Chapter 244: Expedition Unit Gather's at the Phoenix Guild

Joshua had gotten up early in the morning knowing today was the day where things would get rolling on the large town expedition. This time around he wouldn't be just going with a decent sized group of twenty or so people, but would have to collaborate with hundreds of people in trying to secure the haze filled territory. He knew that for the most part he would be working alongside the same people as the last expedition, but his actions would have a large effect on the rest of the members of the alliance that would be involved in the raid. It was something he kept at the back of his mind going forward since he wanted as many people as possible to come out of this expedition with their lives and health intact.

It was still fairly early as Joshua made his way down to the kitchen, but his mother had already gone off to the hospital for work and his father had done the same when it came to the dojo for some reason or another. He had already explained what was going on to them beforehand so they would know what their two children were up to. His father seemed excited by the adventures that they were going on while his mother seemed worried, but eventually relaxed with a little bit of explanation. In the end they both wished the two of them look on their endeavors. One thing that Joshua forgot about that would end up biting him in the ass in the future was the fact that a lot of the expedition would end up being broadcasted later if everything went successful. His mother wouldn't be so happy after watching it.

Joshua made himself a quick meal from some of the leftovers for dinner while also making an extra amount for his little sister. He then went to watch the independent news station to see what else was going on in the world outside of their own expedition. At the moment they were showing off a specific hunt by members of the Hunter's Guild that were facing off against some kind of large boar like creature. Joshua watched the fight play out while eating breakfast until he eventually heard his little sister make her way down the stairs.

"Your plates in the kitchen, you can heat it up if it's a little cold." Joshua told her getting a small nod in return as she shambled her way towards the kitchen. After a while his sister was finally wide awake and the both of them had their fill before preparing to head out to the Phoenix Guild. It didn't take to long for them to get decked out in their gear so they made good time to the meeting that was supposed to start in an hour.

When they made it to the Phoenix Guild the first thing the both of them noticed was how busy the place was at the moment. There were several members going into the guild auditorium. It was a large enough room to host well over a thousand members, so it was enough to hold all the people that were going on the expedition. Before Joshua headed into the auditorium to join up with the members of the expedition that he actually knew he noticed a group of four people that were off to the side, and one of them was a surprisingly familiar face.

He made his way over with Amy looking at him in confusion until Joshua got their attention. "You guys wouldn't happen to be the news crew that will be coming with us on this expedition would you?" Joshua asked with a small smile.

"Yes we will be the ones coming along during the expedition to film and cast when possible. Hopefully you guys will succeed. It would be a great story." The woman that seemed familiar to Joshua stepped forward and shook his hand with a bright smile. She seemed extremely excited for the upcoming expedition.

"You wouldn't happen to be named Sarah would you? Because you look kind of similar to the woman that was broadcasting during the first phase." Joshua asked after realizing why she looked so familiar.

"That's right. I guess you must have been around for the first phase after all." Sarah said with a look of surprise when someone recognized her right away. She looked a bit younger do to the revitalization of the system and not everyone was able to actually see her broadcast during the first phase. Ever since then she had been working as an explorer until the independent news platform started up and gave her a reason to get back into broadcasting. She didn't want to get involved with the other news station since she was more of the free spirit type that didn't want to get tied up in all of the propaganda that the world government guild was trying to force through.

"Yeah your broadcast was probably the reason I decided to go all out and kill one of the haze bosses back in the first phase. If it wasn't for you showing us how things were going across the world then we might have just turtled up like everyone else." Joshua said with a small smile that grew wider from the look of surprise on Sarah's face.

"You're the Joshua that was the number one ranker through the first phase. No wonder you guys seem so confident in clearing this expedition. You've got so many members in this alliance that were ranked incredibly high in the first phase. Now it all makes since that you guys would be so unafraid." Sarah said with a small smile before she noticed that things were starting to get busy in the hall. "Well it seems like things are starting to get situated so it's probably best that we get to filming. I hope everything ends up going well."

