"Here we are," Nathan said when they reached Room 107, which bordered the front parking lot of the school, the staff's main parking.

"Here we are," Keith said, then entered the classroom, Nathan following behind.

The mage killed the two monsters that were in the room. Keith immediately walked over to his backpack and opened it as Nathan went to another and did the same.

"Here it is," Keith pulled a clear, crystal orb the size of a large grapefruit out of his backpack as he unwrapped the cloth from around it. "Uh… Nathan?"

"Michael's bag," Nathan stated. "They look to be his size."

In his hands were a box of condoms and a bottle of lube. Nathan dropped them back into the backpack, then went over to another desk and opened up the backpack beside it, pulling out several boxes of condoms.

"Why are there several sizes?" Keith asked, walking over.

"Probably to fit whoever Madeline seduced that time," Nathan shrugged. "None big enough for me. Or Michael. She doesn't have the bigger size. The System at least stocks our size. Not that Michael used them with Madeline."

Keith snorted, and Nathan returned the boxes to the backpack. They weren't returning to that instance in the future and couldn't bring the condoms with them back to the neutral instance. Since Keith's reading told Nathan that Samantha was getting pregnant from their first time, it also meant he didn't have to worry about keeping her from getting pregnant, like he did the others, who he had always used a condom with.

He hadn't thought about protection in the shower, and he knew it was probably because his heightened senses affected his rationality in the intimate situation.

Too late to change the past.

"Is time-travel possible?"

Maybe he could?

"No," Keith sighed. "Why?"

That dashed those hopes.

"Just curious."

Keith snorted, then the pair made their way back to the dome and sat down.

"Why did you want to learn magic?" Keith asked, holding the ball in both hands.

"Barriers."

"Barriers?" Keith asked.

"Yes," Nathan nodded.

"Samantha figured something like that."

"Plus," Nathan added. "All of the magicians seemed to have high mana amounts. More mana means more Skill uses during a fight."

Keith took a few moments to process that, then shook his head. That was probably the main reason Nathan wanted to learn magic – he probably thought that using magic gave a boost to one's mana pool, and while that was true, it was through the expenditure.

"How many people were awakened here?" Nathan asked.

"One," Keith answered. "The others were all magicians already, and their 'healing Skills' didn't come from the System."

"They didn't?"

"No," Keith responded. "It gives no spells, just some boosts, and our healing magic doesn't affect Health, either. At Level 40, I acquired access to a Skill that reduces how long it takes for me to cast spells. Or rather, it increases how fast I do it. What?"

Nathan had suddenly sprouted a look of realization.

"You put up barriers in the locker rooms under the other space, right?" Nathan asked, and Keith nodded. "But not this one?"

"Ah," Keith stood. "Yeah, let's go get that taken care of, so we don't have to cross the whole gym if we want to use the restrooms or take a shower."

Nathan nodded and Keith sent the orb into his Item Box before they went downstairs and took care of the monsters, then Keith put up the barriers. Then, they returned to the second level and relaxed a bit more.

"So you want to make a barrier?" Keith asked.

"Yes," Nathan asked. "It's not dangerous, is it?"

"No," Keith shook his head. "Though you might want to learn a basic force spell, first. It's the first spell pretty much every magician learns. General rule of thumb is learn a spell, practice it for several months, until you have a firm grasp of it, then learn other spells. I'd estimate that with decent practicing, you'd have a firm grasp of the basic force push in a month. I wouldn't feel comfortable teaching you the barrier you want to learn unless-"

"That's fine," Nathan said. "You teach me, I teach you."

"Teach me… what?"

"Martial arts," Nathan answered. "Put some meat on that body. Muscle. You're useless, you run out of mana. We can focus on that after leaving here."

"Alright," Keith nodded. "For the force spell, imagine just a push of force bursting from your hand. Summon up your mana and will it into that. That's… pretty much how you explain it."

Nathan nodded, then held up his hand, aiming it at the center of their space. He willed his mana to form into the force, and watched as the air in front of his hand rippled out in a small wave that traveled a few feet before fading away.

"Decent," Keith told him. "Most only manage a few inches at first."

"Let me see you do it."

Keith held up a hand, and a moment later, a wave of force blasted out of his palm, crossing the space in just a few seconds, though it faded completely before striking the wall.

