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 sit well

is it

starting

But even as he

have to do

"Be quick!"

silverware down, Jomnuk grumpily leaned back on his chair. 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 by

didn't mind it and proceeded to

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

wasn't the only

Ding! Ding—

before the

came out clean, Angus finally took

in the food. Thank you for waiting,

"Tsk."

the tableware and finally started to

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

the situation

with a napkin, Waylan inquired, "Upstairs?

Jomnuk

he was the only one who knew the code that granted access to the defensive system's main database, Jomnuk held some curiosity for

heard, the situation upstairs is under control as of right now. The dwarves have currently

"I see."

the meat, Jomnuk nodded in

now, things are still under

reports, the barrier is slowly

long will it last? Any

what Douglas said, about

"...Mhm."

deeply while

less time than I expected. From my initial

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

estimates, the troops sent by the demons should've been a

be wrong. The demons had sent a tougher task

weren't pulling any

has been set up prematurely and an extra bit of energy was

The demons weren't dumb.

they instantly attacked it with all their might in hopes of

disrupted, making it consume more energy to

that way, there was

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

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

no one spoke a word.

Jomnuk finally broke the silence by putting his cutlery down and burping

"Hmm! I'm full."

far from Jomnuk, showed a displeased expression

as every person in

a toothpick, Jomnuk asked the rest, "Now

on the table,

there's still enough food, why don't you guys have

"No sir, we can't—"

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

"Enough!"

voice echoed

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

lowered his head, not wanting

fucking problem? Since you've checked it and it's going

towards the empty seats at the table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in

Eat. There's plenty for all of

"Don't mind me."

to move was Ren who sat down on a seat close

one of the dishes, much

his mouth, Ren smiled in

"Not bad."

good, I like

Jomnuk looked towards the others and pointed at Ren in a provoking

this human over here is

"Don't mind me."

could no longer stand it and similarly sat

the food, Waylan

something to eat as well? Eating won't hurt them much.

the dinner table, Angus eventually gave up and sat down, joining