Nathan looked around. He was warned about the neutral zone, but hadn't fully believed it. Rather than being an alternate of his school, it was a field that stretched pretty far. To the north was the tower, which stretched high into the sky, and though it only looked to be a mile across, he knew from the others that the inside didn't match the outside.

Its inside was of varying sizes per Floor, some of which were far larger than the outside of the tower's diameter.

To the east, south, and west, he could also see small stone archways, each of which would lead him into a Dungeon. All Dungeons were classified as Dungeon Challenges, and how many were available was based on his Level.

Much like with the mandatory Challenges and the Tower, their Difficulties weren't adjustable, but they also weren't set at Normal for all. Some could be Beginner, some could be Impossible.

Taking his gaze off the endless fields, Nathan read the message in his vision.

Welcome back to the Game, Nathan! This is a one-time message. Death is permanent and final. Points Shop is available unrestricted outside of Challenges. Pull up your interface to choose which Challenge you'd like to take on and its difficulty. You may also access the Tower and any Dungeons you choose. You must perform at least one Challenge or Dungeon or clear at least one Boss of the Tower at your highest-reached Floor to leave. Any information given here that is not revealed in the guide on your phone regarding the game cannot be shared outside of here. Failure to abide by this rule will result in the deaths of you and anyone who it is shared with who were unaware before. You may only be in the Neutral Instance for up to 24 hours at once without playing a game. If you are in it for 24 hours at once without playing a game, you will be entered into a random game.

Nathan dismissed that window. Looked like there was information regarding the game that they could only learn within the game, something that could likely affect things outside of the game.

He pulled up the interface for Challenges, and the one at the top of the list immediately caught his attention.

Challenges Available: Mandatory Survival Slaughter Points Scavenger Journey Dungeon Tower

He could perform the mandatory Challenge right then. Since he knew he could adjust the difficulties of anything but the Mandatory, he assumed there would be some sort of confirmation, especially for that.

Mandatory.

Challenge: Mandatory 1 Difficulty: Normal Recommended Level: 200 Reward: +1 Skill Point, +1 Stat Point, +10 Points, +1 Level Time Limit: ~21 Days left If you do not perform this challenge by the deadline, you will automatically be forced into it. Enter Return

In other words, he really could perform it at any point, and it even gave a Recommended Level. He guessed that if he was too far above the Recommended Level, it would change the Challenge to be harder, to needing a higher Level for its recommended. He'd have to check, though. It was something that would take him several months and Mandatory Challenges to determine.

He found it interesting that the Mandatory Challenge gave him a reward, though. That wasn't in the guidebook, so he supposed it was restricted only to the players for those allowed to know about it.

Return.

Back in the original menu, he pulled up Survival.

Challenge: Survival Difficulty: Choose Length: Choose Recommended Level: Depends Reward: Depends Accepting without selecting will randomize the Difficulty and Length. Enter Return

It looked like even regular Challenges could have rewards, though he'd have to check after setting it up. It could just be that the Reward said 'Depends' until it was completed, or it could just require that he select a Difficulty.

Difficulty.

Nathan selected the Normal Difficulty from the list, and it brought him back to the Challenge's menu, where he noted that it still said 'Depends' for the Reward. Assuming that meant he had to finish setting up the Challenge before knowing if it had a reward, he then pulled up the option for Length. That menu allowed him to pick in increments of four up to one hundred days. He selected eight, then returned to the Challenge's menu.

Challenge: Survival Difficulty: Normal Length: 8 Days Recommended Level: 200 Reward: +100 Points Enter Return

In other words, if he took on his mandatory Challenge and it were a Survival Challenge, then it might be an eight-day Survival Challenge. It also confirmed to him that Normal Challenges could give rewards as well. He returned to the Challenges Menu and played around with the various Challenges until he settled on a 4-Day Survival in Easy Difficulty.

Challenge: Survival Difficulty: Easy Length: 4 Days Recommended Level: 100 Reward: +50 Points Enter Return

Enter.

Immediately, Nathan found himself in a cave, the only source of light coming from some green moss growing on the floor and in crevices on the walls. The air was humid, and the walls possessed a light sheen.

