Nathan fumbled the banana for a moment, before tossing it to Keith.

"Having issues?" Samantha asked.

"No," Nathan answered. "I just wasn't hold that a moment ago."

"And you went into the game without warning," she rolled her eyes. "How was it?"

"I fucked a catgirl."

"O…kay?" She frowned. "What kind of dreams were you having?"

"Icthvar's BDSM fantasies," Nathan answered. "But the catgirl was real. Her name is Evala, and we'll be going to her world at some point once we have the gates created so that I can introduce you and Keith can have sex with a catboy."

Samantha and Katie gave Keith confused looks, so he explained about Evala while Nathan walked off, muttering under his breath about bitches.

"What was that about?" Samantha asked.

"He wants you to punch Evala."

"Why does he want me to punch her?" Samantha asked.

"Because he feels guilty," Keith answered, then explained about what happened with him having sex with her, immediately blushing when he saw her sly look. "Samantha, don't-"

"So did Nathan keep feeding you after that so you could keep using holy magic?" She asked.

"No!" He exclaimed. "All of my holy magic after that was done purely through the staff, which is currently in my Weapon Box. I can show you in a bit. And what the fuck was up with that box, Samantha? Did you really think Nathan – who is dense as fuck – would even get your implication?"

"Aw," she made a face at him. "I was hoping something would happen."

"As if," Keith's face turned even redder. "Don't do that again, Samantha. While I did appreciate the flavor, just give it to me directly, don't expect Nathan to give it to me with an offer," he thought of something that could quickly change the topic into something more comfortable for him. "Though speaking of dense things, and Nathan made me promise not to tell anyone who didn't already know… but he sees me as a friend."

"He admitted that?" Samantha asked, and Keith nodded. "When?"

"In our first extended Survival Challenge," Keith answered. "I also found out the source of his obsession with floating enchantments."

"Does it have anything to do with the secret facility he's having built on the island he secretly had his father buy?"

"I don't think it's actually a facility," Keith responded. "But it does have to do with that island. Nathan intends on lifting it out of the ocean and having it float around the world."

"Why?"

"Because he thinks that will enable Cyrus to live outside the law," Keith rolled his eyes.

"Nathan can be so odd," she said. "And we aren't done on that other topic, Keith. The two of you would be cute as a couple-"

"Which will never happen."

"-and if you two ever kiss," she said. "I need a picture of it. Where did Nathan go?"

"I have no idea," Keith shrugged. "He wants to get more things before our next run, though, so I should probably go catch up with him."

"Remind him he still has his backpack on," Samantha told Keith, who nodded and walked off to find Nathan, who was already at his SUV.

"You didn't even give Samantha a kiss," he said.

"I'll get to that in a minute," Nathan tossed his backpack into the truck, then pulled Keith's off the psychic and tossed it into the trunk.

"After all that bitching about wanting to be with her?"

"Yes," Nathan stepped into the driver seat and opened the garage door as he turned on his car.

"Did you bring the keys into the game with you?"

"I swiped them before coming over here," Nathan said. "Good, I did refill the gas. Stay here."

Nathan went back inside, and Keith stood there, staring dumbfounded, until Nathan returned with Katie and Samantha and declared they were going out.

"And me?" Keith asked.

"Yes."

"Where?" Samantha asked.

"Out," Nathan helped her into the backseat. "Keith, you have passenger."

"Al…right," Keith said.

Everyone climbed into the SUV, and once they were all buckled, Nathan pulled out and hit the button for the garage door. He pulled out into the street and began driving, refusing to answer for where they were going, though Keith and Samantha noticed his route avoided going near their high school.

After twenty minutes, he pulled into the parking lot of a toy store, sending the other three teens into laughter. Ignoring that, Nathan got out and helped Samantha out, then the four of them made their way inside.

"What are we doing here?" Samantha asked. "You already bought plenty of toys for Cyrus."

"I want more Legos," Nathan answered as he pulled a cart away from the others, and the three of them laughed.

"So you brought all of us here?" Samantha asked.

"Yes."

"He missed you," Keith told her. "You should have heard his whining about not wanting to do the Survival Challenges. I think the only reason he even did the third one was so that he could keep learning light magics to entertain Cyrus."

Samantha raised an eyebrow as they began walking.

"Ichtvar told Nathan that his son would probably be entertained by that," Keith shrugged. "We did manage to get a lot of work done, though. We'll do more when we go in tomorrow with Katie."

"Okay," Samantha said, then looked at Katie. "The only thing you need to worry about is making sure they eat if they get absorbed into their work. Otherwise, train."

"We train for three hours a day," Keith said. "An hour and a half of martial arts, and an hour and a half of magic. We'll teach Katie both. Nathan and I agreed on that, to see what works for her best."

"I did some martial arts and some swords training," Katie told him. "While in the Tutorial. That seemed to work for me."

"We can do that," Keith told her. "But that won't be all that works for you. You're in the starter stages. By the time you leave tomorrow, you'll definitely be able to keep up with the rest of us. That sounds so weird."

