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

don’t know how else to say this,” said Max. “But I think him and his family are up to no good. I have no tangible proof, but it was the reason why we went out into the outer-rim in the first place.”

The climber president guffawed.

“The Archer family certainly is ambitious, but there are other ambitious well-renowned climber families and clans who will keep them in check. Don’t worry, we keep an eye on things. Plus, I’m the only other A-rank climber besides Samuel. I’d like to see the Archers take me on.”

Max nodded at this.

The man didn’t seem to be fearful about the Archers at all. Max felt a brief sense of relief, but was still slightly worried the climber president was shrugging off the threat too easily.

Max didn’t know how to argue with the man further, so he thanked him for sharing all the information, and left the climber’s guild to return home before Sakura even guessed how he had spent his day.

Shortly after Max left, the climber president sighed and sat down at his desk.

He picked up his telephone and dialed a private number of the elite city guard.

“I want you to keep an eye on Samuel Archer,” said the climber president. “I believe we may have a tricky problem on our hands.”

Samuel stood in his favorite part of the Archer family penthouse. He stood right in front of the tall glass windows, staring out at the city beyond.

He smiled as he looked at it.

“Any day now,” he said out loud to himself. “This city will be mine.”

75

“Hiya! How was your day?”

Sakura asked while lying on the couch, holding up a paperback novel she was reading.

Max closed the door behind him.

Sakura had no idea what kind of day Max had just experienced and, as much as he wanted to relieve some stress and tell her about it, he knew that he couldn’t.

“Just been training,” said Max. “I feel quite tired now though, so I’m going to go to bed early.”

Sakura put her book down on her stomach and looked at him.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” said Max. “I think I just pushed myself a little too hard.”

“Alrighty,” said Sakura, returning to her book. “Get some rest.”

Max went to his bedroom and closed the door behind him.

He then collapsed onto his bed.

He felt like his whole world was falling apart.

His life up until then had been a lie.

And for most of the people he knew around him: their lives had been a lie too.

How did one keep moving forward under such circumstances?

He had never felt compelled to travel to Europe or Asia, but he always felt comforted by the possibility that he could go and do that.

But that was all mere fabrication.

His world was a lot smaller than he realized, consisting of the outer-rim, the tower-zone, and the tower itself.

It may have been smaller, yet it felt suddenly much more frightening.

He was one of the few humans with the power to climb the tower. One of the few humans to be able to go forth and find a way to save humanity and undo the damage to their lost home world.

All of his goals and decisions suddenly felt like they even had more weight.

He felt an oppressive overwhelming sense of responsibility.

It made him feel sick.

Part of him also wondered what Elle thought? He could imagine that his sister had spent some time here in the tower-zone and then had been strong enough to ascend through the floors of the tower herself.

She, too, must know of the truth of this world, of the real state of affairs.

How did such knowledge govern her actions, he wondered.

His phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket.

He checked and saw it was Casey.

“Hey! Are you alright? I woke up at home in bed. I’m not hallucinating that we were in the outer-rim earlier today, right?”

Max wrote her back straight away, explaining the entire day’s events up until when they were put to sleep. He was about to tell her everything the climber president had told him, but then he stopped. Probably best not to send such crucial information over text messenger.

They made a plan to meet up the next day, return the ward-breaking knife, and get Toto out of the clutches of that weird merchant and make a training plan for the upcoming climber final exam.

He lay back in bed and sighed.

Only a few more weeks until the final exam.

If he succeeded there, it would be the first true step towards finding his sister.

76

The following day, Max got up at seven a.m. sharp.

He showered, got dressed, made breakfast for himself and then he was out the door. He left a scribbled note to Sakura: “Gone to train. Will be back in two weeks or so.”

He met up with Casey briefly and gave her the ward-breaking knife to get Toto back. After that, he wished her good luck on her training and continued his morning preparations.

He sucked in the cold January air proudly as he marched across the tower-zone to the climber’s guild. He made a few quick stops by some shops, picking up some extra supplies.

He had two and a half weeks until the climber exam finals. It was going to be a massive one-on-one tournament with elimination rounds, hosted in the main city arena for everyone to watch.

The pressure was intense.

Which was why Max had no time to waste: he had to get to training.

He signed at the gate and headed up towards the tower.

He was walking with steely determination and the wind at his sails, until he abruptly stopped.

He was in the middle of the tower’s entryway, near the fountain where young tower-zone children were tested to see if they had a trait.

The thing that had made him stop was the light of the teleporter.

Instantly, he flashed back to that warehouse in the outer-rim.

This isn’t floor-1, he thought to himself, taking a hesitant step forward.

He gulped and walked towards the teleporter.

They knew.

The instructor knew when we were taught to ascend floors.

They