Almost to the point of physical reaction, I kept 'socializing'. Or in my case, being in the background as the others talked.

By the time they finished there, the topic segwayed so much that the original conversation was completely forgotten. An hour or so had passed by this time and the hassle of my eavesdropping was now my focus.

Thinking about it whilst the others talked, I concluded that it was likely an event. This wasn't really a 'game' anymore, but events and quests seemed to still be in the world. Less formally and less static, albeit, but they were still there. Like the battle between the two clans, this just seemed to be set up so perfectly that it couldn't just be a coincidence... so even if I did tell the NPCs about it and showed them the screenshot I took, it would probably just trigger the event and not cause that much damage. At least, that's what I hoped as I started to leave the group.

Thorborg noticed, however, "Doki? We're going this way, not that way."

"I need to drop off a few books I borrowed. I could wait for them to disappear, but I'm nearly at full inventory... You're going straight to the town right, I'll try to meet you there as soon as possible. Until then, bye," I casually lied, walking off down a nearby street.

-

I didn't look at their reactions, but I gather they were filled with suspicion. Shrugging it off, I broke into a sprint. Creating ripples in the air as I dashed towards the city center, my outrageous speed paying off as I saw the city defining building in seconds.

There was a commotion going on, completely blocking it off as guards tried their best to peacefully stop the crowd. Shouting and screaming of individuals... protesting? I was about a hundred or two meters away, so couldn't make out any words at this point.

Driven by curiosity, I walked closer until I could make out their voices. Soon enough, my question was answered, "How the hell can you just declare something that serious and just hide in your castle!?","That fucking corrupt mayor, come out and say something you coward!", "Yeah, come out and face us!"

'Seems like my 'news' isn't very new, huh. Am I even necessary at this point?' I thought, slightly annoyed at the idea of wasting my time.

I saw a small group slowly backing itself away, so chose to ask them, "Hi, I just came here... Is the bank closed?"

In a moment of confusion, the group froze before realizing my presence. When they understood my question was serious, which it wasn't, one of the male members tried to answer it, "We just came from the bank, but that was before... whatever you'd call this happened..."

With their lack of words, a female member continued the story, "I think there was an announcement or something recently. We're crafters, so have no idea what it's about, though..."

Ending abruptly, the new speaker shrugged before calmly getting away. Followed by the rest of their group, it seemed that none of them could add to it.

A minute or two of waiting, I gave up trying to get information out of the constant yelling and fled to the library. I didn't want to get caught by my group since it would get awkward quickly.

-

At the library, I came in and deposited my books. With all the junk I had accumulated from the mumble tree dungeon, it was probably for the best.

Walking towards the exit, I noticed that today's paper had a dim title, 'The mayor... and Demons?!' It went on to describe the meeting that took place whilst we were at Jeehan's, in which he announced his relationship with a demon criminal organisation called 'The Grimms' and how he started an impending war with them. The article went on to quote protesters and announce an active conscription that Jacques initiated for all the local clans.

'Seems like a grim event, huh. So he announced this before the demon killed him? No wonder that guy seemed so pissed...' I thought, getting ever more distracted by my reading. A series of ping eventually kicked me back into reality, well... game reality. It was a PM from LOD, so I answered.

"Oi, Doki! What's keeping you?! We're here at the center, but..." although he tried, the volume of the other people now made his voice completely incoherent.

"Uh... Can you hear me? I sure can't hear you now," I replied as loudly as possible.

"... Sorry, what. It's a bit loud here," he said. I was going to ask him again, but with death glares from the handful of people here, I just returned the paper and left the library before continuing.

As LOD continued, he seemed to have left the crowd so I could hear him and vice versa, "So, you were saying?"

Seeing it as pointless to repeat my previous question, I answered the question he asked instead, "Yeah, I'm at the library like I said. I know, there's a crowd and the cause is a meeting that took place whilst we weren't there. The thing we saw earlier seems to be a response to that meeting, and so are these protests."

"Wait, how do you know that!? I was going to tell you that we're staying in town for a while due to this large crowd... We didn't get what the chaos was about or anything," he explained.

"Yeah, I kinda lied. I sprinted to the town center before you but went back to the library when it seemed like you'd appear. I know about the meeting from a paper I read here," I answered nonchalantly.

"Wait, you sprinted here!? We didn't dawdle or anything and you went the opposite way, how did you beat us?" his voice rose with a sense of anger as he asked this.

"I sprinted. Surprisingly enough, I'm pretty quick right now. Anyway, so why are you not leaving here?" I asked in return.

