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

on the mid-term exam, and the last thing either of them wanted to do was to help that conceited jerk.

They quickly shuffled their remaining supplies into their pouches and remained out of sight as Cyrus and his pals walked by.

Thankfully, they didn’t notice either Casey or Max. As soon as they were out of sight, they hurried away from the market in the opposite direction.

“Phew, that was close,” said Casey.

Max nodded his head in agreement. “Well, I guess that’s everything. See you at the exam in a few days?”

Casey smiled. “Sounds good. Let’s crush this stupid test!”

57

On the morning of the mid-term exams, all the currently enrolled students of the Climber Academy had to meet outside the courtyard and await further instructions.

The group of student climbers all huddled around the building, looking around nervously, wondering whether the exam had already begun and they hadn’t realized it yet.

“I hate how they always make us wait,” groaned Casey. “It’s like—tests are stressful and no fun already—why stretch the experience out, you know?”

Toto perched on her shoulder seemed to be mirroring its owner with a slumped over and dejected look on its face.

Max shrugged sympathetically in reply to Casey, while peering around the group of students. Had the test already begun? No. This wasn’t a survival test. They were just waiting. No reason to get stressed yet.

“GOOD MORNING,” said their instructor appearing at the front of the courtyard with a group of ten D-ranked climbers behind him.

The group of climbers all had silver pin badges attached to their chest.

“Behind me are your examiners along with myself,” said the instructor. “If you follow me, we’ll take you to the exam location.”

The students murmured and shuffled along as the instructor and the group of examiners led them to the climber’s guild building and through the back towards the entrance of the tower.

“Where do you think they’re taking us?” asked Casey, walking alongside Max. “You think they’ve cordoned off a specific area of the endless forest?”

Max shook his head. “I have no idea, but I’m starting to understand your complaints about all the waiting. The suspense is killing me.”

So far, student climbers weren’t allowed to go beyond the floor above them, so if the test did take place on an even higher floor, they would all be entering completely foreign and unknown territory.

“They all look so nervous,” said one of the D-rank examiners as they stood in front of the teleporter and let the students go up to the next floor first.

“Wouldn’t you be?” said another. “During our year, more than half of the class failed the midterms and thereby lost their place at the academy.”

Max gulped.

They’re doing this to scare us, thought Max. They’re trying to make us panic. When the actual exam commences they want our composure to be down straightaway.

Max took a deep breath.

I can’t let that happen, he thought to himself. I need to stay focused.

Max walked into the teleporter and ascended to the floor above.

He blinked and he was in the endless forest along with the rest of the class, including the instructor.

The other examiners followed suit, appearing one by one in the forest floor.

Two E-rankers, not part of the exam, stood by the teleporter. These were the climbers who’d replaced the other two who the Reckless Brothers had killed.

Max felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. Those two innocent climbers were hurt because the Reckless Brothers had been coming after him. He clenched his fist and felt no remorse for the deaths that had come to that family.

“All here?” said their instructor, taking a drag of his cigarette. “Okay, follow me then!”

They moved through the forest as a group and it became clear where they were going pretty quickly. They’d taken this route before. The signs carved into the trees also told them where they were going.

They were heading for the departure teleporter.

The mid-term exam wasn’t being conducted on this floor, but on one of the floors above.

Max’s realization slowly began to dawn on the other student climbers as they traversed further into the endless forest towards the floor’s departure teleporter.

Different groups of students whispered and spoke in hushed tones, sharing the information they were picking up on.

Max felt a nudge in his ribs.

It was Casey. She covered her mouth with her hand as she spoke, “Don’t tell anyone but I think we’re going to another floor.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” grinned Max.

She blinked before going red in the face. “If you had figured it out, why hadn’t you told me!?”

“Shh,” said Max, not wanting any of their competition to hear them on the off-chance that they’d still not figured it out. “I didn’t think knowing mattered. At least, not presently. What do you know about the floors above?”

Casey’s face paled. “That demons live there and other societies of races—similar to humans—but different and sometimes much more powerful. The higher you go the more dangerous it becomes. Do you think they’ll just send us to a floor and tell us to survive?”

Max shuddered. “I hope they give us more direction than that, but if that is what happens, we’ve done all the preparation we could’ve. We’ll just have to roll with the punches.”

Max gulped. He wasn’t just trying to convince Casey when he spoke, but convince himself as well. Another floor in the tower meant a whole new environment with new monsters and new obstacles. But what more could they have done? They’d bought survival supplies and Max had even trained so hard that he had ranked up and gained a new ability.

He took another deep breath and thought consciously about how much they had prepared for this. When he thought about that, he became less agitated. That was the whole point of this preamble to the exam area. To put their backs up and not necessarily in a good way.

The examiners stopped when they arrived at the departure teleporter.

“Alright, class,” said the instructor. “We’ve been through this before. It’s the exact same thing every time. Stand in the light and