Fighting on the tenth layer for a week was beneficial for both levelling and tactics. Allowing me to store enough levels to reach level 50. Alas, we were nowhere near the life pearls so we continued.

Why was it so easy to level? Simply put, it was the fact that there was only two of us and we could both punch well above our level. The system determined how much of the eldritch energy was allocated to people. This was not calculated by dividing the monster energy by the number of people, but by adding the levels of all the enemies in an encounter together and dividing it by the combined level of allies. This was one of the primary reasons for having a numbered levelling system in the first place.

Using the 'undead squads' as an example. The soldiers were level 12 on average, the general around level 18, the knights were about level 22 with both the archers and flesh golems being around 26. So the total level for the encounter was 520. When compared to our measly 86, it provided a 605% experience boost. Now, this did not mean we would gain more energy than the monster had, it only went we would gain all the monsters eldrich energy and none would return to the cycle.

Normal people would not be able to achieve this. Even we only managed to pull it off due to the sheer supremacy of our classes and exploits. Regular people aimed for level parity or supremacy when fighting.

When the princess reached level 52, we decided to try the higher floors and the eleventh floor met us with violence and destruction. The addition of Zombie mages was more than just another enemy to kill. They multiplied the power of the squads. Seeing through illusions, buffing soldiers with shields, attacking from afar and creating magical traps of their own, these monsters brought a qualitative change and explained why even the magic academy hardly ever moved past their original home on the twentieth floor.

We could still manage but each fight had to be calculated, the mana stones from each squad were used to store spells for the next battle. The combat had to be short and decisive lest we draw more undead and we frequently retreated. Luckily, unlike the archer's arrows, the sorcerer's spells could not enter the safe locations allowing us to rest and recover.

It took six days to pass the floor and that was only because the squads respawned slowly. Apparently whatever was causing this upward march of the undead was wearing off. They were returning to their regular locations, lowering the spawn rate of the more powerful monsters. By the time we reached level twelve, only the originally inhabiting force of soldiers, knights and generals could be found.

With this vastly reduced threat, we quickly cleared levels twelve to nineteen over the course of a week. Before preparing for the return on the mages on level twenty. In preparation for the predicted grudge match, we spent two entire days in the level nineteen safe room creating new potions and enchanting crystals.

Tired and weary from almost an entire month of constant fighting. It was incredibly tempting to try and just leave like we did the first time. The barrier had seemingly disappeared with the retreat of the undead forces, but traces of the grand working still remained, making escape a risky proposition. The other option was to increase my level and thus reduce the difficulty. But I knew the system would force the dungeon to provide benefits based on our level when we cleared the thirtieth floor.

Life pearls had been almost always been obtained as a clear reward and while they would incredibly rarely appear in chests, the odds were much too low. Seeing as chests were normally used as bait to lure humanoids into traps, their contents were generally crap. Only throwing in something good once in a while to keep the adventurer's greed stoked. With my luck stat, the small team and low level. I was almost guaranteed to get something special when this was all over.

Fighting on the twentieth level was the same as fighting on the eleventh during what we dubbed 'the descent'. Except, this time we had spent floors preparing. I had invented a new single target combination spell combining space, void fire and storm. This spell destroyed even the more powerful undead but also destroyed their mana crystals in the process. Another setback was that it consumed two small mana crystals to cast, though, with our farmed supply for the climb, I did not care. The best part about my new spell was that it could shatter a mage's spell barrier, rendering them helpless. The ability to quickly eliminate these pests was essential because on their appropriate levels they could respawn two to three times a day.

The climb was difficult but not impossible, relying on either finding the floors safe room or creating an enchanted safe zone. We continued luring and killing squads like cowards. Eliminating any we encountered in the vicinity before searching for the next flight of stairs as opposed to exploring the floors in their entirety. As the difficulty grew, so too did the complexity of the style and artwork in the dungeon but the grand display was never more than a fancy background to the brutal battles.

Contrary to expectations, the liches did not start appearing on the twenty-fourth floor instead it was the return of the flesh golems. Although the lack of revival was a much-welcomed discovery, it seemed the dungeon would not let us off lightly. The golems had learned a few new tricks since their last appearance, as they lobbed boulders from the backline and wore heavy armour. These undead siege engines would charge into battle if the soldiers were eliminated and their armour was such that even my combination spell had trouble bringing them down. Unfortunately for them, the princess had a 'melting potion'. This liquid dispersed into a mist and upon contact with non-protected metal, would convert it into a liquid before resolidifying it as a single piece. The brute's armour had traded its chemical shielding for magical reflection, making their protection become a tomb.

The pattern repeated as we climbed and we slowly advanced, taking days to carve a path through each floor while resting in every safe room. I was beginning to become twitchy due to the constant fighting. Always tense and expecting some form of attack even when surrounded by my barriers while locked inside a safe room. It had become common to see my health plummet to fractional numbers from a single mistake and with the recent soldiers using poisoned weapons, attacks I could have once ignored became deadly threats.

What’s more, the frequency of zombie mages meant I had to limit my spacial scanning, lest we give away our position. Meaning we had to search this increasingly complicated maze the old fashioned way. Often spending hours fighting just to find yet another dead end. I was tempted to just mind magic these issues away but recalling the horrible experience I suffered the last time I attempted to escape my problems, I decided not to.

Reaching the twenty-eight floor after another month of fighting and hiding, both the princess and I had had enough of this godforsaken tower. It was only when we encountered the liches for the first time that we realised this struggle was almost at an end. Unlike the zombies, these semi-ethereal creatures were a true mid-rank undead. Capable of summoning skeleton soldiers and resurrecting undead in addition to casting magic and phasing through matter, they replaced the now under levelled zombie general as the core of the unit.

