Chapter 427: Gathering for the Prairie Dive

It was the morning of the day that the members of the alliance were supposed to gather to go on the expedition into the other side of the Prairie. Joshua was well rested after such a long break, but he did spend plenty of time in the battle arena to test himself from time to time. He also spent a lot time training in preparation for the new expedition. He primarily focused on his new aura string skill so that he would be used to using it when he had to put it in action during live combat.

The aura string skill in itself wasn't a very powerful skill even if it was the best version of the skill. Power wasn't the point in the ability in the first place. The aura strings were tough and all that, but Joshua wasn't expecting to hold any large enemies down with them unless he made a ton of them and even then it wouldn't be much more restricting than Cinder's webs. The down side to that was the fact that unlike with Cinder, Joshua had to keep supplying the strings with aura to keep them together. Trying to tie down an enemy for a long period of time would just end up draining Joshua of a lot of aura in a very short amount of time.

The reason the aura strings were useful were because of their versatility. They could be used to set up traps that would be triggered once the aura strings were touched, they could be used as grappling hooks for Joshua to pull himself onto or around an enemy, and if push came to shove it could still be used to restrict an enemy for a brief moment of time long enough for Joshua or his companions to get in an attack of their own. Those were all ways that Joshua could see himself using the aura strings, but the most important use he had found up to this point was something completely different.

The most important use that Joshua had found for his new ability was to use it to attach aura strings to his weapons, primarily his scale blade. He could then throw certain close range weapons and change their trajectory with the strings, he could attach it to his scale blade and increase his range by swinging the blade with the string connected to it, and several other ideas that kept flowing through his head. Joshua even had Naomi and Nathan fix him some throwing knives to use as a sort of mid-range fighting style. He didn't have to worry about losing them just as long as he had his aura strings attached to them when he threw them.

As the skill improved in level the more he used it Joshua was certain that he'd find it more and more useful. It was an ability that he was certain would come in handy even after he reached the next tier level of his combat job. Outside of training Joshua spent most of his time relaxing with his family whenever they all got the chance to spend time with each other. Now it was time to get back to work which brought some excitement to Joshua's morning.

Getting up early Joshua was already cleaned up and ready for the day before the rest of his family was even awake. He planned on being the first one at the meeting spot so that he can check on everyone as they arrived. This time around they were going to be going in the largest group they had ever put together to explore a new area. While eating a quick breakfast Joshua started organizing in his mind everyone that was going to be a part of this expedition before deciding on what roles they would fill best in the group.

To start off with Joshua's own guild members that were going to join the expedition going down the list there are Joshua, Amy, Lilly, Adrian, Henry, Aito, Jayce, Allen, Marcus, Julia, Monika, Ivan, Victor, Robin, Brook, Jacob, Evelyn, Natsumi, and finally Katsumi. That was a lot of people in itself, but the Fenrir Guild was definitely the guild with the highest level members at this point in the entire hub city, but the rest of the guild was still small and behind a lot of the large guilds. Even so the Fenrir Guild was bringing nineteen people and that was only if you didn't count Lilly's beast companions in the number.

Joshua then thought of the members of the expedition that were coming from the Phoenix and Serpent Guilds. From those guilds you had Laura, Madalyn, Isabella, Natalie, Dave, Dillon, Devin, Adam, Abigail, March, April, May, Becca, and Amber. That was another fourteen members that would be involved in the expedition pushing the total to thirty three. That in itself was a large group with a lot of moving parts, some of which hadn't worked with each other yet. Then Joshua had to think of the fact that Vince, Mulan, Aurora, Ariel, and Cinderella would also be joining.

It was a large group, but it was a group with a lot of versatility in it that would allow them to shift up strategies whenever coming across new opponents that could give them a hard time. At the moment Joshua was probably the only one in the entire group that had seen everyone else in action during a fight at some point if you included Vince's group so at first the flow of combat was going to heavily depend on him until everyone else got used to fighting alongside one another.

They had more than enough people to fit any role they were going to need. They had tanks that could focus on shielding the back lines, tanks that can focus on stunning and or locking up key enemies, and tanks that were best at taking on a single target and keeping them away from the rest of the group. There were mages that focused on all sorts of elements in the group now that they had gathered together. Several members of the group could fight from a distance, some were better at mid-range, and then you had several that could get up close and personal. They even had five healers in the group if you didn't count any of Lilly's beast companions. All in all they had people that fit every facet that would be needed in this expedition so they wouldn't have any issues in that department.

As Joshua finished his meal and put away the dishes he started to make his way to James Town where they would all meet up before heading to the entrance of the other side of the prairie. While making his way towards the large portals in the hub city Joshua started to think of how he could incorporate Vince and his companions into the group as well.

Vince was a master of illusions and was the main reasons why Joshua decided to bring him and his group along for this expedition. He could give them a chance to slip by large groups of enemies without worrying too much about it. Beast at the level they were going to come across would be far more alert to their surrounding so having someone around that could help them all avoid that issue was going to be a big help, but that wasn't the only use Vince had. He and the rest of his group were also extremely good combatants as well. Joshua had fought against them personally and could see that their team work was exceptional. They could have probably torn most opponents apart working together, but Joshua's aura gave him a bit of an edge in that match up.

Joshua didn't know what the limit would be when it came to Vince's illusions but he knew that the playboy wouldn't be able to make specific illusions around each of them while fighting. It was amazing that he made solid illusions around his four companions in itself. That took a lot of multi-tasking, but trying to do something similar with thirty eight people in total wouldn't be possible. Any illusions used to hide the entire group's presence would have to be much less complex and more area based instead of being put around a specific person. For now Joshua believed considering the five mercenaries as their own unit that would work alongside the rest of the group was probably the best way to go about things. They could be used primarily for surprise attacks against unsuspecting enemies.

It took a little while to finally get access to one of the portals that would allow Joshua to go down to earth. Even though it was early in the morning there was no stopping the traffic in this part of the hub city since there was always explorers going out of and coming into the hub city at all times of the day. It was becoming more obvious that this was the case as more of the youth in the hub city started to take on the roles of explorers as time went by. Joshua just thought it was a good sign that more people were joining the ranks of explorers than the amount of people that were dying on the front lines of reclaiming their home.

Eventually Joshua got access to one of the portals and took it to James Town. When he arrived there was still a decent amount of people from the guild moving around the place and using it as a hub as they went out on their own little expeditions. Joshua could see that there were a few beast at the edge of the forest that had been shot down from getting to close to the walls surrounding the town. Other than that there didn't seem to be anything going on in the area. Joshua made sure that Vince and his group had access to coming within the guilds territory so that they wouldn't be suddenly attacked the moment they arrived. He then headed inside the guild hall and waited for everyone else to arrive as he sipped on a cup of coffee that he brought along with him.

Joshua was already all geared up and ready to get things started. Outside of the new throwing knives and a few material upgrades to his offhand weapons Joshua pretty much had the exact same gear that he had going into the last expedition. He was sure that would mostly be the same for everyone else going on the expedition outside of Vince's group. Joshua was looking forward to seeing what kind of crazy gear that Naomi and Nathan had cooked up for that bunch. These thoughts passed through Joshua's mind as he waited for everyone else to arrive so that they could get things started off. Sure enough by the time he had finished his coffee several people started making their way into the guild hall.