Chapter 381: The Sentient One... Part-1.


    ?


    Rio walked over to the floor tile towards which the vague calling was pointing.


    ''Is there a hidden staircase or something here? That''s so cliché...''


    Rio turned his sword into a thin and long type of sword, then he thrust the sword in between the gap between the floor tiles and used it like a lever to move the floor tile upwards.


    And as Rio had suspected it, the floor tile moved, and removing it revealed a hidden manhole- like structure.


    ''Er... this... Why does this look like a sewer entrance...''


    [Man, you can''t be thinking of going inside that, right? If Lia saw you do that, she would be disappointed, tsk tsk...]N?v(el)B\\jnn


    ''Hey, you have been asking me to switch with you for a while, didn''t you? How about youe out now and help me out a bit... Surely you can do that much, right?''


    [No, no, your useless talk-no-jut*u won''t work on me! Don''t even think about sending me down there!]


    Hearing those words, Rio sighed and shook his head; he was just joking anyway.


    He can''t afford to let the other party out in this dangerous ce. Shadow doesn''t havebat experience like him, and he will definitely mess up and panic if something goes wrong.


    ''Who knows... Maybe there''s another golem guarding the path down there; this one will be yet another gamble...''


    Finding powerful cheats to be stronger is all about gambling with life to obtain those chances.


    ''It better be worth it... If I ended up finding something useless after all these efforts, then it would be such a disappointment...''


    Rio sighed, donned his shadow robe again, and started to descend downwards using those staircases made up of some kind of metal.


    ''There stairs seem so long... Could it be that this is a hidden path that can take you to Floor 1 without needing to use the main stairs?''


    From Floor 6 to Floor 2, Rio used those wide and big staircases to descend deeper; this is the only time he''s using this kind of staircase to descend.


    ''Maybe these stairs lead to some hidden areas of floor 1 that you couldn''t have essed if you used the main staircases instead...''


    While on his way down, various thoughts came into Rio''s mind; although most of them were just his guesses, he felt quite sure that his guesses were mostly correct.


    The deeper Rio went, the darker everything became; at one point it was so dark that even night vision would have be useless.


    The only reason why Rio could still see everything perfectly was because he could use miasma.


    Miasma can bless you with the power to see through extreme darkness, and you won''t have to worry about losing your precision in even the darkest ces of the world.


    ''The more I use it, the more I feel that Miasma is kind of very useful... And this intensifies my doubts even more...''


    ''Who in the hell created this ''Elemental Sword Art''!? How is this technique so powerful!?'' Originally, Fade would have discovered this technique and attempted to use it to impress Lia and woo her into his harem.


    However, Liapletely rejected his advances, meaning she never learned this technique. Fade and Kira were both mages, so this sword art waspletely useless for them. Hundreds of chapters will go by, and several volumester, the sword art will finally find an owner. Fade will gift it to another of his harem members; one was a heroine from the beast folk race; she was a cat woman, and the sword art worked wonders for her.


    Although she didn''t have much talent and she never got much screen time, she certainly had this technique.


    The other owner of this sword art was Fade''s younger sister, who, for some reason,ter turned out to be an adopted child, so she also ended up in his harem.


    But even she never mastered the sword art to full potential, as she was still much younger and had barely just be an awakener by the time Fade was fighting with SS-rankers.


    The story was already in itste stages, so her character wasn''t really developed much, and she was mostly only shown as the cute little sister and emotional support for Fade.


    There are no solid exnations about where this sword art exactly came from and who exactly created it.


    ''In the first ce, there are no skills in the technique that could help control Miasma anyway...''


    In the original ''Elemental Sword Art'' that Rio stole at the start, there were only techniques for a few types of elements.


    At that time, Rio could only use thunder type, wind type, water type, etc.


    But then Rio got his hand on ''Sword Intent''.


    That''s where everything changed; the existence of sword intent means that Rio can now convert mana into any type of form and use ''Sword Intent'' to stabilize it.


