Risen World

Chapter 355: A Mage whose Personality fits her Magic Perfectly

After Natalie had put an end to the world government guild member's winning streak it was like a wave of change had occurred through all of the other matches. Natalie wasn't the only one from the large guilds that had joined the arena battles to keep the world government guild from showing off and giving a lasting impression to all of those who were watching. Joshua could see that just about all of the members of the world government guild were currently running into high level members of the larger guilds who the system quickly picked to challenge them since all of the world government guild members were getting far along in their win streak. Bringing in a new high level contender would of course be the systems first reaction if given the opportunity.

For the next hour or so the group watched all sorts of matches, but after a while Joshua knew it was time for him to go. Now was the time for him to go and get as many recruits as possible. People still had images of how strong the members of his guild were at the moment and he planned on taking as much advantage of that fact as possible. With how the large guilds were doing he was certain they would attract attention as well and he wanted to get started on his next wave of recruitment before most of them started turning their attention to the large guilds. Joshua knew that was their aim in the first place since they didn't start appearing in the arena until after all the stronger small guilds and mid-sized guilds had finished up.

When Joshua left he brought Henry along with him while everyone else stayed behind to watch the rest of the major matches. He knew a lot of them were staying behind just to see the cool fights but he made sure that Aito and Julia kept track of how strong all of the fighters were and which guilds they worked for.

Joshua and Henry headed back to their guild hall and once they got their Joshua immediately started going through all the messages he had gotten as the guild leader after appearing in the battle arena. He had gained thousands of messages, but he was lucky that the system was easily able to organize them for him to skim through. He also had any messages that were sent to Henry or the others sent to him and organized as well. At the moment there were over a thousand applications of sorts and Joshua had thinned them out somehow.

After a few minutes of discussion with Henry they both decided on not bringing in anyone lower than level fifty-five unless they had a unique job or showed off a lot of skill in the arena matches they had been watching earlier. This cut back on the applicants by a lot. When it came to unique job holders they honestly didn't come across any outside of the Asawa sisters who they immediately brought into the guild. Other than that they did see a few people that had great potential that they decided to bring into their guild and train up, but for the most part they stuck to people over level fifty-five and mainly ended up picking out those that were close to level sixty.

After hours of going through each applicant they had ended up gaining around a hundred and fifty or so new recruits. He knew that he'd have to have a gathering of them all before he can get started on bringing them into the guild, but it was already getting late so he didn't plan on doing it right away. After they had finished going through all of the applicants Henry had left so that he could get to work on making them official at the job center before they would bring them all over to James Town in the following days. Joshua was left alone in the guild hall replying to the messages of the people he wouldn't be accepting. He made sure to let them know about his idea of creating smaller guilds around the alliance in case they were happy with joining in on those plans, but he wouldn't be bringing in any of them to his own guild.

It was while he was finishing up on responding to all of the messages that he heard someone entering the guild hall and turned to see a familiar small figure make their way into the room. It was Brook, the water mage that had fought against Adrian at the arena. It was still impossible for Joshua to make out much of her appearance with the large hat that hid her hair and face along with the thick robes she wore that covered up just about every part of her body outside of her hands and feet. The girl looked around the room for a moment before noticing Joshua and leisurely making her way over to him.

Joshua watched as she took a seat and set across from him at the same table while staring at him. The only part of her that he could actually see and get any emotion from was her eyes. They were a piercing blue and seemed to be focused on him, but she didn't seem to know what she wanted to do next. "Can I help you?" Joshua asked politely. After watching her fight in the arena Joshua knew that he wanted her to join his guild so he was interested in figuring out why she decided to pay him a visit at such a time.

"I came to apply to your guild." A rather quiet voice came from underneath the pile of clothing that tried it's best to look rather intimidating. Even with all of the gear on it was still difficult for the girl to come across as serious and intimidating do to her stature. Her voice was quiet, but it wasn't timid like Monika's. Instead Brook's voice came off as unperturbed.

"Well you could have just sent a message if that's what you were interested in. You didn't have to come all the way over to my guild." Joshua said with a small smile as he put away all of the displays of system messages and turned his full focus on the mage sitting in front of him.

"That might be the case for those who plan on just joining your guild and being a part of it while doing their own thing most of the time, but I want to be a part of your main group." Brook said with the same even kill tone. Before Joshua could respond to her words she decided to take off her large hat and hang it off the back of her chair letting Joshua get a better view of her. She then pulled down the part of her hooded robe that covered her face so that her voice no longer came out so muffled sounding.

When Brook took off her large hat her hair finally seemed to break free as if it was stuffed up into the pointy hat in some way. The hooded robe still kept most of it from spilling over her shoulders but Joshua could tell it was fairly long for someone so short. What surprised him was the fact that it was a bright blue color which reminded him of her preferred element of choice. Once Joshua started thinking about her hair color he thought back on how his hair was starting to turn silver in places while Laura and Madalyn's had completely shifted to a vibrant red and an eerie green respectively. It made since for someone that had such an affinity for water magic to have vibrant blue hair. Robin was probably under similar circumstances now that he thought about her bright golden hair that seemed to match her magic preference.

Brook's face was surprisingly mature for her stature, but he could tell that she may have only been a year or so older than Amy since she still had signs of growing unlike himself who had reached the age where the systems kept him from growing older physically at a normal pace. She had the most lethargic look in her eyes and Joshua could easily imagine her laying on a couch munching on snacks and watching her favorite shows rather than being out and about playing sports or something along those lines. Even if she was as old as Amy her bodily figure was especially far behind. If it wasn't for her mature face Joshua would have assumed she was a middle schooler from the rest of her image.

"I'm Brook Bird a mage that specializes in water magic. I can use a few other types of spells just in case I come across enemies that are more resistant towards my preferred element, but not to an extreme degree." She said as she started to give her sales pitch. She didn't realize that Joshua had already planned on going after her for his guild in the first place.

"By the way you fought in the arena I can guess that you're used to fighting on your own for the most part." Joshua said thinking back on the match.

"What makes you say that?"

"The way you fought would have blinded the rest of your party members as well as your enemies which could be a double edged sword in group combat." Joshua explained.

"I see. Well you are correct in that regard. I have not spent much time fighting alongside others so I will need to get use to those types of things, but I'm willing to learn." Brook said with the same lazy tone as usual, but Joshua could see a small change in her eyes that showed that she meant what she said.

"Well that's something that will go both ways in the end. After all it will be just as much on us to figure out the way to best use your abilities in our group as it will be on you to figure out how to support and fight alongside us. It's a two way street after all and I think we can work something out." Joshua said with a grin as he offered his hand. "Welcome to the guild Brook. I was planning on inviting you myself anyways."

Brook looked at him for a moment before shaking his hand. Joshua felt as if he was shaking the hand of a kid, but he did his best not to let that thought show through his expressions. "Well I'm glad that I could join your group. After facing Adrian I knew that I couldn't keep fighting on my own if I wanted to reach new heights. Fighting alongside people as strong as you guys should definitely help me improve myself."

"Well the first order of business will be getting you registered in our guild. Henry and I will be helping all of the new recruits get registered tomorrow morning. After that will go to our territory on earth and get you guys in shape." Joshua said with a smirk that sent a bit of a chill down Brook's spine. From that look she could tell that she was about to start working for some one that was going to push her past her limits. After that the two of them chatted for a little while before they both left to get some rest for a big day in the morning.