"What do you mean?" Claire was confused by Emily's statement. She turned to Hannah to see if her friend understood Emily's words, but Hannah had the same confused expression. Turning to Chelsea, Claire saw Chelsea nodding her head.

Emily pointed above them, towards the world above the Underground City. "Outside of the Fort, there are no more societal laws that are enforced. If you run into other humans, you need to be careful about those who disregard decency."

Hearing Emily's words, Claire slowly comprehended what the soldier was saying. Even if she hadn't experienced the darker side of society, it was still something she was aware of. Living inside a peaceful town and spending months in a Fort, such things were forgotten.

"Inside of the Fort, you had soldiers like us to make sure that nothing harmful happened to you," Chelsea added. "But as Emily said, there are no rules aside from survival outside the protective walls of the Fort."

"It'll be even worse compared to before things went south," Heather voiced after finishing her argument with Selene. "Like my ex," She rolled her eyes from just the thought of him. "He was good at coming across as a decent guy."

"Until he got mad," Selene added.

"He hit you?" Hannah opened her mouth wide in alarm.

Heather snorted in surprise, "Him? I'd like to see him try."

Giggling, Selene shook her head, "No. Sean knew that Heather could wipe the floor with him, especially if he were to take a swing at her. I was talking about the people he thought was weaker than him."

"Though I didn't see it until after breaking up with the loser, the guy was a bully," Heather sighed as though disappointed in her inability to see such a character defect.

"It's not your fault. You infantry people were never known for your analytical skills," Selene slyly grinned at her friend.

Hearing Selene's words, Heather quietly glared at her, not intending to get into another fight. Looking back at Claire and Hannah, "Though it's not just guys you have to worry about. Like how I could beat down my ex, women are equally capable of horrific actions."

As Claire and Hannah sat there listening to the women explain the things they needed to be concerned about, it was obvious that the world was more dangerous compared to before. The laws and regulations that helped to keep the more savage parts of humanity in check didn't exist. This meant that those with the inclination towards violence had free reign over those that didn't have the capability to protect themselves.

Hearing what people were capable, Claire gripped her fist in anger. "Abby is right," She thought to herself. "We need to prepare ourselves and train. Just being able to create equipment isn't a strategy for success."

"I think that's enough of such talk," Chelsea spoke out, getting up from her chair.

Breathing slowly, Claire nodded in agreement.

Hannah also appeared glad to no longer talk about how horrible the world can be.

"Since we've been talking about how important it is to get yourselves ready, how about you, two, join us inside of the simulation?" Chelsea offered as everyone slowly got up from their seats.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Blinking at the woman, it wasn't something that Claire was expecting to be asked and took her off guard.

"What?" Chelsea asked. "Even if taking on more jobs will give you exposure, it'll be more efficient to train with us, who have more experience as soldiers."

"It's a good idea," Heather nodded at Chelsea's words.

Not taking much time to think about it, Hannah said, "If we're not too much trouble, then we could use your help with fighting the monsters." She smiled at the soldiers, appreciative of their offer.

Claire nodded, "It'll definitely help to prevent us from developing bad habits that could form."

Emily reached out and touched Claire on the arm. "Don't sell the two of yourselves short. Compared to us, the two of you have more experience in the simulation. I get the feeling we could learn just as much."

"We should be getting close to it," Heather quietly voiced to the group, crouching in order to prevent their target from detecting them.

Making sure to keep her attention focused around them, Claire didn't acknowledge Heather's words, merely putting the information to the back of her mind. The forest around them was thick and prevented their ability to see more than ten feet ahead.

To her left was Hannah, who was trying to keep her steps quiet.

Due to the distance of the of their line of sight, in Claire's hand was her pistol. Making sure to keep her index finger off of the trigger and the barrel aimed to the ground, to prevent friendly-fire, the weapon felt comforting in her grip. Whenever a twig was snapped, or some other disturbance was heard, she'd stop herself from pointing her weapon towards it.

"I'm glad that Chelsea had trained us before this, during the time we lived inside of the fort," Claire thought to herself, appreciating the usefulness of the information and improving her ability to handle the dangers inside of the simulation.

As Heather was point, when she raised a closed fist, Claire immediately stopped her movement.

Hannah, next to her, also stopped.

"You see it?" Chelsea asked in a voice that prevented the sound from spreading out ahead of them.

Nodding, Heather pointed with her weapon.

As she tried to see where it was Heather pointed, Claire was able to hear the thing before spotting it. There was the occasional cracking of a tree, in addition, the sound of bark being stripped off. She soon saw what looked like a large bear, parts of its body covered in protruding bone armor.

The sound of the bark was from it rubbing its shoulder against the tree. It was large enough where it leaning against the tree caused the tree to bend slightly from the weight of the animal.

A slight hiss was heard from one of the women.

Judging by the feeling inside of her, Clarie guessed whoever made the noise was feeling a similar sense of apprehension.

Claire thought back to when they saw the paper on the board, requesting adventurers to hunt the armored bear. The hide and bones of the creature were useful as raw material. Once they deliver the material, the requester would send it off to a different city that specializes in making equipment. The requester was merely in charge of acquiring the goods and taking them to the client.

Even though the job was for those close to Level 10, with their large group and experience as soldiers, it was determined that the insufficient levels could be made up by their ability.

As the one leading the group, Chelsea made hand gestures, followed by a large circular motion.

Recognizing the signal, Claire went with Heather and Selene.

Going in the opposite direction was Hannah, Emily, and Chelsea.

Watching her footsteps to avoid stepping on any twigs, she also made an effort to keep the bear in her sights as she followed the two.

In Claire's mind, she could hear Chelsea's voice saying, "This thing is larger than a grizzly. It means that taking it head-on is not an option. When we locate it, our group will split and circle around so we can take it from both sides."

Hannah and Claire were separated to mitigate the negative effects of their inexperience in actual combat. It was also helpful that they were the only ones who had carried both a rifle and pistol, making them able to adapt to the situation if necessary.

Each group had one person with a rifle and pistol.

Claire was barely able to see Chelsea's group get into position, slightly off-center from their group in order to prevent their attack from being a danger to them.

When they got into position, Heather motioned with her hand to let Chelsea know that they were ready to start the next part of the plan.

Taking a deep breath, she watched as Selene raised her rifle to take aim.

The next part was going to let them know whether taking on the job was a mistake or not.

Claire tried not to think about the idea of the bear's claws being used to shred her into ribbons.