by the past. But the refined Hex-Crystals we're developing now are stable. They won't explode like raw shards. Once we stabilize the core, the 'Pure Science' argument falls apart. Magic is simply more efficient."
While the Hextech duo doubled down, Chen was taking a much-needed breather. Heimerdinger had granted them a day off, and Chen intended to spend it "optimizing."
He opened his internal HUD, staring at the three Talent Points he'd banked from his recent missions. It was time to bulk up.
He bypassed the offensive trees and dove straight into Resolve.
Conditioning: At 10 minutes, gain 8 Armor and 8 Magic Resist, and increase total resistances by 5%.
Overgrowth: Gain 3 Max HP for every 8 nearby enemy deaths. At 120 deaths, gain an additional 3.5% Max HP.
"Between the Chemtank, the Counter Strike, and these stacks, I'm officially the world's most annoying raid boss," Chen muttered.
Then came the surprise. The system didn't ask for a secondary rune path. It offered him a second Keystone.
"You've got to be kidding me," he grinned. "I can stack Keystones? One day I'm going to proc Predator to engage, hit 'em with Hail of Blades, and finish with a full-stack Conqueror? That's broken. I love it."
He locked in Conqueror immediately.
Keystone: Conqueror Attacks grant stacks of Adaptive Force. At 12 stacks, convert 9% of damage dealt into healing.
Now, he wouldn't just be a meat shield. The longer a fight lasted, the harder he'd hit and the more he'd sustain. He was building into a Juggernaut.
"I heard the food Topside doesn't taste like sulfur," Powder said, poking her head into the room. "Can we go find out?"
"Lunch is on me," Chen agreed, closing his HUD.
He took her to a high-end bistro in the Academy district. Powder was currently demolishing a plate of Crimson Raptor meat—finer poultry imported from the Valoran heartland.
"It's good!" she chirped, her face smeared with glaze. "But... I think I still miss the Gromp. It had more 'kick'."
Chen bit into a Raptor thigh. "Nonsense. This is Grade-A poultry. Gromp meat is basically a dare."
"Gromp is better!" "Raptor is better!" "Frog!" "Bird!"
Powder eventually gave up the argument by hugging her plate to her chest. "Fine! More bird for me!"
Chen watched her with a quiet sense of relief. In this stable, sunlit environment, the "Jinx" persona hadn't surfaced for weeks. Powder was happy. She was obsessed with her inventions—currently tinkering with a single-braid hairstyle because she found her old twin-tails too "high-maintenance" for a full day in the lab.
With her bangs and her focused, inquisitive eyes, she looked like the Powder from before the cannery—just older, taller, and much more capable.
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