"We can get back to that later," Samantha told Keith. "We have five minutes – do any of you have any last-minute preparations?"

The others shook their head in response.

"Alright," she said. "Then we need to formulate a battle plan before shit hits the fan. Having us together will attract more monsters, but it's also the only way we'll make it through this Challenge. Our first order of business will be deciding where to hide out."

"Locker rooms might be a good idea," Michael said. "They have two entry points, plus bathrooms. If we go to the ones behind the South Gym, for the boys' P.E., we'd also be near the kitchen."

"But there's never any food in them," William shook his head.

"No," Michael said. "We can't enter them. Not in the neutral instance."

"We can in the Challenges?" Samantha asked.

"I did during the last Survival," he nodded. "Food's still in there."

"The culinary class," Samantha said. "It has food, too, but one point of entry. It isn't near any restrooms, but-"

"No," William said. "We'd need a way out, if monsters get in. I second the locker rooms."

"The dome," Samantha said. "Nathan and I hung out up there, on the second level. We hung around where the bleachers extend out to, and pulled those heavy curtains shut. The monsters usually only poked their heads in once every now and then, but it seemed more like curiosity than anything. No portals ever opened up on it, either, and the monsters take awhile to walk up stairs or the bleachers from the floor. In fact, if we keep the doors closed-"

"The monsters just force their way through doors," Michael shook his head.

"Not these ones," Samantha told him.

"She's right," Keith said. "They don't force their way through the heavier doors, and the doors at the bottom and the top of the steps to the second level count as fire doors. They're thick, they're heavy, and they're durable."

"These monsters also have magic," Michael reminded them. "Maybe things are different."

"Maybe," Samantha said. "But that doesn't change that Nathan and I were pretty safe in there. We only left it to use the bathrooms in the dome's changing rooms. It was safe as hell."

"If that's the case," Michael frowned. "How did Nathan get Ranking #1?"

"He left at night while it was his turn to keep watch to kick the shit out of the monsters around the track and on the dome's floor."

"He just left you alone in there?" William frowned. "Does he not care about you at all?"

"No portals opened up?" Keith asked. "In there?"

"No," she answered. "None. They opened up on the track or the floor, but not in that space."

"And portals open in the same spots," Keith muttered. "If I create a proper enough disruption field, we might be able to prevent any new ones that haven't opened there before. Yeah, that would work, but I need the proper-we've got it all here."

He looked at everyone, realizing that he'd spoken aloud.

"Time's almost up," he said. "That sounds like the safest spot, and I might be able to prevent any from opening there, since none have before, but I'll need some stuff."

"Great," Samantha said. "We'll also need something from the AV room – Michael, William, you two take Nathan up there and protect him, Keith and I will go get the things from AV, as well as check out the culinary class, if possible. If there's food in the kitchens, there's probably food in there."

"What's in the AV room?"

"What's something that's used at every sporting event?" She asked him. "Regardless of if it's your football, basketball, or baseball game?"

"Balls," he answered. "Jerseys."

"Not something the players or teams used," she told him. "But something the event's staff used."

"Clothes?" He suggested. "Well, and the whistles and walkies, but-"

"Exactly," she said. "They're kept in the AV room. Having them will be a good idea, in case we need to send people out. I already checked, and the phones aren't working. Keith, you and I are getting them. Time's up! Let's move!"

The four of them read the Challenge Start notices, then got to work, Michael slinging Nathan over his shoulder once more and heading out, William prepared to protect the jock from monsters to keep Nathan safe.

They reached the Dome after fifteen minutes, both of them exhausted. The monsters were already more-numerous than the previous Survival Challenge, and since the bulk were H-2 instead of H-1 and their stats were increased, that made them all that much harder to kill.

Once they'd arrived, they sat and waited, with Michael frowning at Nathan every now and then.

"What's wrong?" Samantha asked once they arrived, with her dropped Nathan's bag down beside him. "I should've sent that with you, but it did make a good club."

Michael snorted.

"Keith," Michael looked at the mage. "Does the awakening of magic affect anything else?"

