Setanta Arrives

How long has it been since my arrival at Dun Scaith, months, or years, I have no idea. Frankly I can't find myself to care. I have been too busy trying to survive my training, and to be honest it truly was a hellish training regime. I will not speak of it because to do so would be digging up past nightmares, and I have absolutely no wish to experience them again. I do have one thing to say however, anime training from hell has nothing on her training.

Throughout my time here I have seen countless warriors come to receive her training, and so far none have survived. Without being exceptional, it's just not physically possible. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if just training with her is the reason Cu has his absurd battle continuation. Her training makes the spartans' training look like a little league sport boot camp, and that's only counting the physical aspect of her training.

The magical aspect of her training is a completely different beast. While the physical aspect will kill you, the magical aspect will overload your brain. Memorizing runes is the easy part of it. The hard part comes when she gives you a task to complete by a certain deadline using magic only. If you fail, then she will increase your already hellish training.

Then we come to the literal killing part of her training, the spars. She will gather everyone of her current students in the massive courtyard and literally say "All of you band together and kill me right now. If you won't, then die. Because I am going to kill all of you now." Many didn't think that she was serious, they thought that she was just being metaphorical. Unfortunately for them, she was being dead serious.

The only reason I've survived so far is because I cheated with both magic, and my demigod physiology. Using the runes I've learned, I was able to inscribe a set of runewords on my body to get the absolute maximum gain from my training and another set of runes to turn my magical energy into regenerative energy. The runeword is ᛒ��ᛏᚾᚨ ᛊᛁᚲ, or Batna sik, which translates to improve self. By inscribing the rune sentence onto my body before exercise or studying, the results I gain from training is maximized. The second set of runes are ᛚᛊᛗ, or Heal. It is a basic healing spell that transforms my magic power into regenerative energy and heals my wounds once inscribed on my body.

Is it cheating? Perhaps. Do I care? Not even remotely. As for Scathach, she just sees it as my being resourceful, and as an excuse to try and kill me harder, like now.

"You are spacing out. At this rate it will become a bad habit." she says as she tries to skewer me between my eyebrows.

Without much effort I tilt my head to the side to dodge and retaliate by slashing at the tendons in her wrist, only for her to parry.

"Oh? And who is going to beat it out of me? You, perhaps?" I answer as I follow the momentum of the parry and turn it into a stab towards her jugular.

With a raised eyebrow she dodges before leaping back to disengage.

"It seems as if we are officially evenly matched in terms of skills and physical parameters. However, you still have much to learn when it comes to magic." she says.

"Please." I say with an eye roll. "We have been evenly matched for a while now. You have enough ceased to teach me anything. You were just too stubborn to acknowledge it until now. As for magic, well I walk a different path from your's. While I will spare no effort from mastering rune magic, I have another, potentially more complex field that I wish to master."

"Come." she says as she turns to walk inside. "It is late and I believe that it has been a productive enough day."

We make our way to one of the castle's lounges and sit. While she lays on a couch, I sit down in front of a table with a blue bodysuit on it. The bodysuit looks similar to Cu's outfit in fate, except without the white line, pauldrons, or shoes. This is my rune suit, or at least one of them. While I already received my purchased rune suit from Scathach, in the form of a gift for completing my training, this one is a project that I am undertaking to create one as powerful, or more powerful, than the one she gave me. It's a daunting task that I have been working on since I've finished my training.

I have already inscribed it with the basic runes to self-clean, self repair, and shapeshifting. Now all that is left is to enhance the wearer's physical parameters, and the more complex functions such as magical resistance without messing up the other runes.

"What are your plans now?" asks Scathach as she watches me work on my rune suit.

"Honestly, I genuinely don't have any plans other than to travel the world, watch humanity grow, and learn whatever it is humanity's genius minds invent." I reply without looking up from my rune suit.

"What is there left to learn? I have taught you all that I know, and I have mastered every skill humanity has to offer. It is for this reason that being existences such as ours is a curse, and a life devoid of purpose." she answers.

"You are only partially correct." I say as I put the suit down and look at her. "While you have mastered every skill humanity has to offer, it is only for this temporary amount of time. Give them a century or two and I assure you that you will once again have skills to master, and new knowledge to learn. It is what makes them so special, for even with their small lifespans they accomplish much. They are always evolving." I say and return to my work while she quietly ponders my words.

It feels somewhat weird talking about humanity as if I am no longer a part of them. However, I have felt this change coming, so it really isn't something new. It started back in the percy jackson world. One does not constantly commune with literal gods, battle titans, destroy islands, and be hailed as the prince of the sea to come out of it feeling human. Especially since I know for a fact that I am three quarters god, and unless I die in battle, I will live forever.

Being with Scathach also doesn't help since she also views herself as a being outside of humanity, and honestly I cannot blame her for thinking so. Scathach is insanely powerful and worked hard for it. She was placed in charge of the Land of Shadows because she was deemed strong enough to kick the dead, which often included near-gods, back into the underworld, and eventually became so good at it that she can simply no longer be called human. She has no limits.

