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.

did not sit well with

it

starting to get to

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

we have to

"Be quick!"

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

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

not only checked if the food had

all, food wasn't the only means to

Ding! Ding—

before

out clean, Angus finally took a step

no poison in the

"Tsk."

his tongue, Jomnuk picked the

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

is the

napkin, Waylan inquired, "Upstairs?

that." Jomnuk waved

that granted access to the defensive system's

napkin on 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,

"I see."

bite of the meat, Jomnuk nodded

you're saying that, for now,

on reports, the barrier is

it last? Any

Douglas said, about six

"...Mhm."

deeply while

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

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

the troops sent by the demons should've been a tad bit

out to be wrong. The demons had sent a

pulling any

has been set up prematurely and an extra bit of energy was used during that

The demons weren't dumb.

the barrier was set up, they instantly attacked it with all their might

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

things kept going that way, there was a very real possibility of

Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy tone, "This is

atmosphere shrouded the room as each individual present couldn't

no one spoke a word. Everyone just silently

till Jomnuk finally broke the silence by putting his cutlery down and

"Hmm! I'm full."

far from Jomnuk,

one as every person in the room

given by everyone, taking a toothpick, Jomnuk asked the rest, "Now that I think about it, you guys also seem to be

food on the

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

"No sir, we can't—"

Jomnuk. The latter

"Enough!"

echoed throughout the whole

ago you've been constantly annoying me. Is that your new job?

replied quietly. He lowered his head, not

you've checked it and it's going to waste, let

towards the empty seats at the table, Jomnuk looked

Eat. There's plenty for all of

"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

the fork in his mouth, Ren smiled

"Not bad."

I like your guts,

others and pointed at

here is the

"Don't mind me."

it and similarly

food, Waylan looked towards

have something to eat as well? Eating

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