American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

After class, Rune didn't go directly to Dumbledore, but instead went to Professor McGonagall to ask about the shrinking puppet.

Rune arrived at Professor McGonagall's office and immediately saw the first sentient puppet he had created. The puppet stared coldly at him, but Rune's beast senses detected no danger.

Rune voiced his doubts and demonstrated with a stone he had picked up during his magical creature protection class. Unsurprisingly, the stone shattered into countless fragments. Generally, even if a transformation spell fails, the object reverts to its original form, but when Rune's shrinking puppet failed, the original object frequently turned into dust.

Professor McGonagall immediately saw the problem. "You're too hasty, Rune." Professor McGonagall threw the broken stone chips into the trash can, then casually transformed a book into a falcon, and then shrunk the falcon to the size of a chess piece, the whole process flowing smoothly. She handed the shrunken falcon to Rune.

"How did you feel after seeing my transformation surgery?" Professor McGonagall asked.

Rune carefully considered it for a moment, then said softly, "Professor, it feels very natural to me, as if this book was meant to become a falcon. When it transforms, the shape changes quite evenly..." He paused here, perhaps realizing why he had difficulty shrinking the puppet. The book focused on incantations and precautions, but didn't mention much else.

"Indeed, it seems you've realized that too," Professor McGonagall smiled. "When you shrink your puppet, you must try to shrink it as evenly as possible, rather than letting your magic shrink it on its own. After all, unless it's made of a very hard or flexible material, very few things can withstand the violent tearing of wizarding magic."

Rune recalled that when his puppets shrank, some parts shrank very quickly, while others shrank much more slowly, and those puppets that successfully shrank were entirely due to luck.

Professor McGonagall liked Rune very much because he was quick to learn. Unlike some students who just couldn't understand no matter how much she taught him, or some students who, when taught 1+1, would insist on asking why the plus sign was "+" instead of "-". So, in the end, McGonagall looked at her favorite student and added a few more words.

"Just like ourselves, if we let ourselves do what makes us comfortable, we'll get fat and become ignorant. Only by restraining ourselves can we gain a strong enough body and become learned," Professor McGonagall said earnestly. "The control of magic is an eternal theme in a wizard's life. You must always fight against magic, but don't treat it as an enemy, Rune. Treat it like a child, control your magic as you would a child."

"Thank you, Professor." Rune nodded and left Professor McGonagall's office, lost in thought.

Since merging with Superman's bloodline, Rune has indeed rarely controlled his magic power. After all, the magical energy blasts shot from his eyes are incredibly powerful and can be aimed precisely, so he lets his magic power be unleashed. But thinking about it carefully, wouldn't the magical energy blasts be even stronger if he controlled his magic power?

Inspired, Rune didn't linger and went straight to the Room of Requirement. It was almost dinnertime, but Rune had no interest in eating.

"Please give me a room suitable for practicing magic," Rune said.

A room the size of a university lecture hall appeared, with three scarecrows placed inside, divided into sections. Rune immediately tested the magic impact and carefully observed its effects. He then discovered that when used as before, the magic twisted and turned at will. Although it looked like a thick pillar of light, much of the magic within it did not travel in a straight line, but rather distorted or even reversed, thus weakening the damage of the magic impact.

Rune then attempted to control the magical impact, but this proved difficult. The magic would bend on its own, and even with Rune's control, he could only ensure that the magic wouldn't bend for the first ten centimeters or so. However, the magic would still scatter afterward, appearing as a straight laser beam at first, but later becoming trumpet-shaped. Furthermore, the beam would become thicker with increasing distance, but the damage would decrease rapidly.

However, this didn't discourage Rune; on the contrary, he found a new direction. Moreover, Rune believed that the potential of magic impact was actually greater than that of thermal vision. This is because magic can be controlled and manipulated according to one's will. In other words, if Rune's magic manipulation skills became strong enough, magic impact could also change direction at will, like an Omega ray, greatly increasing its hit rate. At that point, anyone who couldn't outrun magic would eventually be hit by the magic impact.

Furthermore, can willpower be mixed into a magic shock? When Rune used magic shock before, magic killed enemies in its purest form—by generating heat. So, if Rune wanted to capture an enemy alive, could magic do that? Rune thought it was entirely possible. No wonder so many superhuman abilities were nerfed; the system must have directly integrated many abilities into magic shock, but he just hadn't discovered it.

So Rune began practicing Magic Impact frantically in the Room of Requirement. When his magic power dwindled to the point where he couldn't unleash a Magic Impact, Rune practiced shrinking his puppets. Compared to the fast and magic-intensive Magic Impact, shrinking puppets required less magic power and was simpler. As long as the magic power could be evenly distributed, and as long as you had enough magic power, you could cast the spell for as long as it took. But even so, Rune still couldn't guarantee success every time. This spell required complete concentration; he had to carefully observe the distribution of magic power on the puppet's surface and pay attention to the key points of the incantation, which inevitably led to some moments of frantic activity.

After turning another puppet into stone dust, Rune sighed. He still wasn't familiar enough with the spell. If he were, he would only need to focus on the distribution of magical energy.

When Rune emerged from the Room of Requirement, the entire castle was illuminated by candlelight, but he was used to it. Whether he was kicked out of the library or from the Room of Requirement, this was the only sight he ever saw. He had given up many of the wizarding pleasures, such as wizarding chess, popping cards, and Quidditch, but he didn't regret it. The mysteries of magic were always captivating, and the deeper one went, the more one realized how ignorant one was.

"I should go back soon; I haven't finished reading those forbidden books I stole yet." Rune thought to himself as he walked down the long corridors of Hogwarts. The towering towers cast long shadows under the moonlight, and sometimes a cool night breeze would blow by, carrying the scent of autumn. Occasionally, one could hear the whispers of the murals and ghosts.