"That's actually pretty amusing," Keith told Nathan, who gave him a confused look. "You being able to pluck out knowledge like that."

"I don't know how I know that."

"I know," Keith told him. "And I think I do."

"You do?" Nathan asked.

"What is your father?"

"Godking of sex."

Keith stared at Nathan for a moment, and the demigod realized what the psychic was saying.

"Ah," he said.

"I don't get it," Michael whispered to William.

As everyone present was awakened, whispering did nothing to conceal what he said from the rest.

"Nathan," Keith looked at Michael as he pointed at the demigod. "Is the son of a god of sex, who also has powers over life, conception, birth, and so on, as evidenced by some of the inherent magics Nathan has. It seems he's also able to glean the information of how different species reproduce as a result of this."

"Oooh!" Michael responded.

"Yeah," Keith snorted. "That. Anyway, let's rest here, then start the temple's Dungeon tomorrow."

The group agreed to that plan, then they began setting up camp, Keith creating the protective ring around them as Michael and William set up the tents and Katie and Samantha set up the eating and cleaning stations. Nathan, meanwhile, disappeared on everyone again.

"Where did he go?" Katie asked when she realized he had disappeared. "There's nothing here but the temple and fields, and he's just gone!"

"Probably off doing something," Samantha answered. "You know he disappears while we're setting up camp. He'll probably return with meat to cook and some veggies or something to eat with it."

"Probably," Katie sighed.

They returned to work, and an hour after everyone had camp set up and were snacking on food Keith had brought out of his orb, Nathan returned to camp. Without a word, he set up his cooking station over the fire they had prepared. He pulled out green potatoes, which he set Samantha to peeling so they could boil and mash them. As those boiled, Nathan began grilling rabbits and vegetables.

"Nathan," William braved as Nathan worked. "Uh… why are the rabbits without their pelts?"

"Skinning practice."

The rest of the evening went without incident, then everyone retired to their tents. Samantha slipped out in the hopes of sex with Nathan, and when she called into the tent for enchanters, Keith opened the zipper to the window on the door, allowing her to see inside. Keith was naked, a boner quite obvious, while Nathan was sleeping underneath a blanket to ward against the cold. While only his shoulders and up were visible, his girlfriend guessed that he was either naked or in just his underwear.

"That answers that question," she muttered, then noticed that Keith had several crystals and tools sitting on Nathan's chest. "Uh… didn't he tell you not to do that?"

"Yeah," Keith answered. "He'll probably smack me in the morning, Breezy tends to tell him if I'm doing this."

"Speaking of the familiars," she said as Keith turned around to return to his spot. "You and Nathan seem to be keeping them inside."

"He has Breezy out," Keith said. "And so far, that's really all that's needed. Everything here seems to be relatively easy for us to beat. Breezy's just to keep an eye out and alert us to attacks incoming. If you're wanting sex, I'd advise against having Nathan woken up for it."

"You know what I'm here for?" She asked.

"It's not the first time you or Katie have slipped out to ask him for sex," Keith told her. "It just usually happens before we retire to the tent. Nathan was rather tired today, and told me to tell you 'no, as much as I want to'. His exact words. He could tell your horny levels were rather high."

Samantha laughed a little in response to that, then looked at the crystal orb Keith was working with.

"What are you making?" She asked.

"A bomb."

She froze, and he snorted.

"You know we've been doing explosives," he said. "It's nothing unusual for us. You don't have to worry about it exploding, I'm being rather careful with it to avoid that."

"And if it does explode?" She asked.

"I'd be pretty damn impressed," he told her. "Since the runes which cause the actual explosion aren't powered in any way, and nor are they connected."

"Oh."

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"Yeah," he chuckled.

"Nathan really seems to be avoiding having sex while we're here," Samantha told Keith. "Katie and I have only managed it once each."

"Yeah," Keith shrugged. "Just chalk it up to Nathan being Nathan, yeah?"

"You know why he's refusing."

"No, I don't," Keith began focusing more on the orb.

"Keith, so help me, you will regret not telling me why he's refusing."

Keith sighed, then set the orb on Nathan's stomach, before rubbing his temples as he thought over the answer.

"Alright," he finally said. "Nathan doesn't like that everyone would know it was happening. He does prefer sex to be a more private thing, as much as he's willing to talk about it or suggest certain people have it with certain other people. If you actually think about it, Nathan doesn't usually say he's going to have sex with someone. He usually just gets them alone and has sex with them. With you and Katie, here, the other would know what's going on. The only way to really hide it would be for the two of you to be in a tent alone, too, which would also make it obvious."

"Oh," she said. "Now that I think about it, Nathan really does prefer sex as a private thing. I mean, I knew that already, I just didn't realize Nathan had that much issue with it."

"Yeah," Keith shrugged. "Meanwhile, Michael and William don't seem to have that issue."

