You are tipsy!

Judgment and movement slightly impaired.

Charisma +2

“Cheers!” I clinked a shot glass full of viscous amber liquid into an identical glass in Nadja’s hand, and we downed the two at once. It went down hard, and despite my best efforts, I coughed and sputtered.

“Easy there, shadow chaser, dryad catcher, water mage. Can’t have you hacking up a lung on me.” For her part, the drink might as well have been water for all the reaction she gave.

A day had passed since my audience with the king, and I was now working on completing his quest, full steam ahead. As it so happened, that involved getting hammered.

Wouldn’t it be kind of funny if the king had someone keeping tabs on me? At the last moment, I’d raised my trade skill one more level by asking for some “funds for the investigation.” To the untrained eye, it would look like I’d taken the guy’s money just to get drunk with it.

Not me though! Super hard at work!

And hey: It was true. The only lead I had on the scepter was Temrin and his pals, and the only place I knew that they came was here. If I wanted more information on the scepter’s whereabouts, the path was clear.

To do my duty, I had to get drunk and gossip.

In fairness, it was a little more complicated than that. It was hard to get any good information without sounding suspicious, and if Temrin showed up again, I could hardly just ask him if he knew about the scepter.

Still, it was better than wandering around blindly. And while I could probably find more thieves using God’s Eye, I wouldn’t really know what to do after that. Sticking with the ones who I’d already gotten drunk with seemed like a no-brainer.

To that effect, I was back at the bar, once again right when it opened. Nadja had greeted me with a “Couldn’t stay away?”, and we immediately got back to my “alcohol lessons.”

I wonder if Nadja knows anything about the scepter. Probably not, considering she doesn’t have a class. Still couldn’t hurt to get to know her a bit better. Hell, even if she knew nothing, it would hardly be wasted time. She was pretty cool, after all.

“So? You got me to spill my heroic deeds. What about you? What does the resident bartender get up to when she’s not working?” On another level, I was kind of just curious what there was to do in general. It wasn’t like she was going home and surfing the web.

“All sorts of mischief.” She grinned at me, revealing a perfect set of dazzlingly white teeth. “If you must know, however, I spend a lot of time practicing. Into music.”

Huh. I wondered what sorts of music genres they had here. “What instrument?”

Giving us a break from the straight shots, Nadja brought out a shaker and started throwing a hodgepodge of ingredients in. “Eh. You know how it is. Hard to level up as a non-fighter without taking every skill you can get, so I’m passable on most instruments. Flute’s my best though. You ever come over for those spring melons and I can give you a demo.”

That sounded kind of nice, actually. It would probably be the most normal thing I’d done since getting here.

Before I could follow up, the door opened. This time around, however, it admitted a host of people I hadn’t seen the day before.

Can’t be that easy, I guess.

Nadja finished up my drink and passed it to me before peeling herself away from our conversation to address the newcomers. Sucks that she has an actual job.

Then again, the drink she’d made me was phenomenal. It had that cute little egg-white foam on top and tasted like a cucumber had had sex with a swarm of bees, resulting in a drink that was sweet, light, and kind of prickly tasting.

I eventually finished the drink and went for another, but while customers came and went, Temrin remained absent, and I didn’t get into any great conversations with other patrons this time around. Right as I was about to call it a night, Nadja stopped by.

“You never told me how long you’re in the city for. When ya heading out?”

Honestly, would love to know that myself. How long before the king decided I couldn’t pull through for him?

“I don’t really know yet. I have to imagine at least a week though?” Settling everything and leaving before then seemed like a pipe dream.

“Yeah? Well if you’re here that long, you might as well get to know the place. I’m off tomorrow if you need a tour guide. Can give you that demo too if you want to swing by mine after.”

Huh. The people here really are just super friendly.

Ever so briefly, I considered that maybe she meant it as more than a friendly kind of thing, but that couldn’t make sense. Sure, there’d been the fake flirting going on earlier, but some bartenders did that, right?

Plus, I’d had a number of friends back home who’d complained on multiple occasions about how customers and friends would mistake even the smallest amount of kindness for some kind of flirtation. Hell, I’d had it happen to me before, and it was frankly a pretty unpleasant feeling. Sometimes a person was just being nice.

Especially as a bartender, Nadja probably had experienced such a thing too. There was no reason to make her uncomfortable with wrong assumptions.

And most of all… How big would my ego need to be to assume that practically the first place I walk into has someone flirting with me?

Not that I thought I had a particularly low self esteem, or anything, but considering this was a world full of magic, outside my swirly gold mark, I was probably pretty boring, no?

Musings aside, it was true that I’d certainly prefer not to stake out the bar for Temrin and crew if Nadja wasn’t going to be around. It wouldn’t hurt to take a little break.

And hey, it sounded like I was going to make a new friend. Couldn’t say no to that.

The next afternoon, I met Nadja in the central plaza. A thin layer of rouge graced her lips, and she looked ready to go.

Huh, she looks really nice. Are we exploring anywhere fancy? Or maybe she’s just one of those people who likes to go all-out when they’re out on the town. I definitely had known some people like that.

In contrast, I was looking a bit drab considering I’d only purchased the one outfit, but that was fine. She was just showing me around, and I didn’t have anyone I was trying to impress.

The day that followed was without a doubt the best I’d had since arriving on this peculiar planet.

