"I have to use the restroom," Samantha said, and Nathan nodded. "It'll be safer if we went down together."

Nathan nodded, and the two of them made their way down the stairs to the second level, near which were the locker rooms. Samantha killed a few monsters, noting that Nathan looked exhausted, causing her to wonder if things had picked up after she went to sleep. The monsters seemed more active to her, now that it was daytime again.

They reached the locker rooms, and Nathan followed Samantha inside, swiftly killing a monster that caught her by surprise. Samantha thanked him, though she was a bit more careful as she made her way into the toilet stall.

After relieving herself, she washed her hands, then wondered if Nathan had to go. She doubted he would have left her alone during the night to relieve himself, and didn't doubt he needed to.

Looking over at Nathan, she found him sitting on one of the changing benches, pulling dried fruit from his hand and eating it, using that as his breakfast. When she finished eating, she opened up her bag and pulled out some fruit and a nutrient bar and had her own breakfast, and Nathan walked to the water fountain to wash his meal down.

Once they finished eating, they left the locker rooms and made their way back up to the viewing space on the second level of the dome.

As the day began to end, the sun outside setting, a trio of other students found the duo, Samantha stretching, Nathan resting in a corner.

"Hey, Samantha," the sole girl of the trio said. "You two hiding out up here?"

"Fewer monsters this way," Samantha nodded. "We only have to deal with one every half hour or so."

"What happened out there?" The girl indicated the track.

"What do you mean?"

"There's blood and gore everywhere," she said. "You mean you didn't see or hear anything?"

"No," Samantha frowned. "Nathan and I have left up here twice, but we went down the stairs both times, and the entrance is just inside the curtain. There's what?"

Samantha walked over to the curtains and looked, witnessing the aftermath of Nathan's attack the previous night. She pulled her head back in and look at Nathan.

"Is that why you were so exhausted when I woke?" She asked, and he dipped his head slightly in response. "And if you'd died?"

"I didn't."

Samantha knew that arguing with Nathan wouldn't go anywhere, so dropped it, looking to the other three.

"What have you been doing?" She asked.

"Hunting if we could," the girl answered. "Though we've gotten a few minutes here and there for some extra stuff, if you know what I mean."

Samantha snorted. The girl, Kendra, had been pining after several of the boys in their year for awhile, including the two with her. She also knew that the two of them liked her. She should have figured that they'd hook up during this.

When you never knew if you were going to live or die, you had to make the most of your time.

"How much have you been hunting?" Samantha asked.

"Just a little," Kendra answered as her two teammates walked over to try and converse with their silent classmate. "They're going to fail, aren't they?"

"Yeah."

"You two haven't talked at all since middle school," Kendra said, winking at Samantha. "You two finding some extra stuff to do?"

"No," Samantha's cheeks flushed. "Nathan was never a very personable person, and became less so over the last few years. We're just sticking together for the safety in numbers. He can handle himself, I'm sure, but I'd feel bad knowing he wasn't alone."

Kendra nodded.

"I made it to Level 13," she said. "You?"

"Fourteen," Samantha nodded. "I'm not sure what Nathan is, but he's probably a bit higher, especially after looking at what he did last night. Do you know how the others are doing?"

"Madeline's crew have essentially taken over the North Gym and its locker rooms," Kendra nodded. "Though they're willing to let anyone hang out. It seems they're under attack from monsters pretty often. According to Madeline, the monsters seem to be more aggressive the more people there are in a location."

The two boys in Kendra's group, Steven and Blake, were telling Nathan the same thing, and Nathan frowned upon hearing it. Madeline probably knew that beforehand, yet she wanted a bigger party. Odds were, she wanted to lure monsters in so she could fight more and gain a bit more experience and Levels.

Chances were, she wanted an edge if they ever had to fight each other. And based on her and Keith knowing about this beforehand, that meant that they likely would need to fight each other at some point.

Madeline, when the trio last interacted with her and her group, last had a total of ten people in the locker rooms, leaving only five others unaccounted for. According to Steven, they came across one of the other boys' corpse, bringing them down to four. They didn't know what to do with him, so just left him in the hall. He'd be gone once the Challenge ended, anyway.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

However long it would be.

The other four were grouped up together and mostly using the Health classroom behind the South Gym as a base.

When the duo finished telling Nathan everything, he surprised them by opening his mouth.

"As time goes on, the monsters grow more numerous, more difficult, and more aggressive."

Steven and Blake looked at each other, then back to Nathan.

"What do you mean?"

"Know how most only give a single Point?" He asked.

"Yeah," Steven said. "Though there are some that give two, and the rare one that gives three. It takes all three of us to take on the ones that give three points, and that's risking it. Three of us is needed to properly take down one giving two Points. It's impossible to know which is which, though – I got Scan, and it only lets me see their letter grade, and everything is H."

It's likely a higher level that will let us differentiate, then, Nathan thought to himself, though knew his classmate had likely already suspected that.

"More Two-Pointers are showing up," Nathan stated. "And fewer One-Pointers. Time between one poking its head into here decreased as the day goes on as well. We have to survive, but it gets tougher before factoring in our exhaustion."

