The process of getting his crystal was, as far as Victor was concerned, simple. It was about the length of his index finger but not quite as thick around. It started out barely visible when it was placed in a short box. There was a small indentation on it where he put his finger before a slight poke let him bleed a few drops. A short moment later a mild flash of light burst within the box.

When it was done Leahla smiled a little bit, "With this, you are officially a member of the guild. That said we still need for you to agree to the guild rules. In my opinion, it's mostly rules that we suspect people wouldn't have much debate over agreeing to. From there we can tell you about the systems we use when it comes to accepting work. Before that, do you have any questions?"

Victor shook his head, just glad to have someone telling him about what was going on.

"In that case, since you seem ready the basic rules are as follows. There are some more specific ones for specific situations you can be told about later, so I suggest you attend some of the reminder events when you get the chance. I always suggest attending one seminar of some sort each season as a way, if nothing else, to connect to others in the guild. Some are great people while others really should just stick with their existing group in my opinion. I can't say who but just keep in mind everyone is different and everyone has a different view on what they consider to be the right way to do things."

"So with that in mind here are the core rules."

Leahla had a lot to say, but by the time that she finishes speaking, Victor had mentally cut the rules down to a few primary concepts.

1: If you ask to do a mission your success or failure will impact your standing in the guild.

2: The missions you can request depends on the rank of both you and, if applicable, your group.

3: If a mission involves capturing or killing someone and you get the wrong person you have to pay them for the mistake based on the bounty or will be punished for unjust deaths based on the law regarding what happened.

4: Try to not take more missions than you can handle.

5: The guild is always willing to buy certain things, some of which will increase your guild ranking, one example being a good sized mana core.

The rest of the rules seemed to be common sense rules about social interactions and the like. Stuff like don't steal from members of the guild or lie about mission information. Rules that just made it easier to trust and work with each other.

"Now for our ranking system," Leahla said switching subjects away from the rules.

Taking the crystal out of the box she showed it to him. It had become a dark shade of black that, if looked at closely, could be seen partially through.

"All members of the guild start with the rank black. As you prove yourself to be capable your crystal will have it's colors altered. this will allow it to be kept for the entirety of your time with the guild. Outside of altering the color the only real magic is that we have the creation method so it can’t be copied without some very special skills. It’s also why we buy small mana core.”

Handing the crystal to Victor she continued, "After black the ranks go red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, silver, and lastly crystalline clear. Obviously, each rank is harder to get a promotion for and, with the exception of the red rank, requires some testing to verify your skill. Often the tests are related to your knowledge and or strength. there are usually practical tests. Having you fight against another member, putting you on a specific mission, and if you can read sometimes there will be a written test. Oral tests are also given if you can't read”

“On that subject, I should ask. Are you able to read? While it won't limit you here as a member, it is something I would suggest learning.”

Victor was slightly hesitant with his answer, "I do know how to read, but not the local script. I can probably learn how to if I have to."

Shaking her head, Leahla gave a small smile that Victor felt was hiding something, but he couldn't figure out if that was true or just his worries kicking in.

"It isn't a big deal if you don't know how to read. It’s a good skill to have since it allows you to read the message board. Even without knowing how to read there is usually someone around who knows how to read willing to sell their services. Especially a couple of the local children who worked hard to learn how to read thinking that they would do better here than working on their family farm. I would still suggest learning to read if you can."

There wasn't much more to be discussed between the pair. While they were talking Victor noticed that Leahla kept looking at him as they continued talking about nothing specifically.

Before the conversation had a chance to end naturally the day of physical and mental exhaustion hit him all at once. After verifying that he had nothing else he needed to do, he took his guild crystal and headed back to the inn.

Once he got back to the Inn, Victor was about to go to his room when he heard a voice stab through him, making him stop in place.

"Don't go up to your room yet! I need to talk to you!"

Victor slowly turned to look at the source of the voice and saw that the innkeeper was looking at him and pointing at a stool just in front of him at the bar counter.

After walking over to the bar, Victor sat down and looked at the man who called him over.

