"How many are the enemies?" One of the elderly asked Auron.

"There was only one. However, I believe that this enemy is the rumored demonic monster," Auron answered.

When they heard that the enemy's coming was the demonic monster, all of them shuddered. Then, all of the elderly looked at one man who was way younger than them. "We should evacuate people!" One of them advised the young man.

Auron could guess that the young man was the town's head, and the elder was the elderly council who was helping the town's head. "Quick, make your decision. If not, all of the people here will be dead!" Auron urged the town's head to make a decision.

Although Auron knew there were several high-level guards stationed here who was stronger than the eight-man party's members, however, he believed that it was not enough for them to stop the demonic monster.

Fortunately, as a basic town, they would have a teleportation gate since it was the minimum requirement to be promoted from a village to a town. Auron advised once more, "Evacuate your townsfolk using the teleportation portal!"

When the elderly council and the town's head heard Auron advised, their faces darkened. The quiet town's head began to speak, "We are just starting our teleportation portal's upgrade, and it will finish in 1 hour."

For a town, the teleportation portal was crucial. It was one of the requirements for a town to be upgraded. For example, the requirement to advance from basic town to intermediate town, they should have a level 5 teleportation portal. 

When upgrading the teleportation portal, each upgrade would take one hour. During the update, the player and the NPC could not use the teleportation gate. It could not receive or send people. Also, if the town's head decided to cancel the upgrade, then it would damage the teleportation portal, and it needs 6 hours to recover before they can use the portal once more.

So, when upgrading the teleportation portal, they would choose the right time. Usually, there would be no problem for the town to upgrade anytime if it was outside of the wartime. However, bad luck surely happened. It was like gambling, and you had a 99% chance to win and a 1% chance to lose. Unfortunately, you got the 1%.

It was just like this town. Bad luck happened to the town. Auron suddenly felt guilty. He felt like he was the bad luck charm for this town. However, everything had happened; they had no choice but to keep moving on.

The town's head made a quick decision, "Evacuate all the people throughout the back gate. Now!"

The elderly council began to take some guards to help them evacuate. When the elderly council left the scene, a woman who was followed by another two women behind her, came to the town's head's place. Auron knew who the leading woman was.

The woman was Julia, the one who he met when he was at Mud Swamp and also the pirate's dungeon. Julia also recognized Auron, "You! What are you doing here?"

However, before Auron could answer, one of the women behind Julia asked the town's head, "What happened here?"

The town's head had a sad expression and started to explain what had happened. From the town's head story, Auron also knew that these three women had something to do with the teleportation portal's upgrade.

In the end, the town's head said, "Can you help us to prevent the monster until all the people safely evacuated?"

After the town's head said that, all the players in the town received a forced quest, including Auron and Julia. The quest was to hold the demonic monster with the guards for 3 hours. Each of the players received a partic.i.p.ation token indicating they partic.i.p.ate in the quest.

Whether they successfully hold the demonic monster for 3 hours or the demonic monster killed all the townsfolk, they could exchange the token with a reward. Of course, the system would reduce the compensation if they failed their quest.

Also, there were more conditions. They would lose their token if they leave the town and could not get back to the town within 10 minutes. They would also lose their token if they logged out for more than 10 minutes during the quest.

If the players were died and resurrected in another town, they would have to get back to the town in 10 minutes. However, it would be difficult since there was no teleportation portal, so they would need to go back to the town on foot.

There were around 1500 players in the town. All of them received the quest, and they were happy. A quest means more rewards. Moreover, this was the first event or quest related to the new update, the demonic monster. It would be a unique experience for them.

Many of them went to the resurrection point in the town, so they could resurrect in the town and not lose their partic.i.p.ation right to claim the rewards. However, none of them knew how dangerous the demonic monster except Auron, who had already seen the monster with his own eyes.

From what Auron saw, it needed a level 500 player with high geared equipment to contend with the monster one by one if the player had a high fighting skill. However, it was just a guess from a brief encounter. The error rate in his deduction was high.

Meanwhile, the two women who were with Julia happily accepted the quest and said to the town's head, "Okay, we will help you to hold the monster. Quickly leave the place!"

Then, the two women left Julia and went to the town's gate. Meanwhile, the town's head also left Julia and Auron alone to help evacuate the townsfolk. Julia, who was left alone with Auron, asked once again, "What are you doing here?"