ALL NOVEL 43. Getting drunk
After Astaria handed over the money, she stayed and continued to speak with Anna, telling the friendly woman the stories of what she had been up to during the day. Anna expressed surprise at Astaria’s large group of friends, learning just how much thought Astaria had put into making use of her time within the world.
Their conversation was cut short when Jorn called out asking Anna to come and give him a hand serving the tables, so Astaria requested a tankard of beer and entered the rowdy dining area.
Astaria moved to sit down on the only free seat at a table where DemonicGold sat alongside CinderFlare as well as a trio of other players, a dwarf, elf, and human.
The three players she had not met yet amused her slightly, seeing the three together made her imagine that an elderly wizard accompanied by two midgets would suddenly appear to complete the party.
Ignoring her thoughts that were going off on a tangent, Astaria sat down and listened to their conversation.
“I see, so that’s how it works. I was surprised when there was no guild function in the menu. Well, you guys have a major advantage, that’s for sure.”
“I would guess that you guys will have a monopoly on being the only guild for a while, those are not the easiest requirements to meet.”
“Well, we managed to complete some quite highly rewarding quests and handed in quite the haul of goblin ears to the adventurer’s guild with Astaria’s group slaughtering so many goblins. That’s not to mention the raid boss. Between the twelve of us, we managed to get what we needed. We do have a bunch of other members who could have helped if we didn’t make the requirements today, but they started playing today so were not able to make it to the capital in time.”
Astaria listened to the ongoing conversation as the Elf, Human and DemonicGold all spoke, and decided to enter the discussion with her own comment.
“Honestly, I am quite excited for the progress of the guild, we have a lot of additional people who we hired outside the game who will be getting involved, as well as all the potential new members we will recruit when we get started in the morning.”
Astaria’s comment caused the eyebrows of the 3 other players who were unaware of this information to rise, as well as some of the other players who were paying attention to her since she entered the dining area. The dwarven player in front of her with the name Give_Me_Beer was the first to respond with clear bewilderment.
“Wait, you hired people outside the game to play it? Is that not a complete waste of money?”
The elven player going by the username of Greenleaf who to Astaria seemed to be someone experienced with games, responded to the dwarf, the interaction seeming to have become familiar to them.
“It does occasionally happen for professional Esports teams, but I guess it is different for you guys unless you are with a team or starting a new one?”
Astaria gave a small smirk as she answered the question, she knew she didn’t want to reveal anything publicly yet but was curious if the creation of Augurium Esports had an impact amongst the more avid gamers.
“I wonder, nothing will be publicly announced due to certain complications, but I do wonder if you can come up with any guesses?”
Greenleaf fell into silent contemplation while the human and dwarf looked at each other and shrugged, clearly as clueless as each other about esports. After a few moments, the Elf spoke, voicing his thoughts.
“Well, there have been a couple of players not in their teams’ main lineups talking about receiving contract offers but not saying who with, although that is nothing new, and I don’t recognise any of those players amongst your group. So it might be a new esports team, or you could be a rich lady throwing around some spare money. So, I honestly can’t come up with anything conclusive.”
With a motion like he was going to push up his glasses despite not wearing any, the elf awkwardly put his hand back down as he looked to Astaria to see her reaction.
“Well, I guess there are some points in which you had a hit on a slither of the truth. Give it some time and you will find out. I think the date for the official reveal has been pencilled in for next week, but that’s subject to change depending on events.”
Beer, still looking quite confused by the whole conversation, looked at Astaria as he leaned forward, determined to understand her reasoning.
“That's all well and good, but what do you actually get out of it?”
Astaria raised an eyebrow as she began to explain.
“Well, aside from being able to make money through the sale of in game gold and rare items which can potentially earn a lot, there is a particular civil war that is about to kick off in a neighbouring empire, and I want a say in it. So, what better way than to have an influential guild behind me?”
Those listening all had looks of understanding as CinderFlare spoke up, a charming smile played on her face as she drew everyone’s attention.
“And that’s why Astaria got Gold here onboard, there is no better person to ask when it comes to making money in a game.”
Gold smirked as CinderFlare held his hand, causing a slight look of jealousy to appear on some of the other player's faces, most notably Greenleaf.
Their conversation continued into the evening as the drink flowed. By the time players either logged out or went to their rented rooms, and the locals returned home, everyone in Astaria’s group was quite heavily drunk.
Throughout the evening they had managed to recruit 5 of the other players in the establishment who had all shown a lot of interest in joining the guild, and that included the 3 players sitting at the table with Astaria. Beer who didn’t seem all that interested was persuaded by his other two drinking buddies, but how much of that decision was made because of the influence of alcohol Astaria could only begin to guess.
Russel had ended up passed out with his head on one of the tables and had to be carried upstairs by Ali and Ben, his poison resistance potion having dramatically failed much to everyone’s amusement.
After getting her room key from Anna, who also offered to wash her hooded robe after remembering her state when she first entered, Astaria was followed upstairs by Marie and Roxanne. She had drunk noticeably more alcohol than everyone else and it was clear that the tolerance of her new body was significantly higher than before, something she both appreciated yet cursed. Despite the unexpected buff, in the end, she had become just as tipsy as everyone else and needed to take the stairs slower than while sober from her slightly unsteady steps.
After following the directions Anna had provided, Astaria unlocked the room and placed the key into the other side of the lock so the last person could lock the door behind them. The room was like the one from last night, simple in decoration, with 4 beds instead of just 1.
Now she was finally in her room, she tipsily made her way towards the nearest bed and let herself fall onto the sheets where feeling the pure exhaustion throughout her body washed over her, becoming more obvious after she relaxed all her limbs onto the soft mattress.
She heard the lock click, and shortly after felt Roxanne sit down next to her, her eyes looking over Astaria with concern.
“Hey, are you alright? I wanted to ask you when we were in private since I know you don’t generally share your feelings. And I doubt the others noticed either, I have to admit I noticed them occasionally looking over at you. Not that I can blame them, but I get the feeling they were checking you out more than making sure you were alright.”
Astaria let out a long sigh as Marie spoke up from the bed where she was now lying, watching the conversation.
“I have to agree, I noticed you were more carefree than usual. Also, I noticed you giggling instead of your usual laugh, and I don’t know if that’s because of the new body or you playing the part, or some mental change from Fortuna.”
Another long sigh left Astaria’s mouth as she closed her eyes trying to navigate her mind that was currently a mess.
“Honestly, I’m not ok. The whole returning in time debacle has been stressing me out the last two weeks, the pressure of all the lives I could save depending on my actions putting an unbelievable pressure on my shoulders. Now the whole potentially becoming a woman in real life and the complications that will bring? I have mentally just been ignoring the issue, letting myself deal with it later. After all, it’s not confirmed and I might still be a guy in real life, so I’m just counting on that.”