"I could shoot across the dome, if I wanted," Keith said.

"Do it," Nathan said.

They pulled the curtain aside, and Keith walked to the bleachers and stood with his back against them before raising a hand. He blasted out another, larger push of force, and about twenty seconds later, Nathan watched as the bleachers opposite them on the other side of the second level caved inwards directly across from Keith, creating a dent more than two feet in diameter.

Nathan had Keith show off his various techniques with force magics, most of which were simply variations of the force push. Sometimes, they were in the wave that rippled out when they were using them initially, other times, they were almost like a solid disk.

Stolen story; please report.

Keith wasn't limited to just projecting his magic directly in front of him, demonstrating that by slicing a finger in the direction of the railings on the bleachers beneath him. Despite no magic pushing out of his hand or from directly in front of it, the railing he had aimed at formed a cut that went clean through the bar.

"You could kill someone with that, couldn't you?" Nathan asked.

"I could," Keith nodded. "Other than the other three surviving magicians from around here, everyone is susceptible to a spell like that, and the System-granted spells won't do shit against it. I can do that directly in you as long as you don't have magical defenses. Any magician who knows what they're doing with force magic can do that, as long as they don't have to project directly out of them or in front of them anymore."

That was a frightening concept to Nathan. He hadn't considered the possibility of a magician being able to do that before, and he knew that Madeline would more than likely be able to do it. That meant that if they had to face her, she could easily kill any of them but Keith.

"We're awakening everyone when they get back."

"What?" Keith asked. "Are you insane? Of course you are, you're Nathan Hunter. Nathan – think about what happened to you!"

"You were out for eight hours?" He asked.

"Well, yeah, but-"

"But nothing," Nathan stated, walking towards the bleachers on the floor of the dome as a few monsters walked out of a pair of portals down below. "The other three are getting awakened. They won't be out that long, and you I can handle things. Then, once they've all woken back up and are adjusting to their new senses, you're teaching us how to create magical defenses."

"Why?" Keith asks. "The monsters clearly can't do that, or they would've! Not only that, but-"

"If we duel," Nathan said. "And are paired up against another magician, and they can do that, how long would we last?"

Keith swallowed, and Nathan jumped, landing beside one of the monsters that had just exited a portal as the swirling mass of black, purple, and red energy faded away, his fist slamming into the monster's face.

He followed up with a series of strikes, making sure to strike with his Burst Knuckle every second if he could. It only stunned for a single second, and he missed the mark a few times. One of those times, the monster attempted to burn him.

When he finally killed the Five-Pointer, he quickly killed the three Two-Pointers down there, then returned to Keith.

"Understand me?" Nathan asked.

"Yes," Keith nodded.

"Michael's come into my trust while we've been here," Nathan told him. "And Samantha and William are both valuable allies and good people. I really don't want to lose any of them. Or you."

"What's your Mana Regeneration?"

"It would take me about seventeen days to regenerate from empty," Nathan told Keith. "You said that you think we have the same amount of Mana. What's your regeneration?"

"Okay, I'm a lot faster than that," Keith said. "My regeneration lets me recover in about a day and three-quarters from empty."

Nathan stared at him.

"Forty-nine seconds per point of Mana," Keith said. "And no, it didn't change upon arriving here, so it's just giving the actual values. I've managed to decrease it by a second, but the faster you're able to recover your mana, the harder it is to increase your speed further."

"Alright," Nathan said. "How to increase?"

"Just using magic," Keith shrugged. "The more magic you use, especially in a shorter time, the easier it'll be to increase your regeneration. It also helps increase how much mana you have, too. A common practice is expending all of your mana and using it up again as soon as you, keeping yourself as empty as possible. Of course, here, that's not really plausible."

"Alright," Nathan said. "You'll teach me a barrier once I have a good grasp on this?"

"Yes," Keith answered, then groaned. "But you're going to put me through hell for martial arts, aren't you?"

"Yes."

Nathan sat down and started playing with force magic, careful not to use too much of his mana. He had gone down to about half of it during their massive fight that night, though he was pleased to note that his force push only used about five points of it.

As they waited for the others to return, Nathan continued attempting to hone his spell, and Keith explained much of what he'd already told the others about magic. Once again, he asked Nathan if he was feeling any of the symptoms of having too much mana without a familiar, and once again, Nathan denied it.

