Chapter 458: Prairie expedition on hold

It didn't take very long for the group to get to the other side of the guardian site area where the terrain started to change back into a prairie. At the moment there weren't any beast around since they were still so close to the guardian's domain and no other beast would want to rush into a place with such a powerful creature waiting inside of it. It was getting late and they had already accomplished what Joshua had planned to get done for the expedition so it was about time to head back to the hub city and end the expedition for now.

At the moment there were only four days left to sign up for the upcoming tournament and Joshua was certain that everyone would appreciate being given the chance to spend that time preparing for it and getting some rest. Their current location was the perfect teleportation point for the next time they would start their expedition in the prairie. They would know what direction to head to reach the next guardian site and they wouldn't have to worry about beast attacking them the moment they appeared in the prairie once again. So Joshua decided it was time to head back to James Town where they could talk a bit about things before going back to the hub city.

"Alright guys let's stop here and get ready to take a portal back to James Town." Joshua said as he signaled Lilly to stop Momo as the giant ferret was reaching the edge of the guardian site. "I think we've got a decent amount done already and it could take the greater half of a week just to find the next guardian site anyways."

"Good, I'm looking forward to joining that tournament and I didn't want to leave you guys hanging." Vince said with a chuckle. "Maybe this time around I'll be able to put up a better fight against you with all my new gear."

"Before you even start thinking about any of that you need to finish our business deal." Ariel said while glaring at Vince who put his hands up in surrender. Out of everyone in Vince's group she seemed to be the one that kept Vince from just doing whatever he wanted and getting the entire group in trouble with his antics.

"Don't worry about that. We'll be stopping by James Town so we can split up all the materials we want to keep or sale off so we can figure things out. Besides we'd like you guys to come back with us the next time we go out to explore the prairie." Madalyn said with a shrug since she had gone through similar business deals in the past with other mercenaries or small guilds that the Serpent Guild had worked alongside.

Joshua nodded in response as they all got off of Momo's back so that Lilly could put the ferret back in her soul realm. Joshua then used the system to create a portal that connected back to James Town and they all passed through it. The place wasn't too busy since it was late at night and there were only a smaller amount of Fenrir Guild members around checking things out and making sure the base was operating fine. Joshua gave them a quick wave to let them all know that everything was alright as he led everyone in the expedition group to the guild hall so they could finish the discussion inside.

There were a couple of men manning the guild building and they simply smiled as Joshua and the rest passed by and headed into one of the larger meeting rooms so they could get everything in order. The guild building itself usually wasn't all that busy at night time. The only people that would occasionally show up would be guild members that wanted to trade in materials for guild points or let the guild know if they cleared out a new dungeon or territory. Most people in James Town would gather around the police office since it was where the Town dungeon was located. New recruits would be trained there so it was always busy.

Joshua let everyone into the meeting room and followed them as they all got comfortable around the table. No one seemed tense about the upcoming discussion and instead everyone was laid back and joking around. It was clear that a couple of weeks of exploring together had gotten them over the initial shaky relations that they had started out with. At this point Joshua was wondering if he found two people that hated each other and threw them into a dungeon together whether they might come out the best of friends…or they could just end up dying but that was beside the point.

"Alright now that we're back let's go ahead and get any business out of the way so that we can go home to the hub city." Joshua said as he turned to look at Laura and Madalyn. "Are we planning to keep some of the materials we gained from all the beast that we obtained or sell them all for system points?"

"I'd say a little of both." Laura said with a shrug. "We can keep some of the materials to see if Naomi and Nathan can make some better gear for us with it. The rest we can sell off."

"Makes sense. It's not like we won't be going back to the prairie soon. We'll have plenty of time to hunt down specific beast that we want materials from the next time we go. At least then we will have an idea of which materials we will need to hunt for." Madalyn explained getting nods from everyone.

"Then we'll focus only on keeping some of the materials while selling most of them to the system for system points. Vince's group will get paid their cut as well from this." Henry explained.

"I can't complain about that. Didn't really find any treasure this time around since we didn't go into any dungeon, but we did gain a ton of experience. If we're lucky then we might have just become the strongest mercenary group around the hub city." Vince said with a grin. "I've got to thank you guys for that. Hopefully we will be able to get back to clearing this prairie after the tournament stuff gets settled."

"That's the plan for now." Joshua said jumping back into the conversation. "Depending on how long the tournament ends up taking we might have to defend our territories before going on another expedition into the prairie, but outside of that it should be our number one focus alongside setting up the alliance's large town."

"Good then I suspect will be doing a similar deal the next time around." Vince said while shrugging his shoulders. "As long as you guys keep us geared up then it's more than worth our time."

With most of the business discussion finished they started turning their attention to what they had to face throughout the prairie. For the most part everyone in the group seemed more excited about their discoveries than anything else. Especially when it came to Lilly. She was already happy after being able to tame Momo and her children, but the idea of going back and being able to tame even more beast only got her more excited. Out of everyone in the group she was the only one that seemed put off by the tournament interrupting their expedition.

For the most part the expedition turned out as a roaring success. They had covered a large area over the nearly two week span that they had spent exploring the prairie and mapped out everything they had passed by in the process. They were able to find half of the guardian sites and figure out what they would have to face when they challenged those guardian sites. That would give them a leg up the next time they went on an expedition into the prairie. Outside of that they had learned how to fight alongside each other during the expedition which would make things go much smoother the next time around.

The most important thing they had gained from the expedition was all of the experience. Joshua had gone from level eighty all the way to level eighty four by the end of the expedition as that was a jump you would usually see when taking on a challenging and long dungeon with beast higher level than your own. The fact that they hadn't even taken on any of the boss level creatures yet or approached the dungeon showed how much more experience they could gain while fighting in the area. It was a treasure trove of experience and hopefully the dungeon would be an actual treasure trove in its own right.

After discussing things for a while and just chatting about random things as everyone seemed to be in a far more relaxed state than ever before it finally came time to head home. Joshua waited around as everyone else started heading back before him while his sister went ahead first to let their parents know they were coming home for the time being. Joshua didn't even know if they would actually be at home with how much time they spent out and about, but he was looking forward to seeing them again as well. When everyone had left Joshua headed out of the guild as well to take one short walk around James Town as he made sure everything was going well like a good guild leader should. Then he headed home to get some rest just like everyone else.

The moment Joshua got into the hub city he noticed that there was a bunch of people out and about and a ton of new stores popping up, but at this point Joshua was exhausted from two long weeks of tense none stop exploration and he needed to relax instead of getting caught up in whatever was going on. He was sure that he'd end up finding out all about it in the morning and could see what had changed in the hub city at the same time. With a shrug Joshua took another portal to the housing district looking forward to sleeping in a bed for the first time in a while.