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 this

constant meddling was starting

he did, he chose

have to do our regular

"Be quick!"

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

didn't mind it and proceeded to take

the whole table. The device not only checked if the

wasn't the only

Ding! Ding—

before the results

out clean, Angus finally took a step

there is no poison in the food. Thank

"Tsk."

the tableware and finally started to

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

is the situation going

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

Jomnuk

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

Waylan replied leisurely, "From what I've heard, the situation upstairs is under control as of right now. The dwarves

"I see."

of the meat, Jomnuk nodded

you're saying that, for now,

But, based on reports, the barrier is slowly running

will it last?

what Douglas said, about six to eight

"...Mhm."

grumbled, frowning deeply while chewing

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

are a lot stronger than we initially anticipated,"

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

that turned out to be wrong. The demons had sent a

pulling any

problem with the weather. Because of it, the barrier has been

The demons weren't dumb.

up, they instantly attacked it with all their might in hopes of consuming

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

there was a very real possibility of losing

Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy tone, "This is quite

solemn, tense atmosphere shrouded the room as each individual present couldn't help but

of minutes, no one spoke a word.

the silence by putting his cutlery down and

"Hmm! I'm full."

not far from Jomnuk, showed

one as every person in

the rest, "Now that I think about it, you guys also

at the food on the table,

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

"No sir, we can't—"

off by Jomnuk. The latter glared at him, seemingly done with his

"Enough!"

echoed

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

He lowered his

and it's going to waste, let

empty seats at the table, Jomnuk looked at

Eat. There's plenty for

"Don't mind me."

move was Ren who sat down on

one

in his mouth,

"Not bad."

good, I

others and pointed at Ren in a

seems like this human over here is the only one that has

"Don't mind me."

the others could no longer stand it and similarly sat down, much to Angus's

food, Waylan looked towards Angus and helplessly

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

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