“This is Hana the Gossip coming at you live!”
—hi hana!
—[Bald Emote] [Fire Emote] [Bald Emote] [Fire Emote]
“Today I am joined by a very special guest! Does anyone want to take a guess who?”
—[Bald Emote]
—[Bald Emote]
—[Bald Emote]
—[Bald Emote]
“No it’s not the Chairman! Good guess, though.” Hana smiled and adjusted her hat. The camera slowly floated around her, revealing the environment more and more. A drumroll sound effect pyed over the stream before the camera shifted suddenly to reveal a draconic woman with white scales wearing a light-blue styled outfit. In the background a blue gate shimmered. “Tada! Allow me to introduce you to the newest S-rank awakener, Princess Scale!”
The chat exploded in general excitement and degeneracy. Messages appeared and were repced or deleted within seconds.
Scale’s tail wrapped around her waist and she held it in her hands. “H-hello chat,” she stuttered. Her voice felt like gravel; it was reminiscent of an alligator’s rumbling growl.
“Today I not only pn to interview the Princess but to also show off some new tech!” Hana jumped back into frame. A mad joy foamed in her eyes. “The drone camera I’m streaming from is the first of its kind! According to the developer, the elusive Mystery Dev, this camera can establish an interdimensional link to electromagnetic signals.”
—Too hard
—expin like i’m five
—expin like the other chatters are five. I totally understand everything but they probably don’t
—[Man holding head in pain Emote]
—MYSTERY DEV!? WOOOOOO!
—If this works wont this be a game changer? There’s never been live streams beyond gates before
“Wow we have a few chatters that know their stuff! That’s right. To dumb it all down, this new tech should theoretically let us live stream from the other side of Gates and Dungeons!”
—Holy shit
—[Screaming Emote]
—[Smug Hana Emote]
“So this is a perfect opportunity to show off our precious new S-rank hunter! Behind us is a low erosion B-rank gate! Today I’ll interview Princess Scale and then she’ll escort me through the entire process of closing a high rank gate.”
—Wait isn’t this super dangerous? Hana’s only a C-rank.
—Hana just give the Princess the camera. Why do you have to go in?
—hana nooooooooooooo
—hana is my wife and (Comment Deleted)
“So let’s start with some QnA! So Scale, I can call you Scale, right?”
“Yes. I’d prefer to be called Scale.”
“Most nonhuman returnees share a simir story. Their bodies were killed directly by the opening of a gate and the powerful dimensional magic ripped their souls into a new, far off world. Tell me your experience!”
“Ah. Well, the st thing I remember was napping on a park bench. I woke up as a gate appeared and died. The next thing I knew I was in a tiny world and couldn’t move.” Scale started her story with waking up inside her egg. She stumbled over a few words and kept most of the details vague. She talked about growing up as a dragon with her mother but didn’t get past her first few days as a child over there. It was clear to the viewers that she wasn’t a skilled storyteller, but the gist of her experiences came across. To most of the viewers her clumsy oration came across as endearing.
“So you’re saying you aren’t a dragon-human hybrid but rather a full dragon?” Hana’s question was one they had agreed to touch upon beforehand so Scale was ready.
“Yes. This form isn’t my true form. It’s a type of polymorph magic.”
“Polymorph magic? Does that mean you can change your appearance at will?”
“Maybe if I were more skilled,” Scale’s eyes wavered and her tail drooped. “Intricate spells are hard for me because I have too much mana. So I can only take on a direct transtion form.”
“Interesting. Is there a reason you don’t use your full dragon form?”
“I’m too big. It’d scare the people if a monstrous creature appeared.”
“When we go into the Gate would you be willing to show your true appearance to the viewers? Maybe if the people learn what you look like it would ease future problems? Just in case you ever need to take on that form outside of a Gate.”
“Of course! That’s not a problem.”
—Propaganda Hana at it again
—The [Bald Emote] totally asked for this as a public broadcast didn’t he
—hnnnnng pretty dragon dyyyyyy
—[Bald Emote] [Fire Emote] [Bald Emote] [Fire Emote]
—big woman! [Heart Emote]
“Oh my the chat is on fire. Why don’t we continue this interview inside the Gate!” Hana’s troublemaker grin only made the chat more active. “While we’re there you can show off a bit! Don’t transform right away. Let’s save that for the boss.”
“Ah. O-okay.” Scale had pnned to just transform and then blow the inside of the Gate away with magic, but she realized that probably wouldn’t make for a good cinematic experience. This was a livestream, after all, it was intended to entertain people.
The two women entered the dimensional gate together and found themselves standing in a golden ocean of swaying wheat under an aquamarine sky. Scale reached down and caressed the top of a singur wheat pnt, fondling the spike-like seeded head, marveling at the sensation.
