Claire and Hannah stood in front of the woman, both feeling nervous by what was about to be revealed.
"It's some type of energy, leaking into this world or something that's always been there but was buried before time," The woman looked to be struggling to explain her thoughts. "That's as much as I'm allowed to tell you, but if things go well, then you'll learn more when you're ready."
"Energy?" Claire thought to herself. "It feels weird knowing that there's something even Star and Moon doesn't fully comprehend."
The woman lifted up her wrist, checking the bracelet on her arm. Her lips pressed together as though receiving bad news.
"Is there something wrong?" Hannah asked.
Claire heard the worry in her friend's voice, feeling a similar emotion inside. "What could be going wrong for this woman to be worried?" Her eyes looked to the layout of the underground city, thinking if Star and Moon could design something so magnificent than what could possibly worry the woman. "Is it something with the Modified Humans?"
"It appears that I must cut this short, though it's unfortunate compared to what the other fortunate people were able to receive," The woman grimaced, as though the thought didn't sit well with her. Her eyes slowly looked at Claire and then looked at Hannah. "I think I understand why one of my fellow employees would have done such a thing, especially if the higher-ups found her actions to be unbecoming for someone in their position."
Listening to the woman, Claire wondered what she was talking about. "Is what Raven did to us something so great? I thought it just gave us access to this place and potentially the other sites."
After looking to have reached a conclusion, the woman lifted up one of her hands. Raising a single finger with her other hand, the nail at the tip of her finger began to lengthen at a drastic pace. It soon had the appearance of a small knife. Using the sharp point, the woman used the edge of her nail to slice along her palm.
Hannah gasped at seeing the dryad cut into her hand.
While Hannah was shocked, Claire felt herself become mesmerized by the actions of the woman. Her eyes locked onto the liquid beginning to pool out from the cut. "It looks like liquid emerald," Claire thought to herself, as she stared at the bright green liquid.
When enough of the liquid at flowed out, the lengthened nail on the woman's finger retracted back to normal. "To make up for your treatment and because I find the two of you interesting, I'll also give you a gift." As the woman talked, the emerald liquid began to lift into the air and group into two small beads. "Open your mouths." The woman directed to them.
Turning towards Hannah, Claire didn't know what to do.
Hannah had a similar expression, confused by what was happening.
"Quickly! Don't make me waste my intentions!" The woman barked in anger.
Flinching from the woman's words, Claire directed her attention back to the woman and opened her mouth. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Hannah had followed her action.
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The floating beads each sped directly into their mouths. Before they realized what had happened, it had already traveled down their throat.
"Now, the question is whether you'll be able to utilize the gift I've given you." The woman didn't smile as she typically had during their encounter. "When you waken, continue to explore this place. It seems both of you have strong fates, and I'm curious whether you'll be able to reach it."
"When we wake up?" Claire asked, but the words weren't able to come out of her mouth. Her body became warm as she collapsed onto the metal floor, not even feeling the pain from striking it so hard.
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Claire's eyes shot open before she quickly pushed herself off of the cold metal floor. "Hannah!" A thought crashed into her mind. Turning to look near her, she sighed in relief upon seeing her friend on the floor. Judging by the way her body moved, it was clear that Hannah was alive.
Trying to grasp her surroundings, Claire noticed that the woman had vanished, leaving them inside the shelter.
"Where did she go?" Claire got to her feet, lifting a hand to cradle her head. She tried to piece together the events of before she blacked out. "The woman appeared agitated before she gave us beads of her blood. Then she told us to explore the city once we woke up."
As she was able to remember what had happened, she saw the screen which had a rotating model of the city. Checking up on Hannah one more time, satisfied that her friend was fine, Claire walked over to the screen.
"This place is ginormous, how the hell are we supposed to explore the entire place?" Claire thought to herself.
When she got close enough to the screen, a menu popped up.
Her eyes moved to see the menu, a flash of memory going through her mind about the strange language. Shaking it off, Claire focused on the menu options. Many of them she didn't understand, like mail. "What does that mean? Is it like the message system on The Wire?"
What stood out to her was an option named "Help." Reaching out to the screen, she tapped on it. Just like at Star and Moon Studio, the screen was touch-activated, as seen when the menu changed to a wave. "What is this place?" Not knowing what to ask, Claire just asked the most basic question that came to her mind.
"This is Underground City number 1932345, designed by Star and Moon to house survivors of a potential future apocalyptical event. The city is one of many." A woman's voice was heard through some kind of sound system.
Remembering what the woman spoke about, relating to the discovery of unknown energy in the world, Claire asked, "We were told that Star and Moon had discovered a mysterious energy in the world. What is this energy?"
"Based on your level, the amount of information you're allowed to access is only that this energy has the ability to interact with living beings in a way that's not fully understood." It said to Claire.
"Where is this energy?" She felt herself becoming frustrated at how it wouldn't tell her everything, making her wonder what Star and Moon was trying to hide.
"Based on experiments performed by key departments, it was determined that the energy is leaking out in certain key areas in the world. Due to evidence of the energy interacting with biological material, it was determined that action needed to be taken." The artificial voice explained.
"What else can you tell me?" Claire kept her voice calm, not wanting to anger the voice.
There was a long pause, as though the voice was trying to figure out what was allowed to be shared and what wasn't. "It's advised to head over to the training area, increasing exposure to the energy. Would resident like directions to the training area?" It asked.
Raising an eyebrow at the suggestion, "Why should I increase my exposure to the energy? Is this place one of the places that are leaking out the mysterious energy?" Things didn't add up in her mind as she was given more and more information.
"Resident is unable to access this information due to insufficient level clearance. This system is only able to advise the resident of prudent action that should be taken." The voice sounded apathetic towards Claire's circumstances.
Turning to look at Hannah, who was still unconscious from whatever the woman had given them, Claire looked back at the screen. "If I'm going to check this place out, I'm going to need help with my friend and know whether she's okay."
Once again, the voice was silent. It wasn't as long before the voice said, "Please wait. Help is on its way."