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

Max approached her she said in a very quiet voice, “How can I help you?”

“Hi,” said Max. “This is my first time visiting the library. I wanted to do some research on contemporary tower climbers working today.”

“Great,” said the girl, not raising her voice an octave. “If you want the most up-to-date information, your best bet is to check the climber database on one of our computers. Since this is your first time here, let me make you a library card so you won’t need to sign-in for a visitor’s pass if you come in again.”

The girl asked him a bunch of questions and then paused after she asked him what his profession was.

“I guess I’m a student climber,” said Max, scratching the back of his head.

“A...a...climber?” stuttered the shy girl. “But...you’re...so...nice?”

“I’m not sure what you mean by that,” said Max. “Are climbers not usually friendly?”

“Not all of them, but quite a few, refer to those without traits as traitless. They think they’re better than everyone else,” she said. “Not all climbers, but quite a few. Especially, young student climbers.”

Max sighed. Based on Cyrus and the other climbers he met yesterday, he could see how some of them probably walked around thinking like they owned the place.

It was so crazy to contemplate that he used to think the divisions in Zestiris came down to simply those who lived in the outer-rim and those who lived in the tower-zone. Yet such divisions didn’t even scratch the surface of the myriad of social hierarchies that existed here.

“Oh well, I’m sorry they’re unfriendly,” said Max. “A trait is something one should be grateful for having. A privilege that should be respected. Not used as a tool to lord over others.”

She smiled at that and gently pulled a lock of her hair behind her ear.

“It’s nice to hear a climber say that,” she said. Then she smiled and pulled out a card from behind her desk. “Here’s your library card. Let met know if you need any more help.”

Max thanked the girl once more and then headed over to one of the computer stations.

The card the librarian girl had given him had a wifi network and password to sign-on with.

Soon enough, he was online.

But it was like he was on a different internet.

He couldn’t access any websites he used to frequent: Google, The Outer-Rim Times, social media.

Every time he typed in a site url, he got an error message.

Maybe it was just like his old mobile phone. Certain things that worked in the outer-rim, didn’t work here in the tower-zone.

He clicked on the internet browser’s home button and he was taken to a website called Find Out More.

It had a similar layout to other search engines he’d used in the past, but he’d never heard of it before. It must be an exclusive search engine to the tower-zone.

Max thought this control over the flow of information seemed a bit excessive, but he didn’t ponder it for long.

He typed in “climber database” into the search bar and clicked on the first result.

It was a boring government website. It didn’t look special in the slightest.

And yet, Max shivered as he looked at the computer screen.

If his sister was in the tower somewhere, that meant she must have passed through the tower-zone first. She would have had to graduate from the climber academy and be given jurisdiction to head up to the higher floors. There must be some trace she would have left behind.

With both excitement and trepidation, Max typed his sister’s name into the search engine box on the government website.

Eleanor Rainhart.

Elle.

He pressed enter and waited for the website to load.

A page loaded and Max looked on it with shock.

There was large black square with a white question mark where a photograph should be. Then in bright red font above the empty photograph were the words, “Restricted Information.”

Huh?

Max slumped in his chair. He thought he was about to find out more on his sister, get one step closer to finding her, but it didn’t look like that was happening today.

Restricted Information.

What the heck did that mean?

Max got up from his chair and went over to the librarian girl, he’d spoken to earlier.

“Yes?” she said in her whispery-tone.

“I need your help with something. I just tried to search for a climber in the database and it came up as ‘Restricted Information’. Do you know what that’s about?”

The girl pushed her glasses up her nose and then said, “If something is restricted on the climber database that means only highly ranked climbers can access that information. Things that are restricted usually involve higher tower floor politics, S-rank climbers, and—” She paused, momentarily. “Rogue climbers.”

Max shivered at those words.

Elle—what happened to you in this place?

35

After Max’s trip to the library, the weekend flew by. He dedicated himself to continuing Sakura’s training regimen and by Sunday night he saw some improvement in his stats.

He looked his profile over before bed with satisfaction.

Name: Max Rainhart

Rank: Unranked

Trait (Unique): Mimic. Unleash the last move you were hit with at double the power.

Strength: 7

Agility: 7

Endurance: 7

Mana Affinity: 4

Passive Skills:

Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)

He smiled. His endurance had gone up by one point and he could feel it in himself. Sakura’s exercises were still tough, but he found them less and less difficult now. He was going to have to think of new ways to push himself so he could get stronger.

His low mana affinity still bugged him, but he figured that was a stat that he’d only be able to truly train properly by going into the tower more and more.

He went to bed that night with excitement for a new week of classes.

Casey did not share the same enthusiasm the following morning when they met up outside the courtyard of the climber academy.

“Blergh...” she groaned. “I hate Mondays.”

She had bags under her eyes and her shoulders were slumped.

Max had spent the whole weekend training, but he wondered what people did for fun in the tower-zone. How did it differ from what people did in