98 Chapter 44: Three Way Alliance

Laura made her way towards the larger meeting room where many people were already waiting for her. She was on break from their last expedition and everyone in the alliance had timed it so that they would all be on break around the same time so that they could organize the alliance a bit better. Even Adrian and the rest of Joshua's friends were here to discuss how they would be involved in the alliance, but today they weren't meeting up to discuss the alliance. Joshua still hadn't come back from his latest expedition yet, so they weren't going to go to deep into setting up the rest of Nathan and Naomi's guild at the moment.

Today they were all just meeting to discuss some of the things they have noticed that have been changing lately for a bit then just have some more casual talks afterwards. At this point they already had a pretty good idea of how many people would be joining the support guild, so outside of a few more suggestions there isn't much more they will need to add to the discussion. When Laura entered the meeting room she could tell that everyone was already there. Madalyn and her secretary Isabella were making small talk with Natalie. Adrian and Aito were discussing some odd tactics from one of their last expeditions with the Carsen brothers which Laura found quite interesting. Amy and Naomi were talking about all sorts of things sense Amy tended to get to excited to stick to one topic for too long. Lastly Henry and Nathan might as well have been talking in a completely different language sense everything they discussed went right over Laura's head. If she had to guess it probably had something to do with games in some way.

"You're here Laura!" Amy nearly shouted sense she was the first one to take notice of her entering the room. A lot of them waived her over to join them and they welcomed her into the random conversations as they all settled down a bit. "So anything on your mind Laura, you were the one that wanted us all to meet up in the first place after all." Amy said getting everyone's attention to focus on Laura for the moment.

"Nothing in particular. Things have slowed down a bit lately with most guilds trying to strengthen their territories a bit instead of charging out to get new ones." Laura said as she started thinking over some of the things she had to deal with. She looked over towards Adrian, Aito, and Henry and noticed that the group was closing in on her and Madalyn's level already. "I guess soon we should all start focusing on grinding levels like Adrian, Aito, and Henry. They've almost caught up to me already. Besides the next step we have to take is a larger town which none of us are quite able to handle at this point. At least without losing several people in the attempt."

"True, if I had to guess we will probably need to be around level seventy or so before taking on a larger town without it being too dangerous." Madalyn replied. "That will take a while even if we focus on leveling. How long did it take you three to gain two levels in your latest expedition?" Madalyn said as she was looking over towards Adrian's group.

"Meh, a month of grinding the same dungeon over and over again." Henry replied with a frown. "That's considering the fact that there were only the three of us so the experience share wasn't nearly as bad as a larger group as well."

"Yeah it wouldn't be so bad if we could take on larger groups, but without Joshua around we're kind of short a tank which makes everything more of a hassle than it has to be." Aito said with a sigh. "I can clear out weaker opponents from a distance while aiming for lethal targets on bigger enemies, but without a front line to keep attention off of me I can't exactly do my job to the fullest. Same goes for Adrian, right now he's basically playing the tank role for us which means he's not able to focus on being a close range damage dealer in the end. He's busier trying to avoid and deflect attacks then going on the offense. Without Henry around to stabilize the party output with his enhancements we would struggle with groups of monsters only a couple of levels above ours."

"Hey it's not that bad." Adrian said with his usual goofy smile. "I mean at least we can take on groups at a time, most other parties have to try to deal with one creature at a time at the level we're at currently."

"That's sadly do to the fact that depending on the monster they could have far larger stat totals than our own. At least until we reach the next tier of job that will become more common place. It's why it takes so damn long just to finish one damn dungeon run with the usual party." Henry said before turning back to look at Madalyn. "How about you guys? You're leveling has seemed to slow down quite a bit, but I take it's more a matter of time in your guy's case."

"I'd have to agree with you on that point." Madalyn said after drinking some coffee from the mug she had in front of her. "We've been so focused on gaining and stabilizing territories for the past year that our leveling has slowed down quite a bit, but it's worth it for the members of our guilds to have places to train and get stronger. Though I think we've got enough smaller territories at this point and it's time to work towards getting a bigger town to set up a large base of operations on earth."

"Which means we'll be more focused on leveling going forward until we're ready to take on the larger town." Laura said jumping in on the conversation. "We'll be taking our stronger members on expeditions to hidden dungeons of higher levels than the towns we've been going up against lately. That should definitely speed up things a bit. In the end the world government guild won't be making any moves on another large town until at least half way through next year."

