“We’ll see ya later then. Let’s go!”

  I grabbed Machua by her collar and dissipated the hotel dimension.

  “Let’s - WAHHHH!”

  Machua’s screaming stopped when she landed on solid ground. Well, solid-ish.

  “I have the track laid out to attack the underside of the airship and also a bit of its sides. Make sure not to fall off. Ready?”

  I grabbed onto a lever at the front of the impromptu roller coaster.

  “No!” She screamed, as I pulled it.

  The roller coaster rocketed forward, chugging down its tracks.

  “Man, there really are a lot down here,” I muttered, as we passed underneath the airship.

  Seeing the fresh meat that just passed by them, the bats all stopped attacking the airship and rushed to attack us. I didn’t make the roller coaster too fast, so the bats could very easily catch up. Which meant Machua was naturally getting overwhelmed again.

  “You’ve got this, Machu!” I cheered her on, as she dealt with the pack that was chasing us. The ones that attacked us from the front were relatively few in number, for comparison.

  “Help! Please! Come on!” Machua screamed as she hurriedly defended herself. It was all she could to avoid falling off.

  “Alright then. I’ll end this in one blow.”

  I pushed Machua behind myself so I could ready my strike. My mana surged and flowed out of me. The mana swirled in a manner similar to water and formed a small bubble at the back of my foot. It was the all too familiar Hop Point I had grown so used to using. I readied my foot to stomp on it, and my mana to flow directly alongside it.

  “Just get ready to be in free-fall for a bit!”

  “Free-wha!?”

  The dimension disappeared around us as my foot stamped onto the bubble. The Hop Point’s surface slightly tensed up, but then, in the simplest of motions, it popped. At that moment, my mana flowed straight into my feet, attempting to meet the bubble’s bursting at the exact point it met my shoe.

  The explosive force of the bubble rocketed me forward with extreme speed. I soared through the air far faster than any of the bats could ever dream of. I spun in the air and directed my leg to break through every single bat it made contact with. The sheer speed of the motion made me feel hot, as if at any moment my leg would catch fire. Any bat that came into contact crumpled and their blood splashed onto the airship’s side,

  [Hop Flash]

  “I didn’t manage to time it right again,” I muttered as I began to fall.

  “AAAARGHHH!”

  Right. I quickly hopped off of another Hop Point in Machua’s direction. Her tonfas were flying in free fall too, so I collected those first. I hopped into another dimension as I came closer to Machua.

  “MACHI! WHY’D YOU DO THAT TO ME!?”

  “It’s fun,” I responded as I grabbed ahold of her hand.

  Our hands clasped and our fall slowed. Machua’s terrified face began to turn into one of confusion, as she couldn’t figure out just how I was slowing her fall down like this. At the same time our fall stalled, her eye changed colour, and she regained her panicked expression.

  “A bungee cord!?”

  I grabbed Machua’s other hand.

  “Heh.”

  Suddenly, the bungee cord attached to me, stretched to its very limit, rebounded.

  “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

  “HAHAHAHAHA!”

  Our screaming resonated through the air as we rocketed back up to the airship. And wayy past it too.

  It wasn’t long before we reached the peak of our jump. The world in our view expanded far below us. Endless trees and even the distant rustling of the forest underneath us came into our view.

  I forgot how nice it looked from up here. Captain Galas took me a few times, since I was the only one who could fly. Well, there was another one too, but-

  “MACHI! PLEASE!” Machu begged.

  Right.

  “Ah!” She groaned as she landed onto a soft comfy bed right as we were going to fall from the apex of our hop.

  The dimension I pulled us into had a ferris wheel with beds in it. Dimension truly was one of the most convenient Aspects of all time.

  “You can let go now.”

  Machua’s body was still shivering from the sheer fright of the fall, so her hand was still tightly grasped onto mine. It took a little while before she wanted to let me go, but I managed to get her to calm down eventually. By then, though, the ferris wheel had moved us to our destination.

  I pulled Machua back onto the airship and dismissed the dimension. The attack was over, and every hunter was either cleaning up or looking up at us.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  There was one person in particular who stood and gazed at me with more fervour than anyone else.

  “Machua, why don’t you stand back and watch?” I asked her.

  “Y-yeah, I think I’ll take a seat even.”

  Machua stumbled over to Plue, who helped support her into a seat. That is to say, Machua made a seat in another dimension and sat herself down in it. Plue almost wanted to sit on it too, but it’s not as if she could interact with it.

  “Machia! I’m not satisfied yet!” Carmine yelled.

  I stamped my foot on the ground. “Let’s end it in one go then. One strike.”

  Carmine grinned and readied herself. I took a deep breath and circulated my mana throughout myself. I layered my mana over my skin and focused a lot of it onto my foot. It was going to be in one lunge, whoever struck the other first would win.

  We dashed at the exact same time. I was faster, but Carmine knew that. In a straight lunge, it was likely I could hit her first, or even evade her attack then strike afterwards. So, the natural thing to do was to play dirty.

