Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! Chapter 190: 190-Fire And Ice

Read chapter 190 of Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

Merlin’s eyes were dull, his insides quivering as he sat in total silence in the waiting room. He clutched his sweaty palms while his mind tried to make sense of what had just happened a few moments back. Fire and ice. The images were as clear as day, so he couldn’t disregard them as illusions. And even if he tried to fight back the fact that he had used magic, tagging it as a trick his mind had placed upon his senses in his fit of pain, perhaps borne from his deep desire to be a mage, the stares from the crowd and Instructor Park was enough proof that he wasn’t dreaming. If he was to be completely honest, at this very moment, he could feel a certain strangeness in his body. His mana channels were no longer the same as they had been when he’d woken up this morning. They felt larger, wider, and seemed to conserve a lot more energy than they used to. As for his mana itself, he could feel it far more than before. Compared to the day of his evaluation—no, compared to even getting the System—his mana had become more dense. It had more volume, and a multitude of knowledge seemed to be streaming through it. Merlin lifted his eyes towards the floating screen before him, staring at the notifications he had received from the System. [Intelligence has leveled up!] [Intelligence Level 40 → Level 41] That was all. There were no new Perks he had gotten, or some quest he had unlocked without his knowledge that had suddenly rewarded him with the ability to breathe out fire from his lungs and produce ice from his hands. He had simply just leveled up while he was trying to deal the final blow to Marcus. Merlin knew this wasn’t a joke of some sort by the System. It was real. And when he put the pieces together, specifically what his visit to the Consortium Guild had entailed a few months back, it was fairly obvious that what had happened now had been long coming. And even though, technically, this was all he had wanted a while back, he couldn’t feel excited. His heart thumped hard in his chest as he dug his nail into his skin. He was scared. A soft chime came from the door, drawing Merlin’s attention towards it. Then a voice made its way into the room through the intercom. “Merlin!” the voice called. It was Nora’s. “Are you all right? Instructor Park said you wanted to be alone, but I insisted. Can I come in?” Merlin sighed. The spontaneous effects of the System was something he had always feared, and how he had reacted in the arena only fueled that fear of his even more. The change he was undergoing, he had no idea what it was or how he could control it. What if it was triggered by his emotions or something similar? Pain had made him breathe fire and conjure ice. What if seeing his mates made him do something else he had no control over. He was too risky to be around, and he was not planning on doing something he would regret. “Open this door while I’m being nice,” Nora’s tone shifted from the calm one it was a second ago to a stern one at Merlin’s silence. “Don’t make me kick it down!” Merlin’s nose twitched, but he simply lowered his head in further silence. He was not letting her in. “Ada’s here, by the way,” she said after a few seconds passed. “Are you really going to keep us out forever? I want to talk to you. Let’s talk.” Merlin wasn’t keeping her out. He was just trying to come to terms with the changes he was undergoing. And, maybe, that was him being too childish. Sure, his body was the one undergoing the changes, but why hadn’t he considered how that would feel to his friends? To Nora? Merlin shook his head. This wasn’t the best way for him to handle such delicate matters. Isolating himself was not the way. He stood up with a deep breath and walked up to the door. As he unlocked it he said, “It’s Blue, not Ada.” As the door slid open, Blue sped into the room and into Merlin’s arms, before quickly climbing up onto his shoulders and snuggling into comfort there. A small smile crept on Merlin’s face as the intense anxiety he was feeling