Risen World

It was finally the day of the gathering and Joshua found himself sitting front and center of a large meeting room where all of the major guilds had been brought together. The room was large in size being one of the main meeting areas inside of the World Government Guild. Even though the table was large it was nowhere near big enough for everyone to have their own seat. In the end there were several people that were standing around the room to be a part of the discussion. Only the people that were considered leaders of the largest guilds were sitting at the table. At the moment there were eight different guilds that had a seat at the table with guild members that stood directly behind them for the conversation.

The host of the meeting the World Government Guild had Charles who was sitting at the round table with several members of his guild standing behind him. Joshua could see Rex and a couple other members of the World Government Guild that had made it deep into the tournament. Joshua also noticed Theodore standing with the group with a casual smile up until the point where he saw Natalie glaring daggers towards him. The only noticeable person that was missing was Charles own brother and the previous leader of the World Government Guild in Kyle White. His absence from such a pivotal meeting went a long way towards explaining just how little power and control he had in the guild at this point.

The next group of people were of course the three major guilds of the alliance along with some representation from the support side of the alliance. Madalyn was sitting at the table as the guild leader of the Serpent Guild with Isabella at her side and a few other members of her guild were there as representation as well. Laura was there as the Guild leader of the Phoenix Guild with Natalie and Adam there for support along with some other members that had made a name for themselves up to this point. Nathan and Naomi were bother there as the leaders of the support division of the alliance. Lastly there was Joshua himself as the leader of the Fenrir Guild and the current Hub City champion. He had Henry at his side along with Julia as representatives since they were the two most used to dealing with these types of situations.

Outside of the World Government Guild and the alliance there were four other Guilds that earned the right to have a seat at the table for this meeting. There was the now renowned Stranger's Guild with its guild leader taking her seat at the table. She had grown quite famous after the tournament with her use of runes all throughout the tournament and the fact that all of her subordinates were able to use them as well. Although Joshua couldn't see her face do to her mask he could tell that she was rather casual about the meeting and she was probably happy about the outcome of the tournament. With a sudden new currency she was likely to be the one person in the entire hub city that had a resource that no one else could currently create and Joshua was sure that she'd be charging universe coins to get them.

Next there was a man that Joshua hadn't met before, but had heard of from Vince. This man was Gregory Rowen and was the current Guild leader of the Mercenary Guild. He didn't fill the same role as most guild leaders since the Mercenaries worked for money rather than to strengthen their own goals, but outside of Dmitry and possibly Vince this man was the strongest mercenary in the hub city. He didn't participate in the tournament, but just off of the aura Joshua could feel from him he was certain he would have made it to the final day of the tournament. Vince stood behind the man along with the two other mercenaries that had made it to the final day of the tournament outside of Dmitry.

Sitting next to them was someone that Joshua had only seen once before on a television program. He was the leader of the Hunter's Guild which focused on taking down beast for materials and exotic food instead of for exploration sake. The man was named Chandler Easton and he was a surprisingly tall man standing at just around the height of Joshua. Unlike Gregory who seemed to be the staunch sort of man that would rather drink in quiet, Chandler seemed to be a bit of a chatter box using his charisma and decent looks to chat up the people around him. He had a couple guild members with him and although he seemed easy going Joshua new he had to be skilled to be put in such a high position with a guild that went out of their way to take down powerful beast.

The last person sitting at the table was the Raider's Guild leader who still seemed a bit miffed after losing to Dmitry. Even so he kept a calm yet dangerous atmosphere around him that kept most people from talking to him. Outside of the Fenrir Guild the Raider's Guild had been one of the shooting stars of recent that was establishing itself as one of the more powerful guilds in the hub city. It was clear that they were making large strides that had set them apart from any of the other guilds that had originally joined under the umbrella of the World Government Guild and at this point they were big enough to strike out on their own if they wanted to. He had a few guild members with him, two of which Joshua didn't recognize but the other was Seven who had just barely lost out to Aito in the tournament.

