Keith spent seven minutes panicking. He wasn't strong enough to get Nathan off the roof. He wasn't even strong enough to get Nathan to the stairs. He was purely a magician, with little strength.

Not for the first time since the game began, he cursed his lack of attention to his physical strength. Even with the System's Level's boosts to it, he was still pretty weak, and probably among the weakest of them.

He had some Points left, but he didn't know if spending them on Strength then would be worth it. What if he desperately needed them during this next Challenge? And even if he did use them and get strong enough to carry Nathan, there was still no guarantee that he'd make it to the MPR in time, especially since he was still weakend from the head injury.

He couldn't wake Nathan, either. His five minutes of panic occurred after two minutes of attempting to wake Nathan, not aware of how much time had really passed. The 'nap' after awakening wasn't something someone could be woken from – they'd wake once their body adjusted to handling its true mana and strength of magic.

His own awakening left him unconscious for six hours, and the more mana and magic one had naturally, the longer their awakening nap was.

"Fuck!" Keith swore when he noticed the timer, realizing he had less than six minutes left. "Think! You're better than this. You've got an array of spells at your disposal! But none that'll-that!"

Closing his eyes, Keith focused hard, and when he opened them, his violet irises had begun to glow with their psychic light.

"Samantha! William! Michael!" He projected his voice to his targets. "I need you on the roof! Pronto! Nathan's unconscious, and I can't wake him up!"

Stretching his telepathic powers, he sensed the three of them panicking, then taking off towards him. He relaxed. Hopefully, they'd be able to help him get Nathan to the MPR in time. It wasn't until he had started to calm that he realized that Nathan was still naked, and did his best to get the senior's pants back on. He was just tugging them up Nathan's legs when the trio showed up.

"What are you doing?" Samantha demanded, beside Keith before he could respond.

"Putting his pants on!"

She pushed him out of the way and finished the job for the fumbling magician.

"Why was he naked?" She demanded.

"We don't have time for that!" Keith reminded her.

"Right!" She grabbed Nathan's clothes and looked to the other two warriors. "You two – carry him. We have to get down to the MPR in-three minutes! Fuck!"

Keith hurriedly grabbed his clothes as Michael grabbed Nathan and slung him over one shoulder. The quartet then hurried down the stairs, rushing as quickly as they could as the timer ticked down. Unfortunately, descending two sets of stairs while careful to not drop Nathan took them precious time, and they reached the hall to the MPR just as the timer reached zero.

With a slam, the doors to the MPR closed.

Due to not being in the MPR within the 15-minute timeframe, the difficulty for you for this Survival Challenge has been increased from Tutorial to Beginner. Minimum Monster Rank increased to H-2.

Monster Spawn Rate increased by 10% actual to 20% actual

Maximum Monster Capacity increased from 10% actual to 20% actual

Monster Stats increased from 10% actual to 25% actual

Monster Magic no longer locked

Hardest Monster will spawn 30% of normal time instead of 20%

MPR doors will reopen in 5 minutes. If you are not within the MPR 10 minutes after that, difficulty for you will be increased to Easy.

The four conscious students looked at each other, then Samantha glared at Keith.

"Why was Nathan naked on the roof with you?" She asked. "You're a psychic, what did you do to him?"

"Nothing!" Keith protested. "He asked me to teach him how to use magic, and-"

"And that required him being naked?"

"He got naked on his own!" Keith held up his hands defensively. "I'd told him to go down to his pants, and then he went naked!"

"Why would he do that?"

"The awakening of magic," Michael said, receiving a glare from Samantha. "Madeline told me about it. When you awaken your magic, you also awaken your senses. It heightens them, making them stronger. The texture of clothing feels abrasive until you get used to it, she said. Nathan probably heard that and decided to go all the way just to make Keith uncomfortable."

"That's… something he would do," Samantha nodded. "Why is he unconscious?"

"The awakening nap," Michael answered. "Madeline said you get knocked out after, and it can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, based on how strong your mana and magic really are. Keith – how strong was his awakening? The air felt thick with something that I'm assuming is magic."

"He vented nearly as much mana as I have total," Keith told him. "He… defies the norm. He needs a familiar, and fast. But they can't be contracted from here, so that's a problem."

"A familiar?" Samantha asked. "And what do you mean? Why?"

"I'll explain once he wakes," Keith said. "I don't want to have to repeat it multiple times, and possibly answer the same questions multiple times. I also plan on being in the MPR within ten minutes of it opening back up."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The others echoed an agreement on that, and as soon as the MPR opened, the five of them entered, not wanting to find out how much harder Easy was than Beginner, if they'd been doing the Tutorial version and things had been weak in the System's eyes.

"What took you so long to contact us?" Samantha asked Keith.

"Panic," William said, and she looked at him. "You saw him freaking out, and the way he reacted. He's been calm and collected because he's been confident of survival. However, he's not used to things going against him, sort of like Madeline. Instead of becoming a bitch, he just panicked, most likely because Nathan wouldn't have made it down here if he didn't find a way to bring him down. You don't have any spells that would let you carry him? You specialize in air magics, don't you?"

"I can fly," Keith admitted. "But I can't exactly carry others with me with the spell. I still have to support their full weight, and I'm pretty weak, if you hadn't noticed."

