102 Chapter 48 Alliance Meeting

By the time it was getting close to gather up for the meeting Joshua was able to spend a lot of time with Lilly's parents after Lauren had finished taking Trevor to school. He told them all about their adventures, but decided not to tell them about some of the things that might have scared them a bit too much. He didn't want to get Lilly into any trouble. Of course her parents weren't stupid and could tell he was holding some things back, but at least they felt a bit safer knowing there was actually someone there that had her back, especially after learning more about Joshua.

At first the pair were a bit nervous about the upcoming meeting and were worried that the rest of the alliance wouldn't see the need to help them out. At the moment Bryce got by working day to day jobs at different places like a lot of people that hadn't quite found a place in the new society. He didn't have the means to be a good combat personnel and even the system gave him a recommendation for a support job that dealt with taking care of animals. Lauren on the other hand was in a similar situation, but instead of working day to day jobs she either took care of Trevor when he was out of school or worked as a substitute teacher whenever possible. In both cases neither one of them made nearly enough money to do more than the bear minimum with the system.

Things got a little better when Lilly started to go out exploring and earned a bit of money, but even so she wasn't making enough to support all four of them in the long run. Now that she was working with Joshua things would change and if they could get in good with the alliance then it could only be a good thing for their family. They were happy to know Joshua believed things would work out so well for them and just hoped that he was right.

When it came time to head out for the meeting Joshua led the way and brought Lilly and her family to the entrance to the Phoenix Guild where the meeting would take place. It didn't take long for them to make their way inside sense some of the members of the guild recognized Joshua and brought him and the people with him to where the meeting would take place. At first they were curious who the extra people who he brought along were, but they were told that Joshua should be treated like a lead member of the guild along with a few others such as Adrian and his friends. So they kept their mouth shut and quietly brought him and his guest along to the second floor meeting room where the rest were already inside waiting.

After entering the room Joshua took notice of everyone having friendly discussions with one another. Amy was being her usual loud self at she talked with Naomi who quietly kept the girls interest. Laura, Madalyn, and Natalie were all having a little discussion of their own with Isabella standing just behind them quietly waiting for any orders they could give her. Adrian, Aito, and the Carsen brothers were all having some quiet discussion to themselves with Adrian occasionally getting a laugh out of the others from what Joshua believed was probably a crude Joke. Nathan and Henry were off discussing something between themselves that most likely related to their plans for the support guild sense they were the ones who thought of the idea in the first place.

That was all the members he was used to seeing in the meeting hall on occasion, but now there were even more people that were sitting around the place having friendly discussions with one another. Joshua could see his father off having a rather jovial discussion with Aito's father about their gym set ups. The two of them had been friends for a long time so that came as no surprise to him. Then you had Joshua's mother having a rather quiet discussion with Vivian, about things that would probably embarrass Joshua if he could actually here what they were saying. These were the people that were being added to the core of the support guild for now and Joshua was glad that it was kept to a rather small group at the moment. Things weren't exactly stable enough with everyone eager to make a name for themselves and if they brought in the wrong people that could blow up in their faces in the near future.

"You're finally here brother, we've been waiting for you." Amy nearly shouted as she took notice of the final people entering the room and waived happily to him. "Is this Lilly, it's nice to meet you." She said with a bright smile.

"It's nice to meet you and everyone else as well. Thank you for allowing me and my family to join this meeting. I promise we will take everything said here seriously and between us." She said with a small smile while both of her parents nodded behind her.

"That's fine, Joshua has told us a bit about you, but it would be good to learn directly from you all during the meeting." Laura said calmly getting a nod from the others. "Now that everyone is here I'd say it's about time we start this discussion and get everything in order. It's not too often that we are able to get everyone together like this so let's get as much done as possible."

"Sounds like a plan." Madalyn said with a smirk. "Then how about we let Nathan start things off sense this will be your guild after all."

"Um, thank you." Nathan said a little bit surprised, but he quickly calmed himself before turning to look at everyone in the room. "I'm sure most of you realize that circumstances have been quite fluid and changing through these first few years of the new world. So far most of this is because of how much the rules of society has changed to rely on power more than simply status of any kind. Of course the World Government Guild will try to change that, but it's highly unlikely that they will succeed in their endeavors with the way things are currently going."

"True, they are the largest guild with the most people involved, but they are spread thin and have a bad system for their guild. I don't think they will be able to last all that long with their current infrastructure." Henry said getting nods from everyone else in the group.

