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

morph into that of a wolf’s. His teeth sharpened and his eyes turned yellow.

Sakura watched on in disbelief.

She’d only ever heard about the climber president’s power in passing, but had never witnessed it herself.

It was absolutely incredible.

The climber president’s trait was a rare and very powerful trait, especially as it ranked up further and further.

The rare trait was called werewolf mode.

“You fool,” laughed Samuel. “You did exactly as I was hoping.”

Oh no, thought Sakura. If Samuel was able to control that minotaur, that meant he could control other monsters. Did that mean, he could—

Samuel’s eyes flashed red as he triggered his hereditary trait: blood eyes. He then triggered his unique trait that had made him the city’s greatest doctor and healer: cellular manipulation.

The climber president screamed out a giant wail.

Its claws reached up to its head as if trying to fight a horrible migraine.

The werewolf stumbled around spasmodically until docilely coming to its senses.

The wolf’s yellow eyes now glowed red.

Sakura looked back and forth with horror between the former climber president and Samuel Archer.

What has this man done? What was he about to do?

“You fool,” said Samuel, speaking to the diminutive werewolf now. “The only other A-ranker in the city and you thought you’d be enough to stop me. An old man who is still as naive as ever. Pah! You’re pathetic. Now, you’ll help me destroy the very city you love. Now go! Join my monster wave!”

The werewolf let out a huge howl and then smashed through the window, breaking the glass and leaping out into the arena.

Samuel turned back to Sakura with a menacing smile.

“As I said before, it’s already done. You can’t stop me.”

93

SMASH!

Max looked up from the center of the arena and watched a giant werewolf emerge.

It landed in the stands, crushing the metal seats into mere rubble.

“We’re saved! The climber president has unleashed his ultimate power!”

Max took in the ferocious-looking werewolf. That thing was the climber president? Turning into a beastly werewolf must have been the president’s trait and a deadly one at that. They needed reinforcements and a monstrous werewolf was exactly what they needed. What better way to take out a group of monsters with a monster of your own? Fight fire with fire.

The werewolf smashed at the stands, attacking actual citizens.

The citizens were able to dodge the werewolf’s moves, but they were in shock.

“But—aren’t you here to save us?”

The werewolf let out a massive roar.

Was the climber president not on their side? Was he working with the Archer family?

No. Max didn’t believe it. Something was very wrong with the climber president. He was being controlled somehow.

The werewolf crouched down before making a huge leap into the air, going over the arena walls, and disappearing.

A moment later, a giant gargoyle flew over the walls of the arena, towards the smashed observation box that the climber president had emerged from.

The gargoyle bowed in front of the broken glass. Next, Samuel Archer stepped out from the destroyed window and onto the gargoyle’s back. The monster then flew out to the center of the arena.

The man was lording over the destruction of his making

Max gritted his teeth as he looked up at the A-ranked climber with disgust. He’d never had a good feeling about the man and now it was all coming to the surface. The man wanted to destroy this city, this place they all called home.

For most of his life, Max had never felt like he had really belonged anywhere. Sakura and Casey flashed through his mind. There was something about the tower-zone though. He’d started to hope more, be more optimistic. Zestiris—for all of its problems—was still his home, where he had grown up, the place that had shaped him into who he was. He wasn’t going to let someone destroy it for their own nefarious purposes. Screw that.

He needed to come up with a plan.

At that very moment, Casey rushed out from one of the arena tunnels.

“Max!” she screamed. “Are you okay?”

Toto’s eyes were equally wide with concern.

“The Archer’s are trying to take over the city,” said Max.

“What are we going to do?”

Max looked around. It was chaos in all directions.

Other than his first night in the tower-zone, he’d not taken part in a monster wave, so he wasn’t really sure what the procedures were, but he imagined plenty of citizens across the city would need help, taking out whatever gargoyles or other demonic creatures that had started rampaging across the streets.

Another figure emerged from the broken viewer’s box at the top of the arena. The figure leapt from high up and seconds later landed gracefully on the arena floor.

It was Sakura.

She marched up to Max and Casey.

Max did not like the pale worried face she had on. She was one of the most powerful climbers he knew. If she was concerned, then things were going really badly.

She materialized two mana potions from her pouch and handed one to each of those.

“Okay, you two,” said Sakura. “Drink those mana potions and listen to me. You’re now receiving your first high-level assignment. You and Casey need to get to the tower-zone’s central wall where there’s a back-up mana generator. You’ll be able to manually turn on all the defensive wards that are currently off at the moment. After that, join the other defense climbers and city climbers and push back against the monster wave.”

“What about Samuel?” asked Max, looking to the megalomaniac hovering in the sky above them.

Sakura grinned. “Leave him to me.”

94

Max and Casey hurried out of the tower arena.

Monsters roared out as they wreaked havoc on the city. Citizens screamed in panic, rushing in every direction.

Max’s heart raced as he ran and looked around the city. There were horrible green slime monsters lording over people, harpies in the sky, and rock golems smashing into windows.

“What are we going to do?” shouted Max, looking in every direction.

“Sakura gave us an assignment,” said Casey, tugging at his arms.

“These people need are help though,” Max said.

If they ran past them now, who