Chapter 239: Gathering for the Expedition Meeting

It had been a few days since Ysildea had come by for a visit with Joshua. Her advice and insight into aura allowed Joshua to thoroughly analyze himself on how he should go about his new understanding of aura in upcoming battles. The first thing he realized right away was that he couldn't rely on having all that much stamina when it came to using the new state that he discovered that used his will to empower and control his aura.

It was a highly advanced stage of aura use that he was just barely able to grasp the benefits of for the time being. He knew that for a fact simply because of the way Ysildea was able to use her will to effect the trees and other plants around her. She was able to do so casually with little effort at all, while Joshua basically burned through all of his aura reserves just to sharpen his aura around his blade. He just wasn't at the stage where he could use such abilities any time he wanted to.

After a few days of training he was able to find out that the max amount of time he could use such a state at a time was four minutes. That was after training with it constantly and getting better at controlling the flow of his aura. He wasn't able to up the amount of time he could use the state any more than that no matter how much he tried simply because he didn't have enough will or aura to do so. That's why he changed the way he would go about using his new found ability. He decided to focus on using it in small burst with timing being the most important key to keep track of.

A little aura amplification during a swing at the right moment to add extra damage. Maybe during an aura blast to increase the force of the attack, or for an instant use of aura sight so that he'd have a better perception of his opponent's movements. Using his will to control his aura in this way would allow him to spread out the four minutes over a much larger frame of time before it started causing too much stress on his body. In fact if he did it in small enough amounts the stress on his body would heal before he used it again with his natural aura regeneration. In the end he just couldn't use it for long stretches of time, but he'd work his way around that problem.

Another thing that Joshua had been working with was the use of the grappling hook that they had gained from the blue prints during the canyon run. He had picked one up from Nathan a couple days back since he knew that the little enchantment nerd along with his sister would be trying to make all of the new blue prints right away. The grappling hook was a rather interesting equipment that went around one of his forearms and could be used from a distance of up to thirty-five feet. With Joshua's blinking ability he'd be able to use it fairly efficiently in areas with high buildings or trees that he could grapple to.

When Joshua first tried the grapple out he nearly swung himself straight into a nearby tree since he wasn't used to using the thing at all. Luckily he was fairly sturdy and after a couple hours of trying it out he started to get the hang of using it. The grapple was armor tipped so it was easy for it to pierce through wood or stone in any area. He wasn't sure how well it would pierce through metal or some of the armored areas of the creatures that he had faced in the past, but he knew it was strong enough to pierce most hide which would make it possible to hook on to large beast which could add a whole new dynamic to how he took on massive creatures.

Joshua planned to have one arm have the grappler holstered while the other arm would have the spider arm guard on it for offensive purposes and a way for him to block attacks strictly with his arm instead of his scale blade. It would be good for surprise assaults as well. He wasn't worried about whether Nathan and Naomi would be able to get all the gear done in time now that they had several assistants in their shop, so he was looking forward to trying out all the new gear before going out on the next expedition.

After a nice work out in the morning Joshua went back to his hut to get a quick shower before heading over to the Phoenix Guild. Today was the day that they would all meet up and discuss the upcoming large town expedition. The expedition would be in a week so they decided they'd start setting things up ahead of time. Since Joshua was going to be one of the leading forces of the group he would have to be there to see how things were going to go. He might not be the type of person that was good at planning out large scale expeditions, but he knew that he'd have the biggest role to play when it came to the advanced group that would be taking on the boss.

When Joshua finished getting cleaned up he took a portal that lead him directly outside of the major guild area. It was crowded as always so Joshua made his way through the large crowds towards the Phoenix Guild that seemed just as busy as anywhere else. He wasn't surprised to see that the place was in full swing since at this point many members of the Phoenix Guild were staying in the hub city to prepare for the upcoming expedition. The rookies and lower leveled members were allowed to go out and train in guild owned territories to get stronger, but all of the higher leveled members were staying back to prepare for the expedition.

When Joshua entered the guild he noticed some familiar faces waiting off to the side. It was Adrian, Aito, and Henry that all seemed to be discussing something. Joshua knew that most of the rest of the group probably wasn't ready for the meeting yet since he got their early. Amy was most likely still with Naomi and Nathan going over the new gear while Lilly was probably helping her parents since they were getting everything prepared for setting up a veterinarian hospital in the future. Everyone else would probably be showing up soon while Laura and Natalie were probably busy making sure their normal guild proceedings were going on without them.

