Chapter 245: Setting up with a Daunting Task within Sight

Joshua found himself at the head of the expedition party along with the rest of the main group who were all waiting outside of the portals that would lead them down to earth. Their large group created a pretty big commotion among all of the other explorers that were heading out for the day. Everyone knew that when such a large party was formed it usually meant someone was trying to clear out a town since groups of their size couldn't possibly all go into a dungeon. Plus the large number of members they were bringing clearly pointed to the fact that they were a large guild as well just for having so many members that were high enough level to be trusted to take on a town.

It didn't take long before some of those explorers started to recognize which guilds they were from since the members of the phoenix and serpent guilds were well known at this point. This created an even larger commotion as many explorers were confused on why such powerful guilds were moving at such a scale. They knew that large guilds didn't have too much trouble taking over small towns considering their strength, so it confused all of the observers as to why they were bringing so many people.

For the most part Joshua ignored it all and waited for one of the portals to clear up so their group could make their way through and get the expedition started. He was certain that all of the observers would be able to figure out what was going on if they put a bit of thought into things especially with the camera crew coming along, but to this point no one dared to take on a large town.

After a while of waiting, a portal opened up in front of them so that they could all head through and get things started. They went through as quickly as possible with their large numbers and ended up coming out in a large grassy field area. Madalyn was the one to first go through so she was the one to guide them to their destination. Joshua hadn't been in the area before so he didn't have much of a grasp on his surroundings, but from what he could tell it seemed to be a rather tranquil area with a forest off in the distance and a large mountain range even further behind it.

"So I'm guessing the town is somewhere near this area?" Joshua asked as he stood to the side and waited for everyone else to make their way through the portal.

"It's on the other side of the forest, but since we cleared the area already it won't be much trouble for us to pass through. I just figured it would be easier for us all to gather here since its more spacious then trying to come out of a portal inside the forest." Madalyn explained with a shrug.

"It's not a bad thing since it'll give those who haven't had a chance to explore the area at all a bit of time to do so." Henry said while looking around to take in the sights.

"The main thing you need to know about this forested area is that it's a level sixty territory so the monsters won't give us any trouble while passing through. Hell if you want to make things even easier as we move forward then just ask Lilly to summon Cinder to scare off all of the monsters on the way there." Madalyn explained.

Lilly seemed to get what she was getting at and immediately summoned Cinder at her full size. She was a good four and a half stories tall nearing five at this point as she grew bigger while leveling up. Her sudden appearance frightened some of the members of the group that were coming through the portal, but when they realized the giant spider wasn't trying to attack them they just looked a little wearily at it.

When everyone finished coming through the portal with the camera crew being among the group Lilly had Cinder introduce herself to everyone. All of the guild members that didn't know about Lilly seemed surprised to hear the voice of a talking spider while the camera crew looked as if they had found the perfect news story before things even got started. "Cinder here will be our key to repelling any monsters on our way through the forest. So you don't have to worry about her. "Lilly said with a bright smile before climbing on to the spiders back to prove her point.

After that had been settled they started to get a move on as they quickly made their way through the forest at a steady pace. They couldn't go to fast with their large numbers and Joshua new most of the day would be spent making their way to the town in the first place so they could set up camp for the night. No one seemed perturbed by this fact and instead seemed quite excited, although they tried to mask it with serious looks as they paid attention to their surroundings.

While making their way through the forest they didn't run into a single beast for one reason and one reason only. Cinder's presence was scaring all of the creatures off. The strongest creature in this forest was level sixty so a spider that was a tier in level ahead of that scared all of the other beast away effortlessly. The fact that Joshua was letting a bit of his aura leak out into the surroundings as well while they made their way through the forest only added to that fact. The only person in the entire group that seemed disappointed by this fact was of course Lilly who hoped to find some interesting beast to tame on the way, but they were all too frightened to even approach the area.

They spent most of the day making their way through the large forest and it wasn't until evening that they were able to find themselves outside of the forest and in a large plain like area. They had to climb up a bit of a hill, but the sight they saw when they reached the top of the hill was an amazing one to see. Joshua looked in wonder as he saw their target before him far off into the plains. The town was just outside of the mountain range as if it had been built next to it originally with the mountains at its back and a large river that passed through it, but Joshua wasn't able to see it all that clearly because of the large amount of haze that was settled over the area.

