238 Chapter 184: Knowing your Troops Part 1

After the short duel and brief time spent outside of town they all went inside and had their meeting on what they wanted to do for the expedition they planned to start in the morning. After the duel they had all gone to the town hall and started the discussion. It became obvious that they all agreed that Joshua should be the leader of the expedition since he had not only proven his strength to everyone, but was also the leader of the group that knew the area the best. They had also decided Henry would be the second and command for the expedition since he was best for the role. He wasn't the only one there with tactician as a sub-job though. Isabella had the support job as well, but they were both on the same level with it so it didn't really matter which one of them was the second in command. In the end they decided to go with Henry since he had more experience working with Joshua.

After that they spent some time discussing the areas on the way to the canyon. Joshua explained the lay outs of the forest areas on the way and the large prairie. He even told them about the spirit dungeon and the reward for clearing it. A lot of people that didn't know about the place had their eyes brighten up a bit at that. Joshua decided to make a stop there on the way so that the people that didn't have the presence hiding skill could get it to help out with the expedition. It would also be interesting to see how the dungeon would change if they went in there with such a large group. He was pretty sure that more of the spirit beast would join the fight and make it a bit more challenging. Plus there was the fact that with so many new people around there would be far more things for the spirit beast to change into once they challenged it.

Joshua ended up explaining everything up to the canyon where they had turned back so that the entire group had enough information to know what was going on up to that point. After that everything would be rather knew for everyone there. This was the first territory that any of them had come across with such a warning laid out for it. Both Laura and Madalyn had confirmed that fact when Joshua asked them if they had seen something similar on any of their expeditions. Knowing that the place would be extremely challenging Joshua decided the most important thing they all needed to do before anything else was to figure out the roles and capabilities of everyone in the group.

When it came to Laura her unique job as a magic swordsman did a lot for her. Joshua always felt that her build and way of fighting was more designed for a sword than a spear back when he had to train her to wield a spear in the first phase, but he didn't want any of the girls to end up getting bitten back then so he focused more on their safety than the weapon that was best for them. It was clear that her smaller frame that went well with quick movements was better off with a sword than a heavy spear and over the past few years Laura had become fairly powerful with both her magic and her sword. Her job was well balanced with a slight boost to intelligence and wisdom to make her magic stronger. Her job also had one major benefit over regular mages. That was the fact that it allowed her to imbue her magic into her sword while fighting and it made it so that her spells were cast faster and lasted longer when it came to ongoing spells.

From her phoenix soul beast Laura gained a lot more than just regal looks and vibrant red hair. Her soul beast did two major things for her that put her above most others. The first was the fact that it gave her amazing power when it came to flame magic and made it so the power of any fire spell she used would always be doubled. The second thing she gained was a constant fifty percent boost to her intelligence in a similar way as with Amy's soul beast and her dexterity. This made it so that she was far more powerful than most mages even though her original stats wouldn't be as high as a mage that got five points on every level for intelligence while she only got four. This meant that she could fight up front with her sword while still packing a massive punch when it came to her magic from any distance.

When it came to Madalyn her style of approach was completely different from Laura. Madalyn's job as a dagger specialist was fairly simplistic and thrived on dexterity more than strength. Madalyn wasn't very tanky either with her strength and vitality both being a little below average, but her dexterity was the max you could get from a first tier job. Madalyn's job came with the basic boost that most simple jobs had and slightly boosted her physical stats when fighting with short blades. Her job at this point honestly wasn't what made her such a force in combat at the moment. Instead it was her soul beast that set her apart.

Madalyn's soul beast of a basilisk was one of the most powerful ones around and did three specific things for her at this point. The first ability she gained from her soul beast was the most obvious as it was the ability to create different types of poisons that could be used in different scenarios. Her poisons were also far more powerful than usual. The second ability she gained from her soul beast was an ability that made it so that any presence hiding skills would become more effective for her and she would be able to see through anyone else's hiding abilities far more easily. The last thing she gained was extreme flexibility in her movements that allowed her motions to seem unnaturally smooth and flowing. This made it easier for her to weave in and out while going for attacks. It basically boosted her dexterity even more by thirty percent while also boosting her straight up reflexes in a similar manner to Adrian, but not by as much.

