The Eye of Horus scanned the surroundings in the void. Once it was confirmed that Loki had truly left, Arthur finally breathed a sigh of relief. The Eye's surveillance ability had always had the power to see through illusions, but without opponents like Loki in the past, that function had remained unused.
It wasn't until Arthur faced Loki that he remembered this particular function of the Eye Of Horus, prompting him to quickly summon the Eye of Horus. The Second Prince of Asgard was no simple opponent— not only could he vaguely sense the presence of the Eye, but he also seemed to understand its capabilities.
As a result, Loki chose not to continue the fight and retreated. After all, he was only a projection, and his means were limited. The Eye of Horus appeared to have a subtle suppressing effect on many of his abilities, making his withdrawal a wise decision.
Still, even with that in mind, Arthur had to admit that this Loki was far stronger than what was portrayed in the movies. His bizarre magic was difficult to defend against. If his real body had been there, Loki's close-combat abilities would likely have been formidable as well.
Although they hadn't engaged in a full fight and despite the fact that the movie wasn't a reliable source of reference, Arthur could tell from Loki's actions that he was certainly both skilled in magic and combat.
"Looks like I'm not the only one in this world who's a master of both magic and combat!" Arthur muttered to himself.
At some point, the rain overhead had stopped, and Arthur began to reflect on the brief confrontation. The fight had been short, and most of their moves were mere tests of each other's abilities.
Arthur hadn't even used his trump cards— like his superhuman strength, energy blasts, or his "Abomination" attack. But considering that Loki was just a projection, Arthur wondered how a fight would play out if Loki's real body was present and he unleashed all his hidden cards.
After pondering for a while, Arthur realized there was no clear answer. The Marvel universe wasn't like cultivation novels where power levels are obvious— where you could say, "I'm at the Nascent Soul stage, and you're at the Core Formation stage," and everyone would know who's stronger.
In Marvel, power wasn't always clearly defined. You might get beaten badly one day, but in another situation, you could rise to victory. A person's combat strength was influenced by their state, mindset, battle spirit, and even their goals.
Every living being had hidden cards to play, especially these gods with unfathomable depths.
Thor, with his straightforward nature, was probably the easiest to gauge. But figures like Odin and Loki? Their strength felt vague, like a mist— you could sense they were powerful, very powerful, but no one could gauge how powerful they exactly were.
If you had the guts, you could try to find out by fighting them. If not, you'd just have to keep guessing…
Arthur sat there, contemplating all of this, then recalled Loki's words to him. He chuckled bitterly. He didn't believe a single word from the God of Mischief— not even a punctuation mark.
Odin, with his status, couldn't afford to lie; his pride wouldn't allow it. But Loki, lying would be a second nature to him. That was as normal as breathing for him. If he ever stopped lying, that would be the real shocker.
Without knowing the truth, it would be easy to be deceived by Loki. But Arthur was always on high alert when dealing with him. This trickster could betray you without a second thought. One moment, he'd be speaking with sincerity, full of emotion and logic, and the next, he'd be selling you out.
Loki's ability to switch goals seamlessly, leaving no trace, was truly something else.
Using the Eye of Horus, Arthur scanned the surroundings again to make sure Loki hadn't returned. After confirming this, he redirected the Eye toward Thor, where he saw Thor being escorted out by Phil Coulson. Standing at the entrance was a middle-aged man, gratefully thanking them.
"Hmm..." Arthur rubbed his nose, realizing that his rainy night adventure was probably coming to an end.
He recalled this scene from the movie— where the middle-aged man pretended that Thor was his colleague, even going so far as to forge credentials. Coulson quickly saw through it but decided to release Thor anyway, assigning surveillance to him.
Classic SHIELD move: let the bait run to catch the big fish. But Coulson probably never imagined that the fish they'd catch wouldn't be human— it would be a god.
As Arthur processed the events in his mind, a slight smile formed on his lips.
...
Two cars left the makeshift SHIELD base. The first belonged to the middle-aged man, and the second to SHIELD. However, the driver of the second car had no idea there was an unexpected guest in the trunk.
Arthur, awkwardly curled up in the back, muttered, "This is really cramped..."
Using the Eye of Horus, he tracked the middle-aged man's car ahead.
