322 Chapter 268: Rewards and a Bright Future

With the boss gone all of the vines in the room that were frozen started to crumble apart as well, causing the room to brighten up even more since the stones along the walls of the room were able to reflect the light pouring in more easily. The light pouring in from the ceiling also seemed to brighten up for a moment before a portal popped up in the location. It was clearly the quick exit out of the dungeon. Out in front of the portal a large blue treasure chest appeared as well showing the group that they would be getting a reward for clearing the dungeon outside of just getting the territory.

Everyone smiled after the battle had come to a close and Lilly put away both Tank and Cinder to get a good rest after all of the fighting. 'Well that was a hell of a fight. We've got to remember to warn other groups in the alliance that will try to clear this place in the future to take out all of the bosses at the same time if they want to avoid making things tougher on themselves.' Adrian said with a smile as he looked over the treasure chest.

"We probably could have avoided fighting the gorilla's enraged state if we had taken it down at the same time that we took down the other beast." Henry said out loud getting Adrian to chuckle a bit at the fact that he forgot to talk instead of using the mental link now that the area had been cleared out.

"That's true, but now that we know how the fight will go we can do it better the second time around. Though I have to say it wouldn't be all that worthwhile for us to use this place for grinding. The gear isn't nearly as good as what we already have and the amount of experience we get from this place isn't all that up to our usual pace either. Natural dungeons are just better for us to use as training grounds although they are far more dangerous." Joshua replied.

"Well we were going to use the canyon dungeon for grinding anyways since we need more of those boss cores to complete the town guardian after all." Laura said with a smile. "We're going to have to make quite a few of them for all our larger base locations. I guess we can use the first one on James Town since it's the location that will be under assault in a month right?"

"Well the extra insurance will be reassuring for us, but we have more than enough time to grind a few town guardians before that point. It won't take us nearly as long to clear the dungeon as our first time through anyways. The snake will be annoying to deal with though." Henry explained.

"I think that's enough talking about things to come in the future how about we open the chest and get our blue prints before leaving this place. We've got a ton of members outside waiting for us to come out and celebrate our victory." Madalyn said getting everyone's attention. Joshua just chuckled a bit now that there was no tension in the air and made his way over to the treasure chest. It had a darker hue to it which was a clear sign that the blue prints inside of it would be of a higher tier.

Joshua quickly unlocked the treasure chest before lifting the lid up and peering inside. He was surprised to not find just one blue print like with most chest, but instead found three separate royal blue prints that all glimmered as the light from the ceiling shined down on them. The rest of the group walked over and noticed the three blue prints as well as Joshua took them all out and put them in his inventory. They'd make sure to get them all checked out at the blue print shop after the celebration.

"Well then let's head on back through the portal and see how the other group is doing. Then we can finally claim this territory as our own." Joshua said with a grin as he started heading for the portal. The rest of the group followed him through the exit as they were all taken back to the portal that took them into the dungeon in the first place. When they came out the town was no longer surrounded in purple haze as the hue of the surroundings turned more natural in colors. All of the zombies and haze creatures in the area were gone leaving not a single thing behind to prove that they were even there in the first place.

Even with the haze gone the large town still looked unbelievably horrible. The destruction caused by the haze creatures and the bosses in the area had most of the buildings looking like the remains of a broken town after a massive earthquake. Luckily it wouldn't be that way for long after they cleared out the area and brought in some architects to design the new town. Joshua was going to make sure to bring in the ones that helped put together James Town since they did such a good job. While looking around a message prompt appeared in front of all of them to read.

[Congratulations on clearing this town from the haze. As a prize you shall be rewarded this territory along with the surrounding area. Also because you have cleared a large town certain requirements have been made to push the system forward. Expect to see these changes soon. You have a six month period to properly prepare this town before other guilds or groups are allowed to challenge the territory. Since this is a large town an alliance is allowed to challenge the territory in the future.]

"Well that's good to know. Now we know that when the time comes the world government guild will probably be able to bring along a few smaller guilds in an attempt to take this territory." Madalyn said with a frown.

"Well we've got six months before anything like that can happen and I'm fairly sure by that point we'll have more than enough defenses to hold this place without too much trouble." Henry replied. "Besides let's set that aside for the moment and go find the others to celebrate."

Everyone smiled a bit at that before heading out of town. They were sure the rest of the alliance members were probably still waiting on the fringe of the area after being forced back by the zombies. As they were making their way out of town Joshua couldn't help, but notice the excited look on Sarah's face as she chatted with her partner. Apparently they gotten some great footage from their dungeon dive. Joshua was surprised by the fact that he had barely even noticed they were even there while they took on the final boss. It went to show their capabilities at getting the job done without ever getting in the group they were recordings way.

It didn't take very long for them to reach the outskirts of town now that they didn't have to sneak around and travel slowly. Along the way they saw the destruction of the water tower and gas station which showed the great battle that the support group had gone through while distracting the hoard. Luckily they didn't see any bodies left behind so it seemed like things went extremely well on the other end of things.

When they got outside of the town they were finally able to see the members of the support group that were cheering at their arrival. It was clear that they had all been waiting for their return with baited breaths. The fact that the haze had disappeared seemed to be a weight off of everyone's shoulders since it meant that Joshua's group had succeeded, but seeing them all back and alive was an entirely different feeling.

As they made their way over to the cheering group Joshua took notice of something else off in the distance near where the forest they had gone through to get to the town was located. Joshua could feel the auras of several small groups, but they didn't seem to be together and judging from their size they were likely scouting groups from other guilds. With that Joshua was certain news of them clearing the territory would become widespread amongst the guilds fairly quickly. Plus having it put on these news soon after they get back would make the information flow along even faster.

Joshua put those thoughts aside as he walked over with the rest of the group to cheer alongside everyone in the alliance. They all looked towards the ruined city with excitement for the possible future ahead of them. At the moment they were ahead of all of the other guilds, but they would have to continue to push themselves if they wanted to stay ahead. Joshua knew that there would be quite a few challenges ahead for his group in the upcoming future, but he wouldn't want to face them with anyone else.