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.

The interruption obviously did not sit well with Jomnuk.

"What is it this time?"

The constant meddling was starting to get to him.

Lowering his head, Angus apologized. But even as he did, he chose not to stop in his task.

"I apologize, but we have to do our regular check." 

"Be quick!" 

Putting the silverware down, Jomnuk 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 had become a mild annoyance by then. 

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

Tapping on the device, a red glow soon enveloped the whole table. The device not only checked if the food had poison, but it also confirmed whether the tableware and glasses were hygienic and safe. 

After all, food wasn't the only means to poison someone. 

Ding! Ding—

It wasn't long before the results came out.

Once everything came out clean, Angus finally took a step back. 

"Looks like there is no poison in the food. Thank you for waiting, sir." 

"Tsk." 

Clicking his tongue, Jomnuk picked the tableware and finally started to eat. 

Putting his fork on a large piece of meat, Jomnuk devoured it in a single bite lacking any reserve. Chewing on the food, he looked at Waylan and loudly asked, almost spitting saliva and pieces of meat everywhere.

"How is the situation going upstairs?" 

Cleaning his mouth with a napkin, Waylan inquired, "Upstairs? Do you mean the war?"

"Yeah, that." Jomnuk waved dismissively.

Since he was the only one who knew the code that granted access to the defensive system's main database, Jomnuk held some curiosity for the situation above. 

Putting the napkin on top of his things, Waylan replied leisurely, "From what I've heard, the situation upstairs is under control as of right now. The dwarves have currently set up the barrier, and so, for the moment, things are quite calm." 

"I see." 

Taking another bite of the meat, Jomnuk nodded in understanding. 

"So, you're saying that, for now, things are still under control, right?" 

"Correct. But, based on reports, the barrier is slowly running out of energy."

"How long will it last? Any idea?"

"From what Douglas said, about six to eight more months." 

"...Mhm." 

Jomnuk grumbled, frowning deeply while chewing on the meat.

"That's a lot less time than I expected. From my initial calculations, it should've been far longer than that."

"It's probably because the forces sent there are a lot stronger than we initially anticipated," Waylan replied.

According to original estimates, the troops sent by the demons should've been a tad bit weaker. 

Unfortunately, that turned out to be wrong. The demons had sent a tougher task force than expected.

They weren't pulling any punches.

"There's also the problem with the weather. Because of it, the barrier has been set up prematurely and an extra bit of energy was used during that time."

The demons weren't dumb.

Once the barrier was set up, they instantly attacked it with all their might in hopes of consuming its energy. 

It was exactly because of that attack the barrier got disrupted, making it consume more energy to stabilize. Thus,  it would last a lot less than originally intended.

If things kept going that way, there was a very real possibility of losing the war.

Taking another bite of the meat, Jomnuk muttered in a gloomy tone, "This is quite troublesome."

A solemn, tense atmosphere shrouded the room as each individual present couldn't help but frown at the turn of events.

For the next couple of minutes, no one spoke a word. Everyone just silently ate.

This lasted till Jomnuk finally broke the silence by putting his cutlery down and burping out loud.

"Hmm! I'm full."

Ren, who was not far from Jomnuk, showed a displeased expression at the burp.

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

Ignoring the look given by everyone, taking a toothpick, Jomnuk asked the rest, "Now that I think about it, you guys also seem to be hungry."

Pointing at the food on the table, Jomnuk flashed a grin.

"Since I've eaten my fill and there's still enough food, why don't you guys have some?"

"No sir, we can't—"

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

"Enough!"

His rough voice echoed throughout the whole room.

"Ever since a while ago you've been constantly annoying me. Is that your new job? You already checked the food, huh?"

"Yes," Angus replied quietly. He lowered his head, not wanting to offend Jomnuk.

"Than what's the fucking problem? Since you've checked it and it's going to waste, let the others eat it."

Pointing towards the empty seats at the table, Jomnuk looked at everyone in the room.

"Go. Eat. There's plenty for all of you."

"Don't mind me."

The first one to move was Ren who sat down on a seat close to Waylan.

Taking a fork, he leaned forward and stabbed it towards one of the dishes, much to the surprise of the others.

Putting the fork in his mouth, Ren smiled in satisfaction.

"Not bad."

"Hahaha! Good, good, I like your guts, human."

Laughing boisterously, Jomnuk looked towards the others and pointed at Ren in a provoking manner.

"It seems like this human over here is the only one that has balls."

"Don't mind me."

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

Taking a small bite of the food, Waylan looked towards Angus and helplessly shrugged his shoulder.

"Just 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 happen. Let loose a little."

Staring at everyone eating joyfully at the dinner table, Angus eventually gave up and sat down, joining them.

"…I guess you're right."

Taking a fork, he started to dig in the food.

"Hehe, good, good! I'm glad everyone is enjoying the food."

Sitting on his seat and looking at everyone eating merrily, Jomnuk laughed in satisfaction and slapped the table.

"This is the atmosphere that I wanted. Not the gloomy and unbearable one that we've had over the past month."

Stabbing his fork at one of the dishes on the table, Jomnuk took a bite of the food and spoke, "You know what, watching everyone eat has made me hungry again."

And so, for the next hour, a peaceful atmosphere shrouded the dinner table.

Unfortunately, it did not last for long.

One of the guards suddenly stopped eating. He frowned, staring at his plate. He was the same orc that had stopped Ren from entering the meditation room not too long ago.

"Something isn't right…" He muttered.

Leaning his hand on the table, the orc's complexion paled suddenly. Something was gravely wrong.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Coming to his aid was another guard who tapped him on the shoulder.

"What happened? Is it the food?"

"Urk…"

Holding onto his neck, the orc desperately tried to speak. He had trouble mustering any strength.  He weakly slumped on the chair.

He was just barely hanging in there.

Jomnuk who was watching by the side did not sit still. He immediately stood up and ordered the rest, "Someone quickly call the medic! The situation is serious fo- Huh?!"

He couldn't finish his words. Joining the orc, Jomnuk's complexion paled out of nowhere. At a speed much faster than before, he suddenly lost strength and stumbled.

Holding onto his head, he looked around in confusion. Jomnuk's vision turned blurry, but he tried to hold on.

In a raspy tone almost completely devoid of life, he uttered, "What is going… on? I can't… circulate the mana… inside me?"

It was then that he finally noticed it. Everyone by the table was in a similar state.

"Urgh…"

In pain, Jomnuk looked towards Waylan, "Waylan, I think… we've been poisoned."

"Yes, it seems like it."

With complete calm, Waylan stood up and scanned the room.

Unlike the others, his complexion was much better, but that was only on the outside.

'What kind of poison did they use?'

Though slower than the others, he too was also losing his ability to use mana.

He had to find the culprit quickly.

"Jomnuk, stick close to me."

"Yes..."

Nodding his head, Jomnuk tried to remain close to Waylan. 

"Ren, are you okay? Quickly go to the other room to hide."

Moving towards Ren, Waylan tried to get him to safety.

However, once he arrived before Ren, he found him passed out on the ground.

"Shit…"

Picking him up, Waylan put him on a nearby sofa and tried to wake him up. But, regardless of how much he tried, Ren wouldn't wake up.

"Damn it. Ren!"

In the middle of his attempts, a voice suddenly rang out not so far from where he was.

"It's no use. He won't wake up."

"Who?!"

Turning around, Waylan soon spotted the individual. And, once he saw him, a shocked expression appeared on his face.

"Angus?!"

He cried out in unison with Jomnuk.