Chapter 116: The Power a little Sister has over their Brother

At the end of the day Joshua and Lilly headed back after Lilly had finished naming the over three hundred new pets that they had gathered. It took a while, but Joshua just slept through it, he was sure the system would show each of the pets names whenever he observed them in the future anyways. They made sure to pack the storage with more than enough food to feed over five hundred dogs for more than a month. They knew they wouldn't need that much and that they would be visiting the stables sooner than that, but the food wouldn't go bad as long as it was in storage so it was like getting a leg up for the future.

When they got back to the hub city Joshua saw Lilly off to her parents' home before heading back home himself. He hadn't seen his family and nearly two weeks and he only had a few days before the time he had agreed to meet up with Adrian and the others came around. He wasn't expecting for them to go out right away and start grinding once again, but he did want to train with them for a few days to get a feel for how they'd work together in the end. That would also allow Joshua to train up to the max stats of his current level and let him be at his best before he headed back out there and started to fight once again.

The first thing he did when he got home was to check if anyone else was around yet, but it seemed like both of his parents were out at the moment and Amy was probably just getting to the end of her expedition based off of how long they usually spent out on those things in the past. Last time he had seen her she was level forty-five and he was expecting her to have probably gained a couple of levels on their little excursion. It wouldn't be anywhere near the amount of levels he had gained, but that wasn't all that surprising. He was also interested in seeing how much stronger Jayce and his group would have gotten from their little trip. He also had a lot of things to give them considering most of the equipment he had gotten from the dungeon was better off with them in the end.

Joshua also wanted to go to one of the blue print stores in the hub city to see what his blue prints were for. He'd wait to do that when everyone was with him so they all could get a good idea of how the things would work in the end. For now Joshua just went to his room took off his armor and put it aside to clean for later before gathering some clothes and heading for the bath room. The one problem with extremely long dungeons that took multiple days was the fact that it was hard to find time or a place to get cleaned up. Out in the wild there was at least rivers and lakes to wash off at, but in the dungeon all they had was a torrent of water from Tank for a quick wash which was doing nothing for them after a few days.

He made sure to take a nice long shower and washed his hair that had started to grow a bit too long on the top of his head. He lathered it with soap for a while and let it just rest until it was time to wash it off. He then finished getting clean and then headed out and dried off before going over to the mirror and looking at himself for a moment. It was the first time since the second phase had started that he had noticed a dramatic difference in his appearance. Of course he still looked a little unruly and needed to trim up his hair a bit along with his beard, but he also noticed a few other things. It had only been a couple of weeks since he had trimmed his hair back, but it had already grown back out far more than usual, but more importantly it didn't grow out in its usual curly way like in the past where he had an afro in his high school days. Instead it was somewhat straight even if a bit messy, but more importantly it was starting to change to a silver color in some places while the usual black hair was turning an even darker shade to the point where you couldn't even really see the individual strands anymore unless you looked closer.

Joshua knew that eventually he would start to see signs where his soul beast was effecting his appearance like with Laura who now had burning red hair and a far fairer skin or Madalyn who had a darker green hair rather than her past blond locks. For Joshua it was showing in his hair becoming a blend of dark black along with the silver color of buster's fur. He could also see that his cheek bones were becoming a bit more angular making his face more defined. It wasn't all that noticeable with his beard, but when he trimmed it back a bit it became clearer. Even his muscles were starting to look a bit different, instead of his usual overly bulky form do to his size they were slimming a bit, but he could tell they were filled with even more power. In the end it would probably up his stamina by quite a bit in the future. He was still as tall as ever though.

After getting cleaned up he went back to his room and meditated for a while and spent some time with buster. The Fenrir had grown to a size of one of the horses, but it was still considered a baby which spoke a lot for how big it would be in the future if things continued the way they were going. Buster still wasn't mature enough to talk, but Joshua could get feelings through which made it possible for them to communicate in small ways. After a while of playing with buster he was awakened from his meditative state by a lot of noise coming from down stairs so he went down to find out what was going on.

