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

He then walked away from the alley, answering his phone as he did so.

“Yep?”

“We’re having a family meeting in half an hour,” said the stern voice of his father on the other line. “We’re discussing the next phase in the plan. You’ll be expected to be there.”

34

The rest of the week at the climber academy was significantly less stressful than the first day. A lot more teaching and learning, and a lot less fighting for one’s life.

The firebringer instructor walked them through the signs of the endless forest and showed them the route to the departure teleporter.

There were more defense climber guards hanging out there, guarding the teleporter. The instructor showed the students how to get there, but threatened expulsion to anyone who tried to go any floors above the endless forest.

Max didn’t mind such a rule. As curious as he was, with a mana affinity stat of 4, he wasn’t going to get very far before he got tower sickness and potentially died.

He was content with just being able to visit floor-2 for the time being.

Finally the week came to an end and, for the first time in what felt like forever, Max actually had time off. Free time.

What the heck was he going to do?

He thought about it Saturday morning over a cup of instant coffee and decided he was going to do some life admin and research.

He went to get his mobile phone, which he hadn’t touched in a few weeks to see if he had any messages from Sarah back in the outer-rim.

He took the phone out of a cupboard where he stored a few of his things and powered the device on.

He couldn’t wait to tell Sarah about some of the stuff that had been happening to him since he had entered the tower-zone. He’d keep the assassins and murderous psychopaths to himself and only mention the good things, like, magic powers or ramen with magical creatures from higher floors.

Yet when the phone powered on, the whole screen lit up and the words “ERROR” flashed over and over again.

“Huh?”

Sakura stepped out of the bathroom at that moment, covered up with a pink towel. She was smiling, feeling refreshed from the long hot morning shower.

“Whatcha doing over there, Max?”

Max turned to her glumly. “My phone doesn’t work.”

She walked over and bent down to take a look at Max’s mobile phone.

“Of course it doesn’t,” said Sakura. “That’s a phone from the outer-rim. The wards throughout the city disrupt the electric flow of such devices making them unusable. It stops more than just phones, but lots of small electronic-based devices. Music players, digital cameras, that sort of thing. It’s to stop photo journalists in the outer-rim from trying to snag photos of the tower-zone.”

Max sighed. He thought something like that might happen. He thought there were going to be rules like it was illegal or forbidden to use an outer-rim phone, which was why he hadn’t used his up until now, but actual manatech stopped his devices from working. Why did the city go to such great lengths to hide things from the population?

“So you mean—there’s no way to communicate to the outer-rim from in here?”

Sakura made a solemn face and shook her head.

“Only the outer-rim mayor and the climber president have special phones that allow them to contact each other,” explained Sakura. “That’s it. I’m sorry. It’s done for everyone’s safety.”

Max sighed again. He’d just have to hope Sarah was doing okay. He was sure after his meeting with Mr. Grimes that the man wasn’t going to cause any more trouble and Sarah was smart enough to keep the rest of the orphans safe. Max would just have to have confidence in them and wish them well.

“Hey! Cheer up!” said Sakura. “I might have an old tower-zone mobile phone you can have. Just let me get dressed.”

Sakura went into her room and came out a few minutes later, fully dressed, and an old flip phone in her hands.

“Obviously there’s much better phones on the market even in the tower-zone,” said Sakura, handing Max the phone. “But this should do you good for now. I’ve programmed my number in there, if you ever need me.”

She then nudged Max, playfully. “And now you can ask out all the pretty climber girls in class, huh?”

Max blushed.

“My life isn’t one of your romance novels,” he said.

“Suit yourself,” said Sakura, going to the kitchen and making herself some instant coffee. “But today’s my day off and I plan to binge the newest volume of One Hundred Floors of Love.”

Max looked down at the junky phone Sakura had given him. This would be a convenience, but he needed to get on a computer. He needed to do some research.

“Is there a library in the tower-zone?” Max asked Sakura.

“Of course,” she said, laying back on a cushioned chair with her mug of coffee in one hand and her steamy paperback in the other. “Why do you wanna know?”

“There’s just some stuff I want to research,” said Max.

“Oh, I get it, trying to impress a girl in class,” cooed Sakura.

“It’s not like that,” said Max, blushing again. “Not all of us are as obsessed as you are!”

“Fine, be that way,” said Sakura. “Have fun at the library, nerd.”

Sakura then gave Max the address and he left the apartment for the day.

The tower-zone library was a large stone building with roman columns at the entrance and leafy green vines growing along the side.

Max walked up the steps and entered the building.

The library was a grandiose hall with high ceilings, polished wood, and dim lighting. The place was filled with the smell of old books.

Max wasn’t really sure where to start so he went up to the girl at the front desk.

The librarian behind the desk was a pale girl with bright blue eyes hidden behind large rimless glasses. She had very long and straight blonde hair that she kept in a ponytail at the side.

When