Risen World

Chapter 288: Blue Prints Jackpot

When it started getting close to noon the group of four decided to make their way over to the blue print shop to meet up with the others. At this point the crowds near the center of the hub city were up to their usual numbers making it hard to get around without taking direct portals to where you wanted to go, but they weren't in much of a hurry to get there since they still had around half an hour before the designated meeting time. They decided to spend that time looking around the hub city a bit on the way there.

For Nathan and Naomi the hub city was an everyday sight that they saw on the way to their shop or while going to their mother's restaurant. However for Joshua and Amy they spent more of their time out exploring than in the actual hub city itself. In Joshua's case he didn't even spend time going to the phoenix or serpent guilds like his little sister did from time to time. The only time he ever actually went around to explore the hub city was when he was going to meet someone in particular like his mother or father at their workplaces or when he had to go to a specific place to get something done. He rarely ever casually walked through the hub city to see the things that were changing.

The first thing he noticed was there were a lot of new buildings around that were being put up in the area outside of the guild buildings. One of the most obvious ones was a news station that had been set up. He noticed there were two separate major news station in the center of the hub city at the moment and he figured out why that was the case right away. One of the news stations was sponsored by the world government guild. It was probably the one he had been watching early in the morning that discussed all sorts of plans and accomplishments that the world government guild had done recently. They even had news casters following along top explorers from the world government guild and showing off their dungeon dives.

The other news station however was an independent news station that got funds from advertisements alongside generous donations from several different guilds that wanted news outside of what the world government guild was trying to force feed everyone. Thanks to so many guilds backing the independent news station it was able to hold its own and show off all sorts of different things that were going on to the public outside of just perfect dungeon runs that had been planned out and done several times before in practice just for the world government guild. This news station showed off small explorer groups in new areas, hunters going after specific beast for the specialty meats that people wanted, new plant life that was growing abundantly in different areas of the planet alongside new animals and how they have changed.

In the end Joshua decided to pay more attention to the independent news station going forward since it had more information he would actually find useful. Another thing that stood out on the way to the blue print shop was the fact that there were two new major guilds that showed up in the hub city. They were fairly big in scale, but they weren't independent guilds like Laura's or Madalyn's. One of the guilds was called the Hunter's Guild. When Joshua asked Nathan about it he explained to him that it was a guild that showed up recently where explorers that preferred the life of hunting beast for food could sign up and meet one another. The guild was backed by a lot of the restaurants and food industries that were popping up in the hub city. It was a good idea since it allowed a better flow of food supplies in the hub city that didn't revolve around the system entirely. It also seemed to be where Joshua's mother had gotten the bacon from that they had eaten in the morning. It was a gift to the hospital apparently.

The other major guild that Joshua noticed that showed up was called the Mercenary Guild. It was a place where a lot of independent explorers could sign up for work outside of just going to the job center. It was more thorough in getting jobs for its members than the former set up that single explorers had to go through. They also helped other guilds for a price when it came to getting experienced members for dungeon dives or town subjugations. It was an interesting set up and a good place to get started for both new explorers that needed small jobs and had no one to group up with alongside veteran explorers that were getting to the point where they needed help in growing stronger and finding more challenging work.

The two new guilds weren't quite on the same scale as the larger guilds around just yet, but Joshua could see them growing fast since they didn't have any major restrictions or goals for their members to keep up with. After looking around for a while the group finally found the blue print building and could see a few members from the group that had gone on the expedition with them already waiting outside the building. The place seemed to have gotten more traffic lately with several higher lever explorers around bringing in blue prints to get examined. By the end of the year Joshua figured the place would be nearly as busy as the trade area.

When Joshua got close enough he noticed most of the group that was already there was Jayce's group along with Becca, Abigail and Aito who all seemed to be the type to get to a meeting early. "How long have you guys been waiting?" Joshua asked as he walked over and greeted everyone.

"Not to long boss." Jayce said with a grin. "We just finished exploring the town a bit before heading over." Joshua noticed that all of Jayce's group had their levels available to see. When he thought about it he found it normal for them to want to prove themselves in an area filled with major high level guild members everywhere you looked. Since they were members of Joshua's guild at this point it was as if they were showing of for his guild in the end. They were all level sixty eight at this point so they were on the higher end of levels around the hub city.

