Chapter 43 - Flirting
"Hello there, we would like to help our friend sign up as an adventurer." Octer said with a smile on his face, and the young man in front of him slowly nodded his head, "Of course. Are we talking about the young man clothed in that black martial-arts uniform?" He asked, already seeing that this won't be particularly easy this time.
"Yep, that's him... He's had a bit too much to drink... You know how it is..." Octer tried to explain, and the employee at this public guild laughed a bit as he nodded his head, "We get those around here a lot, don't worry about it. But since he is currently quite intoxicated, we can only fully finish everything once he is sober, since there are certain procedures involved that require it to be so. One of my coworkers is a healer with access to the Detoxification spell. For a small fee, we will gladly take care of this for him." The employee explained, and Octer raised his brows and immediately nodded his head.
"Oh, that'd be great! Yeah, please... Erm, how much would it cost, though?"
"Just 50 Val, that's all." The employee explained, and Octer let out a sigh of relief as he pulled out a small pouch, and handed a bronze piece to the employee, "Will this be fine?"
"Of course it will be, just a moment, please." The employee replied with a gentle, professional smile, before he turned around and made his way to a room further in the back of this building. At the same time, Octer turned around and pulled Foster toward him, "I guess we're lucky that they have someone that can cast Detoxification... But really, what happened to that cool and collected guy from earlier?"
"Dude... I fucking threw up more than what I've eaten in a whole month combined... leave me be..." Foster said with a wry smile, and Octer rolled his eyes a bit, "Come on, even I didn't-" He was about to say, but Lynol was already standing there, staring at Octer. He was wearing a mask, so he couldn't be sure, but Octer was positive that he was being judged right now.
"...Ignore that..." He muttered, and instead just turned back toward Foster, who was having a tough time just standing up straight without falling right on his face. He was trying to keep his eyes shut so that the spinning room wouldn't make him even dizzier than he already was. It didn't take long until the employee from earlier came out with his colleague, and the two walked in front of the public guild's front-desk.
"Please, take a seat over here." The female healer said, seemingly quite annoyed. She then practically dragged Foster over toward a chair at the side of this room, and pushed him to sit down on it, "How much did you drink?"
"Not that much..." Foster said, leaning back against the wall as he tried not to throw up again, "Not much... Just like, half a bottle of Dwarven Spirit..." He said with a bit of a laugh, as the healer turned around shocked toward Octer and Lynol, "You let him drink that much Dwarven Spirit?!"
"Hey, he's an adult, and he immediately threw up most of that when they were done anyway." Octer said, nearly trying to defend himself, and the healer let out a deep sigh, "Fine... Either way, this is going to take a little while, then." She said, and stared at Foster, "Take off that shirt."
"Huh? Take me out to dinner first, or somethin'..." Foster groaned loudly, although he slowly did as he was told anyway. He practically just threw the top of the martial-arts uniform as well as his regular t-shirt to the side, and then stared up at the healer, who just rolled her eyes. She squatted down in front of Foster, and pressed her hand onto his chest, inbetween his belly-button and his heart.
Just a moment later, Foster could feel the spell being activated. Heat filled his chest and belly, and that heat spread out through his body within a few seconds. At some point, the heat became nearly unbearable, and he began to start sweating profusely. He had seen it when Octer was being treated for drinking that whole bottle of Dwarven Spirit, but feeling it was a lot more uncomfortable.
His head was just spinning even faster right now, and he felt like throwing up right on this woman in front of him. But soon, maybe fifteen, twenty minutes later, that started to change. Foster's head was starting to feel a lot clearer, and he was very obviously sobering up, even though he was completely drenched in sweat right now. Another ten minutes later, and he didn't even feel tipsy anymore.
Surprised at how effective this was, Foster jumped up and smiled, "Damn, magic is fucking amazing, huh?" He said with a light grin on his face, his hands placed on his hips. But at that point, he noticed the reaction of the people in front of him.
"...Right. Just take a bath as soon as possible, and... stay away from open flames." The healer said, clearly exhausted, and Foster quickly nodded his head in response, "I'll try my best..." He replied with a wry smile, slowly turning his eyes toward Aster, who was sitting on the back of his hand right now.
"Don't you dare do that thing again... even if it was pretty cool." He warned the small nature spirit, but it just turned its head to the side as if confused. The healer slowly turned around with a deep sigh, before slowly turning around again, and looked Foster up and down for a few moments, "By the way, if you were serious about the dinner, try not being drunk the next time we meet." She said with a wink, and Foster couldn't help himself but grin a bit.
"You got it." Foster quickly put on his shirt again, but chose to just carry the jacket of the martial-arts uniform, since the shirt was a lot easier to clean up later.
As the healer left, probably to rest a bit, the Octer, Lynol, and the guild employee all looked at Foster rather stunned, "What just happened?" Octer asked with a wry smile, and Foster shrugged, "What do I know? By the way, what's her name?"
"...I'm going to ignore this part of that exchange between you two. For now, should we start with having you sign up for the guild?" The employee suggested, and to Foster, it seemed like he was feeling a bit bitter. For the whole duration of him being healed, Foster and the healer were being a little... flirty. And with that bit at the end, the employee's jealousy seems to have risen a bit more. Either way, since Foster wasn't here to pick up a girl, he didn't really care that much for now.
"Got it. What do I need to do?" He asked, and the employee quickly turned around and led him back to the desk he was at before, "I just need you to write down a bit of information here on this sheet of paper. Ah, if you can't write, I can help you out, free of charge of course." The employee said, quickly returning back to his professional demeanor.
"Great... moer paperwork...." Foster grumbled, as he grabbed the writing pen next to him and got started writing down his information.