Nathan sharply turned his head to the left side of their safe space, to the edge of the curtain, frowning. If he wasn't mistaken, that sounded like running feet, and the monsters so far didn't run.

Slipping his knife out of the sheath, which he'd clipped to his belt, he prepared to fight from the top of the stacked bleachers, relaxing only a little bit when two of the other seniors burst into the space.

"We need help!" They exclaimed.

"North Gym!" Jared Nichols told them. "Madeline's group's been attacked by a very strong monster! It's already killed one student, and it's taking all of them just to hold it off."

Nathan returned his knife to its sheath, grabbed his backpack and pulled it on, then descended the lockers as Samantha pulled on her backpack. The four of them ran down to the North Gym, and as soon as Nathan saw the monster – which could pass as any other to the common eye – dropped his pack and launched himself at it, his knife already flying.

Samantha frowned. Nathan didn't normally attack that urgently. Something about the beast set him off.

As Nathan delivered strike after strike, dancing out of the monster's range, the other students fought. A few used swords or knives to fight, one had a whip she kept lashing out at the thing, and two of them used magic, including Madeline, while a third used healing magic on those who needed it badly.

Kendra and her two teammates showed up with another pair of student a few minutes later, and the nineteen students had assembled fully, giving their all to killing the thing. Madeline cast fireball after fireball combined with slices of air.

She did her best to avoid hitting the other students while still striking the tough monster, and noticed quickly that Nathan seemed to anticipate her attacks without even looking in her direction. The other students noticed that as well, and those who could adjusted their fighting to factor that in.

Once they began using Nathan – and later, Samantha – as feints, their bodies shields to hide the blows, the students began wearing down the monster. However, the students themselves began to wear down as well, several of whom had to stop and retreat to rest after a few minutes, more doing so as time went on.

"Arm!" Henry West called out as he felt his sword biting all the way through the beast's left arm, the arm falling to the ground.

"Good job!" Madeline called as she rested, recovering her Mana. Without it, she was useless, possessing little physical ability. "Nathan, watch your-"

In what seemed to be a superhuman feat, Nathan flipped up, using the monster's good arm as leverage to vault over it, his knife jamming into the beast's right eye. He twisted it as he continued his movement, his other hand on the beast's jaw, twisting that as well, snapping the thing's neck as the two of them dropped down behind the beast.

It stopped moving, and Nathan calmly pulled his knife out and wiped it on a clean spot on his jacket before sheathing it.

"Dead," he stated to the staring crowd.

While it might have seemed like Nathan killed it with ease, they all knew that he couldn't have simply done that at will. He had already tried once before, and the thing had blocked its eyes, taking his knife to its arm, and several of them had snapped its neck with enough force to break it, but failed to kill it that way.

In addition, they were sure that Nathan wouldn't have used a Health Potion during the fight if he could've just ended it, though only a few of them saw him summon it from his Item Box, most of them noticing only because they were next to him when he called it out.

Nathan's comment about the beast being dead wasn't needed, however, as they had all received a notification the moment it did.

Challenge 3 Completed! You have 5 minutes before returning to the neutral instance. Collect your things if needed.

Nathan let out a long breath, then walked over to the bleachers and sat down as the other students talked amongst themselves. That thing was clearly the boss to them, though Nathan knew it was likely simply the next rank of monster.

Five-Pointer, he thought to himself. No indication of a type between it and the Three-Pointer, either.

When the timer reached zero, they found themselves in a clean, undamaged version of the gym, though they were all still exhausted and covered in any blood and gore they were already covered in. The corpse of their classmate was gone as well.

A message appeared in their vision informing them that the cafeteria was stocked with food, and the MPR was restocked with supplies, as well as their rewards for surviving Challenge 3, which cemented the pattern of the rewards to Nathan. They could take up to as many as they had originally, same as before. They were required to enter the cafeteria and could go nowhere else except to the restrooms in front of it or they would die.

Nathan knew that it was likely only meant that the people running the thing knew they were all likely low on supplies, and simply wished to let them restock now, and nothing more.

The students made their way down to the cafeteria and ate – those who could eat, at any rate. A few of them were still a little queasy eating just after fighting. Those students went into the MPR to restock, while a couple of them just rested.

The two sections of the cafeteria also held three flatscreen T.V.s that had been added while they were in the Challenge, though their screens were currently blank.

"Hey, guys," one of the restocking students stepped out. "We receive a new notification when we enter the MPR – there are phones in there which we can use to communicate with each other in allowed Challenges and all Rests. They also contain an updated map to the school – there's a laundry room, now, for starters."

Some of the students stopped eating and made their way into the MPR, but Nathan continued eating, stopping only once he had eaten his fill. Once he did that, he made his way to the MPR and picked up the phone with his name on a slip of paper resting on it. He cycled through the handful of features the phone had, confirming there was a laundry room there.

