I saw disbelief in the two dull grey-blue eyes. He was shaking, the mountain of muscles that was slightly taller than even I was, shaking because he couldn't believe that I caught his hammer with ease. I could smell the booze on him, mixed in with sweat and piss. Some of the people around us were laughing when he dropped the bottle of whatever alcohol it was, letting it shatter on the ground, and then swung his fist at me. Just like it was with the hammer I caught it mid-air and with ease.

"Sober up," I said as I kicked him straight in the chin.

He flew upwards but I still held onto his hand and hammer and then threw him right into a wall. A large cloud of dust and debris was whirled up as he hit it, crumbling the already filthy and destroyed wall even more. Some of the people that sat on the other side of the small, broken wall looked at us funny since we interrupted their poker game.

"He-" one began but he immediately stopped when he saw me staring at him.

Without another word he just sat back down and avoided my stare. The man I had just thrown into a wall just lay there, probably unconscious. And during this entire thing, M managed to stay on my shoulder without tightening his grip.

I then turned towards the door that led into the East Cornerhouse and kicked it open. The inside was a fairly dark room filled with tables and benches, at the far end was a bar and there was no ceiling, just a walkway with a railing. On the floors above were just more tables. I walked up to the bar and stared at the barkeeper.

"H-How can I help you?" he asked cautiously.

"Any newcomers come here in the past two weeks?" I asked, still staring him right into his brown eyes.

He nodded and pointed to a table in the corner of the room where five people were playing dice.

"Thanks," I said as I walked to the table.

One of the players there noticed me and looked at me weird.

"Who are you?" he asked loud enough for me to hear.

Before I could answer another turned around and studied me, compared to all the others they didn't have this sense of stupidity in their eyes but the disgusting feeling I had around humans was stronger when I was closer to them.

'It's the passive mana output,' Ira explained.

'Anyway to block that?' I asked.

'Kill them,' Ira stated.

I chuckled in my own head.

"That must be the so-called Crow! I heard a lot about'cha, why don't you sit down and play with us!?"

I nodded and sat down at the table.

"The Crow eh? The one that took over all of the gangs? Pretty impressive. You know how to play?" the one who first saw me asked.

"I guess... and I do," I answered.

The game was easy, you would roll the dice and simply add all the numbers together, whoever had the most would win the round. There were barely any other rules. If you had a number twice you'd multiply the numbers you had twice by two and add that instead of the normal number, if you had a number three times you multiply by three and so on. The exception was if you had six of a kind, then you'd instantly win the round unless someone else had six of a kind as well.

"Well then, let's begin with a new player. You got your own dice?" one asked.

I nodded and pulled a golden set of dice out of my satchel, instead of a six it had a crown and instead of a one it had a broken crown.

"Uh, nice, golden dice bring luck!" one said out loud.

I fake chuckled as I put them down on the table.

"Before we begin, let's exchange names, if none of you mind," suggested the one that had recognized me as the crow. "I'm Sarge," he said.

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Sarge was a tall man, probably around two metres tall when standing, dressed in expensive-looking clothes with golden locks, a short full beard and one grey eye, the other one had a nasty-looking scar over it. He seemed to be a full mage since I could see part of a magic mark going up his neck.

"I'm Cole!" the one that had first seen me said.

He was far smaller than I was, maybe one-eighty or somewhere around that height with short, black hair, large brown eyes, dressed in leather armour with two curved swords on his back.

"Well then, I am Imila," a short woman, maybe around one sixty said.

She had a blueish, short ponytail and wore full plate armour and a sword along with a shied on her back. A full helmet rested on the bench right next to her.

"I'm Gapler!" the tallest of the bunch said.

His skin was of a dirty dark green, he had two tusks emerging from his mouth, a pig-like nose, a row of horns instead of eyebrows and he wore a robe. On the table right next to his massive fist was a cage with a small humanoid with wings in it.

Must be one of those sorcerers.

The man was about three metres tall and from his appearance, I assumed he was an orc or something like that.

"Alright then if you all insist. My name is Orca," a woman sitting next to Sarge, who sat next to me, said, she sounded very stuck up.

