Since the day was still early, we decided to go back into the rift again after we had rested for a while.
As we were on our way towards the portal again, this time with me baring my face, I noticed someone standing in front of the portal.
At first, I panicked a little thinking that it was some random person who happened to be there and I was about to have my identity exposed.
But I relaxed when I realised the person had red skin, I let out a breath and relaxed.
Olivia's ears perked up as we approached, the red Oni turning around to face us.
Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw me, "My… My Lord? Your face?"
I nodded, "I decided to reveal myself to them."
Hearing that, she didn't question me and nodded at me in return, accepting my answer.
"So I'm guessing you are here to join us?" I asked.
She nodded, "Indeed, my Lord. As your Guardian and secretary, I have a responsibility to take note of the rift that you are entering to make sure that it is still within the safe parameters of exploration. If needed, I am prepared to request mobilisation of Vanguards to assist you."
"For now, the danger level of the rift is still as expected so it's fine for now."
She frowned slightly, "Have you already entered the rift, my Lord?"
"Ah… Yes we did. We had to retreat from it because I had a breakthrough in my powers and fell unconscious. Don't worry, I'm fine now. That's why we decided to resume our recon."
"Understood. May I be allowed to accompany you?"
I gestured for her to join us and she fell in step behind me as I stepped towards the portal.
Entering the rift once more, I found myself in the exact same cavern, the dead bodies of the Anomalies we killed earlier still scattered around on the ground.
Olivia took a look around and frowned at the cavern, "Are we underground?"
"Seems like it," I agreed, pointing at the tunnel ahead of us. "I believe there's a network of tunnels here. We can continue where we stopped earlier."
"Do we have something to make sure we do not get lost in the tunnels?"
Ah… I didn't think of that… Earlier, I was just thinking that we would just peek inside some of the tunnels but not go too far inside so it wouldn't be a problem to navigate back to the portal.
Now that we are here again, I guess it would feel a little wasted if we only spent a while here again so we might as well do a deeper dive into the tunnels.
But that carries the risk of getting lost and I do not fancy wandering the Anomaly infested tunnels trying to look for a way out. Additionally, we did not pack supplies meant for staying overnight inside the rift either.
I was just about to tell her we didn't prepare anything when Leena spoke up from behind, "I brought some rope with me, my lord. We can tie this to something here and use it as a trail behind us to follow."
All of us turned to see the centaur pull out a length of rope from one of the bags that was strapped to her back.
She's basically a walking Bag of Holding huh?
I told her to go ahead and do that before we continued our advance through the tunnels.
We didn't really go that far on our first recon here so it was easy to find our way back to where I had supposedly blacked out. Not that it was difficult to find the place to begin with considering the fact that we had a trail of dead Anomalies to follow as well.
We moved past the corpses of the Anomalies to continue into the leftmost tunnel, once again keeping an eye out for any Anomalies that might be inside the tunnel.
The first thing I noticed was that I could now see further in the dark. While earlier I would have to squint to make out objects that were in the darkness, it now looked like the tunnel had a faint glow along the walls.
It still wasn't perfect darkvision but I could at least somewhat tell what was in the darkness at least, so I made use of it to look for Anomalies.
I didn't forget to check the ceiling as well and sure enough, one such Anomaly dropped down from above just as I shouted out a warning to everyone.
The human shaped Anomaly was still in the midst of dropping down when a lance made of shadow pierced through its torso from the side, skewering the creature.
It flailed its arms for a moment before it went limp, the shadow lance retracting to allow it to drop onto the ground.
"Nice, Sergei," I complimented, a habit I have from complimenting my team mates during my gaming session when they got a good kill.
He seemed a little surprised that I did that but nodded in response.
The tunnel continued to lead us deeper into the cave systems and I was just glad that there weren't any more branching paths so we just had to keep walking straight.
Eventually, we came to another cavern and this time, it seems like we stumbled upon something odd.
There were a few of what looked like man made houses that had been blown apart resting at the corner of the cavern.
As we approached it to get a closer look, inhuman groans came from the debris and several Anomalies rose up from the ruins.
Once again, we prepared for battle but these were all small fries so we didn't even need to struggle against them.
With Olivia also joining the front lines, it was a cakewalk as she could literally punch through the stones like they were made of wet cardboard.
Not that I was any different as my strength had definitely increased after that breakthrough and I was kicking them around without much effort.
One thing I did notice about these Anomalies was that they seem to be shorter than the others, almost the size of dwarves.
I wondered if they were former denizens of this place and got mutated by the miasma.
With the Anomalies cleared, I started to inspect the ruins to figure out if I could find anything interesting from it.
"Did people use to live here?" Jia Lian asked.
"Rifts like these are places that had formerly been places where people had once lived. This place must have belonged to the former civilisation before they were invaded by the Anomalies and lost their home to them," Olivia explained.
I stepped inside one of the destroyed rooms where the walls had collapsed into the room itself.
I was quite surprised to see that there were actually some things that looked like kitchen appliances inside, though most of them were obviously destroyed beyond recognition.
The only reason why I could even tell they were kitchen appliances was because one of them looked like a stove with the burners at the top.
"It seems like the civilisation that used to live here at least had somewhat similar levels of technology to us…" I mused.
Kris picked up something from the ground and it took me a moment to realise that it was a book when he flipped it open.
I went over to him to peek over his shoulder, realising that what he was holding in his hands was a picture book of sorts and there were pages filled with what looked like a child's drawings.
"This must have been a family home," He muttered, closing the book and dropping it back on the floor.
"Maybe the Anomalies that we killed earlier were the family that lived here," Sergei suggested, looking back at the corpses that were now on the ground.
Damn… Don't tell me those smaller sized Anomalies… That was quite a depressing thought.
I wasn't the only one who thought of that as the others also looked at where the smaller sized Anomalies now lay on the ground, all of them staying silent.
Just as I was about to suggest pushing forward to distract us from that, a scream came from the tunnel that led away from the cavern.
The scream was definitely not something an Anomaly could make and it sounded quite human.
All of us shared a look before we turned in the direction of the scream.
Was there someone else here? Did someone sneak onto this island and decide to enter into the portal before they got stuck here?
That can't be, right?
But… That scream definitely sounded human.
"My Lord?" Olivia called out, clearly letting me decide what we should do.
I grit my teeth, "Let's go… It might be someone in trouble and needs help."
Even though the chances might be low, it could still be someone who needs help so we're definitely going to help!