As nothing had really changed in the last few months except for the completion of the magical graduation exam there was nothing to consume out time. After packing for what would be a much deeper climb I re-established the gate and we returned to the tower. Unlike what we were expecting, there was an immediately noticeable change with green, blue and purple flames present on the first level.

Studying the scions, it was apparent this was not just some visual modification as the flames still produced their detrimental effects. What's worse is that the effects were stacking. Looking at the princess I lamented, "Something is wrong. Very wrong! Nothing like this is recorded in any of the information I have gathered on the dungeon and the mana density is already as thick as it was on the tenth floor."

With a sigh, she replied, "Let's gather some more information. We came here to avoid unknown risks." We walked back onto the gate, only for nothing to happen. We both said, "Fuck!" at the same time. Activating my space magic in conjunction with my mana sense, I saw the tapestry that created a one-way space seal. It was a beautiful creation of space, time and force magic that would require me to overpower the entire natural ley line to suppress. Though all hope was not lost and there was a light at the end of the tunnel, it was apparent that the existing permanent space gate on the upper floor was allowed through the shielding.

"Well good news is we are not completely trapped," I said with a smile.

"Oh, how do we get out then?" She replied happily.

"Well that's the bad news, we need to clear the fucking tower." If looks could kill, it would have been the end of my story. Laughing at the absurdity of the situation where we fled from one danger only to literally teleport into another. I was drawn out of my mocking revelry by mild pain in my chest. Looking down I noticed a small black crest burned through my clothing and implanted above my heart. Staring at the princess I exclaimed, "You cursed me!"

Smirking she replied, "Actually I cursed you thrice. The 'soul binding' curse so you can't escape without me, the 'life sharing' curse so we can keep each other alive and the 'musical notes' curse for being a dick. I spent months working my curse magic out and it doesn't work on the undead so I have to use it on you."

Somewhat confused I asked, "So what does this shit do?"

The smirk deepened, "The first one is normally used to prevent a slave from escape but in this case, it stops you from being separated from my by making any space shift affect both of us. The second normally drains the slave's health to heal the master but it can actually be used both ways and the last one makes your body sing magical notes with every step."

"I understand the first two but what the hell is up with the third one?"

"It's my petty revenge for leading us into a death trap. The music can only be heard by us and I'm going to find it hilarious. And before you ask, it lasts an hour and even I can't dispel it."

As we started heading out of the gate room, every movement of my body created a musical note. Luckily, the stupidity of it all seemed to erase the panic and dread. Knowing this was not going to be the cakewalk we expected, we progressed into the corridor. Our hope that this was not a major realignment was shattered upon finding the original lone zombie had been replaced with three zombie soldiers. In a way, this change was to our benefit, saving us the time required to reach enemies worthy of our current power but it also meant this was going to be a much hard fight to get the life pearls and escape gate on the thirtieth level.

We settled back into our originally practised style of fighting the zombies, I would use space magic imbued into almost invisible strings to lay traps while applying healing that acted like death magic to the undead. The princess would use holy water or an incredibly potent acid. Our original problem was that these methods while guaranteeing the re-death of the undead took a few seconds to kill and as such, we had to avoid large mobs lest we become overwhelmed.

However, since our original trip, we had both picked up new tricks. I could now use void fire, the literal bane of low-level undead, destroying both their physical body and the magic that animated them. Furthermore, I could reinforce that with healing magic that targeted their soul, effectively making the undead disintegrate instantly upon contact. The princess, on the other hand, had managed to acquire the materials to produce a potion of sanctuary capable of instantly destroying low-level undead in a twenty-metre sphere. While the original materials were incredibly hard to find but since she had already ingested it once, she could produce a small amount of it from mana each day.

We progressed swiftly and noticed that the pattern had been moved down and quickened with generals appearing on the third floor and knights on the fifth. Whatever had happened during the graduation exam must have really pissed off the dungeon for it to be forcing the spawn limitations this far. While preparing to advance to the seventh floor where we expected to see the zombie archers that we avoided the last time, I noticed a strange signature on my spacial scans. It was large and slow, very unlike the archers I was looking for.

As we crept up the marble stairs, I finally caught sight of what was sending the signal, it was a flesh golem. These creatures are all brawn and no brains but their strength would put a mountain troll to shame. The abrupt change from a long-distance killer to a walking wall was very much in our favour and while others might find these creatures troubling, they were but tinder for my flame. Even under the command of a general and guarded by knights they posed no real threat until one of them got angry enough to throw an undead soldier at me.

The dungeon must have either found this funny or decided it might be effective because the generals started having the golems do it regularly. Now, as opposed to common belief, a dungeon can't actually control its monsters. At most, it can guide them and give them strategies. This is why the enemies don't just know where you are and also why the more intelligent the monsters in the dungeon are, the more dangerous it is in general. Fighting our way down as we climbed the stairs, we finally encountered the zombie archers on the ninth floor. From that point on, it was the constant use of shielding either through magic or terrain that prevented us from turning into pincushions.

More than once we had to risk taking damage to eliminate the knights before retreating into a safe location. Even this was problematic as the archer's arrows could still enter through the barrier. It became common to use almost all the crystals found on one level in preparation for the next. The princesses potions giving way to having her use crystal crafted magical grenades and wands. Saving the limited supply of her sanctuary potions for encounters with large groups. Luckily, everything apart from the knights were still susceptible to my fire healing combo.

As of the tenth level, the zombie army started to move in squads with five shield-wielding zombies soldiers in front supported by ten spear-wielding zombies soldiers behind. The backline would consist of a general, four knights, eight archers and a flesh golem at the rear with regular zombies behind him for ammo. Their fighting style was basic but effective advancing as a shield wall while firing arrows and throwing the occasional undead. When they were close enough, they would attempt to circle behind you, forming a crescent moon formation in the process while the flesh golem would give up being artillery and charge from the front.

The knights would always stay to guard the general who acted like a mind hub letting the others coordinate while the archers would draw daggers and attempt to stab you with poison in melee. We changed our plans to counter this by drawing these squads into preprepared runic formations with the use of simple illusions. Destroying their front line with a pillar of fire that avoided their front-facing magic blocking shields. Before assaulting the backline from behind and targeting the relatively weak general first. There were several times it devolved into a frantic melee as our actions drew the attention of a second squad and we had to rely on the princess potion to get out before being swarmed.

Viewing this as practice for the retaking of the spirit wind kingdom, we changed our plans and stopped focusing on skills that negated the undead advantage, treating them like real soldiers. Devising and trialling methods on lone groups after having cleared the floor. There was no rush, with our escape blocked, we simply focused on learning and death.