"Yeah," Keith answered. "But only a tiny, tiny fraction of how much everything else was affected. Something like three-thousandths' of a boost compared to what everything else got. It took them decades to narrow down that percent, by the way. Three-tenths of a percent, for your math-deficient brain."

"So that explains why he's suddenly a helluva a lot hotter, then," Michael commented, and the other three immediately looked at Nathan.

As they looked at the unconscious warrior, they realized that Michael was right – Nathan had become a lot more beautiful. They'd just been too preoccupied by the flurry of activity and panic to notice.

"Which can only mean one of two things," Keith said after several moments of silence between the four seniors. "Either it affects the System-granted stats since those are technically part of our body, or it only affects our base value – what we'd have without the System. And if it's the latter case… then Nathan had quite the boost. But that'd also mean he had an absurdly low amount of Mana."

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"Could be a mix," Samantha said, and Keith nodded.

"We'll have to wait for him to wake," William said. "Did you guys get them?"

"Yeah," Samantha answered, taking off her backpack and opening it up, revealing five black walkie-talkies and a charging cradle for them. "Cradle's purpose should be obvious."

"We've got the food in our packs and Item Boxes," Keith added. "Michael, will you come help me get some stuff?"

"William and I'll watch over Nathan," Samantha added. "Keith thinks he can muster up the necessary components from around the school to make a protective barrier around this area and the dampening field he mentioned earlier."

Michael nodded, then joined Keith, the two of them leaving. Samantha looked down at Nathan. She'd put the rest of his clothes on while they were using the Points Shop, so he was at least dressed, and he was much, much more handsome than he had been that morning. How she hadn't noticed it was beyond her.

Normally, she was a lot more aware of her surroundings. Nathan would've noticed immediately, she knew, if one of them suddenly became much more attractive. He noticed everything.

It was bad luck that they'd awakened his magic just in time for a Challenge to start. What was Nathan thinking in the first place? He wasn't a magician, even if he'd received a boost massive enough that three-tenths of a percent of the boost to his magic and mana affected him so much.

After an hour of waiting – and an H-2 kill – Samantha and William heard voices outside the curtain, followed by the sound of something slamming into a wall. Samantha poked her head out and watched as Keith turned away from the monster and walked into the space from the other side, Michael following behind.

Once within the space, Keith began preparing his spell, drawing on the ground a series of runes to encircle the space along the curtain. Then, he began drawing the runes along the two side walls, just above the ground, before drawing them straight up beside the bleachers. Then, he had Michael boost him up to the top of the bleachers, and he continued the runes along the wall, just above the seats.

"What's he painting with?" Samantha asked. "I know that's a glaze bottle, but canary yellow isn't normally light green."

"He cleaned out the jug," Michael snorted. "He mixed up a gallon of whatever that thing is – I'm not entirely sure – and said that he can use it to create both barriers. He wanted a five-gallon bucket, but we didn't have any on-hand. I'm sure there are some here somewhere, I know I've seen them before."

"He made more?"

"I think he made three gallons," Michael nodded. "The rest are in his Item Box."

"Okay," she said as Keith called for Michael to help him down.

Once he was down, they gathered up near Nathan.

"That should do it," Keith said. "The only thing we can do now is hope it works. The barrier should prevent anything that isn't human from passing as well as disrupt any spatial magics."

"Speaking of magic," Samantha said. "None of the monsters so far have used magic, even though-"

"We only faced H's," Keith told her. "Michael and I discussed that, too. He confirmed that he and William only fought H's."

"You think the G's are the ones that can use magic?" She asked. "Or the F's, which we haven't fought yet, since the G's can fly? That'd suggest-"

"Not necessarily," Keith interrupted. "It could just be a standard message. The difficulty went up, so it just listed the differences, not accounting for the fact that the ones that use magic aren't spawning, rather than we're acquiring not one but two grades of monsters for this Survival Challenge.

"Plus," Keith added. "We fought a magic-based G-1 on our way here."

The group compared their personal analyses of the monsters and how much stronger they were, confirming that they were, indeed, about two and a half times as strong as they were before. Which meant, of course, that they'd need to farm them.

