It was easier to find the guild than Victor had expected as he explored the community he found himself in. There was a large sign across the entirety of the wall directly under the roof allowing you to see it from afar. He assumed the writing was something along the lines of the proper name of the guild and that the fact there were various different designs carved onto the sign made him feel more certain of his location. Especially what, at least as far as he could tell, looked like a generic wanted poster, some sort of wand, and a sword over a shield on the left side of the sign.

Once Victor entered the building, he heard a lot of people talking about various things. While not overly full there seemed to be at least one person at all nine of the large tables in the central area. Beyond the tables was a counter, open in the middle leading to a door in the back, with a couple of people in a line, likely to talk to the four people behind it. A bit to the left of the counter was a stairway going up and on its right was a stairway going down. On the wall to the right, he saw a bench and the left was what looked to be job posters, each with a different color stained on the top right corner like he had been told about.

Out of everything that could catch someone's eye, what drew Victor's attention was some of the people that he saw. It answered one of the questions that he wasn't willing to ask in case it drew unwanted attention to himself that he didn't want.

The quest was if there were people who weren't human. Until now, since he had been distracted, he hadn't really paid the most attention to the people around him. Now however he allowed himself to take the time to notice more of what was around him. Behind the counter was a beast woman that, by his best guess was some sort of cat species. It didn't quite look like what he was used to because the tip of her ears had some sort of extra fluff pointing up. He also saw a couple of dwarfs drinking at a table and an elf standing with a human, looking over the posters seeming to concentrate on the ones that were marked orange.

Eventually, someone clapped Victor on the shoulder from behind and caused him to jump a bit in surprise. Turning around he saw a decently large man who seemed to have a bit of a scar that made it so his beard couldn't quite grow in properly anymore despite the man letting it grow out about an inch below his chin.

"You're new here ain't you? I can tell by the look on your face. If you are here with some business for the guild go to the left counter. That's where people go to give jobs to the guild, to ask for something like training, or to see if the guild is buying or selling something. The right side is where people report a successful job or officially accept a job."

In his rush to find the guild, Victor forgot how much his clothing stuck out. The red of his shirt popped a lot more than most clothing he had seen from the color alone, even without considering the blue logo on it. His jeans were a lot different than the leather or cloth that the man was wearing around his legs and of course, the shoes were dramatically different when you compared rubber to leather.

"Ah right." Victor agreed, "I came here to see about joining the guild. I need to start working and this place seemed to be a good place to start. I was supposed to be selling some things, but I sort of got robbed and I only have a few things to sell so.... ah, the rest isn't important, I just need to get started here is all."

A smile spread over the man's face, "Ah good to hear it. We need some people to take care of the black missions. They tend to stack up if nobody new joins. It will be a good test to see if you can move up to red or if you go the way of the weak and lazy, leaving before you can even get one promotion. Sit over there near the wall I am sure one of the workers will notice you when they get the chance. Always have to deal with the people earning money for the guild first after all."

Looking at the small sword on Victor's side the man seemed to not notice, or perhaps not care about, the purse, "At least you had the sense to bring a weapon. Have you trained with it?"

Victor's hand went to the handle of the blade while keeping his eyes on the man, "Not yet no. I was told to start the jobs I get would be things along the line of delivery requests or gathering herbs and perhaps basic things like housekeeping. Sort of general work until I prove that I'm not a quitter."

"At least you were told that much. You would be surprised how often people know nothing when they get here. Just dreams of glory and honor and combat that they don't have the desire to work up to. I take it whoever told you about that also told you about the registration fee and the tests?"

Remembering the trip here, he nodded his head at first before he switched to shaking it instead, "Well I was told about the fee so I brought that with me, but I wasn't told about the test."

The man held up two fingers, "Tests. Two of them. At least two different types of tests. A sort of test of your physical capabilities. Basically, a way that we can see how well you can handle certain tasks. Running, lifting, pushing, and that sort of thing. Simply put to prove that you won't be a complete burden if you team up with someone or that you can handle doing things on your own if you work alone. Other than that you just have the mana test, unless you have officially gotten a score elsewhere. I myself got a three six five. Not quite good enough by the guild's standards, but I still got a couple little tricks."

Eventually, Victor sat on the bench and felt worry in the pit of his stomach. He had no magic or mana to speak of if any at all. At least as far as he knew. The worry on his face had been obvious enough that the man spoke up again.

"Don't worry, even if you get only ones on the test it won't be anything bad. You just have to get at least a certain score or else they won't think of you as capable of magic. Or at least not capable of anything but the most mundane magic. Most people don't even bother if a single score is under five since that's the level for the guild to offer some benefits for magical training and recognition. It doesn't mean you can't learn some magic, but most people just don't think it's worth the effort if their mana is to low. Anyway, good luck and if you die before you get to the red don't blame us just blame your bad luck."

Sitting on the bench waiting for his turn was fairly uneventful for Victor. He saw people as they came and went. It seemed that either new members were routine enough that he wasn't given a second thought or the people were mostly set in their routines.

