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

is it this

meddling was starting to

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

have

"Be quick!"

the 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 for over a month, it had

it and proceeded to take out the

The device not only checked if the food had poison, but it also confirmed whether the tableware and glasses were

wasn't the

Ding! Ding—

before the

Angus finally

is no poison in the food.

"Tsk."

the

any reserve. Chewing

the situation

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

Jomnuk

the code that granted access to the defensive system's main database,

napkin on top of his things, Waylan replied leisurely, "From what I've heard, the situation upstairs is under control

"I see."

bite of the meat,

now, things

on reports, the barrier is slowly

long will it last?

said, about six to

"...Mhm."

frowning deeply while

than I expected. From my

sent there are a

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

wrong. The demons had sent a tougher task force than

weren't pulling any

Because of it, the barrier has been

The demons weren't dumb.

was set up, they instantly attacked it with all their might in hopes

of that attack the barrier got disrupted, making it consume more energy to stabilize. Thus, it

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

meat, Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy tone, "This is quite

room as each individual present couldn't help but frown at the turn of

minutes, no one spoke a

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

"Hmm! I'm full."

was not far from Jomnuk, showed a displeased expression

one as every person in the

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

at the food on the table, Jomnuk flashed

eaten my fill and there's still

"No sir, we can't—"

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

"Enough!"

echoed throughout the

while ago you've been constantly annoying me. Is that your new job? You already checked

quietly. He lowered his head, not

what's the fucking problem? Since you've checked it and it's going to waste, let

at the table,

plenty

"Don't mind me."

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

and stabbed it towards one of

in his

"Not bad."

I like your guts,

others and pointed at Ren in a

this human over here is the only one that

"Don't mind me."

no longer stand it and similarly sat down,

bite of the food, Waylan looked towards

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 down, joining