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 with

is it this

constant meddling was starting to get to

head, Angus apologized. But even as he

we have to do our regular

"Be quick!"

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

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

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

wasn't the only means to poison

Ding! Ding—

wasn't long before the results

everything came out clean, Angus finally

no poison in the food. Thank you for waiting,

"Tsk."

the

fork on a large piece of meat, Jomnuk devoured it in a single bite lacking any reserve. Chewing

is the

his mouth with a napkin, Waylan

that." Jomnuk

to the defensive system's main database, Jomnuk held some

control as of right now. The dwarves have currently set up the

"I see."

bite of the meat, Jomnuk nodded in

for now, things are still

based on reports, the barrier is slowly

it last?

said, about six to

"...Mhm."

while chewing on the

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

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

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

out to be wrong. The demons had sent a tougher task force than

weren't pulling

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

The demons weren't dumb.

attacked it

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

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

of the meat, Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy

tense atmosphere shrouded the room as each individual present couldn't

one spoke a

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

"Hmm! I'm full."

not far from Jomnuk, showed a

as every person in the room

Jomnuk asked the rest, "Now that

food on the

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

"No sir, we can't—"

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

"Enough!"

voice echoed throughout the whole

me. Is that your new job? You already checked

lowered his head, not

checked it and

the table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in the

plenty

"Don't mind me."

Ren who sat

stabbed it towards one of the dishes, much to the surprise of the

in his

"Not bad."

I

Jomnuk looked towards the others and pointed

this human over here is the only

"Don't mind me."

longer stand it and similarly sat down, much

small bite of the food, Waylan looked towards Angus and helplessly shrugged his

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

at everyone eating joyfully at the dinner table,