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

Everyone nodded along and listened to the instructor closely. Even in this stressful test lay a lesson.

“The ten minutes on the clock was a false pressure added by me, but there really was no need to do anything other than stay put and let the situation unfold on its own,” explained the instructor.

“Doesn’t it still seem a bit harsh though?” said Max. “All of those who went in might have become great climbers.”

The instructor nodded and crossed his arms. “Perhaps you’re right,” he said. “But here’s the thing: those who climb the tower can grow in strength and ability that defies imagination. It is my duty—as with all the instructors at the academy—to make sure the opportunity to gain such power goes to those who will wield it the most responsibly.”

The instructor started to shake with anger as he continued to speak.

“Someone, whose desire for power is so strong they would be willing to kill another student simply because of arbitrary rules set up by me, has no right to become a climber.”

Casey’s head fell to the ground in shame. She had almost walked through those doors during the test.

They all had.

It had taken Max great strength to stay back and risk his goals for what he thought was right.

He gulped. He’d never felt the sheer weight of what it meant to become a climber until that moment.

“But,” continued the instructor. “You all showed the fortitude and resolve to stay right here on the grounds. Good work all of you. Now we can go ahead and start today’s actual first lesson. One last bit of housekeeping. I’m Blake Cedarwood. I’ll be your instructor for the year here. Now, how do you all feel about going to the second floor of the tower?”

Everyone stood up straight at that.

They were going to enter the tower!? So soon? On their first day of classes no less?

“Follow me,” said the instructor, walking through the crowd of students and towards the front entrance of the academy’s courtyard.

They followed behind the instructor as he took them to the climber’s guild entrance and through the back hall to the entrance of the tower.

There were defense climbers guarding the entrance as well as a clerk standing in a glass box with filing cabinets and other information.

It was the last checkpoint between the tower-zone and the tower itself.

“I’ll be taking this group of student climbers with me up to floor-2,” said the instructor. “We’ll be back by the end of the day.”

The clerk eyed the crowd of students and then handed the instructor something to sign.

“Try coming back with all of them this time,” said the clerk.

Max’s stomach sank when he overheard that.

The instructor laughed. “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try.”

The instructor’s words didn’t make him feel that much better about what was about to happen.

The man turned back to the group of students. “Well, don’t just stand there. C’mon!”

They walked up the gravelly road towards the giant spire shooting into the sky.

It was even larger and more foreboding up close.

The entrance to the tower was an open passageway of darkness and shadow. It loomed ominously before them.

After years of dreaming about it, Max was finally going to get the chance to enter the tower.

26

It was very dark in the tower.

Max couldn’t see a thing.

Then suddenly light appeared in the form of blue flaming torches attached to the walls.

There hadn’t been a switch or anything. The torches had just turned on automatically.

Was this the magic of the tower on display?

He felt a sharp painful pinch in his side. “Ow.”

“Stop looking so impressed,” whispered Casey. “Everyone knows about the blue flames. It’s probably one of the most mundane yet magical properties of the tower. Everyone knows that except for you for whatever weird reason. Stop sticking out like a sore thumb, newbie!”

They stood in a chamber with a fountain at the center.

The instructor slowly walked around the fountain and through a tunnel towards another chamber.

“Have you been here before?” Max asked Casey quietly.

“Of course,” she grumbled at his annoying question. “Everyone has. This is where kids are taken to see if they unlock a profile. That was six years ago. I was ten. I haven’t been back here since.”

Max looked down at the fountain as he slowly walked around it. The water looked clear and normal, nothing out of the ordinary. Yet, according to Casey, it was this water that unlocked a person’s profile?

Max had no recollection of being here in this room, which made him very uneasy. He had no memory of bathing himself in this magical water either. So, if he’d never been here before, how come he had an unlocked profile and trait like the others?

Max kept the question to himself. Sakura had warned him: he needed to be cautious about who he talked to about his history.

Max and Casey walked around the fountain and followed the instructor through a small foyer that led to another chamber.

This chamber had a glowing bright white circle in the room’s center.

The light was all-encompassing. Max felt a strong draw to it.

The instructor stood in front of it, stopping the students from getting any closer.

“This right here is a teleporter,” said the instructor. “Think of it like a magic elevator. If I stand in the center of it, I can ascend to many floors of the tower above this one. But—I am I, and you are you, and that’s important to remember here. Since none of you have gone to the floor above this one, you can only ascend up to the second floor.”

“But why does that even matter?” Max asked. “If we can go up to the second floor teleporter, couldn’t we then just choose to ascend to the floor above that one?”

The instructor smiled. “If only it were that easy. Unfortunately, every floor of the tower functions like a test or a level in a video game. You need to prove to the tower that you’re strong enough