It was three days later before I got a call from Olivia to request for my presence again, this time informing me that we would be headed to the portal that had opened up at the Choa Chu Kang cemetery.
Morbid place for a portal to appear if you ask me.
I packed my things once again like I was going for an expedition and bid farewell to my family.
Like usual, Mom asked me if I would be back for lunch or dinner and unlike the other time where we were dealing with a Danger Class Two portal, this one was at a level three.
On average, this level might take a week to complete but from what I know, we were only doing some recon for now so it might just be a day or two.
Mom was definitely not happy to hear that but at least she just told me to be careful and to call if there were any problems before seeing me off.
With everything prepared, I headed over to the Ministry building once again.
I entered through the employee entrance using a pass card that Olivia had issued to me the other day, allowing me to pose as an employee to sneak in without needing to go through the main entrance again.
After coming here so many times, I already remembered the route to her office and needed no guidance as I made my way to the lift to reach her room.
When I entered, I found her sitting behind her desk in the middle of a call.
"Yes. Make sure that everything I highlighted has been prepared. No, they will not enter with us. Yes… Yes."
She noticed me entering and immediately stood up, though she still continued the call.
"Yes. Deal with that as well. I have to leave now. That is all."
She hung up the phone and bowed to me, "My Lord. Please forgive me for the rudeness earlier. I was making sure that the preparations for our expedition today are ready for you."
Hmm… I'm pretty sure it's not just me, but she seemed to be more energetic than usual today?
Ah, must be because of the fact that we were heading to an expedition and it might even be her first while on the field instead of being in the office.
I waved at her, "It's fine, I don't mind. So… Mind filling me with the details?"
"Of course, my Lord. As you might already know, there is a portal that has opened up inside Choa Chu Kang cemetery that we need to close. I have already gathered the personnel needed to challenge the rift and also filtered out the ones who are spies sent from other countries to get close to you."
I frowned "Spies? Already?"
"They have been looking for you ever since your event at the park, my Lord. You do not need to worry, I will handle them."
"Right… So… It's just going to be a normal expedition, right?"
"Yes and no. I will also be getting the people that were shortlisted as your potential Guardians to participate in this expedition to test them as well."
I raised an eyebrow, "Wait… So how many people are there in this expedition?"
"Ah, there's no need to worry, my Lord. I'm assuming you are concerned that people might realise that you aren't one of the shortlisted Guardians and come to the conclusions that you might be the Mortal God, correct?"
I nodded.
"We are also hiring Vanguards for this expedition to supplement the numbers since we are not planning to close the portal this time and it's more of a test expedition disguised as a recon expedition. I have also told them that this would just be the first of a few so even if they did not see you here, they will assume you joined the other expeditions which I will be arranging a few days after this expedition completes."
I see… Guess there's a reason why she's sitting in that position of hers.
She continued, "Unfortunately, this would also require you to be present in all of them. Would my Lord mind such an arrangement?"
I shook my head, "I have yet to figure out anything related to my powers right now so I would appreciate any opportunity to do so. Right now, aside from having increased strength and that jade book, I do not know if I have gained anything else."
"This is what the main goal of this expedition is, my Lord. We will be able to see if there are any changes when you are placed in a position fighting alongside allies. For the past few days, have you experienced any changes?"
I shook my head, "Not that I know of. I'm still getting used to the increased strength that I received."
"Understood. In that case, shall we head there now, my Lord?"
We left the office and headed to the lift to head down to the carpark in the basement.
I put the mask on my face as the lift doors opened, revealing a black sedan with tinted windows was waiting for me alongside a small convoy of similar coloured cars surrounded by people wearing black suits.
I think it was at this point that I finally realised the weight of the position that I now held as I saw all of the suit wearing people bow their heads when I appeared.
This was something I never asked for, but this was just something that people considered was normal to do in the presence of someone in my position.
Just a few days ago, I would also be in their position if one of the Mortal Gods from the other countries showed up. If you were to disrespect them, it wouldn't even be the Mortal God themselves who would kill you, your own people would kill you to appease them.
That realization somehow made my steps feel heavier as I climbed into the back of the car with Olivia.
Our convoy then headed towards our destination and honestly… I've been in more awkward car rides.
It was only made less awkward because Olivia was still making calls and directing the expedition from beside me, seemingly doing a hundred things at once as her fingers danced across the keyboard of her laptop while talking to several different people on her phone.
Thank everything that I was not expected to do that.
Soon, we reached the place where the portal was located and there was already a sizable crowd there.
I was wondering why they needed this many people for just a recon expedition until I realized more than half of the crowd was actually just people from the media that had been set up outside the portal.
I guess this was something that I have to get used to in the coming days.
The moment I stepped out of the car, cameras started flashing, all of them directed at me.
While some people may bask in this attention, I was not one of them.
Some of them tried to shout out some questions but Olivia stood by my side and guided me towards the portal, blocking the reporters from getting to me.
We moved past the crowd of reporters to join the smaller group of people dressed in armour and wielding an assortment of weapons, all of them numbering to just probably two dozen or so people.
I felt all of their gazes on me as I was brought to the front of the group.
From here, I could see that there weren't just humans but also a mix of people from other Worlds as well including elves, dwarves and even a centaur standing amongst them.
Not only that, even amongst the humans were people that were clearly foreigners and not from this country as well.
I would have wondered why they came all the way here for this but I had read up about this before so I knew that the protection and benefits that came from being under a Mortal God's employ was something too good for someone to pass up.
Even for me, I had briefly entertained the idea of trying to be a Guardian for a foreign Mortal God as well. Though it was more for the possibility of doing more to help than for monetary reasons.
Olivia raised her hand at the crowd, "Good morning. This will be the first official expedition of our Mortal God. This is purely a recon expedition so do not take more risks than you have to. I will remind everyone that if you put my Lord in any danger, you will atone for it with your life. That is all."
I can't even say that her threat was excessive because that's just the norm here.
"If there are no further questions, all Vanguards, prepare to enter the portal!"
I sucked in a breath before turning to face the portal.
That was when a thought came to me…
Err… They're supposed to be protected by my aura to stop the miasma from mutating them, right?
How do I activate that aura?