Reborn as an Extra-Chapter 603: Let’s Go Home. Part-3.

Kehrid was surprised that Rio actually returned that artifact right away without him even needing to say anything.

He could see that Rio had just returned from a dangerous place, and even his friend was likely dead, so Kehrid was hesitating to ask about the artifact at the moment out of consideration.

But since Rio returned it on his own, that only improved Rio’s impression on Kehrid.

He used his telekinesis and put away the artifact and the miasma crystal box before asking hesitatingly,

"Well... so, how did your search go... I noticed that you brought back a large a floating container with you... is it perhaps..."

Hearing Kehrid’s words, Rio patted the little Kifrid’s head and nodded his head.

"Yeah... sigh, I didn’t make it on time after all..."

Since Rio was protecting the giant containers with his stealth and sword intent, it was impossible for Kehrid to completely see through all those defensive layers in clear detail.

With Rio now being a peak S-ranker with insanely high mastery over sword intent, it was near impossible for even SS-rankers to properly see through his stealth abilities.

Rio was now just a few steps away from reaching the realm of ’Demi-gods’; after all, he was now many times stronger than he had been before entering the spirit realm.

’Even though I sitting so close to him... even he’s not able to tell any difference in my aura and wasn’t able to detect that I have in fact become stronger now...’

When Rio first met Kehrid, he was only at the early stages of S rank, but after just six months, Rio has reached the peak of S rank, which is extremely shocking and bizarre!

If Kehrid knew about this, he might faint from shock and disbelief; due to this reason, Rio kept his aura fluctuations similar to what they originally were when he first met Kehrid for the first time.

"Sigh... I am sorry for your loss... so you will be returning to the human empire soon?"

Rio nodded his head at that question and replied with his usual emotionless tone.

"Yeah, I have people waiting for me back home... I only stopped by here for a brief rest..."

Saying those words, Rio brought out a small toy sword made of shadow dragon scales from his sword ring and handed it to Kifrid.

"Here, I brought you a souvenir from the spirit realm. I hope you will become a great warrior in the future..."

Rio made that toy sword and a few other souvenirs from whatever pieces of the dragon scales that he had left at his disposal.

Kifrid’s eyes lit up as he hurriedly took the shining sword and jumped around in happiness!

"Thank you, big bro Rio! I promise I will become very strong in the future! Hehe!"

"Then we will go on adventures together one day!"

That little kid’s innocent smile helped Rio a lot in easing the tension and pressure he had been constantly facing inside the spirit realm.

"Hoh... you can make artifacts too?... err... although the craftsmanship is kind of lacking... it’s good enough considering it was made by a beginner..."

Kehrid’s inner blacksmith couldn’t help but comment on Rio’s craftsmanship after looking at that crudely made toy sword.

"Well... I am just a humble travelling bard after all; I don’t have much talent in the field of craftsmanship..."

Kehrid felt like saying, ’Humble my a*s!! How do you explain that dense sword intent running across your entire body then!’ But he didn’t say that out loud because Rio was going through sad times due to his friend’s death.

Thus, he decided to change the topic.

"So... how was the spirit realm... you are the first person I have seen aside from King Allen who managed to come back alive from the spirit realm without suffering any major injuries..."

At Kehrid’s question, Rio poured himself some more tea and took a long sip before speaking in his usual emotionless voice.

"There’s one word that can describe the spirit realm perfectly, and that is ’bizarre’! That place is very bizarre!"

"That’s the kind of place that even SS-rankers would not like to enter... I only wandered around in the shallow areas but... the further and deeper you go, the denser miasmic corruption becomes in that place..."

"Also... there are powerful and bizarre monsters inside, miasma is dominating everything and it’s very hostile to all outside creatures..."

Rio told Kehrid and Kifrid about various things that Rio saw inside the spirit realm, but of course he omitted most of his own secrets and everything related to his encounter with Raika and other things.

Rio only explained about the basic environment of the place and how hostile it was to stay.

Both Kehrid and Kifrid got so engrossed in Rio’s stories that no one noticed how many hours had gone by since they started talking.

By the time Rio was finished, it was already evening, and the sun was starting to set on the horizon.

Rio ate lunch with Kifrid and then got up to leave.

Both Kehrid and Kifrid felt reluctant to let Rio go so soon, but Rio had no choice; he was already running late, and he couldn’t delay any further.

His original plan was to just complete the mission in a month or two and return home as early as possible, but it kept getting stretched further and further, causing him to get delayed for six months!

If he still didn’t leave, he might not be able to board the ship heading back home!

"Next time I will come to visit you when I get stronger, big bro Rio!"

Hearing little Kifrid’s promise, Rio patted the other party’s head and nodded at him.

"Good, become strong and come to challenge me; we will spar each other then... I look forward to how strong you will be by then... good luck!"

Rio bid farewell to the grandfather and grandson duo after chatting for an entire day and then left by evening.

As Rio had no need to worry about getting detected by SS-rankers anymore due to his increased stealth capabilities, he didn’t even bother taking a bus or any other transport vehicle at all.

He flew straight back to the City of Treasures, Dharheim.

It did feel like a shame that he couldn’t experience the dwarf kingdom’s sceneries to their fullest and had to leave, but Rio had no other choice.

Time was everything; bringing Liam and Ellie’s souls back was more important than wandering around and wasting time in the dwarf kingdom at the moment.

’Ugh... I have gotten so used to always using the cube of possibilities for directions in the past months that now that it’s gone, I kind of feel like something’s missing...’

’Perhaps I should make some skill or ability that would mimic the power of the cube of possibilities in the future...’

Although Rio had reached a higher realm and increased mastery over sword intent, he was still quite far from being capable of predicting the flow of the thread of destiny and future in greater detail.

Perhaps only Lia can do that for the time being.

’Although I have lost the cube of possibilities... I have gained a powerful shadow robe in this trip...’

Rio’s shadow robe got upgraded to the ranks of legendary artifacts, and even his own control over shadow elements became incredibly stronger along with it, so it was not that bad of a deal.

’I wonder if Lia will be surprised after knowing that I have already reached peak of rank S by now...’

’Err... but... perhaps she might get stressed though... she’s been trying to catch up to me after all; if I tell her that I have improved again, that might break her heart...’

’Sigh... what a dilemma...’

Although it might make Lia a bit sad, Rio didn’t want to lie to her, so he was going to tell her the truth if she asked about his real strength.

And if she didn’t ask, that would be a better scenario.

’Talking about strength, she must be back from her training by now... I wonder how strong she would be after such a long training mission...’

Rio was eager to head back as fast as possible and find out the current situation of things back home.

Also, he needed to explain the matter of the grand seal and the door to the sea of miasma to Ashtel Rex so that the world alliance could become aware of its possible dangers that might happen in the future.

And the main thing that Rio needed to do was figure out who ’Raika’ was and who was the person controlling Raika from behind.

The spirit realm answered a lot of Rio’s questions and granted him an ideal environment for growth, but it also created more questions simultaneously at the same time and made him yearn for even more strength!

’I need to reach the realm of demi-gods as fast as possible... there’s not much time left before the first ’SSS’ rank dungeon appears in the world...’

With absolute stealth working at full power, Rio’s eyes flashed with determination as he rode his sword and rushed at a high speed straight toward his destination!