(Mira's POV)

The Monster Break has finally come, at noon today the planar gate will be opened to monsters and any in the surrounding areas will be attracted to it through some sort of homing beacon or something of the like.

Despite having witnessed the phenomenon multiple times, humanity still has no remote clue as to how it happens, we've just chalked it up to magic or the powers of the deity and left it at that. It really doesn't matter, because from what I've heard is that nothing can stop it until it turns off by itself after 6 hours.

I'm a civilian, so it's not really my job to worry about this type of thing, but I can't help but worry about it not only out of concern for my own safety but for Thomas who will be fighting with the other summoners today.

I'm currently being guided along with the rest of the civilians in our middle sector in the south area of the city to the monster break shelter, it was created after the many civilian casualties that occurred during the first monster break when monsters managed to make it past the fighting summoners and through the gate.

They rampaged and wiped out any human or building they came across, they were only stopped after enough summoners were able to get away from the battle in the monster plane and cross over to ours and slay them, unfortunately, this was about 2 hours later and the damage was immense.

I still remember hiding in our dingy apartment located in the outer sector terrified that the monsters would sense and kill us. It seems the only good thing that came out of being poor is that we were far away from the gate and the subsequent monsters that managed to get through and go on a killing spree.

The inner sectors were devastated, and as a result, the shelters were made a priority to prevent anything like that ever happening again or at least on such a scale. It seems similar things happened within the other continental cities and they had similar ideas to help preserve the safety of their many civilians.

The shelter I'm in front of is similar to that of a nuclear shelter with thick steel encasing the entire outside frame and door to prevent monsters from getting through.

There were many panicked women and children along with the occasional civilian man in line, the women and children were given priority as they were considered humanity's future and would be able to bolster our population and as a result, our fighting force as well.

I was no less freaked out, but I hid it well and tried to reassure some of the panicked children near me that seemed to not have any parent nearby, they were either orphans or their parents were summoners fighting off the monster hordes.

The lines were moving as quickly as possible despite the unorganized nature of the panicked civilians, the association members seemed to be doing their best to reassure and organize the many people lined up. Eventually, my turn to enter came and just like the many people before me, I scanned my watch which showed my civilian status and was allowed entry into the packed shelter.

The scanner was necessary not only to keep track of who was in the shelter and where they could be found but also so that no available summoner could hide as fighting during the break was mandatory for anyone signed up with the association. It was a harsh but mandatory rule that served to ensure that as many people as possible were fighting off the monsters, thus reducing the chances of monsters breaking through and causing destruction and mayhem.

I eventually found a wall to sit down and lean back on and just began to pray to the deity that had changed our lives forever that Thomas would make it through this coming battle safe. I would wish for the safety of everyone fighting for those who couldn't, but that was unrealistic and I figure it would be best to save my prayers for those I truly cared about, which at this point was only Thomas.

I knew he was strong after seeing his tier 3 summons and him nearly winning that tournament, but I couldn't help but worry. After all, there were many summoners stronger than him who had perished due to bad luck or a strong monster on the chaotic battlefield.

I have even heard that there are a few tier 4 and 5 monsters that come out, their presence is always devastating and usually requires multiple strong summoners to bring down. Not to mention that Thomas is still a relatively new summoner whereas other summoners who have been summoners since the beginning have years of experience and have had a much longer period of time to grow strong.

The increasing strength of each monster break doesn't reassure me either, but I try not to dwell too much on it and just continue to hope for my brother's safety, after all, he's the only family I have left.

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(Thomas's POV)

The alarm had rung at 8 this morning alerting that all summoners registered with the association were to report to the gate in preparation for the monster break starting at noon. The extra time was needed to organize the few millions of summoners available and get them registered before going through the gate.

The registration was to ensure that summoners were accounted for otherwise they would be considered as a deserter and any further business with the association would be cut off, which means no buying or selling of any summoner related goods.

This was incentive enough for any summoner to participate in the monster break despite the danger, not to mention that us summoners were the only ones capable of keeping our family, friends, and neighbors from being wiped out by monsters.

