Support me and be 30 chapters ahead of webnovel:
patreon.com/Draco_
You can also read on my website:
tlmasters.xyz
I'd really appreciate your support. Every membership helps keep me motivated to continue translating and releasing chapters consistently.
*****
After listening to Heimdall's explanation, Fini finally understood the root of the issue. Wanda's newly awakened abilities were fluctuating wildly because she lacked the means to freely control them, causing her to constantly and inadvertently disrupt the minds of the personnel within the laboratory facility.
Some staff members were suffering from vivid, recurring hallucinations, others found their emotions spiraling entirely out of control, and a barrage of bizarre, freak accidents had been occurring in rapid succession.
Having digested this information, Fini fell into deep thought. Within the entire Nine Realms, the only realm he had yet to step foot in was Alfheim, a place Heimdall had detailed to him previously.
According to those descriptions, aside from a few specialized regions, Alfheim was blanketed in colossal trees and sweeping lakes, overflowing with a dense, primordial atmosphere that bore a striking resemblance to certain natural landscapes on Earth.
The Light Elves, much like the Asgardians, were blessed with naturally immense lifespans. Merely by growing and maturing organically, they could easily attain a level of physical power that far outstripped most ordinary cosmic races.
Consequently, they harbored the exact same sense of absolute arrogance deeply ingrained within Asgardians—and in their case, it was arguably even more severe.
Asgard governed the Nine Realms; thus, while its people were undeniably arrogant, they simultaneously possessed a certain degree of magnanimous tolerance that befitted absolute rulers. Furthermore, Asgardians were fundamentally hearty and forthright by nature—so long as a person's temperament aligned with theirs, even an individual from a common race could easily become a trusted friend.
The Light Elves, however, were a completely different breed. Their arrogance had long since mutated into something thoroughly pathological.
Among the Nine Realms, if one excluded the desolate underworld of Helheim, the entirely barren and uninhabited wastes of Svartalfheim, and the underground sanctuary where Surtur hid out of sheer necessity, the single most isolationist and reclusive realm was undoubtedly Alfheim.
They maintained virtually zero communication with the outside world. Even the Frost Giants of Jotunheim actively monitored cosmic affairs and gathered intelligence, but the Light Elves almost never engaged with external forces.
Yet, by virtue of their formidable innate strength paired with a uniquely blessed geographic environment, very few external adversaries had ever successfully managed to invade their borders.
Fini's primary objective in visiting Alfheim was, plain and simple, to farm experience points. He didn't care in the slightest whether the inhabitants were arrogant or not—after all, no one looked particularly happy once they were beaten to the ground anyway.
However, now that his ninth system draw had been completed and the acquisition of the Tyrant's Eye had left him feeling exceptionally confident, his sense of urgency regarding grinding out the tenth draw had diminished significantly.
As a result, he found himself hesitating over whether he should return to Earth first and simply leave the Alfheim expansion dungeon for a later date when an appropriate opportunity presented itself.
After mulling it over for about a minute, Fini made his final decision. Turning to Heimdall, he asked, "Could you do me a quick favor?"
"Speak," Heimdall replied, looking at Fini with a touch of curiosity.
"First, transport me to Alfheim, and then immediately bring me right back!"
After some consideration, Fini ultimately decided to head back to Earth. However, he didn't want to abandon Alfheim entirely either, so he resolved to establish a localized coordinate marker there first. That way, whenever he felt like visiting in the future, he could simply slice open a portal and cross over at his own convenience.
"Why?"
"I'm planning to return to Earth today, so I want to take a quick glance at it first. Consider it the final checkmark on my itinerary," Fini answered with a casual shrug of his shoulders.
Hearing Fini's reasoning, Heimdall was left somewhat speechless. Although initiating a single discharge of the Bifrost required an astronomical amount of energy, Fini was, after all, the most distinguished guest of Asgard—and more importantly, the first genuine friend Heimdall had made in centuries. Thus, he readily agreed to the request.
"Just aim for a random spot anywhere near their royal palace," Fini instructed as he stepped onto the platform. Standing squarely within the intake threshold of the Bifrost, he signaled Heimdall, and the teleportation instantly ignited.
---
Even though Heimdall had previously noted that Alfheim's climate and topography shared similarities with Earth, the moment Fini materialized on the other side, he almost thought the Gatekeeper had accidentally misfired and sent him straight back to his home planet.
However, the moment his eyes caught the towering, ancient trees in the distance—monuments of nature that could fundamentally never exist on Earth—paired with the brilliant aurora borealis rippling across the azure sky, he knew with absolute certainty that this was an alien realm.
Scanning his immediate surroundings, Fini firmly etched the spatial coordinates of the location into his mind. He didn't linger a second longer than necessary; he simply pulled out his phone, snapped a few scenic photographs, and immediately called out to Heimdall to pull him back to Asgard.
Mere moments after his form vanished within the receding beam of the Bifrost, several agile silhouettes suddenly materialized from the dense cover of the surrounding jungle. Staring down at the scorched, intricate crystalline matrix left behind on the soil by the teleportation beam, one of the figures spoke up in a hushed tone:
"It's the Asgardian Bifrost!"
"What business could they possibly have here?"
