Chapter 009: Collection

In truth, Wang Bo also knew he was dreaming.

Although Gungnir was also a weapon forged by dwarves, the dwarves of the mythological world were different from those of the Lord of the Rings world; their craftsmanship was far superior.

It was simply unrealistic to expect the dwarves of this world to forge a weapon like Gungnir.

Not to mention Gungnir, even Stormbreaker from the Marvel world might be beyond their ability.

But there was no denying that the dwarves of this world were still exceptional.

So Wang Bo wanted to establish contact with the dwarves and have them forge weapons for him.

However, to Wang Bo's surprise, when Ya Zi heard that there were dwarves near the Iron Hills, she immediately volunteered to negotiate with the Iron Hills dwarves in place of his mechanical soldiers.

She had only taken a week off; four days had already passed, and in three more days she would have to return, so Ya Zi wanted to see more of this world.

At least before going back, she wanted to see what the dwarves of this world looked like.

Seeing Ya Zi so eager, Wang Bo did not immediately agree. After all, Ya Zi didn't understand the language of this world—how could she negotiate with the dwarves?

The reason Wang Bo sent mechanical soldiers was that he could transfer his consciousness into them; it was less the mechanical soldiers negotiating and more Wang Bo negotiating with the dwarves.

But Ya Zi had a solution. As a witch, she went to Lake-town, found a human, and quickly learned the common tongue of this world using witchcraft.

Having witchcraft made her that willful.

Only then did Wang Bo agree.

When Xiao Qing heard they were going to see the dwarves, she also became interested, so she and Ya Zi went together to the Iron Hills.

As for Xiao Bai, she stayed behind to keep Wang Bo company.

After the two saw Ya Zi and Xiao Qing off from the Lonely Mountain, Xiao Bai asked curiously, "Why did you suddenly want dwarven weapons?"

She knew well that with Wang Bo's skills, the weapons forged by these dwarves were not worthy of him.

Or rather, the weapons forged by the dwarves of this world could not enhance Wang Bo's strength at all.

It would be different if they were the dwarves of the Marvel world.

Even with Wang Bo's current power, he couldn't withstand Stormbreaker's attack; that weapon was incredibly powerful, capable even of shattering the barrier formed by the Infinity Gauntlet, let alone Wang Bo's body.

Wang Bo smiled and said, "Life is long; one must cultivate some hobbies. I'm now developing a hobby of collecting."

In fact, this hobby had already shown signs in Xiao Bai's world.

For instance, Wang Bo had once spent a large sum at the Baoqing Workshop to buy some spiritual artifacts, which he had no use for, but he bought them anyway.

On one hand, it was to cultivate his collecting obsession.

On the other hand, it was to prepare for future trades.

Back in the Marvel world, Wang Bo had dealt with the oldest Collector in the universe and bought many things from him.

High-tech, iron ore, dragons, even the brain matter of Celestials, and so on.

It seemed like a fruitful harvest.

But in reality, the Collector's good stuff was far more than that.

That guy had lived for who knows how many years and collected countless rare treasures. Some of those treasures made Wang Bo drool, but at that time, Wang Bo had limited good items and could only pick a few that interested the Collector for trade.

Although he eventually bought many good things, even more treasures eluded him.

So from then on, Wang Bo intentionally collected treasures from other worlds, partly to cultivate his interest and partly to trade with others in the future.

In truth, Wang Bo wasn't after the weapons forged by the dwarves.

It was the dwarves themselves.

Though the weapons forged by dwarves were remarkable, even the sharpest were just ordinary blades, after all, the materials they used were themselves ordinary.

But Wang Bo was different; he had a special metal from the Marvel world—Vibranium.

This stuff was extremely hard, one of the hardest materials in the Marvel universe. Its unique molecular structure made it nearly indestructible because its molecules were relatively stationary, causing it to hardly conduct heat or kinetic energy. This property allowed it to absorb heat, energy, and kinetic force.

If this metal were combined with dwarven forging techniques and magic, the resulting weapon would be terrifying. Though not as powerful as a divine artifact like Gungnir, it would still be a超凡武器 (supernatural weapon).

It might even be possible to forge a supernatural weapon close to a divine artifact. Such a weapon would be valuable in any world.

That was why Wang Bo occupied the Lonely Mountain and established relations with the Iron Hills dwarves.

If possible, he even wanted to subdue the dwarves.

After all, he already had the Gate of Worlds, allowing him to return to Middle-earth from other worlds at any time, so establishing a foundation in Middle-earth was not out of the question.

…

On the other hand, Ya Zi and Xiao Qing took half a day to travel from the Lonely Mountain to the Iron Hills.

After circling the Iron Hills, the two women found the dwarves living there without any trouble.

The Iron Hills dwarves saw two human women appear in their territory but didn't pay much attention; though they lived here, they weren't cut off from the world.

Human merchants often came to trade with them, exchanging for weapons.

But those were trading caravans; it was rare to see two women swaggering in like this.

After all, this world was not peaceful. Besides dwarves, elves, humans, and hobbits, there were many demons, monsters, trolls, ents, stone giants, and so on.

Any accident could easily kill two unarmed women.

Yet these two women appeared in the Iron Hills openly, dressed in fine, light clothes, showing no signs of hardship, as if on a picnic.

This caught the attention of some dwarves.

A few dwarves approached and asked Ya Zi and Xiao Qing their purpose.

Ya Zi said, "I come on the orders of the King of the Lonely Mountain."

The dwarves were puzzled. One of them said with a flickering gaze, "As far as I know, the Lonely Mountain has no king."

If there was one, it would be Smaug. Could these two women be Smaug's servants? At that thought, he felt a chill, thinking Smaug was no longer satisfied with the Lonely Mountain's wealth and had set his sights on the Iron Hills.

But the problem was, the Iron Hills only produced iron ore, not as rich as the Lonely Mountain.

Why would Smaug target this place?

Ya Zi said, "The Lonely Mountain now has a king. My friend defeated Smaug and gained his allegiance, becoming the true king of the Lonely Mountain."