Orpheu, after entering the dungeon, found all his students on the first floor with a few stragglers coming down from the second floor.

"Professor." One of the students called after seeing him. "There's something wrong. The tower is filling with miasma coming from the higher levels. And all the windows got shut down."

Orpheu looked around, some of the students had ulcers and blackening of their skins due to the contact with miasma. A couple of students who had the Priest class were treating them.

"Okay. Just get out…" Opheu tried to guide his students out, but suddenly the gate closed behind of him. "...side."

Orpheu realized then what was happening. This has happened before on that dungeon. Using unholy mana inside of it caused a dungeon fluctuation which created unholy mana and made an undead horde come down from the 50th floor led by a Dullahan, a flesh undead clad in heavy armor, riding an undead horse, who had no head. A level 30 monster in most cases.

As a level 16 adventurer and surrounded by his students who were at highest level 6, save for Matthew who was now level 10, Orpheu knew he had no chance to survive the horde that was coming down. But he couldn't tell that to his students.

"Let's make a defensive line and wait for reinforcements from the school." He said trying to hide his fears from his students.

Upstairs, Matthew was fighting for his life against the elf with the axe. The miasma on the room was heavy and the other elves, who were just watching the fight, started to feel the effects of the unholy mana on their skins.

"Harlynn." The elf with the spear said annoyed. "Just finish it. The kid only has one arm for crying out loud. His miasma is getting thick and Farzan's guard will be here at anytime."

Matthew kept his mouth shut and concentrated on dodging his attacker. He knew that his only chance to survive was if he stalled them for enough time for the school security to arrive.

"The kid is stronger than I expected." Harlynn said shifting the grip on his axe. "But I'm done playing with him."

However, before Harlynn could strike Matthew, a skeleton appeared coming down the stairs and attacking one of the elven archers who was resting near it.

"What in the hells?" That elf screamed taking his dagger from his belt and stabbing the skeleton on the head. "I thought these unholy creatures didn't move between floors."

The elf in the green robe quickly shifted on her position and finally noticed that the window near her was missing. She then moved the mana inside of her and with a chill said to her companions:

"I lost the connection with our escape point."

That phrase made Harlynn stop before attacking Matthew again.

"What?" he asked.

"I can't connect with the teleportation circle outside." The elf in the green robe said agitated. "Did Farzan cut us out?"

Just when she asked that, another skeleton came down the upper floor being again felled by the archer closer to the stairs.

"Something is wrong here." The archer said moving away from the stairs.

"The dungeon has changed." The elf with the spear said looking around. "This might be a fluctuation."

"What do we do?" A female elven archer asked worried. "Farzan will kill us all if we don't flee now."

"We'll have to fight our way out." The elf with the spear said. "We go down, and we leave from the front. Fight whoever tries to stop us and escape when we have the chance."

"We can use the boy." The elf with the green robe said. "He's friends with Lady Faralynn. We can trade him for our security."

"Good idea." The elf with the spear said.

"The kid is dangerous." Harlynn said.

"What say you kid?" The elf with the spear ignored his companion. "You'll get to live today if you surrender now."

"Quick, kid." The elf closest to the stairs that led up said putting an arrow through another skeleton. "There are more coming down."

Matthew lowered his sword and used Purification to clear himself from the unholy and the demonic mana.

"I don't have a choice, do I?" He chuckled.

Harlynn took away Matthew's sword from him in an angry pull and walked downstairs stomping his feet.

"This is a mistake." He barked.

The elf with the spear poked Matthew on the back with his weapon, not hard enough to harm, just enough to call his attention.

"Behave, boy." He warned Matthew.

The walk downstairs was uneventful. Other than the miasma that now filled the tower, there was nothing dangerous. The undead stopped appearing and, if there was any there before, they disappeared.

Their skins started to darken and ulcers started to appear. Only Matthew had the Purification skill among them and was the only one not being affected by the miasma due to his constant use of Purification on himself.

