236 Chapter 182: Meeting the Expedition Squad

When Joshua reached James Town the place was fairly empty seeing as he was the only person there at the moment. It was early in the afternoon and the group planned on meeting up in town later on in the evening so they could discuss all of their plans and strategies for the expedition into the canyon. Joshua came early so he could check out James Town a bit and so he could make a few arrangements in the town hall. It would make it easier for everyone to be comfortable during their discussions.

Over the past few months they had started placing furniture and other resources into the buildings of James Town. At first it was little things like chairs for the town hall, basic medical equipment for the hospital, and some normal high level gear for the police department once they got things running. He didn't plan to make his guild well known until after they took care of the subjugation of the large town, but getting things set up whenever he had free time had become something he and Henry had started to do. The more they went out on expeditions the more often they started to spend time staying in James Town to take short breaks instead of going back to the hub city. That meant they would need the usual necessities for living to be stocked up in town and so far they had been doing a good job of keeping that in check.

At the moment they had more than enough stuff set up to where they could have a comfortable meeting in the town hall for the upcoming night. The place was nearly set up for business at this point, the only thing holding it back was the fact that the guild only consisted of eleven people at the moment and there was no way that was enough people to run an entire town let alone a town that had so many different things set up for it. Eventually the guild was going to have to start recruiting more people so they could have the place up and going. It was planned for the town to not only be able to have enough space for their future guild members, but also for their families to make a living there along with them.

Joshua wanted to create a real town like atmosphere and that meant they needed more than just combat personal around for that to happen. They needed people that ran the day to day necessities of the town from merchants, to restaurant owners, to police that focus primarily on the safety of the town and any other odd jobs that were needed. There was no way that guild members would have the time to do all of that if they wanted their guild to become something special in the future.

"It seems like this place is all set up for company." Adrian said as he looked around the town hall. Adrian wasn't as involved with the gearing up of the town as Joshua and Henry were so the sight was new to him.

"Yeah, I thought it would be good for tonight's meeting. Besides after the large town expedition we'll start broadening are guild. We'll need to have this town set up with all the necessities once we start bringing in more guild members." Joshua explained.

"Well this is as good as a start as any." Aito replied with a small smile. "What time do you expect everyone else to get here?"

"They'll slowly trickle in over the next few hours I'd imagine. They should all be here before it gets dark though." Joshua simply said as they set down at one of the tables that had been put up in the meeting area of the town hall. "I'll know they're here when they get close to town since its set up to warn me of new people entering. The only reason I didn't know you guys had gotten here so quickly is because you all have been here before."

"Then I guess Jayce's group can come in and out whenever they want along with Lilly and Amy." Henry said while nodding. "Well they'll all show up soon enough. For now I was wondering how you expect this meeting to go. Although we know a lot of them I wouldn't be surprised if we have some leadership control issues."

"True, both Madalyn and Laura are used to running their own expeditions all the time, and that's not to say the other members aren't used to running their own little expedition groups as well. In the end there are multiple people in this group that are used to running the show. The only leader that I know for sure will defer will be Jayce, and that will be to you…Boss." Adrian said with a little bit of a smug look when he stated that final word.

Joshua sighed before responding. "Well Laura, Madalyn, and I have already discussed this a while back. We decided that I'll be leading this expedition since I know the surroundings the best among the three of us. When it comes to the large town raid though we're not exactly sure who we'll have leading that expedition since we'll all be fresh to the area with no idea what to expect."

"Makes sense, but you know that just because Laura and Madalyn agree doesn't mean the rest of the people they bring along will. Especially when it comes to Madalyn's guild members. They're a tough bunch to ingratiate yourself to after all." Aito said while thinking back on the encounters that he had with Madalyn's guild in the past. It took them a while to even begrudgingly work with Adrian, Aito, and Henry let alone let any of them lead an expedition.

"I'm sure there will be issues, but I'll handle them when the time comes. Besides if they're anything like Madalyn then it'll probably come down to them looking down on me because of my level and what they presume is my strength. I'll just have to fix that." Joshua said with a grin.

