Chapter 338: Bringing the Cast Offs Together

After the final interview Joshua and the rest of the group sighed after having a long day. They had several spars with different people even if most of them were one sided, it was still tiring to spar over and over with full concentration. They had also been through a roller coaster of emotions throughout the day as they came across all types of people that either pissed them off by wasting their time or impressed them with their skills or potential. In the end they had forty three new recruits with five of them being at the level of which they could be placed in the main group soon for tougher dungeon dives.

They had planned a meet up between them and all of the new recruits in a couple of days. They'd meet up at the guild hall before going to James Town and showing them around the place. Joshua planned to test them all out in the town dungeon since it was high enough level to be a challenge for most of the new recruits and short enough to do repeatedly in short order. Of course Joshua planned on upgrading the guild to a mid-sized guild fairly soon otherwise they would waste a month's worth of time trying to avoid gaining anymore guild points. If they did level up to a mid-sized guild then they could level up the town making it even more difficult to invade even if they ended up going against mid-sized guilds.

While Joshua was preparing to head out he asked Henry if he could come along with him for a little while. He knew that the rest of the group wouldn't be nearly as interested in meeting up with the people that weren't going to be members of their guild. Joshua lead Henry out of the guild and over towards Aunt Betty's café. It was the closest store to the guild and the one everyone had seen him come from in the morning so he was fairly certain the people he asked to wait behind would be waiting there if they were still around.

When Joshua and Henry made it to the café they were both surprised by how packed it was. There wasn't a single table available inside or outside and there had to have been at least eighty people there waiting around talking with each other. Since Joshua had asked a little over a hundred people to wait behind he was happy to see so many people actually there. He was only expecting half of them to stay at best.

As they made their way into the store Joshua noticed that everyone was looking in their direction. That pretty much told him that everyone waiting in the café was there for them and not some random customers. Before Joshua got the chance to look around a bit he was immediately noticed by Aunt Betty and she waved him over in a hurried manner. She had a look as if she was looking at someone who had caused her a lot of trouble, but at the same time since she was still out and about so late in the evening it was clear that business had been going well.

"Joshua why'd you have to go and send all of these people over to my café? The place was so busy it was hard to find room for any of my regulars." Aunt Betty said with an obviously fake look of displeasure. She wasn't doing very well at keeping the smile off of her face. "I had to call in some of my workers that had the day off just to keep up with the rush."

"Sorry about that, but I thought having a bunch of people around for the day could give you and the other stores and shops around here a chance to gain some new customers." Joshua responded with a sheepish smile. He may have not spent too much time around Aunt Betty, but she was already treating him like a grandchild whenever they met. It reminded him of when he spent time with his grandparents.

"Well it was good in the end even if it was a bit hectic. Just about every single store around here got some extra business today. Now that you've brought in all of these first time customers it's up to us to make them come back for more in the future." She said with a smile. "So come by anytime for a free cup of coffee Joshua. We all owe you a lot."

"I was happy to do it and I wouldn't pass on having the best coffee in the hub city." Joshua said with a smile getting Aunt Betty to chuckle as she left to go get started on closing for the night. After that short and simple conversation Joshua turned around to see that just about everyone in the café was staring at him still. The place had gone quiet and they all seemed to be eagerly waiting to see what Joshua had to say. Henry on the other hand just looked at Joshua from the entrance of the café and urged him on to get things started so that they could get it over with.

"All right. Seeing as how you all are still here I'm guessing you will listen to my proposal. That being the case come back to the guild building and meet up in the guild hall. I'll explain my proposal there so you can all here it and decide whether you want to agree or not. Make sure to tell anyone else that might have gone to wait at any of the other stores around here." Joshua said before heading back over to Henry and out the door.

After they both left the store they could hear the large group of people start to collectively rise out of their seats and discuss what was going on. Joshua wasn't sure if they'd all come, but he knew that most of them would since they had waited so long. "Did you really have to go and rile them up some more? At this point they seem like they'll do anything to get into a guild like ours from what I could tell. Even if your plan will help them out it won't put them in our guild."

