Risen World

Chapter 59: Plans for the Future

Now that they had all eaten and had several different random conversations with each other, Joshua was able to see a few new dynamics between the members of the group. One of the most obvious things was the fact that Laura, Madalyn, and Natalie were all rather close with one another after having fought together so much. They were all close to Joshua as well making the conversations between them feel far more natural than they were back when they first met. Even Laura was enjoying having such easy going conversations with everyone after everything they had been through together.

On the other hand there were two distinct pairs of people that were getting along surprisingly well. The first pair being Henry and Nathan. The two nerds seemed to click right away and Henry was having no problem keeping up with all of Nathan's topics and understanding his references. Even though Joshua and his close friends knew quite a few things about the topic sense they grew up around Henry for most of their lives it wasn't quite the same as how the two apparently new best buds seemed to live and breathe the things they were talking about. It didn't take long for Joshua to start to tune out the pairs conversations about specific games or different ways to do programming.

The other pair of people that got along surprisingly quickly were Amy and Naomi. The two little sisters didn't have nearly as much in common as Nathan and Henry did with Amy being a hyper ball of energy while Naomi seemed far less emotional and far more lethargic in comparison. Even so the two girls that were pretty close in age jumped from topic to topic with each other while occasionally joining other people's conversations. From their constant talking Joshua was able to learn that Naomi was similar to Nathan in one major way personality wise. Just like Nathan was a programming freak Naomi loved building things. To be more specific she loved metal work and designing new equipment to be used in the general work force. It explained why her skin tone was slightly darker than her brothers since she probably spent far more time working outside on cars or other mechanical work while Nathan was inside on his computer.

By the time they had finished eating their meal Joshua was able to learn a lot about everyone, but now it was time to talk about more serious things. "So I assume you were all ranked pretty high?" Joshua asked. Although he had seen their rankings on the list he felt this was a good way to start a more serious topic. "I didn't see your ranking though Nathan, what happened there?"

"Apparently my ranking was thrown into what the system calls a support category. I was actually placed at the top of those rankings, so going forward I'll probably be more focused there." Nathan explained.

"How exactly does the support category work? Does it take up your job placement?" Joshua asked.

"For the most part yes. Apparently even Combat class owners can gain a support class further down the line, but full support classes can have two support jobs in the future with their first support class becoming something even greater after reaching a certain mastery of it. The job I hope to start out with is a basic programmer like class that works in enchanting equipment, but I should be able to develop that to something special in the future." Nathan said with a smile.

"I wish I would have gotten a support role, but the damn system thinks my combat potential is higher." Henry said as he frowned. "I ended up getting the Combat Enchanter class instead."

"Hmm sounds like something that would fit you if it's what I'm thinking it is." Joshua said getting a glare from his friend in return. "Any ways what do you guys plan on doing from now on? After this vacation is over things are going to get fairly hectic once again."

Everyone looked towards each other trying to figure out who was going to speak first when Madalyn decided to reply before anyone else stepped up. "Well I can assure you that I don't plan on waiting around for what's left of the government to try to take control of the situation. I highly doubt most of the rankers that fought tooth and nail for their position will be willing to do that going forward actually."

"You're probably right." Nathan said thinking things over. "In a world where strength and skill will matter most going forward, people that have neither yet try to make demands of others won't be appreciated. That doesn't even consider the problem going forward with woman being in a stronger position than most men. Even during the support job meeting it was mostly filled with women and a lot of the men there were angry at the situation. It was annoying when I heard one of them make some snide remark about a man being the number one ranker, it kind of put me on the spot."

"Yeah it was similar in the combat class meeting." Natalie said with a frown. "Sense there were so many women in the top rankers the few men outside of the guys here were either standoffish or grinding their teeth while giving Laura, Madalyn, and I death glares from behind. It was somewhat annoying."

"Hmm, I'm not too surprised by that. Now that men will be under the level system going forward they will probably feel jealous of the fact a lot of women were given a head start. Then considering most of the political leaders around the world are male it might even cause more problems if they start becoming biased towards men in whatever organization they try to put together going forward. If that's the case then you can expect them to have a lot of trouble growing in strength considering how far ahead women are at this point. Although we don't know the rules or goals of the next phase, I'm willing to bet having a job and an awakened soul beast will put most of the women ahead in the race." Joshua explained gaining nods from the others.

"So if that's the case what kind of power structure do you think will come into focus considering all of this? I can tell you right now I don't want to be just a part of some military going forward. No offense Aito, but I'd rather make my own decisions if the worlds going to be this crazy." Adrian said with a smile before patting Aito on the shoulder. Aito simply smiled and nodded before taking another sip of his drink.

