Chapter 867: The Pet Dragon. Part-1.

The land of the demons had nothing fancy to sightsee at all.

Unlike when Rio had visited the other nations and continents, there were no buildings, no houses, and no decent scenery in this land of death and destruction.

If not for the fact that Rio had seen the memories in the crown and knew that this same place was once the lush and beautiful fairyland, he would have never believed that this wasteland even had any proper life before!

Snow infected with miasmic rot fell all day every day on this land.

No matter where the eyes fell, there was just an endless expanse of white snowfields.

’In most games and anime, I have seen, the homeland of demons is a fiery hell filled with lava and ash... but here, it’s bone-chilling snow and ice...’

This snow was laced with heavy miasma presence; if it as much as just touched someone’s bare skin, it could easily corrupt an entire limb or that particular part of the body in just a few minutes!

The environment of the Demon Continent itself was an extreme hazard that even S-rankers found difficult to adapt to.

’Although the level of miasmic corruption here is not at the level of the spirit realm, it’s still lethal for most creatures in the world... only demons can live in such a place...’

According to what Rio saw in the memories of the crown, Astra had tried to purify this corrupted land many times to help resettle the fairies in their homeland around the end of the demon extinction war.

Unfortunately, miasma refused to let go of this land, and no matter how many times Bela purified it, miasma would come flooding back over and over to recapture this place, making it impossible for fairies to ever resettle here.

’The only thing living here are these kinds of weird creatures...’

Rio looked at the hundreds of low-rank demon corpses piled up on the snow with the usual expressionless face and sighed in helplessness,

’Just like the spirit realm... miasma refuses to let me properly analyze its victims...’

Whenever Rio tried to get close to a heavily corrupted or mutated soul-type creature, miasma would react fiercely and shatter the other party’s soul before causing self-detonation!

’I could interact with a sane demon like Ratna and Ahankar, but going after the insane ones is not allowed?’

’Is it because miasma considers the insane ones more valuable? What a weird thinking logic...’

Although Rio could not get proper mutated souls to experiment, he did find many normal souls and powerful creatures along the way to experiment.

After three days of travelling and researching, Rio finally came to the conclusion that, with his current mental and consciousness capacity, it was simply impossible to analyse his ’Anomaly’ soul.

’I never thought that despite having such powerful soul manipulation skill, I would fail to analyze my own soul so miserably...’

Even Rio himself was unable to figure out the mystery of his soul, so it was normal for other creatures to think of him as a bizarre being with a weird soul.

’At least Lia doesn’t call me a weird, bizarre creature, so it’s fine. I don’t care about what others say anyway. As long as Lia thinks I am handsome and charismatic, it’s fine with me.’

Using the ’Lipium’ to calm his restless heart, Rio decided to put this matter to rest for now.

’Unless I somehow gain the ’Soul Resonance’ legendary skill like Alverto had or obtain some other related ability, I likely won’t be able to pry into the true depths of my soul...’

’In fact... I have a feeling that even if I had ’Soul Resonance,’ I likely still won’t be able to gain much...’

The soul of an ’Anomaly’ was simply too incomprehensible of an existence; it was unmeasurable, non-understandable, and impossible to calculate!

’Usually, I would consider this bizarre nature of my soul to be a plus point, as it gives me near-immunity-level defensive capabilities against mental and soul attacks...’

’But this characteristic is a problem for me right now... unless I analyze my soul, I won’t understand why I am losing my humanity and my emotions... what a dilemma...’

Shaking his head, Rio flew into the sky and continued his journey towards the central area of the continent.

’I wonder if the Demon King can figure out a way with his powerful fate manipulation-type abilities...’

’No... if he could really do something like that, he would have likely already killed me off when I was first transmigrated into this world...’

’He can’t deal with an anomaly; that’s why he’s been holding back...’

The more Rio thought about it, the more helpless he felt.

’In the end... do I really have to make a choice between the first two options? Is it even possible to create a third option like I am trying to?’

Just inspiration for a new ’path’ was not enough.

Similar to how Rio gave Ratna a ’push’ to a new ’path’ by making him miasma resistant, Rio himself needed a certain ’push’ to get started with his newly found path.

Unfortunately, Rio was the only ’Anomaly’ in the world.

He had no predecessors and no one he could ask for advice; he had to find that ’push’ all by himself.

’Sigh... Let’s meet the mighty necromancer first and think about it all later...’

For the past few days, Rio had been making several stops along the way to do experiments, so his travelling speed was very slow.

But now that he had decided to head straight towards the center, his flying speed picked up pace, and he stopped making any more stops.

The same boring scenery of snow-covered lands and hills swept by at a rapid pace, and in just a few minutes, Rio made it to the entrance of the central area.

The moment Rio arrived at the central land of the continent, he immediately noticed the difference.

"Whoa... the sky is literally bleeding miasma here... such dense miasma, it almost on part with the spirit realm."