The Legendary Old Man Becomes a Dungeon Streamer: When the World's Strongest Tried Streaming in His Second Life, He Instantly Went Viral and Gained S-Class Disciples. - Chapter 9

Reina was glaring at Karin in her swimsuit again today with a piercing gaze.

“Are you here for training too, Karin?”

“Got a problem with that? Today’s battle day, so I came to warm up.”

“No, not particularly.”

Hmm, I can’t tell if these two get along or not. They don’t seem to hate each other, but they’re definitely overly conscious of one another. Being close in age and ability probably has something to do with it.

I might have been like that too back in the day. When you’re close in age and skill, rivalry naturally awakens. Especially when fighting is your profession – you tend to become hypersensitive.

“Well, let’s both calm down.”

“Yes!”

“Got it, gotcha.”

Reina nodded reluctantly while Karin seemed much more casual.

Well, at least they’re listening.

“Speaking of which, Reina when’s that new song coming?”

“Please wait a little longer. The B melody still doesn’t feel quite right.”

“Come on, it’s fine as is. I wanna move on to writing lyrics already.”

“No! I’m still not satisfied!”

“It’s not gonna change that much from where it is now.”

“Hah!? I can’t let that slide! Songwriting requires meticulous attention to detail!”

“What a pain.”

“That’s just you being sloppy!”

Hmm, so they’re talking about songwriting. Surprisingly, they’re making music together?

While the two were loudly arguing, I secretly looked it up on my phone.

Given it’s Rosen Maiden, I found it immediately. So this is it.

“Reirin”

Rosen Maiden’s prized songstress duo – Kisaragi Reina and Momozaka Karin. Reina handles composition while Karin writes lyrics. Known for delicate melodies and hopeful, forward-looking lyrics. They frequently argue during streams but make up by the next day.

Their routine consists of Karin saying “What a pain” and Reina retorting “That’s because you’re so ○○!”

That’s exactly what’s happening. Well, I guess it means they’re close enough not to hold back.

Only they would know for sure, but they seem fine.

Mid-argument, Karin suddenly turned to me.

“Oh right! Actually, I shouldn’t be messing around with Reina. Sensei, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Sensei!? Don’t get so familiar!”

“Come on, you’re Rosen Maiden’s advisor. That makes you my sensei too, right?”

I’m not sure about that logic, but Reina visibly recoiled.

“Tch but we weren’t finished here!?”

“Enough already. I just wanted to know if the song would actually get done. I’ll apologize for all the other stuff. Sorry, okay?”

“Fine, whatever.”

“Sorry sorry sorry!”

Hey now, don’t push it. Reina’s getting twitchy.

Ignoring this, Karin began gathering mana in her right hand. That’s quite a lot of mana.

“Yesterday, I was watching your live stream, Sensei, and there’s one thing I didn’t get.”

“Sure, ask away.”

“You took down that special entity using your specialized ability, right? That part makes sense. But how did you, create that gate in the dungeon space with your fist? Was that another specialized ability?”

“Ah! yes! I’d love to hear about that too!”

“That’s a technique called ‘Spatial Piercing.'”

I explained the basics.

Spatial Piercing isn’t related to specialized abilities – theoretically, any awakened can use it if they have enough mana and know the trick.

To move between dungeons, you normally have to use natural spatial distortions (gates). You can’t enter or exit otherwise. The emergency drone extraction just sends you to the nearest gate, so while similar, it’s quite different.

Spatial Piercing forcibly creates a gate. For me, it’s an indispensable movement technique.

“But then, why doesn’t anyone else do it? I’ve never seen anyone but you use it.”

“Hmm, the mana cost is part of it but unless you have the right mana fluctuation, the gate won’t open.”

“Ah, so you can’t just open gates anywhere.”

“Yesterday I had to move about 10km before I could open a gate to Reina’s dungeon. It’s not exactly versatile.”

Reina and Karin both stared at me.

“Wait a minute.”

“There was something weird about that just now.”

“What?”

“How did you detect the mana fluctuation from 10km away, Sensei?”

“Did you scout it out beforehand?”

“I can just sort of sense when a gate might open. If I focus, I can tell.”

Reina and Karin exchanged glances.

“I expected this, but I didn’t want to believe the answer.”

“Total monster. Reina, could you do it?”

“Of course not. Even trying my hardest, I might detect 100 meters at most.”

“Yeah, figures. 10km, what kind of training gets you there?”

“I can hear you two, you know.”

Guess it’s too much to expect right away. This is something you can’t understand without experience. I do it mostly by feel too, so the only way to teach it is hands-on.

Maybe I’ll show them next time we’re in a dungeon.

“But Kaede should be able to do Spatial Piercing too.”

“The president? I’ve never heard of that.”

Suddenly, a hologram appeared on the dojo wall showing Kaede in her office.

That was sudden.

“Don’t say such outrageous things~”

“You were listening? You startled me.”

“The dojo’s monitored in case someone gets hurt.”

“I see, that makes sense.”

Not exactly presidential duties, but Kaede must have her reasons. Maybe she was keeping an eye on my promise to train with Reina.

“Anyway, that technique is crazy difficult.”

“No, you could do it. You looked pretty proud of yourself back then.”

“I’ve never succeeded once when Tatsuya wasn’t watching.”

Huh? Really?

This is news to me.

“But there were others overseas who could do it too. It’s not my exclusive technique.”

“Everyone struggled just to do it once. They were all putting on a brave face because they didn’t want to look weak in front of you.”

“Seriously?”

“Spatial Piercing requires ultra-precise control. You have to detect fluctuations down to the millimeter and pry them open with mana. Incredibly useful once mastered, though~”

“Hmm, I had no idea.”

A truth revealed after 30 years. I had no idea everyone I’d teamed with had been struggling like that. Nowadays I can detect fluctuations almost subconsciously, but I didn’t realize the barrier was so high.

“Overseas? You fought alongside the president before?”

“I know all of the president’s combat records, but you weren’t in any of them.”

Ah, oops. That overseas stuff might be classified. If this gets out, it could become an international incident.

“Ahem, well, it’s useful if you can do it, hopefully you’ll get there someday.”

I forcefully changed the subject.