"Well since everything will become power and skill reliant in the coming future I'm willing to bet there will probably be several small groups that come together to form a new system instead of one large military. I don't see someone that has the power to face beast and use lighting blast wanting to take orders from someone that doesn't actually fight alongside them. I mean there will probably still be tacticians and all, but even those were placed in the combat job meeting like Henry so they're most likely expected to be out in the world fighting in the next phase." Joshua said while scratching his beard a bit.

"If that's the case then things will probably go the route of guilds." Henry said with a smile at the thought.

"Guilds! That would be so awesome!" Nathan said almost jumping out of his seat, but his sister whacked him over the back of his head to get him to calm down. Clearly this was a common occurrence as Nathan sat back down and angrily glared at her while she had a triumphant smile. The scene caused some of them to smile at their antics.

"What do you mean by a guild?" Natalie asked with clear interest.

"A guild would be something like a body of people that work together with a simple structure. Usually the people of the guild get paid for doing actions that help out the guild as a whole. They're tighter nit than a company or a government organization sense they usually know each other to a better degree and have to work together in all sorts of situations." Henry explained. Everyone was glued to what he was saying, but Joshua, Aito, and Adrian were just rolling their eyes at the fact Henry was trying to make something like this sound ground breaking to the non-gamers in the room. "Guilds can be made for all sorts of things. There can be personal guilds, support guilds, healer guilds, adventure guilds, you name it there can be a guild for it."

"You think this is something we should look in to doing?" Laura asked. While Madalyn also seemed interested in the idea.

"I would think so. It would allow you to do what you want while also gathering people that are of the same mind as you guys. Though I will warn you of one thing. I wouldn't make one guild with all of you in it. That wouldn't really get the maximum effect out of your high ranker status in my opinion. You could each make your own guild and gather more people that way that are specified to your type of guild, but form an alliance with one another so that other guilds can't take advantage of each of you individually." Henry replied.

"It's a good idea. I wouldn't mind having an all-women's guild of my own while Laura heads a more open guild on her side of things." Madalyn said gaining everyone's attention. "It would allow us to gather different types of people while working together in the end. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of women that will have a bad response to some of the things a lot of the male population might try to do to get control back in their favor. I'll gather those types, it suits me anyways."

"Then I assume you want me to have more variety in my guild then?" Laura asked. Madalyn smiled and nodded which also brought a slight smile to Laura in return.

"If that's the case then my sister and I can create a support guild of our own. If you guys ever need help then come to us." Nathan said with a bright smile while his sister just shook her head at his excitement.

"I don't think will be making a guild on our end." Dave said while both of his brothers agreed with him. "We were firemen going into this situation and we still want to do something similar going forward whether it be a rescue group or a military one. It's what we're used to."

"I think I'll probably do the same. I liked being a police officer and maybe this time around I can help stop the corruption that happened at my old work place." Natalie said while looking towards Madalyn who simply smiled in return before speaking.

"Well if that's the case if you ever get tired of working for paper pushers then you're always welcome to join one of our guilds. What about you guys? Considering you thought of it I'm guessing you all have an idea of what to do going forward?" Madalyn asked as she looked towards Joshua and his group of friends.

"Yeah brother. If you're going to make a guild I better get to be a part of it once mom and dad let me go out to train my level." Amy said with excitement.

Joshua looked at the others for a moment before letting out a sigh and explaining his situation. "Actually I won't be doing much of anything for the next three years at the least." Joshua replied causing everyone to look at him in confusion.

"What do you mean man, I thought our group could form our own team and go out fighting the strongest monsters we can find." Adrian said with a whimsical look in his eyes.

"Well I'm sure all you guys were given soul beast and jobs right?" Joshua asked getting nods in return. "Some of you guys might have declined the jobs because you didn't feel that it fit you, but the girls probably took their assigned jobs sense they're already level ten and they have to choose one before they level up again right?" He got more nods in return.

"What's your point Josh?" Henry asked.

"Well for me not only did I not select my job sense it doesn't fit me in the slightest in my opinion, but my soul beast hasn't woken up yet. I know what it is, but according to what the guy I met with for the introduction said, it's going to take a while for my little guy to wake up. He's offered to train me until then and I'm thinking of taking him up on that offer." Joshua explained gaining looks of surprise from the others.

"If that's the case do you think we should wait and train until you're ready? It won't be the same without you in the group you know. Who's going to tank all the hits and make the ride easy for us?" Adrian said with a teasing smile.

"Very funny, but don't wait for my sake. I'll catch up to you guys soon after and then we'll all go exploring together. It's going to take a long time to reclaim most of earth and move on to the next phase anyways. I won't get too far behind especially if my training goes well." Joshua said with a smile. The others nodded before they started to plan out their guilds and other plans going forward more seriously. Joshua would give his input every now and then, but for the most part he was just enjoying spending time with his friends on this much needed break.