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

it this

starting to get

Angus apologized. But even as he

but we have

"Be quick!"

obviously not pleased with being stopped from eating, but since

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

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

all, food wasn't the only means

Ding! Ding—

before the

everything came out clean, Angus

in the food. Thank you

"Tsk."

the tableware and finally started to

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

the situation going

Waylan inquired, "Upstairs? Do you

that." Jomnuk

knew the code that granted access to the defensive system's main

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

"I see."

another bite of the

you're saying that, for now, things are still

the barrier is slowly running out

it

what Douglas said, about six to eight more

"...Mhm."

deeply while chewing on

From my initial calculations,

are a lot stronger than we

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

turned out to be wrong. The demons

pulling any

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

The demons weren't dumb.

they instantly attacked it with all their might

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

way, there was a very real

bite of the meat, Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy tone, "This is

as each individual present couldn't help but frown at

couple of minutes, no one

by

"Hmm! I'm full."

Jomnuk, showed a displeased expression at the

as every person in the room was a

the rest,

the

still enough food, why

"No sir, we can't—"

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

"Enough!"

voice echoed throughout

Is

lowered his head, not wanting to offend

Since you've checked it and it's going to

the table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in

There's plenty for all of

"Don't mind me."

who sat down on a seat close

stabbed it towards one of the dishes, much to the

his mouth, Ren smiled in

"Not bad."

Good, good, I like

Jomnuk looked towards the others and pointed at Ren

here is the only

"Don't mind me."

it

the food, Waylan looked towards Angus and helplessly shrugged his

don't you have something to eat as well? Eating won't hurt them much. I'm here,

at the dinner table, Angus eventually