Chapter 330: Discussion with an Interesting Group

When Joshua and the rest of his smaller group entered the clearing everyone in the area turned their attention to them. All of the talking stopped, but from what Joshua could hear on the way over through the drone he was certain that the members of the Heaven's Star Guild were actually excited after the battle. There wasn't any feeling of depression being given off by the group after their loss, so it was a rather welcomed sight.

The moment the man that Joshua assumed was the leader of the group, based off of the way he was giving orders during the territory war, turned and looked in his direction it was clear there was some recognition. In fact now that Joshua was looking at the expressions being given off by everyone in the clearing it was obvious that they all recognized them. After their display in taking over the large town a few weeks back their popularity had sky rocketed on an individual level. People knew Laura and Madalyn well enough because their faces were well known from being the leaders of the two largest independent guilds in the city, but everyone else became far more recognizable after the large town subjugation was displayed on the news channel.

"Damn, no wonder we got our asses kicked so quickly. I thought we were going up against another new small guild, not a big fish in disguise." The person Joshua assumed was the leader said with a shocked look on his face. For a moment he seemed star struck, but he quickly rose to his feet and made his way over offering his hand as greeting. The man was a bit average looking in appearances and definitely wouldn't stand out in a crowd, but he seemed to have a lot of charisma by the way he presented himself. He was on the shorter side for a knight since he was only five foot nine or so, but he carried himself as if he was the leader of the group. "Nice to meet such well known explorers such as the leaders of the Alliance. You can call me Morning Star and I'm the leader of the Heaven's Star Guild."

"Joshua. I'm the leader of the Fenrir Guild and this is our territory." Joshua said with a small smile trying not to come off as to intimidating to the likeable group.

"Oh I know all about you!" Morning Star said a bit excitedly as other members of his guild nodded excitedly as they all stood up to watch what was going on with expectation. "You were number one in the rankings for the first phase. I was a bit surprised to see you show up so suddenly as a member of the alliance after all this time, but after watching the broadcast of your group's subjugations of the large town I can see why you were ranked first in the first phase. Oh and thanks by the way for that. If it weren't for you I'm sure I and many of my friends would have died in the first phase after a few more days. We were trapped on top of a building in Chicago. If the haze was given the time to reach the top then we would be dead right now."

Joshua noticed one thing about Morning Star right away and that was the fact that he was a talker. He seemed to get caught up in his own pace and talked so fast that it was hard to keep up with everything he was saying. The rest of the members of his group seemed to be used to it by the way they easily followed along with his words. "Not a problem. Someone had to do it after all." Joshua simply replied trying to keep things short and simple.

"Our deepest apologies for attacking your town." A rather tall man that was only a few inches shorter than Joshua being around the same height as Jayce. He was bulky in stature and had the gear of a knight showing that he was clearly a tank in the guild. Joshua couldn't really get much of a look at his appearance since his armor covered every inch of his body and his helmet covered his face completely. The only distinction he could make of the man was his incredibly deep voice and his somewhat knightly tone as if he was role playing. "If we knew that we were going after one of your bases we wouldn't have started this territory war to begin with."

Joshua turned to the knight like figure with a small smile. When he used observe he noticed that the name given was Wood of the Early Sun. He couldn't believe someone with such an attitude would have such a ridiculous name even if it was faked. "It's alright, I assumed you guys didn't know what you were getting into the moment the territory war started. You didn't really go in with much of a strategy after all."

"We figured that your guild was being used by someone else or something from that alone." Laura said getting everyone's attention. It would make no since for explorers at your levels to try to take on this territory seriously in the first place. After all Joshua alone could have jumped down from the wall and taken you all out if he wanted to."

"You guys didn't even make it past the first line of defense let alone far enough to force us to get involved." Madalyn said with a shrug as she observed the embarrassed looks by the members of the Heaven's Star Guild.

"We figured it was too good to be true." Morning Star said with a sigh.

"If that's the case then how did you find this place to begin with? What exactly gave you all the idea to challenge our territory?" Henry asked calmly. He had already realize the members of the Heaven's Star Guild weren't a threat in the slightest so he was trying not to be too heavy handed about things. He could already tell that Joshua was interested in the small guild for some reason.

