Reincarnated at Level Two Million - Chapter 109

Zell looked at the vast ocean and sighed at the sheer magnitude of it all. “A single golden fish in all of this?” He said to himself. He sat down at the end of the path and picked up the fishing rod. He then affixed some of the tackle to it as bait. He smiled as he cast out his lure.

As Gary he had spent his off-time fishing. Aside from his family it was the one thing that always brought him joy. As he sat there and fished, the joy of all those past fishing trips flooded his brain and a wave of nostalgia washed over him. He remembered the times when his son was a child and the two of them went camping at the river. He remembered the joy he felt as his son pulled in his first fish.

He had forgotten all these feelings with everything that had happened. For the first time in a long time, he felt as if he was at peace. Then the tip of his rod began to move. A fish had begun to nibble on the bait he had selected. Suddenly the rod bent drastically, and Zell pulled up on it firmly to set the hook.

Line started to peel off the reel so rapidly that smoke was rising from it. “Shit!” Zell said, noticing the smoke. He knew from previous experience in his former life that this meant the line was dry and if it continued the friction would cause a failure. Thinking quickly, he used a bit of water magic to wet the line. Then he encased the line itself inside of a barrier so that it would not snap.

Zell knew to let the fish pull the line and tire itself out, it was simply basic fishing. Still, the amount of line this fish was pulling was concerning. If the fish continued to pull line at this rate Zell would soon run out of line. Thinking of no other option he grabbed the rapidly spinning reel and stopped it. The sudden stop created a massive force that knocked Zell into the ocean.

The fish was now pulling him swiftly through the water. Zell used barrier magic on himself to keep the ocean waters at bay but still allowed oxygen to pass through. This allowed Zell to continue breathing much like a diving helmet.

He began to reel the fish in, or rather he began to reel himself to the fish. The fish was swimming at an amazing speed, Zell had to be hundreds of yards away in under a minute. Having full use of his magical resources he was not too concerned if this turned out to be the wrong fish. He could just use his flight magic to fly back to where he had started from and try again.

The fisherman in Zell wanted to know what this fish was. He really wanted to catch it. He continued to reel himself closer and closer to the fish. The amount of line the fish pulled made this a lengthy task. After six minutes of constant reeling, he finally was close enough to see the fish in the distance. It was massive. It was at least sixty feet long and had a circumference of twelve feet. A truly massive fish, the likes of which Zell had never seen, much less caught.

A feeling of slight disappointment came over Zell though as the fish was not golden. Zell released his barrier protecting the fishing line and it immediately snapped, releasing the fish. Letting a catch like that go hurt Zell deep down, but he knew he had a mission, only one fish would do. The elusive gold tuna had to be caught.

Zell swam back to the surface and flew into the air. All he could see in every direction was the ocean. There was no sign of the path, and he did not know from which direction he came, having traveled submerged under the water.

Catching an ultra-rare fish through conventional methods would prove too time consuming for Zell. He knew he needed an alternative. He remembered that one of his coworkers had once gone with him fishing and used an alternative method that Zell did not care for at the time. Although he could not argue against its effectiveness, something that was needed at this juncture in time. The method in question was dynamite. The shockwave of the explosion would kill the fish within a few yards, and they would float to the surface. Then all one had to do was scoop them up with a net.

The practice was highly illegal back in his past life and ruined the sport of fishing. However, he was not doing this for sport. He had a mission and a short timetable in which to complete it. Zell needed an explosion, or several explosions for that matter. The time had come for him to flex some magical might. Not wanting to destroy the planet he restricted himself to regular magic.

Zell opened his arms and formed multiple fire orbs above his head. He continued to form them one after another until he had hundreds of them. He then continued until he had thousands and then tens of thousands. He was going to catch this fish, along with every other fish in this ocean all at once with a single cast.

He began to rapidly fire the orbs into the sea causing massive explosions. Giant columns of water erupted from the ocean as each orb exploded. As the water fell so did hundreds of fish carcasses. This continued for half a day. The heat from all of the explosions had caused most of the ocean to evaporate. The atmosphere was so thick with humidity that Zell had to use a barrier to keep the water out around him. The sky had filled with such a large amount of water a torrential rain was occurring.

Zell flew around looking at the carnage he had created in search of the golden fish he was tasked to find. After an hour of flying and searching he finally spotted a shiny fish. He flew down to get a better look. He smiled as he realized that it was indeed the fish he had been searching for. He reached down and grabbed it. As he did, he found himself sucked into a portal.

As he exited the portal, he found himself back in the courtyard of paths. A new signal burning with a blue flame sat above the door. He smiled at the fact he only had one path left and proceeded to walk down it. He did not want to waste a moment since he had already wasted so much time with that ocean.

He was tired now. His mana was at the lowest levels they had ever been, and he had never experienced mana fatigue before, so he did not know the signs or symptoms. If he did, he would have rested and not pushed on into the unknown.

As he walked the path of obsidian the world melted away as it had done each time before. As the world reconstituted, he found himself surrounded by lava. It appeared that he had made his way into the heart of an active volcano. He wondered what possible trial or test could possibly await him in such a hostile environment.

He made his way down the path to a large room at the center of the volcano. Inside the room were statues of dragons. One for each of the colors, except for white. A stone tablet with an inscription sat in front of them all. Zell walked over to it so that he could read it.

[Order the dragons from most important to least important. This is the only path to open the way.] It read.

Zell noticed that each dragon had a slot to place a statue in. Next to the tablet sat a stone basket filled with numbers. “So, I am supposed to order the importance of the dragons?” Zell asked aloud. “They have different levels of importance?”

He started to wish he had waited for Sid to do the ritual. Perhaps he might have warned him of this particular trial or gave him advice as to what to do. Again, he wondered why the white dragons were excluded from the trial.

As Zell searched through the basket to order the numbers, he began to feel lightheaded, and his vision began to blur. Sweat was pouring from his brow due to the intense heat of the lava around him, so Zell figured he must just be overheated. He shook his head violently in an attempt to regain his cognitive functions. It did not help him. The dizziness began to worsen as he slowly lost his ability to see. In a last-ditch effort to stay safe from harm Zell erected a barrier around himself to keep the heat away from himself.

As he did, he lost all strength in his legs and fell down to his hands and knees.. He was now struggling and fighting just to keep his eyes open.