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

one last question,” asked Max. “What’s the exchange rate between tower-zone currency and the U.S. dollar used in the outer-rim?”

The merchant snickered. “You boy ask the craziest questions. Thinking about taking a trip, are you? There’s no official exchange rate as the two currencies aren’t meant to mix. However, there are certain merchants—not me, mind you—who make deals in that area. It’s my understanding that one tower-zone copper coin is roughly equal to one U.S. dollar.”

Max couldn’t believe it.

He now had 22,364 copper coins in his pouch. Or, according to the merchant, $22,364 dollars. He’d earned that after two weeks of training. He ran the math in his head and realized he could be making a high six-figure salary if he just kept doing what he was doing. It would become super boring and tedious after a while, but it was a pretty insane amount of money for a sixteen year old boy like him to be making. It was an insane amount of money for anyone to be making!

This was another reason why being a climber was such a coveted position in society. It offered opportunities for vast sums of wealth; and this was only after Max had visited the floor above this one. For those climbers who went even further, the riches became even more beyond belief.

No wonder Sakura’s apartment was so nice, despite how untidy it was.

But as Max thought this all over, he suddenly had another question.

“Wait,” said Max.

“Yes?” said the merchant, growing increasingly annoyed with Max’s incessant questioning.

“What’s to stop wealthy families from just buying powerful monster cores and becoming incredibly powerful super fast?”

The man laughed. “Well, for one thing, there are laws against such practices in the tower-zone, especially when it comes to unranked and student climbers. It’s a severe enough rule to get someone barred from becoming a climber. The rule was put in place because it makes the testing phase of the climber academy more complicated and stacked in the favor of wealthy and powerful families, which then creates a problem in finding the best suited young climbers for the job.”

Max nodded. That made sense. “But—”

“But that doesn’t seem like enough of a reason to stop the rich and the powerful, does it?” smiled the merchant. “You’re right. The other reason why it’s not allowed is that it’s incredibly dangerous. Draining mana from a high-ranked core can potentially kill you. It works the same way as tower-sickness, overwhelming your body and atrophying your bones and blood vessels from the inside out.”

“But—”

“But what if the rich and powerful just gradually increased the monster cores and raised their mana affinity bit by bit?”

Max nodded. That’s exactly what he was going to ask.

“That creates a new problem for the theoretical climber. If your mana affinity is significantly higher than any of your other stats, you can develop hostile mana disease, sometimes referred to as HMS. Essentially, it’s the tower’s system of monitoring that you don’t focus on one stat above all else. To use an extreme example, someone who has a mana affinity of 100 but only a 10 stat in endurance, strength, and agility would die from HMS.”

“But I thought mana affinity represented one’s ability to withstand and control mana?” asked Max.

“That is true, but only to a point,” said the merchant. “Mana affinity also represents one’s internal mana, which increases at the same time as the stat does. A young kid with E-rank stats in everything else, but S-rank level mana affinity is simply untenable. The kid would die from his own internal mana burning through his own body.”

“And because there’s tower-zone rules about who can climb to what floor of the tower that feasibly puts a cap on wealthy families’ ability to strengthen their offspring to get ahead of the curve,” said Max, finishing the old man’s thoughts for him.

“Precisely,” said the merchant. “But you’ll see those rules are harder to enforce once a climber gets to E-rank or D-rank. As more floors open up to them and they can train their stats higher, they then begin to gain an edge over everyone else, but it’s a less oppressive edge than it would be otherwise.”

“But at that point,” said Max. “Couldn’t they buy gold monster cores and other higher-ranked monster cores?”

The man smiled. “True, except there’s one problem there. Gold monster cores are much rarer than copper or silver monster cores. Even more rare are ruby and diamond monster cores. Climbers who get their hands on such cores, rarely sell them to merchants like me. So, theoretically, I see your point, but in practice: only those actually powerful enough to slay gold-ranked monster cores HAVE gold-ranked monster cores.”

Max nodded.

“Alright, that’s enough questions,” said the merchant. “Scram.”

Max thanked the man once more and turned back to the throng of the market.

Everything the merchant had explained was fascinating to Max. It just hammered home just how powerful his trait was. All the rules in the tower-zone were set-up to make sure young climbers didn’t get too powerful too quickly. Perhaps, this was a safety precaution, he wasn’t sure. But his ability allowed him to sidestep so many of the buffers that were holding him back. He could wield abilities far more powerful than his, so he could slay more powerful monsters, or in the case of the last two weeks, weaker monsters but in far greater numbers than the average student climber could ever hope to achieve.

Up until now, Max had been playing catch-up, but now he was close to taking the lead and getting ahead of everyone else.

47

He eventually passed a storefront that was carrying the merchandise he was hoping to find.

The store looked like a jewelry shop with glass cases and specialty items placed over black velvet surfaces. But it wasn’t jewelry. The items on display were elemental stones like the one Samuel Archer had used against him in his preliminary test.

“May I help you with anything?”

A tall man with a twirly moustache in a suit stood behind the glass case.

“I’m