323 Epilogue

Thoren found himself sitting behind his desk in his office starring at a large pile of paper work that seemed to only grow more and more as the days went by. He found himself drinking more and more alcohol to cope with all of the work he had been doing lately. Apparently one of his subordinates had gone to his longtime rival Ysildea to complain about the fact that he had been spending too much time away from work lately. If Thoren could he would seek out the rat that decide to sell him out so easily, but at this point he was certain half the people in his council new to go to Ysildea whenever he started putting off work.

Now Thoren found himself having to deal with all the work that had piled up while he was visiting Joshua. He was getting to old for this kind of work and he really just wanted to spend his time relaxing in his old age. Too bad every time he brought it up the council would just shrug their shoulders and act like he was just joking around. With the system extending the lives of all species that came under its power the council was able to act as if Thoren was still a middle aged man half the time instead of a multi thousand year old grandpa.

Soon Thoren's bottle of Alcohol had run out and he decided to use that as an excuse to get up and leave the room to go find more. Well he would have if not for the fact that the moment he stood the door to the room opened as someone extremely familiar made their way inside. Thoren had to look up as he saw the tall elf matriarch glaring down at him. For most people Ysildea was probably the kindest person you could ever meet. The only time she was aggressive was during combat or in a serious situation, any other time she just came across as a motherly figure that was always willing to lend a helping hand. In Thoren's case however Ysildea was a hard ass that always brought trouble.

"It's good to see that you're actually in your office for a change. I was beginning to think that you considered this more of a hobby than your actual full time job." The old elf responded with a look that she wouldn't show anyone else. Too bad for Thoren it wasn't the type of look he wanted to receive.

"For it to be a hobby I'd actually have to enjoy it." Thoren grumbled in response before walking back to his seat knowing full well there was no way that he was going to be able to go and get anymore alcohol with the old elf around. "What got you to come visit little old me this time around?"

"Outside of checking up on a longtime friend…" Ysildea started to say before pausing for a moment with a bright smile when she saw Thoren's annoyed grumbling at her words. "I wanted to talk to you about what's going on with Joshua and the rest of his kind."

"Alright go ahead and shoot. Anything's got to be better than doing all of this paper work." Thoren said as he waved for Ysildea to take a seat on the couch near the desk.

"I'm worried. It seems like he's proceeding through things too fast. At the rate things are going the system will continue to push them forward and you know exactly what that means." Ysildea said with a worried look. "Even if Joshua might be able to handle it that doesn't mean the rest of humanity will be able to. It could set them all back quite a bit."

Thoren knew what she was talking about. After the first large town was taken over as a territory the system would start to introduce new things to the populace. Guilds would become more important, countries would start to be able to interact with each other although on a small scale, and an entire new portion of the ranking system would be unveiled. It would be the second half of phase two and more importantly would bring humanity ever closer to phase three. Thoren new Phase three was exactly what Ysildea was worried about. Getting to that point so soon could either be a blessing or a curse depending mostly on luck.

"Well they still have a ways to go before things start getting troublesome for them." Thoren responded after thinking things over for a bit. "The system only moves to the next step if enough time passes or they meet certain criteria. Clearing a large town will help push things forward a bit, but they won't be pushed into phase three until someone clears out a city. They are still not ready for that."

"That's not the problem and you know it." Ysildea said with a sigh as she turned to look directly at Thoren. "Joshua and his group are far ahead of everyone else and that could end up being the real issue when phase three starts. It doesn't matter how strong they are it is impossible for them to pull through phase three alone and you know it."

"Who said anything about them pulling through phase three alone?" Thoren said as he stood up and walked over to grab a secret stash of dwarf made whisky that he had hidden on the book case. The conversation they were currently having wasn't something he wanted to deal with without having some hard liquor. "With guilds becoming more prominent in the coming years Joshua won't be the only person getting pushed to become stronger. There might be a lot of chaos in the process, but many humans will grow stronger because of it. That's their best hope for becoming strong enough in time."

"I guess your right about something for once, but it all feels too rushed to me." Ysildea said with a sigh.

"Well you know just as much as I do that if things took a turn for the worse that woman would end up intervening. She did give you that book after all to help him out." Thoren said with a wry look before he took a swig of his drink. "I'm surprised she'd come to you with it though. I know you two have a grudge against one another."

"I could care less about an old grudge like that." Ysildea responded getting Thoren to roll his eyes at her words. He knew just like with everything else Ysildea looked at things in the long term. What amounted to a yearlong grudge for most could easily turn into a century for others and there was no way that she wasn't still angry with the person that had sent the book. He wasn't going to bring it up though since he knew it would just end up causing problems.

"Did you even read the letter that she sent with the book?" Thoren asked trying to get back on topic.

"No, it was meant for him after all and he will be able to read it once he's strong enough." Ysildea said before standing up and heading towards the door. "If you feel that things will work out then I'll leave it alone for now. Just keep an eye on things." With those words she left leaving Thoren to his thoughts. The old dwarf finished his drink before turning to look at the stack of files on his desk once more. With a tired sigh Thoren got up and got back to work so that he could finally get some rest.

///[A/N] Didn't want anyone to miss this. Just letting all of you know that I'll be taking the next week off. I'll also be getting a new job soon so while I'm just starting on the job I'll probably only post Monday through Friday until I've got everything figured out. Thanks for all the support guys I'm glad so many people have been reading my story of late. :)