[ Ai's only response is a soft hum and a nod of the head. Her warm smile doesn't budge – if anything, it just gets more gentle. ]

That's totally normal. It's not like living here in the real world prepares you to fight big monsters like that, right? Everybody's scared when they first get started.

[ There's a few outliers of course – a lot of younger kids who've daydreamed about these kind of heroics all their lives. But even then, they usually think twice about their rose tinted glasses once they actually go up against a Torment for the first time... or a Nightmare, if they're particularly unlucky. ]

In fact – I'd say a lot of us are still scared now and then. Even if we've been at this for a while.