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

it

was starting to

But even as he did, he chose not to stop in

we have to

"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

and proceeded to take out the

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

food wasn't the only

Ding! Ding—

long before the results came

clean, Angus finally took a step

is no poison in the food. Thank you

"Tsk."

the tableware

reserve. Chewing on the food, he looked at Waylan and loudly asked,

the situation going

mouth with a napkin, Waylan inquired, "Upstairs? Do you

Jomnuk waved

to the defensive system's main database, Jomnuk

under control as

"I see."

the

saying that, for now, things are

But, based on reports, the barrier

long will it last? Any

what Douglas said, about six to eight more

"...Mhm."

while chewing

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

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

original estimates, the troops sent by the demons should've

that turned out to be wrong. The demons had sent

weren't pulling any

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

The demons weren't dumb.

they instantly attacked it

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

going that way, there was a very real possibility of losing

of the meat, Jomnuk muttered in

individual present couldn't help but frown at the

of minutes, no one spoke a word. Everyone

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

"Hmm! I'm full."

who was not far from Jomnuk, showed a

as every person

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

food on the table,

there's still

"No sir, we can't—"

Jomnuk. The

"Enough!"

voice echoed throughout the whole

a while ago you've been constantly annoying me. Is that your

his

and it's going to waste, let the

empty seats at the table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in

Eat. There's plenty

"Don't mind me."

Ren who sat down

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

his mouth,

"Not bad."

Good, good, I like

looked towards the others and

seems like this human over here is

"Don't mind me."

longer stand it

a small bite of the food, Waylan

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

table, Angus