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

“Was this really necessary?”

“Stop arguing,” said Eli. “We’ll make it look like the kid did it all once we’re done. C’mon. Let’s get moving.”

With that, the Reckless Brothers headed north into the endless forest.

48

Max sprinted through the endless forest.

He held up his compass in one hand and held a knife in the other.

He was heading north in a direction he’d never gone before.

He passed by a tree with a “Z” mark on it. The instructor at the academy had explained to them that this specific type of mark meant there were no more signs beyond that point. In other words, Max was entering unexplored territory.

What Max had learned during his research in the library was that in the history of the endless forest, once climbers had found the departure teleporter, they pretty much stopped caring about the floor. The earliest tower climbers were more preoccupied with the pursuit of going higher and higher into the tower. The endless forest did not promise riches or adventure so it was quickly left behind, unexplored.

Max was about to exploit that fact.

As he rushed past the “Z” mark, he held out his knife, chipping away at the trees as he rushed by, leaving himself a trail on how to get back from where he was going.

He kept an eye on his compass and sprinted forward.

He was running fast, but after all of his training over the last two and a half months, he could keep the pace easily.

The forest began to blur together.

Words from his library research came back to him.

“People mistake the endless forest for being monotonous, but it’s precisely those small breaks in the monotony that are the floor’s own natural signs of the changing landscape and unknown opportunities...”

So far it all looked the same, but Max knew what he was looking for.

He still had a while to go.

He picked up his running pace.

Eli and his brothers had been running north for at least twenty minutes.

The forest all looked the same and they had been heading this way so far with no sign from the kid.

“Stop,” shouted Patrick.

They all came to a halt.

Eli turned back to the middle brother, annoyed. “What is it?”

“How do we know we’re going the right way?” he asked.

They’d been running this way on the blind faith that Big Nose had been telling the truth, but what if he hadn’t?

“How deep into the forest are we prepared to go?” asked the middle brother, raising a good point. “We don’t have food or supplies and if we get lost out here there’s the potential we never get back.” Kendrick laughed at that. “Can you imagine dying on floor-2? After all we’ve done, it would be a truly pathetic death. I rather die in the tower-zone at the hands of a traitless. Even that would be mildly less pathetic.”

Eli looked around as his brothers bickered.

He then spotted something.

He held up his hand, a signal that his brothers knew meant to shut the heck up.

He walked over to a tree and found a fresh cut in the tree by a knife.

The kid was leaving a trail so he doesn’t get lost, Eli surmised. But where the heck was he going?

Max rushed through the woods.

He held his compass in one hand and slashed at the trees in another.

He had to keep running until the monotony of the forest broke, then he would know he was getting close.

The woodlands all looked the same and then suddenly they didn’t.

Max slid to a halt.

Just ahead of him the monotony of the forest came to an end.

A large open cave stood in front of him.

It was the first and only cave he’d ever seen during his time in the endless forest.

None of his research had mentioned a cave.

None of the climbers he’d spoken to had mentioned a cave.

As far as he knew, he might be the first climber to have ever discovered this place.

Which was exactly what he was hoping for.

49

Max took a hesitant step into the shadows of the cave.

A fallen leaf crackled beneath his boots as he stepped deeper into the darkness.

RUSTLE!

Max’s shoulders jumped and he instantly took on a fighting stance.

Here we go, he thought. Monsters.

But then nothing happened.

Nothing appeared out of the darkness.

Max blinked and sighed with relief.

What happened?

He took another step forward and saw what had created the noise.

A skull.

It had rolled over.

On the one hand, there was nothing to worry about. No immediate threat, thought Max. But then looked at another way: how many climbers had discovered this place and were unable to survive to let anyone know about it? And why exactly were they not able to survive?

Starvation?

Thirst?

Or was it something that resided deeper inside this cave?

Something that killed them?

Max took another step into the darkness.

He kept moving forward until the light from the forest outside was only a faint glimmer in the distance.

“What’s this...a...visitor?” said a voice from deeper in the darkness. “It’s been...so long...since my...last kill. Thank you...young man...please...come...closer”

Eli suddenly came to a halt.

His brothers all quickly stopped behind him.

“What the heck is that?” asked Patrick.

Eli stared at the cave. It was very strange. As far as he knew there were no caves in the endless forest. Or, at least, he’d never heard of any.

Fiery sparks flickered off of Kendrick’s fingers.

“Shall we follow him in?” asked the brother, eagerly.

Eli shook his head.

“A unique monster must live in there,” said Eli. “It’s the only explanation why there’s a cave in this forest that’s supposed to be trees for all eternity.”

“So what are you proposing?” said Patrick.

“We’ll wait here for it to kill the foolish boy. If by some miracle he survives, we’ll take him out and steal his unique monster core when he returns weakened and exhausted.”

50

As Max stepped deeper into the darkness, he began to make out the shape of the creature that was speaking to him.

The creature had glowing red eyes and a set of nightmarish teeth.

“Yes...come...closer...” said the monster.

Max wasn’t sure the exact details of