There was also a Student Shop, which according to the 'handbook' would allow them to purchase new clothes with their Points.

Odds are, it's just more of our uniform, Nathan thought to himself, slipping his phone into his pocket as he restocked his bag.

His instance was the first to return to the neutral one, and over the next few hours, the rest returned. Total losses were only twelve. Most instances only lost one student, while two of them lost two students.

The moment everyone had returned, a notice went up saying that they had an hour before the next stage. Nathan hoped that the next stage was just more waiting and resting, since the normal Victory Message included what was normal for the next stage – the meal.

Nathan glanced to the trio of T.V.s mounted on the wall of the MPR. There was a good chance that they would come to life with whatever came next. Why else would they have been added?

When the timer ticked down to zero, everyone received a message stating that they were to look at the T.V.'s in the cafeteria, and that in five minutes, the final results of the Challenge 3 – Survival 1 would be posted. Students would receive additional rewards based on their ranking five minutes after the posting.

When the timer reached zero, Nathan stood and joined the crowed in the MPR looking at the screens. The center one ranked the instances by the time it took them to kill the G-3 monster after it spawned.

Assuming each letter grade had three number grades to them, and three was the lowest, then G-3 was, indeed, the next one up from Three-Pointers, as Nathan had assumed. Based on the monster ranking indicator Nathan had noticed, it was safe to assume he was correct on that.

Instance 1 ranked at first, taking only 23 minutes to kill the G-3 monster upon it spawning. It listed it as Instance 1 – Leader: Nathan Hunter, probably using him as an indicator as for which instance was Instance 1. Each Instance had a Leader listed.

At first, it would seem as if the Leaders were random, but a quick look at the other two screens revealed that there was a method to it, as there was to everything there.

The screen on the right of the trio separated each Instance, ranking each student in each ranking, with deceased students listed at the end as 'Deceased'. The students were ranked by the number of points accumulated killing monsters during Challenge 3, and Nathan had scored at the top of the list, earning 456 Points total from monster kills during Challenge 3.

Looking at the other Instances, he confirmed that Keith was at the top of his own, scoring 312 Points, and they were the two top scorers among all the students.

The left screen ranked all of the students against each other based on their accumulated Points from killing monsters in Challenge 3. Following Nathan and Keith was Madeline, at 291, and Michael rested at fifth with 253.

Fourth-place surprised Nathan, and he turned his gaze to the student who had earned 273 Points. Slightly-short of stature, with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes was William Merk. He'd begun at their school that semester, though no one knew where he had moved from, and William kept to himself for the most part, a bit like Nathan.

Nathan looked for a weapon on William, and spotted a white knuckle on his left hand. His gaze then turned to Samantha, knowing she'd followed his gaze. He was the top student for his own Instance as well, and by a far margin. And a martial artist.

Samantha caught Nathan's gaze, knowing his question.

"He started attending the dojo a few months ago," she told Nathan. "Just before winter break. He doesn't talk much, but he's better than me."

Nathan didn't let up on his gaze.

"I'd put my Points on you over him any day," she told Nathan, who nodded, then returned to looking at the scoreboards. "Though I will admit that while he's better than me at both, I'm surprised he went with the martial arts weapon – he's actually more talented with a sword."

Samantha was about a quarter of the way down the overall list, but still scored a hefty amount of points, reaching third for their Instance, behind Madeline with 212 Points.

Nathan finished scanning the lists, then waited until the five minutes were up, as most of them were doing. As soon as the timer hit zero, the screens changed, and he received a series of notifications.

Challenge #3 Instance Rank #1 Participant +5 Stat Points +5 Skill Points +5 to all Stats +50 Points +5 Levels Challenge #3 Instance Rank #1 Participant Points Shop cooldown during Challenges reduced by 6 hours, is now 66. Instance #1 Rank #1 +5 Stat Points +5 Skill Points +5 to all Stats +50 Points +5 Levels Level 30 Achieved! More Skills are now available in your Skills Shop. Overall Rank #1 +5 Stat Points +5 Skill Points +5 to all Stats +50 Points +5 Levels +1 to all Weapon and Weapon Mod Levels +1 to all Skill Levels

Nathan frowned a little at the messages, then turned his gaze to the screens, which revealed the rewards he'd just received as being the first-place rewards for their respective sets. The Top Rank bonus to weapons, weapon mods, and Skills was only for him.

Only the Top Five in each category received something, decreasing by a Stat Point, Skill Point, all Stat Points, Level, to each Stat, and 10 Points down the rank, meaning that Rank #5 only received one of each and 10 Points.

It also meant that everyone knew what had been earned and that those at the top just got better. If the game followed this ranking as rule for any survival challenge, it meant others would try to dethrone those at the top. The only thing that would keep people from killing others for it would be the rule against it – unless that rule left.

In addition to that, it would cause students to risk themselves more during survival Challenges, increasing how many died during them.