The two of them nodded, then asked if he had any other information to share. Nathan shook his head and they thanked him, then returned to Kendra and relayed what Nathan had told them. The three of them spoke with Samantha a bit longer before leaving, and Samantha walked over to Nathan.

"Why didn't you let me know about it?" She asked.

"You hadn't realized it?" He asked, and she started to respond, then stopped. "Exactly."

He knew that she would have already noticed it and so decided not to say anything.

Samantha went back to her light exercising on the other side of the space, and when night had long since fallen, they decided to get some sleep, taking the same rotation as the night before.

During her shift, Samantha checked the track and other space by poking her head through the curtains and saw that they had filled back up with monsters throughout the day. Rather than acting like her partner, she simply returned to the safe zone they were in, taking on the monsters that appeared every fifty to fifty-five minutes until it was time to wake Nathan.

Just like the previous morning, Nathan's eyes opened alert and ready the moment she spoke his name.

"Don't go and try suiciding again," she told him as she settled down.

Nathan watched her until she had fallen asleep a few minutes later, then stretched and left their safe space to fight again. When he finished, exhausted, he returned to their safe space and made his way to the top of the stacked bleachers, opening up his bag and pulling out the first-aid kit.

Toward the end, one of the monsters managed to hurt him, cutting into his arm with its claws before Nathan killed it. He was adept at dodging them, but even with that, he had his limits, and by that point, more than half of them were Two-Pointers, and there were fifty of them.

Though it was a Three-Pointer that bested him.

Nathan frowned as he thought about the fight. He could have easily taken care of that Three-Pointer – or at least, kept it from attacking him. He should have just flipped it over the balcony. He could have done, and if he'd retreated the bleachers during the day, probably would've been fine.

Even still, it was possible the monster wouldn't have been able to ascend the bleachers again, or at least, not quickly. He knew it was a Three-Pointer before it even attacked him.

Should he have told the others he figured out how to tell which type they were? Or was it right of him to keep that information to himself? He was sure they had kept information to themselves as well, and even if they hadn't, he wouldn't feel guilty over doing so.

Nathan was, by nature, a private person who didn't share much with others. The only reason he had was because he knew it would've slipped Samantha's mind to mention it to Kendra until after they'd left and it wasn't something that was hard to realize.

Once Nathan had properly treated his cut with some alcohol and ointment, he left his trash where it was and packed his bag back up, then decided to run through his rewards. He'd managed to reach Level 20 during that fight, but only after he took out the Three-Pointer.

"Stat Points," Nathan muttered, pulling up his interface for allocating his Stat Points as he pulled his bloodied school jacket back on.

As he read through the message, he frowned a little. Why was Charisma a Stat, and what was it used for? The other two boys had mentioned their own Stat allocations, and neither had mentioned Charisma as being among the ones they used. Nothing he'd seen so far suggested it even had a use, yet why would it exist if it didn't?

There was always the possibility its sole use was to waste Stat Points while enhancing how good someone looked. In fact, the description for it was, quite literally, 'amplifies one's natural beauty', and that was it.

Deciding he could worry about it later, Nathan added both of his available Stat Points to Endurance before pulling up his Skills Shop. Having reached Level 20, he'd unlocked more Skills.

Skills Shop 3 Scan: 5 Skill Points Iron Grip: 10 Skill Points Meditation: 10 Skill Points Stoneskin: 10 Skill Points

Those three were pretty intuitive to Nathan. Iron Grip likely increased his Strength, but only if he was gripping something, and only for his grip itself. Meditation was likely to increase his Health and Mana recovery rate. Finally, Stoneskin, something that was basically a staple in video games with melee classes. The ability to increase one's defense.

Knowing the System, those likely weren't passive Skills, but active ones, meaning he'd have to spend Mana for them and they'd have a duration for how long they'd last. It was even possible that the cost for them would increase as they went up in Level.

The only way to know for sure would be to buy them, as there was no way to simply view a Skill's information before doing so. Nathan couldn't afford any Skills at the moment, though once he had access to the Points Shop again, he'd be able to buy more Skill Points.

From what he could tell, Skill Points and Stat Points would remain the same cost, though he wasn't entirely sure of that yet. However, based on his own experience and what he'd heard, it was a safe assumption to make.

It was also a safe assumption that most people would go after Skill Points and Stat Points than Weapon Upgrades. If they went up by Ten Points in cost every Level, then bringing Burst Knuckles up to Level 6 from Level 5 would cost the same as just getting five more Strength. And he would eventually acquire Skills that increased his Strength by percents, no doubt.

At least, he hoped so.

Because of that, Nathan decided to focus on the weapons aspect. He much preferred weapons, anyway, as they only augmented what he could do. He just wished his preferred weapon had been listed among the three he could have selected.

The rest of the night passed with only a One-Pointer entering the safe space, and Nathan dispatched it easily, though without using his Burst Knuckle to avoid waking Samantha, who remained asleep until a little after nine in the morning.

They had made it through their second night.