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

it

was starting to get

apologized. But even as he

apologize, but we 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

to Jomnuk's behavior, Angus didn't mind it and proceeded to take out the same device from

on the device, a red glow soon enveloped the whole table. The device not only checked if the food had poison, but it also confirmed whether the tableware and

wasn't the only means to

Ding! Ding—

before

everything came out clean, Angus finally took a

like there is no poison in

"Tsk."

picked the

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

the situation

a napkin, Waylan inquired, "Upstairs?

Jomnuk waved

knew the code that granted access to the defensive system's main

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 barrier, and so, for the moment,

"I see."

of the meat, Jomnuk nodded

you're saying that, for now,

reports, the barrier is slowly running out of

will it last?

said, about six to

"...Mhm."

deeply while chewing on

a lot less time than I expected. From my initial calculations, it

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

the troops sent by the

The demons had sent a

pulling

has been

The demons weren't dumb.

it with all their might in hopes of consuming its

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

going that way, there was a very

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

atmosphere shrouded the room as each individual present couldn't

of minutes, no one spoke

finally broke the silence by putting his cutlery

"Hmm! I'm full."

Jomnuk, showed a displeased

every person in the room was a

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

at the food on the table, Jomnuk

and there's still enough

"No sir, we can't—"

cut off by Jomnuk. The

"Enough!"

rough voice echoed throughout the

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

his head,

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

table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in

Eat. There's plenty

"Don't mind me."

who sat down on a seat close

forward and stabbed it towards one of the dishes, much to the surprise

in his mouth, Ren smiled in

"Not bad."

good, I like your guts,

towards the others and pointed at

here is the only one

"Don't mind me."

stand it and

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

as well? Eating won't hurt them much. I'm

the dinner table, Angus eventually