"That makes sense." Natalie said gaining everyone's attention. "Knowing how they are they like to have a strangle hold on anything they're interested in. Which means it's going to take them a while to get the support of any guilds in their endeavors. You can expect it to be dragged out until the meeting at the end of the year between all guilds. By then they might have a few smaller guilds with high level explorers join them sense at that point the offer will probably be a bit more appealing. Then it will likely take a few months to set up things and practice with one another before they charge into which ever target they have chosen."

"In that case I'd say we have till just before the end of year meeting to prep then." Henry said with a grin on his face. "We wouldn't want them to be getting a head start on us now would we?"

"Well you're definitely right on that front. We need to time it to where all their work will be for nothing so we can stick it to those bastards." Dave said getting nods from his brothers. "It will make them right furious and they will probably try to outdo us and mess up things in the process."

"Heh, who knew you had such a sense of humor brother." Dillon said with a smile and got a few chuckles out of the others.

"So in the end we're aiming to reach around level seventy on average by the end of the year." Laura said with a bit of a frown. "It is possible, but it will be a bit of a struggle. We have to make sure to focus on quality over quantity so I'll be forming smaller groups when diving into dungeons from now on. We can't just carry around people that aren't up to pace with the rest of us when it comes to this. You think you can help organize those groups with Madalyn, Natalie, and I later Isabella." Laura said as she turned to look at the cold looking woman that kept a completely unfazed expression on her face when asked the question.

"No problem guild master. I will get started on organizing things later on today." She replied getting a nod from Laura in return.

"Well then will have to put things into high gear going forward." Henry said while scratching his chin. "Now that we have a support guild being formed we will get bonus income from all of the materials we've collecting from dungeons, and we will have a way to gain access to more materials from adventurers that decided to sell to Nathan's store now that he's got a legit guild. We will also be able to bring in more people to help out from other perspectives than just combat."

"True, a lot of support class workers didn't bother joining guilds sense they wouldn't gain much from them unlike combat classes. Now that there is an actual support guild they can get just as much out of it and won't have to depend fully on the guild to make their own living. The boost in experience and the set up to advertise their abilities or businesses is far more than what they can get from trying to work on their own. We'll have to try to get as many people under our wings as possible over the next couple of months." Naomi said getting a nod from her twin brother.

"We just have to make sure we get the right sort of people though. So I'm going to need help with all the interviews…got any ideas?" Nathan said as he looked around the room.

"I suggest you focus on those who have worked on their own up to this point and have avoided joining any guilds. They're less likely to be spies. You can use the system to check these things when offering a job position so, don't worry too much about it." Henry explained. "We'll decide more on that later when everyone is here that's going to be a part of the support guild."

Things went quiet for a moment as everyone seemed to have something or another on their minds. Well everyone except Devin who was clearly knocked out asleep in his chair. Somehow he painted the perfect picture of someone paying attention with his arms crossed and his body a little tense, but once you looked at his face you could tell he was in dreamland. 'At least he didn't snore' was the thought passing through just about everyone's minds for the moment. "Well do you think Joshua will be able to catch up by then?" Amy asked getting confused looks from some people. "I mean by the time we plan to take on the larger town."

"Probably." Henry simply replied getting looks of surprise from a lot of people.

"I know the guys fairly impressive and all, but do you really think he will be able to catch up that fast?" Dave asked as he looked over towards Henry. "He's only been exploring for a couple of months at this point. Outside of Amy it's taken all of us years to get to this point, and she's still lagging behind us quite a bit even with how fast she's raised her level."

"True, but unlike Amy who's been part of a guild and fighting in large groups for the most part Joshua is probably going to have an easier time in a smaller group or on his own. That will increase the rate of his leveling by quite a bit sense he won't have to split the experience with several people. Sort of like us early on, but if Joshua could take down Amy in a one on one at level ten then I have no doubts that he can take down monsters of far higher levels than himself which will increase his growth rate by quite a bit." Henry explained.

"Well we'll see soon enough, He sent me a message yesterday to let me know that he'll be back home in a few days. Apparently he's been grinding some dungeon to raise his level recently. He didn't want to come back until he was through with that." Amy said before getting up and stretching a bit. "I'm going to go get in some training, just thinking of my brother out their fighting has got me all amped up. Mind if we have a spar Adrian? I haven't gotten to fight you in a long time."

"Sure Amy, but I won't be holding back." He replied before the two got up and headed out. Soon most of the group was getting up to go do their own things in preparation for their plans. It wouldn't be long before their little alliance would become one of the most important groups in the whole world.