    Rio figured out the fundamental methods of how the technique was manipting various elements, then he tried to do the same using ''Sword Intent'' to stabilize them.


    After achieving sess, Rio added them to the already existing ''Elemental Sword Art.'' This way, the technique itself kept evolving as Rio kept adding more and more skills and elements


    to it.


    After Rio got ''Imperfect Sword Heart'', it boosted his elemental control and stabilizing


    powers.


    As a result, Rio became capable of literally copying elements that werepletely unique and had many limitations.


    This was the reason why Rio was able to copy ''Healing Type'' despite not being a healer himself; simr is true for the ''Golden Thunder'' too.


    Without ''Sword Intent and the ''Imperfect Sword Heart'', it would have been impossible to evolve the ''Elemental Sword Art'' to the current levels.


    In other words, Rio hasn''t been reliant on the chances he stole; he has been actively working to upgrade those chances.


    Stealing chances, talents, and skills can only get you so far; if you don''t put in the hard work, then even ''Limitless'' talent will end up being useless.


    You need to move your hand and ''work'' to even eat food; there''s nothing in the world that you can learn without putting in the effort for it.


    Even if you have heaven-defying talents, you still have to work hard for your powers; there''s no shortcut to the path of bing the strongest.


    *nk*


    Rio finally reached the end and jumped on the floor, which caused a metallic sound to ring out. The floor was made up of metal, and the area that Rio finally arrived at looked like some kind of underground factory spread over dozens of miles.


    ''Don''t tell me...''


    Rio''s worries came true; he was worried that there would be a golem guarding the path, but he never expected that he would literally end up in the factory where those golems are made


    in the first ce.


    Rio could see advanced and gigantic machines; there were hundreds of golems standing on a conveyor belt that was likely used to transport those heavy golems to their next assembly unit


    of the factory.


    The only relief was that all the machines in the factory weren''t working.


    ''I guess there''s no one to operate them?... or maybe the factory ran out of power?... Either


    way, that''s good news for me...''


    If the factory was still in work mode, then there would have been golem guards; that would have caused a lot of trouble for Rio.


    Although there weren''t any working golems in sight, Rio still remained vignt; he used the previous method of donning a shadow robe and using miasma in sync with it.


    This will at the least help him dodge fatal blows once or even twice and will give him time to


    escape in dangerous situations.


    [D*mn! This ce is giving such an ominous vibe... I expected that manhole to bring us into a sewer,


    but this waspletely unexpected...]


    [Is the previous offer still valid? I will take over the body if you want...]


    ''No need, you just stay there and don''t bother me for the time being...''


    Ignoring Shadow''s yapping, Rio decided to keep following the vague calling and started


    moving forward.


    Although the environment was dark, Rio was able to swiftly make his way through it.


    Along the way, he saw many different sections of the factory; most of the machines in this ce seemed to have halted production due to an unexpected power outage. After all, if the production was halted properly, there wouldn''t have been so many half- finished products left behind that are still on the various conveyor belts.


    Most machines still had half-processed material under them; if you put the power in them


    again, the whole factory will have no problem restarting its operation normally as there''s already a lot of materials stocked up to process.


    ''I wonder what caused the power outage... If it was due to depletion of fuels, then it would be less concerning... But if it was caused by someone willingly, then that would be more


    concerning...''


    After all, if someone did it on purpose, then that means there''s definitely another hidden boss


    monster in this ce.


    ''Ugh, just dealing with those mimics was such a pain in the A*s; I really don''t want to


    encounter another SS-rank enemy now of all times...''


    Rio''s current situation is like that of a yer who just beat up an extremely strong opponent


    and found out that the boss monster he beat was just a mere Gatekeeper of a much stronger


    boss monster.


    That would mean that your efforts were all just too insignificant and the real challenge hadn''t


    even appeared yet.


    Author Notes!


    Yo! It''s your beloved author here!


    Question of the day.


    Have you ever been in a simr situation in a game as Rio''s?


    (Tell me your thoughts in thements)


    By the way, don''t forget to use those power stones!!