The Author's POV

[Northern tower.]

"How long do you think they will keep the barrier this time?"

Leopold asked Ava, standing next to her. He glanced at her for a moment, wondering what was going through her mind.

"I don't know."

She replied in a soft tone, her eyes transfixed, gazing into the distance. She seemed preoccupied, an endless stream of thoughts rushing in her head.

From time to time, ripples would appear on the barrier. Whenever that happened, waves would form around it, enveloping the mountain.

Ever since a week ago, the situation was getting more and more out of hand.

The attacks of the demons were more ruthless and relentless than ever before. The lower-ranked demons even threw themselves at the barrier, turning into a mush of blood and gore. It was honestly gruesome.

If not for the barrier that had been activated, things would've been extremely dire for everyone.

"Are you going somewhere?"

Hein asked from the side.

Lifting her head and looking at Hein, Ava nodded.

"Yeah."

"Where are you going?"

"To fix this."

Ava lifted her hand, in the middle of her palm lay a pale green flute.

"You're fixing that?"

"Yeah."

It became apparent to her from the last fight that the flute had some serious flaws.

If she did not fix it, once the barrier stopped functioning, she would be in big trouble.

"Great, I'm coming with you, I've got to fix my shield too."

He raised his shield, showing it to Ava.

"Oh, wow. You fought with that?"

She was surprised to see it. The state of the shield was quite bad. Not only was it filled with cracks, but it was also marked with numerous indentations.

In its current state, Ava wouldn't be surprised if it would break at a simple touch. It made her wonder if buying a new one would be better.

Putting the shield away into his dimensional space, Hein looked towards the barrier in the distance.

"Yeah. I need to get it fixed before the barrier goes down."

"You guys planning on going to the utility center?"

Disrupting their conversation was a familiar, tired voice.

"Hua~ If so, I'm coming too."

Yawning, Leopold walked over to them and flashed his gun.

"I've run out of bullets."

***

"Ah, I'm starving!"

Sitting on a round table, Jomnuk, alongside Waylan and a few other individuals, stared at the beautiful dishes presented in front of them. It looked sumptuous, to say the least. Meanwhile, Ren remained standing. He kept his back straight and stared intently at the food on the table.

"Shall we get straight to eating?"

Pulling his sleeves up, Jomnuk eagerly looked at the food in front of him. His eyes shone brightly. Picking up the silverware beside him, Jomnuk prepared to dig into the food.

"Please wait, sir."

But just as he was about to eat, he was once again stopped by Angus, one of the dwarven guards assigned to him, and the one that had previously checked up on him.

did not sit well with

it

starting to

even as he did, he chose

have to do our

"Be quick!"

pleased with being stopped from eating, but since that was something he had gone through for over a month, it

used to Jomnuk's behavior, Angus didn't mind it and proceeded

a red glow soon enveloped the whole table. The device not only checked if

all, food wasn't the only means to poison

Ding! Ding—

wasn't long before

clean, Angus finally took a

poison in the food. Thank you for

"Tsk."

his tongue, Jomnuk picked the tableware and finally

a single bite lacking any reserve. Chewing on the food, he looked at Waylan and loudly

is the situation going

a napkin, Waylan inquired, "Upstairs? Do you

Jomnuk

access to the defensive system's main database, Jomnuk held some curiosity for the situation

control as of

"I see."

of the meat,

you're saying that, for now, things

the barrier is slowly running out of

it last? Any

said, about six to eight

"...Mhm."

while chewing

less time than I expected. From my initial

sent there are a lot stronger than we initially anticipated,"

estimates, the troops sent by the demons should've

that turned out to be wrong. The demons had sent a tougher

weren't pulling any

with the weather. Because of it, the barrier has been set up prematurely and an extra bit of energy was

The demons weren't dumb.

attacked it with all their might in

making it consume more energy to stabilize. Thus, it would last a lot

that way, there was a very real

of the meat, Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy tone,

solemn, tense atmosphere shrouded the room as each individual present couldn't help but

minutes, no one spoke

broke the silence by putting his cutlery down and

"Hmm! I'm full."

from Jomnuk,

one as every person

by everyone, taking a toothpick, Jomnuk asked the rest, "Now that I think about it,

food on the table, Jomnuk flashed a

my fill and there's still enough

"No sir, we can't—"

promptly cut off by Jomnuk. The latter glared at him,

"Enough!"

echoed

been constantly annoying me. Is

lowered his head,

what's the fucking problem? Since you've checked it and it's

table, Jomnuk looked at everyone

There's plenty

"Don't mind me."

to move was Ren who sat down on a

one of the dishes,

his mouth,

"Not bad."

good, I like your

the others and

this human over here is the only one

"Don't mind me."

longer stand it and similarly sat down, much to Angus's

of the food, Waylan

to eat as well? Eating won't hurt them much. I'm here, nothing will

the dinner table,