  Carmine’s wrist sprayed blood straight at me, obfuscating my vision. There was nothing else I could see. Carmine had also covered the blood in her mana, preventing me from sensing her through it. Either way, it was a physical object with not too much mana.

  I didn’t care though. I rushed through all the blood, splattering my entire body in it.

  “!” Carmine’s face was shocked, but she couldn’t react fast enough to avoid my attack.

  Carmine still attempted to slash me, but I was just too fast. I slithered through her attacks, then grabbed her face and using all of my momentum, slammed her straight into the ground. The deck now held a dent from her head.

  “I win.”

  ———————————————————————

  “Mmrgrgrr…” Machua stifled her growl.

  She was now sitting next to Plue behind me, and I could feel her staring lasers into the back of my head. With an empty seat next to me, Carmine took her chance to finally sit next to me, now leaving Rasa alone.

  “Ah, Machia,” Rasa spoke. “Now that things have… calmed down, so to speak, I’d like to ask you something.”

  There were still quite a few people who looked in our direction, now that they knew they had fliers in their midst. Fliers were a rarity with a scant few Aspects who could pull it off. Force, Wind, Dimension, and Space were the most common examples.

  The pilot also came to by to thank us personally for the help and wrote us a check on the airline company’s expense, saying that it would have been nice if we told him that we had fliers, since we were hired as security. The airline company would have hired us for even more Cets.

  Rasa continued, “I’d like to ask you just exactly how your ‘flight’ works.”

  “Uncle Galas can fly, but you and Machu fly differently. It’s like you’re touching and walking on solid air,” Plue piped up.

  “Mm… I guess I need an explanation too.” Machua murmured.

  “Tell us already,” Carmine said.

  “Well, Machu, how about you start with what you know so far.”

  “Grr…”

  You’re not a cat beastkin Machu.

  “Okay, fine! Uhh, so what do you guys know about the basics of dimensions?”

  “It’s what lets us put our stuff into tiny objects and take them out whenever we want,” Carmine answered, holding out her two bracelets.

  “Isn’t it a small ‘space’? There’s a limited area you can put your stuff in and take them out,” Plue said. “Oh yeah, there are different types too like a freezer or a warehouse.”

  “Dimensions also cannot hold any objects with mana in them. It allows us to carry anything that can fit inside but only if they are expunged of all their mana. Considering a majority of technology runs on mana, you couldn’t use a dimension to store your phone or more important items,” Rasa detailed.

  “Okayy, that’s all good, but do you know why dimensions can’t hold mana in them?”

  All 3 people shook their head.

  “It’s cause dimensions are made entirely of mana. You can’t mix mana together, so only manaless stuff gets to go inside. And also, dimensions aren’t a small space inside an object. The object is just the anchor in this dimension. They’re like… next to us.”

  The trio collectively made confused expressions. Plue tilted her head, while Rasa raised an eyebrow and Carmine went to say hah? without actually saying it.

  I stepped in. “Think of the dimension as a whole other world. You can’t reach it, step into it, or even interact with it, unless you have an anchor or you yourself are an anchor. Your dimensional storage items are more like portals that let you peer into that other world and mess with it through the item. The anchor exists in both this world and the dimension at once, which allows it to interact with both at the same time.”

  “Is that why freezer room storage rings are cold?” Plue raised her hand and asked.

  “Yep. They are in the freezer room while also being affected by the real world too. Same goes for all sorts of dimensions. If a ring’s in a boiler room, it’s gonna get hot.”

  “Then, why do our storage items not get stuck on walls and the like?” Rasa questioned. “It seems to be as if the dimension moves with the item, which does not appear to be the same with you and your dimensions.”

  “Yeah, you can set it up like that,” Machua answered for me. “Make the dimension stay still, or make it move with you. It’s extremely customisable. But the issue is that without the Dimension Aspect, it’s super hard to make them.”

  “Making a dimension is like trying to make a mini version of the world,” I began to explain. “But because it’s all mana, you have to keep it stable all throughout the creation process, which makes even smaller ones take a lot of effort just to keep together. Normally, you’d anchor it to an object to make it easier, but by doing so, the dimension will be permanently anchored to the object.”

  “But the Dimension Aspect allows us to act as the anchor, and we don’t have any restrictions on changing the anchor. Except for people who don’t have it,” Machua added. “So we don’t have to worry about stabilising anything. Which is why we can make dimensions left and right with no effort.”

  “We can inject our primary ideas into the new dimension and adjust things to a precise level. But primarily, we let our mana flow to our unconscious ideas as to how the dimension should work. Earlier, I made an elevator and I ended up making an entire hotel.”

  “You have that much mana?” Carmine asked, curious to know. “I have purer mana than you.”

  She was right. Mine was only 50%, while hers was 52%. For the record, Rasa had the highest at 55%, with Machua barely scooting under the 10% threshold at 46%. Plue had 47%.

