Odin took a deep breath and forced a smile onto his face.
"Luke, thank you for the help you gave Thor…"
"It was nothing. Helping people is what I do best. You can call me your friendly neighborhood New Yorker."
Luke grinned, his eyes flicking over Odin the whole time.
The corner of Odin's mouth twitched. He flipped his right hand, and a sky-blue casket radiating icy energy appeared in his palm.
"This is the greatest treasure of Jotunheim, the Casket of Ancient Winters—one of the crown jewels of my collection."
"As thanks for what you did for Thor, I'm willing to give it to you."
[Anomalous object detected: Casket of Ancient Winters. +100 Anomaly Points. Current Anomaly Points: 300 / 2400.]
Before Odin could even finish the sentence, the moment the words "give it to you" left his mouth, Luke knew the casket was already his.
With a single thought, the Casket of Ancient Winters vanished from Odin's hand and reappeared in Luke's.
Odin's eye widened. It happened again!
How in the Nine Realms did he do that?
There wasn't the slightest trace of magic.
Was it sheer speed? But even with my own eyes, I couldn't catch the faintest hint of motion.
Odin's mind flashed back to Thor's dramatic retellings of Luke dismantling the Destroyer and their two evenly matched fights.
At the time, Odin had assumed his son was embellishing—how could someone merely on Thor's level destroy the Destroyer in an instant?
But now it was clear: Thor hadn't exaggerated at all. The boy had actually downplayed it to save face.
Just this impossible, traceless movement alone would leave Thor—and even Odin himself—flailing in a fight.
"You just said this was a gift for me, right?" Luke asked. "So what about the principal and interest Thor promised?"
Odin's expression shifted. He forced a quick smile. "I meant this is the interest. Excellent interest—worth as much as Mjolnir itself! It's a fantastic collector's piece, isn't it?"
The mention of interest made Odin want to throttle Thor all over again.
The proud Crown Prince of Asgard, the future king, had lost to a mortal from Midgard.
Losing was bad enough, but he'd then bartered away treasures to reclaim his own hammer—and still promised interest on top of it.
With a brain like that, someone could sell him into slavery and he'd happily count the profits for them.
Odin felt a pang of regret. If Loki had been the one negotiating, even if he lost, he wouldn't have practically sold out the kingdom just to look good, would he?
At least Loki had a halfway decent brain.
Luke put on a disappointed look. "Really? And here I thought my friendship with Thor was worth at least this much."
Are you listening to yourself?
Odin acted like he hadn't heard a word and produced another artifact—a living, writhing eye.
"Ehm.. This is the Eye of the Sorcerer. It holds powerful mind-control abilities. Long ago, a sorcerer wielded it against Asgard, and it became one of my most prized trophies. Now it's yours…"
[Anomalous object detected: Eye of the Sorcerer. +100 Anomaly Points. Current Anomaly Points: 400 / 2400.]
"So this one's a gift too?"
Luke reached out, and the Eye of the Sorcerer simply appeared in his palm. He turned it over, inspecting it curiously.
This time, Odin focused every ounce of attention on Luke's movements.
But it was no use. All he saw was Luke lifting his hand. How the artifact had actually transferred? Not a clue.
Whatever this ability was, it felt even stranger than raw spatial manipulation.
It wasn't magic, wasn't dark energy, didn't feel like any known superpower… Odin shook his head.
"This one is the principal," he said firmly.
A gift? Absolutely not.
Luke had beaten up both of his sons, seized the Destroyer, derailed Thor's entire trial, and was now casually helping himself to two of Asgard's supreme treasures right in front of the Allfather.
Treasures Odin had risked his life to claim in his youth!
And Thor had just handed them over with a few careless words.
The worst part was, even though Odin desperately wanted to back out, he couldn't even begin to understand how Luke was doing it.
Add in Heimdall's reports on Luke's combat footage, and the unease in Odin's heart left him no choice but to swallow his pride and accept it.
What else could he do? He was dying soon.
Even the gods of Asgard had finite lifespans.
At a moment like this, he couldn't exactly declare, "I summon the ultimate imperial weapon," could he?
Luke put on a regretful expression. "Fine then, we're even now."
With that, he pocketed the Casket of Ancient Winters and the Eye of the Sorcerer.
[Anomalous objects: Casket of Ancient Winters and Eye of the Sorcerer successfully recorded. +5500 (5000+500) Anomaly Points!]
[Reality Editor upgraded to version 3.5.]
[Sound Editor activated. Current Anomaly Points: 1000 / 2600.]
Luke skimmed the details and saw that the Sound Editor was basically a sound-effects tool combined with a speaker—dedicated purely to audio.
It could be toggled on and off at will, automatically record audio, and alter sound effects.
Not exactly a game-changer, Luke muttered, glancing at the new feature before dismissing it.
Just then, a glowing golden ring sparked into existence beside them.
The Ancient One stepped calmly through the portal.
"Lord of Asgard, welcome to Midgard."
She spoke with respectful courtesy and a faint, gentle smile.
As Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj, her chief duty was to keep watch over the mystical side of the world.
A being as powerful as Odin naturally topped her watch list.
Odin felt his stomach sink a little.
On one side stood the inscrutable Luke; on the other, the ever-troublesome Sorcerer Supreme.
His confidence as ruler of the Nine Realms was rapidly evaporating.
This world had truly turned upside down.
Asgard was supposed to be the dominant power among the realms, yet now Earth's heavyweights seemed to hold all the cards.
Though storms raged in his heart, Odin's face remained an impassive mask.
Before the Ancient One, he still carried the full dignity and majesty of a God-King.
He inclined his head calmly. "I came to Midgard only to settle a small matter. Your world truly breeds remarkable talents."
The Ancient One smiled and nodded in return. "Prince Thor is exceptionally gifted as well."
To Luke, their polite exchange read entirely differently.
Odin: No need for alarm. I mean no harm. I'm simply here to settle a debt and will depart shortly.
Ancient One: Understood. But I will keep watching until you leave.
Whatever Odin's intentions, it was Kamar-Taj's duty to monitor.
In the events of Thor: Ragnarok, the Ancient One was already gone. When Loki exiled Odin to Earth, Stephen Strange—the Sorcerer Supreme at the time—kept close tabs on Odin's location.
Any powerful outsider wielding magic had to announce their presence on Earth and submit to oversight.
Luke, however, had never detected any such surveillance on himself.
He knew full well, though, that his general activities were almost certainly logged by Kamar-Taj.
After all, who wouldn't keep an eye on a walking nuclear warhead?
If he snapped and started leveling cities, who would have to deal with the fallout?
Kamar-Taj would be first in line to clean up the mess, as always.
Luke paid no attention to the silent understanding passing between the two.
While distributing his points, he examined the Casket of Ancient Winters.
The casket was a divine artifact on par with Mjolnir—or possibly even superior.
Laufey, king of the Frost Giants, had once tried to use it to freeze the entire planet and usher in a new ice age.
That alone highlighted its standout traits: overwhelming ice-based power and an immense reservoir of energy.
Luke swapped out Mjolnir's bonuses for the casket's.
His Strength, Agility, and Endurance all dropped.
But his Energy shot up by 2000.
Holy hell—one casket held the energy equivalent of ten Mjolnirs?
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12 Advance Chapters—Patreon.com/HornyFBI