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

“You know, I haven’t thought too much about it,” admitted Max. “Are you going to go?”

Casey’s face fell and Max suddenly felt like he’d said the wrong thing. He’d never gone to any of the dances back at his old school in the outer-rim. He wasn’t sure of the proper etiquette. Did people still ask people to go to the dance with them?

“I figured I might as well,” said Casey, answering his initial question. “There might be more information on the following term and the final exam.”

“Yeah, maybe we can go investigate together,” Max suggested.

Casey’s face brightened at that.

“Do you mean like a—”

Rustle, rustle.

Both Max and Casey went dead silent.

Max stood on his feet. He gestured for Casey to guard the candles.

He was going to investigate the noise.

Reginald Booth clambered up the summit hill of the island in the dark.

He tried to stay silent but it was no use with his two noisy companions behind him.

“Why are we going up here anyway?” whispered one.

“Because the boss says so,” said another.

Reginald’s two companions were two knuckleheads by the name of Ash and Resin. It seemed like very odd names to give to children but he knew nothing much about them other than that they were sixteen-year-old body guards meant to protect Cyrus Archer while at school.

Such was his job as well. Except the difference between him and the two loud idiots behind him was that the Booth family had been the Archer’s butlers, servicemen, and bodyguards for over a century.

He was trained in the art of killing. More than that, he was raised to enjoy it and that he did.

Why Samuel had decided Cyrus needed more protection while going through the trials of the academy was a mystery to him? More than that it was an affront to the work of him and his family.

But what could he do? Orders were orders.

And tonight’s order from Cyrus was to hunt down the kid from the outer-rim and his little fake-vein friend.

Maybe, if he finished those two off, the Archer family would realize the Booth men were completely competent in carrying out their duties.

The three companions already had blood on their hands from earlier. After they’d tortured the two student climbers who were holding onto Cyrus and Sybil’s candles, they’d hunted down a lone student whose candle had gone out on the beach. The boy they hunted had a rare trait called tracker. At E-rank, he could see traces of leaked mana invisible to the normal eye. He pointed them in the direction of the summit. That’s where the outer-rim kid and the fake-vein had gone. After they’d gotten what they wanted, they killed the kid.

He used his bear claw trait to shred his body, make it look like one of the island’s monsters did it to him.

Reginald kept moving up the hill.

Stars twinkled in the sky above as did a large luminescent moon hanging above this oceanic island world.

The island was silent if you didn’t listen closely, Reginald thought.

But if you closed your eyes you could hear the wisp of elements being conjured, knives thrown, and life or death negotiations being drawn out.

The island was full of danger and yet as him and his companions traversed to the summit, it got quieter and quieter.

Most of the other students hadn’t come here. But the outer-rim kid and the fake-vein girl were different. As much as Cyrus didn’t care to admit it, they were more switched on than the majority of the class.

As he reached the top, he raised his arm to stop Ash and Resin from going forward.

“What’s going on?” Ash hissed. “Why can’t we torture more students?”

“Resin like hitting things,” said Resin.

Reginald didn’t question why Resin referred to himself in the third person, but the meathead was going to get them all killed if continued walking around like a one-track homicidal automaton.

“Look,” said Reginald, pointing to the ground below.

“What you pointing at?” said Ash.

“Resin don’t see nothing,” said Resin.

Reginald groaned inwardly.

“There’s a thin steel wire here,” said Reginald. “Someone set up a trap. It’s probably a security alarm. From what I can see, this is the only trap so just take a wide step over it. That should do.”

The three companions slowly walked over the trap and entered the smaller jungle on the summit of the island.

62

Max watched the three shadowy figures walk over his trap.

The stars above made it so he could discern the three people. It was Cyrus’ entourage. It was the insufferable boy’s three goons.

He kept his breathing as steady and quiet as possible as he watched on from the bushes.

They must have come up here looking for us, Max figured. Cyrus must have sent them after us to blow out our candles.

They weren’t carrying any candles themselves though, Max noticed. Clever. They must have allies guarding all of their candles so they could go hunt down others with no obstructions.

The goons headed deeper into the jungle. They went forward at a random angle.

Max tiptoed quietly behind them.

“Is there anyone even up here?” whispered one goon.

“Resin want to hit something,” said another. “Resin sad that there’s nothing to hit.”

“Shh!” said the third companion.

The three thugs didn’t seem to notice Max’s presence behind them. He needed to stop them before they got to their base camp. The last thing he wanted was to fight them while also protecting his and Casey’s candles.

He needed to strike and to do it soon.

Reginald peered through the dark shrubbery of the island summit jungle.

He closed his eyes and could hear the flicker and crackle of a campfire in the distance.

That’s where they needed to go.

He turned back to his companions, “Alright, guys, let’s head this way.”

Neither Ash nor Resin were behind him.

What’s going on? The two thugs were meatheads but they knew better than to pull a prank at a time like this.

That’s when he saw something flicker in the shadows.

“Who’s there!?” shouted Reginald, his heart racing. “Show yourselves! Fight with honor!”

He personally didn’t believe in honor but he