"Why didn't you tell them?" Keith asked as he pulled out his crystal orb.

He looked at Nathan, who was munching on some dried slices of apricot at the moment.

"Better for them to not know unless it was absolutely confirmed."

"They still think I can only see the present."

"Keep it that way for now," Nathan told him, shoving the rest of his handful of dried fruit into his mouth. "Do the scry."

Keith sighed, then focused on his crystal orb, his eyes starting to glow.

"At least one or two more months," he answered after a few moments. "It's… hazy, probably because it depends on so much randomness and luck. The more variables involved, the harder it is to see."

"Can you see what the final Challenge is?"

"No," Keith shook his head. "Something's blocking me from seeing even that."

"Alright," Nathan said, then stretched as Keith put his orb away. "Where do you want to bet the Nine-Pointer is."

"Are you sure it'll be worth 9 Points?"

"Yes," Nathan answered. "The first letter rankings were 1 Point, 2 Points, and 3 Points. That's one higher than the previous Then the two monsters we've faced so far in the second were two more than the previous, which means the third one probably will be as well."

"Alright," Keith sighed, then thought for a few moments. "Maybe the Dome? For the space? One of the gyms, for sure, but the Dome's the largest."

"Outside," Nathan said. "Possibly the football field."

"Alright," Keith focused, his irises beginning to glow. "Dammit! You win! It's out on the football field."

"Told you," Nathan said. "It'd give it much more room to fly about. Also, we can bet that the final boss of this game is going to be at least two or three times as hard as this guy – minimum. Possibly ten times."

"Why do you think that?" Keith asked.

"You said it'll be at least one to two months out?" Nathan asked, and Keith nodded. "Then we're going to be facing at least one more Survival, if the every-other is a pattern for it. Possibly two or three, depending on how long they are and how long the others are, as well as the rests between."

Keith nodded, then pulled his walkie from his belt.

"The G-1's in the football field," he said. "Meet us in front of the Dome."

"Copy that," Samantha responded a few seconds later.

"And grab your bags, too," Keith told them. "We'll leave them in the field's locker rooms. I warded them yesterday, so there aren't any monsters in there, so it should be safe."

"Got it," Samantha said. "See you in ten."

Keith returned his walkie to his belt, then he and Nathan grabbed their backpacks and made their way out front and waited for the rest of their team, who had been clearing out some monsters on the other side of the school.

When they joined up, the five students rested for twenty minutes, watching the Nine-Pointer. Nathan noted that it was slightly-larger than the others, and that it already had its wings out. Its crimson skin was slightly-molted, and the pair of horns and the beast's needle-like teeth looked especially dangerous. Its hands had been twisted into sets of claws, while its feet were barely more human-looking than those. Instead of having a single tail, like about half of all of the monsters, this one had two long, slender tails that ended in spades.

"Do you think we can take it?" Samantha asked.

"No," Nathan answered.

"So we'll be stuck farming inside for awhile?" She answered.

"No," Nathan started walking, and the others followed. "I doubt Keith could manage any damage to it. I'll be the damage-dealer. You four be distractions."

"If Keith can't damage it, how will you be the damage-dealer?" Michael asked.

"Because I ignore Endurance."

They reached the field's locker rooms and made their way inside, dropping off their backpacks. Michael checked his sword as the others checked their weapons, Keith fiddling with his amulet. The sound of a sword drawing from a sheath gained their attention, and they looked to find Nathan sliding his katana back into the sheath, which had been fixed to his belt.

"You have three weapons?" Samantha asked.

"Don't share about the sword," Nathan told them.

He had determined that his best bet for this fight wouldn't be using his fists, like he normally did, but the sword. It would grant him the extra reach, even if it was weaker. He still hadn't used his Point Shop, just in case, but both Keith and William could access theirs at the moment, he was sure.

"Keith, William," Nathan decided it was best to confirm it. "You two can access your Points Shops, right?"

"Yeah," they answered in unison.

"Alright," Nathan said.

He then quickly pulled his up Points Shop and quickly spent the 450 Points on investing into his sword's Level, bringing it up to Level 10 again. No new option for Upgrading it, which interested him. It looked like either it could only get the total upgrade once, or needed a higher Level for each subsequent one.

Probably Level 20 for the next.

Nathan spent a few moments considering checking out what his next Weapons set would be. He was better with a weapon he hadn't access to, but he doubted the System granted it to anyone. The three next ones were probably more powerful weapons, but still the more medieval ones. Deciding against purchasing one just in case they weren't, he closed his Points Shop.

