Aurora felt particularly relaxed with the mix of the buzz from drinking and the high from the weed as she entered her bedroom at the end of the night. The other three were all staying in some of her manor’s guest rooms as they were all too intoxicated or high to drive back home.
The evening had been something she had thoroughly enjoyed, having had the chance to relax and unwind without any pressure from everything on her plate or needing to think about anything beyond the casual conversation and banter.
That was not to say that the meetup they had on the previous Friday was not enjoyable, but it still had the focus on Caelus looming over the evening. Even after they had discussed everything she had planned, questions on the previous topics still came up in discussion meaning she still had the pressure of making sure her answers were convincing while not giving away too much.
Feeling tipsy, she walked over and flopped down onto her bed, enjoying the softness of the mattress on her back as she closed her eyes and let the tipsy sensation take hold of her attention. She did enjoy getting drunk, it always made hanging out with her friends much more enjoyable, even if the dynamic had changed somewhat.
As those thoughts crossed her mind, she reached up and started squeezing her breasts, drunkenly laughing at the absurdity that she was now a woman. She could feel the same calming sensations she felt the other day running through her body, but consciously pulled her hands away after a few moments, deciding to be sober when she eventually decided to properly explore herself despite how much her intoxicated self wanted to do otherwise.
Aurora let out a deep sigh, eventually lifting her leg up so she could take off her high-heeled sandals. While she could happily say she enjoyed looking at her stylish appearance in a mirror, the whole high heels aspect was a lot more effort than she liked. It once again increased her respect for the lengths women went to look good, and also added another thing to her long list of things to get used to.
With the heels now off, she wandered into the walk-in wardrobe attached to her room. The space now looked quite foreign to her with the usual sight of her male clothes replaced with everything she had purchased within the day.
There was a lot more free space now that she felt would be filled up over time, especially since Roxanne had expressed her enthusiasm to do some proper shopping. It was a whole aspect of her life that she would need to become accustomed to, but not something she was particularly averse to.
Shaking her head as to clear the drunken tangents that were distracting her, she started searching through the racks and draws to find the yoga pants she tried on earlier. The maids had done a great job organising everything, but since this was the first time exploring her new wardrobe, she still needed to find where everything was placed.
Finally finding the sportswear at the back, she pulled out what she was looking for along with a white sports crop top and made her way back to her bed to get changed. Changing didn't take her too long despite the slight reduction in coordination from the alcohol, but as she finished she could immediately feel the heat she experienced earlier in the day returning.
She had ended up touching and squeezing her new and appealing body more than was necessary as she was changing which had led to her current predicament. The alcohol paired with the feeling of her new attire squeezing her curves had not helped, and she found herself struggling to stop, eventually forcing herself into the bathroom to splash her face with cool water.
The sudden cold water on her face slightly sobered her up and helped her centre herself. It was clear to her now that the alcohol was removing many of the mental restraints she had placed that were holding her back, and now without her friends around to give her something else to focus on, there was nothing stopping her other than her dwindling willpower.
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She slapped her cheeks a few times which caused some of the water to spray onto the mirror, something she ignored as she straightened up and dried her face. Feeling the previous heat receding, she moved back into her bedroom and up to her pod. Since she could rest while inside unlike with the full dive helmets, there was no reason for her not to continue her progress in Caelus.
With little effort, she opened the pod and climbed inside. The previous sweaty state the pod was in had thankfully been cleared up, she assumed the sweat was due to her body changing since the pod was supposed to regulate the temperature to prevent such things from happening. Putting those thoughts to the back of her mind, she went through the familiar motions of logging back into Caelus Online, her body's consciousness eventually fading with the familiar weightlessness as everything went black.
****
Aurora felt the feeling of weightlessness fade, along with the influence of alcohol and weed as she opened her eyes. The feeling of going from drunk to sober instantly was always quite discombobulating, however, she was quite used to it by now. She found herself standing underneath the tree on the slopes of the mountain range she had traversed yesterday with the familiar weight of her shortsword strapped to her waist and the pressure of her regular attire around her body.
She had to blink her eyes a few times to get used to the low levels of evening light, and after a few short moments, she could see the lands before her bathed in the light of the current full moon in the cloudless sky.
Where she currently stood was within a wide valley that, like on the other side of the mountain range, featured a border wall and attached fort, however, this fort was significantly smaller. The wall crossed the lower valley that stretched twice the distance of its counterpart, with the few torches around the manned checkpoint brightly lit at the late hour.
Looking beyond the wall, Aurora could see small patches of light scattered throughout the visible landscape, clearly indicating the locations of a few of the villages where torches or lanterns were still being used.
Towards the horizon Aurora could see the moon reflected in a large lake, and to its left slightly covered by some of the higher parts of the terrain, the lights of an incredibly large city which she immediately recognised as the Imperial Capital of the Caleasian Empire and her eventual destination.
The scenery lit by moonlight was quite contrasting to the sunset views of Haligrad from the raised plateaus inland where everything was bathed in orange. Here everything was bathed in the cold light of the moon with the night casting long shadows over the land. It was still a beautiful sight and in keeping with her regular habit from before she had come back in time, she captured an image of the scenery before her.
It had become a habit while she travelled, always taking images of beautiful scenery and interesting sights as mementoes of her travels. While her daily life was exciting in its own way, navigating the intricacies of business and entrepreneurship, it did not allow for much freedom to explore the world.
She would always find herself pressed for time on a schedule, so on the opportunities she had to travel, she would only occasionally get a chance to explore the places where her work took her. However, with Caelus Online, that changed.
She gained the ability to explore vast lands of unique and rare sights, to see fantastical forests filled with glowing flora, dancing glowbugs, and sprites. She had seen massive rainbows created by waterfalls flowing from floating islands, or even the vast expanse of a sprawling medieval city as it lay covering an unthinkable expanse of land similar to modern cities.
With a deep inhale of the cool evening air, Aurora turned her attention to Sapphire who was looking around, clearly confused by the sudden change in her surroundings. Thankfully in Caelus, if a player logged out while their horse was outside of a stable, the horse was moved to a separate subspace where time did not pass, a feature that had no doubt saved thousands of horses from meeting an unfortunate fate while left unattended.
Gently stroking her horse’s mane to calm her, Aurora temporarily tied her horse to the tree next to her before she sat down with her back to the trunk. It had been a little overdue, but she had managed to acquire a selection of high-tier equipment boxes that would significantly increase her stats and by extension speed of grinding.
And that was not to mention the legendary equipment box that had her particularly excited. Ever since she acquired it she had wanted to open it, however, due to the fact it would give her a server announcement like with the epic equipment, she had held herself back.
Aurora needed to gain fame, and that was easily achieved through the server announcements. It would have been a waste to the announcement when she first got the box since there were only a couple of thousand players online compared to now when there were hundreds of thousands logged in. But now that long wait was over and she could finally satiate the ever-increasing desire to see what equipment she would get.