The shadowy figures exchanged a few brief murmurs before launching into a meticulous sweep of the immediate perimeter. Finding absolutely no traces or clues left behind, they melted back into the thick foliage and vanished once more.
---
"That place really does look remarkably like Earth!"
Fini, entirely oblivious to the fact that he had narrowly avoided detection, couldn't help but comment to Heimdall the moment he stepped back onto the Asgardian platform. He then let out a soft sigh of wistful appreciation. "But when all is said and done, I still prefer Earth."
Heimdall didn't offer any counterargument, merely replying in his characteristically stoic tone, "Every soul holds a natural preference for their own homeland."
"That's not always a given."
For a fleeting moment, Fini's thoughts inadvertently drifted to Kaecilius from the original timeline. If that man had truly held any genuine affection for Earth, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to summon Dormammu in the first place.
However, Fini chose not to delve deeper into the philosophical topic. He gave Heimdall's massive shoulder a friendly pat and said, "Alright, I'm going to pay a visit to His Majesty the All-Father to inform him of my departure. I'll likely have to trouble you one last time in a little bit."
Heimdall nodded slowly, his expression remaining entirely unreadable. Truthfully, so long as Fini remained within the boundaries of the Nine Realms, the concept of a physical farewell held very little practical meaning to him. After all, whenever he wished to check in on Fini, he could simply cast his cosmic gaze across space. Even striking up a telepathic conversation, while requiring a bit of localized effort, was well within his capabilities.
Arriving at the grand royal palace of Asgard, Fini presented his credentials to the palace guards and was promptly granted an audience with Odin.
"Has Thor lost the courage to return?"
Seeing Fini stride into the throne room entirely on his own, Odin's brows furrowed slightly in surprise.
"He is still in Nornheim managing the post-war administrative duties and cleanup. It was entirely my own decision to head back ahead of schedule," Fini explained smoothly, offering a brief defense on Thor's behalf. He then added, "Furthermore, I was the one who actively requested to participate in that campaign, so I humbly request that Your Majesty refrain from penalizing Prince Thor."
Odin narrowed his eyes, staring down at Fini in absolute silence. Through the youth's subtle shifts in tone, facial expression, and steady gaze, the seasoned All-Father acutely perceived that Fini's underlying attitude toward him had undergone a distinct transformation. Yet, try as he might, he couldn't fathom the catalyst behind this sudden shift.
Throughout the recent campaign in Nornheim, Odin had actively maintained a covert surveillance grid over the battlefield. Fini had exhibited absolutely no anomalies during the fighting, and his combat output had remained largely identical to the baseline performance he displayed in Muspelheim.
What on earth could have triggered such a profound leap in his confidence?
As he stood before the silent, frowning All-Father, Fini remained entirely unaware that the ancient ruler was currently racking his brain trying to deduce the origin of his newfound assurance.
In all honesty, even if Odin were to ponder the matter for an eternity, he would fundamentally never guess that a mere thirty minutes prior, this mortal had abruptly bypassed the cosmic hierarchy to become an authentic Pocket Dimension Lord—placing him squarely within the rarest and most notoriously difficult-to-kill bracket of entities in the entire multiverse.
Seeing that Odin remained uncharacteristically silent, Fini took the initiative to speak up once more:
"Your Majesty, I am profoundly grateful for the immense hospitality and care Asgard has extended to me during my stay. However, I have been away from home for a considerable amount of time now, so I intend to return to Earth today."
Odin, who was still deeply engrossed in analyzing whether he had overlooked some critical detail, was caught off guard by the sudden announcement. He hadn't anticipated that Fini would choose to depart so abruptly.
"From what I understand, have you not left Alfheim unvisited?"
Odin did not spend every waking second of his day spying on Fini's movements, which meant he was entirely oblivious to the brief excursion that had occurred just moments prior.
"I actually took a quick trip over there just a moment ago."
Fini opted not to offer an overly detailed explanation. His entire cosmic excursion had merely served as a convenient cover story anyway; his true, overriding priority had always been tracking down suitable opponents to harvest experience points.
The lingering sense of anomaly in Odin's heart grew increasingly pronounced. He felt an intense intuition that Fini had covertly achieved some monumental objective right under his nose, yet he couldn't comprehend how the boy had pulled it off, nor what he had actually gained.
After all, a reality-defying construct like the system was something that even the King of the Gods had never once heard of in his thousands of years of existence.
"If that is the case..."
Odin paused for a brief moment, fixing Fini with another deeply piercing stare before continuing, "I sincerely hope that your journey through the realm of Asgard has not left you disappointed."
"Asgard is, without a doubt, the most magnificent and powerful empire I have ever laid eyes upon," Fini replied with absolute, heartfelt sincerity. Having thoroughly toured the Nine Realms, he had to admit that Asgard stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of military might and sheer economic opulence.
"Extend my formal regards to your master when you return. Furthermore, if your schedule permits, you should pay a visit to my Queen before you depart. It appears she has personally prepared a farewell gift for you."
Hearing Odin's words, Fini blinked in surprise, and a soft, complicated sigh echoed silently within his heart.
If it weren't for the genuine warmth and kindness Frigga had consistently shown him, his baseline favorability toward the realm of Asgard would easily be at least 40% lower than it currently was.
(End of Chapter)