Reborn as an Extra Chapter 541: The Angry Sea of Miasma.

"Hmm... it's even more rundown than I'd imagined..."

Perched atop a towering cliff, Rio gazed at the crumbling tower ahead, his face etched with clear dissatisfaction.

"Was this tower wrecked after that fellow 'Fabian' turned against everyone because of the miasmic taint?"

The original story mentioned the tower's severe damage too, yet Rio only grasped the full extent of the ruin once he stood before it himself.

Some devastating strike had obliterated the higher levels, while the surviving lower sections stood battered and worn down by relentless rains and harsh elements.

Just a handful of years had passed since the tower fell into neglect, yet its exposed position left it vulnerable to brutal weather assaults.

Rio cast his eyes southward, where an immense ocean stretched endlessly to meet the distant skyline.

'Storms like thunder and cyclones must've worsened the tower's decay once its top parts were blasted apart...'

With a shake of his head, Rio unleashed his sword intent, sweeping it across the whole tower to locate the item he sought.

He was well aware of the tower's sorry state beforehand, but his purpose here wasn't the broken edifice itself; no, he sought a peek at the infamous 'Sea of Endless Miasma.'

Folks typically dread the miasmic ocean, avoiding even a glance at it lest their minds fall to corruption.

Rio, however, brushed aside such fears.

Nothing compelled him to dread it, though he couldn't afford total indifference either.

Employing his sword intent, Rio flung aside or smashed blocking rubble, unearthing a compact pair of binoculars from beneath the wreckage.

Through his sword intent, Rio swept the grime off the binoculars and polished them with flawless care.

At last, he grasped them in his palm.

"Who would've thought they'd leave an SS-rank artifact just lying in this forgotten spot... it's like they placed it there deliberately for Fade..."

As thoughts of the original tale crossed his mind, Rio shook his head.

This potent tool allowed Fade to peer at distant objects effortlessly, no matter the range!

There it was, simply abandoned amid the rubble!

"Never mind, I've snatched so many absurd protagonist opportunities already that it wouldn't surprise me if some loose brick in a rundown shack hid a game-changing secret..."

By pilfering Fade's fortunes, Rio had even claimed 'limitless' potential; a simple pair of binoculars paled in comparison.

Shaking his head once more, Rio pocketed the binoculars and leaped onto the tallest surviving column of the tower.

'From what I recall, this item reveals a sharp view of any spot in your direct view if you have a basic idea of what it looks like...'

The artifact worked solely for viewing known places clearly, rendering it quite impractical and often pointless.

Unlike fellow SS-rank treasures, it lacked overwhelming might, yet boasted a special trait.

That trait let it shrug off heavy miasmic disruption when observing areas thick with miasma and decay.

It even functioned in the spirit realm for distant vistas.

Typical far-seeing artifacts faltered against miasmic distortion, but this one held strong.

It once was Fabian's, back when he labored here alongside other scholars, focused on charting and deciphering the miasmic sea's shifts.

Fabian turned traitor, probably sparking the site's desertion.

Once a prime national draw for sightseers, the sea gazers' tower now drew scarcely any visitors after the miasma's advance and Fabian's chaos.

On his journey here, Rio spotted not a soul among tourists, with no aerial transports or rides in sight, leaving every path deserted.

'Tourist numbers mean nothing to me; I only want this gadget to function as intended...'

Ceasing his wandering thoughts, Rio raised the binoculars skyward.

Locating the sea of miasma posed no challenge, given its colossal presence in the cosmos—impossible to overlook.

Actually, glimpses of it came from various planetary spots, but this vantage offered superior clarity.

As soon as Rio channeled sword intent to power the artifact, picturing the sea of miasma while aiming that way, his sight began pushing outward endlessly.

Initially limited to solar system sights, the view then surged onward at breakneck pace, nearly spinning Rio's senses.

His gaze seemed to pierce through space-time's weave, racing toward the sea of miasma.

Myriads of galaxies blurred past in his sight.

Various stars dotted the void, alongside black holes, wandering worlds, vast nebula clouds, neutron stars, and more.

In that instant, Rio witnessed it all, hurtling ahead with mounting velocity.

This display clarified for him why the universe's immensity triggered crises of meaning in some souls.

The cosmos sprawled unbelievably wide, dwarfing their solar system to less than atomic scale.

Moments later, after building speed, Rio's perspective neared the Sea of Miasma.

All around loomed an enormous ocean of fluid miasmic blight—raw, dense miasma at its core.

Endless it stretched.

Outward it surged in all bearings, annihilating anything it encountered upon contact, wiping it from being.

From afar, across multiple galaxies, Rio viewed it thus, marking the artifact's boundary.

Though it countered miasmic corruption's meddling, the device couldn't pierce the sea's enigmas; the miasma's barrier proved too formidable to breach.

Rio shifted his gaze to explore different angles.

Right as Rio prepared to delve deeper into the sight, an abrupt shift occurred.

'Hmm?'

The 'Sea of Miasma' quaked fiercely of a sudden, its growth halting briefly.

Real-time imagery flowed through the artifact to Rio!

This meant events unfolded in the remote site precisely as they happened, with zero delay.

'What's going on?'

As Rio sought to probe the cause of this jolt, a sharp snap echoed.

The binoculars cracked and fell to pieces.

Stunned, Rio saw miasma's thickness spike near his binoculars, tainting them with miasmic rot!

He deployed sword intent, yet the artifact dissolved into fluid miasma, utterly ruined.

"What the hell!?"

The spectacle left Rio so rattled that a curse escaped his lips unbidden.

"No way—it sensed my gaze on it!?"

No mere trinket, this was a true SS-rank artifact, fortified by Rio's sword intent!

Destruction like that couldn't occur casually under Rio's control.

Only the sea of miasma detecting an observer and striking back could explain it.

'Breaking my fresh binoculars mere moments after I claimed them... sigh...'

Should another wield the binoculars as they liquefied into miasmic sludge, their sight and touch would've suffered corruption.

Staring at the sea of miasma could even fracture one's mind outright, though Rio held no such fears.

With sword intent, he dispersed the miasma from his grasp while descending the pillar.

"Ugh... such a pity, I longed to study it longer... It detected me too swiftly..."

Though unthreatened by the sea of miasma's actions, Rio felt astonishment all the same.

'But why the quake? Did my watching rile it so fiercely that it lashed out in fury?'

Lacking answers, Rio strolled to the cliff's brink and settled with legs dangling over.

"Tch! Drop it! When I hit SS-rank, I'll march right up to you! Let's see you block me then!"

To soothe his thoughts, Rio admired the stunning vista, then pulled out his phone for a selfie, forwarding it to Lia.

'Fine weather like this; it'd be foolish to depart prematurely...'

Such notions swirling in mind, he retrieved his flute anew and infused it with vast sword intent to weave a tune.