  “No, but since the dimensions only exist in respect to us, it doesn’t cost much mana at all. They aren’t fully ‘real.’ They’re fake, even though I can interact with it. And also, they don’t need to be fully realistic and match every detail of our world.”

  I continued. “The only limitation in size is the anchor. If the object is just a normal ring, the most you can get is a small room. You’d need more specialised rings to work as anchors for bigger dimensions. But when Dimension users are anchors, they can expand it to the limits of their mana.”

  “I believe I understand what you’re getting at,” Rasa spoke. “I believe the term is called ‘imaginary objects.’”

  Captain Galas was the person to coin that term, so I wasn’t surprised he might have off-handedly mentioned it to Rasa and Carmine.

  I nodded. “Objects that cannot be interacted with but can interact with others. That’s how dimensions work for us. The rule is that unless you are the anchor for the dimension the object is in, you cannot interact with it.”

  “Does that mean our bracelets and rings can interact with it?” Plue tilted her head as she questioned.

  “Only if it’s the dimension it’s anchored to,” Machua answered. “It’s real confusing, but basically, I can make a chair in another dimension, but since I’m the anchor, only I can sit on the chair.”

  Machua demonstrated as such, by literally doing so. One of her eyes, as usual, changed colour as well. Machua was now sitting in a comfy rocking chair. The others couldn’t see the chair, so to them it looked like she was sitting on air. It would be easier to have them see it as well, so I went to each person and helped them see into the dimension.

  I passed my hand over one of their eyes each. Plue and Rasa were relatively accepting of it. Their mana calmly drifted and intersected with mine as I connected them to the dimension. Carmine, however, her mana rushed at mine, almost like it wanted to devour me. I calmly connected her to the dimension since she didn’t mean any real harm. Just like most things with Carmine.

  “It’s real to me, but imaginary to everyone else. Which also means-“

  Carmine suddenly made a move to flip the chair she could now see. Her hand passed cleanly between Machua’s legs.

  “Hey!”

  Despite the fact it didn’t hit anything, Machua still flinched and almost fell over.

  I righted Machua’s chair and admonished Carmine. “Just because you can see it now doesn’t mean you can touch it. It’s still useful to know what they have to interact with, but the objects are still imaginary to you. As I said before, only anchors.”

  “Tch.”

  “But if you wanted to mess with her, you could still push her over,” I mentioned placing my hand on Machu’s shoulder, “also knocking the chair over.”

  “H-hey! Don’t actually do that.”

  “Just make a bed when you fall dummy.”

  “Oh, hey, you’re right.”

  Machua voluntarily took the fall, allowing the rocking chair to fall backwards as well, before falling onto a nice comfy bed. The others couldn’t see the bed of course, their dimensional vision dissipated the moment Machua dissolved the first dimension.

  “Because changing dimensions can happen so fast and takes no effort, it’s not usually worth it for you guys to try and see into the dimension,” I advised.

  As if to demonstrate what I said, Machua sat up and then jumped into a dimension with a swing. She lightly rocked back and forth. I took a glance at Carmine’s face, and I could tell she wanted to push her so bad. Before she did so, I had to distract her with more information.

  “You can check if a dimension user is using another dimension by tracking their eye colour as it’s our Giveaway.”

  Carmine nodded along to each sentence, noting it down in her head for when she would fight me again someday.

  “But! Just because we aren’t actively seeing into a dimension doesn’t mean it isn’t anchored to us. I have a dimension for all my things attached to me. Like how you can sense things around you with your mana, we can do that too. Though, we have to see into the dimension personally to do stuff with the imaginary objects.”

  “I think that’s it for the basics. Any questions?”

  Not surprisingly, Plue was the one to raise her hand. “Could you go into another dimension entirely?”

  “No. Dimensions aren’t solid enough for anyone to move through, even though it can accommodate most regular items. What you’re looking for is Planes, which are anchored directly to the world itself. But those take a dedicated team of very skilled Dimension users to make.”

  “Got it!”

  It seemed like no one had any questions, so I quietly sat back down. Next to Carmine. I forgot that I had let that happen.

  “It’s nice to have a fallback job, at least,” Machua stated.

  “You wanna go work in a factory?” I asked.

  “It’s nice to have options! If I fail at hunting, I can make dimensional storage rings and stuff real easily.”

  “I bet the rings you make would be beautiful,” Plue commented.

  “Imagine being able to fly and then working a factory job,” said Carmine.

  “It’s not the plan! I’m gonna go become a great hunter first.”

  “First,” I stated.

  “I’m your leader. I command you to shut up.”

  “I’m your older brother. I don’t have to listen to you.”

  “You! We’ll see how your tone changes once we start the missions! Lemme go and check what the first ones are…”

  Machua took out a laptop from her bag and click-clacked on it. It wasn’t long before she found the file Elize had sent everyone.

  “Our first task once we sign in at the Bureau is…”

  “Bounty hunting?”