’I guess that’s what it means to become something like a living weapon... After all, a weapon doesn’t reject power, whether it’s coming from mana or miasma...’
’Both are same for me; they are just two different types of sources of "power," and a weapon is meant to be able to use all sorts of powers to enhance itself...’
After reaching Rank S, Rio’s strength has increased tremendously; he’s so strong that he can easily defeat the previous version of himself, who was on the verge of advancing.
’Ten of the previous me can’t defeat the current me... the improvement brought about by this advancement is insane...’
Rio was already strong enough to fight for a while even with peak S rankers before he even became an S ranker, and now it won’t be an exaggeration to say that he can even kill a peak S ranker in certain situations.
’But this isn’t enough... I still have a long way to go...’
Rio tightened his grip on his sword, which was hanging on his waist, as he started moving forward.
’I have to become a peak-SS ranker to be able to deal with future threats... I can’t just keep on depending other SS-rankers in the future...’
’The only strength that truly matters in the end is your own...’
[Where are you heading? Do you even know the layout of this place?]
Rio glanced at the surroundings and spoke in his usual emotionless tone.
"I can see the ’flow’ of ’Miasma’ now that I am S-ranker... the miasma of this entire place is ’flowing’ towards the same direction..."
"This direction is likely the centre of this area... whatever memory this place holds from Alverto’s memories, it’s likely located in the centre of this ’flow’..."
Mana and Miasma are complete opposites in terms of how they provide power, but there are some things between them that are also common.
Mana and Miasma both flow toward something that actively tries to draw them from their surroundings.
’To sustain this place and to keep the memory intact, miasma is flowing towards it to give it the energy to remain intact...’
As Rio dashed forward while following the ’flow of miasma,’ various speculations appeared in his mind.
’Let’s consider that each of the floors in this spire of ascension contains a memory from Alverto. then why didn’t I see any of his memories in the upper floor?’
’There was no sign of a miasmic flow in the upper floors, as Kai didn’t notice it; otherwise, he would have likely told us about it...’
Rio was already an S-ranker when he was on Floor-7; he went through all the floors till he reached Floor-2, but he only noticed this weird flow of miasma only on this floor.
’This can only mean one thing: the memories stored on the upper floors were not really that important and didn’t need a flow of constant energy to keep them stable...’
’But the memory stored here is extremely important, so important that Alverto had to put it in a state that keeps getting more and more energy...’
’But why connect this entire spire of ascension with ’memories’? Why ’memories’ specifically?’
Unlike Link, Ashtel, or anyone else who was pulled into this place out of nowhere and has only been focused on trying to get out of here, Rio is different.
Rio has always liked to speculate and calculate everything ahead of time.
He was able to reach his current level of strength because he calculated and schemed against Fade from the very start and continuously kept stealing things that would have been his.
Rio is not like Link, who likes to rush headfirst into battle without even thinking about anything.
Just by having a single clue, Rio is able to figure out complex situations extremely easily with his knowledge from reading the book.
He knows more about the world than anyone else.
’According to what I have seen so far, ’Memories’, ’Dreams’, ’Ambitions’ and ’Goals’ are the type of powers that influence your ’Path’...’
’Negative memories, broken dreams, no ambitions and no goals destroys a person’s ’Path’ forward, and have major influence on your life...’
As Rio reached this point while speculating, a light of understanding appeared in his eyes.
’Similarly, the harder you work toward achieving your dreams and goals, the further you walk on your ’Path’, which makes you stronger...’
’A person’s memories play a very big part in this matter, which means you can use these memories as a fuel for growth...’
Rio glanced at the snow around him, and a look of understanding appeared on his face.
’This place is not called ’The Spire of Ascension’ for no reason... is he trying to use his memories as fuel, to power up this giant ’Machine’ to achieve some kind of goal?’
’Is it enhanced strength? Power? Influence? Dominion over demons? Or is it something else?’
Although Rio has already started to see some parts and bits of this puzzle, he still can’t understand the whole picture; there are many parts missing.
He has never heard anything about the ’Spire of Ascension’ in the book; he only knew of this place after visiting that ’Prototype’ version in the Dragon Valley and by hearing about it from Alverto himself.
Ashtel or even Neo might not know much about the actual use of this place, as even Neo only found out about it from Alverto.
’The actual question here is, where did Alverto find out about the existence of such a powerful thing? Who gave him this knowledge?’
As all these questions circled in Rio’s head, he kept walking forward.
His speed was extremely fast, yet he was being very stealthy despite such high-speed movement.
With his ’Sword Intent’ covering his entire body, Rio simply erased any mana fluctuation from his body, giving him perfect stealth.
Unless it’s an SS-ranker, no one can even sense his presence in this state, and even when he walked, he left no footprint on the snow.
Not even the air particles were startled as he moved right through them with the help of his shadow cloak and sword intent boost.
After about half an hour of travelling, Rio finally reached a place where the snowfall was much slower and the area didn’t have any hills or uneven ground anymore.
The weather seemed more stable and less cold compared to other places in this area, and even the snow covering the ground was less thick.
But that’s not what grabbed Rio’s attention.
’The smell of demonic blood...’
Demons are beings that are highly contaminated with miasma, so even their blood looks much darker and smells very weird, as if it’s rotting and boiling at the same time.
Rio walked further ahead and finally saw the situation.
Hundreds of demon hounds were feasting on the corpses of demonic werewolves.
There were mangled corpses all over the place, and the snow was covered in demon blood.
The vicious demon hounds were greedily gulping down the meat of the dead werewolf with relish.
Rio wasn’t really affected much by this sight, as he has seen places weirder than this; he’s even been to a place where dead bodies covered an entire continent.
’Why is this place in his memories?’
[Urgh... This place is so gruesome... thankfully I am not controlling the body or I will vomit...]
Ignoring Shadow’s words, Rio walked over to a random demon hound and stabbed its head with his sword; oddly though, no blood was spilled.
As if the sword passed right through it, the demon hound didn’t even feel anything, and it didn’t even notice Rio’s presence.
’It’s not actually a real manifestation... I will have to get creative then...’
Rio observed the body of the demon hound and the flow of miasma for a while before he finally figured out how the miasma was being converted into a power source for this memory.
With his immense affinity with miasma, he easily figured out the entire process, and so he created a new sword move on the spot.
[Elemental Sword Art: Soul Type: Miasmic Soul Reading]
Rio created a new type, the ’Soul Type,’ on the spot to read the memory stored in the virtual projection of this demon hound.
It might be near impossible for others, but Rio is built ’different.’ With his ’Infinite’ sword aptitude, pulling off such a move is as easy as breathing for him.
’Let’s see what you have got, little guy...’
Without further delay, Rio controlled his miasma as it spread into the body of the demon hound through his sword, and then it was all absorbed back into his sword along with the demon hound itself.
Rio absorbed the virtual soul and read all its memory using miasma as a medium.
With Sword Intent protecting his own body and soul, there’s no risk of him facing any side effect; he can easily convert the entire thing into energy and use the miasma for himself anyway.
Although most of the memories were just the daily activities of this particular demon hound, which were just normal wandering around the demon continent’s various palaces, one thing caught his attention.
The demon hound didn’t notice it, but Rio noticed the existence of a particular werewolf in their recent hunt.
The werewolf didn’t run towards the demon hounds while its entire tribe was under attack; instead, it watched curiously and used the chaos to escape.
’An intelligent and completely sane demonic werewolf... I have never heard of something like that...’
This unusual sight immediately piqued Rio’s curiosity.
’Is there some kind of connection between it and Alverto? Why is it in Alverto’s memory?’