He felt perfectly fine, causing him to wonder if Keith was worrying needlessly.

"They're sure taking awhile," Keith told Nathan after a couple of more hours passed.

"They're making a lot," Nathan shrugged. "Cookies, brownies, and bread to last us a few days, the latter just a few, the others… probably as long as we're in here for? And they're waiting for them to cool down, too."

"How long do you think we'll be in here for?" Keith asked, and Nathan opened up his backpack to pull out food for lunch.

"Twelve days."

"Why do you think twelve?"

"Based on my assumption that Survival Challenge 2 is twice as long as Survival Challenge 1, then adding in half that for our difficulty increase."

Keith contemplated Nathan's assessment of their time. They had been factoring in that their second Survival Challenge's default would be half as long as the first one longer, not the full length longer.

But when thinking on it, it made sense that it would double the time, not decrease it by half. The game challenged them, but also seemed designed to ensure deaths. That's part of the reason they knew the 'strongest monster' was going to be a G-1.

Sighing, Keith sat down beside Nathan.

"We'll all five make it to the end."

"It's not that," Keith said. "I doubt even you would be able to do much to a G-1."

"There are five of us."

"Three of whom would be woefully inadequate against the harder, stronger, magic-wielding version we'll be facing."

Nathan shrugged.

"Even their increased stats wouldn't be of much use," Keith sighed again. "Chances of another prodigy among us is next-to-none."

Nathan shrugged again.

"What did you want me to get the crystal ball for?"

"A theory," Nathan answered. "You can view others, right? Do you know Mitchell Jung?"

Keith thought for a few moments, then gave a hesitant nod.

"Dark brown hair with long bangs, dark blue eyes?"

"Yeah," Nathan answered. "Try viewing him."

"But we're in different-"

"Just do it."

Keith sighed, then pulled out his orb and focused on it, holding it with both hands as his irises began to glow. A few seconds later, his eyes widened and his mouth opened, forming a small 'o'.

"I can see him," Keith told Nathan. "I can see Mitchell and what he's doing. He's currently cutting down a few monsters. He's pretty decent with a sword, though I'm betting he's like Michael, and never used one before. How am I-"

"We're just in different instances of the same reality," Nathan said. "Different alternates."

"How did you know I could do this?" Keith asked.

"Theory," Nathan answered. "Check on Guciardo."

"Time's frozen," Keith shook his head. "And we're in an alternate, so we can't do that. I've tried projecting my psychic powers out there before, and it fails."

"I know time's frozen," Nathan said. "How else do all the students who die simply die instantly?"

Keith frowned. He hadn't shared that much information with Nathan, but Nathan had figured it out. That school year, three other schools suddenly had the majority of their seniors die, many with injuries, some by exploding. It was publicized as a biological attack that had hit other nations as well.

The official statement was that no one knew who was doing it. It occurred in an instant, without warning, leaving only a few 'immune' behind. It was reported that they were only targeting schools, and that it only affected those who were eighteen years of age, though without a reason known for that.

The mage frowned, realizing that of course Nathan would have noticed that and drawn the conclusion that they were in frozen time as well as that those three attacks were really this, the students 'returning' to where they were when the game began.

"Check on Guciardo."

Keith focused, pushing his powers, and after nearly two minutes of stretching them to their limits at Nathan's urging, he finally glimpsed their teacher, frozen in time, in the real world, not their alternate.

"I saw her," Keith released his spell. "Though that was taxing. Fuck, that was taxing. I barely had enough mana left to do it, especially after the extra imbuing I did with our barrier."

"That's fine," Nathan said.

The attempt to scry on their teacher confirmed another theory of his, allowing him to draw more conclusions. He felt satisfied with what he'd learned so far.

When the others returned with the food, they divided it up between the five of them, then Keith mentioned that Nathan wanted them to all awaken. After a few minutes of discussion on the pros and cons, and with Nathan and Keith assuring they were fine for now, especially with the monsters being so few, they agreed to it.

Nathan insisted on Samantha going downstairs to the locker rooms with him for it, so that the others wouldn't see her nude, and that Keith would use the walkies to let them know once the others had woken up and ready to dress again.