The world began to fade to black, held back by her biting her lips enough to draw blood. There wasn't even enough time to tear off some of her clothes in an attempt to stop the flow of blood. "Even if it was only a little time ago..." Claire tried not to think about it, though her eyes couldn't help but glance at it.

The blood continued to drain out of her body from the stump that used to be where her left arm used to be.

Gritting her teeth, she glanced at the dead horned wolf. "At least I was able to take down one of them this time," Claire glared at the two other horned wolves. A corner of her mouth lifted in a smirk, "At least the two of you are cautious."

One of the horned wolves had a portion of its face burned off from Claire's unsuccessful attack, her aim with her handgun faltering at the last moment from the blood loss and losing consciousness for only a moment.

"Though I missed, the two of them are being more cautious. I really messed up by concentrating on my minor victory at killing one of them, letting one of those things to successfully attack my arm." Claire clenched her teeth from both the pain of her arm and the memory of having the teeth of the horned wolf clamped down before tearing off her limb.

Regaining her strength, slightly, Claire lifted up her handgun and aimed it at one of the wolves. Unfortunately, the beam passed by the creature as it lept to the side.

Unable to hold on any longer, her gun dropped out of her grip. Shortly after, she crumpled onto the soft grass with the ground soaking up the thick red blood.

---------------------

"Welcome back," Darlina spoke out in a cheerful voice as though it were greeting Claire, who had gone off on a short trip.

Even if her body was fully recovered, Claire had to hold her head with one of her hands. It felt as though there was a feeling of exhaustion built up inside of her body.

The sound of Darlina clapping made her look at the robot with the eye that wasn't covered with her hand.

"I would like to congratulate you on the process. Even if it took you a little time to kill the first horned wolf, you were still able to subdue it even with the added two." Darlina said encouragingly to Claire. "Even if you had just recently graduated from killing two horned wolves, you're progressing faster than was anticipated."

Clicking her tongue, Claire glared at the robot, the source of her annoyance at the moment. "By how much?" Claire was curious about how much of a deviation she caused compared to the projections.

"An hour," Darlina had the same smile on its face as it announced such a small figure.

Not wanting to get worked up, Claire shrugged off the strange mannerism of the robot. Sighing, "I feel like I've been here for weeks."

"You have," Darlina answered.

"What?!" Claire yelled out at the robot. In her mind, she imagined Chelsea and the other MPs searching desperately around the Fort to locate both her and Hannah.

Giggling, Darlina said, "Though that's time inside of this environment."

Not even knowing how to respond, Claire stared dumbly at the thing.

"You have permission to use one of the special features of this type of training, where time is faster compared to the outside world," Darlina lifted a finger mysteriously to its lips, "Though, I hope you'll keep this benefit a secret. It's not something an adventurer will have access to without spending an exorbitant amount of Guild Points."

Claire couldn't believe what she was hearing, thinking of how crazy it sounded.

Darlina changed its expression to something more serious. "A word of caution." Its eyes looked deep into Claire's. "Though it might be tempting to think getting extra time for free is a wonderful thing, such a privilege shouldn't be overly indulged."

"What do you mean?" Claire asked. A part of her was feeling relieved at knowing people weren't desperately searching for her above ground. Another part of her was thinking it was nice to be able to train longer than what time would've normally allowed. But hearing the tone in Darlina's voice, it made her question whether there wasn't some kind of negative consequence to the time distortion.

----------------------

End of Part 1

Darlina shook her head, "This is something you'll come to understand. I think you've already experienced some of the consequences to things people would view as blessings with what Star and Moon is able to accomplish." Clapping her hands together, it said, "With fighting three of the horned wolves, I think you have a good understanding of how important knowing your limits and strategy are inside of this environment."

Sighing, Claire nodded, "That's the truth. I feel like my mind would shatter if I were to continuously charge in blindly, fighting against these monsters without any preparation." She shivered at the idea of being foolish enough to face against a pack of the monsters on her own, repeatedly being torn apart just to repeat it due to incompetence.

Agreeing with Claire's sentiment, Darlina then proceeded to snap its fingers. Instead of the grassy field, the two of them were surrounded by a large city.

Claire's eyes were wide, watching as people were walking about, going about their business. What threw her off were the bipedal monsters interacting with humans. There were some that had the appearance of the horned wolf, though their arms and legs looked human just with the added fur. In addition to the ones that walked on two legs, there were some creatures that had the lower body of a snake or spider. With these people, some had the legs of a human but the upper body of a snake or spider. The combination of monsters and humans was diverse. Humans didn't seem to find it out, monsters walking about which Claire found strange.

"Where are we?" She tried to figure out what kind of place Darlina had sent them.

"As you can see, this is a city which is found in many of the simulators. I've mentioned this before, but the size of the civilized areas will vary based on what level of stimulation you're renting time in. This is a city that's deeper into the free simulation where the surrounding area outside of the city has higher level monsters. Between the difficulty of the horned wolf and the armored lion, you faced against." Darlina explained.

"Why are we here?" Claire asked, wondering how this was part of the training.

Directing Claire's attention to a nearby building that was larger compared to the ones next to it, "This is the Adventurer's Guild."

Hearing the name of the building, Claire was about to ask Darlina before being cut off by the robot.

"Yes. It's the same Guild as the one inside of the shelter. Star and Moon intentionally designed it this way so adventurers would get used to the idea. Inside of this building, you'll see the same things as you'd see outside the simulation, like when you go to the kiosks or desks." Darlina began walking towards the building, waving its hand at Claire to indicate she should follow it.

Claire walked behind the robot, staring at the grand building which looked to be built out of stone instead of metal, like in the shelter. There were massive columns in front of the entrance with a door several times larger than a human as though giants were expected to use entrance.

As they entered the building, the set up was very similar to what Claire saw when entering the Guild initially, going through the shimmering wall led by Melody. The interior was only different from the lack of metal, replaced instead with wood and stone. It was also packed with people, some leaning against the walls, as they talked to others, or sitting in groups at the various tables scattered throughout the lobby.

Just as with the outside of the building, the variety of humanoids was surprising and made Claire curious.

"Now, with the Guild outside of the shelter, we, the Darlinas', help out adventurers. But inside the simulation, this isn't the case." Darlina pointed at a woman in a uniform that had the Star and Moon logo on her right breast of the uniform. "They'll be the ones that'll help you out with questions you may have in addition to handling jobs."

"I heard the mention of jobs before, but what do you mean by that?" Claire was curious about learning more about the Guild, especially inside of the simulation.