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

is it this

meddling was starting to

apologized. But even as he did, he chose

apologize, but we have to do our regular

"Be quick!"

eating, but since that was

behavior, Angus didn't mind it and proceeded

The device not only checked if the food had

wasn't the

Ding! Ding—

before the results

everything came out clean, Angus finally took

like there is no poison in the food.

"Tsk."

the

any reserve. Chewing on the food, he looked at Waylan and loudly asked, almost spitting saliva and

the situation

his mouth with a napkin, Waylan inquired,

Jomnuk waved

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

top of his things, Waylan replied leisurely, "From what I've heard, the situation upstairs is under control as of right now. The dwarves have currently set up the

"I see."

of the meat, Jomnuk nodded in

that, for now,

the barrier is slowly running out of

long will it last? Any

said, about six to eight more

"...Mhm."

frowning deeply while chewing

time than I expected. From my

are a lot stronger than

estimates, the troops sent by the demons should've

to be wrong. The demons had sent a tougher task force

pulling

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

The demons weren't dumb.

was set up, they instantly attacked it with all their

because of that attack the barrier got disrupted, making it consume more energy to stabilize. Thus, it would last a

that way, there was

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

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

of minutes, no one spoke a word. Everyone

by putting his cutlery down

"Hmm! I'm full."

Jomnuk, showed a displeased

every person

rest, "Now that I think about

food on the table, Jomnuk flashed

still enough food, why

"No sir, we can't—"

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

"Enough!"

echoed throughout the

you've been constantly annoying me. Is that your new job? You

replied quietly. He lowered his

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

the empty seats at the table, Jomnuk looked at

Eat. There's plenty for

"Don't mind me."

was Ren who sat down on a

he leaned forward and stabbed it towards one of the dishes,

in his mouth,

"Not bad."

I

looked towards the others and pointed

this human over here is the only

"Don't mind me."

the others could no longer stand it and

bite of the food, Waylan looked towards

well?

joyfully at the dinner table, Angus eventually gave