Stretching, Nathan descended from the roof of the school and made his way inside through the doors to the dome, nearly bumping into one of the other guys.

"Nathan!" He exclaimed. "You're alive!"

"You're still alive."

"Well, yeah," the student nodded. "We just hadn't seen you in six hours, and with how late it'd gotten into the run, we had started to wonder, you know."

"Ah," he nodded. "I was on the roof. Nice and quiet. Good place to rest."

"Oh," the student nodded, and Nathan looked around, a questioning look on his face. "They fled through the other doors. There's a G-3 in there."

"Need to kill it for the fifteenth Token."

Nathan walked past the horrified senior and looked at the grotesque being, which was standing in the center of the dome. As soon as Nathan stepped past the marks outlining the basketball court, the beast turned its head and looked directly at him, then attacked, charging forward.

Stoneskin, Nathan triggered one of his new Skills, taking the brunt of the attack with his arm. Te impact shook his body, but he held firm in his spot.

-1 Health

The monster only had 121 Strength. The Five-Pointers had a wide range on how many Stats they could have, since previous ones had fewer. They'd been able to hurt those, after all. Nathan pulled his arm back and slammed his fist into the beast's stomach without triggering Impact.

Target Health -9

Damage Dealer only affected net damage, which meant that he only did six to it. Since Nathan had 93 Strength now, that meant the beast only had 87 Endurance. 870 Health. If he only did nine damage to it each time, plus the extra twenty from his Burst Knuckle, then he could break through its Health in thirty strikes.

If he added in Impact, he could do twelve to it with the net damage, which meant that he could handle it in twenty-eight strikes.

As long as he was optimal about his strikes, but he knew he wouldn't manage that.

As Nathan processed his calculations, his struck again, four times in a row before delivering an uppercut to the beast's jaw to throw it off-balance as it attempted to yank his other arm out of its socket.

The Five-Pointer stumbled back, then found a kick delivered to its stomach, followed up by the Burst Knuckle to the side of its head. Nathan didn't let up his assault, determining that it was definitely a good idea to have spent a fair amount of his Stat Points into his Speed as well, a decision he'd made after his fight with the first quick monster he'd faced.

The Five-Pointer couldn't keep up with him.

Combined with striking optimal spots, Nathan's assault yielded his victory after just a single minute of combat, the Strength- and Endurance-based Five-Pointer unable to defend properly against the harsh attack combination.

No Token message appeared in Nathan's vision, and he frowned. He gained 3 Levels from the fight, but that didn't surprise him – it was, technically, a tough fight, and he had figured he was near Level 42 already.

It wasn't until he read how many Points he'd earned that he realized his mistake.

That wasn't a Five-Pointer.

That was a Seven-Pointer. He hadn't checked the markers, and took out something even stronger. The notices didn't let them know there was something stronger around, so he had assumed that the monster with a dick was the Five-Pointer he was hunting.

Yet the notice said it was in there…

Nathan looked around, spotting the Five-Pointer in the rafters, dropping down towards him. With his new Stats, it was laughably easy to take it out, and he received a Token's spawn notice, letting him know it would remain when the monster faded.

Sure enough, a minute later, the Token fell out of the fading monster. Nathan picked it up.

Male Challenge 1 Completed! You will be returned to the neutral instance in 5 minutes. For receiving the 15th Token, you have earned 15 Stat Points, 15 Skill Points, and 15 Points. Congratulations!

Nathan made his way to the doors of the dome, where the senior he'd spoken with had been.

"That wasn't a Five-Pointer," Nathan told him. "That gave seven, meaning it was a G-2. With the Stat Point and Skill Point boosts, as well as the Levels you've gained so far, you should be able to handle the Five-Pointer needed for Token 15 when you're on it. It might be a struggle, so make sure you strike at the critical spots."

The student nodded, and Nathan closed his eyes, allocating his Stat Points, then moved to the bleachers and sat down, resting. A Five-Pointer might have been laughably easy to take out, but he was still exhausted. He hadn't gotten proper sleep, and he did take on two powerful monsters in a row.

Even with his higher stats, he wasn't sure he could do that again. Not without some help. He'd gotten lucky and had to fight Strength-based ones. A Speed-based Seven-Pointer probably wouldn't have gone down that easily against him. One that was a good mix of things might have even been able to take out his Health – especially if he'd already been fighting or had to fight several monsters at a time.

When the timer reached zero, Nathan found himself sitting on the bleachers in the dome in the neutral instance. Checking the clock on the wall, he confirmed it was lunchtime and made his way down to the cafeteria, where most of the girls were eating.

Rather than going to the food and getting some for himself, he walked over to Samantha, who was chatting with a few of the other girls. Then, he stood there and crossed his arms, staring down at her.

"Hey, Nathan," she said. "What's wrong?"

"Token rewards."

"What?" One of the girls asked.

"Ah," Samantha said. "That. We were given a notice that all rewards from it had been temporarily suspended and neutralized until further notice, and that anyone who informed the guys of them and the specifics of the Challenge would lose all of them permanently. As soon as you guys were in the Male Challenge 1, we were given them back and informed that we could discuss it with you guys."

Nathan relaxed. That was why no one had said anything, then – the System threatened them with permanent loss of those rewards if they did. And that explained why they didn't seem to be much more powerful than a few Levels.

"Seven-Pointer."

"Yes," Samantha nodded. "There was a G-2 in there. It seemed to spawn only once someone reached Token 15's notice. In the dome?"

Nathan nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "We were all sent into it as well. It took a full team to kill it, but it didn't seem to respawn after. That thing was tough as fuck, too. How many did it take to kill?"