That man was no ordinary person either. His name was Erik Selvig, the mentor of Thor's soon-to-be girlfriend and an expert in astrophysics and quantum physics. He was said to have been friends with Banner before the Hulk's emergence caused them to lose contact.
After reviewing the man's background in his mind, Arthur started feeling bored. It looked like he would be stuck in the trunk for the entire journey. He pulled out his phone to pass the time and noticed a few messages from Lily that evening.
She enthusiastically shared details about her dinner, which made Arthur even hungrier. Suddenly, he realized he hadn't eaten all day. Seeing that it was already past midnight, he sent Lily a teasing message reminding her to get up for a midnight bathroom trip.
Then, he tucked his phone into the Disassembler space and began disassembling the green-labeled weapons he had stored there.
As Arthur disassembled, his thoughts wandered. The Disassembler was now at Beginner Level 3, but what would come after that?
"With the higher level, I should be able to disassemble more items, right? But I'll need to experiment to find out... Hmm, I wonder if I could disassemble a car?"
With that thought in mind, Arthur patted the trunk's base. To his surprise...
**[Would you like to disassemble this vehicle (Blue)?]**
"It actually works? I couldn't do this before! What could I get from disassembling a car?"
Arthur blinked in surprise, resisting the urge to disassemble the vehicle. After all, there were still two SHIELD agents sitting in the front. Disassembling the car now? He'd heard of self-driving cars, but driving without a car altogether? That wouldn't end well.
Plus, the car was only of blue quality. The results from disassembling it probably wouldn't be worth much.
"But still, I'm curious— what would I get from disassembling it?"
Arthur blinked again, realizing something else. His pat on the car had been an instinctive move, but the Disassembler was already in operation at the time. Could it be that he could add items to it while it was running?
(End of Chapter)
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You can read ahead up to 70 chapters on my patreon and I've also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/GGS6395
As long as I reach 200 dollars on my Patreon, I will post 10 extra bonus chapters per month in batches of 5 for that month. If I reach 300 dollars then I will post 15 extra bonus chapters in batches of 5 for that month. If I reach 400 dollars then I will post 20 extra bonus chapters in batches of 5 for that month. So come and support me.
Arthur casually pulled out a green-labeled submachine gun he had taken from Yondu's warehouse and chose to disassemble it.
''[Would you like to disassemble this submachine gun (Green)?]''
Blinking, Arthur chose to proceed, then quietly waited for the disassembly result.
''[Decomposing equipment succeeded!]''
''[Beginner Rifle Shooting Experience'51]''
''[Beginner Rifle Close-Combat Experience'47]''
''[Beginner Submachine Gun Shooting Experience'49]''
''[Beginner Submachine Gun Close-Combat Experience'45]''
''[Transparent Battle Soul Fragments'2]''
''[Colorless Crystal Shards'32]''
''[Disassembler Experience +4]''
''[Disassembly complete, would you like to extract at once?]''
Arthur thought it over and realized that adding items this way yielded results similar to normal disassembly.
He then tested how many weapons he could disassemble at once. Previously, he could disassemble up to 10 regular weapons in one go. However, since these were green-labeled items from Yondu's warehouse, he could only disassemble three weapons at a time, and they had to be of the same type.
However, there were no such limitations when adding items to the ongoing disassembler process.
So Arthur decided to go all out, stuffing as many weapons as he could into the Disassembler. However, he didn't have many weapons from Yondu's stash— barely about twenty.
After disassembling them all and fusing the results, he ended up with two Advanced-level books for both ''Rifle Shooting Experience'' and ''Close-Combat Experience.''
For handguns, he gained five Advanced-level ''Shooting Experience'' books and 55 Intermediate-level ''Close-Combat Experience'' books.
As for submachine guns, he gained 30 Intermediate ''Shooting Experience'' books and 20 Intermediate ''Close-Combat Experience'' books.
Lastly, he ended up with a staggering 368 ''Colorless Crystal Shards!''
...
The car continued speeding along, and according to the feedback from the Eye of Horus, it would still be a while before they reached their destination.
Bored, Arthur stayed curled up in the trunk, flipping through books. After absorbing all nine Advanced books, he moved on to the Intermediate ''Close-Combat'' handgun skills.
Before he even finished halfway through the 55 books, his handgun ''Close-Combat'' skill leveled up to Advanced. It had been on the verge of leveling up anyway, so Arthur wasn't surprised. Then he noticed something called ''Energy Melee Combat''!
