Chereads / The Beast Tamer's Legacy / Chapter 2 - Will You Accept?

Chapter 2 - Will You Accept?

"No" Mingi's tone was firm and resolute as he turned to the officer who was now looking at him with pity. 

"I'm sorr-" she started again but Mingi cut her off "I said no"

''Aria.....ARIAAAAAA" Mingi continued to scream but to no avail, and had he not felt arms around him he may have continued to scream, but he whipped around with a smile on his face. Unfortunately for Mingi his sister was not found there but it was his senior Nani. 

"Mingi," she started to well up before getting any of her words out. Mingi could instantly understand without her saying anything that his sister was gone, and he broke. Tears streamed down his face as he screamed even more in his senior's arms. 

It seemed like he would never stop crying but then he just passed out likely due to the fatigue of the day's events. The paramedics rushed over to Nani's side as he slumped in her arms while she cried for help. As they moved his body to the stretcher, Nani anxiously held his hand knowing there was no way for her to leave him in a state like this. 

.....

As he was regaining consciousness, her heard the someone over him speaking that he would be wake up soon and had only fainted due to a high level of cortisol being released in his body. By this time Mingi was finally able to open his eyes and the first thing he saw was bright lights and white walls causing him to assume he was in the hospital. Mingi lowered his eyes trying to adjust to his surrounding him when he realized that someone was walking close to him and upon further inspection it was Nani. She leaned down to give him a hug while the other person who must have been his doctor walked toward the bed checking his vitals while asking how he was doing. 

He tried to give a response, but his throat was so parched that no sounds were coming out when he opened his mouth. Nani quickly reached for the water on his nightstand and motioned for him to drink while placing the now opened bottle in his hand. 

After a few sips he finally spoke in a scraggly to the doctor saying, "I'm fine."

A sigh of relief left Nani's lips as she peered down at Mingi. The sympathy was evident in her eyes and sensing they wanted to talk; the doctor left the room quietly after completing his checks. 

Silence filled the room as neither Nani nor Mingi knew what to say to each other, both trapped in their thoughts about the incident that happened earlier. 

Mingi was the first to break the silence asking Nani "Is my sister really?"

Unable to talk about it and looking like she would choke on her emotions any second, Nani simply nodded her head to the question. Before they could sink into another round of silence, Mingi kept the conversation going, "how long was I out for?"

Nani didn't answer immediately but Mingi knew it had to have at least been a few hours because Nani had already changed her clothes. Finally, she uttered "almost a week..." and this time Mingi was truly shocked as he expected it to be to a few hours but not a few days. 

Nani continued, "I wasn't allowed to see you until today because your cortisol level kept on spiking, your body kept going into shock. You were close to getting a heart attack within a few hours of you being here, so they had to put you in a medical induced coma to prevent your body from completely freaking out."

By the time Nani was done explaining, Mingi was visibly uncomfortable from the amount of trouble everyone around him had been going through because he couldn't keep his shit together. 

Just as he was about to apologize for her having to go through so much, there was a large crash in the hallway followed by a harrowing scream. Both of them looked toward the doors confused as to what was happening. 

That was the first of screams that could be heard, and upon a closer notice Mingi realized that the screams could be heard on other floors of the hospital as well. Mingi's fight or flight started kicking in and he grabbed Nani's arm with all the strength he could muster hoisted himself off the bed. 

Nani opened her mouth to reprimand him, but he shook his head while motioning her to quiet. Mingi quickly switched off the lights and while walking back in the direction of the bed he whispered, "What floor are we on?"

Shakily Nani responded that they were on the fourth floor. As soon as Mingi was about to formulate a plan, the door was flung open by a body crashing into it. 

Nani was about to scream but Mingi managed slap her mouth shout with his hand. That's when the chittering of an insect could be heard, its legs skittered across the floor searching for the prey it had just found. Mingi quickly snatched Nani's hand and dragged her past the now lifeless body to the dark area right beside the door hoping the insect would rush past them too busy searching for the man to notice them. 

His planned worked and as soon as the insect rushed past them, they could see the form of an ant now crunching on the dead body of the man in front of them. Mingi could feel Nani's body go rigid, but he knew they needed to get out of there and fast. 

However, Mingi was having challenges of his own, his body was still heavy from the medication, and he knew an adrenaline rush would only last so long before his body started shutting down. On top of all that his status window was going haywire. 

[Special skill 'The Eye' is being activated]

[User is too weak to use the skill]

[User conditions not met]

[Environment is opportune for user to meet conditions]

[Would the user like to accept a task?]

Mingi had never heard of a status window granting tasks to its user, but he chalked it up to it just being a weird part of his special skill. Mingi didn't have time to think about it as the ant was almost done and he knew they had to run. 

Tightening his grip on Nani, Mingi made a break down the hall while asking "Where's the elevator?" 

Nani didn't have the chance to answer the question before they heard the ant screech behind them, neither of them having to look back to know that the ant was chasing them. Luckily Nani didn't have to answer, as they rounded the first corner, they both spotted the elevator and doubled their efforts to get to the elevator. 

Much to their appreciation the elevator was working and was on its way down from the top floor, but they were frantic because it may not make it on time. Nani was panicking and Mingi was running out of energy, they had trained together at the academy, but none of them had real combat experience so this was a first for both of them. 

The elevator was almost there but it was too late, the ant was right in front of them stalking towards them in small strides. In a split second the status window appeared in front of Mingi again. 

[User is at risk of losing special skill if conditions are not met]

[Task pending...Will the user accept?]

[The user has 5 seconds to decide]

[5...] The system began to count down and Mingi was wondering what to do, the elevator was still a floor up. 

[4...] Nani was mentally in no condition to fight

[3...] His body was starting to shut down.

[2...] The ant was ready to attack.

[1...] ....

"I accept."