A brigade of drunkards sings under the ceiling lights

"Me? Ah, I'm just bad at it," I said. If someone had X-Ray vision, they would see sweat inside my skin.

"Bad? Ah... I see what you mean. How old are you again?" Eric spoke after a brief pause. One end of his lips curved up as if he was about to shake my mind.

"2000—"

"—Forget it"

"Ah, ah. Kidding, kidding. I'm 19, I guess, not sure really." I said in haste, to stop Eric from turning away. "What is it? What are you gonna tell me?"

"I was an apprentice in the Royal Magic Laboratory of Elisbonear... We were researching how a mage's age affects their growth," Eric sipped the alcohol from a wooden coaster-like box.

How age affects a person's magic. Despite knowing much more than almost all the population, there were many things I couldn't learn about magic in three years. This was one of them... Actually, "Ivan probably didn't research about things like that. What then? What'd you find?"

Eric crossed his arms and exaggerated a shiver. "Why would you call yourself Ivan? Trying to act cute?" This sad fuck. I am going to kill him.

"Anyway," he continued. "For whatever little time I was there... We found out that magic capacity and computational skills keep growing until you are 27. It stagnates after that."

"By capacity, you mean how much magical energy you can store in your body, or how much you can process through your body?"

"Both."

I leaned back at his words and nodded my head. Why did he tell me this again? Oh yeah! Didn't he ask me why I couldn't use magic? He actually bought that I am bad at it? Is he a fool or is he just drunk?

"Well, why little time?" I asked and took a sip from the wooden box myself.

"Ah... Well, the ladies and quite a few gentlemen went red with rage every time I was around. I was kicked out by my boss because I was 'distracting' the team." Eric shifted his gaze around uncomfortably.

"So basically you seduced everyone on your team and your jealous little bitch of a boss fired you, makes sense."

"That's not what I said at all—"

"—HYAAHHH!!" A voice reverberated through the room. The door slid open with a crashing sound. Whitish-pink hair waved in the air with each heavy step Nea took towards us. Every tap on the ground bought her stony face closer and closer.

She went next to the table and looked at both of us. Her eyes first locked on Eric and then on me. Sharp, as if she was skinning us to see what was inside. The red tint on her face made her look like she was enjoying this. Wait, red tint? Is she just drunk, too?

Before I could even think to myself, Nea jumped up and sat on the tatami with a loud bang. She took one of the many bottles of alcohol and tried to chug it down. She took a large sip and broke into a coughing fit.

"Kahk! Kahk! The heck, this is sweet!"

"Holy Medax! Is she just drunk?" Eric asked.

"Sure is. You never saw her like this, did you?" I said.

"You keep forgetting that we met yesterday, right? I don't blame you. I am treating you like a little brother myself."

Eric said something outrageous! A loud purr rang out as a black cat walked into the room, closing the door behind itself. It came over to the table and, with very natural movements, poured some alcohol into a small cup and started drinking it. Seriously, just what is with this cat?! Wait! Not important!

"Who are you calling a little brother, you sad fuck!" I banged my hand on the table.

"You! You are just 19! Bow and lick your senior's feet. Young bastard!" Eric banged the table with the same intensity.

"I told you, I am 2000! How old can you be?" I shouted and grabbed the sad fuck's collar.

"I am 24! Haha!" The bastard grabbed my collar.

"Oh, two fighting Gilbons in a dungeon?" A surge of magical energy flowed in the room, probably, as Nea's voice crept to our ears. We both fixed each other's collars and immediately sat down.

"That reminds me, why did we ever go to a dungeon?" After another bout of silence, Eric spoke up.

"To get experience!" Nea said.

"Experience for?" Eric followed up.

"Nea's gonna participate in the Sea King Tournament," I answered nonchalantly

"What! Amongst those crazy monsters?!"

"Yup, and I am gonna wipe the floor with them!"

We talked a bit more before we all passed out drunk. I think the cat turned off the lights and put a blanket over all of us, but don't really remember.

We would now go back to our little home one last time. It's been a year already. About time we left Ussera...