"Well that settles it for who will be leading the group. Anything else we should know before meeting up with the others?" Henry asked.

"Well the only other thing is the fact that you will be my second in command for this expedition Henry. After all your sub-job is perfect for the role." Joshua stated getting a nod from the others. They all new that this would be the perfect chance to test out Henry's support job of strategist before they take on the large town. The role made it so that groups of more than twenty people get a slight boost to all stats as long as they remain organized. They weren't exactly sure to what extent they had to remain organized, but they'd be able to test it out during the expedition. The boost was extremely small at only five percent and it was along the same scale as the boost they'd get from eating Aito's food, but that was still much better than nothing and could end up helping them in a pickle.

"Alright it'll be nice to figure out what all the circumstances are for my support job to work. If anything this expedition will help out with that." Henry said with a small smile as the group started to talk about random things as they waited for the others to appear. After a while Lilly and Amy showed up looking a bit excited for the big expedition. Lilly was excited to see all sorts of new creatures that she could possibly end up taming. Amy on the other hand was just excited to fight more powerful creatures.

After those two arrived another half an hour went by before Jayce's group showed up. They all seemed pepped up as well with Jayce being over energetic and Julia having to reign him in. The group of five had come a long way since the last time that Joshua had met up with them. They had kept up in level well enough and they seemed more confident in themselves then the last time Joshua had met up with them. This was most obvious when it came to Monika who didn't seem as timid as usual, but she still had the shy girl personality when it came to conversation. He was willing to bet with all the high tension moments that the group had been put through while going into unexplored dungeons on their own over the past few months they were all able to become far more experienced.

It didn't take too long after Jayce's party showed up for the last large group of people to arrive. Joshua knew right away since the system warned him of new people entering the town, so he lead everyone that was already there over to the entrance of the town where the rest must have been arriving from. When they arrived Joshua could see Laura and Madalyn at the head of the group leading over several people that he knew and some that he didn't. Just like he expected Isabella, Natalie, Adam, and the Carsen brothers were all there with different forms of expectation on their faces. On the other hand the people that Joshua didn't know were looking over to Joshua with a neutral face for the most part with one of them looking outright mad at him for some reason.

"It's good to see you could all make it just fine." Joshua said with a grin as he gave the people he knew well enough a hug and a hand shake to the others. His large figure still towered over most other people around outside of Adam who was probably the closest to him in height all though he was still a few inches short and Jayce, who was a rather large guy himself.

"I'm impressed with the town you've gotten set up so quickly. It's far better laid out then any of ours have been up to this point." Laura said with a small smile as she looked around the place.

"Yeah so far our towns have been mostly set up as small bases for people to rest before going out on expeditions. They're well defended with turrets and walls, but they still aren't anywhere near this level." Madalyn said as they all noticed Isabella looking around the place with an appreciative eye.

"The location for this town is perfect since it forces other guilds to attack from the front and nowhere else unless they want to lose most of their forces trying to make it through the mountain range. With the turrets this place is extremely well defended, but the two things that set it apart from anything else I've seen up to this point is the fact that you have actual beast defending it, which I guess is because of Lilly in some way, and the fact that you've made the town like an actual town instead of a base." Isabella said as she turned to look at Joshua. Most of the other people in the group were also looking around the place in wonder.

"Well I plan on it being a town when we're through with it. A place where guild members and their families can stay and make a living outside of just combat. Relying on the system for everything and the hub city as a primary home forever would be against the point of all of this exploring anyway wouldn't it." Joshua said with a small smile as he got nods from everyone after his explanation.

"Well we'll definitely have whoever you had put this town together help put together the larger town after we take it over." Natalie said. For a moment everything seemed to be going along just fine as people were interacting with each other like old friends, but then Joshua caught the look of one of the people that Madalyn had brought along and noticed that little group was talking among themselves. Eventually one of them stood out from the rest of them and marched up to Joshua while glaring.

"I challenge you to a fight. I'll prove why Madalyn would be a better leader for this expedition than you." The person said with fire in their eyes and Joshua just let out an annoyed sigh knowing this situation was bound to happen sooner or later.