Samantha raised an eyebrow, and Keith pulled an orb out of his storage orb, then held it out. She thought for a moment, then opened the door to the tent and entered, zipping it back up as she sat beside Keith.

"Is this a scrying orb?" She took it from him.

"That one Nathan and I invented so that non-psychics can look," he told her. "Not the one you and Nathan use to look into our home dimension to look at Cyrus, but one for looking around her. If you want to see what I mean, just think of Michael or William as you push your mana into it."

Samantha did as instructed, then laughed as a view of William drilling Michael appeared in the orb.

"With the wind outside right now," she told Keith as she stopped feeding the orb her mana and the view disappeared. "I thought that was the reason their tent was moving. All three are."

"Yeah," Keith said. "They screw for about two hours, then go to bed. Nathan, meanwhile, watches Cyrus for a few minutes, then falls asleep."

"He watches Cyrus every night?" She asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Keith answered. "He misses your son a lot. Nathan really wants to leave here and go home, but he also wants to make sure that you – especially you – never have to do another Dungeon again."

"Can you guarantee," she said. "That if we're exempt for two years, you and Nathan can destroy the System?"

"Yes," Keith answered. "As long as several conditions are met. We could honestly manage it in maybe two or three months, if the conditions are met. Two years if the conditions aren't met is our estimate, which is why we're lucky we already had the exceptions for that long. This Dungeon series is only going to increase that."

"And if the Overseers start to suspect you actually can?" She asked. "Right now, they believe you can't."

"Trust me," Keith smiled. "We can destroy the System. We just need certain conditions to be met for it to be easier."

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Absolutely," he smiled. "Go get some sleep, Samantha. You'll need it for tomorrow."

Samantha returned to her tent, and Keith resumed working on the orb, making adjustments according to the feedback Nathan gave him after they retired to the tent. When Nathan disappeared each day during the camp setup, he wasn't just hunting or doing skinning practice.

He was testing their bombs. Everything was scaled-down in power from what it would take to destroy a dimension. To avoid revealing the full extent of the bombs, they needed to do just enough for them to register its effects and determine what adjustments were needed.

As they had the potential to be there for months, or even a couple of years, Nathan and Keith wanted to get as much testing in as possible, using up all of the crystal orbs they had.

The full version of the bomb would require no testing at all because of its effects.

Keith finished preparing the next bomb, then put his supplies away, before looking at Nathan's sleeping face. He prayed to the gods and the Well of Souls that if Nathan snapped because of a death, it was his death and not Samantha's. They were his fail-safes, and he knew without a doubt that if things took too long, the Well of Souls would ensure one of them died.

But he had a sinking feeling in his gut that Samantha would die in a place Nathan couldn't save her, and not because of the Well of Souls. If Keith died, Nathan would snap, but also dive deeper into his love for Samantha as he worked on his destruction of the System. If Samantha died, then Nathan would not have any love to dive into, stabilizing him. No, he'd have only his enchanting, and it would set the demigod on an even more destructive path.

Sending up another prayer, Keith stretched, then zipped up the window to the tent before crawling under his blanket, quickly drifting off to sleep. His feeling of death said it would be a long way away, and not in the Dungeon they were in. That gave him plenty of time to figure out what was going on and hopefully try to shift it onto him instead.

When morning came, Keith woke to find Nathan already missing from the tent. He dressed, then exited, finding Nathan preparing pancakes over the fire, a finished one rolled up and hanging out of his mouth.

"Hungry?" Keith snorted as he sat beside the demigod, grabbing a pancake from the plate of finished ones and ripped a chunk out to eat.

Nathan nodded, focusing on the food.

"I made the adjustments," Keith told him. "We should be good to go with testing this one, but give it a look before you use it, in case I missed something in my own checks."

Nathan nodded and continued cooking. The rest of their team came out of their tents over the next few minutes, joining the pair for breakfast. After they ate, everyone broke down their camp, then checked their weapons in preparation for the Dungeon.

"I did some looking after you guys went to bed," Keith said as they approached the doors to the temple. "And while I couldn't see much, I could determine it's going to be a little harder than the tower or maze, though not the specific details."

"Is everyone ready?" Nathan asked, and everyone confirmed they were. "Let's go."

He pushed open the doors, then stepped into the temple, examining the stone surroundings as a message appeared in his vision. There were several pillars supporting the ceiling of the great hall they had entered, and several doors lined each wall, with two additional doors on the back wall, to either side of a stone altar. No monsters were present, but that didn't mean some wouldn't appear in their path as they completed the Dungeon.

Nathan turned his attention to the notice in his vision.

Dungeon Entered: Temple 1 Challenge Type: Scavenger Hunt Difficulty: Adept Pick a door and enter. Completely clear that path of any monsters which you find there.

"This one's labeled as the first, too," Samantha commented.

"I'm really wondering why," Keith said.

"Let's just go with that door," Nathan pointed at the first door on their right, ignoring the musings of his teammates.