Tower Climber (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 1) Jakob Tanner (reading comprehension books TXT) 📖

a former tower-zone citizen. Kids would get him to try and divulge secrets of the mysterious other city, but he wouldn’t budge. It was illegal for tower-zone immigrants to speak about the tower-zone in the outer-rim. It was part of the contract in obtaining their visa. To do so was punishable by lethal injection.

“But why? If you weren’t able to climb, wouldn’t you want to leave the tower-zone? Leave Zestiris altogether,” said Max, beginning to daydream. “Go surfing in California. Eat deep-dish pizza in Chicago.”

Sakura looked at Max, funnily. “Surfing? Deep-dish pizza?”

“What—you don’t know about—”

Max stopped.

Of course, she didn’t. Just as certain information wasn’t talked about in the outer-rim, so too, were things about the rest of world kept from those in the tower-zone.

Max wondered who controlled and managed all the knowledge flowing in and out of Zestiris, but figured it was a question to save for another day.

“There’s a lot of good reasons to live in the tower-zone if you’re not a climber,” said Sakura. “Less than 5% of Zestiris’ population of five million become climbers. For the rest of the population, though, there are still climber-adjacent professions that attract those who can’t unlock a profile or trait. Scholars, archaeologists, and manatechnologists just to name a few. Then there’s the access to healing. Tell me, Max. What would’ve happened to your legs in an outer-rim hospital after the fight with the minotaur?”

Max let out a long sigh. “Nothing good. Certainly it wouldn’t have ended with me walking as if I was never once in a wheelchair.”

“Exactly,” said Sakura. “That’s a pretty attractive premium for a lot of people. The life expectancy in the tower-zone is surprisingly quite high for a place that deals with monster attack waves once a month.”

They eventually stopped in front of a tall glass building.

The place looked like an ordinary office building with people with briefcases walking in and out of the spinning glass doors.

“Welcome to the climber’s guild!” said Sakura, excitedly.

Max looked around cautiously. A few groups of people loitered outside, smoking cigarettes. They all had metal badges pinned to their shirts and jackets. The pins were mostly copper with the odd silver glimmering here and there.

Max had already figured out that those colors and the letters engraved on them signified their rank. It was interesting that so far he hadn’t seen anyone with the ruby-colored badge that Sakura wore.

All the smoking climbers stood up straight as Sakura and Max walked past.

They entered the building through the spinning glass doors into a large lobby full of clerks, at the end of which, were multiple elevators and staircases.

Sakura approached one female clerk sitting at a desk behind a glass wall, as if she were a bank teller of some sort.

“Hello,” Sakura said with a smile. “I’d like to help this young man sign up to this year’s term at the climber academy.”

“Excellent,” said the clerk.

She reached to get a sign-up form and then paused. The clerk turned back to Sakura and said, “What about the preliminary test?”

Test!?

Max’s heart started to beat rapidly. He wasn’t prepared for any sort of examination right now.

Sakura shook her head. “I discussed it with the climber president. In this case, we’re waving the preliminary test.”

The clerk nodded then smiled. “Okay, then let me just get the—”

Max felt a foreboding presence suddenly appear behind him.

He turned around and looming over all of them was a tall man with long silver hair. He wore a black trench coat, adorned with a beautiful chiseled diamond pin badge. The letter A engraved into the badge signified his rank.

“And who might you be young man?”

“Uh—”

Max was momentarily lost for words, feeling sheer power emanate off the man.

This was the first climber he’d met who was a higher rank than Sakura and he could sense it in his power.

“Max Rainhart meet Samuel Archer,” said Sakura. “Samuel is the commander of the healer climbers in the tower-zone. He keeps all of us safe. Isn’t that right, Samuel?”

The man let out a haughty laugh. “I try my best, Sakura. It’s you who fights on the frontlines of the monster wave month after month who deserves such generous compliments.”

Max looked between them. They were complimenting each other, but he was sensing hostility beneath their words.

“May I ask what brings you two to the climber’s guild today?” said Samuel.

“I’m signing up for the climber academy,” Max said, excitedly.

The silver-haired man grinned and Max felt as if he’d accidentally stepped into a trap like a fly caught in a spider’s web.

“How very exciting,” mused the man. “I presume you’ll be doing the preliminary test today then as well?”

“The climber president waved the preliminary for the boy due to special circumstances,” said Sakura, hints of a growl in her voice.

“He did now, did he?” said Samuel. “He did no such thing for my son, Cyrus, nor any of the other pupils attending this year. I’ll be bringing this up with him at his earliest convenience—”

“Hold on now,” said Sakura, going red in the face, her hands clenching as if she was about to swing a fist at Samuel.

“STOP!”

The two adult climbers turned to Max.

“If there’s a preliminary test to enter the climber academy,” he said. “I want to take it.”

13

Sakura stood on the balcony of the battle chamber along with Samuel Archer.

The man stood there looking down at the small arena while resting both his hands on his silver cane.

The bastard, thought Sakura.

She’d never liked Samuel or anyone from the prestigious Archer family. He’d heard of the new citizen in the tower-zone and she had a feeling it was no coincidence that he showed up at the climber’s guild that morning.

“It’s been a while since I watched a preliminary,” mused Archer. “I’m sure this one will be interesting.”

“Yes,” said Sakura, gritting her teeth. “Very.”

Sakura looked Samuel over.

What she couldn’t understand was why this man wanted to thwart Max’s chances at entering the academy. Was it sheer pettiness that his son had to do the preliminary and Max didn’t? Or had it