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.

not

it this

constant meddling was starting

as he did, he chose not to stop in

we have to

"Be quick!"

was obviously not pleased with being stopped from eating, but since that was

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

enveloped the whole table. The device not only checked if the

food wasn't the only means to poison

Ding! Ding—

long before the results came

came out clean, Angus finally took a

no poison in the food. Thank you for waiting,

"Tsk."

Jomnuk picked the

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

is the

a napkin, Waylan

Jomnuk waved

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

I've heard, the situation upstairs is under control as of right now. The dwarves have currently set up the

"I see."

bite of the meat,

saying that, for now, things are still under

the barrier is slowly

long will it last?

what Douglas said, about

"...Mhm."

frowning deeply while chewing on the

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

forces sent there are a

troops sent by

to be wrong. The demons had sent a tougher task

weren't pulling

the barrier has been set up prematurely and an extra bit of

The demons weren't dumb.

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

barrier got disrupted, making it consume more energy to

that way, there was a very real possibility of losing

muttered in a

individual present couldn't help but frown at the turn

couple of minutes, no one spoke

by putting his cutlery down and burping out

"Hmm! I'm full."

Jomnuk, showed a displeased expression at the

person in the room was a little

asked the rest, "Now that I think about it, you guys also seem to be

the table, Jomnuk flashed a

and there's still enough food, why don't you

"No sir, we can't—"

promptly cut off by Jomnuk. The

"Enough!"

voice echoed throughout the

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

his head, not wanting to

it and it's going to waste, let

table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in

Eat. There's plenty for

"Don't mind me."

who sat

leaned forward and stabbed it towards one of the dishes, much

fork in his mouth, Ren smiled

"Not bad."

good, I like

towards the others and pointed at Ren in a provoking

seems like this human over here is the only one that

"Don't mind me."

longer stand it and similarly sat down,

the food, Waylan looked

you have something to eat as well? Eating won't hurt

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