Risen World

Chapter 60: Decision

Joshua side stepped a blow aimed for his side while trying to sweep the legs out from underneath his adversary. His father simply hopped over the attempt and twisted in the air while throwing a wild kick that cleared the space between the two of them as Joshua had to jump back to avoid the vicious attack. The two of them regained their balance before going in for another flurry of blows that were either blocked by the other or avoided. It had been a few days since Joshua's little meet up with his friends and ever since then he had been spending most of his time with his family. Considering two thirds of his family were fighting freaks that couldn't go a day without throwing a fist at someone Joshua ended up spending most of that time sparring with his father and sister.

Their exchange of blows was slowly becoming more intense as they shifted stances in order to gain an advantage over each other, but considering their fighting styles were so similar they were stuck in a bit of a deadlock that Joshua knew he would eventually win do to his greater stamina and reach that caused his father to make more daring attempts in order to win. Joshua had fought his father at least ten times over the past few days and he had actually lost a couple of bouts out of surprise at the fact his father was so much better than he used to be after getting into prime shape. He was still better than his father at fighting, but not by very much and he wasn't surprised when he lost to the more experienced fighter from time to time.

Joshua twisted out of the way of an elbow that his father tried to catch him off guard with before kneeing him in the side and shoving his back while tripping his off balance leg. He put his full weight on his father's back sending him to the ground and quickly locked up his arm in an awkward position. It didn't take long for his father to give up knowing that it would be impossible to break the hold of someone who was as experienced as his son without breaking his arm in the process. They both got up breathing hard from the long spar and headed over to the side of the room to grab a bottle of water. "It's good to see you're as good as ever son. Still don't know why you didn't want to do this for a career."

"Meh, I love it just not as much as being a doctor. Although now it seems like it's a good thing I stuck with it for so long. I'll be needing these skills with the changes that have happened so far." Joshua replied before downing some water after catching his breath.

"True. You will probably have to sharpen your weapon skills as well going forward, everything can't simply be handled with your fist. Though with all this job and class nonsense who knows what humans can do in the future." Joshua's father said with a bright smile. It was clear that he was looking forward to all of the possibilities.

"What do you plan to do going forward dad? You look like you want to go out there and fight just as much as Amy." Joshua said while shaking his head at his father's clear urge to fight leaking out.

"Hmm, honestly I would love to, but your mother would drag me back if I tried. She's already forcing Amy to wait until she's at least eighteen before she can go and I'm sure she's probably tried to talk you out of it as well." Joshua nodded at his father's words realizing that they were right on the mark. "Although I may have gotten my youth back I'm still an old man on the inside in her eyes. I'd have to agree, besides at this point I prefer teaching others how to fight more than anything. Teaching you and Amy all these years has been one of the highlights of my life."

"Then I guess you will probably set up another gym? It would be good for all the people that plan to go out into the new world that don't have much actual experience with fighting. You can even use the fact that you trained the number one ranker for the first phase as a selling point if you want. I'm sure the system will have several roles for people that don't actually want to go out fighting, otherwise there wouldn't be any support classes." Joshua said getting a nod from his father in return. Soon their little conversation was interrupted by a hyper active ball of energy.

"Haven't you two gotten a long enough breather yet? It's my turn to spar next." Amy said as she started poking the both of them in the side. She already had her gear on and was ready for whoever was going to spar with her.

"Alright, alright hold your horses. I'll beat you into the ground next, but after that you've got to fight your brother as well. You're going to have to build up your stamina if you plan to go out there fighting monster and all other sorts of stuff in the future." Their dad said before Amy smiled and dragged him back towards the small ring that they had made with mats across the floor. Joshua simply chuckled before taking a seat and watching the two of them start to duke it out. It was clear that his father was still far ahead of his sister, but she was able to hold her own for a while.

Joshua started to think back on some of the conversations he had with his friends a few days ago and wondered how things would go going forward. He had learned of everyone's job that they had been given and what type of soul beast they each had. Laura wasn't to surprising sense he had a feeling her flames were far stronger than anyone else's spells at that level. Her soul beast was a phoenix of fire and the job that she was starting out with was a magic swordsman. It fit her well, but Joshua suggested for her to go train with Aito's father from time to time if she wanted to become able to use a sword to its fullest capability. She simply nodded and started to talk with Aito about it.