When they reached the first floor, they were met with hostility and were almost shot at. But Orpheu stopped his students after seeing that Matthew was alive, tough his left arm was deformed.

"The gate is closed." He said with his hand on the handle of his katana. "No one is getting out."

"Did you close it, Professor?" The elf with the spear asked with his hand ready on his weapon as well.

"No. This happens when the dungeon gets in contact with a source of miasma." Orpheu said analyzing the elves.

Harlynn laughed out loud playfully slapping Matthew on the back.

"It was the kid. I told you he was dangerous."

"I did it to save Lynn." Matthew protested with anger on his voice. "And I didn't know this was going to happen."

"And how do we get out, Professor?" The elven leader asked ignoring Harlynn.

"We survive." Orpheu said. Having the help of the elves was his only chance of surviving. "A Dullahan usually leads a horde of undead downstairs. If we kill it, the fluctuation ends."

"Why can't we teleport outside?" The elf in the green robe asked. "Did you cut us off?"

Orpheu knew that the dungeon cut off itself from the primal plane and normal teleportation would not work in there. But he decided to bluff:

"Yes. If you want to get out of here, you'll need to help us. Or we'll all die."

The elf with the spear took a long time reading Orpheu. And then he asked:

"Can you guarantee our safety if we help your students?"

"I can." Orpheu lied again.

"I don't think we have much of a choice." The elf in the green robe said. "We'll have to kill the Dullahan anyway to get out of here. Might as well help them. Letting a bunch of kids die will not leave a good taste in my mouth."

"You sure were ok with killing me." Matthew argued.

"That's different, boy." Harlynn said. "You are dangerous."

"How we'll do this then, Professor?" The elf leader asked.

"The students will face the first waves. When it gets too much for then, you all and I switch with them." Orpheu said.

The elves nodded and found a place to sit and rest away from the students.

Orpheu gave Matthew a mana potion after noticing he was very tired.

"Your arm looks horrible." He said looking at it. "You'll need surgery to correct it."

"And it hurts a lot." Matthew added. "I'm using Anesthesia to endure the pain. At least it's not bleeding anymore."

"Yeah. It looks you poured a healing potion on it without properly putting into place."

"That's precisely what happened." Matthew said passing his hand on his disfigured arm. "But it was dead or bleeding out."

"Can you fight? The others will need a leader and you have the most experience in class." Orpheu asked.

"I don't have much of a choice. Give me another mana potion and I'll be ready."

Harlynn approached Matthew and begrudgingly gave him his sword back. Matthew accepted it with distrust.

"You understand that we're not murderers." He said trying to justify himself. "We're just doing our lord's bidding."

"Then why kill me?" Matthew asked with anger in his voice. "Faralynn was already out."

"Because we'll try to take Lady Faralynn again. And we can't have you being in our way again." Harlynn gave him a dry answer. "You are dangerous, boy. The next time, you could be able to harm us. That's why I decided to kill you. But Dyzan decided to let you live. For now." He added clearly referring to his leader.

"How generous for a group of kidnappers." Matthew said sarcastically.

Harlynn laughed loudly.

"You're right about that…" He accepted the criticism. The irony of trying to act noble while doing a vile act was not lost on him.

"You can purify, boy?" The elf in the green robe asked approaching the two. "We could use the help against the miasma."

"You want me to purify you all?" Matthew asked surprised with the audacity.

"You know we're your best hope on surviving this fluctuation. You either help us, or we all die." The elf in the green robe said shrugging Matthews indignation.

It took a while for Matthew to get his head around the idea of helping them. But eventually he agreed. Logically, it was his best choice. But he still didn't like it.

"I'm Pyrzan." The elf in the green robe introduced herself while Matthew cleared her from the unholy mana that was harming her.

"I'm Matthew." He said without thinking.

When Matthew was purifying the last elf, the leader Dyzan, a skeleton appeared on the stairs that led up. The horde had arrived.

"To battle!" Orpheu screamed to his students.

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