"Probably because the rest of us have years of experience," Samantha snorted. "And 'tomorrow' sounds absurdly short to catch up to that."

"Samantha?" A voice called out, and they looked over to see one of the seniors who wasn't caught in the game with them staring at her in shock. "You know, I was trying to hook up with you, but if I knew you were just some slut, I never would have. How did you even hide that belly at school?"

"Nathan," Keith said firmly as the demigod glared death at them. "We talked about this."

"Fine," Nathan muttered as the women in the group realized that he had taken a step forward, n even more hostile glare on his face.

"Nathan?" The teen snorted. "I never would have expected you to be a faggot, but it looks like Keith has you whipped, huh? How often do you-"

"Nathan, no ripping off his head," Keith said. "Remember what we talked about. And don't forget that there are children around."

Nathan let out an angry breath, then glared at their former classmate.

"Samantha is my girlfriend," Nathan told him. "And I told her four years ago that I loved her. Long before you ever did. You were never worthy of a woman as fine, strong, and intelligent as her, and deserve nothing more than your hand for the rest of your life. And if you can't appreciate that she is going to be the mother of another man's son, then you aren't deserving of ever having children. And the fact that you jumped to the conclusion about my sexuality just because Keith calmed me down is likely an indication of your own desires. Now, if you harass my girlfriend again over her pregnancy again, I will call the police on you for sexual harassment, and if you make one more comment about me and Keith, I will call them for hate speech. And considering you have no cousins or siblings and aren't a babysitter, one might wonder what you're doing in a section of a toy store that's purely for toys for little kids. The video games are on the other end."

Samantha covered her mouth as she choked back a laugh, and Keith smacked his forehead. Their former classmate sputtered, looked at the moms and dads staring at him, then marched off in anger.

"Why are we in this section?" Katie asked. "I thought you said you needed more Legos?"

"More importantly," Samantha looked at Keith. "How did you get him to do that?"

"Lots, and lots of headaches," Keith answered. "Apparently, demigods have extremely different mindsets from us puny mortals. At least he didn't just go to ripping into him, like he would have before. I had to spend a fourteen months of daily training, and he's still difficult."

"You're difficult," Nathan muttered as he picked a toy off the shelf and held it up for Samantha to see. "Do we need learning toys for Cyrus? Keith said I shouldn't try to teach him using the textbooks."

"I said don't try when he's a newborn," Keith said. "He'll be way too young, Nathan. You can start teaching him to read and write in two or three years. When he's actually able to learn that stuff."

"But-"

"Did you read the book on infant and child development I gave you?"

"No."

"Do it," Keith told him, and Nathan put the box back on the shelf.

"Let's go to the Legos," Nathan muttered, pushing the cart.

When they got to the aisle, Nathan began looking at things while the others fell back a little, and Samantha nudged Keith.

"How did you get that influence on him?" She asked. "I've never seen him back down before."

"I think," Keith answered. "That it has to do with him feeling guilty over the Evala thing. That, and he sees me as a partner in magitech development and a mentor in magic – you've seen how he interacted with Master Torzin, his mindset changed."

"Master Torzin's a demigod," she said. "You said something about demigods viewing things differently?"

"True," Keith nodded, looking at Nathan. "It could be that Master Torzin's father is a higher god than Nathan's, and my familiar just said 'that's not even close to possible'."

"Did he say why?"

"Because Nathan's father is the Godking," Keith answered. "I forgot that they told me that."

"His father is who?" She asked.

"The Godking," Nathan looked at her, and they remembered that with his awakened senses, he could hear them. "King of the gods. The big shot. Dino or dragon?"

He held up two boxes of Lego sets, and the three of them stared at him.

"I'll get both," he set them in the cart, then placed four more of each into it. "Nice thing about being rich, I don't have to give a-"

"Kids are nearby," Keith said.

"-care about not being able to afford it."

He picked out several more Lego sets while they watched, then the four of them went to the checkouts so he could pay. With his shopping done, Nathan drove them back to his house and brought everything into the dining room, his family in the living room.

"When are you going into the game?" Allan asked his son. "You said you were going to go into it today."

"I already went," Nathan answered.

"When?" His father asked.

"Earlier," Nathan answered. "Before we left."

"We don't look any different when we leave," Samantha explained to the confused-looking family. "Even if time passes to us, it doesn't to you. It's… honestly confusing, and we're not even sure how everything works."

"Speaking of that," Keith said as Nathan began pulling supplies out, writing out a note. "We found out several very important things. The first is that, once you're recovered from the delivery, you, and anyone else Nathan likes as a person and teammate, is going into the game with us, and we're hunting Dungeons until we find one that has a bunch of them. After ten, twenty, thirty, and so on completed in a row, the next Mandatory Challenge you have, you're exempted from. Nathan and I became exempted from the next six. We'll then spend that time researching and advancing things."

"Why?" Samantha asked. "I understand wanting to be exempt, but-"

"Because of what the Well of Souls created us for," Keith interrupted. "It's bad. Very, very bad."