Thor and Loki possessed the blood of the Ancient Giants.
Not only were they far larger than ordinary Giants, their strength was equally astonishing.
At only five years old, Thor and Loki already stood seventeen meters tall and were strong enough to effortlessly lift Underworld beasts dozens of meters in size.
The five-year-old twins had already earned reputations as the strongest Giants in all of Elbaph.
“Thor, what are you doing?”
In Elbaph’s Underworld, Loki stared at Thor’s strange behavior with complete confusion.
He had no idea what Thor was doing, but it looked impressive.
Countless enormous beasts inhabited Elbaph’s Underworld.
Whenever Giant hunters wanted to hunt one, they normally had to form groups of several people.
Even then, the hunters rarely dared venture deep into the Underworld.
If one of the Mountain Lords set its sights on them, they were as good as dead.
Only legendary Giant heroes like Jarul and Jorul could venture alone into the depths of the Underworld.
And yet this place, considered incredibly dangerous by the Giants of Elbaph, had now become Loki’s personal playground.
Thor rarely came to the Underworld.
It wasn’t because he feared the Mountain Lords.
If Loki could effortlessly tame those beasts, Thor wouldn’t have much trouble dealing with them either.
The main problem was that the Underworld was simply too cold.
Thor still remembered being chased by Mountain Lords and nearly freezing to death here when he was a newborn.
Those were hardly pleasant memories.
So he had never particularly liked this place.
Still, whenever necessary, Thor would occasionally come down to collect the bones of dead beasts.
“Thor, why are you picking up all those bones?”
Loki watched Thor search through the Underworld for animal skeletons as though he were gathering firewood.
He genuinely couldn’t understand his brother.
“To make something.”
“Huh?”
Thor’s answer only confused Loki further.
His twin brother had always been strange.
Despite being every bit as strong as Loki, Thor preferred reading and learning things.
Loki gave up trying to understand him.
Thor had always been like this anyway.
Everyone in Elbaph already knew that Princes Thor and Loki were two famous oddballs.
“All right.”
Once he had gathered enough beast bones, Thor stuffed them all into a huge sack.
It was time to head back.
“Loki, you should come home early too. Don’t make Ida worry.”
“I know.”
Loki sounded impatient.
It was precisely because Ida worried about him so much that he didn’t want to return early.
He had absolutely no idea how to deal with this foster mother who wasn’t related to him by blood yet loved him unconditionally.
Perhaps he was simply a hopeless tsundere.
After leaving the Underworld and returning to the Sun World with a massive sack of beast bones on his back, Thor didn’t head for Ida’s tavern.
“Prince Thor, you brought this many beast bones again? These are excellent materials!”
Sindri, the Giant blacksmith, practically had stars in his eyes.
Elbaph’s Underworld wasn’t somewhere people could casually visit.
Only Thor and Loki were capable of treating it like a playground.
The bones of its beasts were exceptionally hard and could be used to make all sorts of things.
Their most common use, however, was as horn decorations for the helmets worn by Elbaph’s warriors.
This was another Elbaph tradition.
Ordinary Giants lacked the horns that grew naturally from the heads of Ancient Giants, so they wore horned helmets to demonstrate their reverence for strength.
“We had a deal. I bring you beast bones, and you make something for me.”
“Of course!”
Sindri laughed heartily before shouting into the smithy.
“Brok! Bring out what we made earlier and let Prince Thor have a look!”
“Coming.”
Another Giant emerged from the smithy, laboriously dragging an enormous hammer behind him.
The moment Thor saw the beautiful one-handed warhammer, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
“Very nice. I like it!”
Thor.
The name of the God of Thunder in Norse mythology.
Even someone who knew nothing about Norse mythology would probably know who Thor was after watching a Marvel movie.
Since his name was already Thor, how could he possibly go without his own Meow-Meow Hammer?
The hammer Brok had dragged from the smithy was fifteen meters long, almost as tall as Thor himself.
But that was Thor’s current height.
With his Ancient Giant bloodline, Thor would eventually grow to at least sixty meters tall.
By the time he reached adulthood, this hammer would be the perfect size for him.
“Prince Thor, give it a name.”
“I’ll call it Mjölnir.”
Mjölnir.
The name of the God of Thunder’s hammer.
Thor had already decided which Devil Fruit he wanted to eat as well.
Since there apparently wasn’t a Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Type, Model: Fenrir, he would just eat the Rumble-Rumble Fruit instead.
His name was already Thor.
How could he not cosplay the Norse God of Thunder?
Damn, that was unfairly cool.
He’d instantly fallen in love with the God of Thunder!
And the approximate location of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was already known.
It should be somewhere in the sky islands.
At this point in time, Big Mom was still only a child.
Enel hadn’t even been born yet.
Thor had plenty of time to search for the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
He had already reserved his future Devil Fruit ability in his own mind.
Thor had mapped out his future path of development perfectly.
“Now that’s a good weapon!”
Loki suddenly appeared from nowhere and snatched Mjölnir straight out of Brok’s hands.
Recently, Loki had been feeling that his current weapon wasn’t heavy enough.
And now Thor had secretly commissioned someone to make this huge hammer.
What a great weapon!
It belonged to Loki now.
Thor didn’t get angry when Loki stole the hammer he had personally designed.
He was the older brother, after all.
Naturally, he should give way to his little brother.
If Loki liked it, he could have it.
Then again…
If Loki had Mjölnir, surely he wouldn’t need Ragnir anymore, right?
In that case, as his older brother, Thor would simply have to reluctantly take Ragnir off his hands.
“Huh? Thor, you’re really not going to take it back?”
After waving Mjölnir around triumphantly for quite a while, Loki finally noticed that Thor hadn’t reacted at all.
He was confused.
“I’m the older brother. Naturally, I should give way to my little brother. If you like it, you can have it.”
“Huh?”
The hammer suddenly didn’t feel nearly as appealing in Loki’s hands.
What did Thor mean by calling himself the older brother?
Was this bastard trying to take advantage of him?
“I don’t want this stupid hammer anymore!”
Loki irritably tossed Mjölnir back to Thor.
Then he turned toward Sindri and Brok and ordered the two Giant blacksmiths in a fierce tone,
“You two! Make me one of those hammers too.”
“Huh?”
Sindri and Brok exchanged awkward glances.
“Prince Loki, forging a hammer this large requires quite a lot of materials. So, you see…”
The implication from the Giant blacksmiths was obvious.
Even if you were a prince of Elbaph, you still had to pay.
Unfortunately, Loki apparently didn’t understand what they were hinting at.
Thor rephrased it for him.
“The beast bones I collected from the Underworld are very useful to blacksmiths. Go gather a bunch of bones and bring them back. They’ll make you an even better hammer.”
“Really?”
Loki immediately turned toward the two Giant blacksmiths.
Sindri and Brok nodded furiously.
“Prince Thor is absolutely right. We need more beast bones.”
“Got it. I’ll bring you some.”
Loki hadn’t grown up being ostracized and abused in the royal city of the Heaven World.
Under Ida’s care and guidance, he had become reasonably understanding.
And so, Loki began his grand cleanup operation of the Underworld.