Risen World

As Joshua was leaving the meeting he noticed a lot of people were still talking with each other such as Adrian, Aito, and Henry talking to Martin or Madalyn having a conversation with the Stranger's Guild leader. On the other hand there were those who were leaving right away such as Laura and Gregory. Just as Joshua was leaving the room he noticed Charles making his way over to him. Joshua decided if they were going to have a conversation it would be best to have it where it was a bit quieter so he stepped outside. He only had to wait around for a minute before Charles came out the door right behind him.

"Is there something you needed to say to me?" Joshua asked as he turned to look at Charles who still had a small smile from things going so well throughout the meeting.

"Well it was something that doesn't have anything to do with the peace treaty, but something that I think will involve your guild soon enough." Charles said getting Joshua intrigued. "As you know Kyle is still a part of the World Government Guild unlike the Raider's Guild. He is a part of my family and therefore entitled to a position even if it is one with no power."

"That doesn't seem like the right way to do things. Coddling him so much in the first place is the reason why he acts the way he does." Joshua said with a frown.

"I agree with you, but let's just say his mother has a lot of sway in our family. Even so he has failed to the point where our father has demoted him well below his prior position. He was always inept, but he is also a very vindictive person and will most likely try to strike back at those who put him in this position."

"In other words you're expecting him to come after the Fenrir Guild soon." Joshua said nodding in understanding.

"Among others. His main goal will be to take his former job back from me, but he won't be able to even attempt something of that scale anytime soon. Therefore his next target would be you guys. After all it was his failed mission of wasting so much money and time on trying to take your territory that finally pushed our father over the edge." Charles explained.

"That being the case you expect him to come after us instead of you for now, but why warn us? I doubt he can be a serious threat."

"Oh he's definitely not a threat at all." Charles said with a chuckle. "He thinks he's smart but I've always believed in keeping your friends close and your enemies even closer. That's especially the case when it comes to family. At the moment he thinks he has some World Government Guild members working for him, but they all report to me and they let me know what he's up to."

"Then I'm guessing he's planning on striking soon if you decided to bring it up now." Joshua said with a sigh. He was annoyed since this could get in the way of when he planned to continue the alliance expedition. Before this meeting they had decided to push the expedition back a week for a couple of reasons that mainly involved preparing for any territory wars and training new recruits.

"He's been gathering some rather underground individuals to try to claim James Town alongside himself and some mercenaries, but now it's likely that the mercenaries won't be involved with the treaty. Even if it is bound to fail spectacularly I thought it best to give you a heads up."

"Thanks, I'll make sure to beat him down so badly that he will be forced to go and give you trouble next." Joshua said with a smile. Charles just shook his head at that before nodding and heading back into the meeting room to talk with other people that were still there. Joshua however decided to head home for the day and rest up for what he had planned for tomorrow.

The next day Joshua found himself standing in the spirit forest alongside Lily, Amy, and there two new recruits Thomas and Celia. It was time to begin their full on crash course in training so that they'd both be at least level seventy before the big expedition in a week. It wouldn't be hard to just get them some levels by going to high level area and having them tag along while Joshua, Lily and Amy would just take everything out. That was a strategy often used to boost new recruits in some guilds, but Joshua believed there was much more to gain by growing stronger with your own strength than relying too much on others. It might take a bit longer, but it would be far more effective.

Although level seventy wouldn't be all that much for the area the main group was currently exploring it would be high enough for them to withstand the killing intent of the beast without completely freezing up and becoming sitting ducks. They'd have high enough wills to fight back especially sense they'd have the benefit of being around Joshua's aura which could counter act a lot of the killing intent that would be coming their way in the first place.