Not only was the bartender particularly knowledgeable about her spirits, but also about her food: By the day’s end, we’d visited no fewer than four different vendors, and each had me wishing there was a stat for a larger stomach. The last of the four was selling deserts reminiscent of ice cream, but heavier and richer, like a dense gelato. A sweet tooth being one of my major weaknesses, I bought two while idly wondering if the cart was powered with ice magic.

Between all the eating, we wandered around the city. A number of times, we stopped to watch various street performances, first a juggler, then a street artist, and finally a duo of singers. I was at first taken aback by the number of performers until Nadja informed me it was a common way to level up. The experience from gaining skill levels in performance arts counted just as much as those for traditional professions or combat skills, after all.

We browsed through a few smaller shops and vendors as well, but I didn’t end up buying anything. Insisting that I leave Ftheran with a souvenir of sorts, however, Nadja bought me a small, wooden bracelet. It was lacquered and painted in the city’s colors, emerald and black.

At one point, she grabbed my arm and floated the idea of enjoying a bathhouse together, but I decided against it. The showers in the palace did their job well, and I was already feeling clean.

With that idea dismissed, we did what Nadja knew best: We drank. Having no desire to return to her workplace on her day off, she took me to a string of other bars.

One, in fact, was much more of a rowdy pub. As the city was hardly as large as a metropolis back on Earth, Nadja ran into a number of people she knew, and after a significant amount of prodding, one of them convinced us to play a few rounds of dice and cards.

To everyone’s surprise — most of all, mine — I won quite a few rounds, and after a time, I even earned the Gambling skill. After we ducked out, I told Nadja this, and she gave me a strange look. Apparently not many people had it, as it required 15 Luck to unlock.

Throughout it all, we talked. While I liked to believe I was more than capable of holding a conversation, in the beginning, I actually found this quite difficult. I couldn’t answer a host of basic questions, like where I was from or where I was staying in the city, and a lot of my stories and hobbies were Earth-specific. With no small level of shame, I ended up grabbing my first level in the Charisma-skill Deception. On top of that, when we got onto the topic of music, I ended up poorly describing the concept of “pop” for a good few minutes before giving up.

The saving grace, of course, was Nadja. Given that her Charisma was over 15, she’d presumably gained the Conversation skill eons ago, and whenever I thought I had nothing left to say, she swooped in with a new topic. I felt bad having her lead the conversation so much, but if she minded, she didn’t show it.

As night descended upon us, the air grew crisper, and a host of street lamps lit the streets, each filled with tiny, luminous crystals. We walked farther and farther, warmed by the pleasant buzzes we’d cultivated over the course of the evening.

Ever so slowly, the city changed. The streets grew narrowers, the houses more squeezed together. Eventually, the lamps ceased altogether, our way lit only by the stars and whatever light spilled through various windows. It was a part of the city I’d yet to explore.

“Is this your neighborhood?” I’d been promised a mini flute-performance and had yet to try the lauded spring melons, so we were en route to Nadja’s.

“Yup. Keep telling myself I’ll move out one of these days, but I grew up around here, you know? Hard to say goodbye to your home.” She seemed more at ease as we moved deeper into her neighborhood, her steps becoming surer. “Besides… I’m saving up.”

“What for?” Outside of a nicer house, I kind of wondered what people saved up for here. A lot of the pricier luxuries back home didn’t really apply.

“Well… I kind of want to travel. Get out of here. See different places, like you do.” Her mouth hung open for a moment as she faltered, the admission seeming to embarrass her. “I love this place, but it can get depressing sometimes. And I know there’s nothing wrong with it, but when I think about growing old and never having left the city I was born in… I just get kind of sad, you know?”

I couldn’t say I got it got it — I’d hopped around a bit when I was younger, and certainly now I’d gone pretty far from home — but it was a feeling I could understand. Who doesn’t wonder what else is out there?

“I’m sure you’ll do it, then. Get to travel. Explore.” I didn’t know what else to say, but judging by her smile and a quick flash alerting me to a level up in Conversation, the sentiment was appreciated.

Soon thereafter we reached her place. While its exterior was in line with the rest of Ftheran’s style, smooth and brown with designs and rounded edges, its interior was not far from what I was used to. She had the first floor of what was essentially a walk-up, with a level of space on par with a smaller one-bedroom you’d find in a modern city.

After I settled into a bulky couch in the same style of the misshapen chairs I’d come across earlier, Nadja fetched a drink, a slice of spring melon, and a flute. Not wanting to disturb anyone at the late hour, she played a soft, slow melody.

In the dimly lit room, the notes seemed to sink into my flesh and give me goosebumps as I bit down on the juicy melon. I washed each bite down with my drink, sweet, then burning, then sweet, then burning.

This… is a beautiful moment, isn’t it? I feel like I’m going to remember this for a long time.

The notes faded, and Nadja’s performance ended. Not wanting to disturb the air, I refrained from clapping, but from my face, I was certain she could tell I was impressed.

From there, we talked for a time. Eventually, noting the late hour, Nadja grabbed my arm.

“It’s gotten late on us. Stay the night?” Evidently a little cold, she leaned into me.

I considered it, but it didn’t seem right. Why would I crash on her couch when I had such a comfy bed waiting for me in the palace? Besides, she had work tomorrow. I didn’t want to trouble her.

She seemed a touch disappointed that I didn’t avail myself of her hospitality, but save for warning me to be careful on the way home, she didn’t push.

Later, when at last I lay in bed, I smiled.

What a good friend I’ve made.