With movements too fast for the eye to follow, Scáthach finished scaling, gutting, and washing the monster fish in one smooth, practiced sequence.
The fire for roasting it was something she'd created with rune script. Cú Chulainn had done this sort of thing all the time—his specialty was fire-aspected rune magecraft, after all.
To think the Primordial Rune—won by the great Norse god Odin at the cost of one of his eyes—was now being used to roast fish… Modern magi might actually drop dead from sheer outrage if they found out. The Primordial Rune had long since been lost to the modern age; even its foundations were incomplete. Modern rune magecraft was just the remnants of magi trying to reconstruct that vanished Primordial Rune.
The aroma of roasted fish drifted through the air, effortlessly stirring hunger.
But considering how grotesque the thing looked, Sung Jinwoo had absolutely no appetite.
Right up until Scáthach's airy, offhand remark reached his ears.
"Not eating? Then I suppose you're not that hungry. In that case, let's continue training. I'm sure you've been looking forward to what comes next—so much you could skip meals and sleep for it."
Sung Jinwoo's face instantly turned ashen.
Choosing between eating monster fish and enduring Scáthach's training—either way was hell. There was no road to heaven.
I, Sung Jinwoo, would rather starve to death! Die out here! Jump into the river and get eaten by the fish! I still won't take a single bi—
"Wow… this is amazing!"
The moment he took a bite of the fish Scáthach roasted, every shred of his resolve vanished into thin air.
He couldn't help it. It was absurdly good—even better than the state banquets back in South Korea.
Proof, once again, that no one could defy the law of "wow, this is amazing."
"This meat is so firm—and there's not even a hint of fishiness. How is that possible…?"
Scáthach took his amazement and confusion as nothing unusual.
Please. Did he not understand the sheer value of [Wisdom of Dún Scáith]?
"Shishō, are all the purple Gates that appear on Earth connected to the Land of Shadows?"
Talking while eating wasn't exactly polite, but moments like this were his only chance to ask the questions on his mind. During training, he always ended up so exhausted he'd black out.
Scáthach bit into the fish and nodded. "I've been bored for far too long. I wanted to see if I could find a few promising seedlings on your planet. The monsters on the other side of the Gate were a test I left for you. Since it was just a test, anyone who died—I sent them back safely."
"Oh… so that's what it was." Sung Jinwoo's eyes widened, surprise slipping into his gaze.
He hadn't expected his Shishō to be… kind like that. Going out of her way to send the dead safely back to Earth raised his opinion of her even higher.
…If only she could be a little less brutal during training.
"Your country's S-Rank Hunters came to challenge it again today."
Scáthach spoke casually, and a clear, wise gleam filled her eyes—as if her gaze could pierce the limits of space itself.
"Since the giant spider from before was already dealt with, I found another afterward. This time they're better prepared. It seems last time's failure didn't break them. They're not just brave in a brute, reckless way—they're warriors with real courage. As they are now, they should be able to defeat the powerful enemy in front of them…"
She paused, the faintest thrill creeping into her smile.
"I'm getting a little itchy. Should I step in personally and evaluate their skills?"
There was no cold wind, yet a chill ran up Sung Jinwoo's spine—because he felt that sharp, freezing battle intent again, even though it wasn't aimed at him.
After three days of being "trained" by Scáthach in the name of instruction, Sung Jinwoo's perception had become abnormally keen, hypersensitive to her killing intent and fighting spirit. "Sensitive" didn't even cover it anymore.
Even from afar, Scáthach kept her eyes on the battle between South Korea's Hunters and the giant spider. Three people made her look twice.
One was Min Byung-Gu—the only S-Rank Hunter in South Korea with healing abilities. Without him, that Hunter team would've been wiped out long ago.
Another was Cha Hae-In. Scáthach wasn't paying attention just because she was the only female S-Rank; it was because her talent exceeded the others.
And one was Choi Jong-In. Apparently, he carried the intimidating title "The Ultimate Soldier" in South Korea. He was a mage skilled in fire magic, and watching him reminded Scáthach of her disappointing disciple, Cú Chulainn.
"This Cha Hae-In and Choi Jong-In… they might be worth cultivating a little," Scáthach mused. "As for Choi Jong-In, I could try teaching him rune script. If he can learn it, all the better."
