"Nathan," Agent Samtol said as the senior approached him. "I know you want that research information, but pestering me for it isn't going to make my superiors think you should have it."

"That's not why I'm here," Nathan snorted. "Nice assumption, though."

It had only been two days since Nathan had asked Keith to make the arrangements, so he wasn't expecting it to have happened already.

"Well, then what are you wanting?" The agent asked. "We're pretty busy right now."

There had been two more games in the U.S., one in Canada, three in China, one in Japan, one in Russia, one in Britain, one in Scottland, and one in Spain in the past two days, and people were starting to panic.

"You do realize it's because summer vacation's about to be here, don't you?" Nathan asked.

"We assumed," the agent told him. "As there wouldn't be that many schools with enough eighteen-year-olds around. What were you wanting?"

"I intend on taking my group into a pair of Survival Challenges," Nathan informed him. "Each lasting around a hundred days."

"No," the agent immediately rejected it. "Absolutely not, especially with Samantha being pregnant."

"Offense intended, you aren't my boss, and you don't control what I do in the game," Nathan stated. "And it's precisely because Samantha's pregnant. She's what, twenty or so days pregnant? And a pregnancy lasts around two hundred and seventy, two hundred and eighty days? Two one hundred and ten-day Survival Challenges will put her at around two hundred and forty or two hundred and fifty days. Eight months.

"We will go on Beginner," Nathan stated. "Based on what I have found from your records from the students here and in other nations, Survival Challenges longer than ten days are in a school and any longer than thirty can have optional Challenges within them, but that's by choice, and players aren't required to participate even if we choose the option to have optional Challenges.

"What I want," Nathan glared as the agent attempted to speak. "Is to know what items we will need to bring for Samantha. According to the records, extended Survival Challenges supply enough food for us to last, so her hunger shouldn't be an issue."

"I'm still rejecting it," Agent Samtol told Nathan. "It's too dangerous, and-"

"And what?" Nathan asked. "Can you stop us from entering? Can you stop us from choosing whatever we wish? You said it yourself – you aren't here to control us, you're here to help us. The important people have already agreed to this."

"Nathan-"

"Do you have the ability to control me?" Nathan asked. "You can appoint yourself authority all you want, Agent, but in the end, that means nothing against someone with more power than you. That's why you appease the greater creatures of the world rather than try to control them. And Master Torzin's only interest right now is in training me, due to my existence as a demigod. The only person here who could control me won't stop me from doing this, and he couldn't, anyway, unless he wanted to risk me dying. So we're doing it. Now, I need to know what I need that I haven't already got."

Agent Samtol sighed, then led Nathan to the medical wing and talked with the doctor about it. The doctor was resistant, but Nathan stated that they would do it whether or not permission was given. After that, the doctor listed off the things he could think of, and Nathan nodded. He had already performed research and found most of that, he just wanted to speak to an actual person about it.

"Who all is going?" Agent Samtol asked as Nathan made his way to one of the classrooms after speaking with the doctor.

"Myself, Keith, William, Michael, Mitchell, Elise, and Samantha."

"No Kendra?"

"The slut can keep to herself," Nathan grunted.

"From what I heard, Michael and you-"

"Michael is now exclusive to Elise," Nathan said. "And I actually cared about the person and their wants."

"What about Katie?"

"I thought you didn't want us to go?"

"As you said," the agent sighed. "We can't actually stop you, it would be too costly for us to even try, and since you can enter with just a thought, we'd have to put you in a coma or stasis, which would result in you ending up in the required Challenge without much additional training. When are you leaving?"

"In a minute," Nathan entered the classroom they had been walking to, where the other six were waiting, backpacks on the table. "And agent? Give me a week, maybe two. Three at the most."

"For what?" The agent asked.

"To be ready to negotiate with Endariv to lower his demands."

"That's not going to happen."

"Speak with Master Torzin on that," Nathan said. "He's the one who suggested it. My familiar apparently warmed Endariv's egg and has some leverage."

"And you'd rather go in a few weeks than now?" The agent asked.

"Well," Samantha said as Nathan began equipping his guns from the table where they were resting. "It'll give him more time to get stronger, even if that won't help him much beyond possibly running away. Supposedly, he has a secret project that will help."

"I see," Agent Samtol said. "Does this have anything to do with the enchanting notes you want?"

"Yes," Nathan responded. "Keith has already supplied me on the research and notes for his failed attempt at making a magical bomb. I believe that if the two of us work together with Ichtvar, we may actually succeed in it."

Nathan pulled up the Team Entry menu while ignoring the agent's horrified stare, and he sent the invites to the rest of his crew. They all accepted, then Nathan saluted to the agent before he initiated the entry, the seven teens appearing in the fields.

"So can we see Ichtvar?" Keith asked as they began removing their packs.

Nathan bared his torso and allowed Ichtvar out, the rest of his group looking at the creature with awe. As they did that, Nathan began opening up their packs and pulling out the decks of cards he slipped into them. The team was aware he had done that, though only Keith knew what the cards were for.

"Are you going to tell them?" Keith asked as Nathan sat on the grass and began going through the cards.

"Yeah," Nathan answered. "Guys, get over here."

They gathered around him and sat, and Nathan showed them the cards.

"Wait," Samantha said. "This is your secret project?"

"Part of it," Nathan answered. "Having Ichtvar as a mentor helped me advance fast, though we're still improving these. This," he tapped a fireball card. "Will create a fireball around a second after you send enough mana into it. Do that and throw the card, and you're throwing a fireball without casting the spell."

