"Well, uh..." The cloaked man seemed surprised, but quickly gathered themselves. They opened the sealed envelope and unfolded the paper within. "Due to us being quite selective, we have a two step process in place to note how essential you would be to our society. Please sign here."

He laid the paper onto the counter top for Alexander to look over. Alex noted how formal and well written it was, but mostly focused on what exactly it was explaining. Skimming through most of document he realized that it was just a glorified terms of agreement. He grabbed a pencil that was conveniently on the counter and signed his name in the provided blank spot at the bottom of the page. The cloaked man took up the paper, looked it over as if Alex had spilled something on it, and placed the letter back into the envelope and tucked it back into his cloak.

"So what's the second part of this process?" Alex asked.

"Well, I need proof of how adept you are with mana and its related functions." The man brought out a small notebook and pencil from his cloak. "Please, show me something that you are knowledgeable of. Say, these lights above us for example. These are clearly some form sophisticated light projection devices. Explain how you managed to create them?"

Alexander looked to the lights above and back to the man. "Oh, uh, no. These are most definitely not some complicated contraption. It's just some simple chemistry, really." The man looked at Alex, then lowered his hood to reveal a masked face. The mask looked like the type you would wear to a ball, mostly white with the edge gilded a neat gold color.

"Are you telling me, these aren't hard to make?" He spoke with genuine shock in his voice.

"What? No! All you have to do is get some mana crystals you know, the ones that all the wizards like to sew into their clothes because they glow? You just have to melt those down in a Arcane Forge, put the liquid in a clear container, and channel mana into the liquid. Once you do that you just have to put a stopper on the top to contain the mana and, ta-da! Magic light!" Alex ended his spiel with a hearty smile, as the man looked up at the lights.

"We... have a man who makes tiny vials of 'Ever-Light', as he calls it. It produces light just like these, and he charges ridiculous amounts for tiny vials of it. And you say they aren't hard to make?" The man leaned forward onto the counter, as though to balance himself after nearly falling over.

Alexander kneeled down and opened the sliding hatch under his counter, searching for a few seconds before rising up with a tiny light blue vial and laying it onto the counter.

"Something like this?" The man raised the vial to his face, studying it closely. Without dropping his gaze from the vial, he spoke.

"This looks exactly like the vials he sells... say, how much do you charge for such things?" He spoke with a hint of intrigue in his voice.

"About five silver, the uncut mana crystals are very cheap about six copper per crystal if I remember correctly and the process of melting it down is just long. Then again, my Arcane Forge in the back is kind of small. I feel that five silver is enough to pay for my work." Alex paused for a second and pondered something. "You said someone makes something that looks similar to this, right?"

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The masked man placed the vial onto the counter. "Well, yes. That is mostly why I am confused, how coincidental is it that " Alex cut him off mid sentence.

"OH THAT BITCH!" Alex shouted and balled up his fists, looking madly between his spell rifle and the vial on the counter. "SON OF- augh, fucking." Alex covered his face with his hands and paced along the counter for a few seconds; but finally coming to a stop and turning towards the masked man. "I had, a long-long time ago, a guy who I paid to clean my shop after a certain failed experiment. I could have sworn that I was missing something from my workshop but never found out what was missing." Alex turned toward his spell rifle lolling against the wall, eyeing it with pure vengeance. "If there is one thing, one fucking thing, that I will not stand for, it's someone stealing my shit and selling it for more than it's worth."

The masked man looked between Alex and the rifle siting against the wall, just barely gaining the courage to open his mouth. "So, uh, what exactly, err, is that?" He pointed towards the, from what he could tell, iron pipe with some wood attached to it. Alex quickly looked back and forth between the rifle and him.

"This? This is what I call a spell rifle." He grabbed it and placed it on the counter top. "Long story short, this thing just shoots spells like a wand, just way faster. It can also do what I like to call dry firing, where you channel mana into it without any proper spell in mind and pull this tiny trigger on the bottom to fire the mana out the barrel. Shockingly good at killing things, if I do say so myself." The masked man seemed confused, even with the mask blocking most of his facial expressions.

"But... how does it do that?" He opened the small note book and prepared to write in it. Alex rolled his eyes, leaning onto the counter with a sigh.

"I mean, I guess talking will get my mind off that thieving little..." Alex took a sharp breath, then gestured towards the rifle on the counter. "Never thought I would be able to talk about this thing, but I guess I was wrong to think that." Alex cleared his throat, a small smile on his face.

"This" Alex began. "Is what I call a spell rifle. It is, like I said earlier, a glorified wand. You can channel mana through it to cast spells, but all mana channeled into it will consolidate in the backend of the inside of the barrel. Using a simple clockwork system built into the wooden brace part, you can pull this trigger to slap an internal chunk of brass against the condensed mana which causes it to fly out the barrel." Alex looked towards the man. "Any questions?"

The man finished writing something down in the note book, then gestured towards the rifle. "Why do you specifically use a piece of brass to propel the mana out of the barrel? That seems awfully inefficient compared to just manually forcing the mana into a direction yourself." Alex raised an eyebrow and gleamed at the man, mouth slightly agape.

"You... you do realized that mana is repulsed by brass right? That's like the most common thing to know about when talking about mana." Alex looked around the room in disbelief. "How do you call yourselves men of magic when you don't even remember one of the most basic aspects of mana?" The man seemed flustered, mumbling something under his breath and glancing back and forth between Alex and the note book he was writing in.

"Well, uh, I'm more of a spell caster type of guy myself. It's just that, um, the thought just kind of slipped my mind. Yes, right, uh..." Alex stared at the man's masked face, seemingly looking through it and at the mans true face.

"Is this a cult?" Alex abruptly asked.

"W-what? No! Never in a thousand years would-"

"Don't lie, I'm still joining, don't get me wrong. I just want to know if I have to wear that stupid mask everywhere I go." Alex nonchalantly propped his head onto one of his arms while leaning on the counter.

"Th-the mask, um... is... optional... I think. I was just told... to." Alex slowly slipped his face into the palm of his hand, sighing.

"God fucking damn it," He begrudgingly lifted his face. "Just, tell me where and when you people meet up, I'll bring some of my old journals and some documents and lecture you guys on some of the cooler things I'm working on as well as educate some of you on some of the basic crap." He paused for a second. "And kick that 'Ever-Light' guy out of your society, he stole my shit and if I see him in person then I'm going to blow his head off his stupid shoulders for taking my stuff."