The Tower of the Dead was a dungeon filled with undead that was administered by the Laufgraan School itself. It was perfect for training the students because of its layout. It was divided by floors with each floor having a different combination of undead monsters. The monsters strength increased from floor to floor up to the 50th floor.
The school reserved the dungeon for its students during the week days and opened to the general public on weekends. On that Wednesday, it was going to be used by Matthew’s and Fred’s classes.
Both classes together had 48 students and were divided in groups of 6. Matthew, Faralynn, Erin, Mia, Helen and Tina grouped together and again Matthew was met by jealous stares from the other students. The six of them were sitting on the floor in front of the dungeon entrance talking about battle formations and strategies.
After a while, Orpheu rallied all the students in front of him. He looked at his clipboard looking at his notes and then said loudly to everyone to listen:
"You all were briefed on the Tower’s monsters and layout. Remember that well. Also, even though they are undead, there is no miasma in the dungeon. The undead there are just simulacrums. So Purification is not necessary in there. Each party will enter with a difference of 10 minutes between them. Don’t climb farther up than what your levels allow you to. Remember, one level for every two floors. The first party is Fred, William, Verena, Igor, Petra and Kayo. You may go in."
All students were using their gym uniforms that had a layer of magical protection on them. Over the uniform, they used their personal items. Matthew was wearing his new pseudodragon leather vest. Faralynn was using her breastplate and Erin was using her new white robe that she bought during the mall incident.
Helen was wearing a big breastplate with other metal plates strapped over her arms and legs, plus plate boots. She also carried a big rectangular shield made of a dark wood and covered with a metal plate. Painted on the shield was the symbol of her family: a six legged horse. She carried a short spear and a short sword on her waist.
Mia was wearing only her gym uniform and carrying a wood wand carved with a dozen small blue crystals.
Tina was wearing a black robe adorned with purple and gold details. She also wore a black pointy hat similar to Paula’s, but decorated with a gold chain around the base, and carried a simple wooden staff.
Helen was a tank, a fighter who worked the front line protecting those behind them. Mia, Erin and Tina were all mages. Faralynn and Matthew were mixed, both used ranged weapons, but also were good at melee combat.
Without a Scout and a Healer, their party wasn’t very balanced to venture into a dungeon. But what they lacked in versatility, they compensated on power. Most students were at level 5, but, with Mia’s exception, they were all above level 6.
Their party was the fourth to go inside.
The Tower of the Dead was a dungeon that imitated a stone tower. Each floor had the same layout. A hallway with 5 rooms, each room filled with undead creatures. And stairs leading to the next floor. The tower had windows, but there was only the image of a starry night sky outside and nothing more. The outer walls were indestructible, at least any attempt to break them was met with failure. Going outside the wall was also impossible, if you left through a window, you’d be teleported back to the entrance. Jumping out through them was almost like an emergency exit.
The monsters in each floor reappeared every 10 minutes, that being the reason why each party was entering with a 10 minute gap.
The first floor had only skeletons inside the rooms. Monsters twice as powerful as goblins and hard to hit with ranged attacks due to the lack of body mass. The lack of body mass also made skeletons weak to physical attacks.
The party let Mia work alone on the first floor, just making sure she wouldn’t get hurt.
Mia used the Magic Missile spell through her wand that empowered it. The spell was a combination of the Solidify Mana and the Project Mana skills. The first to make her mana into a tangible form with mass and the second to guide the solid mana to the target.
Although Mia was only level 3, the way she cast the spell was of that of an experienced adventurer. She would create 5 to 8 missiles and expertly maneuver them all at the same time on the air hitting her targets with deadly accuracy.
By the time they reached the 3rd floor, she had already leveled up to level 4.
They took a break for a while so that Mia could rest and drink a mana potion. She also took the time to pick her new class. Another Mage level, she chose increasing her magical power.
On the 3rd floor, zombies started to appear. Stronger than skeletons, but with very low mobility. Against those, Mia needed help. Therefore, they decided to enter in formation. Helen in front with the shield would hold the enemies, Matthew and Faralynn with his gun and her bow would flank Helen from the sides and attack the ones who got near the tank. The other three would stay further behind using their spells to wipe out the enemies.
"Aim at the zombies, Matthew!" Faralynn ordered while putting an arrow on the head of a zombie. "They’re easier to hit. Leave the skeletons for the Mages."
Matthew nodded and concentrated his fire on the flesh undead which were easier to hit with his small bullets.
On the 5th floor, the skeletons started to appear wielding weapons and shields. Some even with bows. It was only there that Helen started to work and use her huge shield to cover those behind her and her spear to defeat the undead that got near her.
On the 7th floor they found the party in front of them resting on the stairs to the 8th floor. They fought their best and exhausted their mana.
"Will you guys keep going up?" Helen asked giving to one of them, a friend of her, a mana potion.
"I don’t think so." Her friend said. "We’ll try the 8th floor, but if it is too hard we’ll jump." She said referring to getting out through the window going back to the 1st floor.
On the 11th floor they found Fred’s party facing a horde of zombies, skeletons and ghouls. Ghouls were flesh undead with distorted bodies with long claws and huge mouths with pointy teeth. Their claws had venom that could paralyze living creatures.
Fred’s party had trouble defeating their opponents. And when it became obvious that they were going to lose, Matthew and Faralynn dashed forward with their swords cutting and piercing the undead opening way for Fred’s party to retreat.
"You saved us." Fred said gasping for air after the battle was over.
"It’s not a problem." Matthew said sheathing his sword.
"Didn’t Professor Orpheu say not to go above your level?" Tina admonished Fred’s party.
"We thought we could handle." Fred tried to excuse himself. "Thomas’ party passed us and defeated them so easily that we thought about trying when they respawned."
"Isn’t Thomas a level 4?" Tina asked confused.
"It didn’t seem so. All of them looked really strong. They must’ve be training really hard." Fred shrugged.
Fred’s party soon jumped out of the window back to the first floor, while Matthew and the others went to the 12th floor where they properly faced the undead themselves.
On the 16th floor, they found two of Thomas’ party members resting on the stairs. Tina soon found it weird that they didn’t look tired at all.
"Were are the rest of your party?" Erin asked the two girls on the stairs.
"They went ahead in front of us while we rest." One of them said pointing up. "We’ll catch them before long. You can go ahead." Google seaʀᴄh novel·fiɾe·net
The 17th floor was empty. Recently cleared it seemed. They’d had to wait for the respawn or move on. But then Tina stopped them.
"We should jump." She said looking around suspiciously.
"Why?" Matthew asked.
"Jessica, the girl on the stairs, she isn’t an archer. She was focusing on the Merchant class." Tina said drawing confusion from the others.
"And why should we jump because Jessica changed her focus?" Erin asked turning her head to the side.
"Because that’s not Jessica." Tina explained. "Thomas’ was never one to exert himself. For him to get so powerful in a week to climb as high as this? I don’t think those are students at all."
Matthew didn’t wait after listening to those words. He grabbed Mia’s arm and gestured to the others to follow him while he pulled Mia to a window in the room.
However, before he could reach the window, an arrow came from the stairs to the 17th floor almost hitting him. Jessica and the other girl came up with wicked smiles on their faces.
Then Thomas and other three students came from upstairs flanking Matthew and the others.
"You’re not leaving here." Thomas said taking off a ring which made his image shift and change to the figure of an elf.
All the others also removed rings off their fingers showing their true forms. All elves.
"They came for Lynn." Matthew said preparing for battle. "We won’t let you have her."