She had bright blue hair, blue eyes, blue eyebrows, blue lips and on her neck I could see slits that seemed like gills. She wore leather armour as well but I couldn't see any weapons on her.

"What about you?" Sarge asked.

"Alright then," I said, pulling down my hood because it was becoming hot in her, which was partially due to the stares we got, most of them were directed at Gapler though.

"I'm Altair, this is M-" I pointed to M on my shoulder, "- most people call me Crow."

Gapler and Serge began laughing.

"Aren't you a bit too old to call yerself by your childhood name?" Gapler asked, his voice was rough and deep.

"I have my reasons," I responded. "Now let's order some drinks and get this going, shall we?"

Before I could even raise my hand the barkeeper already stood at our table and took our orders.

'Are you sure you should tell them your real name?' Ira asked.

'Not like it's a secret, and it's only going to get harder to find out any info from them when they hear that I lied about my name,' I responded.

'And what about getting drunk with them?' Ira asked.

'Drunk people like to talk,' I simply responded before the barkeeper brought us more drinks than we asked for.

Once everyone was set we began playing. All of us put some money in the middle of the table. To begin with, each of us put down a single silver coin. Everyone rolled at the same time and we began counting. I rolled two threes, a four, a one, a six and a two.... twenty-five.

"Twelve!" Sarge said, sounding disappointed.

"Thirteen!" Cole said.

"Twenty-one!" Orca said loudly.

"Eighteen!" lmila said.

"Twenty-five!" I said.

Gapler suddenly began chuckling.

"Six of a kind!" he yelled out as he proudly showed us the six ones he had rolled. His dice were golden.

"Oh come on, this is the second time you rolled six of a kind today! Your dice gotta be rigged!" Sarge complained.

"I said that gold dice bring luck. Look at Altair over there, got the second highest and has golden dice. It's a sign!" Gapler said as he was chuckling.

He had a voice that was surely loud even when he would whisper. We continued playing and drinking for hours on end. And Gapler seemed to have been right, golden dice did bring luck. More often than not at least one of us would either win or be very close. By the end, even Orca became more light-hearted and talked a lot less stuck up.

"So, why... why did'cha, come to us... anyway?" Sarge asked, trying not to throw up and almost laying on the table.

"I heard... you were... new in town," I responded, trying to sound as drunk as possible.

Elvia had fed me so many drugs and plants that I was almost completely immune to alcohol at this point, and probably most toxins as well.

"Yesh, we arrived... two... no, three... no, yes two weeks ago!" Gapler said with his deep voice.

"Yeah... we... we're part of a secret origa... orgami... organization, that's it," Sarge whispered loudly.

"A secret organization?" I asked.

"Yesh, but don't tell anyone. If... if you're interested then... then take this and... and hold it into the... the stone... thingy... skull, yesh... the stone skull!" Sarge whispered, louder than before.

He reached into his pocket and gave me a ring which I promptly put in my satchel.

"We... we're called... Pergament," Orca said, which surprised me. "Swing by and we'll, we'll put in a good word for ya!"

Her cheeks were red and she looked like shit, her hair all fuzzy and the white of her blue eyes almost completely red.

"Well then, my friends. I'll go home now. If you... ever need something, you can easily find out where to find the crow," I said as I took the money from the middle of the table, which I won with my last role where I rolled a six of a kind with all sixes against Gapler's six of a kind with all threes. It was about two hundred silvers.

"Come by soon!" Gapler said as I turned around to leave the East Cornerhouse.

'Always good when they're idiots,' I said to Ira.

'Oh, and here I thought you would finally make friends!' Ira said.

'I almost threw up, if it hadn't been for the orc and whatever Orca was I would have probably,' I responded as I pushed open the door and the cold night air hit me right in the face.

I pulled down my hood and climbed up to the roofs from where I made my way towards my house. Once I reached it I entered and immediately jumped up to the ladder that led to my bedroom. I sat down on my bed and took a closer look at the ring they had given me. It was a typical ring made of silver, but it had these blue runes engraved on it.

"Interesting... can't wait to see what type of organization this... Pergament really is."