"How long have you had the sword?" Samantha asked.

"Awhile," he answered. "Keith, William, I just used mine to further upgrade my sword, so I won't be able to use it until we leave here. A good strike with my sword will take out, at minimum, 450 Health, though I can take out up to 600 or so if I use a certain Skill. The moment its Health is empty, Michael, you do your best to poke the thing with your own sword. The flame damage will help us take it out. William, Samantha, you two will probably do nothing against this thing, but try anyway. Keith, you only attack if you absolutely need to."

"Alright," he nodded.

"That means if we're in a pinch."

"I got that," Keith said. "So don't use my grip?"

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"Only in an emergency," Nathan told him. "If that's failing, summon your familiar."

Keith nodded, then the group made their way out of the locker rooms. As soon as they reached the fence leading to the track circling the field, Nathan jumped up, landing on the other side of the fence. The moment his feet touched the ground, he was gone, already halfway down the field and across, slicing at the Nine-Pointer, which raised its hand up, letting the blade slash across the palm.

Nathan immediately followed the attack up with a swift series of strikes as the Nine-Pointer unleashed an ear-splitting howl that was even worse on his powerful senses. He grit his teeth and powered through it, kicking the beast in the chest, then blocking the spade-like tail that had lashed out at him.

The other one whipped out immediately and slammed into his side, throwing him a few feet away, but Nathan quickly recovered, cutting through the flurry of stone spikes that had been launched at him. A few struck him with enough force to push him back, though the rest were deftly cut through with his sword.

He quickly reassessed his opinion of the others, and hollered for them to stay back unless he said it was safe to come near.

The thing's Health was a six-digit figure, its Mana was high, and its spells packed a powerful punch.

It took Nathan nearly twelve minutes to bring its Health to none, and he immediately began hacking at the thing's tails every time they drew near. The beast grew smart, but not in time to avoid having one of the two weapons attached to its body sliced off.

Even with ignoring the Endurance – the value of physical resistance – of the creature, there were still certain factors that contributed to one's physical resistance. Nathan wasn't sure what determined how hard it was to cut through something, since 0 Endurance should mean it was cut through easily, but he knew that he still struggled at times to cut through the creature.

He decided that his Piercing Strikes likely only applied while there was Health to remove, and not after, despite not stating that as the case.

The Nine-Pointer managed to remove Nathan's own Health, bringing it completely down to empty. Nathan called for help, then again wounded him a few times, but he ignored it, pushing through the pain until he managed to remove the beast's head.

+9 Points!

You will return to the neutral instance in 10 minutes.

"Told you it was 9 Points," Nathan looked at Keith, who shrugged. "Let's grab our things."

Nathan sheathed his katana, then returned it to his Weapons Box, and they made their way into the locker rooms to grab their bags, then began the walk inside. They'd likely need to be in the cafeteria after they arrived.

Nathan was fuming the entire time they walked. The others had backed off when he warned them to, but didn't join back in when he called for help. Yes, he managed to deal with it, but Michael's flaming sword would have been a massive boost to the fight.

When they reached the cafeteria, they found the MPR had been sealed off. Shrugging, they read their completion rewards notices and waited out the rest of their time, and when the timer reached zero, they found themselves in the cafeteria with nearly everyone else who had survived.

Samantha, William, and Michael didn't realize they were facing the survivors of the Challenge, who were currently staring at the remains of a student who had exploded the moment the quintet arrived.

Keith and Nathan, however, already had a head-count for the others. The survival rate was one less than the multiple of eight the game required, and the unlucky student at the very bottom died immediately.

"Damn," Michael said. "The System didn't even wait to announce things."

The other students looked over at the quintet, who were standing by the MPR doors. A notice appeared when they arrived informing them that the MPR was sealed off for another fifteen minutes.

"It took you guys four days to kill the boss?" Madeline was the first to react beyond just looking.

"No," Keith folded his arms across the chest. "It took Nathan about twenty minutes by himself. You got the notice that we had a harder Challenge – one of the difficulty increases was waiting half as long longer for the boss to appear."

"You," Nathan pointed a hand at one of the healers who had survived that far. "I need healing."

The student nodded a little hesitantly, then approached Nathan, shooting Madeline nervous looks. Nathan noted that he was scared of her, but at least he still came to Nathan. As soon as he started mending the warrior's left arm with a soothing magic, he frowned.