“Oh my goodness it worked! Welcome, chat, to the first ever live tour of a Gate!” Hana was preoccupied with the drone camera. “This Gate seems to have abundant resources. It might be worth it not to close it, and subjugate it instead. This is Rupert Wheat, first discovered and catalogued by the Awakener Rupert Falcon in 1843…”
Hana started rambling off historical facts about the environment, but Scale wasn’t listening. Instead, Scale was focused on the feeling of magic flowing through the pnts around her; the clean energy felt gentle like a mother’s love.
“As a B-rank gate the dimensional boundary is probably pretty wide,” said Hana as she walked. “It might be troublesome to find all the enemies.”
“There are about 40 monsters in this space,” said Scale. “The pnts can guide us to them.” Scale moved towards Hana and gently grabbed the air. The sound of scraping metal made the viewers flinch. In Scale’s hand, about a foot in front of Hana’s face, was the head of a spear caught mid thrust.
“Hhhhholy fu*k!” The camera’s AI features automatically censored Hana’s scream.
—Oh shit that’s a hobgoblin
—streamer please escape
—that spear wasn’t there before is that invisibility magic?
—invisibility magic? That means there’s a high tier goblin shaman
“It’s okay. Calm down.” Scale spoke in a steady tone and gently patted Hana’s shoulder. With her bare hands Scale ripped the spearhead from the spear and then shattered it like a dry cracker.
—wait isn’t that regent steel?
—yeah the patterns are geometric seven stars
—breaking regent steel barehanded [Nervous man sweating Emote]
—hnnnnnnng pretty dragon dy strongggg
“T-thank you.” The unfppable Hana stuttered for the first time ever on stream.
“It wouldn’t have mattered if it hit you. Remember, I’m primarily a healer. So take it easy.” Scale’s snout lifted and her chest puffed out. Her eyes looked like crescent moons. The hobgoblin, now with a disarmed spear, started to screech and howl in a panic. Across the fields numerous other types of goblin-themed creatures popped up like dolphins surfacing to breathe from a golden sea.
“Looks like they live in tunnels underground,” said Hana, regaining her posture.
“Hmm? Should I just crush the ones still below?”
“There might be good items or treasures that get buried if you colpse the tunnels.”
“Do we really care about that?”
“Most Hunters would.”
The goblins unched a storm of arrows and magic. Scale raised her hand and grinned. A translucent silver wall of magic appeared, woven from fibers of magic like kevr, and stopped all of the attacks short.
“Defensive magic is one of my specialties.” Scale’s tail wagged.
“This is incredible!” Hana’s genuine compliment made Scale’s cheeks tremble.
“I normally used this magic to create walls on battlefields to rout demons. If I provide enough mana and set up a storm I could have the barrier become self-sustaining, even. I once made a dome that covered an entire city to prevent demon attacks.”
—wait what
—oh shit isn’t that insane?
—doesn’t that mean she can make permanent defenses for guilds or government buildings?
—the association must not have known about this or they would have told her not to say that on the broadcast for sure.
“Scale…” Hana was speechless.
“What should I do next?” Scale’s chipper mood could be felt through the screen. She was happy to share some of her weaker powers to show off. It felt good to be admired instead of feared.
“W-why don’t we just have you show your dragon form?”
“That’s no good! I don’t want to bore the viewers.”
“I don’t think—”
“Ah! Got it! Let’s do this. Descent!”
The air howled as magic power coalesced. White cracks appeared like thunderbolts as if the space in front of Scale were shattered gss.
“Hmm? Why is the space breaking apart so easily? The st two Gates weren’t this fragile.” Scale, of course, wasn’t aware of the hierarchy of dimensional subspaces among the lower tiers. Her ck of fine control meant that every Gate below S-rank felt the same to her. Of course to others this was an absurd notion; the stability of subspaces varied depending upon the Gate's rank, and a B-rank Gate was nothing to scoff at.
“Tch.” Scale clicked her tongue. “Guess I can’t show off any fshy Holy Spells.” She paused as the cracks running through the fabric of the world began to heal.
The goblins outside the barrier magic had stopped attacking. Most were shivering and several had tears in their eyes. If Scale hadn’t been able to see the vile miasma swirling in their souls perhaps even she would have felt bad for the pathetic beasts.
Meanwhile, the stream’s chat was…
—aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
—dragon dy scary and hot
—isn’t this above S-rank?
—breaking space in gates? Only like 5 people have ever been able to do that right?
—doesn’t that mean she’s on the level of Anatoly the Fist
—could she fight Dhat? What about the Pheonix?
—america’s second national level weapon? (Comment Deleted by Moderator)
