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.

interruption obviously did not sit well

it

meddling was starting to get to

head, Angus apologized. But even as he did, he chose not to stop

but we have to do our regular

"Be quick!"

eating, but since that was something he had gone through for over a

mind it and proceeded to

The device not only checked if the food had poison, but it also

food wasn't the

Ding! Ding—

wasn't long before the

everything came out clean, Angus finally took

poison in the food.

"Tsk."

his tongue, Jomnuk picked the tableware and finally started to

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

is the situation going

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

that." Jomnuk

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

replied leisurely, "From what I've heard, the situation upstairs is under control

"I see."

another bite of the meat, Jomnuk

saying that, for now, things are

But, based on reports, the barrier is slowly running

will it last?

about six to eight more

"...Mhm."

grumbled, frowning deeply while chewing on the

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

the forces sent there are a lot stronger than

to original estimates, the troops sent by the demons should've been a tad

be wrong. The demons had

weren't pulling

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 might

attack the barrier got disrupted, making it consume more

way, there was a very real

Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy tone, "This

each individual

one spoke a word. Everyone

till Jomnuk finally broke the silence by

"Hmm! I'm full."

who was not far from Jomnuk, showed a

wasn't the only one as every person in the room was

a toothpick, Jomnuk asked the rest, "Now that I think about it, you

the table, Jomnuk

I've eaten my fill and there's still

"No sir, we can't—"

he was promptly cut off by Jomnuk. The latter

"Enough!"

rough voice echoed throughout the

me. Is that your new

lowered his

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

the table, Jomnuk looked

plenty for all

"Don't mind me."

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

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

fork in his mouth, Ren smiled in

"Not bad."

I

towards the others and pointed at Ren in

human over here is the only one that

"Don't mind me."

it and similarly sat down, much

Waylan looked towards Angus and

let it go, Angus. Why don't you have something to eat as well? Eating won't hurt them much. I'm here, nothing

at the dinner table, Angus eventually gave up and sat