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.

interruption obviously did not sit well with

it this

meddling was starting to get

his head, Angus apologized. But even as he did, he

have

"Be quick!"

He was obviously not pleased with being stopped from eating, but since that was something he had gone through for over a month, it had become a mild annoyance

and proceeded to take out the

the whole table. The device not only checked if the food had

all, food wasn't the only means to

Ding! Ding—

wasn't long before the results came

clean, Angus finally took a

is no poison in

"Tsk."

the

piece of meat, Jomnuk devoured it in a single bite lacking any reserve. Chewing on

is the

with a napkin, Waylan inquired, "Upstairs? Do you mean the

Jomnuk

to the defensive system's main database, Jomnuk held

what I've heard, the situation upstairs is under control as

"I see."

of the meat,

for now, things are still under

But, based on reports, the barrier is slowly running out

long will it

said, about six to

"...Mhm."

while chewing on

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

there are a lot stronger than we initially anticipated,"

sent by the

out to be wrong. The demons had sent

weren't pulling

barrier has been

The demons weren't dumb.

it

attack the barrier got disrupted, making it consume more energy to stabilize. Thus,

there was

bite of the meat, Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy tone, "This is quite

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

next couple of minutes, no one spoke a word.

broke the silence by putting his cutlery down and burping out

"Hmm! I'm full."

from Jomnuk,

the only one as every person in the room

toothpick, Jomnuk asked the rest, "Now that I think about it, you guys

the

and there's still enough food, why

"No sir, we can't—"

tried to refuse, but he was promptly cut off by Jomnuk. The latter glared

"Enough!"

echoed throughout the

a while ago you've been constantly annoying me. Is that your new job? You already checked the food,

his head, not wanting to

checked it and it's going to

the empty seats at the table, Jomnuk looked at everyone

plenty for all

"Don't mind me."

who sat down on a

and stabbed it towards one of the dishes, much

fork in his mouth, Ren smiled

"Not bad."

Good, good, I like

others and

human over here is

"Don't mind me."

longer stand it and

food, Waylan looked towards

something to eat as well? Eating won't

the dinner table,