1. Two stone panels connected by a wide, thin crystal panel in the middle 2. The crystal panel is the colour and translucency of a Refined Mana Stone — it functions as a display surface 3. Connected to the Checkpoint's mana conduit infrastructure, powered by the building's main mana generator 4. The top stone panel has a small slot — the card fits in almost completely but not fully, leaving enough to grip and pull out 5. When a card is inserted, the machine displays: Name, Race, Class, Rank, Level, Stats 6. Skills do not appear on the machine — they are owner-only information 7. Replicated by the Mana Guild. Exists at each Checkpoint and at training guild halls specifically so guilds can verify class before teaching skills

The Reading Machine sits at the far end of the clerk's section, connected to the Checkpoint's mana conduit network and drawing a steady supply from the building's main generator. It was designed and built by Mana Guild alchemists working from the same instruction documentation that produced the replacement Impression Plates, and it operates on principles that the alchemists who made it can reproduce faithfully and explain only partially.

The machine is composed of two dense stone panels connected by a wide, thin crystal panel between them. The crystal is the colour and translucency of a Refined Mana Stone — a faint deep pink that carries light through its depth rather than reflecting it from the surface — and it is considerably thinner and wider than either stone component, giving the whole structure the look of something ancient flanking something precise. The upper stone panel has a narrow slot cut into its face. The card fits into this slot almost completely, leaving just enough of its edge exposed to grip and pull free again.

When a card is inserted, the machine reads it. The clerk does not wait long. The crystal panel illuminates from within, displaying the cardholder's name, race, class, rank, level, and attributes in steady readable light. The display is clean and does not flicker. It does not show skills. Skills belong to the owner alone, and the machine was not built to surface them — or if it was capable of doing so, the instruction documentation did not include that function, and the Mana Guild's alchemists have not found a way to add it.

The Reading Machine is not exclusive to the Registration Office. Every training guild hall in Versa that teaches class-specific skills maintains one, provided by the Mana Guild under license and connected to whatever mana infrastructure the building runs. Before a guild instructor agrees to teach a skill, the student's card goes into the slot. The machine confirms the class. A Rogue who walks into the Ember Guild hoping to learn ink circuit work will be turned away before the conversation reaches the price. The machine does not argue. It simply shows what the card says, and the card does not lie.