It's finally our turn in line to enter the city!

The gate guard made of molten rock at the entrance of the city looked confused at Furby and me for a moment and finally answered.
"...You're both new here aren't you?" (Moving Mountain Will)

"I figured you might be his instructor, but I'd remember an instructor that was animal-grade Will if we had one." (Moving Mountain Will)

"Where are your instructors? And why are you two even together?" (Moving Mountain Will)

"Uuuh..." (Furby & Scarecrow)
We both looked at each other, not sure where to start.

"O- our instructor was-" (Scarecrow)
Suddenly I was taken aback by the look of disgust on the gate guard's face when I began to answer first.

Huh? Did I do something wrong?

"H- he was dead when we arrived!" (Furby)
Nervously, Furby answered for me with the same lie I was about to tell. 

"Tsk- another one... what is happening around here lately..." (Moving Mountain Will)
The guard clicked his tongue and looked away from me in displeasure.

"We didn't do it-" (Furby)

"Yeah, yeah, spare me the explanation, I've heard it a dozen times already. Neither of you did it obviously." (Moving Mountain Will)

"Do you know what area you came from?" (Moving Mountain Will)

"?" (Furby)

I suddenly remembered something from the description of our instructor's corpse and answered.
"Area 33." (Scarecrow)

With an irritated side-eye, the gate guard looked at me briefly but suddenly seemed to realize something.

"...That's where Shambling Horror was stationed." (Moving Mountain Will)
Shock became the dominant expression on his face for a moment.

"Go inform the elders!" (Moving Mountain Will)
He quickly commanded one of the other gate guards.

"To even take out Shamling Horror... who is this guy..." (Moving Mountain Will)
A mix of fear and anger was now visible on the gate guard's face.

"Uuuh... can we go in now?" (Scarecrow)

"Shut up you household-grade trash, you can't enter here." (Moving Mountain Will)

"Go line up at the other entrance, you need to get scanned in first." (Moving Mountain Will)

What's this guy's problem.

Does he not like scarecrows?

"Good to have you Will, I'll have a new premium instructor sent out to you as soon as possible." (Moving Mountain Will)
The guard talked to Furby and refused to look at me any further.

...Must be a fan of birds.

"You're free to wait inside in the meanwhile." (Moving Mountain Will)

"...Will?" (Furby)
Furby tilted his head in confusion when he was addressed as Will, whilst the gate guard lead him inside, rubbing his hands together the whole way.

"Huh? Can't my friend come?" (Furby)
Furby looked confused towards me at the other side of the entrance.

"...O- oh don't worry about him, you shouldn't demean yourself to that- uh- I mean... he'll just need to go through the..." (Moving Mountain Will)
They moved out of earshot so I couldn't hear the rest of the conversation.

What the hell is with this difference in treatment?!

I looked over at the other entrance, where only 1 person was left waiting to get in.

"Move!" (???)

One of the other gate guards violently pushed me aside towards the other entrance so I stopped blocking the line.

I fell to the floor and quickly got back up.
The guy that just pushed me chuckled meanwhile.

...Do you all want to get a taste of my mental ability? Huh?!

(GO DIE DICKHEAD!)

Ah... I'm still unable to use the mana crystals in my body for some reason...

Dammit! The range wasn't even far enough to hit the asshole that pushed me on the ground!

Ugh, how embarrassing...

Feeling dejected, I went to go line up at the other entrance.

Luckily I can use basic wood magic without mana. I wouldn't be able to get back up otherwise... That would've been even more embarrassing.

On the positive side of things, the line at the entrance is at least not as long as the other ones.

*Crash!"*
Suddenly I heard a shattering sound from inside a room attached to the side of the other entrance.

I could hear very muffled cheering and jubilant voices, followed by a door opening and closing.

The door facing us swung open, prompting a gate guard to come out.

"Next." (Other entrance gate guard) 

"O- Oh!!!" (Person waiting in line in front of me)
The guy that was in front of me quickly followed the gate guard in.

He looked like a rock walking around with the two stone legs sticking out his body.

His name was unsurprisingly Rock Will...

The door swiftly closed, followed by the same set of muffled shattering and cheering sounds as before.
The whole process seemed oddly refined like they had done it a hundred times before.

Another door could be heard opening, followed by a jubilant voice cheering.

"My other world adventure begins here!!!" (???)
It sounded like Rock Will that was standing in front of me before.

Once again, the door facing me opened.
"Next." (Other entrance gate guard)

The guard quickly pushed me inside and sat me down in front of a table with a crystal ball on it.

Another guard was standing in the corner of the room, overseeing the entire process.

He cleared his throat and began to very quickly recite a bunch of information.

"In front of you is a crystal ball that measures your mana." (Other entrance gate guard)

"Mana is the cornerstone of our society and is what we use to power all our technology." (Other entrance gate guard)

"Please put your hand on the crystal ball now so we can measure your power level." (Other entrance gate guard)

O- oh!

This is it!

This is the power measuring trope I've been begging to do for ages!

The power crystal that shatters when it measures your immeasurable power! It's finally here!!!

I was still feeling a bit off from the treatment I received before, but that was all quickly overtaken by my excitement.

Full of anticipation I put my hand on the crystal.

"Please mould your mana into the crystal." (Other entrance gate guard)

"R- right!" (Scarecrow)
I struggled to mould my mana because I had just wasted my 1 useable mana point trying to use my mental ability on the gate guard before.

Again I tried to use the mana inside my mana crystals, but the mana inside still wouldn't budge at all.

"U- Uhm... I'm... out of mana... I- I uuh... used an ability to fight off a m- monster before and-" (Scarecrow)

"Tsk-... hold on." (Other entrance gate guard)
With a roll of his eyes, the guard went to a cabinet and reached for a tiny bottle filled with a white liquid. 

For a moment I thought I saw something else in the cabinet, but it was quickly closed before I could see what it was.

"Drink this." (Other entrance gate guard)
He roughly threw the bottle at my other hand.

I wasn't paying attention so the bottle fell on the floor.
Quickly, I picked it up and drank it.

"T- thank you!" (Scarecrow)

Trying to stay cool, I got back on the chair and put my hand back on the crystal.

Alright! Here we go! This is my time for real now!

Effortlessly I moulded my mana into the crystal ball and-

*CRASH!*

It shattered into a million pieces!

"O-... one m-ah- ha ha..." (Other entrance gate guard)

*Cough, cough* (Other entrance gate guard)

*Clapping*

"One mana! Congratulations, t- that's amazing!" (Other entrance gate guard)
Both of them cheered for me, but it was plainly obvious they couldn't contain their laughter.

"W- we've never seen anyone so p- powerful before! Ha ha ha!" (Other guard standing in the corner)

They struggled to recite a scripted sounding speech between their laughter.

I've never heard sarcastic cheering before...

Whilst they were still laughing they hung a shoddy wooden dog tag around my neck, grabbed my arm and quickly lead me out of the other door.

I could hear the guards unrestrained laughter behind me after I was out the door.

They forgot to fully close the door, so I managed to spot one of the guards quickly cleaning the floor with a broom and the other opening the cabinet that was filled with what looked like dozens of crystal balls on each shelf next to a couple of potion bottles like the one I just drank. 

*Slam!*
The guard that was cleaning up the shards noticed the door I came out of was still open and slammed it shut.

...This is even worse than the start of my previous other world adventure.

"Next." (Other entrance gate guard)