"That's my exact thoughts as well, but just because they may eventually fall apart at the rate things are going doesn't mean things won't change." Nathan said with a frown. "While falling apart they could easily cause several problems for others in the process which we will have to be prepared for. They're already trying to get involved with other guilds if what Laura and Madalyn had to say about their visit is true."

"Yep, they came to visit us about cooperating in a takeover of a larger town in the future. I'm sure we're not the only ones they've given that proposal too." Laura replied.

"If that's the case then we can expect them to make rather extreme changes starting next year and if they do actually get possession of a large town at that time then that would put us in a rather bad position going forward. They would have proven that their approach works and might actually get other guilds to join them because of it. So to avoid this outcome we will have to succeed in something similar before they do. The easiest way for us to do that is by gathering enough resources to get our combat guild members to a high enough level over this year to actually take down a larger town. That's where the support guild comes in to play."

"You plan to use the support guild to bring in resources from explorers outside of our own group then?" Joshua asked.

"Exactly, whether its materials and equipment from dungeons, or just straight up guild points so that we can buy things from the system the support guild will be able to bring in all sorts of stuff from people outside of our own. At the moment we have four establishments that will be the backbone of our support guild in the future. Mine and Naomi's shop, Mr. James's gym, Mr. Fujimoto's dojo, and my mom's restaurant business. All of these businesses shall be under the same guild going forward and that should allow us to gather quite a bit of income." Nathan explained.

"Plus being in a single guild will also get people going to each of the establishments based off of the shear fact that they've been to one of them before and enjoyed the service." Naomi said getting nods from the others.

"At this point those are the things we've currently have set up to start off the support guild, but now to discuss the businesses we plan to create in the near future." Nathan said before turning to look towards Joshua's mother. She cleared her throat a bit before addressing everyone else in return.

"Well as many of you know I've been working in the field of health most of my life and at the moment the only source of medical aid available is completely based off the system. There aren't actually any hospitals right now since everyone either relies completely on potions from the system or people with healer combat jobs. That is alright for now, but based off of some of the poisons, diseases, and other complications that are going to occur in the future I believe it is best that we get a head start in making an actual hospital in the hub system." She said getting nods from the others.

"Are you almost done getting your medical license from the system mother?" Joshua asked and smiled when he got a nod in return. "Then I suggest we go along with your idea then. It might be slow going at first, but it won't be long before it becomes a necessity. Even though I'm pretty early on in my explorations I've already come across enemies with poisons that are on the dangerous side. Who knows what some of the monsters in the future might be able to do. Plus I recommend we get someone to work on building mechanical arms and legs as well, I'm sure quite a few adventurers have already been damaged to the point where healers aren't able to actually fix their injuries."

"That's a good idea, if we can find someone to help me out on that front then that could be a good start to our hospital business. At least until we start getting problems that are of a more disease based variety." His mother said with a smile before all of the attention in the room finally turned to Lilly's family.

"Now on to the last matter of importance. Joshua said that you guys came along to join the guild and explained a bit about the advantages to it, but we would like to hear from your perspective." Laura said as she looked over towards Lilly.

"Well, my father and mother are both veterinarians, and I know at this time that's a job that won't be very useful for the current form of society. People don't have pets at the moment, but that won't be the case for long." Lilly said before glancing back towards her parents for encouragement. "My mentor during my training was also a beast tamer like myself. She told me about a lot of advantages people with my job would have in the future, and one of those was the fact that we are able to have multiple pets unlike others. That confused me a little so I asked her what she meant and she explained that after gaining second tier jobs all combat personnel will be able to tame one pet."

"That might be a ways away from where everyone is at the moment, but we believe that if we can get a head start on it that would put not only the support guild, but the entire alliance in a great position ahead of others that won't even be ready for such a change. " Bryce said supporting his daughter.

"The only problem is we would need the training to account for the changes in animals after the evolution, but we don't have the money to pay for that. So that's when Joshua brought up this alliance to us and we thought we should give it a shot." Lauren said getting nods from everyone.

"Well if that's the case then I'd be glad to welcome you into our guild, and I'm sure no one minds the alliance footing the bill for your training." Nathan said looking around at the others for any objections. When no one seemed to disagree he smiled brightly while turning to Lilly and her family. "Welcome to Vivi's Guild were glad to have you."