The living room was filled with a bunch of familiar faces as Joshua's mother and father were the first ones to enter as they talked with a lot of the new comers that Amy had brought along. Amy smiled brightly while the rest of the group were all tired and looked like they were on the verge of collapsing. Joshua was able to make out Jayce with his big smile even though he looked exhausted along with Julia and the others. He didn't see Adam or the rest of the people from the Phoenix Guild that had gone on the expedition with her so he assumed they must have either headed back to the guild or gone home to rest at this point.

"This expedition was amazing!" Amy shouted with excitement. "I was able to gain two whole levels this time around in just a couple of weeks. That's surprising for someone at my level."

"I see well you seem to be doing well for yourself Amy, but don't get too much of an ego. You know what I've taught you in the past about that." Their father said as he grinned at her before cracking his knuckles. This didn't seem to get the effect he was looking for as Amy just puffed up even more before smirking.

"Oh please dad, I'm sure I can beat both you and big brother now. I've gotten the experience and the skills." She said with bright smile. "You won't be able to keep up with me anymore at this point."

"Oh really now, is that your way of challenging me to a spar then?" Joshua asked as he came walking down the stairs surprising everyone. Jayce's group seemed to brighten up a little bit after seeing him and waived at him before sitting on the couch or other seats around the living room. When Joshua observed their levels he noticed that they all had reached level thirty nine after the expedition. It was a pretty good amount of progress and probably far more than they were expecting to get out of things going forward.

"Your home to brother when did you get…" Amy started to say when she noticed his level as she approached and stopped stunned in her tracks. "How the hell did you get to level forty-four already?!"

"Language!" Their mother said frowning at Amy who immediately grew a bit more subdued at the look.

"Sorry mom, but really how did you gain nine levels in the same amount of time that it took me to get two? It's just not fair no matter how you see it." Amy said while pouting. She had lost all the confidence in being able to take down Joshua now that he was closer to her level and she already knew that whatever the ability was that he had could negate a lot of her soul beast capabilities. The only thing she'd currently have over Joshua would be her speed, but she always had that over him do to his large size and her slimmer frame. It had never worked out for her before and she doubted it would now.

"Oh nothing much, I just train in a far higher level location then my current level. I just finished a level fifty dungeon earlier today with Lilly. It took us four days, but we did get four levels out of it. We also got a territory that we're going to have to show you guys before you head out for another expedition." Joshua said before he realized something. "Oh yeah I found these things and figured it would work well for you guys." Joshua said as he brought over a number of different items for Jayce's group. He gave Allen his spear, Jayce his new shield, and Julia the inferno spell. Any other gear he found that would fit them well he handed over as well.

"Thanks a lot boss, we were going to have to head to the shop before going out again anyways, our gear isn't really good for fighting creatures above the level of forty at the moment. These should help out a lot." Jayce said with a big smile.

"Plus this inferno spell is just what I needed to take on large groups. Thanks a lot Joshua." Julia said with a small smile as she fixed her glasses and started looking over the tomb with a small amount of excitement.

For a moment Joshua and Jayce's group were just discussing how things went on their expedition while Joshua's parents would ask a few questions every now and then. It was a fairly pleasant time even though it was getting a bit late. Soon Jayce and the rest of his group headed home after promising to meet up with Joshua again soon during the week. The entire time Amy was quiet as if she was contemplating something which was incredibly unusual for her. When they started to eat dinner it looked like she had come to a conclusion and turned towards Joshua with a big grin.

"Brother I'm coming with you on your next expedition. There is no way I'm letting you leave me behind this time." She said as she punched her hands together as if to prove a point.

"I thought you were doing great with the Phoenix Guild and all. I mean you're finally getting the chance to lead your own expeditions." Joshua said with a puzzled look, but that was when he was met with his one true weakness. Amy started giving him the puppy dog eyes and he could already start feeling his will to argue with her collapse. In the end he didn't really mind having her tag along, in fact it would definitely round out there group a bit more in the coming expeditions. "Fine, but you better pay attention to what everyone else says if you're coming with us. I don't want you going off doing your own thing and getting the rest of us in trouble for it.

"Oh you don't have to worry about that brother. I've got this handled. I can't wait to fight with you." She said with a big grin that was just too infectious.