"Alright," Samantha looked at Nathan, then to the three conscious guys. "You saw the notice, we're about to face a Survival Challenge, something the others aren't aware of, unless the System decided to let them know to keep it balanced. Either way, we're going to be in there at least half as long as they are before the 'Hardest Monster' spawns, and since we know for sure that we've faced G-2's before, we'll probably be facing a G-1 for that.

"It stands to reason," she continued. "That this will be at least nine days long. Our last Survival Challenge was only four before the G-3 Spawned, so I'm considering at least half that more for the normal, and half that more for ours.

"Because we won't be able to access our Points Shops," she continued. "Until at least sixty-six hours have passed – I'm assuming you're all at least 25 here – we need to stock up now. Food is a priority, but there's also a severe need for Stat Points. We're also going to have to farm as many of the weaker monsters as we possibly can, both for the meager Experience and so we can get more Stat Points and food as soon as we're able to if we need it. If you can, go ahead and get one or two Health Potions, our regens are shit. Asking around, starting was one of six hundred for pretty much everyone for both. However, keep in mind that while it's good for a pinch, it's not the same as 5 Endurance, since there's also that added resistance with the latter."

"To make things worse," William added. "They can use magic, too. Apparently, they've been locked against it for the Tutorial. Do you know anything about this?"

Keith ran his fingers through his hair as he thought over what he knew, then shook his head.

"No," he answered. "But it sounds like this isn't the full game, just the beginning. That might be why the governments are sending everyone to a central location – to keep an eye on things and help cover it up if someone dies again."

"What?" Michael asked.

"How much of what Madeline said is true?" William asked.

"I didn't have anything to do with this," Keith shook his head. "I was only expecting it because of my hacking skills. This one was forced, the others weren't. No one actually knows what's causing this or who's running it."

"But someone can force it?"

"An organization," Keith nodded. "Madeline's been trying to put it all off on me for a reason."

The other three teens thought over that remark for a few moments.

"I don't get it," Michael confessed.

"He means," Samantha said. "That anyone who's listened to her was an idiot. Or in your case, a bigger idiot."

"Hey!"

"Seriously," William groaned. "We've all been had by her. Having someone else that was pretty much perfect for putting it on made it easy for her to trick us into not even considering that she had something to do with this happening. That would explain how she knew about having larger groups of monsters, then. I'm guessing they forced it here to try to get her stronger?"

"Yes," Keith nodded. "It wasn't their first attempt, but it was their first success."

"Nathan knows?"

"Yes," Keith answered. "He forced it out of me."

"How?" Samantha asked. "We can't exactly hurt people, and most every way to force someone into doing something is forbidden with a literal death sentence for doing it."

"I'm sworn to secrecy," Keith told her. "Sorry. And no offense, but Nathan scares me a lot more than you scare me, and that was even before he awakened his magic."

"Let's get to work," Samantha told them. "We're almost out of time, and we don't know how long we have until the Challenge starts."

The other three agreed, then pulled up their Points Shops, taking off to different corners of the MPR, with Samantha remaining by Nathan. While they were working together, they still wanted to keep exact values or near estimates secret.

Once they finished, they gathered back together.

"How long do you think he'll be unconscious?" Samantha asked.

"My awakening nap was eight and a half hours," Keith answered. "He's, like, three times as powerful as I was. Maybe more."

"So he could be out for what, a day?" Samantha asked.

"Unfortunately," Keith said. "The more powerful you are, the longer it takes in comparison. Someone half my power when I awakened my magic would've only been out for maybe two or three hours, not four and a quarter. Nathan could be out for several days – possibly the entire Challenge."

"And there's no way to wake him up?"

"Not without breaking the rules."

And if he did that, then they'd be down the most powerful conscious member of their team and the most dangerous member.

"Damn," Samantha swore. "What's that method?"

"Forcefully pushing my magic into him, learning his own magical pathways, and forcing whatever mana he's recovered from the venting and has leftover to cycle through him. It's almost as painful as the venting itself."

"If the venting's painful," Michael said. "Why are you still alive?"

Everyone stared at him.

"What?" He asked. "I might not be the smartest, but I'm not a complete moron. Plus, Madeline mentioned that the only reason she wasn't going to teach me how was because it'd probably count as her causing harm to another student."

"Which means," Keith said. "That she probably wants to hurt you, Michael. The rules are pretty explicit about intending harm. If you step on someone's foot and accidentally hurt them through that, you don't die."

"We have both our enhanced Endurance and our Health preventing us from actually getting hurt," Michael said. "Getting our foot stepped on is different."

"Is it?" Keith asked. "Comparatively, I mean. If you did get hurt by accident because of someone else, you don't die. I had no intent of harm towards Nathan, and never have. In addition, he knew beforehand it would be painful, and did it anyway. The System didn't register-"

Keith cut off, his eyes widening and jaw dropping as he looked down at Nathan. The others looked at him uncomfortably for a few moments.

"What?" Samantha asked.

Keith looked up at her.

"N-"

Challenge 5 will be starting soon! Your Challenge is to survive. You will be separated into 3 instances of 41 students and 1 instance of 5 students. The single instance with 5 students has an increased difficulty and time spent in the Challenge, due to their lack of presence in the MPR by the appointed time limit's expiration. Your challenge will be to survive. If, once all instances have finished the Challenge or been wiped-out, the death count is not a multiple of 8, then the student who earned the lowest amount of Points will die. This will continue until the death count for the Challenge is a multiple of 8. The Challenge will begin in 5 minutes.