Outside of the Guilds that were seated at the table that were several representatives of other guilds spread out around the large room to join the discussion. Joshua could see a few familiar faces amongst them. He spotted Dale who was the leader of the Scavenger's Guild that had attempted to invade James Town in a territory war not too long ago. While the Raider's Guild had grown so much in recent time the Scavenger's Guild was still a middling guild that focused too much on attempting to steal dungeons from other competition instead of exploring and growing themselves. Ever since Kyle had lost control over the World Government Guild the Scavenger's Guild had fallen on hard times with Charles not supporting them nearly as much. It was clear that Charles was not interested in the type of guild that the Scavenger's Guild was.

Another person that Joshua recognized in the crowd was Martin an old friend of Adrian, Aito, and Henry that had his own large Guild. He didn't make it to the final day of the tournament, but he did fair well and apparently got unlucky having to go up against Dmitry in the knockout rounds before the final day. He waved to Joshua with a grin and Joshua returned the gesture.

Although everyone had gathered it was clear that Charles was giving people time to mingle and talk with each other before he'd bring up the main topic of the meeting. He was talking amongst his group and one person Joshua noticed him talking to that caught Joshua's attention was Shawn. Apparently at some point the time manipulating mage had been recruited by Charles. If it were Kyle and the old regime of the World Government Guild Joshua would have been disappointed in his decision, but Charles seemed to have the guild headed in a completely different direction.

Looking around Joshua could see several people talking with each other and at first he figured he'd just relax and wait for the meeting to start. It seemed that his imposing size and looks along with the fact that he had just proven himself to be the strongest explorer in the hub city had given him this intimidating presence of sorts. Those that didn't know him and wanted to talk to him were most likely to nervous while those that he knew of and were in high positions either were talking to people they knew or were putting up a tough front where they didn't want to seem to be looking up to Joshua in any way. The whole situation allowed him to sit there with his eyes closed and just wait for the meeting to start.

Before Joshua could even close his eyes for more than a couple of minutes he received a tap on his shoulder. He turned to his left and saw the odd mask of the Stranger's Guild leader looking back at him. She seemed to chuckle a bit at the inquisitive raised eye brow that Joshua was giving her before speaking. "Well I figured I'd have a little talk with the hub city champion to see what you were like outside of being tall and overbearing." She said with a teasing tone that somewhat reminded Joshua of how Madalyn would act from time to time. When Joshua thought of it the two of them had a lot in common. They were both obsessed with creating the best version of their items of choice. In Madalyn's case it was poisons while in this woman's case it was runes.

"Well feel free to ask away, but don't expect to figure out to much about me that isn't already known by others." Joshua said with a shrug.

"It's a shame I can't introduce myself. It's a bit of a rule of my guild, after all we wear the mask for a reason. I was wondering what you thought of the Universe Shop being someone that actually had a decent amount of coins to spend in the place." She said sounding a bit more serious.

"I might have a bit more coin, but I'm sure you, Madalyn, and other craftsmen will be able to catch up fast." Joshua said with a knowing look. He received a nod in return before deciding to answer her question. "The experience was eye opening. The amount of coins we're able to gain at the moment is nothing more than going to the car dealer ship with a dollar and a dream. Although looking at the things that are available for us to actually buy gives me some ideas of what we might come across in the future."

"I agree." She said with a bit of a happy tone. "It was exhilarating to see what could be made available to us in the near future. Looking at the runes in the shop gave me so many ideas and the fact that some of the runes cost in the thousands of coins just showed me how much I have to gain going down my path. Fortunately I think said Universe shop is why we're all here today."

"How come?" Joshua asked as he noticed the chatter around the room was beginning to die down.

"Simple. When you see things that you thought were only imaginable you tend to have a different outlook on our current situation. Luckily it seems that the new leader of the World Government Guild is wise enough to notice this fact." She said while turning to look at Charles. Joshua looked over and noticed that the man was standing up and realized things were about to start..