"Hey Josh you got here fairly early." Henry said with a small smile. "Ready to get things set for the next big expedition?"

"I guess. I just came early since I finished my training for the day and didn't want to get side tracked on the way here." Joshua said with a small smile as he made his way over to the group. "What have you guys been up to? Nothing too crazy I hope."

"Well I've been spending most of my time going over some new support spells that I could use going forward. I especially made sure to get a couple from the auction shop that seemed geared towards dealing with haze creatures. Any little thing can help in the end right?" Henry said with a casual wave of his hand.

"The weight support spell definitely helped with dealing with the massive bosses we faced back in the canyon after all, so I'm sure anything you think could change the course of battle will be well worth it." Joshua said in agreement before turning to look towards Adrian. "How about you? Anything interesting?"

"Honestly I've just been focusing on my sword play until I get the new gear from the blue prints. Those arm guards could be pretty good for me. I also tried out the grapple hook. It gives me some pretty good momentum when it comes to moving around quickly when used correctly." Adrian said with a smile. "It'll make it a whole lot easier going for the weak points on giant creatures."

"Yeah I tried it out to. The height advantage it could give us against some of these bosses we've been facing lately could give us a new way to take on some enemies. Plus since will be going in an area with a lot of buildings it'll let us get around a lot more easily without grabbing the attention of every zombie and haze creature within sight." Joshua said before looking towards Aito.

"I haven't been up to much, but I did get Madalyn to help me create some experimental bullets. I think the explosiveness of them might increase my damage a bit. Plus if I can get them through the armor of some of these creatures the bullets could actually poison them." Aito explained. "I've been trying out the grapple hook as well, but I'll most likely use it to get out of the way of attacks or to get to higher ground. Depends on the situation."

"Well hopefully things will go fairly smoothly, but I doubt it when it comes to haze creatures." Joshua said with a sigh.

"That's true. The things always seem to have some sort of trick up their sleeves. Plus their entire environment is always geared to helping them out thanks to the purple haze that surrounds them at all times. It makes taking them down a pain in the ass." Adrian said with a frown, but he suddenly smiled. "But it'll be worth it. After all with a major town under our belt the status of all of our guilds will grow and who knows what other rewards we'll get from it. Especially if we're the first people to take a large town as a territory."

"I'm just glad it's a large town that we're going after and not a city." Henry said causing a chill to go down everyone's spine as they thought back on to their first phase experience. In the case of Joshua he thought of that giant tentacle monster abomination that looked like some sort of land kraken from what he could see from the broadcast. The way the massive creature was eating large groups of people at a time like candy was a terrifying thing to see. The beast had to have been at least thirty or so stories tall since it was able to reach up and grab people off of sky scrapers like nothing. That didn't even take into account how big its body was considering the haze had blocked most of it from view.

In Adrian and Henry's case the two of them were probably thinking of the massive sub bosses that had nearly gotten to their group inside the airport. Plus they had most likely heard the commotion coming from the larger boss class haze creature in the city nearby. Joshua wasn't certain what Aito had witnessed during the first phase, but since he was a part of the army at the time he was certain that Aito had most likely come across quite a few unsettling sights as well. While they were all caught in a daze thinking back on things other people started showing up to the guild for the meeting.

Jayce's group was the next group to make it as they all seemed to have met up together before coming over as a group. Jayce of course seemed to be the most excited of the group with Julia constantly having to strong arm him into quieting down since he was attracting a lot of attention with his overly excited disposition. Marcus seemed to be a bit side tracked with something while Allen was as calm as usual and Monika was shyly following behind all of them.

The next people that arrived were Amy, Naomi, and Nathan who all seemed to be energetically discussing the gear they had been working on in the morning. Amy may not have helped out all that much, but she enjoyed watching the process and helping out where she could. Lilly was the next one to show up with her usual happy appearance with most of Madalyn's guild members that were involved in the last expedition showing up soon after.

Joshua was fairly certain that Laura and the rest of her guild members were probably already up and at the meeting room so they all decided to head up and get the discussion started. It was time to take the first steps for taking on the large town.