Tower Climber (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 1) by Jakob Tanner (free children's online books TXT) 📕

can fight higher ranked monsters,” said another one of the boys. “And get this: we can even get paid while doing it too.”

“What! No way!”

“Believe it. Follow me. I’ll take you to this ultimate secret training spot.”

Max was intrigued by what they were saying. A secret training spot where he could fight higher ranked monsters sounded like exactly what he needed.

The three boys nodded eagerly and headed through the courtyard, completely ignoring Max’s presence.

“I can’t wait to kick some monster butt and earn some cash!” said one of the boys.

They made a left down the street. Max followed behind them.

Max made sure to keep a good distance away from the boys. He didn’t want them to spot him. They might not be keen to share their personal training spot for the midterms. Also, since the one boy had described it as a “secret training spot,” it might not be easy to find if you didn’t know where to look.

The boy’s hurried along the street, shadow boxing and hyping each other up.

Max followed them from across the street.

The city was in full swing as Max followed the boys.

Wafts of gasoline and manatech exhaust fumes filled the air, mixing with the smell of fried chicken and ramen restaurants. Cars honked. Construction workers drilled a hole in the ground. If it weren’t for the odd glow of a monster core powering a manatech street sign, Max felt like he was in the outer-rim again. Just another city going about its day-to-day business as the tower that dictated so much of their lives loomed far above them all.

As soon as Max had learned that not everyone in the tower-zone was a climber, he had wondered what they all did with their time, but it was very much like any other city. You had bakers, carpenters, janitors, bus drivers, and the list went on.

And then there was him, a student stalking three boys in the streets.

The boys turned another corner and Max crossed the street to catch up with them.

They turned into an alleyway next. Max hurried to the corner and peeked around and saw that the boys had completely disappeared.

What the heck!?

Max looked to the end of the alleyway and could see that it had no exit, so where had his fellow student peers gone then?

They couldn’t have just simply vanished, could they?

In the middle of the alley was an unmarked black door.

Max approached it and pulled the handle. The door opened up into a plain white hall with a stairwell leading underground.

“Is this really it? You’re not tricking us, are you?”

It was one of the three boys. They had already gone down the stairs.

Max tiptoed down the steps being as quiet as possible. He hung back on the last step and listened further down the hall.

“Password?”

It was a new voice entirely. A gruff older man.

“Zodiac,” said the boy and Max listened to their steps go further and further down the hall until they dwindled out of earshot.

Max then took a step into the basement hall.

A large man in a black suit and tie stood in front of a hanging red velvet rope.

A powerful thrumming sound like the bass of a nightclub trembled all along the walls.

When Max got close enough to the man, the man spoke. “Password?”

Max gulped and said. “Zodiac.”

The man nodded and lifted up the velvet rope and gestured for Max to walk past.

Max went forward towards two large wooden doors. The floor trembled and vibrated more and more the closer he got to the entrance.

He got to the door.

This was it.

He pushed it open and stepped into a massive underground arena.

Bright white spotlights shone down on a fighting ring in the center of the large room, surrounded by seats of onlookers.

“Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!”

The crowd around him chanted.

In the ring was a burly man fighting a saber-toothed tiger, but it wasn’t a normal saber-tooth, as this creature could blow fire out of its mouth.

The tiger shot out a blast of fire. It was like a hose of flames.

The attack would have been enough to roast the opposing fighter alive if he got hit by it.

Luckily for the man, he leapt over the flames and kicked the tiger in the ribs.

The tiger slumped to the floor and the man started punching it back and forth.

Max was trying to determine what the man’s trait was and at first he couldn’t tell. Then he saw the silver glint in his arms and fists as he pounded the lion.

Holy smokes! That man could transform parts of himself into powerful metal!

POW!

The metal man’s fist broke through the flesh of the fire-breathing tiger and it yelped on the floor in defeat.

It eventually turned silver, disintegrating down to its monster core.

It was a gold color. A C-rank monster core!

Max looked on with wonder. How much would such a core improve his mana affinity?

The metal man picked it up triumphantly and raised his fists to the audience.

The crowd cheered with applause.

Max glanced around, feeling newly motivated.

It looked like he’d found a new place to properly train.

37

A new monster was brought out for the metal man to fight. It was floating spirit that looked kind of like an oversized seahorse and it was able to shoot ice shards at the man.

Max looked on with awe.

What floor did that creature come from?

Max thought about the situation further. There must be a whole business of tower climbers who capture monsters on other floors and bring them down to the tower-zone for training and entertainment purposes.

I guess this was just another way the tower-zone made up for all the things it lacked compared to the outer-rim.

The crowd cheered as the next battle round began.

Max looked around for the three students who he had followed, but he couldn’t see where they had gone.

It didn’t matter though. His next step would be to ask someone about signing up to fight.

Max approached a woman polishing glasses behind a bar.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Do you know how someone signs up to fight in