"I'm a bit tired is this something that we have to deal with right now?"

Sliding a drink over to Victor, the man chugged one of his own, "It isn't something that you have to deal with right now, but it is something that I need to tell you about right away or the guards might get angry at me. Someone went into your room and tried to rob you, but something that you had caused him to stop robbing you. I was told that he hurt himself with it. We heard him screaming so loudly we thought perhaps you had a small beast protecting your room. I'm supposed to tell you to visit the guards. You can go to a guard box but I'd suggest going higher since they took the magical tool that hurt the guy to see if they could undo what it did to him."

Victor started to think about what he had in his bag that could be mistaken for a magical tool, he only then realized that he hadn’t taken anything to sell like he had planned to do with part of the day. Going through what he had, he started to mentally list off what might be mistaken for magic.

The only thing that came to mind was the laser pointer, but he doubted that it would be enough to make someone scream with lingering pain.

"What exactly did it do to him?" Victor asked.

The man chuckled, "Well the thief said that he felt like his face was burning. It looked like it was getting a little bit bigger and he had a hard time breathing. A nasty little magical tool that I would love to have for myself if you can tell me where you got it."

"Oh, the pepper spray!"

"I haven't seen any sort of spice, pepper or otherwise, treat someone that badly. Of course, I’m only a tavern chef." The man replied, "But if that's what you call that tube I suppose there is a reason for it. Do you want to go there now or after you do your work in the morning?"

Thinking on that Victor did feel pretty exhausted, but at the same time, he did want to get this taken care of as soon as he could.

"How far away is wherever I need to go to take care of this?"

Tapping a finger on the counter the man used his other hand and flicked it through the air to an extent, "If you don't mind waiting for someone to get to it there is one of the boxes nearby, but suggest you go to one of the buildings where the guards stay instead. It's a bit of a walk but can have my son show you the way. I'm sure he wouldn't mind taking a break to show you the way."

Remembering the deal he made to do some work every morning for a cheaper price, Victor wondered how much he could make at the guild and how much he would have to pay for a full-price room. He felt sure he had been told the other prices but didn't remember it at the moment.

"I think I'd rather go to the one that the guards will be at. If I try one of the smaller box things and it's empty I might just fall asleep and who knows when I'd wake up. You wouldn’t want me to miss working or breakfast because I slept at a um...... guard box place right?"

With a slam on the counter the man stands up, "Alright I'll go get Trav and have him bring you there and since it shouldn't take to long he can just wait for you."

It wasn't long before Victor found himself escorted to the guard station. He was told about the differences with the different types of guard buildings, but he was feeling to mentally exhausted from the day to pay much attention beyond the fact the boxes were mostly for guards to drop off items, lock up single criminals short term, or fill out paperwork. The actual guard stations were where the guards stayed throughout the day if not on patrol or otherwise occupied, so there was always a place for citizens to go to report something if it couldn’t wait.

After a short walk, Victor entered the station and saw four guards in the front room. One of them was a woman while the other three were men. He couldn't help but think that they could all easily take him out if they thought he was a threat and, as a result, stood a bit more upright compared to how he would normally stand.

"Hi.... everyone. I was told to come here and talk because apparently someone tried to take some stuff from my room and..."

The man closest to Victor approached him with a few large strides, "Anything that you can tell us so we know which one you mean? We get a few thefts a day and we just started our shift a moment ago."

"Uh...." Victor was stuck in thought for a moment.

"Well. I had my stuff in an inn room...... the one with a fire and a beer on the wood sign and...... I joined the guild thing I even got my black crystal to prove it,” Victor began to ramble, “Anyway, I guess while I was away someone tried to get into my stuff and he hit himself in the face with my pepper spray."

After he finished he couldn't help but let out a small chuckle as he wondered if it was technically mace or not, but at the same time, he didn’t want them to assume he meant a mace bought at a weapons shop.

"Any of you know anything about that?" The guard asked the others, "I didn't hear anything about that."

He turned back to Victor, "What exactly is pepper spray?"