Challenge Survival Begun! Survive for four days. If you succeed, you'll be awarded with 50 Points.

Nathan nodded, then looked around. The cave he'd appeared in was around ten feet on one side and eight on the other. There was a hole in one wall that looked like an exit, but rather than going through it, he shrugged off his backpack and went through it.

Food, a few supplies, and several spare magazines for the pair of guns inside. He pulled the guns out, inserted their magazines, then sheathed them on his hips. Accessing his Weapon Box, he pulled out his sword, knife, and knuckles, equipping those as well.

He wasn't sure how well the bullets would work there, but they were worth a shot to try.

After arming himself, Nathan made sure all of his weapons would clear, then watched the entryway. There was a chance the monsters would be the same, demonic ones he'd faced in the Tutorial, but also a chance they'd be different.

If they were different, it was information unable to be shared with non-players not in the know.

It only took a few minutes for the first monster to appear. The creature resembled a type of mole around three feet in height, and Nathan immediately fired several shots into the thing from each gun, noting with satisfaction that he received damage notifications from them.

The part that bothered him was the fact that the bullets didn't do much to its Health. He assumed that it had a large amount of Health, too, due to the difficulty and Recommended Level.

After emptying both guns into the annoyed creature, Nathan quickly returned them to his holsters and drew his sword, swiftly running forward, jumping. As he flew over the creature, he kept his body coiled up, to ensure he fit through the doorway as he cut through the creature's Health. Halfway through the cut, he stopped receiving damage notifications and his blade pieced the beast's hide.

He landed nimbly on his feet and cut into the creature again, killing it.

+3 Points!

Nathan grunted in response to the message, then began walking through the moss-lit tunnel. He faced several more of the mole-creatures, most weaker than the one he'd killed. After an hour of hunting, he found himself in a decent-sized cavern with just the entrance he walked through, plus the one the water rushed in and the one it rushed out of.

A waterfall cascaded out of a hole in one wall, splashing down into a small lake. A large amount of the glowing moss covered the walls, though it had been growing steadily dimmer until it was only half as bright as it had been when he'd arrived, suggesting to him that it was probably night there.

Is that just part of the Challenge, or is it because it was nearly night when I entered the game again, and this is what I did shortly after arriving?

Rather than thinking on that, Nathan made his way to a patch of the moss and set down his backpack, removing his weapons and leaving them beside him as he laid down, using his bag as a pillow.

Closing his eyes, Nathan quickly fell asleep.

When he woke, the moss had grown to four times its brightness, staying steady at twice what it was when he'd arrived. His regeneration for Mana had increased to nine points every ten seconds, which made him curious how much higher it'd go before simply hitting a point per second.

Pulling out some food, he ate a quick breakfast, before walking over to the lake. It was clear, and he estimated it to be around ten feet deep. The bottom of the miniature lake was covered in sand, gravel, and more of the luminescent moss.

Not seeing any monsters within the water, Nathan quickly stripped off his clothes and dove into the water. It was cold, but not frigid, and he swam around in it for a few minutes before making his way back to the shore.

As he did, he felt the water shift, then looked at the shore, which was twenty feet away. Swimming as hard as he could, Nathan quickly reached the shore and pulled himself out, rolling away just in time to avoid the pair of jaws that had slammed into the ground beside him.

Scrambling to his feet and taking a few steps back, he watched as the monster retreated back into the water. It had translucent skin, bits of gravel and sand sliding off of it. Some of the luminescent moss seemed to be growing out of its top, and the creature had no fins.

It was slender, with a serpant-like body only around ten feet in length. With Nathan out of its reach, the creature rose back to the surface, floating at the top and staring at him.

He looked at his clothes, which were by the shore, and sighed, then walked over to his backpack and grabbed his guns, turning and aiming, firing off several shots. It took him four full magazines to kill the creature. With joy, he noted that the creature itself died with only two bullets, its hide not tough enough to resist them.

+15 Points!

Fifteen? He wondered.

