Chapter 117: Meeting Up with Adrian and Showing off James Town

Joshua relaxed for a couple of days and spent his time doing some simple training and meditation. He also sparred with his little sister and completely destroyed all of her arrogance within minutes. Her speed was definitely great, but Joshua had something that made things even more one sided now than before. His sister went in for a hard hitting punch that was supposed to be followed by two after image blows. It was a powerful skill, but when used against Joshua's nullifying aura along with his new rock steady ability it didn't do nearly as much damage as she was expecting. He barely even flinched while guarding against the blow before grabbing her and making it a more strength based conflict. The moment that happened the match was already decided.

He of course helped Amy get around those type of issues by showing her how to take a more in and out approach for combat against opponents like him that could take her blows on head on, but she still had a long way to go before she could take on someone on Joshua's level when it came to close combat. After a couple of days of simple training he was able to get the max potential out of his current level, but he still had another week or so ahead of him of training if he wanted to continue the trend even after he leveled a few more times in his next expedition. He did notice that it was getting easier to keep up with his potential the higher level he got though. Since he was fighting against higher level monsters and it was taking him longer to level at this point he was reaching his potential at a quicker pace. In the future he probably wouldn't even have to train to get the same results.

After a couple of days his wait for Adrian, Henry, and Aito to show up finally came to an end as they let him know that they were back from their latest expedition. He let them get a short rest to reset themselves before they would meet up to discuss things going forward. He'd make sure to get Lilly to come along and now apparently he would have to bring Amy along as well although he would have to explain to Laura what was going on. He was sure that Amy wouldn't think to explain things before going off and disappearing just based off of some of the things he had seen her do in the past over the years. He'd make sure to meet Laura, Natalie, and Madalyn anyways just to see how things were going before heading out for a full on expedition again.

That afternoon Joshua, Lilly, Amy, and all of Adrian's group met at Vivian's restaurant. It was a nice place with great food so they had plenty of stuff to fill up on while discussing things. It was also one of the few restaurants at the moment that had enough staying power to keep up with new beast meat. Most other restaurants didn't have enough of a guild backing to do such a thing which made the place stand out in the city. Of course Joshua and the others had to get a private room so that they could talk in peace without worrying about other people trying to listen in on their conversation.

"It's good to see that you guys came back in one piece." Joshua said with a smile as they all set around the table. He hadn't really seen Adrian, Aito, and Henry for a couple months so it was good to see that they were doing fine.

"Yeah we've been grinding lately so we haven't had much time to spend in the hub city unless we were coming to get resupplied we pretty much spend all of our time out and about." Aito said with his usual stoic manner.

"Well we did get a couple levels in those two months. We're already level sixty two, but we're starting to run out of places to train if we want to continue this pace. Taking on dungeons that haven't been discovered yet was pretty much the fastest way to go about training, but were running out of zones to explore that haven't already been taken over by guilds or are way out of our level range." Henry said with a slight frown before he smiled once again as he turned to look at Joshua. "On the other hand it seems like you two have been doing some real leveling yourselves. Already level forty-four….honestly I wasn't expecting you to even reach forty by this point."

"Yeah it makes it seem like all the work we did was pointless. I know leveling gets slower the higher level you get, but this is ridiculous." Adrian said with a chuckle before slapping Joshua on the back. "So what have you been up to recently to gain so many levels? It must have been something interesting."

Joshua smiled before telling them all about the things he and Lilly had been through since the last time they met. He told them about taking over a territory of their own and calling it James Town, he told them about all the zones they were able to open up after taking over the territory and getting access to the area beyond it, and he also told them about all of the pets Lilly had tamed which got a bunch of wide eyes from everyone around the table.

"I'd like to see the horses. I've always liked being around horses, I can still vaguely remember being around some on our grandparents farm when we were little." Amy said with a smile. Joshua knew what she meant. He remembered the farm well since he was old enough at the time, but Amy was quite young and probably forgot a lot about the farm during the time when there were a lot of animals around.

"Well I'd love to show you guys around the stables after we finish eating. Joshua probably wanted to show you the place anyways." Lilly said with a smile getting a nod from the others.

