The Runeworkers’ Guild building in Takinat was indeed sky blue with forest green trim on the wall facing the street. The mana gathering array on the roof was damaged but probably still functional; there was a gouge in the roof directly over one of the lines, but if Serenity remembered that particular runic language correctly, that particular line was simply part of a regulator, smoothing out the mana draw. They’d want to fix that soon to avoid the chance of a mana implosion damaging the rune or causing a roof fire, but it would be fine for a while.

The building was also smaller than Serenity expected. Runeworkers’ buildings weren’t generally huge, but they were usually not small enough to fit into the space of a convenience store, not one of the huge ones, yet that was what he was looking at. The largest difference was that instead of having three stories, this building had five. The upper floors were probably sleeping quarters; that was common. Serenity wouldn’t have been surprised to see this as a shop, but he’d expected it to be similar in size to the shop, not at half the size.

Maybe he shouldn’t be so surprised; it wasn’t like the runes were a big portion of the shopkeeper’s inventory.

There were no work areas on the first floor when Serenity entered; instead, there were places to talk, play games, and eat. It looked far more like a restaurant than like a Guild Hall for people studying one of the most esoteric forms of magic.

Serenity looked around; there were a few people at the tables enjoying lunch, but the place was still mostly empty and he was able to find the place where a table clearly separated the public area from the workers’ section. It was probably where you placed lunch orders or maybe where the food was set before it was delivered, but at the least it would give Serenity a place to catch someone.

He didn’t stand there long before a frazzled-looking woman wearing an apron stepped out of the back. She’d clearly tried to clean it off, but there was flour clinging to her in a number of spots. She seemed startled when she saw him. “Hello! I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before, welcome to the Rune’s Rest. What can I get for you?”

Serenity blinked. The Rune’s Rest also sounded more like a restaurant than a Guild Hall. “I was told this building was the Runeworkers' Guild Hall?”

The obviously forced smile on the woman’s face shifted into more neutral, if tired, expression. “Upstairs. Second floor for most things; that door over there will take you to it. I think Jemmy’s managing the front today; she’ll be able to help you with what you need.”

“Thanks,” Serenity nodded and headed towards the unmarked door, followed by Rissa. It was close to the door he’d used to enter the building; if he’d known where he was going, he probably wouldn’t have ever been particularly noticed by anyone who wasn’t specifically watching the door. The man at the magic shop probably didn’t even think about the fact that he had to go upstairs to get to the Guild.

Well, either that or he wanted an amusing story. If that was the case, Serenity couldn’t blame him too much; he’d still gotten Serenity headed in the right direction.

The stairs were simple and unornamented beyond the dark stain and shiny, waxy polish that made the wood smooth. They went straight back, then turned at a large landing before going the rest of the way to the second floor, where there was another unmarked door like the first one at the landing. Another set of stairs continued up farther, clearly the way to the third floor.

Serenity was surprised the door was completely unmarked. It would have been reasonable to have something marked on the door to specify which floor it was. The only thing that stood out about the door was that it was painted in the same sky-blue as the front of the building; perhaps they used colors to mark the doors? Serenity had seen that in low-literacy societies, but he’d expected something different in a profession as learned as runes.

The other side of the door was a small room that reminded Serenity of the magic shop; there were two tables on either side of the room. It might even have been only a wide hallway, but it was awfully square for that, before the tables. They were covered in the same sort of small, four-to-six page booklets that he’d seen there.

They weren’t as neatly arranged; these seemed to be left where the previous person to look at them left them instead of straightened. All of them were runic in nature, anything from wards to charms and totems, similar to spells or enchantments, but using runes instead. They also had contact information on the back instead of the quick description of the spell of the ones in the magic shop.

The pamphlets were obviously advertising for the runic practitioners who didn’t have their own shop. Serenity wondered how useful it was as advertising.

The only thing in the room past the tables was another sky-blue door. Serenity shrugged internally and continued through the door.

Serenity’s first impression was that the next room looked like a classroom, with rows of long tables that only had chairs on one side; the chairs all faced towards a raised, stage-like area. It was only about two feet above the floor level, but that was still enough to be noticeable.

There was an older, white-haired woman in one of the corners; she’d already looked up at Serenity and Rissa. For once, she seemed to be a receptionist that didn’t smile; instead, she frowned at Serenity. “I don’t know you. Why are you here?”

Serenity would have preferred if she hadn’t sounded quite so suspicious. “I was told that this is the Runeworkers’ Guild?”

“It is,” she agreed. “Are you a runeworker?”

Serenity nodded.

“Where are you from? Oh, and give me your card; if you’re going to sell your services in Takinat, I’ll need to register you.” She held out her hand.