"Well the others should show up soon so let's just wait for them before going inside." Joshua said with a small smile before everyone nodded and then started breaking off into small conversations. For a moment Joshua was wondering if he should make his information public knowledge at this point, but if he did they would all be able to see the fact that he was a guild master of a rather powerful guild based off his level. Dealing with people trying to get his attention all the time wasn't exactly what he wanted yet so he decided to hold off on showing off until after the large town subjugation.

It didn't take long for the rest of the members of the group to make their way over and greet each other. Laura and Madalyn brought over most of their group while Adrian and Henry showed up on their own. With everyone gathered they made their way inside the slightly crowded store as a group. Several people in the place seemed to recognize members of the two biggest guilds in the city alongside some of the highest level explorers around in Adrian's group. It got quite the commotion going in the store, but for the most part Joshua ignored it as he lead the group over to one of the counters where a humanoid robot was their waiting for them this time around.

It seemed like quite a few things had changed in the blue print store this time around since it had to be bigger to accommodate the crowds. Joshua also realized that he didn't exactly want everyone in the store to be able to figure out what kind of blue prints they had gathered considering how precious they could end up being.

"Do you have private rooms where we can get our blue prints scanned?" Joshua asked as he approached the counter.

"Yes sir. Private rooms have been added with the larger amount of explorers bringing in blue prints. It will cost a bit extra." The robot said while looking towards Joshua questioningly. It was a bit off putting since it looked so human if not a bit too human in fact. The only reason Joshua could tell it wasn't human in the first place was how little its eyes were able to express the robots emotions. He also couldn't sense any aura coming from it so he knew it wasn't a living being in the first place.

"Not a problem, lead the way." Joshua said with a small nod as the robot opened the desk so that they could pass through and follow her. She ended up leading the group to a door at the back that opened into a decent sized room that was big enough to accommodate at least fifty people if needed.

The scanner is on the table in the center. You will be charged for the room along with each scan used depending on the level of the blue print. Good luck." The robot said before bowing and leaving them all on their own inside the room. The table was small size wise, but it was more of a platform for scanning the blue prints in the first place.

"So I'm going to go ahead and guess you guys want me to be the one to scan the blue prints right?" Joshua asked as he took all of the blue prints out from his inventory. He had three regular blue prints from the first path they went down, five sliver edged blue prints with one coming from each of the bosses they had faced along the way, and lastly one golden blue print that he decided to save for last.

"Well of course you've got the magic fingers of lady luck after all big guy." Adrian said with a smirk as everyone cringed a bit at his innuendo.josei

"Alright, alright. I'll start off with the regular blue prints and work my way up from there." Joshua said as he made his way over to the platform while everyone else took a seat on the chairs that had been laid out all around the room. Joshua placed the first regular blue print that he had picked up on the scanner and watched it brighten up as the machine started to work. It only took a few seconds for the process to complete, but the anticipation of figuring out what a blue print would end up being was always interesting.

[Night Vision Goggles – An equipment that can be used to see through any amount of darkness as long as your eyesight is still working properly. These goggles not only let you see in the darkness, but give a clear view of what you see as if the sun was still out.]

The first blue print was an interesting accessory that they would have loved to have while exploring the canyon dungeon the first time through. The system itself didn't actually sell night vision goggles of any sort, the only thing it did sell was flashlights that could help brighten up the area. If you were lucky you could find night vision potions inside dungeons that could be useful later, but these night vision goggles could go a long way into helping out in those situations. They could also make several and sell them to other explorers through the market for some extra funds for their guilds.

[Grappler hook- A device that can help with climbing tough location and making quick movements around beast in combat if used properly.]

It was another interesting item that could change up their form of combat going forward. Joshua had his blink skill to go around bosses, but being able to grapple on to massive creatures could be a huge help. He'd have to get use to using one of them before the large town subjugation since it would be perfect for moving around the buildings quickly.

[Empowered grenade – A specialty grenade that isn't sold by the system. Depending on the ingredients added based on the blue print these grenades can do all sorts of damage. Make a super powered explosive, a poison smoke explosion big enough to cover giant creatures, or a smoke screen that can cover your escape. All ideas are welcome]

Before Joshua could even think about what that could mean in future combat he heard two separate people yell behind him.

"Jackpot!" Becca and Marcus shouted at the same time.