I watched as the excavators moved into position to start the mining process of the Mana Crystals.
As we had expected, there were barely any Anomalies guarding the Gatekeeper and we secured it pretty quickly.
The Gatekeeper itself had no offensive abilities and its only purpose was to keep the portal open, so when it loses its guards, it's practically defenseless.
If we were to destroy it now, the portal will start to destabilise and there would be about thirty minutes before the portal will destabilise and close on its own.
So if you don't manage to get out by then… You'll end up being stuck in this place.
Expeditions like ours would be sent into these portals to hunt down Gatekeepers to close them because if these Anomalies are meant to stabilise the portals to allow Anomalies to cross over and invade our own World.
So this was something that had to be done, or else our planet would be overrun by these monsters and turned into a wasteland.
"What are you thinking about?" Dan asked, his voice bringing me out of my musings.
I shrugged, "Nothing… Just having a quarter life crisis."
"Already? You're still single, you're not even dating or even looking to date, but you're already depressed?"
"Is that so surprising? What have I done for myself aside from being a Vanguard?"
"What's wrong with that? What? Is being a Vanguard not good enough for you?"
"To my mom, it isn't. You know how it is… To her, this isn't an actual job. She wants me to go to university and become a doctor or lawyer instead."
"Who cares? It's not your mom's life."
"Yes, but the constant nagging is quite annoying. And you know what… I kind of see her view. This work isn't stable and it's not like it's a professional work either. Anyone can do it. I didn't do anything to get this power of mine and I'm only here because of it."
He smacked me on the back, "What's with that glum outlook on life?! Don't you know the saying? With great power comes great responsibility?"
I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, too bad my powers aren't that great so that doesn't apply to me."
He grabbed me by the shoulder and gave me a serious look, one of those rare moments where he would show he was being serious.
"Qing… Weren't you the one who told me about your one simple philosophy? You know, the one you kept harping on about just to drag me into doing this work with you?"
I sighed, "Everything happens for a reason."
"That's right. And what did you say to me that day before I finally agreed to be a Vanguard?
I sighed again, "Things don't happen just because. If something bad happens and you have the power to stop it but you don't, the bad things happen because of you."
"That's right! So what the hell are you being all so mopey for?! Besides! Look on the bright side! We don't have to camp in the rift today! At the rate things are going, we should be done before the end of the day!"
I waved my hand dismissively at him, "Yes, yes. I get it, I get it. Isn't that why I'm here anyway? This is what I'm good for anyway so this is why I'm doing it."
He laughed, "Ha! Of course, because you're practically useless in anything else!"
I elbowed him in the chest, "Shut up, bitch."
"What? I'm only just saying what you admitted yourself!"
I was about to say more when another shout got my attention.
Looking in the direction of the commotion, I saw one of the mining machines on the verge of tipping over.
Seems like whoever was using it did not see one of the Mana Crystals protruding from the ground and ran over it, causing it to now tilt at an angle and it was slowly falling over.
Even from here, I could see the panic in the machine's driver's eyes, the guy still trapped inside the cab of the miner and unable to get out.
And it just so happened that the machine was tipping over in his direction…
I was instantly on my feet and kicking off the ground, propelling myself towards the machine.
I grabbed it from behind and pulled it back, straining against the weight of the machine and feeling the burn in my arms as I brought it back down onto the ground safely.
"Oi!! Be careful hor!! You blind is it?!!" Someone else shouted.
I turned to see that it was one of the foremen shouting at the driver of the miner while shaking his fist angrily.
He turned to me and let out a sheepish smile, "Thank you ah. That guy is still new. First time, you know?"
I waved at him, "It's fine. Don't worry about it."
The foreman went back to shouting at the miner and I left him to it, not wanting to get more involved than I already had.
I returned to where I had left Dan and that guy was giving me an insufferably smug smile with his arms crossed as if he was trying to say 'I told you so'.
He didn't even say anything and just kept nudging me with his elbow.
"Shut up," I growled at him.
He smirked, "But I didn't even say anything though? If I didn't know you, I might even have assumed you were one of those superheroes~"
"Yeah sure. And the first one I will come after is you because you're clearly a villain."
"I'll be more badass than you though."
I ignored him and just went back to my musings.
Seeing that he couldn't get another reaction out of me, Dan also gave up and we waited for the mining team to finish up before we escorted them back out.
It was a pretty standard expedition this time so nothing out of the norm happened.
There wasn't even a second portal suddenly appearing that would lead to a higher Danger Class portal either.
We escorted the miners back to the portal again with the Gatekeeper also being dragged alongside our expedition.
We were still careful as Anomalies might still appear to attack us so we were still prepared to fight if it came down to it.
Thankfully, nothing happened and we let the miners move through the portal before we executed the Gatekeeper.
The air around us shook and I could feel a tingle on my skin, which was a normal reaction after the death of a Gatekeeper.
If you were to feel this while inside a rift, that was an indication that you should make a rush towards the portal immediately lest you wish to be stuck there.
As the rest of us stepped through the portal, another suit wearing guy was there ushering us towards a gathering area at the side.
"Everyone! Please gather at the side and we'll do a quick Anomaly scan!"
Dan groaned, "Ugh… Do we still have to do this? Shouldn't the Guardian already prevent this problem?"
"It's better to be safe than sorry," I answered.
Dan grumbled, clearly not happy about it but still agreeing that it was necessary.
It is unfortunate, but humans who enter the portal to fight Anomalies run the risk of turning into Anomalies themselves.
If you were to die while inside a rift, your body would mutate and transform into one of them.
No trace of your humanity will remain and you would just be another mindless Anomaly that would fight alongside them.
Yes, all of the Anomalies we fought earlier used to be a living creature that mutated into those monstrosities. People who were killed or gotten lost in the rift and ended up being transformed into one of them would meet such a fate.
But even if you manage to get out of there alive, you could still transform into an Anomaly after the miasma from the rift corrupts you beyond saving.
The only way to prevent such a fate was to be in the presence of one of the Mortal Gods, humans who have awakened abilities that are akin to mythological Gods.
They have a unique aura around them which offers protection around their presence which prevents their followers from being mutated by the miasma in these rifts. Additionally, they are also able to grant that protection through these Guardians of theirs.
There have been rumours that the way the Guardians receive the aura as well was to have intercourse with the Mortal God, which is why people say that the Guardians are basically the harem members of the Mortal God they serve.
Still, there's a difference between the effective range of a Guardian's protection from the miasma as compared to a Mortal God's so they still have to check after we leave a portal in case someone had unknowingly ventured outside of the Guardian's protection radius and thus got affected by the miasma.
If they were to transform into an Anomaly while they are here… Many people could be killed before they could be subdued, that's why this is still a necessary process in my eyes.
At least the pay is good…