Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! Chapter 133: 133-They’ve Found The Portal

Read chapter 133 of Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

Merlin had been certain he’d made a mistake. The System had explicitly told him to kill both the Raubtier and Chief Rivale, and not only had he let the former leave, he had kept the latter alive. To him, he’d had very good reasons for his actions. The Raubtier was a monster unlike any he had ever faced before. It was a monster of legend in the Tower of Xéros, and it falling prey to a mind enchantment didn’t change that. Merlin was uncertain if he would be able to take the beast on. And for such a monster, it was best to act with the thinking that he couldn’t and refrained from trying, than attacking it and ending up trying to diffuse the situation after it had escalated. The Raubtier had seen none of them as a threat and had only been angry that its mind had been tapped into. Which, as Merlin chose to believe, was why it had let them be. The second reason why he had not attacked the Raubtier was because of the sandworms. Merlin had decided to end the war quickly in consideration of those monsters. They were alerted based on the vibrations living beings emitted into the earth, and a war was filled with vibrations. If he had carried on with trying to kill the Raubtier, the monster of legend would have ended up becoming the least of his problems. Considering all that, letting the beast go was the better option. As for Chief Rivale. Merlin had never been in a war before, and he hardly read war books. But a common war tactic passed around on the internet was how taking down the commander of an army weakened the army in general. There were a lot of things the net got wrong, and Merlin wondered if killing Chief Rivale in the presence of the warriors would make them surrender, or self-destruct instead. Which was why he had chosen to bargain. As long as the warriors laid down their weapons, whatever happened to Chief Rivale after would be none of their problems. And he had fully intended to kill the chief after, but Baba had stepped in before he could even make the attempt and asked that he had the honors. Simulation or otherwise, Merlin couldn't bring himself to reject and act like a psychopath. How would he explain such a reaction to the rest of his mates who were watching? That he had no choice? That he had to be the one to kill the chief? Nothing he would have said would have vindicated him in their eyes, so he had let Baba have the pleasure of taking his old friend’s life. And Merlin was certain he was screwed. That was, until the System’s notification popped up, and he, surprisingly, wasn’t screwed. Apparently, the System’s direction to clearing a quest wasn’t a fixed one. It was just the most optimal, and Merlin had the choice to either do what the System had said, or complete the quest through some other unspecified means. Of course, the System hadn’t told Merlin this, he had just come to that conclusion based on the fact that the System didn’t exercise the punishment that was meant to come his way if he failed the quest, and had rather blessed him with the pop up, mentioning that he had instead cleared it. However, just like a father might not congratulate a child if he achieved a desired outcome by following a different means than that which he had proposed, the System had not given Merlin the reward that came with completing his quest. He had no loot boxes to unwrap this time. Blue purred under Merlin’s hand as it stroked his back gently, and Merlin breathed out a sigh. He glanced at the little dragon and smiled, wondering how he would have managed to fight both the Raubtier and Chief Rivale all alone without him. Perhaps he had been taking Blue’s presence for granted all this while, seeing him as barely anything more than a pet he used to train his anti-magic. He should appreciate the dragon more. “Thank you,” said Merlin. They were words he should have told Blue a couple of times already, and he couldn’t believe that he was saying it for the first time. Blue’s tail twitched and perked up. Then he shifted on Merlin’s lap an