Reborn as an Extra Chapter 572: The Grand Seal Of The Final Gamble. Part-2.

"So, she chose to head in the exact path King Allen followed to reach the sea of miasma?..."

"But what reason would she have for choosing that route? Wouldn’t it just work against her goals to proceed that way?... The miasma grows thicker the nearer you approach the sea of miasma..."

"Why would she deliberately move toward the sea of miasma? I’m lacking key details here..."

Rio pondered deeply, piecing together those shattered and shaky recollections, until he deduced that the shadow dragon king most probably sensed something ’unique’ along that route.

He had brought it up with Ellie during some earlier moment, yet his own recollections turned corrupted, leaving him unable to pass on any details regarding Ellie’s objective to Rio right before his end.

Only his remembrances of his daughter stayed untouched; nearly all the trivial ones had been mostly erased by the miasma.

’Other explanations might exist, but this seems like the strongest possibility I can imagine...’

Rio rose to his feet and gazed toward his intended path, a scowl forming on his features.

’Does that mean I’m currently traveling straight to the sea of miasma?’

The sea of miasma probably lies at a great distance from here, and Rio could take centuries to arrive without employing warp drive or another potent technique for blistering travel speeds.

’But why enter through the spirit realm to reach the sea of miasma?... Don’t say...’

Rio’s eyes grew wide as a memory surfaced of the old tale where Astra once cleansed vast sections of the sea of miasma, and alongside King Allen, they isolated those cleansed zones to create dwellings for regular spirits.

’It’s entirely possible that tiny pockets of the spirit realm also linger within the sea of miasma, allowing one to slip past its external protective barrier?’

Regardless of the foe’s stronghold you attempt to storm, your assault must first breach the barriers and safeguards the adversary has erected before you can clash directly.

The principle holds for the sea of miasma too; the bulk of its demons, puppets, and beasts cluster near the outer edges, since that’s the region with the thinnest miasma across the whole sea of miasma.

As you venture further in, the density ramps up, turning any incursion into a grueling test of stamina; the deeper you push, the tougher it gets.

’It resembles the abyss in a way... the further you plunge, the slimmer your odds of ever climbing out...’

Even King Allen Von Reinhart, the unchallenged pinnacle of power in his era, failed to emerge from that boundless void.

’I can’t help but wonder what truly birthed the sea of miasma...’

Rio felt intense curiosity about its nature and understood that eventually, he too would need to venture into it, much like King Allen had done before.

Glancing along his course, Rio observed the miasma currents flowing in the reverse direction.

Much like tracing a river back to its origin requires battling upstream against the current, the situation mirrored that here.

’Progress will turn increasingly arduous with every stride from this point on, I suppose...’

Rio resisted miasmic taint and could even harness it to his advantage, though that immunity didn’t extend to the havoc it wreaked on the surroundings and all else.

’Miasmic space tears, leaks of spilling miasma, twisted space distortions, and wild surges of irregular miasma streams... all sorts of threats could arise...’

Beyond just malevolent spirits and mighty beasts, the spirit realm’s terrain posed a deadly peril to all forms of life!

’I’ve already covered so much ground; turning back now without gains would be pointless...’

Rio shook his head, drew in a lengthy, steadying breath, and then soared onward in the direction indicated by the cube of possibilities, showing no doubt.

"Phew~ at last, I’ve pulled it off...."

A faint smile crossed Rio’s face as he examined the fresh miasma crystal he had formed; it stood as the cleanest and largest one he had ever produced to date.

Upon hitting the mid-tier of rank S, Rio’s power surged across every facet, with his command over miasma leaping forward dramatically.

Before, Rio managed only tiny, inferior miasma crystals featuring faint potency and shaky stability.

Yet now, he had advanced to crafting mid-grade miasma crystals, elevating his mastery of miasma to yet another height!

’A month and a half... it certainly demanded a fair chunk of time, but I’m pleased with how swiftly I’ve advanced...’

Rio refused to squander every moment solely on the journey; thus, as he set off after Ellie, he resumed his experiments in forging miasma crystals.

During the following month and fifteen days, Rio pressed on without pause.

He delegated the handling of his flight to his sword intent, mimicking an ’autopilot’ system akin to those on aircraft from his past life.

He programmed his sword intent with clear directives: ’steer clear of all obstacles, and warn me of any lurking threats...’

By setting it to operate in this fixed manner like an ’autopilot,’ he freed his full attention for concentrating on his work and honing his skill in miasma crystal formation.

Through this method, he sustained nonstop flight while vastly boosting his expertise and prowess in miasma handling.

Naturally, he paused occasionally for short ten-minute meditations to ease mental strain, though soon Rio grew irritated by the heavy mental toll from the miasma crystal efforts.

To counter that, he simply tore into the souls of any beasts he encountered, extracting their souls and seas of consciousness to refine into unadulterated mental and soul energy to bolster his reserves.

Even as miasma sought to shatter the beasts, Rio’s grip on miasma had grown so firm that he could postpone the blasts briefly, then gather the scattered soul pieces as on-the-go power sources for himself.

His flute held hundreds of such stored power cells, and whenever his soul or mental energy dipped low, he simply recharged using them, bypassing any need for downtime!

The strains of mental and soul fatigue plague even SS-rank powerhouses, yet Rio overcame them effortlessly by devouring rivals’ souls to lighten his own mental load and soul pressure.

Moreover, while consuming others’ souls and seas of consciousness, Rio realized his soul control had advanced tremendously, enabling him to leverage those foreign souls and seas to strengthen his own!

He merely needed to draw in the souls, purify them into raw soul energy, and infuse it to amplify his; the identical process worked for seas of consciousness too.

Though most spirit realm monsters lacked any reason, they retained fractured seas of consciousness within their souls.

Rio extracted them, transformed the shards into pure consciousness essence, and integrated it into his own sea of consciousness to broaden and fortify it.