Scáthach was getting the urge to take disciples again.
Earth's Hunters had their power forcibly poured into them by the Rulers. That meant their potential ceiling was obvious at a glance, and ordinary teaching could only help so much. But rune script was different—if they learned to use it, that power would truly belong to them.
"Shishō, if you want to take disciples, then what about the National Level Hunters?" Sung Jinwoo asked suddenly.
He remembered that China and the United States—countries with National Level Hunters—had defeated the monsters on the other side of the purple Gate even earlier than South Korea. If killing the monsters was the main requirement for taking someone in, then why wouldn't those National Level Hunters qualify?
Why him?
"National Level Hunters?" Scáthach glanced at him and shook her head. "No, no. They won't do."
"Why?" Sung Jinwoo couldn't understand.
Scáthach's answer was—
"As warriors, they're undoubtedly competent. But what I need are heroes with possibility. Those people are too deeply entangled with the fragments of light. They've already lost all possibility."
...
After several days of "learning to take a beating," Scáthach began teaching Sung Jinwoo certain dagger and short-blade forms, along with footwork.
Compared to other weapons, daggers only had one real advantage: they were light. To use them effectively, high Agility was essential, and you needed to close distance aggressively in combat.
Sung Jinwoo got beaten half to death every day, but every time he opened his System panel and saw his level rocketing upward—and a few new skills added—he couldn't bring himself to quit.
Now he truly understood the meaning of "pain and pleasure at the same time."
That day, Sung Jinwoo took leave and didn't come to the Land of Shadows.
Not just that day—he said he likely wouldn't be able to come for the next week.
Unlike Cú Chulainn and the others, who only left the Land of Shadows to enter the living world after "graduation," Scáthach couldn't keep Sung Jinwoo here for years. He had too much to handle in the living world: a younger sister about to start university, and a mother bedridden by illness.
As mentioned before, Scáthach was actually quite understanding.
Still, the moment her only disciple left, she became bored again—like a lonely old woman whose children had moved out.
"Why isn't anything biting…?"
Lowering her head, Scáthach stared at water so still it seemed flatter than a mirror. No fish would take the hook.
Of course they wouldn't. After being beaten so many times—even if those monster fish really had seven-second memories—they still understood exactly how tragic it was to provoke the madwoman on the shore.
"It's been so many years. I've already 'welcomed' just about every living thing in the Land of Shadows…" Scáthach muttered, irritation slipping into her voice. "Honestly—why is it that after all these years, I'm the only one who keeps getting stronger while these monsters stay so weak? What a waste of time."
If the monsters she'd "welcomed" could talk, they'd be furious and aggrieved all at once.
It's not that we didn't get stronger—your growth is just insane!
Unable to catch anything, Scáthach's patience finally ran out. And as everyone knows, you can't fish without patience—so she reeled the hook back in.
The monster fish in the river sensed it and almost sighed in relief, overjoyed that the madwoman was finally leaving.
On the bank, Scáthach flicked the fishing rod—her crimson spear in disguise—up into the air. As it fell, she caught it in a reverse grip, settling into a stance like someone about to throw a javelin.
In an instant, a blood-soaked crimson aura erupted, coiling tightly around the spear. Even the space around it warped and twisted.
"[GÁE BOLG]!"
SOARING SPEAR THAT STRIKES WITH DEATH
The cursed spear, which inverted cause and effect, tore from her hand, becoming a scarlet meteor. It screamed through the air and plunged into the river.
A thunderous boom followed. The meteor's impact kicked up a towering wave, and the heat from the spear's passage even vaporized part of the water, sending mist rolling across the surface.
Scáthach lifted one hand and beckoned. The crimson spear shot back out of the water as if drawn by an invisible tether, returning to its owner's grasp. Only then did the water blasted into the sky—and the monster fish swept up with it—come crashing back down, slamming heavily onto the ground.
Every one of those monster fish was covered in wounds. Their eyes had gone slack—dead-fish stares—yet it was oddly easy to read the same emotion on their faces:
Utter despair.
Scáthach's Noble Phantasm was supposed to be [Gáe Bolg Alternative: Soaring Spear of Piercing Death], thrown in succession as two long spears. The first strike pinned space itself, sealing the enemy's movement. The second invoked the curse that reversed cause and effect, piercing the enemy's heart—Scáthach's personal signature technique.