"Thorborg doesn't want to go back without her ID since she refuses to break her promise," he answered, removing his angry tone from before.

"Seems problematic with a war going on. I'll try to find out when this battle should take place, in the meantime, try to tell Alice and co. what's going on, if they don't know already. It says there's been a mass conscription, so she probably does know about it. But just do it to be safe," I stated before closing the call.

I opened up another with the leader of the Samurai girls and she accepted.

"Doki? Why the hell are you calling, you should know we're busy here!" she yelled in order to be heard above the intense clashing going on.

I replied swiftly, "Seems you're busy so sorry to bother you. Mind talking to me in a break?"

"Sure, should be in an hour," she answered and ended the call.

In the meantime I setup my stats. I gained two levels from killing hundreds of bandits, then checked the statuses of my stuff through my 'Object_Examination' skill. With a bit of delving, I found that my skills and weapons also had an independent leveling system, in the interest in wasting time, I spent some time looking into them too. Here's how my stuff looks now:

Name DokiDoki19 Class Succubus Level 24 Class skills ["Bind" = Mass_Leech.], ["Bolt" = Leech.], ["Heal" = Blood_Transfusion.], ["Intimidate" = Vampiric_Bite.], [passive = Life_Absorb.], [passive = Attraction_Resistance.], [passive = Attraction_Increase.] Sub-class skills , , , , , , , . Weapon skills ("Have at me" = Power_Charge.), (passive = Staff_Hit.), (passive = Dual_Wield.), (passive = _Magic_Boost.) Additional skills /'Stop' = Skill_Cancellation. Achievement skills N/A Equipment On-HandSteel_ScimitarOff-HandBone_StaffHead-wearCloth_HoodInner-WearBlack_BoxersOuterwearHealer's_CapeFoor-Wear100%_Cow_BootsAccessories N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A.

Stats Level 26 AP 16000 Defense 36 Damage 101 HP 30/NA Speed 88 Stamina 61 Spare 0

Name Krest's_Well-made_Steel_Scimitar Description: A steel scimitar made by a Semi-proffesional blacksmith called Dogh. Stats Physical damage caused by this scimitar does 288% of your damage value. Durability 100% Bonus None. Enchants N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A and N/A

Name Dogh's_Mediocre_Steel_Scimitar Description: A steel scimitar made by a mediocre blacksmith called Dogh. Stats Physical damage caused by this scimitar does 166% of your damage value. Durability 46% Bonus None. Enchants N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A and N/A

Name Kami's_Mediocre_Bone_Staff A bone staff made by a mediocre blacksmith called Kami. Stats Damage of magical attacks is given plus 83% of your damage value (ontop of spell's effect/ buff). Durability 94% Bonus None. Enchants N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A and N/A

Weapon affinity (Used only) Weapon type Level XP Sword 5 12/2500 Staff 1 481/500

Skill affinity (Equipped only) Skill name Level XP Mass_Leech 8 103/4000 Leech 4 92/2000 Blood_Transfusion 10 MAX Vampiric_Bite 1 0/500 Life_Absorb 10 MAX Attraction_Resistance 8 877/4000 Attraction_Increase 10 MAX Object_Examination 2 200/1000 Mob_Tame 2 900/1000 Summon 1 200/500 Teleport_Home 1 0/500 Set_Home 1 0/500 Reverse_Trajectory 1 0/500 Volume_Increase 8 730/4000 Power_Charge 2 6/1000 Staff_Hit 1 0/500 Dual_Wield 7 155/3500 Magic_Boost 1 406/500

After doing all of this I had wasted about half an hour, so I went into the town for the rest. I had over 100k, so replaced my scimitars for fresh ones and as I was about to go to the clothier to repair or increase my clothing, the expected ping came to stop me.

I accepted the call, but was beaten to the first word by her, "So, what do you want?"

"I would like some information. I gather you're busy because you're joining the fight, but how soon is it?" I asked.

"Oh, we don't really know for now. He said in the conscription notice that it wouldn't be in the next week, but apart from that, it's sketchy. If you're going to join, train now. Those demons seem vicious, their leader should be near the max level. By the way, we're training to go through a dungeon tomorrow, but I'm still not confident. Since you're our supposed ally, mind filling some gaps? We only have twenty-one members currently, and the dungeon is a raid dungeon..." she answered in a dramatic tone.

"Sure, I only have four members and a crafter with my at the moment, though... Where and when should we meet up?" answering for my group, I accepted it. It's not like we'll be doing anything else until the 'war' is finished anyway...

With that, she ended the call and I left to my group to tell them the news.