"Two at a time," Samantha said. "During waking hours. The Dome's floor usually spawns between three and eight an hour, so probably five to twelve an hour, now. About half of them leave the dome – the doors leading outside and to the rest of the school aren't as heavy as the ones leading up here. Then there's also the few that come up to the second level. Farming that way, we can all get stronger, little by little.

"That said," Samantha fixed her gaze on Keith. "Do you really thinking blocking spatial magics would work to stop a portal from opening in here? There's nothing suggesting-"

"That this whole thing is magical in nature?" Keith finished. "Yes, there is. I realized it earlier. The System messages – they're this shade of blue, right?"

He held up a hand and let an orb of mana form. At first, it was his normal violet coloration, but after a few seconds, it changed to blue. The other students pulled up their statuses and compared, confirming they were the same shade.

"This is the exact shade," Keith told them. "Of pure mana for a normal person. Mine's purple because I'm a psychic, and a necromancer's is gray. However, the fact that the System's messages are the exact same shade of blue as normal mana? That tells me that everything we're dealing with is magical in nature – which means the portals are, too. There's a chance that they aren't designed to rip through wards against spatial magic, and mine are quite potent. And took a lot of magic for me to make. I'm going to have to rest for a bit."

They nodded, and Keith laid down near the bleachers, using his backpack and robe as a pillow, quickly falling asleep. The three conscious seniors started discussing a plan, then Michael and William left to perform the first sweeping of the track and bleachers, returning after half an hour, exhausted from the fighting.

"Do you think Nathan's going to want to switch to a magic-based build?" Michael asked. "He never struck me as the magical type."

"Knowing Nathan?" Samantha snorted. "He probably wanted to learn how to create magical barriers or mix magic and his martial arts together, not go a magician's path. I can't see him being a magician. Michael – you banged the bitch witch, did she ever mention her studies?"

"She may have been exaggerating," he shrugged. "She said it can take anywhere from three months to a year to be able to use a spell competently enough for it to be considered usable. Her best time, she said, was two months."

"Not unreasonable."

The three looked over to Keith, who had shifted onto his side to face them.

"To properly learn a spell," he explained. "Can take anywhere from a quarter to a year or more. You can use it before then, but it'd take intense training to be able to use them reasonably well. That's why most magicians only have two or three spells they'll really use."

"Like you and your air slashes?" Samantha asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "That was the second spell I learned. I'm technically a prodigy, and it took me a solid month to be able to use that spell with actual precision. Initially, the slashes were a lot thicker, and nearly resembled force magic – the first spell I learned. And I practiced it at least three or four hours a day to get it to the proper form.

"On top of that," he continued. "Magics get cheaper in terms of how much mana they cost, the more you use them and the more familiar you are with them. Something about magic memory – the magical form of muscle memory. I'm sure you two fighters know what I'm talking about."

"I do, too," Michael snorted. "The more you perform an action, the easier it is to do, and the better your body remembers how to do it. If you're a prodigy, what would that make Nathan?"

"Something that makes prodigies look like normal people?" Keith offered. "Though without knowing his exact boost, we won't be able to tell if he was hiding a high amount of magic and mana from us. So we have to wait for him to wake up to find out."

"Did he mention to you why he wanted to learn magic?" Samantha asked.

"No," Keith shrugged. "He's terrifying, so I didn't ask. Also, there's another terrifying thing we should keep in mind."

"What?" The three of them asked.

"Even if we survive this, we might not survive Challenge."

"And that makes sense… how?" Michael asked.

"Points," Samantha gasped. "The difficulty-increase notice didn't mention Points rewards being increased! Even if we survive, we're out the H-3's that filled the halls, and the weakest monsters, H-2's, are a lot more difficult! There's a strong chance we'll be having less Points earned than anyone else."

Michael and William immediately understood what that meant. They'd need to farm hard in order to ensure they weren't in the bottom eight once they finished. Even with the extended time, facing harder monsters and lacking the easiest of them meant they would never have a shot at the top again.

And that they'd be pushing it to succeed in not being in the bottom eight by the end. After all, everyone knew that being there meant a risk of dying, which meant everyone was going to be pushing hard for more Points during the Challenge.

And those students had the H-3's to farm, and without increased stats.