Serenity’s hand drifted back towards his side before he stopped it. “I don’t have my card. It was …” He paused, not sure what to say, before he went with the shopkeeper’s explanation, “... lost.”

Jemma snorted as she pulled her hand back. “I’ve heard that before. Sometimes it’s true, usually it’s someone who thinks they can skip the apprenticeship because they found a book or grew up around runes. It doesn’t work. I’ll let you buy a card, but you’ll have to supply your Master’s information. If you want to be ranked Journeyman instead of Apprentice, you’ll need to pay for the test. I will warn you that it’s fairly expensive, and if you fail there’s no refund.”

Expense really wasn’t a problem. Serenity had hoped to start a little higher than Journeyman, but it was probably the most he could expect from a single test; after all, how could they believe he’d long since passed Runic Caster and Runic Mage, much less Runemaster? No one was going to believe that without a good reason. “Etherium?”

“We’ll take Etherium,” she stated. “It’s not required, however; precious metals and gems are also accepted, as are several different coinages. I’d normally say banknotes, as well, but I’m afraid Takinat Vaults’ main building has been destroyed; they seem to have gotten the gold out of the vault before they left, but no one’s accepting their notes now. If none of those will work for you, I’ll accept materials as partial payment, but you will need to come up with some of the cost.”

Serenity was definitely spending far too much time among the wealthy; he’d forgotten just how many different ways you could pay for things. Barter was actually fairly common, even on higher Tier worlds; after all, only people who delved or did work for delvers actually had Etherium. “Etherium’s fine, as long as the cost’s reasonable. I’ll get other materials if it isn’t, but that’s all I’m carrying.”

Jemma snorted. “The cost is what it is. Runes are expensive; they require materials pulled out of Tier Six or higher dungeons, even for apprentices. That’s why people as young as you look are rare. You clearly come from a wealthy family.”

Serenity started to object; he’d earned his Etherium.

Of course, he’d earned a lot of it by saving Earth and having Gaia select him as the Sovereign. Earth’s tax income was still his biggest source of wealth. He’d probably have enough for this if that hadn’t happened; he’d simply have been unable to send the kidnapped Earthlings home. “How much is it?”

“Fifty Etherium,” she stated. “Most of that’s for the materials; the rest covers the test and your card.”

The cost was high but probably not unreasonable; with that said, that much Etherium would cover a lot of materials, even if they used good materials. At least, he thought it would; translating it to the Tiers he remembered better told him that it was expensive but probably not outrageously so.

At the minimum, it wasn’t expensive enough that he wanted to go through the hassle of gathering other materials that they would take, including his own supplies, before taking the test. The odds were good that some of them would be cheaper with a Guild card, as well.

Serenity sighed. This was going to take a while. “When can I take the test?”

“Right now if you want. If you haven’t eaten, though, you might want to. It’ll take the rest of the day and all of tomorrow.” Jemma shook her head. “Or you can give up on it and give me the Etherium for an apprentice’s card and I can help you find an actual Master.”

She clearly didn’t believe Serenity’s story. He probably wouldn’t believe it either in her place, even if he didn’t know he was shading the truth.

Serenity shook his head. “No, I think I definitely need to go for the higher rank. I doubt anyone will talk to me about the symbol on the attacking flyer without something higher than an apprentice card, and I’ve had the training; no need to go through it again. I think I will grab something to eat, probably downstairs.”

Jemma started to say something, then shrugged. “It’s your Etherium. If you give it to me now, I can have the test ready when you’re done with lunch.”

That sounded reasonable, so Serenity pulled out the Etherium and handed it over. As common as Etherium was in the Tutorial, normal dungeons that handed out Etherium didn’t hand out much. At Earth’s current Tier, few dungeons would hand out more than one per person, even on a good run. That would go up as the Tier did, but a Tier Six dungeon would require weeks of effort for an individual to gather fifty Etherium.

Serenity knew that that was part of the reason Jemma wanted it up front; to make sure he had it before she did anything that cost. The other reason was probably something to do with power, but Serenity didn’t care; she wasn’t about to run away with it and that was all that mattered.

Rissa ate lunch with Serenity, but when she finished she headed back to the Library while Serenity headed upstairs for the test.

Serenity was greeted by a smiling Jemma. “I see you decided to come back; I wasn’t sure you would. Still wanting to take the test?” At Serenity’s nod, she continued. “Then for the first piece, you mentioned a symbol on the attacking flyer. I want you to draw it in as much detail as you can.”

She was clearly more interested in it than he’d thought.

Serenity was certain she didn’t expect that much of him, but he knew he’d saved the entire sequence of the attack; he could get a decent amount of detail out of the images. The limitation was the resolution of his vision, not his memory.