Now that Rio knew about the existence of that ’plateau,’ he didn’t have to worry about the cube of possibilities malfunctioning anymore.
Rio had found the possibility he wanted from the infinite possibilities and threads of destinies.
Now the cube can just directly track the location of the plateau by scanning the threads of destiny of some nearby creature in its vicinity.
It won’t be affected by Rio’s own influence and won’t malfunction.
’That greedy orc did help me a lot this time... but his origins are also quite mysterious...’
’Did he end up getting killed by that shadow dragon or something?... and then got turned into an evil spirit affected by miasmic corruption?’
While walking forward in stealth mode, Rio kept thinking about how to deal with the SS-rank shadow dragon.
’I can’t defeat it in a head-on confrontation as of yet but I can’t just return empty handed either...’
’Just a teeny tiny bit of his soul and memory is enough... should I just ask for it directly?... err... that might be a bad idea...’
Even Raji, who had known Rio for several years beforehand, felt creeped out after Rio told her that he could pierce right through her soul and read her memories as long as he could get a chance to do so.
’Not like I am really going to do anything but... the precious memories and skills of SS-rankers are really attractive though...’
An SS-ranker’s memories and skills are something that everyone would covet; just getting a glimpse of their base foundational structures is enough to help you advance your skills quite a lot.
’If I read through Principal Raji’s memories, my frost elemental skills will become so strong that their damage would be off the charts!’
’Err... ahem! Cough! Stop thinking these things idiot... Think peaceful thoughts... yeah! happy thoughts...’
Lia’s cute face appeared in Rio’s mind, and instead of becoming happy, he became depressed again.
’Ugh... when will I get to meet her again!! Sigh~ Oh Liam once I catch you Liam! I will beat the sh*t out of you for making me work so much for you...’
Although Rio complained about the work, he was grateful that he got the chance to come to this place.
’Miasmic crystals heh... these are nice things...’
Rio looked at the solid miasmic crystal in his hand as he used his sword intent and miasma control to scan it over and over.
Rio has seen mana crystals before.
They are created when high-density miasma compresses itself due to the power of the mana flow and spatial fluctuations in the area.
Usually, high-grade mana crystals are only found in dungeons, but with modern technologies, it’s possible to create mana crystals in labs and factories too.
Most of the vehicles and weapons in modern times use mana crystals as a power source because it’s a clean fuel that doesn’t create any kind of pollution at all.
Moreover, mana itself is a form of energy; you don’t need any other extra trouble to convert mana crystal energy into other forms of energy.
In nuclear reactors in Rio’s previous world, they used the reactor to heat up water and spin the motors to generate electricity, which was very inefficient.
But mana crystals are very stable, non-radioactive, environmentally friendly, easily available, and abundant, and the mana can directly be used in place of electricity as a power source itself!
No need to convert it at all!
’How interesting... Miasma behaves exactly the opposite of mana even when crystallized like this...’
Unlike mana crystals, miasma was behaving completely opposite; it was highly unstable, highly radioactive, highly poisonous, highly destructive, and extremely bizarre.
Unlike mana crystals, where the energy is compressed and enters a dormant state after turning into such a pressured and tightly bound solidified form, miasma crystals were completely unstable!
The condensed miasma in it was just forcefully sticking together with each other because it was in a very unstable form.
’No wonder people argue that miasma is partially or even more conscious of its own existence...’
There was no other reason why this unstable miasma crystal still hadn’t exploded; it was because it was hunting for prey.
Yes, miasma crystals are barely able to keep their unstable form stable because the miasmic corruption inside them wants to use their energy to harm other creatures and destroy them as much as possible!
There is no other reason why this unstable substance can stay stable despite not even liking itself or anyone at all!
’This is like two enemies teaming up to deal with some external threat before they go back to fighting each other again...’
’Miasma is really good at finding various new tactics of harming the entire world as much as possible...’
The reason why the crystal in Rio’s hand hasn’t blasted itself is because Rio’s sword intent and miasma control had been keeping it suppressed.
If not for that, it would have already blown apart, and the energy released would have been enough to shatter the space-time fabric for a small time frame.
’This thing is really dangerous... keeping it with you is like walking around with a nuke in your pocket...’
Just by existing, it was emitting horribly powerful corruption and radiation waves in several dozen kilometers of area; touching it directly could lead to instant demonification even for peak S-rankers!
Rio was immune to it, so he wasn’t bothered much.
’By the way... what would happen if I ate this crystal though?... I mean, I am totally immune to corruption... I can totally use this as my ’emergency rations’ because it has millions of calories in every crystal...’
’It’s got so much energy that you can make a muscular body in a matter of seconds just by eating a bite of it... but it will only work for me though...’
Rio put away the miasmic crystals as he brought both his hands together and started channeling miasma.
He controlled the miasma in the area and started to forcefully and violently compress it with his powerful miasma control.
He drilled the intent of creating a crystallized form into the collected miasma using his sword intent and miasma control, and forcefully started making a miasma crystal on the spot.
He even used the space and time elementals to speed up the procedure and make the crystal more stable and powerful!
*BOOOM!*
Just a single mistake and the forcefully compressed miasmic corruption exploded with immense force, triggering a gigantic explosion that blew away several tons of debris in all directions!
A crater the size of a city was formed in a matter of a millisecond, and just the shockwaves produced from it were so strong that boulders were shattered to bits several dozens of kilometers away.
’Err... did I just... invent a new type of nuke by myself?...’
Standing in the middle of the crater, Rio scratched the back of his neck in awkwardness as he felt quite surprised by the sheer destructive power of this ability.
’Good, from now on, this is my new A.O.E. skill... but the downside is that I can’t use it anywhere near the cities or when I am fighting as a team...’
’Actually, I can use a mana version of it instead of miasma... but still that would still be A.O.E. type damage and would affect my teammates too...’
Rio’s arsenal of skills that involves A.O.E. attacks is, in fact, much bigger compared to his other skill sets; he’s more effective when working alone rather than in a team nowadays.
’Sigh... I miss those days when I could go all out while not putting my own teammates’ lives in danger... I guess I have walked quite a way on my ’path’ of strength...’
’This ’path’... It’s become much lonelier than before...’
Rio shook his head and started walking forward once again as he started to experiment again.
*BOOOM!*
Another mistake, another explosion of massive proportions! But Rio didn’t stop at all.
He was trying to create a partially stable miasma crystal that he could carry around with him without it bursting apart at random, so he had to experiment and work on it over and over.
Mistakes and problems are bound to occur when trying to do such insanely complex experiments and tasks, but that was exactly what Rio wanted.
He was trying to challenge his miasma control ability to the limits, as he wanted to improve his miasmic control to the next level, and this was a very good and effective method.
If Rio manages to successfully create a miasmic crystal artificially, his miasma-related skills will reach a much higher level compared to now, and he will be even stronger than before.
’I have really become a training junkie and a workaholic... sigh... maybe I should start calling myself the humble and friendly ’Scientist’ Rio Flash from now on...’
There was a long way to go before he could reach the plateau, so in the meantime, he was definitely not going to waste all this free time; he was going to train himself as much as possible.
Thankfully, miasma was abundant in the area, and thus Rio didn’t need to worry about ever running out of energy at all.
If he did, he could just take a bite of a miasmic crystal, and he would be overloaded with energy!
’This experiment also has infinite possibilities!’