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.

not

it

was starting

Angus apologized. But even as he did, he chose

have to do our

"Be quick!"

being stopped from eating, but since

mind it and

The device not only checked if the food had poison, but it also confirmed whether the

wasn't the only means to poison

Ding! Ding—

long before

clean, Angus finally took a

is no poison in the food. Thank you

"Tsk."

Jomnuk picked the tableware and

large piece of meat, Jomnuk devoured it in a single bite lacking any reserve. Chewing on the food, he looked at Waylan and loudly asked, almost spitting saliva and pieces of

is the situation

a napkin, Waylan inquired, "Upstairs?

that." Jomnuk waved

was the only one who knew the code that granted access to the defensive system's main database,

I've heard, the situation upstairs is under control as of right now. The dwarves

"I see."

another bite of the

for now,

on reports, the barrier is slowly running

it last? Any

said, about six to eight more

"...Mhm."

frowning deeply while chewing on

I expected. From my initial calculations, it should've been far longer than

forces sent there are a lot

by the

out to be wrong. The demons had sent

weren't pulling any

it, the barrier has been set up prematurely and an extra

The demons weren't dumb.

was set up, they instantly attacked it with all their might in hopes of consuming its

got disrupted, making it consume more energy to stabilize. Thus, it would last a lot less than

kept going that way, there was a

Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy tone, "This

as each individual present couldn't help but frown at the turn of

the next couple of minutes, no one spoke a word. Everyone just silently

lasted till Jomnuk finally broke the silence by

"Hmm! I'm full."

was not far from Jomnuk, showed

every person in the room was a

the look given by everyone, taking a toothpick, Jomnuk asked the rest, "Now that I

on the table,

fill and there's still enough food, why don't

"No sir, we can't—"

but he was promptly cut off by Jomnuk. The latter glared

"Enough!"

voice echoed

me. Is that your new job?

replied quietly. He lowered his head, not wanting

problem? Since you've checked it and it's going to waste,

seats at the table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in

There's plenty for all of

"Don't mind me."

was Ren who

one of the dishes, much to the surprise of the

fork in his mouth, Ren

"Not bad."

I like

and pointed

over here is

"Don't mind me."

could no longer stand it and

small bite of the food, Waylan looked towards Angus and helplessly

go, Angus. Why don't you have something to eat as well?

table, Angus eventually gave up