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

it this

was starting to

he did, he chose

apologize, but we have to

"Be quick!"

his chair. He was obviously not pleased with being stopped from eating, but since that was something

mind it and proceeded

device, a red glow soon enveloped the whole table. The device not only checked if the food had poison, but it

the only

Ding! Ding—

before the

Angus finally took a

in the food. Thank

"Tsk."

the tableware and finally started

in a single bite lacking any reserve.

is the

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

Jomnuk

that granted access to the defensive system's main database, Jomnuk held some curiosity

upstairs is under control as of right now. The dwarves have currently set up

"I see."

of the

you're saying that, for now, things are

based on reports, the barrier is

it last?

said, about six to eight

"...Mhm."

frowning deeply while chewing on the

time than I expected. From my initial calculations,

are a lot stronger than we

sent by the demons should've been a tad

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

weren't pulling

weather. Because of it, the barrier has been set

The demons weren't dumb.

it with all

the barrier got disrupted, making it consume more energy to stabilize. Thus, it would

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

muttered in a gloomy tone, "This

as each individual

couple of minutes, no one spoke a word. Everyone

broke the silence by putting his cutlery down and burping out

"Hmm! I'm full."

far from Jomnuk, showed

the only one as every person in the room was

the rest,

food on the table,

and there's still enough food,

"No sir, we can't—"

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

"Enough!"

rough voice echoed throughout the whole

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

lowered his head, not

it and

at the table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in

plenty for all of

"Don't mind me."

was Ren who sat down

leaned forward and stabbed it towards one of

in his mouth, Ren smiled

"Not bad."

Good, good, I

looked towards the others and

over here is the only one that has

"Don't mind me."

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

the food, Waylan looked towards Angus and helplessly

as well? Eating won't hurt them much. I'm here,

the dinner table, Angus eventually gave up and