Reborn as an Extra Chapter 556: The Unstoppable Bard. Part-1.

During his nonstop experiments, Rio traveled on foot for three full days, covering vast stretches of thousands of kilometers as he soared through the air at a steady pace.

With all the huge blasts he was setting off all over the place, maintaining any kind of secrecy became impossible, so he quit trying to stay on the ground and took to the skies at a decent, controlled speed.

His goal lay far beyond reach, and trudging along on foot no longer made sense, leading him to choose flight as his way forward.

’Ugh... this spot feels so gross; I’m itching to get out already...’

Four days had passed since Rio first stepped into the spirit realm, and every moment brought him face-to-face with yet another strange, off-putting abomination.

Odd beings without any skeletal structure slithered across the earth, weeping without end as they moved.

Twisted demonic hounds shaped like the number ’8’ bounced around like balls in a game, leaping to propel themselves; each bound tore their forms open, leaking foul miasma that sealed back up before they could perish.

Swollen, alligator-like beasts bloated with countless souls hovered mid-air, buoyed solely by the swollen soul force crammed within them.

Curiosity drew Rio nearer for a better view, only for the thing to erupt, spraying its viscous gore everywhere and leaving him thoroughly repulsed.

To wash away the imagined grime, Rio submerged himself in a pool of toxic miasma.

These were merely the horrors Rio inspected up close; countless other freaky entities dotted the landscape, but he lacked the chance to study them fully before they detonated.

After that initial triumph, Rio attempted the soul-stealing technique on additional wicked spirits, yet each effort ended in defeat.

Miasma had detected his exploitation of that ’flaw,’ promptly erasing the loophole entirely.

These days, any monster or malevolent spirit he approached too closely simply burst apart on its own, denying him any chance to act.

Forced into distance, Rio settled for remote observations to collect whatever useful insights he could.

’Err... given all the racket I’ve been making recently, something major is bound to crop up soon, but halting my trials isn’t an option...’

Unless some stray top-tier SS-ranker wandered his way, Rio had zero plans to cease his chaotic play.

Outside, honing his miasma abilities proved impossible for Rio.

Even deploying miasma against vile offenders had tarnished his image badly; despite their heinous crimes, a vocal minority rallied behind them fiercely.

Not being any sort of official enforcer or authority figure, Rio drew heavy criticism for his harsh, cruel methods, with folks insisting courts alone should judge and punish.

Attempts to press charges against him surfaced, but the country’s dire crisis at the time allowed Raji to quash them all on his behalf.

In calmer eras, though, nothing would block those accusers from dragging Rio into endless legal hassles and draining his valuable hours.

This stands as the key barrier keeping Rio from delving deep into miasma training beyond these borders.

Such a force breeds easy misconceptions, and even allies like Raji and Ashtel show unease whenever Rio’s miasma use comes up.

For mastering miasma techniques, the spirit realm offered the perfect haven.

’If I could, I’d secure a reliable way to access the spirit realm anytime... yet lingering here long-term doesn’t appeal...’

True, the spirit realm suited Rio’s training needs ideally, but it fell short as a prolonged home, far from any spot for unwinding.

In this bizarre domain, the next twist always lurked unpredictably.

Rio once spotted an SS-rank fiend, worm-formed, devouring its own flesh in a loop while tearing through the surroundings wildly.

Luckily, his knack for hiding served him well; he slipped past undetected and pressed on with his trials and probes.

"Ugh! Yet another flop!... sigh..."

Crafting a synthetic, steady miasmic crystal proved incredibly tough; every thread of miasmic power demanded individual restraint, locked in place until the whole structure formed.

Rio figured he’d require millions of those energy threads at minimum to forge even a tiny, low-quality miasma crystal the size of a nail clipping.

’Well, from that initial attempt where I managed just half a million threads stable at once, I’ve doubled it to a million now...’

’My command over miasma has surged ahead impressively; at this pace, my debut artificial crystal should emerge within a month...’

While SS-rankers could pull off comparable feats with mana crystals effortlessly, Rio alone tackled this nightmare using miasma.

Forming dense crystals ranked as a fiendishly intricate challenge, and succeeding with superior versions would thrust one toward godlike territory!

’Once I master high-grade miasma crystals, I’ll stand mere breaths from ascending to the next level... the demi-god domain!’

In the midst of his tests and aerial journey, Rio arrived at a sheer drop-off, forcing him to touch down since his path ahead ended abruptly.

’What in the world is happening here?’

Bewilderment clouded Rio’s expression as he gazed ahead in stunned puzzlement.

A sprawling, desolate expanse stretched before him, swarming with hordes of varied abominations locked in savage combat across its breadth.

Rio glanced skyward, where colossal, freakish aerial beasts clashed in furious aerial dogfights.

Dozens of the peculiar beasts he’d encountered earlier filled the scene, savagely tearing, clawing, or slamming into one another!

’A warzone?... what sparks such enormous clashes among them...’

Surveying the colossal horde, Rio’s brow furrowed upon spotting scores of S-rankers, multitudes of A-rankers, and over forty thousand lesser fiends and spirits!

Every one battled relentlessly toward annihilation!

Mighty psychic pulses erupted from them in all directions, their merged force so overwhelming it shattered the terrain beneath.

Reality’s weave splintered; miasma currents turned turbulent, and wild spatial ripples ravaged the zone, claiming hundreds per instant!

Rio squinted at the heavens, where myriad rifts and gateways spewed fresh horrors, amplifying the bedlam and terror.

As confusion deepened for Rio, the miasma’s currents shifted abruptly, and a vast multitude of beasts snapped their gazes toward the distant ridge in unison.

Chills raced over Rio’s skin from the overwhelming, focused murderous aura radiating from the monstrous legion.

Hundreds of thousands strong, the horde fixed on Rio with seething loathing and lethal intent, triggering every warning in his being simultaneously.

Instinctively, Rio’s fingers sought the flute at his belt as he uttered in a taunting tone.

"Oi oi... I’ve stirred up some trouble in the spirit realm, sure, but is all this really necessary just for little old me?..."

As Rio drew his flute and assumed position, the full swarm of beasts and shades charged his way all at once.

"I’d gladly take this handout if I had spare moments to burn here... on any other day without my schedule, I’d relish sticking around for the endless brawl..."

"But right now, time’s short and I’m not up for a prolonged slugfest..."

"So, I’ll smash straight through your ranks in a flash!"

Eyes free of doubt, Rio whipped his flute down with resolve.

Harnessing the area’s spatial turbulence, Rio whipped up intense gravity surges within the spirit realm’s fragile reality and hurled them at the enormous beast force.

This mimicked a technique Rio borrowed from Ashtel’s world dominion, ’Shockwave,’ unleashing havoc that warped space-time wildly!

The gravity bursts flung countless monsters off course haphazardly, with others exploding outright; their fragile lineup crumbled into disarray.

Much like a rock disturbing a pond, the ripples from the strike threw the whole mass into turmoil, tilting odds in Rio’s favor.

Spotting the opening, Rio flashed a sly smile and dove into the fray with a cocky grin.

"Here I come! Try and halt me if you dare!"