"These look like burns."

"Another difficulty increase was no longer blocking monsters from using magic."

Madeline snorted in response to that.

"G-rank beasts can," Samantha said. "Most of them were using fire magics, though the G-1 used a mix of fire magics and stone magics."

"It created a few rudimentary barriers, too," Keith added. "You guys didn't see them because you weren't using magical sight, but they were there."

Nathan frowned at that, and gave Keith a questioning glance.

"Magical sight," Keith said. "It's something any trained magician can do. You probably noticed it deflecting your attacks a few times. It basically lets you see magical signatures. The barriers weren't designed to be invisible, so they registered with it. It lets us see who all is a magician, for instance. It takes the form of a sort of aura."

Nathan looked around at their fellow classmates as Michael counted under his breath. His team all had magical auras, a faint glow around them, with Keith's being purple while the others had a blue that was similar to the status messages. Madeline had the blue glow, and four other students each had an aura, all of them blue.

"And you need training for it?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah," Keith responded.

"Oh," Nathan said. "I can see them just fine."

Madeline let out a laugh heavy with amusement.

"You're not even a magician!"

"No," Nathan looked at her. "I'm a warrior who's been awakened."

"As if you-" she began, then narrowed her gaze. "How? How did all four of you-"

"Through the normal rush process," Nathan stated. "Now fuck off, bitch. How useful were you actually during the final fight?"

"I-"

"Don't want to hear it."

"You-"

"Shut up."

Madeline continued to try to talk, but Nathan interrupted her each time until she stormed off to the side section of the cafeteria and sat down.

Once the timer for the MPR's opening ticked down, the doors unsealed, and a message appeared in the students' visions.

The MPR is now available again. You may restock your supplies, standard rules apply. The screens in the cafeterias and MPR will reveal the rankings in 20 minutes. Reward will be distributed then.

Everyone made their way into the MPR as students swarmed the quintet, asking for details of how much harder it was, and Michael, William, and Samantha indulged them. When Madeline heard how much tougher the monsters were, she laughed.

"How did none of you manage to place last?" She asked. "If the monsters were more than twice as tough?"

"Because we're at least tough enough to handle ourselves," Samantha retorted. "We didn't stick around and hide, you know."

"You're probably still in the bottom bracket," Madeline snorted. "I bet none of you made it past 500 Points. I had over fifteen hundred by the time the game ended!"

"Aw," Nathan gave her a sarcastically pity-filled voice. "You didn't score higher than the sixth place. That's so sad to hear."

"What?" She asked. "You going to claim to have doubled that?"

"No."

He nearly quadrupled that.

"But the lowest-earner among us was over 2,000 Points," Nathan added, then walked over to the trio of screens. It was nearly time. "Now shut the fuck up, bitch. Or do we need another private discussion?"

Madeline paled, then pushed past stunned students as she stormed out of the MPR.

"I rather enjoyed our last one," Nathan told Keith, who just snorted in response.

The timer reached zero, and Nathan was met with a series of messages informing him of his rewards for his placement. His instance placed first, scoring above the next-best by 38 Points, so he received 10 Stat Points, 10 Skill Points, 5 Levels, and 200 Points from that. He placed first in his instance, and so received the same as that. Then, he received it again for earning first among all students, as well as the Level-Up to all applicable Skills and Weapons.

The screens only showed the 'normal' values, not his doubled values, for the Stat Points, Skill Points, and Points. It seemed that the first two remained at five each, like last time, but the Points reward was doubled from the previous Survival Challenge's.

That made him wonder if it simply doubled every Survival Challenge, or increased by 50 Points each one. For the first-place, that was, since it decreased each place under until fifth.

He looked around at the other students. Since there were three other Instances, at least fifteen other students received some bonuses for scoring. Considering that they lost seventy-two students, putting them down to only fifty-six, their previous Survival Challenge claimed a lot of lives. It wasn't unlikely that there were only one or two Challenges left before the final one.

Nathan assumed that a huge part of the problem was having the same assumption his teammates did – that the Challenge would only last for six days. Even working in groups, unless someone remembered the kitchens and culinary rooms and shared it, chances of people actually staying strong enough to the end were rare. Most students would've burned their Points as soon as they were able, even though that wasn't the smart thing to do.

As he looked around, Nathan wondered just how many of them were going to make it out alive, his gaze fixing on Mitchell. He was a strong warrior, and one who was likely to survive. Maybe it was a good idea to pull him into the fold.