"That's true, but if they realize that what I have planned for them will help them out regardless then they'll go along with it. Most of them seemed to be in need of help before they ended up doing something stupid like diving into a dungeon to prove themselves to some guild or just giving up on the explorer life style in general. "Joshua said with a displeased look at the thought of either option being taken. If they dived into a challenging dungeon trying to impress some guild then they'd either die or get injured to the point where they might be forced to give up on the explorer life style. However if they did just give up on being explorers they would be well behind everyone else in the hub city when it came to support jobs and creating a living there.

"Well let's just hope that they decide to agree with your sentiment." Henry said as they both entered the guild and headed to the guild hall. They didn't have to wait there for very long as people started to enter the large room and looked around for them. When they had noticed that Joshua and Henry were basically on the risen stage at the end of the hall, they all started to file into the room quickly to see what was going on. Joshua stayed quiet for around ten minutes as he watched everyone funnel into the room. When it seemed like no one else was going to come in he put up his hand to get everyone's attention and to get them to settle down. When things grew quiet he decided to start things off.

"Thanks for sticking around. I know that you could have all very much gone off and tried to get into another guild, but I hope that you understand that probably wouldn't be your best option at the moment." Joshua said getting some confused looks from everyone in the crowd. "There was a reason that I decided that none of you met the requirements of joining my guild. You all are at the point in strength where if you joined on any of our raids you would either freeze up do to the powerful creatures we fight against or be nothing more than fodder to hold the beast off while we come up with ideas to take them down. That's not how I want to treat members of my guild. Go to any other powerful guild and you will get the same responses or at best you might get brought into the world government guild where you will definitely be used as cannon fodder for big operations."

Everyone in the crowd looked either confused or saddened at the realization. That's when some random person decided to speak up. "But I've seen people of lower level than myself get brought into large guilds all the time. What about them? What do they have that we don't?" The question got murmurs going through the crowd.

"I've seen similar things in the Phoenix Guild and the Serpent Guild, but do you know why that is the case?" Joshua asked the person who spoke out. The man just shook his head in response. "The reason is they have potential. Those are people who either have unique jobs or soul beast, have maxed out their potential while training, or are just lucky enough to have caught the eyes of members of those guilds. It's unlikely for that to happen to any of you in your current position. The only way I can see a way around such a situation for you all would be for you guys to build up a reputation by fighting in the arena that will open soon, but in all likelihood there will be people there with far better skills than you lot can handle."

"Well then what's the point in any of this?" Someone spoke up. When Joshua looked in that person's direction he realized that it was Delvin that was talking. The first person that he had declined in an interview. "Why did you call us here?"

"Well that's simple. I brought you here to give you guys an offer that I think is worth taking in your current position. If you don't want to continue bouncing from guild to guild then why don't you create a guild yourselves?" Joshua said getting some looks of surprise and some thoughtful looks in return. If you guys decide to create a guild then we will help you with it. Although you aren't prepared to take on the challenges that we have to handle day in and day out we can help you guys get into the position where you can be a full time guild on your own in the future."

"It sounds interesting and all, but what exactly do you guys get out of it. From what we saw in the large subjugation we know that your group will eventually grow into a large scale guild. I don't know of any large scale guilds that would make such an offer without planning to get something out of it." Delvin responded. Joshua was a bit surprised that Delvin was the one asking all the question, but he could see a little bit of leadership coming from him that everyone else in the crowd seemed to be following.

"That's simple. We wouldn't be doing this for nothing and you guys aren't the first group that we've made this offer to. In return for our help of giving you dungeons to train in along with helping you claim territories in the future we expect you guys to pay a small tax from the materials you gain from said dungeons and for you to take up occupations of towns around our area. That way in the future we can put up a united front against any forces that try to invade our territories. "Joshua explained. After his little explanation he could see how the looks in everyone's eyes went from confusion and desperation at their current situation to hopeful. With that he knew that he had made the right choice.