From how spread out the haze was and how far up it rose he was certain that the town was multiple times the size of James Town. It also most likely had multiple buildings inside of it that were close to ten stories tall since the haze seemed to reach just above that height which was a feature that seemed to occur in all haze areas. The haze wouldn't go much higher than the buildings and wouldn't spread out much further than the town itself since restrictions had been placed on it by the world. The beast in the area seemed to know to stay as far away from the place as possible as not a single animal could be seen on the plains around the area. It was an unsettling sight that gave off a dreadful feeling to the entire group.

"Well looks like we've finally made it." Madalyn said with an excited smile. "Guess we should set up camp a little bit away from the town since it's getting late. Will start the expedition first thing in the morning so we can clear the place out as quickly as possible. Our little display of leaving the hub city has probably already garnered lots of attention."

"Yeah, we've probably only got a few days before scouts from some other guild make their way over to find out what's going on. Let's get this finished before anyone else can get involved." Joshua said with a knowing nod. "Alright everyone go ahead and set up camp here. Make sure you're all prepared for the task ahead."

Soon everyone had their tents set up creating a make shift base just outside of town. They were far enough away that any noise they would make wouldn't attract any attention from the haze creatures or the haze boss. Lilly had let a few of her pets out to help guard the area with Tank and Cinder looming over everyone while Jade and Light followed her around as she moved to set up her tent. The giant talking creatures seemed to generate a lot of conversation from the members of the expedition as some of the braver ones would jump into conversations with the giant creatures that didn't seem to mind the new company. Tank regaled them all with tales from his past while Cinder started talking about some of the adventurers she had with Lilly, Joshua, and the others.

The group that seemed the most interest in the two giant talking creatures were the news crew that were busy recording some of the conversation and asking a few questions of their own. Tank was basically a walking news catalogue with all the stories he had of how the planet had changed while the humans were absent and stuck in the hub city for a brief time. Cinder on the other hand was able to excitedly describe all of the adventures she had gone on while fighting alongside Joshua and Lilly since the first time they had met. Sarah seemed to be brimming with glee at every single word the two giant beast said. In that moment just about everyone around realized that there was most likely going to end up being a news story about the two giant beast companions in the near future.

While everyone was preparing and getting their stuff ready for the big raid tomorrow Joshua went over the things he learned about everyone in the main groups new gear while talking to them on the way through the forest. For the most part the gear was similar across the board depending on their roles as combatants in the group. In Adrian's case he pretty much got the same exact gear as Amy since they were both speed and reflex based fighters. When it came to Aito however he decided to go with a light weight coat that was an off shoot from the bat robes that most of the mages were wearing. One enchantment that Nathan had put on his new equipment allowed his skills that had a charge time to count as spells. This didn't really seem like much in most cases, but with the current coat it made it so that any of his charged shots would stun an enemy for a brief amount of time after impact like with the mages spells that wore the bat robes.

Henry simply wore a pair of bat robes of his own which would give him better magical protection along with higher mana regeneration. The enchantments he had placed onto his robes just upped the amount of mana regeneration since that was what he truly needed to put out as many support spells as possible. When it came to Madalyn she had a similar set up as Amy and Adrian that focused on her speed and dexterity. She did have the arm guards as well that most likely had a set of poison tipped daggers inside of them for emergencies. Laura was a bit weird and had a set of mage robes over a smaller portion of the snake scale mail. It was light weight so that she wasn't weighed down too much, but would protect her well enough whether she fought from a distance or up close.

Everyone else pretty much stuck with the basic features of the equipment with a few enchantments here and there. Jayce had a rather interesting set up since he had the new goat shield that gave him power to control stone around him. It stood out alongside the beetle armor he was wearing like all of the other tanks in the group. In the end everyone seemed quite upbeat and prepared to take on the upcoming challenge. They had the rest of the night to think of all the things they would have to do in the morning, but once they got started there was no turning back for the main group. They would be deep in enemy territory after all, and they had no clue what tricks the haze boss might have waiting for them.