"So… you actually called the place James Town? Really?" Adrian said with a teasing smile getting everyone to laugh at Joshua except Amy.

"Yeah, you and dad always tell me not to get full of myself, but I've never gone and named a town after myself now have I." She said with smile as she punched her brother in the shoulder.

"Hey that name was not my idea. Lilly came up with it, besides it has historical context as well." Joshua said getting everyone to roll their eyes at him. Lilly may have come up with it, but they all knew Joshua would have gone against the idea if he didn't like it. "Anyways why haven't any of you taken over a territory at this point. I mean I know there is only the four of you, but I'm sure you could afford it at this point with all the dungeons you've been through."

"Well honestly the only reason we didn't try to take a territory was because we were too busy trying to level up at the time. At first we were trying to catch up with the first wave of explorers and then we had to catch up with Laura and Madalyn. Taking care of territory would have taken time and they don't level at a fast pace so the dungeon in the territory would have just fallen behind our levels in the end." Adrian said. The other two nodded along showing their agreement, but Henry had a few other things to point out.

"There is also the fact that most town territories are nearby each other and we really didn't want to have to deal with the constant challenges that would have come are way. Small guilds would have loved to challenge us since we aren't technically a guild at this point and they would see us as easy pickings since there are only three of us. Of course we could easily defend the place with the proper set up and if we had to we could have gotten people from the alliance to help out, but that would have taken time away from the other things we wanted to do." Henry finished explaining.

"I see. So does that mean you guys think it was a bad idea for us to take over the territory then?" Lilly asked with a small frown.

"Not at all, in fact it was a great idea." Aito said as he looked at the map that Joshua had sent to them to show off where the territory is. "As Henry said before most towns have other ones nearby that would immediately cause constant conflict and in that situation a guild is pretty much necessary so that the territory always has some people there guarding it, but this town is out of the way which would force other guilds to stretch themselves thin If they wanted to come over and challenge the territory. It would leave their own territory wide open which would ruin the whole point."

"Not only that, but there is also the fact that it opens up an entire new area for us to use for training, taming new beast for Lilly, and leveling any members of our future guild. The place is a gold mine for a new group like ours and we have six months to set it up for defensive purposes. We can try to clear out all the zones by then and have the territory built up as well." Adrian said with a big grin.

"Alright well let's go there after we finish up eating so that I can show you guys a few things." Joshua said with a smile before digging into his food. The others followed suit and they started to make small talk about different things. Adrian of course tried to hit on Lilly most of the time, but Joshua couldn't help but laugh at some of the responses he got in return. It was like Lilly was able to give him the cold shoulder without even trying. The entire group couldn't help but smile at the interaction.

After they finished eating Joshua lead the group to the portion of the hub city where they could go back down to earth. They all got their gear equipped beforehand just in case they ran into anything trying to come into the territory or something, but for the most part it was going to be a short leisurely trip. After going through the portal they found themselves standing just outside of a large wall with a gate in front of them. Joshua could see that the wall with all the turrets had been completed and based off the robotic soldiers that were roaming around the outside of the wall in groups of five the robot guards had been constructed as well. At the moment there could only be a hundred of them out at a time and they were all level forty like the territory. If they leveled up the base that would change, but Joshua would worry about that later.

"So this is the territory then. You were right about this being in the perfect location. Just judging by the walls alone with the mountains by the side it would be hard for anyone to try to break into the area during a challenge. There would be at least be six turrets in the way no matter which direction they come from and the barrier would make it difficult for them to try to rush the wall." Henry said as he observed things.

"Here, I'll give you guy's access to the territory…oh and Amy don't go buying stuff like crazy. Ask Henry beforehand since he's going to be the architect of this place.

"Oh really?" Henry said with a sigh. "I guess I shouldn't expect a medical enthusiast to want to put a town together. You guys are so lucky to have someone as brilliant as me around to handle these things." Henry said with a grin before opening the menu for the territory. He then started poking around in it a bit as they walked inside the large walls. Joshua knew that Henry was about to go into his crazed genius mode so he just stood to the side and waited for the fall out to happen. He was just glad he wasn't going to have to deal with putting everything together himself.