"It's based on some ancient magical traps," Ichtvar informed the group, landing beside Nathan. "It wasn't uncommon for enchanters to line walls with enchanted formations. If certain tiles were stepped on, it would connect mana crystals to the formation from behind the wall, triggering the spell. There's more to it than that, but that's the basics of it. I altered the formation to work a little differently. The medium is new to me, but the effect is almost the same."

"Each of you," Nathan set a deck in front of each of the other six. "Will take one deck. After some testing, I determined that the System's rule about containers with objects cannot enter unless they're all the same works slightly different for these. It counts them as a deck of enchanted cards, as long as the box is closed."

"However," Keith added. "It also takes up an entire slot by itself, which means that if you want to have two of them, you lose out on two slots, as they don't stack."

"In addition," Nathan added. "This is a new thing. It was added in today."

"What?" Elise asked. "What do you mean, it was added in today?"

"A theory Nathan and I had," Keith responded. "Decks of regular playing cards functioned just fine. However, a deck of enchanted cards didn't. We thought that odd, since a deck of playing cards with fifty-two cards had fifty-two different cards. The System registered them as something separate."

"So Keith and I thought," Nathan continued. "That maybe it was manually added into the game for decks of playing cards to work – or any form of deck of cards. However, because these were enchanted cards, that read didn't work, as they're new to the System."

"Something that Nathan discovered," Keith said. "Last time he was in here. Apparently, there's a bonus for completing an Adept-Rank Dungeon by yourself, and that includes recreating anything you used that you brought into the Dungeon."

"It didn't recreate my cards," Nathan told the others. "And compensated me for not being able to with Points, Stat Points, and Skill Points with a message letting me know that they were unfamiliar."

"But why," Michael said. "Would that make you think something could be added in? Just having regular cards being able to wouldn't be a sign of it."

"Because it wasn't possible until today," Nathan gave him a look that called him an idiot. "And since you'll be seeing it, there's a Skill called Card Box. Three different types of cards with up to five per stack per Level of the Skill. I suspect it's new as well, added in for the enchanted cards. And since the decks of enchanted cards were only added in today, that means they did something to allow it to happen, since it wasn't possible before. That is obvious, even without the other information supporting it.

"Now," he glared at Michael, who had begun to open his mouth. "If you don't mind, let's get on with this. Review the cards in your decks. There are fifty-four of them, with several repeats. Use them only in an emergency, should you actually leave the safe zones and need it. When we finish here, any unused ones are returned to me. These are only a temporary granting to you."

As the others checked their cards, Nathan ran through his inventory of cards and ammo. Most of his ammo were stored in the cards, and he also had much of what he would probably need for Samantha in them as well.

"Why do you have so many storage cards?" Samantha asked, and the other seniors looked over. "Yours look different than ours."

"They show what's in them," Nathan answered. "Sort of. A runic symbol represents it. This one's a stethoscope."

"Why do you have a stethoscope?" She asked.

"So I can hear my baby once he's a bit further along," Nathan asked as Keith laughed.

"You actually did get one!"

"Yeah," Nathan glared at the enchanter. "I told you I would. I also have towels and gallons of water."

"And food?"

"Some," he nodded. "Nothing fresh, as those don't preserve. However, according to past reports and some of the other survivors at the school, extended Survival Challenges often have 'food drops' that happen on their own. The game, while cruel, does also want to help us at times. Since you're pregnant, it's possible we'll end up with fresh food."

"And if we don't?"

"We can buy certain fresh items from the Points Shop," he responded. "Any questions on the cards."

"Throwing stars?" Elise asked, holding up one of those cards.

"The card is one," Nathan nodded. "But only if you push mana into it."

"And how do the storage cards work?" Michael asked.

"Put some mana into it," Nathan answered. "Then push the item into it. When you want to retrieve it, push mana into it again. See the one, two, and three? Ichtvar and I spent a few hours coming up with that enchantment. The cards currently have three uses. Bigger items can use up two or three full uses. That notes how many times you can put an item in. It can also only store a single item at a time."

"And your ammo ones?" Michael touched one of Nathan's cards.

"These function differently," Nathan said. "And the ammo is a container. Unlike the System's Item Box, the cards aren't that picky."

"Stun?" Elise asked.

"A simplified version of the stun spell," Keith rubbed the back of his neck. "It works, though we don't know how many monsters it'll work on, since Nathan's knuckles have a modification for stun that fails on some monsters, even though it should work on all. Just trigger the card and hit a monster with it, and if it works, it works."

"He tested it on you, didn't he?" Samantha asked.

"He asked first," Keith nodded.

"Anything else?" Nathan asked, and the team shook their heads. "Very well, then. Let's pack things up. Make any last-minute purchases. Once everyone's ready, I'm triggering the Challenge."

As they packed their things up, Nathan set up the Challenge.

Challenge: Survival Difficulty: Beginner Length: 110 days Recommended Level: 125 Reward: 500 Points, +50 Stat Points, +5 to all stats Optional Challenges are enabled. Completing them may award additional Points, Stat Points and Skill Points. They will be performed in the same instance as the regular Challenge, and only those who chose to participate at the start may participate. Enter Return

"Are you ready?" Nathan asked once everyone was packed up, Ichtvar back within him, and his torso covered once more.

The others confirmed it, so Nathan began the Challenge, then waited for the rest of his team to receive the notice and accept entry. As soon as they did, the seven of them found themselves in a new, yet slightly-familiar environment.