For some reason, that question threw Victor for more of a loop than when he was asked various things about where he had come from and what had happened while traveling here. The concept of pepper spray was something he knew of at least, but it wasn’t something he ever really thought about. His ideal form of self-defense before had been mostly avoiding being alone and keep a pocket knife on him just in case.

"Ah well um...." He stammered to start, "Pepper spray is well...... alright think of it as a sort of mist, like you might see in the morning? Or maybe something closer to fog."

The guard who talked to him as well as the woman nodded their head listening while the other two were doing something that Victor wasn't overly worried about farther away.

"Right a mist. Except it kind of blows out like if you exhale smoke from when you smoke something. Well, it also it um...... is stored in a container until it runs out. It only has so much in it, but when it hits someone it hurts. Well mostly if you hit their face."

"Right so um..... anyway from there I haven't felt it personally so I am only partly sure but....."

His speech went silent for a bit as he tried to explain it, despite not having had any real experience with it. At best he could guess from what little he saw on the news and occasionally online.

"It makes you feel like you're on fire a bit. You can't really see or breathe very easily because well........ just because that’s what it does. I mean..... that's its job. To stop the person without killing them or anything. I don't think it hurts them for good just for about probably less than an hour. Does that explain it well enough?"

"Very interesting item." This time it was the female soldier speaking up, "I am curious what an hour is, but we can talk about that later. In the meantime tell me will any mana core work or does it need one from a specific type of monster? Perhaps one from a monster that mostly lives in the hottest areas? A dessert or volcano perhaps? Or maybe it has more to do with control of the person than actual heat? Mental manipulation of their senses or thoughts? I could see that being more effective since the physical impact is minimal in the end compared to what true fire magic would do."

Victor let out a small sound somewhere between a groan and sigh.

"Honestly I don't know. It's leftover from an attack on me on my way here. It was one of my friends that owned it and well........ she won't need it anymore so y-yeah. I got out of there fast as I could and was only able to grab a little bit as I left. Ah, but I already did a report about that with the training troops and their supervisor on the way here so that's done with already...... or was that not going to be brought up."

"Only if you asked me to write up a report." She said with a slight sympathetic tone in her voice. "As far as the pepper spray, as you call it, goes can you describe the tool? We need to know it's yours before we can return it to you since it’s a unique item we haven’t seen before. I hope you will know how to describe it well enough that we can confirm it's yours."

"Oh well, that's easy enough. It's sort of like a small bottle except you can't open the top. If you push on the top of it, it sprays out and it is black with a yellow bottom and the word pepper spray written on it in my language. I can write it out if you like to verify that I'm not lying."

The woman smiled a bit more, "Of course. Allow me to get something to write with first."

Reaching into the purse Victor took out one of his pens, "I got something to write with if you got some paper."

Pausing a moment to look at the pen the woman, eventually, ripped off a bit of paper from a scroll and watched as he wrote out the words pepper spray onto it. Her eyes lit up just a little bit and her hand reached towards the pen ever so slightly before she reached to take the paper instead.

"I’ll take this to compare against the item. Since it is a tool that can cause harm, albeit temporarily we had to keep it aside until someone could claim it."

"So you lied about not knowing about this?" Victor asked before he could help himself.

"Not entirely." She assured him, "We just got on our shift so we had to make sure it was you. Although with that outfit we should have suspected you might be the one with the odd magical tool."

Forcing a slight smile Victor nodded, "Yeah. I'm actually planning to sell some of what I have and getting some clothes to fit in better tomorrow."

She looked him up and down a bit, "It might be for the best. Usually, people who look to different have the means to stay safe, bodyguards, and the like. I doubt that's true though if you ran and had to leave nearly everything behind."

The words ripped into Victor. Especially since this woman had no idea how true the words were or, on a grander scale, what he had already dealt with just to get this far. So he forced a smile.

"You're right. Which is why I would love to get my spray back if you don't mind."

"Of course. At least if the writing matches." The woman said as she left leaving Victor behind with the other three guards hoping that he hadn't done something that he would need to worry about later.