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.

obviously did not sit

it

constant meddling was starting

he did, he chose not to stop

have to do our regular

"Be quick!"

grumpily leaned back on his chair. He was obviously not pleased with being stopped from eating, but since that was something he

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

soon enveloped the whole table. The device not only checked if the food

food wasn't the only means to poison

Ding! Ding—

wasn't long before the results came

Angus finally took a

no poison in the food.

"Tsk."

the tableware and finally started

his fork on a large piece of meat, Jomnuk devoured it in a single bite lacking any reserve. Chewing on the food,

is the situation

Waylan inquired, "Upstairs? Do you mean

Jomnuk waved

access to the defensive system's

heard, the situation upstairs is under control as of

"I see."

bite of the meat, Jomnuk nodded in

now, things are still under

based on reports, the barrier is slowly running out of

long will it last?

Douglas said, about six to eight

"...Mhm."

deeply while chewing on

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

the forces sent there are a lot stronger than we

by the demons should've

demons

weren't pulling

the barrier has been set

The demons weren't dumb.

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

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

was a very real possibility

Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy

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

of minutes, no one spoke a

Jomnuk finally broke the silence by putting his cutlery down

"Hmm! I'm full."

who was not far from Jomnuk,

the only one as every person in the room was a

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

the food on the

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

"No sir, we can't—"

to refuse, but he was promptly cut off by Jomnuk. The latter glared at him, seemingly done with his

"Enough!"

rough voice echoed throughout the

been constantly annoying me. Is that your new job? You already

quietly. He lowered his head,

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

the empty seats at the table,

plenty for all of

"Don't mind me."

first one to move was Ren who

a fork, he leaned forward and stabbed it towards one of the dishes, much to the surprise of the

fork in his mouth, Ren smiled

"Not bad."

good, I like your guts,

towards the others and pointed

over here is the

"Don't mind me."

the others could no longer stand it

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

well? Eating won't hurt them much. I'm here, nothing

table,