When he looked at the posters, Victor saw a young girl that looked to be about nine with a small timekeeper. As he looked at it he wondered if there was a proper name for an hourglass that didn't actually count time up to an actual hour and what their time standards might be.

It was roughly an hour and a half before someone got to him. A woman who looked to be a few years older than him with soft, almost motherly, eyes that Victor couldn't help but draw his own eyes too.

"So you are interested in joining the guild right? Sorry, it took so long, but we have to follow procedures and since three groups left two days ago to deal with a purple request we aren't as busy as usual otherwise you might have had to wait until sunset."

A short moment passes before Victor gets his mind in place, "Ah ok so right um....."

Taking a deep breath he finally got himself back on track, "I want to join the guild. I was told that as long as I am willing to work I can make a living for myself working here."

With a small nod, the woman beckons for Victor to follow her downstairs. It didn't take much for him to follow her lead, especially since nobody in the main area seems to be commenting on the situation.

"So tell me what should I call you. Your clothing looks quite unique so that says you are either noble of some sort, from afar, or a bit messed up in the head. I could see possibly some merchant who deals with nobles as well."

The woman's bluntness was sort of refreshing after some of the thoughts he had about how this might go. With a slight breath, he let out a small chuckle as he followed her into a room that was next to another set of stairs going down.

"I'm not from here. I'm not noble. I'm not crazy, but since I am from pretty far away I might seem like it since we just have different mindsets."

Taking a small, light blue, stone and putting it into a hole in the wall of the room, the woman made it light up as easily as one might flick a switch.

"Now before we start the mana test do you have any mana sicknesses right now that would make us postpone this and do you have the required money?"

Looking directly into Victor's eyes she waited for an answer as he fumbled a bit for one silver coin.

"Yes, right here sorry I should have had it ready." he apologized.

Taking the coin she placed it into a small pouch, "Good now we are going to start the mana testing process. First, we will test your three core attributes. Mana production, mana storage, and mana output. The last one will have a little pain at the start and the first one will just feel a little weird but without any pain. This is where the money goes to and if you are welcomed into the guild there will be some pay skimming until the membership crystal is paid for. This usually lasts until you get a promotion to red rank."

"What's red rank?" Victor asked before he could stop himself.

"It is the second lowest rank just above black rank, but right now we are talking about the mana tests so give me your hands."

The look on the woman's face, as far as Victor could tell, was one of someone slowly losing her patience so he held out his hands and, within a few seconds, there was something like cuffs put on his wrists, but without any chains connecting them. Both of them had a gem like the one in the wall, but only the size of a fingernail.

"This first part is just prep. We need to fill you to the brim with false mana so we know you are as full as possible. At least with this, it will just be false mana so there is no chance of a burst happening."

Having heard the term burst on more than one occasion he did think about asking what it meant, but the sensation of the false mana snapped his attention elsewhere. It felt, to Victor, like his blood was suddenly replaced with liquid ice. All at once, he was shivering and his hands and arms felt much colder than the rest of him.

By the time the false mana had finished filling him one of the two crystals in the cuffs were broken and his breath was visible like one might expect in the winter. He wasn't sure how long it had been, but he did know that the cold was already leaving his body, although his body now felt like it has a slight pressure flowing through it. Whatever this false mana was it left a sensation that he couldn't quite explain in his body beyond just the pressure that he was feeling.

As the woman took off the cuffs Victor nearly shouted out, "What is this false mana? It's freezing."

"It is the results of someone's failed attempt to learn how to transfer mana between people," The woman replied as she put the cuffs into a box. "While the tests to date have been failures, this at least allows us to test mana capacity and production rates. It does nothing but take up space and will be pushed out as your body produces mana naturally which is the first true part of the test. For the time being you just need to put on a couple of items to examine how much of the false mana leaks out of your body in a given period of time."

Taking out another box, the woman started to place a lot of items onto Victor. A choker around his neck, a ring on each finger, and something partway between a tiara and a band around his forehead. Even his waist and ankles had something wrapped around them tightly as she took out a small timekeeper and turned it over at the same time she broke a small crystal that was colored white.

While waiting, Victor tried to ask another question, but he was cut off and told just to sit there and let the tools do their thing as even talking could disrupt the process.

Eventually, time ran out and the woman placed the white crystal pieces into a small box before pressing on the two sides with both hands until it shuddered between them. When she opened the box a few seconds later the crystal was still white, but it was repaired back to its form from before it had been broken.

"Well...... I haven't seen this before" The woman said as she picked up the crystal, "You seem to have no mana production at all. Not a single bit of the false mana came out of you. This is unheard of as far as I've experienced. Are you sure you don't have any diseases?"

Victor was suddenly very worried that this could be very bad for him.

"I guess I just never worried about mana so I never noticed I couldn't....."

"Either way." She interrupted, "This could be a first for all the guilds history so I will need to report this after the tests are done. I wonder if that will have any impact on anything."

The way the woman smiled sent a shiver down Victor's spine as he wondered what might happen to one who had something that wasn't within the norm of anything this woman had ever seen. He just hoped it wouldn't be anything to worry about.