Chapter 203: Coma
The kid started to freak out. Seeing black, disgusting goo ooze out of every single patch of his skin was a very disturbing scene for him.
"Don't worry. It's helping you. It's throwing out all that was bad inside of you," Ning explained.
Famir heard it but still didn't stop freaking out. It slowly started to stink in the room, so Ning picked him up and threw him out of the room.
"Go take a bath," he ordered.
There was a well behind Famir's house, and Famir quickly took a bath from that water. Once all of the gunk was washed away, it revealed a well-built body hidden underneath.
"What? How is my body so good?" Famir asked in surprise. He had never had a body like this and now surprisingly, there it was.
"Alright, come back kid. Finish your food," Ning said from the side. Famir slowly walked back into the home while looking at Ning with a weird face.
"What?" Ning asked curiously.
"I'm not a kid, you know? I'm already 17," Famir said as he walked inside.
"Well, I am around... 24 years old now, so you are still a kid in my eyes," Ning said.
"What? No way?" Famir said in surprise. "You barely look 19."
Ning was a little surprised. Nobody ever really commented on his age in Kumia, but that was because they were all used to people looking out of their age. But here, where age could be told by how a person looked, he was considered much younger than he actually was.
Ning smiled and said, "Thank you. I do look young, don't I? Anyway, go finish your food. Then we can heal your sister."
Famir's eyes widened when he heard that. "You can heal my sister?" he asked with tears in his eyes.
Ning rubbed his head and said, "Yes, I can."
Famir god down on his knees and started shouting, "Thank you! Thank you so much." He bowed onto the ground until his head touched the floor.
"Hey, hey, hey! Get up. Don't say thank you until I've healed her," Ning said. "Now, go eat your food and I will see what is wrong with your sister," Ning said.
Famir nodded and went to go finish his Emerald Mango. Ning sighed as he saw that. Famir had become a cultivator, but he didn't know of it yet, and would likely never know since he would never get any Qi to begin with.
'Sigh, at least his body is healthy now. He will probably go on to live for hundreds of years,' Ning thought. 'Now, let's see what's wrong with his sister.'
He looked at the little girl that was around the age of Hyesi when he first met him. He checked her pulse, skin color, eye movements, everything that a doctor would.
"Can you heal her?" Famir asked from the side.
Ning was stumped. He would be able to tell what was wrong if it was a mortal problem, but surprisingly he couldn't, which meant... this was likely an Aether-related problem.
He couldn't see any option other than to ask the system for the problem.
"Wait a second. Famir, you said you knew what her problem was right? Can you tell me what you know?" he asked.
"I... said that?" Famir asked in surprise.
"I heard it when you were coming down the mountain," Ning said.
"Y-Yes. I... went to the library and saw that there have been cases of people falling into a coma after awakening. The book said it was because the newly awakened person uses Aether without learning an absorption technique first," Famir said.
"Hmm... Aether... no wonder. I assumed she was a mortal, but if she is an Aether user, that would explain a lot. Tell me, how exactly did she fall into a coma?" Ning asked.
"We—Well, one day around a year ago, she suddenly awakened after eating a fruit she found in the forest. I later learned that the fruit had contained Aether and was the cause behind her awakening.
"After she awakened, Mavenna tried to help father with a little work but ended up straining her body too badly. She fell onto the ground unable to move. For the first few days, she was only paralyzed, but after a few months, she went into a coma.
"I've been trying to find a way to cure her ever since and... only if I... only if I hadn't said something so stupid, father would've still been alive," Famir started sobbing again.
"What did you tell your father, Famir?" Ning asked.
"I— I told him that...hic... sister would be fine as long as...hic... she got some Aether in her body. So the most likely way... hic... would be to find that fruit from before," Famir said.
Ning contemplated on that information and realized there was nothing wrong there. He had done his fair share of research before coming to this conclusion.
'Let me just check if it is all true. System, what is wrong with the sister?' Ning asked. After spending a few million energy, the system gave him all the answers he wanted. When Ning read the answer, he was really surprised.
It was exactly what the kid had said. The only thing different was that there was more than one treatment. However, the fruit was the easiest one of all.
'System, can I create the fruit?' Ning asked.
<You can create the fruit, but not the Aether inside>
'Well, I guess there is nothing you can do about that then.' Ning turned to look at Famir. "Alright, you stay here. I will go get your fruit from the forest," Ning said.
"N-NO!" Famir shouted. "You will get hurt."
Ning stopped. "Are there monsters in the forest?" he asked.
"Monsters? No, well maybe, but that's not the problem. The fruit is ridiculously high up in the tree. You will die if you fall from there... just like my father," Famir said with tears in his eyes.
Ning smiled and said, "You just worry about your sister. I can take care of myself just fine."