The spirit dungeon was the perfect place to kick off the leveling process since it was always changing when it came to the beast you would fight and it was more like a none stop challenge scenario rather than a dungeon that you would have to explore. They were both around the same level as the beast within and even if they wouldn't get mass amounts of experience for leveling from each opponent they'd beat there would be so many opponents that the rate of leveling would still be good. There were several reasons why going to this dungeon was a necessity to start of their training, but the main reason would be the skill that they would gain from clearing the dungeon.

Defeating the boss in the spirit dungeon would give first time conquerors the Fade Presence skill that was a necessity to be a part of the main group at this point. If he was going to bring two people that are in the early level seventies on this expedition then they were going to have to be able to use the Fade Presence skill to drop the attention of wild beast. This was especially the case for Celia who was going to be a sub tank in the group. She needed to be able to step in and hold off a beast for a while and this skill would allow her to drop the attention of a beast whenever she couldn't hold on any longer so that another tank can step in. Without such an ability it would be hard for her to survive the upcoming expedition. It would be useful for Thomas in the same sense as it was with the healers and mages of the group where it would prevent them from gaining too much attention in the first place.

"Well this is your first test. For the most part Lily, Amy, and I will be here just in case things go sideways. You two will be the ones doing all the fighting, but be careful. These spirit beast are tricky and can take the forms of any beast you have faced in the past. That will include the enemies that we have fought in the past so there might be some surprises for you two." Joshua explained.

"Don't worry about it Josh, we've got this." Thomas said excitedly with a big grin while Celia on the other hand simply nodded her head and took the lead since she was the leader for this expedition. Once inside the dungeon it worked the same way as always with different phases as all of the spirit beast that were flying around the arena they stood on while glaring in their direction. They came at them in waves and Celia stood her ground while using a shouting skill that grabbed the attention of all of the spirit beast at the same time. With her shout all of the spirit beast started taking the forms of all sorts of creatures. Some Joshua recognized like the centipedes and the giant frogs on the other hand there were these moth like creatures that he hadn't seen before.

One of the beetles tried to stab one of its claw like legs through Celia and missed as she stepped to the side. She struck out with her blade, but realized it did no damage at all to the beast as if she was attacking a ghost. Joshua was happy to see how fast she was able to recognize the situation that she had been put in as she used a skill that coated her blade in energy. This time when she swung at its leg she was able to tear through causing the entity to scream in pain as it backed away. One of the centipedes tried to hit her from the side, but she created a smaller more concentrated energy wall around her shield and used it to block the incoming attack. The way she was able to quickly react without even having a line of sight with the creature showed just how great her sense of danger was.

While Celia was grabbing all of the attention of the spirit beast and holding them off Thomas decided it was time for him to start clearing them out. He brought out Tails and Nuts and jumped up on to the back of the giant fox as it's tails started to wreath flames all around the arena. The waves of searing heat burned away the weaker spirit beast easily while damaging the more powerful ones enough to where Thomas could charge in with his daggers coated in the same flames from Tails and cut into the distracted spirit beasts.

The two new recruits worked extremely well together and cleared out the first wave without any trouble, but as the waves grew stronger they stated to have to use more and more trump cards to hold their own. Celia showed off a skill where she could toss her rounded shield and it would spin and shoot out like a boomerang before eventually coming back to her. Since it was coated in energy it was able to cut through several of the spirit beast at a time. It would be hard for a lot of other tanks to lose their biggest source of protection, but with Celia's sense of danger she was able to dodge around any unexpected attacks while using her blade to guard herself until the shield came back. It was a skill that allowed her to clear out many small fries at once so that she could focus on the bigger targets.

Thomas also used his bestial fusion once the stronger waves started coming and was able to power up Tails to the point where he was able to easily tear through the sub-boss class beast. Eventually they were able get into a flow of working together to the point where they were able to take down the spirit beast boss after a long hard fought battle. They were both exhausted out of their minds, but had each gained a level with Celia getting close to another level up. They both were rewarded with the Fade Presence skill and Joshua ushered them out of the dungeon to head to the next one without even a break. They had a lot of catching up to do..