Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah sundered Frozen Mist and its seven Rank 1 components materialized in the air before him.

Mist

Mist

Mist

Ice

Ice

Ice

Ice

There wasn’t much surprise lying in wait among them for Noah. If he’d had to guess what Runes had been in Frozen Mist, this was probably exactly what he would have gone with. Evidently, that hadn’t been enough to make a perfect Rune.

After a brief inspection, Noah decided there were probably two reasons for that. The first was that the Mist Runes were Lesser Runes. They were far less intricate than the other Rank 1 Runes he’d seen, and they held considerably less power.

The Ice Runes, on the other hand, were definitely Greater Runes. There wasn’t anything special or bad about them – they were just Runes. That suited Noah just fine, though. He moved quickly, gathering the filled Ice Runes and slotting them into his own mind.

He spent an instant opening his eyes in the real world to flip to some empty pages at the back of his grimoire – the last few he still had – and closed his eyes again, Imbuing the Mist Runes in their entirety on the paper.

The whole process only took a little over a few seconds. But, when it was done, Noah was now the proud owner of four Ice Runes. That put the total number of Runes, not counting Master Runes, in his soul at nine.

Natural Disaste

Glistening Ice

Greater Wind

Greater Shadow

Greater Shadow

Ice

Ice

Ice

Ice

Two of the Ice Runes was shaded over and hung in the recess of Noah’s mind, while the rest of them floated in the light. The two Shadow Runes did draw Noah’s attention, but more for Lee’s sake than his own.

He’d had them floating around ever since he’d ripped apart Dayton’s Runes to finish making Natural Disaster. They weren’t of any use to him at the moment, but spending Catchpaper on them felt like a waste.

They’re still full Shadow Runes, though. Could be very useful for helping Lee make… well, whatever it is that she decides on making. For now, I’ll just hold onto them. I have more than enough space in my soul for a few useless Runes.

Noah opened his eyes again, returning to the real world and closing the grimoire in his lap. “Lee, could I borrow Dayton’s grimoire for a moment? I need to have a spot to do some emergency Imbuements while I modify my Rune.”

“Sure,” Lee said, somehow managing to shrug despite being hung upside down. She tossed the scroll down to Noah, who caught it and laid it out on his lap.

“Thanks.” Noah wasted no time in closing his eyes and returning to his mindspace and turning his attention to Glistening Ice. The Rank 3 Rune was ripe with power, but he was probably going to lose a large portion of it.

Even if it had been perfect – which it wasn’t – Noah didn’t see how it would fit into Natural Disaster in its current state. He had to take it apart, and there was just nowhere to put the excess energy.

He considered the Rune for a few moments. His soul was already chock full. If he split it apart now, it would probably be fairly difficult to save every single one of the Rank 2 Runes, and losing them would be a huge waste.

I don’t want to Imbue the Rank 1 Ice Runes because I might end up splitting some of the Rank 2 Runes that Glistening Ice makes, and then I’ll need those to fix them. I’m just going to have to work really fast to make sure I don’t lose too much energy in the process of screwing with everything.

I’m pretty sure my soul can hold a lot more Runes off to the side, though. I’ve never really felt like it was getting full. Let’s just get on with this. I want to fix Natural Disaster so I can finally get around to making some new Imbuements again.

Drawing in a slow breath to steady his thoughts, Noah called Glistening Ice before him and drew on Sunder’s powers. He pressed his palm against the Rank 3 Rune, and a line of pure black arced through it.

The Rune shattered. Power thrummed all around Noah as it washed out from the Ice Rune in a thick white cloud. Bolts of energy flashed within the cloud like a miniature thunderstorm as it covered the ground at his feet and rose up around his body, making his skin tingle. Noah’s soul shuddered as the Rune split apart and seven Rank 2 Runes billowed out from within the churning cloud, blinking to life.

True Ice

True Ice

True Ice

Gentle Snow

Gentle Snow

Reflective Water

Reflective Water

The True Ice Runes were clearly perfect Runes. That did slightly invalidate Noah’s use for the Rank 1 Ice Runes he’d just gotten from Frozen Mist, but now he’d be able to keep the Rank 2 True Ice Runes intact.

Maybe I can give them to Emily or Todd. I’m sure both of them could get some good use out of these. Can’t focus on that right now, though. Blizzard. What would go into a Rune like that? Snow, obviously. Ice as well. And honestly, probably my Greater Wind Rune as well. That would be great.

Three snow, Three Ice, one Wind. That’s perfect.

Noah flexed his fingers. He was going to have to be fast. There wasn’t time to think about just how fast he’d actually have to be. He just had to do it.

