Even though Karl had said that casually, he still ended up continuing to drink.
One Asgardian warrior after another came over to toast him.
By the time the banquet finally ended, only Karl and Juggernaut were still standing.
Everyone else who had been drinking was lying on the floor.
Even Thor himself was completely drunk and disoriented.
Karl looked at the scene and curled his lips.
Did they really think drinking with him was a good idea?
Even in his Hulk-normal physical state, his body was already absurdly powerful.
Not to mention that even without his Gold Cloth, Karl's strength was still close to the Skyfather level.
If someone tried to outdrink him, they could literally drink themselves to death and Karl still wouldn't get drunk.
Soon an even more amusing scene unfolded.
Thor, refusing to admit defeat, dragged Juggernaut over and insisted on continuing the drinking contest.
Juggernaut, who was thoroughly enjoying himself, naturally agreed.
In fact—
He even began force-feeding Thor alcohol.
Only when Thor was completely unconscious did the situation finally calm down.
Karl simply laughed when he saw this.
Thor wasn't going to die from alcohol anyway.
If Juggernaut could somehow force Thor to drink himself to death, that would truly be the greatest joke in the Nine Realms.
Afterward, Karl returned to his room with Black Phoenix.
The moment they entered the room, Black Phoenix used the Phoenix Force to completely seal the entire chamber.
Then she turned to Karl with a provocative expression.
Karl slowly walked toward her.
He reached out and gently pulled on the dark red collar around her neck.
Black Phoenix always wore that collar.
Most of the time she concealed it using the Phoenix Force.
But Karl could always see it.
As Karl tugged lightly on the collar, Black Phoenix looked at him with a submissive expression.
Karl's body instantly tensed.
Black Phoenix was simply too alluring.
Her clothes had transformed into a transparent lace nightgown.
She wore black silk gloves and black stockings.
Combined with the collar and the strange mixture of arrogance and submission in her eyes—
She was irresistibly seductive.
That night, Black Phoenix once again experienced Karl's overwhelming dominance.
By the end of it, she was completely conquered.
She knelt at Karl's feet willingly.
And the love in her eyes only deepened.
The next day at noon, Karl and Black Phoenix finally woke up.
Karl looked at the beautiful woman sleeping in his arms and smiled faintly.
After getting up and washing, he had barely finished when Thor came looking for him.
"Well, well."
Karl looked at Thor with amusement.
"Isn't this our invincible Thor?"
"I should have recorded what happened last night so Tony could see how the mighty God of Thunder got drunk by Juggernaut."
Karl clearly enjoyed teasing him.
Thor's arrogant drunken behavior last night had been extremely entertaining.
Thor coughed awkwardly.
"Who knew you and Juggernaut were such monsters?"
"A whole hall full of Asgardians couldn't get the two of you drunk."
He scratched his head helplessly.
"Come on. I'll take you to my father's treasure vault."
"You probably don't know the way."
Inside, Thor silently swore never to drink with them again.
They were absolute monsters.
Just remembering how Juggernaut had forced alcohol down his throat made him feel like dying.
Karl nodded.
"Alright, let's go."
Then he added with a grin:
"You didn't sleep in the banquet hall last night, did you?"
"You have no idea what you and Loki looked like after you got drunk."
"Absolutely unforgettable."
Thor's face immediately turned red.
"Cough! Of course not!"
"I think someone carried me back to my room…"
"Probably a maid…"
"But I don't remember clearly."
He quickly waved his hands.
"Stop talking about it!"
"Just stop!"
Thinking about his drunken behavior made him want to dig a hole and bury himself.
Soon the group arrived at the entrance of Asgard's treasury.
The guards didn't question them at all.
They simply opened the doors and allowed them to enter.
Inside the treasury were mountains of wealth.
Gold coins, gemstones, jewelry, and gold bars were piled everywhere.
The sheer quantity was astonishing.
There were also many finely crafted treasures scattered across the hall.
But Thor clearly didn't care about any of those.
Only items that contained divine power or unique energy were displayed properly on stone pedestals or shelves.
Thor waved his hand dismissively.
"Let's go deeper."
"These things aren't worth much."
"The real treasures are inside."
They soon entered the inner vault.
Here, each treasure rested upon a separate stone pillar.
Karl immediately noticed several objects of great interest.
One of them looked somewhat similar to artifacts from Kamar-Taj.
Karl's lips twitched slightly when he saw it.
Then his gaze shifted to something else.
The Infinity Gauntlet.
The same one Hela had dismissed as fake in the timeline.
Karl examined it carefully.
He could clearly feel energy fluctuations coming from the gauntlet.
Could it be that the gauntlet itself was real, but the stones were fake?
Karl quickly came to a conclusion.
That was extremely likely.
After all, the gauntlet used by Thanos had the exact same design.
And it had been forged by the dwarves of Nidavellir.
There must have been an earlier prototype or model.
Most likely, Odin had commissioned it long ago.
That would explain how the dwarves were able to create Thanos's gauntlet so quickly later.
The gauntlet was real.
But the gems on it were fake.
After all—
The Mind Stone was still in Karl's possession.
Nearby, Karl also saw the Eternal Flame.
In the future, it would be used to resurrect Surtur, the Fire Giant who ultimately destroyed Asgard.
Not far away stood a stone tablet covered in mysterious runes.
Further ahead were two objects Karl immediately recognized.
The Tesseract.
And the Casket of Ancient Winters.
There was also something unusual resting on another stone pillar.
A simple tree branch.
Karl turned toward Thor.
"You should return the Tesseract to me now, shouldn't you?"
Karl casually picked up the cube.
After all, Thor had only borrowed it from him earlier.
Naturally Karl intended to reclaim it.
Besides, retrieving it now meant it wouldn't count among the two treasures he was allowed to choose.
Thor nodded immediately.
"Of course."
"I was in such a hurry earlier that I completely forgot."
"Besides the Tesseract, you can choose two treasures."
Thor then began introducing the items around them.
"That stone tablet is said to be the Evolutionary Tablet of Atlantis from Midgard."
"It supposedly records the ultimate evolution of life."
"But no one has ever been able to understand it—not even my father."
He then pointed toward another object.
"This is the Casket of Ancient Winters."
"At full power, it can freeze an entire planet."
"And that one…"
He pointed toward a burning pedestal.
"That's the Eternal Flame."
"It can resurrect certain creatures."
"But they only return with bodies."
"Their souls are gone."
Karl nodded.
Then he placed the Tesseract inside his system space.
After that, he began thinking carefully about which two treasures he should choose.
The branch resting on the nearby stone pillar…
Was no ordinary branch.
It was a branch from the World Tree—Yggdrasil.
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