The creature wasn't that tough in the face of his bullets. Sure, it had a ton of Health, based on the fact that it took sixty bullets doing a hundred damage each, but it hadn't been all that hard to kill, overall.

He also gained another Level from that kill, making it three he'd earned since arriving.

Grabbing his clothes, he brushed dirt off himself and his clothes, then dressed before returning to his bag and taking stock of his inventory. All six of his magazines were empty. Opening up the boxes of ammo, he restocked. He had four boxes total, and used two of them.

I'll save the guns for an emergency, he thought to himself, before packing up and heading out, hunting a bit more.

It wasn't until his second full day that he found something other than the moles, when a golem charged at him when he turned a corner in the tunnels. The golem was vaguely humanoid, with a blank 'head' atop a chunky body with thick arms and legs.

Nathan's sword glanced off of it, and his attempts at martial arts failed to damage its Health as well. As he evaded the fast stone creature's attacks once he knew he couldn't hurt it, Nathan unbuttoned his shirt.

As soon as his chest was bared, the crimson-and-gold tribal mark of a phoenix on it lifted out, Ichtvar soaring forward.

Flames trailed behind him as he slammed into the golem, Nathan dodging back. The ancient phoenix's tackle forced the golem back several yards, and the bird burst into flames, batting its wings at the monster, the fire flowing forward as it did.

Within seconds of the monster turning into magma, Nathan received a pair of notifications.

+22 Points! Level Up! Points Shop Cooldown reduced by 6 hours. Points Shop may now be accessed in-Challenge every 42 hours.

"Thanks, Ichtvar," Nathan said as the bird returned to his chest.

"You're welcome," the phoenix's voice echoed in Nathan's mind. "Feel free to use me in any fight you can't win."

"Will do," Nathan looked around.

Hearing more of the mole monsters, Nathan continued fighting, never fighting any that were above H-Rank. Not for lack of trying – he simply couldn't find any. When nightfall came, he found an underground pond, finding another one of those strange water creatures in it. Rather than wasting his bullets, he let Ichtvar out, and the bird flew at the thing, dodging gusts of water.

So that's why it's considered a G-Rank Monster, Nathan determined as the glowing water pierced the ground.

Using his flames, the ancient phoenix was able to vaporize all of the attacks that drew too near and kill the pond's beast. After verifying there was nothing else in the clear pond, Nathan took another dip in it, then got some rest. When he woke, he found that his mana regeneration had gone from nine every ten seconds to ten every nine seconds.

What'll it do once it reaches back down? Will it be two every second after that?

Rather than dwelling on it too much, Nathan got to work hunting again.

By the time his fourth day in the Challenge had ended, Nathan had found himself bored. The few things he couldn't fight – the golems, all of which were E-Rank – Ichtvar killed in just a few seconds. He'd managed to reach Level 127 as well, which disappointed him.

That's only natural, though, he admitted. Ichtvar's taken care of everything that I couldn't, and that which I could wasn't really a struggle, and I'm already a good Level compared to H-Rank Monsters.

Pulling up his interface, Nathan watched as the timer he'd discovered ticked down, and just as it reached zero, he found himself in the field again.

Survival Challenge Completed! +50 Points! 1 out of 4 Challenges completed.

One out of four Challenges? Nathan wondered as he dismissed the message.

Frowning, he tried several things until another message appeared after determining there was nothing in the phone's guide about it.

You have 3 Challenge Slots to start with, allowing you to perform up to that many Challenges in a 24-hour timespan. This number increases by 1 every 100 Levels you possess, and is not affected by Mandatory Challenges. Completing a Mandatory Challenge will reset your used slots back to unused. This is not information that can be shared with non-players.

Considering how easy he'd found the first Challenge he did on his own, he immediately understood why his fellow survivors from his old school had done three Challenges. They'd probably done the same thing, and decided to use another one of their slots to do something harder, then another to try the Tower.

The only part he couldn't figure out was why they'd only done three Challenges. Why not four? They were all Level 100 or higher, weren't they?

Deciding he'd ask about it once he was out, he laid down on the grass and got some sleep.