It was imperative that they were eliminated first lest the battles become never-ending. Yet, almost as if to laugh at us, they were guarded by eight knights and shielded by two of the six mages. Having spent a month preparing for them, in some ways, it was easier than killing a general as I was willing to use precious materials to deal with these monsters that I would not waste on a lesser monster.

Held in my hand was a small needle forged from dragon stone. This black rock was used in the holy knight's armour to absorb a portion of any incoming spell, allowing them to invalidate offensive spell and then use that mana to cast personal buffs. This was simply wasting the material by only using its natural ability. I had forged the stone into thirty shards and then bathed them in liquefied high-level mana crystals, before inscribing a very delicate space rune on their surface.

The result was a single-use high-density mana bomb capable of bypassing any defence found on this layer or even the one above. By packing each one with a hundred thousand space mana, it would produce a two-metre wide black hole erasing anything within it from existence. I only had twelve completed as each one required about eight days to fully charge, so we had to limit our encounters while rushing for level thirty.

Once more the information I had learned from the college was incorrect. The liches appeared far more frequently than expected, forcing me to face our last encounter before the stairs on the twenty-ninth level without any dragon stone shards. My opening salvo of combination spells to eliminate the mages was countered by the lich reviving them almost instantly. At the same time, the princess released two gasses into the crowds. The first one was a holy aligned acid and the other a melting agent, eliminating the threat from the golems and doing damage to the soldiers. She finished her preparations by throwing down some magical landmines I had created.

The shield line charged into the void fire wave generated as a byproduct of my first attack. Even shielded by the mages, two of them dispersed into ash. Folding space, I warped the princess and myself back around twenty metres. Positioning us behind our already prepared traps and detonating a holy flashbang at our original location so as to disrupt the archers. The destroyed soldiers were reformed by the lich and once more the front line charged our location. The mages started dispelling the traps on the floor as I activated the runes on the roof, causing healing blessed lightning to rain down on the lich.

It's barrier flared but held as it cast its own death curse magic. The spell ignored my shielding but was absorbed by the princess through her life draining curse, rendering it useless. While I was having my magical exchange with the lich, the princess had thrown a potion of sanctuary into the approaching soldiers causing them to weaken before activating a mass healing glyph I had placed earlier, turning them all to ash. She was also using potions, poisons and traps to harass the archers and mages.

Distracted from our battle, the lich stopped trying to cast curses and started reviving the soldiers while also raising some skeletons behind us. Taking advantage of her distraction, I activate several spells held in crystals, once more destroyed the mages. The lich's mana and focus were not infinite, so she stopped reviving the solders and started on the mages.

The archers who had been attempting to fire poison arrows this whole time finally managed to break the first anti-arrow barrier, only to be met with another. To make up for the loss of the front line soldiers the lich forced half their members advanced, further limiting their damage.

Why not use Magical Might? Because the transferral of stats leaves you feeling weak and disorientated. Definitely not the best state to be in during combat. The prepared spells, however, had been created under its influence. But they lost potency over time so they would not display 100% of their power.

Imitating a dragon stone shard, I overcharged an already maximum capacity high-level mana crystal beyond its limits. Teleporting the unstable object directly to the lich. As the bonds holding the matter together shattered, it erupted in a violent explosion within the lich's shield. Harming but not killing her. In retaliation, it drew energy from the useless flesh golems and they were reduced to ash as it healed itself. The archers had been eliminated by the princess during the same time frame. Leaving only the knights, the lich and the skeletons behind us.

The skeletons quickly fell to traps being even weaker than the zombies and half the knights charged us while glowing ominously. Folding space, I once more warped the princess and myself back around twenty metres just in time to see the knights detonate into a cloud of bloody shrapnel, taking the remainder of the skeletons with them. At last, there stood a single lich and four knights against a human and an elf.

I destroyed the last four knights with prepared combination spells as the lich vanished from sight, melting into her own shadow. She believed herself invisible when in reality, she was being tracked by my mana sense as she moved from one shadow to the next. This technique was a favourite of dark magic aligned non-corporeal creatures and had been dubbed 'shadow gate'. It was short-range silent teleportation between shadows that allowed them to attack an opponent from a blind spot. She wanted to use this to enter unshielded melee, combining it with the 'death touch' racial skill to drain us dry while recovering her energy. Appearing behind me, it reached for my throat draining my health and mana even at a small distance. unfortunately, knowing how liches fight from the pheonixian knowledge, we had expected this and the princess vomited poison at the floating monster.

This poison was the deadliest creation she could produce. It was a mixture of every toxin in her system and was further enhanced by limiting its lifespan to a few seconds. As the liquid hit the lich, it instantly melted through the monster like a hot knife through butter. The scene would have been rather comical to watch if not for the life or death aspect. With a woman throwing up on a ghost, unlike the reverse which happened in a certain horrible 'horror-comedy' reboot.

Melting into a puddle was not the end for the lich. Its soul still existed and would reform a new body given enough time, but space magic stopped it from escaping and the princess absorbed it to strengthen her curse magic. We entered the stairwell as it was a safe zone and looked over our expenditure. We had won but at a high cost. We had used over two thousand low-level mana stones, eight hundred mid-level mana stones, six high-level mana stones and hundreds of other materials. All to fight a single small squad of undead with nothing over level fifty and plenty of time to prepare. If this squad was randomly encountered in the wild, we would have no choice but to run. They would also level up incredibly quickly adding more members in the process. It was no wonder the undead were feared.