"Perhaps you are right. However, that does not alleviate my lack of purpose. What am I supposed to do while waiting for humanity to invent new things that interest me?" she says after a few minutes.

"Well, from what I can tell, while the Age of Gods is no longer around, monsters that are threats to humanity still exist. Perhaps you can act as a protector of some sort of humanity. Help them survive by dealing with world ending issues in exchange for your entertainment. Or you can join me on my journey and we can deal with threats to humanity together." I reply

"Hmm" she hums with a thoughtful expression. "I shall endeavor to think about it."

"Also, you still have not seen the entire world. Remember, Rome was as far as you got." I add.

"Yes, you are correct." she answers. "Anyway, on to a different topic. Have you made your decision on what runes you shall use on your body to enhance your physical parameters."

"Naturally. I have also already inscribed them on me, and they work in an acceptable fashion." I say as I get up, remove my shirt and show her.

On my left pectoral, over my heart, are the symbols ᚦᛟᚱ, or Thor. This runic array functions under the premise of "Simplicity is Best." It is a simple three Rune Array that has the simple effect of boosting a person's physical attributes to superhuman levels. Thurisaz provides the Magus with enormous strength and endurance, Raidho provides Superhuman speed and reflexes, and Othala strengthens the entire Array by calling upon the power inherent to Thor's name, links the two other runes together, and causes an interaction between the runes that allows the Magus to accurately judge their strength such that they could hold a delicate glass figurine in one hand and crush marble in the other.

Even the method of powering the Rune is simple. One must simply send a steady flow of Prana to the Rune which is either inscribed on the Magus's body or onto some talisman or another. In order to power the Array, no less than twenty High class Magic Circuits or equivalent must be dedicated to the task constantly. If the flow of Prana is interrupted or disrupted, the Array will simply stop functioning. While it does not have the effect of boosting my attributes up by a full rank, it still does a good job by boosting it up at up to half a full rank.

"Not bad." she says. "While to us the enhancement may not seem significant, to an average warrior of these times it would be a very big improvement, enough for them to make a name for themselves."

The idea of using inscribed runes on the body to enhance it never came to her mind since she's never really needed to. She called it "perhaps the most straightforward way of using runes."

"While the change might not be significant, it certainly would give me the advantage over an opponent that is only slightly more physically powerful than I." I reply.

"Regardless, you have come far, and completed your training in about five years. If you had not insisted on the constant physical training then the time you used to complete your training would have been far less. Honestly sometimes I wondered whether you just loved the pain so much" she asks with a slight.

"No." I answer as I put my shirt back on and return to my project. "I do not love pain, I was just being thorough and the results speak for themselves. After all, you can no longer keep up with me in terms of agility. Also only a madwoman like you would love pain."

"What do you mean?" she asks with genuine confusion on her face.

"Nevermind." I reply with a sigh.

This is one of the reasons why I honestly think that she needs to get out of this place. She no longer has any believable standards for what should be physically possible for a human. To her if she can do it then so should any warrior. It's as if I went up to an average demigod with only basic training and asked him to kill Kronos. It's the reason why almost no one survives her training, most of the tasks are only possible by being immortal or having a physical body as powerful as hers, it's ridiculous.

"We have visitors." she says, bringing me out of my train of thought. "Do you wish to do the honors, or shall I."

"I'll go." I reply as I put down my rune suit and make my way outside.

When Scathach says that we have visitors, then it means new potential students. What we do is, one of us goes out and meets the students at the base of the mountain where her castle resides, and we'll attack the students. Survivors become students and failures become new habitants of the Land of Shadows.

Arriving at the base of the mountain, I immediately spot the Scathach's next victims, amongst them is a teenager Cu Chulainn and Ferdiad. Poor bastards don't even know what type of torture they're in for.

Without further delay, I appear in front of the potential students in a burst of speed. Just by looking at their faces I can tell that it seemed as if I teleported in front of them.

"Gentlemen, I am here to decide whether any of you will have the privilege of learning from Scathach. The test is simple, attack me with the intent to kill. Those who succeed will be taught by her while failures will become permanent residents of this realm." I say.

The majority of them look terrified of becoming inhabitants of this land while others, like Cu and Ferdiad, look determined. However none of them attack. Very well, since they won't come to me then I'll just have to go to them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------These are his new parameters after completing his training with Scathach.

Name: Ambrosius Malphas

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Height: 5'8

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Gold

Looks: Ozymandias from Fate

Build: Medium

Body Type: Athlete

Stats (Without Enhancements)

Strength: B++

Endurance: A++

Agility: A++

Magic Circuits: 50

Od Output: 2500

Luck: C (Raised because he's already altered a major fate in the nasuverse. Scathach is no longer suicidal.)