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 well

it

starting to

But even as he did, he chose not to

but we have to do

"Be quick!"

obviously not pleased with being stopped from eating, but since that was something he had gone through for over a month, it had become

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

on the device, a red glow soon enveloped the whole table. The device not only checked if

food wasn't the only

Ding! Ding—

before the results came

clean, Angus finally took a

there is no poison in the

"Tsk."

his tongue, Jomnuk picked the tableware and

it in a single bite lacking any reserve. Chewing on

is the

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

that." Jomnuk

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

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

"I see."

another bite of the meat, Jomnuk nodded

saying that, for now, things

But, based on reports, the barrier is slowly running out of

it last? Any

about six to eight

"...Mhm."

grumbled, frowning deeply while chewing on the

than I expected. From my initial calculations,

the forces sent there are a lot stronger than we initially anticipated,"

sent by the demons

that turned out to be wrong. The demons had sent a tougher

pulling any

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

The demons weren't dumb.

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

disrupted, making it consume more energy to stabilize. Thus, it would last a

things kept going that way, there was a very real

muttered in a gloomy tone, "This is

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

couple of minutes, no one spoke

Jomnuk finally broke the silence by

"Hmm! I'm full."

who was not far from Jomnuk, showed a displeased expression

wasn't the only one as every person in the room was a little grossed

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

the food on the

still enough food, why don't you

"No sir, we can't—"

tried to refuse, but he was promptly cut off by Jomnuk. The latter

"Enough!"

rough voice echoed throughout the whole

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

quietly. He lowered his head, not wanting to

fucking problem? Since you've checked it and

the empty seats at the table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in the

Eat. There's plenty for all of

"Don't mind me."

was Ren who sat down on a seat close to

and stabbed it towards one of the dishes, much to

his mouth, Ren smiled in

"Not bad."

Good, good, I

looked towards the others and pointed at Ren in

over here is

"Don't mind me."

no longer stand it

the food, Waylan looked towards

to eat as well? Eating won't

table, Angus eventually