Madalyn on the other hand had a soul beast that was even more fitting with her personality and skills. Her soul beast was that of a snake, but to be more specific it was that of a basilisk according to the system. Early on it wouldn't be too much different from other snakes except for the fact that its poisonous abilities would be far stronger than other snakes at that stage. Her job seemed to fit well with it considering Madalyn's talents. It was a beginner job of dagger specialist that could branch off into more skill specific jobs in the future according to Madalyn. It seemed like Laura's job was a unique one in comparison, but Madalyn's job could evolve in the future.

Natalie was a bit of a surprise sense based off her abilities it seemed more like a support type, but in the end the system classified her soul beast and job as combat oriented. Natalie didn't know exactly what her soul beast was, but it looked like some sort of fox creature with two tails that had white tips in comparison to its golden fur. According to the system the little guy's powers were related to mind reading and illusions. Her job turned out to simply be archer for now, but it sounded like another beginner job to Joshua.

Nathan's soul beast was on the cute side since it was some sort of squirrel like creature. Its main ability was its intelligence and multi-tasking capability along with heightened reflexes apparently. He hadn't selected a specific enchanting job yet, but Joshua had no doubt in his mind that it would have to do with programming. His sister Naomi on the other hand had a soul beast of a raccoon like creature that was also a support class soul beast. It had this unique ability to use junk to build tools and other necessities in the wild. It was the reason this plump delicious looking creature could survive against predators. She hadn't chosen a job yet just like her brother.

The Carsen brother funnily enough all had similar soul beast sense they were all bears of some form. Dave had a Grizzly bear for his soul beast. Devin had a panda that fit his lazy personality. While Dillon had a polar bear for his soul beast. They all granted great increases in their strengths and vitality which seemed to be a theme to bear like soul beast.

Then when it came to Joshua's three close friends they each had some rather unique soul beast. For Aito according to his description his looked similar to a griffin, but it had yet to fully awaken so he wasn't quite sure what abilities he would gain from it yet. Henry was in a similar situation since his soul beast hadn't awakened fully yet. It was some sort of octopus or squid like creature that for some strange reason had Henry grinning to himself. Adrian on the other hand wasn't exactly sure what to call his soul beast, but it looked somewhat like a praying mantis. The bladed soul beast had already given him good vibes for his future.

The only person there who didn't know what their soul beast was going to be was Amy. Apparently anyone that hadn't reached the age of seventeen yet wouldn't have completed forming their soul beast. Naomi's soul beast had formed while she was waiting here for her brother to come back alongside her mother. She had turned seventeen only a few hours after the first phase had started.

Joshua's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a towel was thrown towards his face and he reflexively caught it. He turned to see his mother walk over as she smiled at him. "Taking a break or are you guys almost done for the day?" She asked as she took a seat next to her son.

"Just taking a break. I might be done after I have a spar with my little sister though. I'm guessing they will both be too hungry to continue by that point." Joshua replied with a smile.

"Good, I've already finished dinner and I don't want to be waiting here until the food gets cold." His mother replied while shaking her head as she saw her husband toss her daughter over his shoulder and on to the mat below. She didn't know why the rest of her family were so into these violent activities, but she had learned to put up with it a long time ago. Even now she had to struggle to make her daughter act a bit more ladylike instead of just trying to be another one of the guys whenever Joshua and his friends were around. She was happy to find out that Amy had made a new female friend at the gathering she had gone to with Joshua and hoped that might get her to do something other than just fighting all the time. "Have you decided on whether or not you're going to take that man's offer?"

Joshua thought about it for a moment before responding. It was getting close to the end of the first week since he had been given the offer by Thoren and he was starting to have an idea of his decision. He had told his parents about it and his father was thrilled at the idea while his mother was a bit worried that he might push himself too much after all that he had gone through. Of course his sister wanted him to do it as well so that he could teach her all that he learned in his training. After having figured out what his friends planned to do in the future he knew he was going to fall far behind if he did nothing and just waited around for his soul beast to awaken on its own. Training with his father and sister was great and all, but neither were weapon specialist and after fighting the boss monsters in the first phase he knew he was probably going to need a good weapon while fighting certain mobs. Besides he didn't want to throw away all the weapon skills he had learned from Mr. Fujimoto and just fight everything with hand to hand combat in the future.

Rummaging through the pockets of the pair of pants he had taken off before getting into his sparring ones he found his wallet where he had placed the card that Thoren had given him. It was surprising that the old dwarf had simply given him a card with a number to call him through the system with instead of using the system to send him a message in the first place, but Joshua just assumed the man was old school. He thought about it for a moment before smiling and using a screen on the wall that connected to the system. He dialed in the number and waited for someone to respond. This time Joshua had made his decision.