[Gáe Bolg: Barbed Spear That Pierces with Death] and [Gáe Bolg: Soaring Spear That Strikes with Death] were recorded as Cú Chulainn's Noble Phantasms. The former was an anti-unit Noble Phantasm; the latter, anti-army.
[Gáe Bolg: Barbed Spear That Pierces with Death] was the demonic spear's inherent ability: it inverted the "cause" of thrusting the spear and the "result" of piercing the enemy's heart. By fixing the result—"the heart is pierced"—and then rewinding the causal chain to force the attack's process into existence, it rendered conventional defense and evasion meaningless.
Compared to piercing a single heart, [Gáe Bolg: Soaring Spear That Strikes with Death] emphasized raw destructive power. You hurled it with everything you had, pushing its might to the limit. In truth, this was the spear's original use—it had always been a throwing spear. One of its prototypes was even Odin's weapon: the legendary Gungnir, said to govern fate—once thrown, it would always win, always pierce its target.
Although Scáthach's own records didn't list those two Noble Phantasms, they were simply different applications of the demonic spear's causality reversal. Naturally, she could use them as well.
Sung Jinwoo had things to handle these days, and Scáthach, left alone in the Land of Shadows, was bored out of her mind.
So Scáthach made a decision that defied all propriety.
"I'll go take a stroll on Earth."
Her first stop was China. She'd been in the Land of Shadows for far, far too long, and she'd started to miss the food.
Her second stop was South Korea. This was the main stage—Sung Jinwoo was here, and so was the greatest fragment of light.
It was the same Earth, yet the moment she walked the streets, she felt how different it was from her own world. Da Vinci had told her: her side had not a shred of Mystery left. But here, the streets were filled with people who carried mana inside their bodies.
Scáthach chose a small café on a street corner and sat down. She'd changed into an outfit that would, as much as possible, not draw attention: a pale-yellow off-shoulder sweater above, and light-blue fitted jeans below.
"As much as possible," because Scáthach's face was too perfectly carved, her figure too flawlessly balanced—as if shaped by a god's hand. Even in something this simple, there was an intoxicating allure about her, a bewitching charm that made nearby eyes linger unconsciously.
Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, she occasionally saw groups of people walking by in armor with weapons in hand. The craftsmanship was so fine it would make cosplayers drool with envy.
In her world, people like that would be dismissed as cosplayers—maybe even verbally attacked by those who despised such things. Here, passersby seemed entirely used to it, sometimes even looking at them with envy.
Even the giant screens on buildings were broadcasting news about Hunters clearing Dungeons.
After leaving the café, Scáthach shed her aimless-wandering air. Her steps became decisive and swift. She slipped cleanly through the crowded streets and stopped in front of a tightly fenced construction site.
Ignoring the conspicuous "Under Construction" sign at the entrance, Scáthach strolled inside as if she owned the place.
"Hey! How'd you get in here?" someone shouted. "Can't you see we're working? Unauthorized people aren't allowed in—stop causing trouble!"
Workers had noticed her almost immediately. A girl that striking on a construction site stood out like a lightbulb in the dark.
But Scáthach ignored their warnings completely and walked into the half-finished building.
"Hey! I'm talking to you! It's dangerous in there—can't you hear me?"
A few of the workers panicked and rushed after her, reaching out as if to drag her back.
Scáthach stopped, and a faint smile curved her lips.
"That part you got right. It's dangerous here." Her voice carried something invisible—something that sank into the mind. "So, for your own safety, stand right there and don't move."
As if compelled, every worker who'd chased her froze on the spot.
And in the next second, a wash of blue light flooded their vision.
Under their horrified stares, a blue Gate slowly took shape in midair.
Then Scáthach's amused voice reached them, snapping them out of their fear.
"No need to be so scared. The monsters on the other side can't come out yet." She glanced back at them with a light laugh, speaking casually. "Go notify the Hunters Association and have the Hunters handle this Gate."
Before turning away, she added, almost absentmindedly, "Until the Gate disappears, it'll be hard for you to keep working here… What a perfectly reasonable excuse for time off, isn't it?"
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T/N: AHHHH SHES SO HOTTTTTTTTTT