"Just make sure you guys stay safe, we'll take care of the rest." Joshua said with a smile before heading into the hall to see how things were being set up. Amy had already gone ahead and he was certain that he was supposed to go meet up with the others before things got started. When he got in to the auditorium he started to realize how many people were involved in the expedition. There were hundreds of people already inside the auditorium waiting for the meeting to begin with several more still flooding in from behind him. When he turned back to look at the entrance he noticed Sarah and the rest of her news crew were setting up their cameras to capture the meeting and show off the power of the Alliance.

Knowing things would get started soon Joshua decided to make his way back stage to meet up with the others before they started worrying about where he was. He made his way around the large crowd and started looking around behind the stage until he came across Isabella who waved him over to come join the rest of the group. Everyone was already there with Madalyn and Laura up front preparing to give their introduction to the expedition to everyone involved. Joshua had no interest in being a primary speaker in such a situation. For the most part it was their guild members so they would react better to them giving the pep talk than anybody else. When it came time to actually go into the haze though he'd be out front like usual.

"Good you're here." Madalyn said with a grin. "Looks like we've got everything set and ready to go, so let's get things on a role."

"We'll all be going up on stage, but you can leave it to Madalyn and me to rally the troops." Laura said with a small smile. "We'll make things quick so we can get on the move and get things started." Everyone nodded to their explanation of things before they waited for all of the members in the auditorium to finish gathering up. When everything was in place they all followed Laura and Madalyn out on to the stage as they prepared to give their speeches. Everyone in the auditorium settled down quieting all of the banter that had been going on since Joshua had arrive. The only distraction going on now was the camera crew in the back giving the signal that they were recording from this point forward.

Laura was the first one to step forward and begin her speech about how things were going to go for the expedition. "Now that we have all gathered here I can imagine you already know what the main purpose of this expedition will be. We are going to be the first guilds to take down a large scale town. It will be a difficult task that will require everyone in this room to put in a lot of effort, but the reward will be well worth it. All of the guilds within our alliance will grow stronger through this mission and we will be the ones to lead humanity further back on to the path of claiming our home back."

Once Laura finished her portion of the speech several people in the crowd cheered with looks of excitement and determination. Her speech wasn't anything special, but the presence she gave off while doing it stood out to everyone and was the main reason why they all seemed so excited to follow her on the expedition. While the cheering was going on Madalyn was the next person to step up and begin her portion of the speech.

"Alright the goal of this expedition is to clear the large town without attracting too much attention to other beast within the area. We know a group of our size will have trouble avoiding any attention so just keep an eye out for other beast and take care of them as a large group. The experience isn't the main goal of this expedition after all so don't get worried about who does what and work together to make things go smoothly. Isabella will be explaining how things will be run on this mission so pay attention. The leaders of each group need to make sure they keep their members in line so that no problems occur." Madalyn explained getting solemn nods from her audience while members of her guild seemed to know to take things seriously by the way their guild leader was acting.

After Madalyn's short words Isabella went up next to explain to everyone how the expedition was planned out. She explained how the large group of all the members that were listening in the auditorium would be stationed on the fringe of the large town territory and would attack from just outside of the haze. This strategy would end up drawing attention away from the main group and free them up to go after the sub-boss and boss level creatures deeper into the town. As they killed more zombies and haze creatures on the fringe they would move further in slowly to make sure more of the creatures are forced to make their way over. Lastly they would back up if too many tried to swarm the group at a time and proceed to attack from outside of the haze once more.

When she explained how the main group was going to handle things she pointed out the members on stage that were all a part of the main group. When she pointed to Joshua and explained how he would be leading the main group inside the town many people seemed to recognize him and by their surprisingly happy response he was certain that Laura and Madalyn had probably explained somethings about him to their guild members.

By the time the planning was done and everyone knew their roles for the upcoming expedition it was getting late in the morning and it was time to head out and get things going. The more day light they had while making their way towards the area the more time they would have to set up things outside of the territory before their eventual dive inside to take on the boss. Everyone in the crowd seemed excited and geared to the brim with all sorts of new equipment that Joshua was certain was made by Naomi and her other black smith guild members. All of the tanks in the crowd had the heavy beetle armor that would help out the healers while everyone else had different arrangements of either the snake scale mail or the bat robes that were the strongest gear around at the moment.

Joshua smiled a bit as he looked over the crowd and realized another exciting adventure was about to begin.