NOVEL NEXT 80. A Hangover
Aurora came back to her usual familiar senses feeling particularly groggy, her head pounding from fatigue. Usually, someone would be able to rest overnight in a pod without any repercussions, but given that she had been up all night trying to cull as many gnolls as she could through zombie tactics, she was mentally drained.
While the memory of each death was muted and distant thanks to the system working to help protect Immortal Warrior's sanity, each time still took a mental burden nonetheless, and it had made her feel particularly tired.
That was on top of the lowered quality of rest her physical body was able to manage due to all of the alcohol she had consumed the night before. It was a double knockout blow that had simultaneously hit her as she logged out.
So she lay still with both her hands massaging her temples hoping the headache would recede. Today was not an ideal day for her to have her ability to think and perform hindered.
Thankfully, she did not have the particularly sweaty mess to deal with after returning like yesterday. She assumed that most of the sweat previously present was due to going through the whole process of her body and soul changing, while this time she only had a light sheen over her forehead.
She moved one of her hands down to her stomach where she could feel a light dampness around the high waistband of her yoga pants, hinting that she had still been noticeably sweating earlier. It had likely been while she was in the intense fights, but still didn’t change the fact she would need to clean herself up.
With a groan, she opened the pod and carefully stepped out. She took a few moments to lean against the large device as a wave of lightheadedness washed over her. It was an all to familiar feeling after laying down for so long, and she was thankfully prepared and didn’t end up on the floor like the first time.
It was apparent from her current condition she was pushing herself particularly hard and she was getting closer to her limits. She would need to take a proper break soon or she would find herself burnt out more than ever.
‘Maybe a short weekend away would be the perfect break? I have been flat out for nearly 3 weeks now…’
Aurora let out a long, deep breath as the world gradually stopped spinning and she made her way over to the bed. Pulling the rope cord dangling at the foot of the bed to hopefully summon Harold, she let her body fall onto her back as it sank into the soft duvet and mattresses while closing her eyes.
It took a few minutes but eventually, a light knock on the door rang through the room.
“Come in.”
As soon as her groggy sounding voice reached the person on the other side of the door it quickly opened and Harold’s voice entered her ears.
“Your Grace, are you alright?”
Aurora let out a deep breath as she answered, slightly cracking her eyelids open to see Harold's worried expression looking down at her.
“Just pushed myself far more than I planned to last night. Don’t worry, I’m sure some paracetamol and ibuprofen will clear the worst of my headache.”
Harold's brows creased together in a sign of worry as he leaned in and rested a hand on her forehead.
“Please excuse my lack of Decorum… hmm, you seem to have a slight temperature. Are you sure that pushing yourself is all you are ailed with? This is a new body and I am unsure how it will impact you.”
Aurora pushed herself up so she was resting on her elbows as she looked at Harold with a tender smile.
“Yes, I’m sure. It is far more sturdy than before, that much I can assure you.”
Harold gave a slight nod before pausing, clearly deep in though before he finally spoke aloud the idea that had crossed his mind.
“What about magic? Might you be able to heal your headache with that?”
Aurora gave a halfhearted smile as she let gravity take hold once more and slumped back to her bedcovers.
“Not in any meaningful capacity. Any healing I learned was focused on first aid in combat, closing cuts and gashes, resetting broken bones, and a little into reducing the impact of the overuse of mana. Dealing with headaches and hangovers was usually healed by others more proficient with the healing arts.”
Harold let out an exasperated sigh as his disappointed gaze met hers.
“Well, at least you learnt life saving magic, but for now, you should take better care of yourself since you currently don’t have a healer to ease your pain.”
Aurora let out a light laugh as she rolled her eyes.
“That's not entirely true, that friend's name is painkillers, and I can already hear them calling my name.”
Harold let out an exasperated sigh as he straightened up, his tone a mix of disapproval and light amusement.
“Very well, I shall bring your so called ‘friends’, I just hope they will be enough to help you survive Hilda and the other maid's planned morning routine. They have been quite vocal about all the things they wish to try on you.”
Aurora’s eyes widened at her butler's words, letting them sink in as the realisation hit her.
“Oh dear god, it's that whole girl's talk right? They must have been discussing how they wanted to try different beauty products on this oh-so-fair skin of mine, yes?”
Harold let out a hum before speaking, taking a few steps towards the door.
“Oh, yes, it is just as you say. The ladies were quite positively gushing about what might look good with your features.”
With exaggerated movement Aurora gave a single dismissive wave of her hand before letting it fall back to the bed again, showing her slight resignation and laissez faire attitude about it.
“Fine, fine, just let them know that I’m choosing my clothes, and whatever makeup they do, it has to be professional. If they want to go wild, well… they can wait till I go out or to a festival. I'm not turning up like a drag queen to a board meeting.”
Harold opened the door as he turned around, looking at Aurora with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, I can't imagine such a look would not suit Your Grace's perfect complexion, but I am inclined to agree, such a style would most certainly not fit the occasion. I shall let them know.”
And with the light sound of the door closing Harold left to go get her pain relief while she remained with her eyes closed, letting her mind fall back to the events of the previous night.
After she had been first killed by the gnolls and organised the mobilisation of her guild, she had respawned near the bottom of a mountain opposite from side from where the camp lit up the night, her magically created fire having apparently spread somewhat.
The gnoll’s howls and screeches had echoed through the small valley between the two mountains, which had allowed her some freedom when moving since her footsteps were muffled over the cacophony of noise in the camp.
As she had approached again, she had managed to find a few stray gnolls in a frenzy, and had easily dealt with them without alerting the rest.
Upon reaching the camp, it was chaos. Some gnolls were trying to put out the fires that were still managing to spread to the occasional unlucky tent, others looked to be angrily prowling about on guard while in the centre of the camp she could see various fights breaking out amongst the members of the tribe who were at a higher level.
Her whole attack had lasted a few minutes and she had picked off as many stray gnolls as she could, the majority being those of lower level before she was finally noticed again. After finally being spotted she rushed into the chaos trying to kill or injure as many as she could.
Her second attack had been relatively successful since the gnoll’s were in a frenzied, disorganised state with their strongest members fighting amongst themselves. And thanks to her much higher WIS stat, her spells dealt even more damage allowing her to easily clean up the lower levelled tribesmen and heavily injuring others.
She could not tell how many she managed to defeat since she was in somewhat of a frenzied state herself, defending herself while trying not to get surrounded and torn apart.
However there was only so much she could manage before she had been caught and killed again, but she had been more than satisfied with the damage she had managed to cause.
Aurora’s next attacks, however, had not gone as well. The tribe had finally realised that she somehow kept coming back and attacking them, so while the strongest few continued to fight, the rest of the higher levelled gnolls formed smaller groups to patrol around the camp, apparently realising that going on their own was what got them killed.
