Reborn as an Extra Chapter 559: Rio the ’Hell-Walker’.
Previously on Reborn as an Extra...
Rio employed total stealth to establish a vast gap from the combat zone, rendering himself tough to follow should any beast from the fray attempt to chase after him.
Even with Rio having slain the bulk of them and crippled almost every last one, a handful of fortunate survivors might have evaded capture and could seek to hunt him down.
Once he had traversed a substantial stretch in full stealth, Rio resumed soaring to boost his pace and dove back into his trials with the miasmic crystal.
As a formidable S-rank powerhouse fueled by both mana and miasma, Rio faced no issues with meals, rest, or even air at all.
He pressed on through the skies at breakneck velocity without a single halt, covering hundreds of thousands of kilometers just like that.
For a solid half-month, Rio evaded beasts and landscapes alike while hurtling ahead nonstop!
In the fifteen days right after the clash, Rio did nothing else but streak straight toward his target, all while tinkering away at the miasmic crystal.
His nonstop aerial travel pushed his flight technique to its peak level, granting him the ability to switch to autopilot soaring.
He handed over the reins of navigation to his sword intent, which instinctively managed the whole voyage much like an aircraft's autopilot system.
Rio's autopilot function operated with such precision that it independently spotted and dodged creatures and barriers, sparing him any frets.
By delegating aerial guidance, timing, bodily and psychic defenses, and the like to his sword intent, Rio poured every bit of his focus onto the miasmic crystal.
Day after day, Rio's command over miasma and his grasp of it advanced steadily; he dissected and dissected again the miasmic crystal pulled from the miasma river countless times.
Each successive day brought greater insight into miasma, boosting every one of his miasma-linked techniques by multiple ranks.
Perched upon the enormous cranium of a fallen beast, Rio settled into lotus pose, steadying his thoughts and zeroing in his whole consciousness on just one objective.
He shut down miasma sensing, dropped the miasma barrier, and directed all his strength and resources toward that single endeavor.
Through his sword intent serving as the bridge, miasma streamed in from every angle between his hands and began condensing far more fluidly and solidly than his attempts amid the monster skirmish.
The accumulation of miasma stretched on for roughly ten minutes!
Rio drew in such an immense volume of nearby miasma that its thickness across a 100-kilometer span around him dipped noticeably.
All of that miasma got squeezed and solidified right there in one spot; with his sword intent, Rio restrained every spatial ripple and elemental chaos.
His command of miasma had grown so advanced that he could transmit his ideas via it, enabling the miasma to grasp without issue that he aimed to pack it tight into a miasmic crystal.
Through days of testing, Rio grasped that miasma typically resisted his directives quite a bit, and to earn its true loyalty, he needed to resort to trickery.
Miasma naturally gravitates toward the utterly vile, deranged, and treacherous, so Rio mirrored that tactic; using his miasma handling and sword intent, he signaled to it that the miasmic crystal would serve as a explosive device.
He planned to deploy it against enemies; this sparked a shift, making the strands of miasmic power far easier to manage as they eagerly obeyed his command.
Following over half a month's intense labor and dedication, Rio at last succeeded in crafting his debut man-made miasmic crystal.
...
The unexpected rush of alerts caught Rio off guard, painting shock across his expression.
Upon rising and securing the miasmic crystal, Rio saw the local miasma deliberately pulling away from his area.
His mere gaze scrambled the miasma's streams, and it willfully withdrew in the face of his aura, behaving as if terrified of him.
’Err... what?’
Before Rio could piece together what was happening, he felt his flute vibrate and shifted it to sword shape for a closer inspection.
The blade transformed, with the pair of words ’Hell-Walker’ etching onto it in gleaming gold script, amplifying the sword's already fearsome majesty.
’Is it marking my achievement by inscribing my title onto itself?... how thoughtful....’
Only a few years prior, at the SSA tournament in his second academy year, Rio struggled to wield the sword's complete force, and its rebellion even led to his downfall.
Yet these days, the sword had turned remarkably tame and appeared to embrace its destiny as Rio's ally.
’I might soon unlock additional sealed abilities of it down the line...’
The blade of total annihilation, ’Vinash,’ surely goes beyond being a mere ’soul-splitting’ tool; it probably wields far more devastating capabilities.
Rio simply needs to keep advancing, and he'll gain access to them.
’On that note, ’Vinash’ grew warmer toward me once I seized command of miasma and began harnessing it...’
’Could that suggest it craves my descent into darkness before allowing full use of its power... how intriguing...’
Mulling this over, Rio abruptly altered his outfit's style; it remained the garb of a roaming minstrel, though his cape now featured a fresh emblem.
The title ’Hell-walker’ gleamed in golden lettering across his cape, surrounded by an illustration of a blade and multiple miasmic crystals circling it.
’I truly enjoy how simply I can tweak my attire's appearance... wait... I'm forever inventing fresh looks...’
’Am I a side-gig clothier as well?... er... I'll need to test out my styling prowess upon returning; I'll craft a piece for Lia....’
As he pondered diverse garments that might appeal to Lia, Rio launched into the air and rocketed toward his goal once more!