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

was desperate. He would do anything to get his opponent to come out in the open. It would be an easier fight that way for him.

But whoever was attacking was smart. He’d taken the two knuckleheads out one by one. He doubted whoever it was would be convinced by such petulant ideals like ‘honor.’

It was always worth a try though.

The bushes rustled behind him.

So, he was trying to sneak up on him, huh? Well, he’d just have to catch him then.

The man started sprinting straight ahead.

Rustle, rustle.

Suddenly, the shadowy man’s footsteps were coming from a different direction.

Reginald pivoted, running faster this time.

Keep chasing me you idiot, Max thought. Where will you go once we hit a clearing?

Reginald sprinted full speed ahead. He needed to get his attacker out in the open.

He powered through bushes and shrubbery, knowing he needed to get out in the open as soon as possible, but—

He took a step and his foot had nowhere to go.

His stomach lurched.

He’d just run off a cliff voluntarily.

He gasped one final breath and scream before making his quick descent to the bottom level of the island.

63

Cyrus stood over Reginald Booth’s dead body.

He spat on the boy whose family had served his for generations, even before the emergence of the tower and the great changes it brought to the world.

“Pathetic fool,” said Cyrus, looking up to the cliff above.

He ran off the cliff on his own accord. He’d been there in the bushes watching it all. The plan was for the three goons to beat the outer-rim runt and the fake-vein girl and he’d swoop in to savor the final blow. They’d all blown it.

He probably could have saved Reginald, but after that pathetic display up there, he didn’t see why the Archer family even needed someone so worthless any way.

Cyrus kicked the torn apart body over so he no longer had to look at the crushed face of his companion.

He headed back to the cave where Sybil was waiting for him.

Their candles were secured, but the fun he had been hoping to have during this mid-term had turned into a total flop.

For Max and Casey, the rest of the night went by without any more disturbances.

They forced themselves to stay awake by continuously drinking their water bottles so that they’d need to take frequent bathroom breaks. Or, in the case of the jungle atmosphere, bush breaks.

Eventually the sky began to lighten up and morning dawned on the island.

Casey and Max smiled at each other as the light of a new day came upon them.

“Looks like we survived the night,” said Max.

Both Casey and Toto let out a large exaggerated yawn.

“I can’t wait to get back home and have a huge nap,” declared Casey. “Isn’t that right, Toto?”

“Didn’t Toto sleep for most of the test?” said Max.

“Toto’s a growing gerbil, he needs his sleep!”

Max didn’t pursue the argument any further as they dismantled their base camp.

They waited and watched as the boat with the instructor and the examiners on it came ashore to the island.

Only now would they return to the beach. Otherwise, they were opening themselves up to any last desperate attempts made by other students to steal their lit candles.

They made a wide berth through the island to avoid contact with other students.

They were the first to arrive on the beach where the instructor and examiners were waiting.

The instructor smirked when he saw them.

“I figured you two would make it,” he grinned. “Let’s see who else did.”

Max looked at the empty beach. There must have been other students who made it? There was no way that Max and Casey were the only ones who passed, was it? Or perhaps the other students were simply being more cautious than the others?

Slowly but surely more students emerged on the beach. Many of them carried unlit candles and had dejected looks on their faces.

Cyrus and Sybil amongst a few others emerged from the shadows of the island jungle with their candles lit.

“I guess that’s everyone,” said the instructor, looking the group up and down.

Max’s heartbeat suddenly quickened.

There were Cyrus’ homicidal goons who’d met an unfortunate end who had still yet to show up, but surely the instructor didn’t know what had happened to them. Unless...

He looked down to the candle. Was this some kind of manatech powered candle? Did it function as a tracking device? Security camera?

The instructor smirked and took a drag of his cigarette before throwing it out and crushing it with the heel of his shoe into the sand of the beach.

“Congratulations to all of you who have passed,” he said. “And apologies to those who lost. I’m sure you tried your best.”

A few of the student climbers who had failed the exam started to talk back and question the results.

“This is unfair! This test was dumb!” they shouted. “How can you judge us as climbers on the sheer basis of a candle flame. A wind can easily snuff it out.”

“Silence,” shouted the instructor and marched up to one of the complaining students.

The student visibly paled and quieted down as the teacher approached.

The man snatched the candle out of the student’s hands.

“A climber who gives up because the wind blew the wrong way will not survive the cruelties of the tower,” said the instructor.

Then the instructor imbued mana into the candlestick and the flame suddenly reappeared at the top of the candle.

“Do you see now?” said the instructor. “This goes for everyone—even those who passed the exam. There were many ways to win here. If any of you had studied the candle and its properties itself, you would’ve figured out it was a mana controlled candle and would’ve relit with the slightest imbuing of mana. You could’ve run around with an unlit candle and then imbued your candle before showing up here this morning and you still would’ve passed.”

The mood of the student climbers who had failed grew even more downcast. Their failures could no longer be blamed on circumstances. They had screwed up. They had