Chapter 428: Racing towards the Prairie

Joshua welcomed everyone as they arrived at the guild hall. He could see that he wasn't the only one excited about the upcoming expedition just by the atmosphere that was created the second others started entering the guild hall. It didn't take long for everyone that was a member of the Alliance that was going on the expedition to gather in the guild hall and not soon after Joshua received a message from Vince letting him know that they were waiting outside of the town. They found out that they could approach the town without getting attacked by the turrets, but they didn't want to risk going inside the territory that someone else owned without their permission.

Putting the conversation aside with the members in the guild hall Joshua left to go welcome the mercenaries into the town. Outside of architects and alliance members this would be the first group of explorers to set foot inside the town and Joshua was interest in seeing their reaction. Once Joshua met them at the entrance to James Town he waved them on in and greeted them with a smile. Joshua could see right away that they all seemed impressed by the town by their expressions, but that wasn't much of a surprise considering that most other towns weren't exactly towns at this point. Even in the alliance most of the other bases were just that, bases that could be used as outpost for explorers to rest before continuing. The Fenrir Guild was currently at the fore front of building areas where civilians could once again live on earth and at the moment no one outside of the alliance and the architects that built it knew that fact. Now Vince's party would be joining that small group.

While making their way back to the guild hall the town wasn't the only thing the group discussed. Joshua also asked them about the new guild that Naomi and Nathan had made for them. At the moment they were already geared up and ready for combat since anything could happen while out in the world and Joshua could tell that the gear was definitely a major upgrade over what they were previously using. Although the gear that the mercenaries had on when they last confronted Joshua during the territory war was of high standard, it wasn't exactly gear that was tailor made for them. That held them back and made them rely more on their job and its skills in combat than usual.

When it came to Mulan her new gear was designed for balance so that she could keep her posture during combat more easily along with maneuverability. It was light weight armor that wouldn't slow her down and had enchantments on it that would boost her in different areas depending on the situation. If she was on the defensive the armor would focus on steadying her and reinforcing itself so that she wouldn't have her posture destroyed when blocking with her blade or even taking a direct hit to her armor. When she goes on the attack the armor would provide a decent boost to her strength and speed. Weapons wise Mulan got a new sword along with a backup that she could use. They were both enchanted so that they could store energy when blocking and unleash it when going on the attack. Of course they were made of the best materials with Naomi on the case.

Aurora was similar to most martial artist that Joshua had seen up to this point and therefore focused more on going all out on attack instead of defending. Her armor was light weight do to this and its enchantments were focused on empowering her as much as possible. It not only gave a boost to her strength and speed, but also improved the flow of her aura when she was using her skills making them come out faster and more precise. For weapons she mainly stuck to her fist, but Naomi made her a pair of gauntlets that were light weight but more than sturdy enough to block attacks if needed without damaging Aurora's hands. The gauntlets were enchanted so that they concentrated the force of her blows on to one point so that the resulting damage can't be influenced too much by the defenses of the opponent.

When it came to Ariel Naomi was more focused on providing a balance between protection and offensive capabilities. The robe that Ariel got was similar to the other mages in the alliance's main group which would boost her magic resistance, her mana regeneration, and the power of her spells by a decent amount. The new staff she had gained was designed to empower fire based spells and was geared more towards more tactical spells instead of just overpowering ones. From the way Joshua had seen Ariel fight he was certain that was the right choice. Unlike Laura and Julia who focused on overwhelming magic power Ariel was more focused on trapping and whittling her opponent down with a variety of spells.

For the healer of the group Naomi had made gear that was focused completely on her protection with a little bit of healing benefits. Cinderella's gear was all about protecting her. The robes were of similar design to the ones given to Ariel, but instead of having the enchantment that would improve spell power it had an enchantment that created a barrier around her body to protect from one lethal attack no matter the situation. Such a barrier took up a lot of space when it came to enchantments, but it was well worth it to save a healer in a bad situation where no one else was around to protect her. The staff she was given focused completely on healing spells and would improve how fast she could heal injured allies.

Lastly it came down to the gear that Vince himself was given. He went through a bit of a revamp on gear to focus on his special abilities as an illusionist. His former gear was just for protective measure in case he got caught while his weapons were straight to the point and simple. His sword didn't have anything special about it outside of having a nice edge that made it easy for him to slash quickly before people realized that he was going on the attack. These properties were decent, but Naomi and Nathan both figured there was a lot more they could do with Vince's abilities.

When it came to Vince's new armor it was made to help him blend in with his surroundings completely. This worked extremely well with his illusions since it also did a masterful job of hiding his killing intent when he went on the attack. He'd be even more troublesome to deal with in the future and his opponents would have to rely on instinct and counter attacking if they wanted to get a hold of him in combat, but with this new gear Vince would be amazing in large size battle fields as an assassin.

When it came to weapon Naomi made him a pair of two separate distinct blades. One was like that of a rapier that was designed completely on the idea of thrusting forward and doing damage. It wouldn't do all that much against large armored foes, but it could utterly destroy any weak spots that Vince came across. The blade was enchanted to so that it would have increased piercing force along with the ability to lengthen with energy at the tip whether it was aura or mana. This would allow it to be more effective against larger enemies. The other blade was similar to Vince's original weapon with sharp edges that were meant for quick slashes. It was enchanted to increase its sharpness even further along with a weightless spell for the one using it so that the strikes would be even faster.

By the time the mercenary group had finished explaining all of their new gear they were at the front steps of the guild hall at the center of town. From their gear and Joshua's previous experience of facing against them he had a decent idea of how they would fight throughout the upcoming expedition, but even so there were a few secrets that the mercenaries were keeping up their sleeves. Joshua still had no idea what their soul beast were. But he hadn't exactly told them all of his abilities either. They may be cooperating at the moment, but in the future they might be on opposite sides once again so he could understand the situation.

When they entered the guild hall and met up with the rest of the group Joshua didn't have much trouble making introductions between the two sides since a lot of them had already met before. It was still fairly early in the morning, but Joshua decided it was a good time to get on the move since they wanted to at least have some time of the day to explore the area by the time they got there. Joshua took the lead in taking everyone to the edge of town where they went into the stables to get some horses to ride on. Although they could just teleport to the canyon area they decided to take the longer way until they reached the canyon area. Getting a good look at the lower level prairie could give them some idea of the other side of the prairie even if the monsters over there were stronger.

Vince and the rest of his party members were only able to ride on a few horses since Lilly was the one that brought them into her soul realm so that they could get around the guild only rule. It didn't take them long to break through the dog filled forest on horseback and only a little longer to cross the prairie. All of the beast in the area were to low leveled to even think of attacking their group. Even the horses they were currently riding were much higher level than any of the creatures since they were linked level wise to the strength of the town which had grown a lot ever since they had become a mid-sized guild.

Crossing the prairie didn't take too long since they didn't have to make any stops as they eventually came to the large canyon divide that kept them from getting to the other side of the prairie. This time around they weren't going to float across like idiots into the unknown, they were lucky they survived that last time around. Instead Joshua lead the group far down the side of the prairie where they could climb down and come close to the exit of the canyon. They would have to worry about trap door spiders, but bats wouldn't be a problem thanks to the time of the day. This time they'd spend a very short amount of time in the canyon before they'd finally be able to see what was ahead of them in the expansive prairie.