[Notice: Merging Rare Spell 'Crystallization' with the Unique spell 'Dimensional Portal' followed by rare spell 'Mirage', followed by rare spell 'Ray Tracing']

[Notice: Acquired Special Spell 'Analytical Dimension']

Elhelm tilted his head. "Analytical Dimension?"

That was unexpected. The system had pulled in more spells than he intended. And the name itself didn't sound like it contained anything relating to his vision. He opened its description window.

[Analytical Dimension (Special): Allows one to create and store exact replicas of any construct they can fully comprehend and summon them at will.]

"That's a good one, is it not, my lord?" Elhelm asked.

"Well, it's not what I imagined, but it seems useful."

The ability to copy constructs just by analyzing them seemed kind of broken. Did that mean he'd be able to make amazing statues or guns and such by analyzing their construction?

If so, that would solve this village's need for a variety of things.

Luna was still focused on the spell's description, as if enamored. Considering how she'd selected synergistic spells to merge and evolve them as she leveled up, she was much smarter when it came to magic and system-related matters than he'd given her credit for.

Right at that moment, the door of his room burst open.

"My lord!" called out Lun, Luna's little minion.

Luna's gaze snapped towards him—specifically at the blood stains on his fur. Within a blink, she was upon him, with a paw placed gently on his back.

The wolf wasn't injured, which took Luna a second to discover. But he did look panicked.

"What happened?"

"Lady Luna, I'm fine, but some ten or so warriors of unknown origin have entered our village and made camp outside our walls. One of my packmates and his elf companion went to check on them, but instead of explaining their purpose, they took him hostage and are now demanding to meet the village chief."

That was a lot to process. Xuan conveyed much of it to Elhem, who couldn't yet understand the wolf's tongue, though he said he was close to getting a spell that weakness.

"Is Slynera on her way already?" he asked Lun in worry.

That would be an issue. She wasn't the fighting type, and while he did expect her to take Rovan along, the risks of Rovan fighting multiple fighters of unknown origin didn't sit well with him either.

Also, [Demon], run your scan.

The familiar sharp light shot out as feedback of what was happening nearby came through. Sure enough, there was indeed a tent made of conjured wood outside the village walls, and three warriors in black and red leather armor stood guard around it with sword, spear, and halberd.

Their expressions were tense, with one of them—a red-haired warrior—eyeing the wolf in front worriedly. The village guardsmen wolf bared its fangs. The only thing preventing it from lunging at them was probably the hostage, who had been brought inside their tent.

The uniform of these intruders seemed professional, like that of some army. But they were lucky the Luna wolf had grown considerate of its partner, because otherwise, [Appraise] showed the disparity between them.

[Lesser Vampire– lvl 49]

[Lesser Vampire– lvl 50]

[Lesser Vampire– lvl 40]

[Luna Wolf – lvl 112]

They were lucky the wolf they were dealing with wasn't Luna.

Either way, it was time he showed his mediation prowess. There were certainly some misunderstandings going on, but that didn't justify hurting the villagers. These were fully conscious warriors, not mindless beasts.

He had a spell to test out, too, and their gear that shone with a unique gleam would make fine test subjects. It would be like hitting two birds with one stone.

Or maybe ten birds—he still wondered why the rest of them were confined to that tent.

He looked towards his companions. Elhelm was fidgeting; the man was probably barely containing the urge to run to his wife. Luna was grinding her teeth while caressing Lun on the back—her version of 'care' doing more damage to the little guy than whatever the outsiders could do to him.

"One more thing before we go," he said, eyeing Lun and the blood stains still on his white fur. "What happened? Why is there blood on you?"

The rider's mount had some blood on its fur, and that came from the warrior. This guy didn't carry anyone, so how did he have blood on him?

The wolf's head shifted toward the stain. "Ah, this? My lord, I was just eating lunch when I got the news and came running, so…"

Yeah, that was enough concern over him.

"Okay, let's go, everyone." He said while spreading his mana over the whole group and simultaneously shaping it into a hundred different patterns symbolizing the various aspects as they came together to form a triple hexagram. "[Space Flicker]"

The hexagram cut the very fabric of reality itself around them in clean chunks before collapsing inward, but it happened too fast for the people around him to take notice. Even Luna couldn't get a whiff of what was happening before the whole of reality around them collapsed and reconstructed itself.

They were now hovering right over the tent.

It took a second. Elhelm looked down and fell over in the air from shock, with Luna and Lun furiously shifting left and right in panic.

"W-What happened?"

That was it—that was the exact kind of reaction he wanted! The work he'd put in the other night hadn't been in vain.