The last thing Madalyn had that was going for her was the fact that her support job as an alchemist made it so that all the poisons she created would have a longer lasting effect. Joshua knew that Madalyn had several ways to inflict her poisons from fighting alongside her in the past and he wouldn't be surprised if she had even more now. They would be extremely effective against large groups of enemies in the canyon. After learning all he needed about both Laura and Madalyn's abilities for the upcoming expedition he decided to turn his attention to the next two most important people that he needed to know everything about to make the expedition a success.

First he turned Natalie to find out how much stronger she had become since the last time Joshua had fought alongside her. He knew that she decided to go with archer as her combat job and the role focused on her dexterity and surprisingly her intelligence and wisdom more than her strength. It was similar to Aito when it came to her stats. The major difference was the weapons they used. The job of course gave her a boost when using a bow in combat, in fact it didn't matter if she shot arrows with the bow or ran up and hit you with it in the face it still gave her a bit of a boost.

What made Natalie stand out from other archers was her soul beast after all and what it could do for not only her, but for her entire group. Her golden two-tailed fox soul beast had given her certain psychic like abilities. The one they had used in the past would be just as useful now since she could connect with far more people. Unlike the party chat Natalie's ability allowed them to not only talk to each other with just their thoughts, but it also allowed them to send images instead of words which could make a lot of difference in certain situations. What surprised Joshua though was the new combat abilities she had gained from her soul beast. The little creature didn't really give Natalie any boost like abilities like most soul beast, but instead gave her another psychic power that was more designed for combat.

The combat ability that the fox had given Natalie was telekinesis. She wasn't exactly some overpowered master mind with it since at the moment her telekinesis wasn't strong enough to use on living creatures so she had to figure out other ways to use the abilities. Low in behold having telekinesis could be extremely beneficial for an archer. She was able to bend her shots while keeping the momentum and power behind them. This allowed her to trick her opponents. She could also ward off some attacks with her telekinesis to some extent, but for the most part she used it to make all of her arrows accurate no matter how she sot them.

The last of the big four that Joshua decided to figure out all the abilities of right away was Isabella and he wasn't disappointed when he learned about her capabilities. First off she was a mage through and through and she focused on ice magic since it created a little more variety in the group she had started out with. Ice magic was a bit rarer in comparison to mages that decided to focus on either fire, water, wind, or earth magic. Of course Joshua had seen how effective it could be with the way that Cinder was able to use her new form against boss level creatures. As a mage it was obvious that Isabella had most of her stats focused in intelligence and wisdom, but up close she was a sitting duck stats wise. Luckily she had a few tricks up her sleeve to get out of those predicaments.

Her soul beast was a snow leopard of some sort that was a bit different from most other feline type soul beast in the fact that it focused on magic instead of physical combat. This snow beast made it so that her ice spells took effect much faster. The biggest weakness to ice magic was the fact that it took time to become useful and if an enemy figured out a way to get away from the magic or heat up its body then the spell wouldn't be as effective. Isabella's soul beast basically made it easier for her to get around this problem since her spells would cause her enemies to freeze up, slow down, or get frost bite at a far faster pace.

The soul beast also made it so that Isabella gained a boost to her wisdom during combat of forty percent at all times. Considering the fact that the boost was to her wisdom instead of intelligence it meant that her spells wouldn't get a massive boost in damage, but instead she'd have far more endurance when it came to using magic. She had a larger amount of mana flowing through her body and she was able to use that flow far more effectively. This meant that her spell casting was faster than most mages and she could last during long and drawn out fights.

From these four people he was able to get a good idea of what they could do and what roles they would play in combat going forward. Laura would be the magic user that could do massive damage from afar at the star of a fight then jump in for close combat while recharging her mana. Madalyn could constantly weave in and out of combat while poisoning large groups of enemies and causing all sorts of side effects that could bring down any enemy. Natalie was the member of the group that could work alongside Aito in taking out specific targets or parts of large enemies. Lastly Isabella could use her spells to hamper enemies constantly throughout the fight while also going for constant damage. They all had a distinct role to play in the upcoming fights.