"Are you going to forge something else? Could I watch and learn?"
Seeing what Han Yu was doing, Eitri came over and asked curiously.
If Thor, who had provoked Han Yu earlier, saw this, he would surely be struck speechless. Even weapons forged by ordinary Dwarves could make a name for themselves throughout the universe.
Someone like Eitri was one of the best among the Dwarves. The weapons he forged were for Asgard's royal family; ordinary weapons were already beneath his craft.
Yet here was that very man saying he wanted to watch and learn. The God of Thunder would never have imagined such a sight, even on pain of death.
Eitri knew Han Yu because Han Yu had previously come to him to forge something. At the time, Eitri, like most people, had looked down on the Earthling in his early twenties standing before him.
But he had been wrong. On the day they met, Han Yu had come to forge a snow-white, archaic-looking long saber, saying he wanted to strengthen it.
The Dwarves had shown the uninvited guest who had suddenly appeared on the Dwarf star Nidavellir no kindness, thinking the Earthling in his twenties was joking.
Only Eitri had made an exception and let him use their forge, which had a neutron star at its core, for a while. From that moment on, the Dwarves' expressions, including Eitri's, had begun to change noticeably.
Han Yu had thrust the snow-white saber into the middle of the forge and heated it continuously, but the archaic-looking blade had not melted. Instead, it had given off wisps of cold air visible to the naked eye.
From time to time, he had also tossed in objects that radiated cold, things the Dwarves had never seen before. They had melted in the forge and gradually fused with the archaic-looking saber.
The process had lasted less than five minutes. The archaic-looking saber, exposed directly to the neutron star's energy, had to have reached a terrifying temperature of at least tens of millions of degrees, yet Han Yu had grasped its hilt with his bare hand right in front of them.
The moment the saber left the forge, the surrounding temperature had plunged. If this had not been merely the cold air emitted by the saber, even the star ring, which had operated for thousands of years, might have frozen over.
From then on, Han Yu had visited the Dwarf star Nidavellir from time to time, partly to forge his own weapons and partly to teach the Dwarves how to forge.
But Eitri was the only one who could come to the general store.
Han Yu said to the General Store System in his mind, Take out ten tons of Vibranium for me.
A box suddenly appeared before the two of them and crashed heavily to the ground. Han Yu stepped forward and opened it, revealing a large amount of ore inside.
The ore was black and blue. The black parts were merely natural coal or stone; the blue material in the middle was Vibranium.
"Ten tons of Vibranium withdrawn. Upgrade Points consumed: 2."
Hearing the words ring out in his mind, Han Yu sighed softly. This was clearly his own cheat system, yet he still had to pay something to take things out.
"It seems I'll only have the right to use everything in the general store when I truly become the store manager."
The Item Draw Cards Han Yu currently received were all because his position was still that of a store clerk. Once he became the store manager, he would truly possess everything in the general store.
Then he really would be able to take whatever he wanted, without worrying about the Upgrade Points consumed.
Han Yu threw the Vibranium, box and all, into the Planetary Thruster. The terrifyingly high temperature instantly burned the box to nothing, and the impurities in the Vibranium also turned to ash. Only the Vibranium gradually changed from blue to bright silver, becoming a mass of liquid.
Han Yu held both hands toward the pillar of flame, using his mental power to control the fire burning the Vibranium. He needed to purify it first.
The usual way to use Vibranium was to melt it and begin forging an item directly, but Han Yu was different. With his extraordinary forging ability, he could bring out the full potential of Vibranium.
He carefully controlled the intensity of the fire. Within the surging pillar of flame, a few threadlike strands of fire could faintly be seen entering the liquid Vibranium. Its color then grew purer, with far fewer impurities.
Watching this refining method, Eitri could not help clicking his tongue. Watching Han Yu forge something was like listening to an incomparably moving piece of music.
When people thought of forging, they usually pictured burly men swinging hammers with bare chests. But in Han Yu's hands, it was like an elegant concert. The flames and Vibranium were like musical notes, constantly changing as Han Yu's fingers descended.
"Perfect!"
Even Eitri, proud and conceited as he was, offered his heartfelt praise.
Han Yu, who was forging the Vibranium, suddenly stopped moving his hands and turned his gaze toward Eitri, as though he had thought of something.
"What is it?"
Seeing Han Yu stop and look at him, Eitri suddenly had a bad feeling, though he did not know why.
Han Yu narrowed his eyes and smiled. "Eitri, how about we make a deal?"
"A deal? What kind of deal?"
Seeing Han Yu's sly, foxlike grin, Eitri could not help taking a few steps back.
Han Yu raised his hand, and energy surged from the Green Lantern Ring. Just as he had done to Black Panther T'Chaka in Wakanda, a streak of green light entered Eitri's mind.
What he saw was the future of the Dwarf star.
A purple-skinned man named Thanos came to him, subdued all the Dwarves with overwhelming force, and made Eitri forge him a gauntlet, one capable of controlling the most mysterious things in the universe, the Infinity Stones.
When the forging was finished, Eitri thought Thanos would let him go, but he did not. Thanos killed all three hundred Dwarves on the Dwarf star except Eitri, and Eitri did not escape unscathed either: Thanos crippled his hands.
"Your life belongs to you, but your hands can forge weapons only for me!"
The images in Eitri's mind ended with those words. His whole body shuddered, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw Han Yu's faint smile before him.
"What just happened? What did you do?"
Eitri touched his forehead and only then realized it was covered in sweat. The images had been extremely real, so real that it was as though he had been there experiencing it himself.
"That's what the Dwarf star will go through in roughly three years. You'll be the only Dwarf left; the rest will all be wiped out."
Han Yu spoke of such an unbelievable event with a calm expression. It really was hard to believe. What kind of place was the Dwarf star Nidavellir? It supplied weapons to Asgard's royal family.
To say they would all be wiped out except for the Dwarf King was truly hard to believe.
"That can't be possible, can it? We have Asgard's protection."
That was what Eitri said. As soon as the words left his mouth, he heard Han Yu say something else that struck him like a bolt from the blue.
"If nothing unexpected happens, something unexpected will happen to Asgard in a few years too. Something fatal."