The only students remaining in the school were male. Not because the females all died, but because at exactly five minutes before noon the day after they all returned from Challenge 3, the girls were given a message informing them of Female Challenge 1.

From what they were given before they left, they had to search out 'tokens' through the school in a form of scavenger hunt. However, in order to spawn the tokens, they had to kill a certain number of monsters, only finding out what next amount needed when they finally found their token. After killing all of the required monsters, they would be given the information telling them where the token was. Then, would have fifteen minutes to locate it, or need to kill everything again.

The scavenger hunt would last for exactly thirty-six hours. The first token required killing five H-3 monsters, what Nathan referred to as One-Pointers. They had to acquire a total of fifteen tokens, though no one would leave until after the time limit expired.

Most of the males were awaiting for the females to return the next night, when the females were due to return, but not Nathan. He had already gone to bed. And when someone climbed into the bed with him, he pretended to still be as asleep as he had been when she entered the room, knowing it was Samantha by the sound of her steps.

When morning came, Samantha found herself alone, tracking Nathan down in the cafeteria, eating lunch by himself. She noticed that oddly, a few of the other guys were giving him jealous looks.

Wondering what that was about but knowing she'd probably never find out, she sat across from him and filled him in on the scavenger hunt. Three of the girls died, bringing them down to only fifty-six.

There was no reward for finishing fast.

Nathan listened to her explanation, finished his breakfast, then left, making his way to the pottery classroom. There, he removed his jacket, pulled on one of the aprons, then got to work kneading clay before throwing it on a wheel. He spent the next hour working the clay into a goblet, first on the wheel in two parts, then assembled them together with a sort of stem in the middle of the cup portion of it.

He spritzed it with water from a spray bottle, then wrapped it up in plastic and moved it to the clay storage room. He planned on letting it sit like that for a few days. Longer, if he ended up in another challenge. It evened out the drying for him if he let it do that first before unwrapping it and letting it dry.

Over the next few days, the students fell into a sort of routine. Michael had found new lackeys, with his old ones being dead, though he always seemed to have a bigger crowd whenever Nathan saw him. They were all adults, but even still, they still had a sort of worship for strong people.

That wasn't to say that Keith, Madeline, Samantha, William, and Nathan didn't have people wanting to flock around them and listen, but for the most part, they didn't indulge. No one bothered Nathan, anyway. Madeline successfully turned most everyone against Keith, and it was thus common 'knowledge' that he had something to do with what happened.

William trained with Samantha once or twice a day, and Nathan sometimes joined them, sometimes watched, though William knew their draws when he sparred directly against Nathan were by Nathan's choice. The game had permitted training injuries, as long as there wasn't intent to harm, only to train.

Most of the students trained at one point or another each day, to get better. Their phones gave them video tutorials on combat using their selected weapons, allowing them a slightly-better experience training.

A few days wasn't enough to make someone an expert, but that, combined with what they had gone through and would go through again, meant they were learning rapidly and adjusting quickly. Experience in the face of a life-or-death situation was the best teacher, for those willing to learn.

And they were willing to learn.

Nathan suspected that something was allowing them to learn combat a bit faster than they should have as well. Some of the improvements he'd noticed in people went beyond something from just facing life-or-death combat situations.

After nearly a week of peace, the students received a notification for their next Challenge.

Challenge 4 will start soon! You have 15 minutes until Challenge 4 begins. You will be separated into four instances of thirty-seven students. Your mission will be to collect 50 Points. Only 100 Monsters will spawn each day. They will be segmented as: 50 H-3 Monsters, 30 H-2 Monsters, 19 H-1 Monsters, and 1 G-3 Monster.

Nathan frowned as he read that message. 172 Points earnable each day, five of which required a massive team effort. If points were earned optimally between the students, it would take eleven days to beat the next Challenge. Which meant that they were, no doubt, going to lose a fair few of their numbers.

Especially as fewer and fewer students were around, meaning the G-3 monsters were likely going to stick around for awhile, possibly remain untouched. And even though working together and spreading points out would be optimal for the students, he knew it likely wouldn't work that way.

When the fifteen minutes were up, Nathan looked around the South Gym. There had been two other students in there, playing basketball, when the notification came. They weren't there, and they hadn't left, meaning that they were sent to one of the instances other than his.

However, that didn't mean he was alone. Quite the opposite, as a portal was open in the gym with an H-3 monster stepping through it.

Nathan charged forward, delivering a series of rapid strikes to the beast, claiming his first Point for the Challenge. Then, he jumped backwards as a second monster stepped through the portal. As Nathan decided to flee, the Five-Pointer charged forward, intercepting him.

Muttering a swear, Nathan jumped up, landing on the grotesque, humanoid being's outstretched arms and quickly flipping, his Spatial Mobility giving him that added boost to let him defy physics.

Neat, he thought to himself.

The added jumping height and flip ability gave him a fair bit of distance. However, the Five-Pointer displayed an amount of speed the previous one didn't and quickly caught up to Nathan, who deflected its arm while flicking his knife forward, then took off, ignoring the dropping knife. No time to pick it up, it already served its purpose dealing extra damage.

Twenty-six seconds.

Using his fists worked just fine for the weaker monsters, but the stronger ones… he needed something better, like the sword. Muttering under his breath as the Five-Pointer moved even closer, Nathan opened up his Item Box and pulled out the Weapon Voucher he'd bought, just in case he needed the sword during a Challenge. He didn't expect to need it that soon.

Select your item: Shadow Sword

Shadow Sword, Nathan thought, then confirmed. Yes.