The previous night, he'd had the thought that it would be better if he and the people he teleported around didn't feel dizzy from the transport and wouldn't have to witness the horror of reality bending and twisting around them.

A task he thought would be simple and quick to complete. Not easy, but in his head, he'd expected to just refine the spell so that the process of space bending and recovery would come faster and more smoothly.

But as it turned out, having reality bend and later repair itself faster wasn't such a simple process. Not with the spell architecture he'd gotten from [Wind Flicker]. He'd also underestimated how unyielding space itself could be.

After fiddling with it for a few hours, he'd decided to do something bold. The original Space Flicker worked by bending space until it reached the desired location, then creating a small incision in space through which they could pass to the other side. On the way, it gave just enough push and space mana to the fabric so it could repair itself faster.

He'd thought: why not just cut the space itself instead of bending it around the people? The issue was twofold: mana cost—specifically space-attuned mana cost—and coordinates.

The second issue had him scratching his head for hours until he finally found the cure. It had been in front of him all along. The way to find the coordinates was simple: the spirit world! It was basically using the spirit world's root system, which spread around and was layered over material reality, to calculate the coordinates of their destination.

After several trials and retrials, he'd refined the process so that he could simultaneously scan all the root systems at speed and calculate the distance, dimensions, and everything about the destination within a hundred-thousandth of a second. Though cutting the space according to those coordinates took much longer.

The spell could have taken much more time to complete if his mental stamina wasn't nearly limitless and his thinking speed and [parallel processing] weren't ridiculously fast.

---

And speaking of inhuman feats, the vampire warriors below them had taken notice. Two of them pointed their weapons, and another went into the tent to let their companions know of their arrival.

He brought Luna, her minion, and the recovered Elhelm back down.

The vampires all gave them a steel-faced look, their glares sharp enough to pierce. Yet Xuan could see a sort of hesitation in their footing and the way they held their fine steel weapons imbued with what seemed to be silver fragments—showing unease.

That's probably so they can funnel the energy of their martial arts through it at greater velocity.

Xuan raised his hands up, trying his best to appear as non-threatening as possible, because clearly there had been some misunderstanding here. These soldiers weren't at all what he'd expected. They were covered in bite marks from head to toe, with their clothes stained with aged, dried blood.

While his heart still felt angry at them for injuring one of his people—people he was supposed to protect—he'd have to tread this situation carefully. They appeared important.

But before he could ask Elhelm who they might be and if he knew something, Elhelm came to him. He leaned into his side.

"My lord, they're part of Duke Zavian's legion. Nazaria exists within his domain."

Called it.

They were from the big shot then. No wonder they'd so casually dared to take a hostage from their villagers without fearing any retribution.

"Hey, you," one of the warriors—a black-haired man in his thirties—pointed at him. "Are you the chief of this village?"

Another man made an odd sound. "No way, man. How can a girl that fragile be the chief of a village that's fielding creatures of this level?" He pointed at Luna. "I can't even detect the level of that wolf and the old man beside her."

That wasn't very nice of them to say, though they didn't seem to care about *acting* nice in general.

"Well, then maybe it's that one over there?" He pointed at Rovan, who had almost reached Xuan, escorting Slynera towards them with Phaeron alongside them.

They climbed down from their wolves, and seeing Elhelm, Xuan, and Luna already there, his eyes widened for a second before giving them a bow, which in turn had the warriors looking at each other in confusion.

The black-haired warrior turned to his green-haired colleague with a smug face. "See, I told you so."

"B-But it doesn't make sense! Hey, you," the warrior yelled at him with an annoying tone, "are you really this village's chief?"

Luna's aura grew thick at his mannerisms. Xuan could acutely sense her mana beginning to channel through her veins at speed, and the fluctuations of mana around them suggested she was activating her spells too. Her body also grew larger by the second.

Xuan put his hands over her head, caressing her soft fur that felt chilly to the touch, though it would probably freeze anyone else instantly.

It felt good to see her getting angry on his behalf, and even Elhelm and the others, but it wouldn't do them any good if they offended or injured the kingdom's soldiers.

He wanted to live a peaceful life—not a life of war and carnage, something his still-average human brain couldn't even comprehend doing.

He shifted his gaze towards the warriors, and in earnest, they took a step back instead.

Was he appearing scary or something? Hopefully not. It was likely because of Luna.

"No, I'm not the chief of this village. She is," he gestured to Slynera, who was watching the whole interaction with a calm gaze befitting her age and station.

"However, as the lord of this village, I'd prefer if you explained the reasons for your brash conduct that harmed my people."

He let out just enough of his mana, hoping to have the soldiers take him seriously. Clearly, people raised to kill and execute orders wouldn't respect anything but strength.