"Funny thing is we came by the place by accident." Morning Star said awkwardly while trying to find the best way to explain things. "We've been training in this forest for the past few weeks and we just happened to come across the barrier to your territory. When we did, it showed that that the territory was new and was going to be up for a territory war soon so we decided to give it a shot. There wasn't all that much risk in it for us and we knew that we would probably loose. Even if we were up against another small guild with the same level of strength as us we'd be at a disadvantage since we would be the attacking force."

"So you were doing it just for fun?" Adrian asked in confusion.

"You could see it that way." Wood of the Early Sun said. "We wanted to test ourselves. Even if we knew that we would most likely loose we still needed to find a way to test the members of our guild without putting them in too much danger. The fact that the guild we were going up against was strong enough to actually take over a territory with their own efforts was enough to prove that they were stronger and more experienced than our group. This was the safest way to provide a challenge for our guild."

"You said that you guys don't like to take risk, but how do you expect to get stronger as a guild if you don't?" Joshua asked a bit confused. "I highly recommend taking on a dungeon or two before you get involved in a territory war. Anyone that actually owns a territory has had to at least clear one dungeon before. You can't really get far as explorers if you don't take any risk or make a legit business out of something needed like the Hunter's Guild or the Mercenaries Guild."

"I'm sure they would go out and try to clear a dungeon if they could, but it's not all that likely for a small guild like them to do so." Natalie replied to Joshua's statement before anyone else could, getting the attention of the others.

"Why do you say that?" Joshua asked. He was use to finding dungeons to clear out all the time in a much smaller group than a small guild. Even back when it was just him and Lilly he didn't have too much trouble finding and clearing out natural dungeons. They were challenging, but with enough information built up over weeks of exploring them even a small lower level guild like the Heaven's Star Guild could clear out some of the dungeons he had come across in the past.

"I can see why you would think it wouldn't be too difficult for an entire guild to take on some of the natural dungeons you have come across in the past, but there are a few things you have to realize that sets your situations apart." Isabela said as she started to readjust her glasses going into her lecturing mode. "Natural dungeons grow more difficult depending on the amount of people that enter them. So going at them with large numbers because you have a guild won't really accomplish anything."

"Yep. The world government guild use to do that all the time when starting off, but when they finally figured out it was only making things harder for them and causing lots of their members to die needlessly they finally shifted to another tactic." Natalie explained while agreeing with Isabella.

��Then you have to take into consideration the fact that not everyone has unique jobs like you and Lilly do. Those jobs have made it far easier for you guys to take on dungeons on your own. Beginner system dungeons do help guide explorers, but natural dungeons are far more dangerous to take on. You should know that yourself." Isabella said with a sigh.

"We would try to take on higher level system dungeons, but that's fairly difficult for small guilds like ours." Morning Star said while frowning. "Most system dungeons are found in towns so it's impossible for us to get to one without clearing out the haze in the first place. Then the well-known natural dungeons are all controlled by higher level guilds that are unwilling to give up their training grounds. It forces small guilds like ours to either train in open areas like this forest or risk it all and try to take on a new natural dungeon that doesn't have other guilds around. Some luck out and succeed gaining a new place to train and grow stronger, but most lose a lot of members and are forced to retreat."

"I see the problem." Joshua said as the group grew quiet for a while. "Well then if that's the case I have an offer for you."

Morning Star looked a little surprised by that for a moment, but when he looked at the members of his guild he realized what they all thought the offer was going to be. "I'm going to have to decline becoming a part of your guild. I mean we worked hard together to build the guild we have now and I wouldn't want to tear that apart. Besides we don't really do all of this to be major powers like you guys. We just enjoy exploring together and finding out more about this new world."

Joshua shook his head at Morning Star's response, but then started chuckling. "I wasn't going to invite you into the guild. I hate to say it, but if you guys were involved with the kind of raids and dungeons we do at this point then you'd only drag us down." After saying this Morning Star looked a little embarrassed for jumping to conclusions. "However I had another idea in mind." Joshua said with a big grin getting everyone to wonder what he was up to.