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

So... Obviously... We weren’t going to move an entire city of at least a few thousand people to the base camp immediately.

We made them choose a few followers to take along with them to accompany us, giving them a quick briefing about our base that we have set up in front of the portal and the fact that we were only here as a scouting team.

They ended up gathering a group of a dozen or so people to accompany us, all of them at least quite capable of defending and fighting against Anomalies on their own.

With all of them gathered, I used my teleportation door to teleport us back to the base.

When the door appeared, all of the survivors flinched back like they had seen something monstrous appear in front of them, acting like they’ve never seen a door before.

Or at least never seen a door appear out of thin air before.

Well, I guess this would definitely be startling to someone who was seeing it for the first time so I can understand at least.

”What... Umm... I think it might be a bit late to ask but...” Khar mumbled, fiddling with his fingers with obvious nervousness. ”What exactly are your powers?”

I scratched the back of my head, ”It’s a little hard to explain... Do you guys have gods in your World? Like... Did you guys believe in the divine and stuff?”

The three Dukes looked at each other before nodding their heads.

”Yeah... I mean... We do have some people who believed in religious stuff before the monsters appeared,” Khar explained.

”If you are talking about right now though... No one here believes them anymore,” Nuul added.

”But before the monsters appeared, we had gods like the All Taker who would take the bodies of the dead to send them off on the journey to the next life,” Evul finished.

That’s what I expected.

I nodded at them and gestured to myself, Diana and Siti, ”So... The three of us basically awakened powers that make us manifestations of gods in our own World. That’s why we got the title of Mortal Gods since... We’re basically the mortal manifestations of those gods.”

They blinked at me, clearly not expecting such an answer.

They were probably thinking that I would tell them something like our powers were super strength or some kind of elemental manipulation, not that we were gods.

Anyway, with their curiosity sated for now, I led them through the doorway and teleported into the middle of the camp.

The Vanguards stationed here were already used to seeing the teleportation door after I’ve already used it in front of them a few times so none of them showed any surprise when I walked out.

The centaur guy trotted up to me and bowed, ”Divine ones, I welcome your return. Were there any problems with your inspection?”

I shook my head, ”None at all. However, we did come across another group of survivors...”

The centaur stiffened visibly, probably because he was already having a headache dealing with the other group of survivors that the thought of adding another group was going to double his problems.

He shifted his gaze to Khar and his group and he relaxed slightly, probably because he realised that this group of survivors weren’t as numerous as the first group.

The new group of survivors were just looking around in wonder at the base, though I wasn’t really sure what they thought of it at the moment because it could just be wondering at how shitty it was as compared to their underground city.

Siti and Diana didn’t really have an interest in this so they were more focused on talking to each other about what they should have for dinner than what was going on in front of them.

The centaur turned back to me, ”Should we put them in the same camp as the... Others?”

I immediately shook my head, ”No... They belong to two different groups in this World who are quite hostile to each other. Set them up on the other side of the base and make sure they don’t interact with each other.”

He nodded, ”It wouldn’t be too hard... The other group seemed like they had no interest in leaving their own camp aside from hurling insults and making demands for supplies from their own side of the camp...”

The three Dukes swivelled to us when they heard that.

”There’s others?”

”From our own world as well?”

”Which colony are they from?”

I cleared my throat, ”They are not awakened like you guys are. We are sheltering them here for now and they might be integrated into our World after we clear the portal.”

I was kind of expecting them to reject the idea or even say things like the non awakened people shouldn’t deserve such treatment but...

Khar simply nodded, ”Understood. They are under your protection then, my Lord? They will probably not take our presence well so we’ll make sure to confine ourselves to the other side of the camp as well. We won’t have any trouble.”

The centaur was understandably surprised by how reasonable this group of survivors were and honestly... So was I.

The centaur recovered quickly and gestured towards the side, ”There’s an area where you can set up... But for supplies, we might be a little stretched...”

Nuul grinned, ”That’s fine, we can help scavenge for things. I recognise this city so I know where some of the good stuff is. I’ll be careful not to lure any of those monsters back here.”

I turned to him, ”We’ve cleared out the city but there may still be a few of those bigger ones hanging around in hidden corners though.”

All of the new survivors swivelled to gape at me.

”You... Cleared out the whole city?” Khar asked.

I tilted my head slightly at them, ”Yes? We literally built a base in the middle of the city. I think if there were any Anomalies remaining, they would have swarmed us by now. We had to cut down an entire horde of them before we could secure a foothold in your world.”

”I... I see... That is definitely reassuring to hear.”

They looked quite shaken by the thought, which I assumed was because they most probably could not have cleared an entire city’s worth of Anomalies on their own and to hear that we had done so pretty casually was making them question their beliefs.

I cleared my throat to get them out of their reverie, ”Ahem... Anyway... We’ll get you set up inside the camp here for now. We’ll most likely do a few more reconnaissance runs in the next few days since we still have to find the Gatekeeper and probably clear out some of the Anomalies in the area to establish a safezone. You guys can join us on those runs.”

Khar straightened himself, ”Understood. We will do our best to help.”

The centaur then led them away to the place where they could set up their own camp.

Siti looked up from where she had been fiddling with her phone, ”You sure this is a good idea? This feels like we just placed all the materials needed for a bomb in the same place and it’s just waiting for a lit fuse to go off.”

Diana nodded, ”Gonna have to agree with her there. I have a feeling these two groups are going to kill each other as soon as we take our eyes off of them.”

I was going to assure them that it most likely won’t come to that when Siti shrugged, ”Well, I don’t care anyway. If they are so caught up in their self righteousness or whatever that they would just fight each other even at this point of time, then so be it.”

Diana agreed with her, ”Mmhmm~ That would really show that these people don’t deserve to be helped.”

Even Olivia, Rahayu and Liyana were in agreement.

”I agree as well, my Goddess. Such riff raff who were unable to perceive your greatness do not deserve your light.”

”I am in agreement as well. We are already being incredibly merciful with the leeway we have given them. They do not deserve more than this.”

Olivia smiled at me, ”I see, my Lord... This is all part of your plan to make sure if they are truly good enough to help or if they are a lost cause. As expected of you, my Lord.”

I didn’t even get to deny her words when Siti and Diana suddenly grabbed my arms.

”Alright~ That’s enough work for one day~ Where’s our tent?”

”Yeah. I’ve been holding back for the last few hours now and I’m ready to relax. Where’s the one with the big bed?”

Are you two serious?! Wait! Where are you dragging me off to?! We’re not even done here yet! Wait! Do we even have our own tent?! Don’t just drag me off to a random tent!!

Waaaiiiiit!!