endless path, infinite cosmos

chapter 21

Vahn awoke staring at a foreign ceiling. His limbs felt like lead and his breathing was labored. He felt the familiar cooling sensation of his 'Pain Tolerance (S)' skill which brought some clarity to his mind.

Opening his inventory, Vahn pulled out a 'senzu bean'. Given the current state of his body, it would likely take a long period of time to recover and he wasn't willing to wait it out.

After ingesting the 'senzu bean' he felt his body begin to warm up. The cooling sensation that had been permeating throughout his mind began to recede, allowing a powerful migraine to take its place.

Vahn gripped his head and began to massage his temples in an effort to alleviate the pain. ("Sis, why doesn't my pain tolerance work on this migraine? It feels like my brain is about to split open.")

(*...*)

Hearing the 'silence' Vahn felt something was off. Sis had never ignored him before so he began to panic, throwing the pain of his head to the back of his mind.

"Sis? What's wrong, why are you not responding?" Due to his anxiety, he ended up asking the question out loud. The nearby nurse heard his exclamation and left to inform the Doctor what had happened.

Seeing her exit, Vahn calmed down a bit and spoke in his mind. ("Please respond Sis. I can't bear the silence...")

A mechanical sigh sounded. (*I'm here Vahn, I'm just a little upset and thought I should punish you a little.*)

Vahn was ecstatic to hear her response but became confused after hearing the latter part of her words. ("Punish? What did I do wrong Sis?") He thought back to everything that happened today. No matter how hard he strained himself he was unable to reason why Sis would be mad at him.

(*Of course you did something wrong! You almost died, and no matter how much I shouted to get your attention you just lay there bleeding out! Even when you finally woke up and I started to feel relieved, you continued to ignore my prompts and just went on a killing spree!*)

Vahn was shocked hearing what she said. He did seem to recall that during the moment he was losing consciousness he thought someone was calling out to him. And after he woke up, the only thing he could think of was killing everything that opposed him...

He realized his actions had caused Sis to worry about him.

("I'm sorry Sis. I promise not to ignore you in the future. You are the most important companion in my life, and I didn't mean to make you worry so much.") Vahn apologized in earnest, but couldn't help but feel a warmth spreading in his heart due to her concern.

(*Apology accepted Vahn...just make sure never to end up in that kind of situation again.*)

Vahn balled both his hands into fists while nodding. A firm expression appeared on his face as a glow emitted from the depths of his eyes...

Through the door came two people. Vahn recognized the first person as the elf he had seen before entering the dungeon. He wore a grim expression as he looked towards the location where Vahn was resting. The second person was an old lady with silver hair and grey eyes. She was dressed in white robes and had a powerful smell of medicine wafting from her body.

"Vahn Mason, I would think my advice when we spoke earlier was very straightforward. After everything I had said to prepare you for the dungeon, you return just a few hours later covered in blood? I am very disappointed with your lack of awareness." Nicholas looked at the boy who had a blank expression on his face and couldn't help but let out a sigh.

Before he could continue his lecture, the old woman interrupted. "That's enough of that now Nicholas. The boy just woke up and is probably still confused according to the nurse. Let me take care of things from here."