Reincarnated at Level Two Million - Chapter 107

Zell opened his eyes to find himself standing in front of a massive stone castle. A large iron gate blocking his entry. The stones of the castle were worn and old vines covered the cracked walls. Everything was illuminated by torches which were hung from the castle walls and along the outer wall. Large dragon statues of different types lined the top of the wall.

Zell looked at it all and scratched his head. “What in the hell was in that drink?” He said, knowing this was all in his head. He approached the old iron gate and touched it with his hand. He wanted to see if it would open. As his fingers made contact with the gate the old iron began to crumble and turn to dust until the entire gate had gathered in a pile on the ground beneath Zell’s feet.

“Okay…” Zell said at the strange turn of events. He jumped over the pile of iron and entered the castle’s courtyard. Overgrown vines had engulfed everything inside the courtyard, an old cobblestone path leading from the gate is all that was visible beneath the plants. Zell started to walk down the path, hoping it would give him some idea as to what was going on.

As Zell walked down the path the vines around him shifted and moved as if they themselves were alive and aware of his presence. As he rounded a turn in the path, which showed him the entrance to the castle’s interior, several vines slithered their way onto the path and grabbed onto his legs and arms. Their sharp thorns serrated his flesh and caused him to bleed.

He became curious as to why the vines could injure him despite his level, but more than curious he was concerned. To free himself he began to cast a fireball, however his magic did not function. This was not a problem he could just blast himself out of. He was trapped, the thorny vines had completely covered his arms and legs. He was forced to stand there and plan a course of action.

The first observation he made was simple, if he tried to advance the vines tightened their grip and increased his pain and injuries. If he attempted to back away from the path the vines would loosen, beginning to set him free. “So that’s how it is.” He said to himself as he figured out the meaning of the vines.

Zell had a lot of experience in these mental realms by this point, having dealt with the gods and the crafters of the universe. His wisdom told him that this particular event was a test of determination. So, he pressed forward through the pain of his skin being ripped into. As he attempted to move the vines began to constrict and move rapidly in a circular motion. They were shaving all of his flesh and muscle off of his arms and legs.

Zell yelled as he pushed through the intense agony. After three steps his arms were reduced to bone, and his legs were nearly at that point. He struggled against the vines and continued. “One more step!” He yelled as he pushed on. On his fourth step the vines let go and retreated back into the foliage around the path.

His arms and legs were restored as if nothing had ever happened to them, but the pain of the experience was still fresh in his mind. He looked at his recovered limbs and sighed a sigh of relief. “That was a horrible test.”

A sound of clicking gears echoed from the entrance of the interior. The large oak door that guarded the entrance had five panels above it. When the sound of the gears stopped one of the panels lit up with a green flame.

Zell sighed as he immediately deduced what that meant. “Looks like I have passed one of five trials. Guess I need to find the others.” Looking closer at the path leading to the entrance, the greenery around it began to retreat. As it did it revealed four more paths. “I guess each path leads to a trial. How fun…”

He walked to the left most path first. He decided to do them in order from left to right. This path was made of old brick of multiple colors. As he began to walk on the bricks the area around him faded from existence. He found himself walking on a brick path in the middle of the sky. He looked down but was so high up that he could only see clouds beneath him with no signs of land.

“Well, this seems like a terrible test.” Zell said as he stared down into the abyss. He looked around at everything around him. The path ended a few yards ahead of him and broke into floating cubes that were moving in multiple directions. He squinted as he looked up as to where the blocks could lead.

Above him was a golden dragon scale floating in the sky. “Guess I can try to fly.” He said as he attempted to use his flight magic. He jumped up but quickly landed back down on the brick platform. “Looks like that magic is off as well.”

Determined to not let his fear get the best of him he decided the best course of action would be to just do it. He watched the timing of the block at the end of the path carefully and started his running jump at just the right second. He leaped towards it and found himself safely on the first block.

Block after block he continued upward, timing each of his jumps precisely and trying his best not to fall. As far as he could tell none of his level transferred over to him in this world, wherever it was. He did not know what would happen if he would fall, but he did not want to find out. He could still feel the pain from the vines on his arms and legs and it made the task even more difficult.

As long as he kept his timing all the jumps were not terrible. None of them were too far apart from each other, he just needed the courage to jump. Finally, after an hour of jumping and climbing higher into the sky he found himself within jumping distance of the golden dragon scale. The only issue was the fact there was no platform to land on after jumping and catching the scale.

Zell attempted to stretch out and try to grab the scale, but it was too far out of his reach. The only way to grab it would be to jump. Zell had a choice, to jump and hope for the best or to carefully climb back down. Zell took a deep breath and jumped towards the floating scale. He grabbed onto it with both of his hands and held on to it tightly as he began to fall.

He passed all of the blocks he had just climbed as he fell downwards. He looked down at the clouds below him and saw that they were beginning to spin and creating a vortex below him. An eerie orange glow as if something was burning filled the center of the vortex that Zell was falling into.

A second later he had fallen inside the vortex, he could see bolts of lightning streak by him as he descended through the clouds. As he fell, he could feel himself slowing down the further down he got. After six minutes of falling, he finally exited the other side of the vortex and landed feet first on the cobblestone path. He was surprised to find the golden scale in which he had held on to tightly was no longer within his grasp.

He heard the moving of gears again as another panel lit up above the entrance. This time the panel lit with a yellow flame. “So, a flame for a flight.” Zell said as he watched the castle around him change. The old stone began to heal from its cracks. It looked as if years of aging were vanishing as the castle became brighter and cleaner. The vines receded as well, leaving a beautiful, lush courtyard in its wake. With running fountains and more assorted dragon statues.

“Two down, three to go.” Zell said as he started walking to the next path. This path was made of dirt. Zell wondered what horrors must lay in wait for him down a dirt path, but he had a mission to do and could not stop.

He walked down the dirt path and as before with the brick path the castle around him faded from existence. “I wonder what this next trial will be.” Zell said to himself as he walked. “Oh, I see.”

Zell found himself inside a large coliseum with a sword stabbed into the center of the dirt ring. “A trial by combat… How exciting…”

Zell walked towards the sword and grabbed its hilt.. With a quick motion he pulled the sword from the dirt and could hear a roar of applause from the nonexistent crowd in the empty coliseum.