Reborn as an Extra Chapter 558: The Unstoppable Bard. Part-3.

Even though the assault was incredibly fierce with Rio right in the middle of it, he barely felt its impact.

A layer of sword intent enveloped his whole form, bolstered by a protective miasmic barrier layered over it.

Without losing even a moment, after scattering much of the enemy forces and unleashing wild disorder across the zone, Rio shot ahead like a speeding projectile and began wielding his flute.

As Rio blew into the flute, he channeled its generated sound waves into a vast sweeping strike, infusing them with wild and perilous sword intent power.

Every lingering beast in his trajectory had their spirits and essences instantly crushed by the overwhelming force of Rio's deadly melody!

A thunderous sonic blast echoed through the sky as Rio surged onward, traversing the ravaged field of combat while harvesting the existences of all creatures bold enough to obstruct his advance.

To that enormous horde of beasts, it could have been an epic clash for the ages, a showdown of strength and supremacy, yet to Rio, it was merely an ordinary day.

In mere moments, Rio swept across the warzone, pulverizing countless monsters into fragments and putting a considerable gap between himself and the chaos by soaring at maximum velocity.

Having soared nonstop for roughly half a day, Rio at last eased his pace and touched down upon the earth.

Settling onto a massive rock, he drew in a prolonged, steady inhale.

"Phew~ that was quite a nice warmup..."

While the fight proved simple for Rio, it allowed him to discover fresh insights and test out various ideas.

'I can actually create spatial cracks if I use the power of miasmic crystal explosions...'

Creating such rifts remained impossible in the external realm for now, yet the earlier onslaught demonstrated that Rio might achieve a comparable feat upon ascending to SS-rank.

'It’s odd though, why would an army be sent to deal with me?... did miasma not understand that I can easily deal with such weak foes on my own?'

Not a mark could the forces inflict on Rio, much less halt his progress; hence, dispatching them against him served little purpose.

'What’s the purpose of this sudden interruption, I wonder...'

Within the spirit realm, Rio's instincts lay dormant, preventing him from piecing together hints that might otherwise reveal more.

'Is this the work of that arrogant guy Raika?... but if he knows a lot about me, then why would he send such weak monsters to fight me?'

'That doesn’t make any sense...'

Reaching this point in his musings, Rio dismissed the notions with a shake of his head, refusing to squander more effort on idle speculations.

He realized that uncovering solid explanations for such events would prove challenging, making it wiser to concentrate on his personal objectives instead of chasing resolutions to these puzzles.

Gazing at his flute, Rio noted its pristine condition, unchanged as always.

'I don’t even need to keep it in its sword form to do devastating damage anymore... wait, if I am not even using a sword, am I still a swordsman?'

Reflecting on this, Rio sensed that his self-description as a 'humble swordsman' was growing somewhat outdated.

Letting out a profound breath, Rio infused his frame with miasma to restore his drained mana reserves.

Unlike others, who rely solely on mana to recharge their energy cores or sources.

Rio stands apart; resistant to miasmic taint, he can harness miasma as fuel, much like demons.

During the conflict, Rio drew upon his personal mana for numerous abilities, leading to its exhaustion, and given the scarce mana in the spirit realm, natural recovery from the environment is virtually unattainable.

Therefore, substituting miasma became Rio's sole option for refilling his mana reserves.

"Hmmm??... what? Hmmm?..."

Upon introducing miasma into his energy core alongside mana, Rio detected an unusual feeling.

This 'unique' feeling was distinct, yet it slipped away before Rio could grasp it fully.

"Hmmm? What was that?...."

Baffled by the abrupt shift, Rio grew uncertain and chose to conduct a test immediately.

Assuming the lotus pose atop the boulder, he entered meditation to concentrate wholly on that odd feeling.

Rio expelled additional mana from his system, clearing room to absorb greater quantities of miasma.

Instantly upon doing this, the identical 'unique' feeling resurfaced.

Yet prior to advancing further, an interruption compelled him to halt, drastically lowering the miasma levels within him!

The entirety of the miasma burst from Rio's body in a flash, jolting him from his trance without delay!

"Wha-what!?"

Shock overwhelmed Rio to the extent that his stoic expression cracked, his mouth gaping in astonishment as if it might detach entirely.

"What did I just do?... err... did I nearly kill myself just now?... no, it was some kind of 'Attempt'?..."

"Hmm... this is weird; I have never heard anything about this kind of situation..."

As the pioneer attempting to balance mana and miasma simultaneously within himself, Rio lacked any precedents or mentors to consult.

The unexpected turn left him bewildered, struggling to comprehend the occurrence.

'Does it mean that trying to keep mana and miasma in one’s body at the same time a very dangerous thing and can cause harm to me?'

Mulling over this internally, Rio retrieved a premium mana restoration elixir from his spatial ring and consumed it to recover his depleted mana.

'But what will happen if I manage to make a proper stable cycle of both mana and miasma in my body?'

Intrigued by this emerging 'possibility,' Rio added it to his internal roster of future endeavors.

'Once I reach peak S-rank or even rank SS, I can retry this 'attempt' once again...'

Given his proficiency with both mana and miasma, Rio naturally refuses to restrict himself to a single type; should the opportunity arise later, he intends to integrate them both.

'Well, I might get in trouble if I keep miasma stored in my body though...'

Ashtel and his allies accepted Rio's miasma usage due to its absence within him and the lack of any corrupting influence.

However, deliberately storing it could jeopardize his bonds with them all.

'Err... I need to think things through before I do something like this again...'

Clearing his mind of stray ideas, Rio rose from his perch with a head shake.

Taking to the skies, he resumed his journey, persisting in compressing miasma toward forming a synthetic miasmic crystal.

'Sigh... I wonder when I will reach that plateau... it’s so far away!'

Though his quest brimmed with hardships—beasts, legions, mighty entities, and more standing in opposition—Rio, the relentless bard, pressed on undeterred.