The other reason is that when scanned, our watch would keep track of our merits, and each monster killed during the break would be worth a certain amount of points that could be exchanged for prizes or lottery spins at the core exchange.

The lottery was set in place by the deity as an incentive for participating in the monster break before the association was created, and these points could be traded in for guaranteed prizes at the association. Additionally, the merit points could be transferred and there would be plenty willing to buy those points, it was a win-win for everyone as long as they survived.

I was dressed in my new fire-wyrm hide armor set and had my bandolier and sword set out on my body in preparation for the battle to come. I was lined up along with the other summoners in the city, with many in groups working alongside those they knew or were familiar with, I was alone as I had always fought alone and didn't know many people.

Looking around at how many people were in groups working together it seemed like I might need to find others to team up with in the future to either ensure survival or take down stronger monsters.

I put the thought to the back of my mind for a later time and began to mentally prepare myself for this challenging trial. I had a general idea of what to expect, but I knew the real thing would be far different from the image that I had in my head.

Despite the insane amount of people waiting to pass through the gate, my turn to scan in and pass through the gate came about 30 minutes after getting in line. At the direction of the association members organizing the summoners through the gate, I scanned myself in and walk through the gate.

The sight that I saw after passing through the gate was incredible, there were rows and rows of people spread out in every direction from the gate. Monsters would be coming from all over, so it made sense to spread out summoners like this, not to mention that the sheer amount of people present would require an insane amount of space to fight.

This isn't even taking into consideration their summons that hadn't been summoned yet. Everyone was saving as much energy as possible and would wait to bring out their summons until the last few minutes before the monster hordes came charging at noon.

There was no real sense of organization between these summoners aside from groups of people gathering likely due to working together normally. I decided to make my way from the gate towards the northern area where most beginning summoners would be stationed.

This was the direction facing the forest full of the weakest monsters, but even then the sheer amount of monsters would be a challenge, there also wasn't any rule that a stronger monster wouldn't emerge from this direction. I just had to hope for the best and pray that I didn't come across any monster I couldn't handle.

I eventually settled into the middle section of the northern side of the gate, I would be sent into battle after around 2 hours to fill in for the summoners fighting at the front, but I could go in sooner if there were too many monsters for the current summoners to handle.

This was the only type of organization that occurred between summoners during the break, no person could fight straight for 6 hours and there wouldn't be enough room for everyone to fight at once.

I was also thinking about how I would store all the monsters in my storage and settled on only storing tier 3 monsters or higher. Thinking about storage, I realized I would need as much space as possible and decided to dump all of my current credits into extra storage space.

I currently had 32 cubic meters of space and with my credit count at 407 credits I could get an extra 16 cubic meters, so I dumped all of my credits in and made my storage expand to 48 cubic meters and leaving me with a measly 7 credits.

All that was left was to wait until the break began, and so I sat down where I had been standing to conserve as much energy as possible for the upcoming battle. I had only just sat down and the waiting was already killing me, I didn't know how everyone managed to tolerate the agony of doing nothing before an intense fight like the one I knew was coming.

Looking around once more, it seems like people were either by their lonesome and brooding or checking their equipment for the 100th time, or they were joking with others in a concerned tone despite the light subject matter.

It seems like I wasn't the only one who couldn't stop worrying about the battle, I just hoped that I would make it out alive and that no monsters got through to attack the defenseless civilians within the city shelters.

I'll summon out Jareth and Brutus when the time is closer, I had a few things to equip Jareth with before the battle and I needed to go over basic strategy with them before the battle began. Conserving physical and mental energy was the most important thing to focus on during the battle as it was a test of endurance as much as it was one of strength.

I was planning on saving Emett for the beginning of the battle and the end of it. Having him work tirelessly throughout the long battle and helping with the clean up would be no problem since stamina wasn't an issue for him as long as there was earth for him to stand on.

I still wasn't comfortable enough with triple summoning to use it during the battle, but I could bring Emett out if I needed to for an emergency during the 2 hours I would be fighting, hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.