Everything in the spirit realm was bizarre and distorted beyond a normal being’s comprehension capabilities.
Spatial fluctuation, time differences, elemental densities, flow of miasma, cosmic radiations, etc. were all in such chaotic forms that various bizarre phenomena were manifesting and getting destroyed every few seconds.
It was such a bizarre place that Rio had to avoid many of the unstable locations, as they were affected by too much chaos and were prone to imbalances in the ’laws’ of the ’world.’
Taking every step forward was a challenge; you had to calculate your every move with various clues and think it all over and over beforehand.
If Rio didn’t have miasma immunity, miasma control, and powerful sword intent at his disposal, even he might have already died by now due to various bizarre things happening here.
You never know when the unstable space-time fabric around you might shatter and kill you; you never know when a random violent spatial fluctuation might hit you and blast you apart from inside out.
Rio even saw an entire group of S-rank evil spirits get shredded into small pieces in a matter of milliseconds because the space-time fabric in that place got disturbed by a random spatial fluctuation and increase in miasmic density!
’This place is so hostile that only peak SS-rankers can actually stay unharmed here if they never let their guard down and that is if they constantly protect themselves from miasmic corruption...’
’No wonder so many criminals that escape to the spirit realm never seem to be able to make it back to the material world...’
’This place is dangerous for even SS-rankers, let alone anyone else...’
Thinking about this matter, Rio’s eyes narrowed.
’If even the spirit realm is already this deadly... then just how horrible would the insides of the ’sea of endless miasma’ be like I wonder...’
Unlike the spirit realm, where there is still solid ground and miasma in the form of dense fog, the sea of miasma is made up of liquid condensed miasma everywhere!
It’s a literal ’sea’ of dense miasmic liquid that’s spread over nearly 1/10th of the entire universe!
It’s so big that galaxies are as small as atoms in front of it!
’It can shatter galaxies at a whim; hundreds of trillions of demons and monstrosities might be living in it with an insanely high number of SS-ranker inside it...’
’It’s really a horrific place...’
Looking at the sky, Rio noticed that the miasmic rain had become much slower and less dense as he kept walking.
Rio crossed several hills and barren wastelands corrupted with miasmic rot and filled with bizarre creatures before he managed to reach near the next possibility shown by the cube of possibilities.
’This cube is really inefficient... sigh... I guess it’s malfunctioning like this because it’s me who’s using it...’
Rio, being an anomaly, is difficult to get a grasp of.
It’s nearly impossible to predict his future, and it’s nearly impossible to calculate his possibilities.
In fact, if Rio wasn’t purposely deactivating his true immunity from time to time, the cube wouldn’t even work on him.
And even if it was working on him, it was actually doing things in a very inefficient and weaker way.
It was only able to calculate close-range possibilities related to Rio that are not too far in the future or past.
The cube was surely leading Rio closer to Liam, but it was doing it in small, separated steps, one after another, as if it were incapable of doing a longer calculation.
’I guess... I am not less bizarre than this bizarre place myself... a bizarre shady traveler in a bizarre shady wasteland of death and horror... a perfect combination...’
Rio shook his head and closed the distance to the new possibility he had found.
After walking for a while, Rio found himself standing in front of a massive river!
But unlike normal rivers, this was a river made up of condensed miasmic liquid flowing at a very slow pace.
The miasma in this river was so dense that it seemed like some kind of pitch-black sticky jelly moving on the conveyor belt of a factory at a very slow pace.
The area around it was so corrupted that the ground had turned into solid miasmic crystals!
But all that wasn’t what Rio was interested in; his eyes fell on an evil spirit sitting beside the river of miasmic corruption.
The evil spirit was in the shape of a shadowy phantom, and it looked like a bloated orc or something like that.
It was constantly scooping out the black miasmic goo from the river of miasma and trying to stuff it in its mouth, but unfortunately for it, the evil spirit didn’t have a throat, and it would all spill out and never reach its stomach.
As if the evil spirit itself hadn’t noticed that it didn’t have a neck to swallow the miasma down in its stomach, it was still trying to stuff the miasmic rot in its mouth over and over.
And while doing all that, it was constantly laughing like a creep and shouting,
"ah!!! Meat! Meat! Human meat!!! Ah! Ah! Meat! So good! So good!! Ahh!!"
Rio couldn’t understand how that creature was able to produce shouts when it didn’t even have a neck in the first place, but each of those shouts was creating powerful spatial fluctuations and creating a lot of disturbances in the area.
Even the flow of miasma was chaotic around that bizarre evil spirit.
’Are all creatures in the spirit realm able to produce mental and spiritual attacks with their presence alone?...’
Just like the previous time, Rio had turned his invisibility off, but the creature did not seem to notice his presence at all.
’Another manifestation of the past?... evils spirits manifesting is a rare phenomenon in the material world but here... it’s so common that I have already met two in the same day...’
It’s already been around an entire day since Rio entered the spirit realm, but he’s seen so many bizarre things here that he’s starting to get used to this place now.
’If pigs suddenly start flying in this place randomly, I won’t even be surprised anymore...’
Shaking his head, Rio bent down and grabbed a handful of miasmic crystals from the ground.
’These are quite interesting... the density of miasma in these crystals is denser than what I create for my miasmic attacks...’
’I can study it and copy the composition of this miasmic crystal to enhance my miasma shields and other attack skills...’
For others, the spirit realm might be a hellhole filled with terror and monstrosities, but for Rio, this is a gold mine filled with many opportunities to learn and improve himself.
The main reason why Rio even agreed to come on this mission was because he wanted a challenge and a new push to improve himself.
’The intermediate stage of S-rank is not that far away from me anymore...’
Rio has seen so many bizarre things here that he’s got an insane amount of inspiration for his new skills and powers, and even his proficiency in various miasma and soul-related techniques has improved in this one single day!
’I am short on time or I would like to stay in this place for a year or two at least... I can totally use these miasmic crystals to do new and interesting experiments...’
Rio has been in the S-rank realm for about half a year now, and he’s been constantly training and improving himself.
With his already fast improvement speed, he’s obviously not that far away from the intermediate S-rank stage anymore.
"Err... Mr. River eater? Can you hear me? Do you know anything about the shadow dragons perhaps?"
"By the way I am your neighborhood friendly bard... just passing by..."
*Awkward Silence noises~*
Seeing that the other party didn’t react at all, Rio took a deep sigh and rubbed his temples to stop the incoming headache.
The other party was in an even more deranged state compared to the previous evil spirit.
It likely couldn’t even have a mind sane enough to even hold a proper conversation, and it was only repeating a few words over and over without stopping.
’This kind of situation actually reminds me of a kind of punishment where you make the person do one thing repeatedly over and over so many times that their mind shatters...’
’And they become incapable of thinking anything beside that same task and become so ensl*ved to that one particular task that they never even want to stop doing it anymore...’
Rio frowned a bit and guessed,
’Is this an effect of mind manipulation or soul control?...’
Rio took a deep breath and brought out his flute as he took a stance similar to what Lia usually does when she’s about to do a very quick stab attack that will target a specific weak point.
’I might not be able to extract information from him in a easier way, as he’s too broken to hold a proper conversation...’
’I will have to get a bit crafty this time...’