Suppressing the urge to curse, Arthur realized that the remaining books weren't enough to fuse into another Advanced-level skill, so he moved on to the submachine gun skills.
In the end, none of the submachine gun skills reached Advanced level.
Finally, Arthur stared at the pile of ''Colorless Crystal Shards'' in the Disassembler Space, feeling dazed. There were so many of them! From disassembling just those two bracelets, he had already received 386 shards, and now there were 368 more!
He had a feeling that if he finished absorbing all these shards, his hands would swell up. He could probably go around claiming he had practiced the Buddha's Palm technique, and people might actually believe him.
Eventually, Arthur decided to stop absorbing the shards manually and simply squeezed them.
There was no rule stating that he had to slap them like before— it was just a habit he had developed. Now, with a shard in each hand, he found that squeezing them worked just as well.
Before he even finished absorbing all the crystal shards, the car came to a stop.
Using the Eye of Horus, Arthur saw that Thor and Selvig had gone into a bar to grab a drink.
"This has nothing to do with me..." Arthur thought as he controlled the Eye of Horus to delve deeper into the bar, just to make sure that no one would kill Thor.
When there's a lot to say, time flies but when there's nothing, it drags on forever. After the two of them left the bar, they even got into a small fight outside.
Of course, Selvig was no match for Thor. In fact, Selvig landed one punch before collapsing on the ground. If Arthur had been watching, he might've thought Selvig was faking it for sympathy.
Thor, meanwhile, simply picked Selvig up, slinging him over his shoulder and following his directions toward a destination.
At the same time, the car started up again as the two agents quietly continued their surveillance, not letting their guard down.
Arthur, still tired from endlessly squeezing the small crystal shards, finally gave up before finishing and decided to exit the car. He slipped into an alley nearby, deciding that he needed to eat.
Given how a certain mischievous young woman constantly talked to him about food, Arthur felt like his stomach could now handle an entire pig.
Besides, with the two agents around, nothing strange was likely to happen.
But it wasn't just hunger driving him— Arthur had other things to take care of.
After stuffing himself at a random fast-food joint, Arthur found a small hotel nearby and rented a room. The room wasn't big, but it was clean, with a carpet covering the floor.
After thoroughly checking to ensure there were no hidden cameras, Arthur pulled back the carpet and glanced at his hand. "I realize I'm getting braver," he muttered.
Taking out a two-handed sword, Arthur ran his palm along the blade, instantly opening a wound that bled profusely.
Using the blood, he drew a teleportation circle on the floor, then infused it with a certain amount of colorless energy.
Arthur had grown quite familiar with this process, having practiced it several times on Star-Lord's ship.
The teleportation circle worked on the first try. Arthur looked down at his palm, noticing the wound was slowly healing.
Though he couldn't regenerate as quickly as the Lizard, he was confident that by the next morning, the injury would be fully healed.
After casually wrapping his hand, Arthur went to the bathroom to take a shower.
As he looked in the mirror, he felt an odd sense of aging.
Touching his face, Arthur murmured, "My appearance hasn't changed... Hmm, maybe it's something in my eyes."
...
The next morning, the blood on the floor had dried. Arthur discovered that, due to the colorless energy involved, no amount of scrubbing could clean it off.
"I bet the owner's going to curse me out when they find this," He muttered with a chuckle.
He put the carpet back in place, ready to head out and meet Thor, but then he suddenly frowned. His gaze shifted toward a direction outside the window. Although he couldn't see anything, Arthur could clearly sense energy waves coming from that area.
"Is that the Bifrost?"
Arthur pondered for a moment, then furrowed his brow, pressing a hand to his chest. In an instant, casual clothes appeared on his body.
After settling the bill, he returned to the street. He hadn't walked far when he saw three men and a woman, all dressed in strange attire, wandering down the street.
"Thor's companions," He sighed, realizing that the pivotal moment had arrived.
Last night, Loki had come by and lied to Thor.
He told Thor that because of his actions, Odin had died, causing Thor to accept his exile.
But with these four companions now arriving, the truth— that Odin wasn't dead— would soon be revealed to Thor.
And that meant Loki's footing would no longer be secure.
Arthur gazed at the distant sky. "So, the legendary Destroyer will definitely arrive on time, won't it?"
(End of the chapter)
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