"One."

"One?" One of the other girls asked. "You're claiming to have taken it by yourself?"

"Yes," Nathan stated. "Barely strong enough, but still managed."

"Smart people," the other girl at the table said. "Would go after Skills if they could. There are Skills that increase damage, if you manage to unlock them. And your resistance. Theoretically, he could have done it on his own. Didn't we discuss that he, Michael, William, and Keith could all potentially manage it alone? With Keith being a guarantee, since he was a lot stronger than Madeline, and she could take on the G-2 by herself?"

"Yeah," the second girl admitted. "We did."

"Sit by me," Samantha said. "You're the first back, by the way."

Nathan was surprised by that. He was sure Keith would've returned first – he didn't have to get into the personal space of every monster to claim his kills.

The warrior made his way to the food area and start filling a tray with several burgers, slices of pizzas, and boxes of fries, then grabbed several cartons of milk and orange juice before sitting beside Samantha, who had returned to talking with the girls at her table.

Nathan pulled up the Skills Shop while he ate and purchased Player-Striker. It allowed him to harm other players for five percent of the normal damage per Level of the Skill, up to Level 20, which was its maximum. He immediately spent another 19 Skill Points to master it, allowing him to deal full damage to anyone.

He wasn't able to kill others, but he didn't care about that. He just wanted to be able to hurt them in case he needed to. Especially if they went after Samantha without harming her. Odds were, it would be awhile before he revealed his exemption from the rule.

With that selection finished, Nathan pulled up the Points Shop. He had nearly a thousand to use, and wanted to see if anything new showed up.

There was nothing new, which disappointed him. He had nearly a thousand Points, and yet no new items appeared for him to buy. That did not, however, mean that no new items would appear. After all, he did unlock the Additional Weapon because of him meeting the requirements of having purchased all three of his 'items'.

"Oh, damn," Nathan looked up at the voice to find a surprised Keith standing on the other side of the table. "I wasn't expecting anyone else to have finished already. How was your fight against the G-2?"

Keith had drying blood on his scalp and a slightly-dazed look in his eyes.

"Better than yours."

"Yeah," Keith chuckled, then winced. "I'm going to get something to eat, then rest for a bit. I think I have a concussion."

Keith walked off, and Nathan watched him, then returned to eating and deciding if he's going to purchase anything. He knew most of his classmates would probably spend half of their Points into Stat Points.

"Samantha," he looked at her. "Did you use your Points already?"

"Yes," she nodded. "After our Female Challenge, it became clear that I'm going to need to be a bit stronger. Most of us probably used our Points from it on Stat Points. You?"

"Same," he shrugged, then returned his gaze to the table. "I could only do a few damage to the Seven-Pointer at a time."

Maybe it's time to upgrade my weapons again.

As if he was going to answer what he was doing with his Points with even a hint of honesty.

"I'm going to rest for awhile," Nathan told Samantha once he finished eating, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I need it."

"I'll be in there in a bit," she told him.

He nodded and took care of his trash and set the plastic tray on top of the can, then made his way back to Room 504 as the tray was covered by the black box of shadows, nothing remaining in its place when the shadows faded.

Once Nathan reached his room, he stripped down to his underwear and laid on the air mattress, closing his eyes and pulling his Points Shop up again. His primary weapon were the knuckles and their extra twenty damage, plus the second of stun, was pretty useful. He could increase those – it looked like Weapon Mod Upgrade didn't scale in cost, since it didn't list a Level.

Then the Return Knife. He really needed to get its Level up, so that he could have a shorter return time on it. Being able to throw the knife was pretty useful. He'd probably need a mod to increase its damage, so he could just buy that for it and see if it was listed as an option.

However, he also had his sword. As far as the other students knew, he didn't have a sword for a weapon. The sword also still sat at only Level 1. Increasing its Level, and using it when absolutely needed during a fight against monsters – such as against the G-2's he knew he'd be fighting regularly soon – would be good. It'd also benefit him when the System required them to fight each other.

They'd expect him to fight with his fists, after all. They knew he was talented with a sword, but with that not as a weapon, they'd feel they had the advantage.

Making a decision, Nathan spent 450 Points on the sword, bringing it up to Level 10.

Then, he opened up his Skills Shop and bought Combo Strike while pondering the new option in the Points Shop. Combo Strike increased his damage by one for every successive strike, with a maximum Level of 5. What increased by the Level wasn't the damage, but the timeframe he had for the damage boost – a single second per Level of the Skill.

He had a feeling that the net damage boost would be factored in after the bonus damage from his new passive Skill, meaning that he could potentially do a massive amount of damage, so long as he continued striking. And with his Burst Knuckle's stun, that gave him an extra second to strike during as well.

Returning his attention to the Points Shop, Nathan wondered what would happen if he bought Weapon Upgrade. It wasn't a Weapon Level 11 Upgrade, simply a Weapon Upgrade. It clearly had to do with having a Level 10 Weapon, though, as that's when it appeared.

Deciding that upgrading his sword would be for the best, he purchased it, and frowned. His sword returned to Level 1, with its bonus damage doubled, doing ten per Level rather than five. That meant that he…

"Argh!" Nathan groaned.

At least the Level Upgrades didn't increase in price, he thought to himself. But should I do it again? Or should I save my remaining Points in case they're needed in the next Challenge or two?

Since it was back at Level 1, the sword's damage was at its base again.

Sighing, Nathan closed his Points Shop and decided to sleep on the decision.

Or rather, to just sleep, since he really needed it, having barely kept himself away long enough to do as much as he had.