"Enlightenment"

A month had passed since Jia Ruo had arrived in this jungle.

Over the month, his wounds had healed considerably. Nidalee's salve seemed to work very well.

He usually followed Neeko around, picking fruit to eat. Nidalee didn't like him much, but she occasionally brought them some game.

They had no seasonings, and the meat was simply roasted, but it still gave Jia Ruo a chance to enjoy a proper meal.

Life in another world wasn't pleasant. The jungle was full of all kinds of problems: biting mosquitoes, dense woods where you could lose your way the moment you stepped inside, beasts lurking in the shadows...

As a result, Jia Ruo had spent most of the past month following close on Neeko's heels.

There was little in the way of entertainment here, either. In his free time, Jia Ruo could only study Runeterra's common language with Neeko and learn about the world around him. Neeko had encountered plenty of humans before, and through their souls, she knew a great deal about Runeterra.

Now that he was in this fantastical world, Jia Ruo naturally yearned to gain extraordinary abilities.

But when he asked Neeko about them, she had no way to teach him her magic—the ability to shapeshift and control plants.

Neeko's magic was innate to the Wu Wei Clan. It was instinctive for her, and she simply had no way to teach Jia Ruo, a human who couldn't even sense magical energy, how to use magic.

Jia Ruo was disappointed. He was deeply fascinated by magic, that fantastical power.

But Neeko also told him that when she first met Jia Ruo, she had noticed that there hadn't been a trace of magical energy in his body.

That wasn't normal. In Runeterra, magic was the source of life for all things. Every living creature had magical energy in its body; the only difference was how much.

And yet it also made sense. Jia Ruo wasn't from Runeterra. Having grown up on Earth, it was only natural that he hadn't come into contact with magical energy.

But after observing him for a month, Neeko had noticed traces of magical energy gradually appearing in Jia Ruo's body.

It seemed that, like all living things in Runeterra, Jia Ruo, who had come from a world without magic, could also absorb magical energy from the world around him through breathing.

Neeko could see that Jia Ruo's "Shuoma" had grown brighter over the past month.

Jia Ruo could feel the changes too—his body was stronger, and he felt more energetic.

That was certainly a good thing, but Jia Ruo still couldn't stop thinking about the power of magic...

At the old camp, Jia Ruo was leaning against a tree, turning a pale blue stone over in his hand. One side was flat and regular, with some symbols he couldn't make out, while the other sides were irregular.

It was clearly a fragment of something.

The night before, he and Neeko had seen pale blue light shining from a river in the forest. Neeko had also noticed that the magical energy there seemed more active and concentrated.

When they fished the source of the light out of the water, they found this fragment.

Neeko could feel energy radiating from it in all directions. But when Jia Ruo took it from her to examine it more closely, something unexpected happened.

The fragment dimmed in his hand, until it stopped glowing altogether...

Just then, Jia Ruo's body shuddered as he held the rune. It felt as if some energy were flowing up his arm and into his body.

A cool sensation spread through his mind. His thoughts grew exceptionally clear, like the "clear mind" the ancients spoke of.

This fragment had to be something extraordinary!

Neeko could clearly see the energy around the fragment gathering in toward it instead of spilling outward. Strands of light formed, then flowed into Jia Ruo's body and entered his "Shuoma." His Shuoma, which had been its usual color, was dyed a faint, ghostly blue.

At the same time, Jia Ruo sensed the magical energy around him. It was everywhere, filling the world, and with each breath, it entered his body.

Could this be a Blue Crystal? Jia Ruo guessed. It really had increased his "mana."

"Neeko, I can sense magical energy!" Jia Ruo was thrilled. The new and wonderful sensation made it impossible for him to calm down.

"Now I can learn magic, right?" Jia Ruo held up the fragment, grinning brightly.

"How strange. Neeko was fine holding it before!" Neeko took the fragment back from Jia Ruo and examined it closely.

Once it was out of Jia Ruo's hand, the fragment slowly began to glow again, giving off a faint blue light in Neeko's palm.

Away from the fragment, Jia Ruo no longer felt energy flowing into him, and the clarity in his mind faded.

"I don't get it." Neeko returned the fragment to Jia Ruo. She knew it was a great help to him.

Jia Ruo eagerly began trying to control mana. Following Neeko's instructions, he tried to manipulate the magical energy inside the plants...

From last night until now, Jia Ruo hadn't slept at all. He had kept practicing how to communicate with the magical energy inside plants.

He could now make plants grow in the direction he wanted, but he was nowhere near as fast as Neeko. It would take much longer practice and stronger magic.

After trying again and again, Jia Ruo had also confirmed his connection to the fragment: as long as he touched it, it stopped glowing and sent all the energy it emitted into his body instead.

But although he could feel the energy flowing into him through physical contact, it didn't increase the magical energy in his body by much. Instead, his five senses had grown sharper, and his thoughts quicker.

He even found it easy to master the common language when Neeko taught him.

In the days that followed, aside from studying the common language, Jia Ruo spent all his free time practicing how to control magical energy.

One day, Nidalee entered the old camp carrying a plump brownish-gray rabbit caught in a trap.

The moment she spotted Jia Ruo, she dropped the rabbit, gripped her spear with both hands, and crouched low.

She fixed her eyes on Jia Ruo. She could clearly sense that he had changed. A hunter's instincts told her he was no longer the helpless man he had been a few days ago.

She could still kill Jia Ruo with ease, but something was out of the ordinary. In this situation, caution was the right choice for a hunter.

Under Nidalee's stare, Jia Ruo's hair stood on end. It was as if a lioness were about to pounce on him.

"Nidalee!"

Neeko broke the tense silence. "It's been two days since you last came to see Yi. Neeko missed you so much!"

Neeko rushed over to Nidalee and threw her arms around her neck, even wrapping her long tail around Nidalee's leg.

The tension eased, and Nidalee lowered her spear.

Neeko was all right. That was a relief.

After Nidalee gutted and skinned the rabbit, she skewered it with a branch and set it over the campfire to roast. Neeko and Jia Ruo took turns telling her what had happened.

Nidalee listened quietly. She didn't dislike this feeling.

Nidalee had been found and raised by a pride of lions. She had learned to speak from the Vastaya tribes nearby.

And since she spent most of her time with the lions, she rarely had to speak.

Now, listening to Jia Ruo and Neeko chatter away, she felt a different kind of warmth...

Meanwhile, in the underground stone hall of Demacia's Nullstone Forest, four complete World Runes floated silently: the dark red "Domination," the yellow "Precision," the deep blue "Sorcery," and the green "Resolve."

The fifth rune, "Enlightenment," still existed only as fragments scattered across Runeterra...

Those were Ryze's next targets.