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 well

it this

constant meddling was starting to get

Angus apologized. But even as he did, he chose not

we have

"Be quick!"

on his chair. He was obviously not pleased with being stopped from eating, but since that was something he had gone through for over

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

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

wasn't the only

Ding! Ding—

long before the results came

out clean, Angus finally took a step

poison in the food. Thank you for waiting,

"Tsk."

Jomnuk picked the tableware and

a single bite lacking any reserve. Chewing on the food, he looked at Waylan

the situation

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

Jomnuk

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

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

"I see."

bite of the meat, Jomnuk nodded

for now, things

the barrier

long will it

said, about

"...Mhm."

deeply while chewing on

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

because the forces sent there are a lot stronger

estimates, the troops sent by

turned out to be wrong. The demons

weren't pulling

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

The demons weren't dumb.

set up, they instantly attacked it with all

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

there was a very

Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy tone,

room as each individual present couldn't help but frown

couple of minutes, no one spoke a word. Everyone just

finally broke the silence by putting his cutlery down and

"Hmm! I'm full."

far from Jomnuk, showed a displeased

only one as every person in the room was a little grossed

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

food on the table, Jomnuk flashed

I've eaten my fill and there's still enough food, why don't you

"No sir, we can't—"

by Jomnuk. The latter glared at him, seemingly done with his guard's

"Enough!"

echoed

me. Is that your

He lowered his

and it's

the table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in

plenty

"Don't mind me."

first one to move was Ren who sat down on a seat

and stabbed it towards one of the dishes, much to

in his mouth, Ren smiled in

"Not bad."

good, I like your

and pointed

human over here

"Don't mind me."

no longer stand it and similarly sat down, much to

of the food, Waylan looked

don't you have something to eat as well? Eating won't hurt them

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