The sword materialized in front of him and he gripped the hilt. A katana with a black sheath. He drew the blade, tossing the sheath to the side. The elegant black blade was sharpened to a fine, metallic gray edge.

As soon as he'd freed the weapon, Nathan stepped forward with his right foot, pushed off with his left in a pivot, and slashed the katana up. It slashed against the Five-Pointer's arm, but didn't actually penetrate its Health.

Nathan began a sort of dance with the Five-Pointer, alternating between throwing his knife, punching, and slicing with the sword, depending on how close to the Five-Pointer he was.

It wasn't until his own Health had nearly depleted that Nathan remembered… that throwing his knife didn't do anything against the Five-Pointer. A thrown knife only did its own damage, and the Return Knife had none. Nathan had to actually be stabbing it at the beast in order to have his own Strength affected it. And even if he didn't need to be holding it, the small amount of damage the knife had likely wouldn't affect it past the monster's Endurance. At least, not unless the damage value of weapons ignored that. He wasn't sure.

"Fuck," Nathan muttered as he came to that realization, the Five-Pointer once against blocking his path out, this time hitting Nathan with enough power to drain away the last of his Health and hurt his arm.

Just as Nathan, jumped back, a gust of wind blew past him, pinning the Five-Pointer to the wall, and Nathan was positive he was seeing a hand of wind holding the beast.

"If you want the kill, kill."

Nathan looked over to find Keith standing there, holding a hand out like he was holding something, his knuckles white, an intense look of concentration on his face.

"Hurry, will you?" Keith snapped. "I can't hold this spell forever!"

Nathan nodded, then charged the Five-Pointer, slashing his sword across it several times, the blade unaffected by the spell's grip on the monster. As soon as the beast's Health depleted, Nathan beheaded the creature, and the grip of air faded.

Nathan heard something drop, and looked over to find Keith collapsed on the floor. He slashed his katana with as much force as he could and the blood slid off into a slash on the floor, something he was glad he could do with his enhanced Strength and Speed. It meant he wouldn't have to take time cleaning the sword as much.

With the sword no longer dripped blood, Nathan walked over to the mage, who was breathing heavily.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," Keith struggled into a sitting position and looked up at Nathan. "I didn't think you'd appreciate me stealing your kill with that. All of the portals seemed to have spawned two initially. At least, the ones I passed."

"You kill it?"

"Yes," Keith nodded. "I solo'd the one during Survival. This one was faster, but it probably traded Endurance for that speed. You have three weapons?"

"Weapons Vouchers."

"Ah," Keith nodded. "I got one."

The magician reached under his shirt and pulled out an amulet, a dark blue stone carved into the shape of a fox.

"It boosts any and all air or shadow magics I use," Keith stated. "Anyway, once I recover, I'm going to hunt down more monsters. It'll take me a few minutes, though. That's the most powerful spell I know, and it's draining."

"I'm not teaming up with you."

"I know," Keith laughed. "I didn't expect you would. Madeline's spread her bullshit to everyone, so I expect I'm on my own. Anyway, there're a few portals outside, but no one really wants to go out there. At least, no one I'd talked with."

Nathan nodded, then walked over to the katana sheathe, slide the blade into it, then sent the weapon into the Weapon Box before looking over to Keith.

"I saw nothing," the mage told him.

Nathan nodded, then left, making his way outside. Two monsters were roaming the front parking lot, and Nathan took the opportunity to take them down. Then, he made his way towards the tennis courts and opened the gate.

Inside, he took out the two monsters that had found themselves trapped before making his way down to the football field and taking care of the two down there. When he reached the soccer field, he found a trio of boys fighting the two beasts there, and so made his way around the rest of the school, not encountering another monster until he reached the front, halfway down which was a single monster still fighting the quartet of students there.

With all outside monsters occupied, Nathan made his way inside. He'd earned eleven of the available Points for the day already. Seven and a half percent of them, and he was only a little less than three percent of everyone in that instance.

Making his way to the cafeteria, Nathan learned that all of the monsters had been handled apart from a few, but they were being dealt with. He was fine with that – based on what he'd heard and his personal estimations, only about twenty or thirty of them had actually spawned already.

Sitting down at a table in a corner, Nathan set his backpack down and opened it up, pulling out some jerky and dried fruit, and enjoyed lunch. Then, he pulled his backpack back on and made his way to a classroom, not really sure why he went to the cafeteria for lunch.

There, Nathan meditated until the signs that monsters had spawned showed up – signs in the form of students running down the hall. Sliding off the desk he had been meditating on, Nathan dropped his backpack onto the desk, then left the room just in time to come face-to-face with an H-1.

Without hesitation, Nathan struck at it with his fist and knife. The thing was fast, but not fast enough or strong enough to pose a serious threat to him, as long as he didn't let it hit him too many times.

After about a minute, the Three-Pointer was dead, and Nathan began a lap through the school, taking out three more monsters on the trip before returning to the classroom he'd selected.

For the rest of the day, Nathan meditated in the room. He could handle not getting more kills that day. He had complete confidence in his ability to win, so long as he didn't encounter another Five-Pointer focused on speed by himself.

At around nine-twenty that night, a notification appeared in Nathan's vision.

All monsters have been slain. The next wave of them will spawn after 8:00 AM tomorrow.

Knowing he had little reason to worry about needing to fight, Nathan moved to a corner and rested with his back against it, closed his eyes and allowed sleep to overtake him. Tomorrow, he would aim to earn at least as many points as he had that day.