What Do You Mean I Have To Comprehend Dao As A Mortal God?

We made our way to the tunnel and there were a few more Anomalies along the way but we managed to dispatch them pretty easily.

As we continued to approach the tunnel, Kris suddenly spoke up behind me.

”Is it just me or does this rift feel a little...”

”Too easy?” I finished his sentence.

”I didn’t want to jinx it but yes.”

I nodded at the tunnel in front of us, ”I believe what we’ve seen so far are just the fringe group. The actual main force is still in... What did you guys call that place?”

”The Dark Wastes,” Maylene answered me while continuing to lead us.

”So I think we might meet stronger Anomalies once we get deeper in there,” I concluded.

We reached the crossroads and stared at the tunnel that would supposedly lead us to the Dark Wastes, a soft howling noise coming from within that could have been either the wind or the groans of some creature.

Maylene paused at the edge of the tunnel, looking down towards the darkness in front of her.

The darkness that was quickly chased away when I stepped out and directed the flashlight mounted on my chest at the opening, though it only managed to illuminate a few dozen feet ahead of me.

”Have you gone in there before?” I asked.

She nodded, ”A few times... I skirted around the edge of the Dark Wastes... But I never went in. The cold feeling from the depths kept me away from it... And I doubt even I could outrun those things in there if they turned their attention to me.”

I’m not sure what she’s talking about but I could guess the gist of it.

”Are you ok with this, Maylene?” I confirmed with her one final time.

She nodded again, ”It’s alright... We’re not going all the way inside, are we?”

”Not today at least. We’re just here to check things out. Then maybe we might go to your village again and we can explore more around that area as well.”

”Then I will be ok. You do not need to worry about me, Qing.”

She straightened herself and started walking into the tunnel, guiding us into the depths.

The rest of us had our guard up in case any of those stone Anomalies were laying in ambush but the entire path seemed to be surprisingly devoid of any Anomalies.

The howling sound also seemed to get a little louder and louder the longer we headed down the tunnel.

One good thing was that the size of the tunnels remained constant and it was big enough for all of us to walk comfortably at the very least.

Our footsteps echoed around the walls until all of us stopped at almost the same time.

At the edge of my flashlight, a pair of feet could be seen and a jittery noise came from the owner of said feet.

I reached up and lifted my flashlight a little to shine the light on the creature itself.

There, in the darkness, a creature that looked like a cross between a green skinned orc and a golem could be seen, its hulking figure taking up enough space for two men standing side by side.

The Anomaly lifted up its head to stare at us before it let out a sound that could have been a pained groan before it started stomping towards us.

The stomping then turned into a run as the Anomaly charged towards us.

I stepped in front of my group and braced myself, pulling my fist back before punching forward at the charging Anomaly.

The Anomaly also punched towards me, its fist more than three times the size of mine.

Our fists met and the ground beneath us shook, before the resulting shockwave sent the Anomaly in front of me stumbling back.

I frowned at the sight.

Though I might have won the strength contest, I could feel a little numbness and pain in my knuckles like I had just punched a wall without my strength enhancement.

This thing might not be as strong as I was but it was definitely more durable.

The Anomaly stopped sliding a foot away and seemed to look back at me with disdain at being pushed back.

I shook my wrist to shake out the numbness from it right as the Anomaly rushed towards me again.

Kris charged past me and swung his sword towards the creature, his sword smashing into its side and slicing through its torso.

The momentum of his swing ended up sending the Anomaly flying towards the wall of the tunnel, its body separating into two halves before smashing into the wall.

He then rested the greatsword on his shoulder like it weighed nothing and pouted at the creature that was sliding off the wall.

”Hmm... They’re still not as strong as I thought. Maybe this isn’t as high of a danger level as we thought?”

As though reacting to his complaint, more growls came from in front and an entire group of orcs stomped out of the darkness and into the light.

There were at least a dozen of them and all of them looked like they were ready to attack us.

”Form up. Jia Lian, Kris, Olivia, to my sides,” I ordered, switching my mental state to commanding my party instead.

My Guardians moved to obey and lined themselves up beside me while I exuded the purple smoke around me to buff them.

”Sergei, Leena, try to slow them down. Ava, your magic, please.”

Leena raised her machine gun while Sergei raised his empty hand.

A hail of bullets and shadow spikes flew towards the orc shaped Anomalies.

The Anomaly at the front received the full brunt of the projectiles and several full metal jackets punctured through the exposed skin of the Anomaly while its rock armour deflected the rest.

Its durability was on full display as the bullets barely penetrated the skin even without the rocks as protection. The bullets from Leena’s machinegun only managed to leave superficial wounds on the Anomaly without even penetrating its skin.

The shadow spikes however, were a different case.

While the rock armour still managed to protect the Anomaly from most of the projectiles, the shadow spikes easily sliced through the exposed flesh of the Anomaly to leave gaping wounds behind.

Unfortunately, the Anomaly seemed to have some kind of awareness as it used the parts that were covered with rocks to protect its vitals from the projectiles.

But despite all those wounds, the Anomaly still remained alive and continued to trudge towards us.

The only good thing was that the hail of shadow spikes and bullets definitely slowed it down and that in turn slowed the other Anomalies behind it as well.

Maylene hid behind me, the bunny girl looking quite nervous by the Anomalies marching towards us.

One of the Anomalies managed to break off from the group and rushed towards us from the flanks where Leena and Sergei’s attacks did not reach.

Olivia immediately stepped forward to face it and threw out a fist to fire a lightning bolt at the Anomaly.

The Anomaly threw up its rock covered arm and used it to defend itself from the lightning bolt.

Unfortunately for the creature, the lightning turned out to be stronger than it thought and the impact ended up blasting its entire arm off.

The Anomaly looked down at the arm that got blasted off, right before I shot a lightning bolt of my own towards its unprotected head.

The difference between the strength of my lightning and Olivia’s lightning became clear as my lightning only managed to push the Anomaly back a step even though I had struck its head that did not have the rock armour protecting it.

Olivia then charged up another lightning in her other fist and punched it forward, blasting open a hole in that Anomaly’s chest and sending it tumbling back before it collapsed in a heap.

Right then, I felt a large concentration of energy focus behind me and I knew that Ava was ready to cast her spell.

Just in case...

”Jia Lian, shield please.”

She obeyed and raised up her shield in question, projecting a large blue sphere around us right as a ball of light was shot out from Ava’s staff to fly towards the Anomalies.

There was a soft crack coming from the ball of light before it turned into a black ball instead.

The Anomalies froze up and I thought they would be smashed into the ground like the last time she used her gravity magic.

But what actually happened was that the space around the Anomalies seemed to twist and crack like the surface of a glass that was being broken.

The cracks spread across the space that the Anomalies were occupying before all of them suddenly disintegrated right before our eyes.

The cracks in the air then disappeared alongside them and we were left with an empty space once again.

I turned back to thank her for the magic, only to realise that Ava had a look of surprise on her face.

”I... Did not plan for that to happen,” She admitted.

Hmm... I’m going to guess that she also got stronger from our dual cultivation session?

Which means... This works both ways?

Interesting...