His hand flashed forward and he drew on Sunder’s power, slicing one of the Gentle Snow Runes apart. The power from Glimmering Ice had already started to fade slightly, but he had a lot to spare.

Three Snow Runes and four Powder Runes formed before Noah. He didn’t know exactly what a Powder Rune was meant to represent other than cocaine, but at the moment, he didn’t care. Noah gathered the Snow Runes up, relieved to find that they were all of Greater quality.

He pulled the Runes to the side, gathering them together with his Greater Wind and three of his four Rank 1 Ice Runes. More and more energy was infusing into his soul and pouring away from the cloud that Glistening Ice had left behind, but Noah continued to ignore it.

After taking a second to make sure his intent was what he wanted it to be, he gathered the seven Rank 1 Runes together, pressing his lips together in concentration. They shuddered against his will, but it was too much to resist.

The Runes melted together, pressed into a single Rune. A flash of white light lit up Noah’s soul, momentarily blinding him even though he’d been expecting it. He blinked furiously, squinting to see what he’d created.

Freezing Ice Blizzard

Noah’s brow furrowed in annoyance. Even as he pulled the remaining energy into the Rune to fill it as much as he could, it became clear that he hadn’t formed a perfect Rune. It was slightly above average at best.

That won’t do. That won’t do at all. I’m confident the Runes are fine, so it must be my intent. I don’t really know all that much about blizzards, I guess. Luckily, it doesn’t matter. I’ve got more than enough energy left to try again.

He ripped the newly formed Rune apart with Sunder before it could even finish properly forming, then smashed the Runes back together so quickly that, if they’d had any self-awareness, they probably wouldn’t have even had a chance to realize what was happening.

Unfortunately, that attempt didn’t yield much better results. Fortunately, Noah didn’t care. Imperfect Runes were not the threat to him that they were to anyone else. They were just a mild annoyance that could be brute forced through – and that was exactly what he did.

Three attempted combinations later, a new Rank 2 Rune floated before Noah. It was a frosty white tinged with just the faintest hints of blue, and the energy washing off it was so cold that Noah shivered. That did nothing to wipe the smug grin from his face.

Freezing Blizzard

“Yeah,” Noah said, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he took in the Rune, which was only ten percent full. “That’s a perfect Rune.”

He didn’t spend too much time admiring his work. The magic left over from Glistening Ice had already reduced by more than half, but there was still a lot left floating around in his soul. It wasn’t the exact same type of magic that Freezing Blizzard had, but it was definitely close, and that meant there was no point to sit around and letting it go to waste.

Noah gathered the white cloud with his mind, then shoved it into Freezing Blizzard. The Rank 2 Rune shivered as the magic changed forms, forcing its way into it. A large portion of it was lost in conversion, but the difference between a Rank 3 Rune that had already been partially filled and a Rank 2 Rune was enormous.

Even with the bad energy conversion, Freezing Blizzard was completely full by the time Noah was down to his last dregs of energy from Glimmering Ice.

He was tempted to flop down and sigh in relief, but there was still one more step to do. Noah turned to the rapidly fading remaining Runes that made up Glimmering Ice and quickly pulled them properly into his mindspace.

The True Ice Runes weren’t too hard to form after all his work with Freezing Blizzard, and the second Gentle Snow was equally as easy. Noah also managed to get a single Reflective Water Rune before the last of the energy dissipated and every other Rune that he hadn’t had a chance to materialize vanished from his mind.

The Powder and Mist Runes that had been left over from his surgery faded away as well, but Noah couldn’t have been more pleased with his results. Freezing Blizzard was both full and perfect, and he had several roughly half full Rank 2 Runes to use in the future. After all the dust had settled, he’d been left with nine Runes.

Natural Disaster – Rank 3

Freezing Blizzard – Rank 2

Greater Shadow – Rank 1

Greater Shadow – Rank 1

True Ice – Rank 2

True Ice – Rank 2

Gentle Snow – Rank 2

Reflective Water – Rank 2

Ice – Rank 1

The last two of the Runes were enveloped by shadows at the edges of Noah’s mind, and he still didn’t feel like his soul was anywhere near overflowing. His entire body felt energized from all the magic he’d just inadvertently absorbed, but his work for the night still wasn’t done.

The back of Noah’s neck tingled as he reached out to Sunder’s powers. He’d been using it a lot tonight, but he was confident he could still call on its power a few more times before he wouldn’t be able to handle its strength any longer.

There was one more step that he still needed to take.

Noah called Natural Disaster to float beside Freezing Blizzard. For a moment, he paused to take a breather. Then his brow set and he pressed his palm to Natural Disaster’s magically charged surface.

And then he sundered it.

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