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

increase to his stats. He still wasn’t able to push his mana affinity beyond 9, but he was able to raise everything else.

He smiled at his profile, taking it all in.

Name: Max Rainhart

Rank: Unranked

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

Strength: 11

Agility: 11

Endurance: 10

Mana Affinity: 9

Passive Skills:

Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)

It wasn’t just that the numbers had gone up either. Even without the raised stats, he objectively was faster and stronger and able to withstand more pain. It’s what happened after you spent two weeks in the densest area of mana you’d ever been in, hunting and training all day long.

He walked with a new confidence, exuding a strength and power that most normal people his age did not possess. He was slender, yet had the tight muscular tone of someone with incredible strength. Sakura had once told him that a stat of ten in the first three stats was the upper limit for most humans in the outer-rim. The only regular non-climber humans who would technically have stats above ten were professional and Olympic level athletes.

After he left the tower that day and was back in the regular tower-zone’s streets, he noticed he was catching the eye of the occasional woman watching him, drawn to him in a way he’d never experienced back in his former outer-rim life. The first few times it happened, he looked over his shoulder, thinking these women were looking at something behind him. They just smiled at him when he did this and went about their day.

Most of these women looked to be a few years older than him and, while he was certainly flattered by the attention, he had more important things to focus on.

Like upgrading his equipment and cashing in on all the loot he’d accumulated while training.

With his pouch full of loot—yet not weighing any more than the day he first got it—he strutted through Hawker’s Alley, the main market street in the tower-zone. The merchants of Hawker’s Alley bought, sold, and traded items pertaining to climbers and the tower.

He passed by stalls selling impressive-looking swords and other weaponry. There were a few stalls selling mana-infused armor and shields. There were others with an array of rare antiques and trinkets on a red velvet cloth, each item a curiosity begging to be inquired about.

There was one man in front of a stall of glass bottles full of strange liquids.

“Get your potions, get your poisons, we sell the rarest liquids available in the tower!”

Interesting, thought Max. He peered towards the man’s stall to see if he sold mana potions. The merchant did indeed sell such potions, but Max’s shoulders fell when he saw the price: 50 gold each, or as Max broke down the currency, 50,000 copper coins each.

He sighed and continued exploring the market.

The first thing he needed to do was sell his extra copper monster cores, then he’d know how much money he had to work with.

He scanned the market and eventually saw a merchant who had only three items on display at his stall: a copper monster core, a silver monster core, and a gold monster core.

Max hurried over, excitedly.

“Ah, interested in my wares, young man?” asked the old man behind the stall.

The man’s skin was wrinkled and he looked over seventy-five years old.

Max looked at the price tags at the cores and his jaw dropped as his eyes moved across the table.

A copper core sold for 10 copper coins.

A silver core sold for 100 gold coins.

A gold core sold for 100,000 gold coins.

“Monster cores ain’t cheap,” said the merchant.

“But why are copper cores so much cheaper compared to the rest?” asked Max.

“Copper cores are common,” said the man. “Plus, they only really help a climber reach 9 in mana affinity, whereas a silver monster core will help a climber up to 29. It’s a lot more useful and more uncommon as well.”

Max nodded. That made sense to him.

“Why would anyone buy a copper monster core then?” asked Max.

“Most climbers aren’t interested in buying them, except for the keen young students who haven’t had their year at the climber academy yet. Outside of them, though, its mostly businesses who use copper monster cores to power their factories and equipment.”

Max nodded. That explained why there were plenty of non-climbers here in the market street. In fact, a mana-infused sword might be even more valuable to a mob enforcer than a climber who could rely on their trait in combat.

Max was also happy to hear that copper monster cores weren’t completely useless then. There was indeed a market for them. It just wasn’t climbers.

He felt a lot less worried now about his next question.

“Do you buy copper monster cores?”

“Of course,” said the merchant. “I buy them for four coppers apiece.”

Max nodded. “Okay, well, I got 3068 copper monster cores and I’d be willing to sell them to you at five coppers apiece.”

The merchant’s jaw dropped.

“You insolent young man,” said the merchant. “I’m offering you a fair deal already.”

Max grinned. “Maybe, but so am I. If I sell them to you at five copper coins, you’re still selling them at double the price. Plus—I bet those companies who use copper monster cores for fuel want them in large quantities. I’m saving you a lot of trouble by bringing you so many all at once. For that, I think I deserve a premium, don’t you?”

The merchant narrowed his eyes. Max had outmaneuvered him and there was nothing he could do about it but accept the deal.

“Fine,” said the man. “3068 copper cores at five coppers apiece is 15,340 copper coins. So to make things simple you’ll receive 15 gold coins, 3 silver coins, and 40 copper coins for your trouble. Deal?”

“Deal,” said Max.

Max unloaded his monster cores in the back of the merchant’s stall, filling the area briefly with a mound of cores, until the merchant himself vacuumed it all up into his own pouch.

He handed Max the agreed-upon money and thanked him for the trade.

“Oh,