Tower Climber (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 1) by Jakob Tanner (interesting books to read for teens .txt) 📗

mention, based off of their new roommate agreement, they’d be having more bacon and egg ramen a lot more for the foreseeable future.

Sakura looked him in the eye with an angry suspicion. “This isn’t ramen. These are tower noodles.”

“Look,” she said, picking up her chopsticks, and picking up a piece of meat. “This is snow wolf meat. That’s an animal that only exists a few floors up in the tower and nowhere else.”

Max looked at the piece of meat that seemed indistinguishable to him from a piece of cooked beef with newfound awe.

He picked up his chopsticks, cracked them apart, and then dug into the bowl of noodles.

After one bite of the snow wolf meat, his whole face lit up.

Sakura grinned. “I know, right?”

They both then turned their attention squarely on their bowl of tower noodles and started to devour it.

Max took one last sip of the remaining broth in his bowl and then placed it down.

He turned to Sakura. “So how do animals and monsters work in the tower? Like we were able to eat this snow wolf meat, but something tells me we couldn’t eat a shield slime—not that I know why we would want to, but I don’t think we could even if we tried.”

Sakura nodded. “You’ve half figured it out. As you’ll learn once classes at the academy start and you actually enter the tower, tower monsters when defeated drop monster cores and usually a few coins. Whereas an animal that lives in the tower after being slain will remain in its bodily form, as would a slain animal on Earth. Its body can be used for all sorts of things: from its bones to its skin to its flesh. Tower monsters don’t exist in the same way.”

Max sighed. Floors, worlds, tower monsters, and tower animals.

“There’s so much I still don’t know about this world.”

“Get used to it, mister,” said Sakura. “Part of being a tower climber is to be always venturing further into the unknown. But boy, do you got a lot to learn. Like—let’s go over the fight today.”

“I thought you said I did a good job,” said Max.

“You did,” she said. “But that’s not to say, what you did wasn’t insanely risky either. You had no way of knowing that the energy shield had to be destroyed and then followed up with a second attack. Had the shield slime’s ability functioned a little differently, as in, the same attack that shattered its energy shield was able to continue its attack, then that attack from Samuel would have killed you.”

“Are you saying there was a better way out of the scenario?”

Sakura shrugged. “You could’ve dodged the lightning attack and used the shield slime against a less obviously powerful swing from Samuel. That would still be risky though. You could’ve enlisted my help or even the clerk’s as it would fit within the parameters of the test, though I guess Samuel would’ve questioned the fairness of that. Basically, what I’m saying is you had less risky options you could’ve attempted first.”

“Do you think that rule of the test is slightly unfair in that regard?” asked Max. “Couldn’t someone just bring in their family and help them defeat the shield slime for them?”

Sakura nodded. “Family isn’t typically allowed to observe the test. Technically we’re not family so it was fine. The test is definitely more challenging for those with non-offensive abilities like healing. In most cases like that, the student climber trains their stats to a point where they can break through the energy shield without any magical abilities. Or they equip an offensive item like Samuel’s thunder stone to make up for any deficiencies in their profile.”

Max’s face became dejected. “Tell me the truth, Sakura. How are my stats compared to the other climbers about to enter the academy?”

“Oh they’re incredibly low,” said Sakura, matter of factly. “I thought that was obvious. Most climbers entering will have all of their stats closer to ten or over. Half of them will probably have already hit E-rank as well. You are far behind, mister.”

Max’s shoulders slumped even further.

He knew he was behind, but he didn’t realize he was that far behind everyone else.

“How much time do I have until the term begins?”

“Just over three weeks,” said Sakura.

Max clasped his fingers together and pleaded at Sakura. “Please, Ms. Sakura, you’ll train me before then, right? Please please please?”

“Are you sure?” said Sakura.

“Of course I’m sure,” said Max. “You’re one of the best climbers, aren’t you?”

“I am,” said Sakura. “And I’m willing to train you too. Are you ready?”

“Yes,” said Max with glee.

Then, suddenly, Sakura’s whole face shifted, taking on a sadistic look.

“Wait, why are you looking at me like that?” said Max.

She grinned. “Welcome to hell.”

19

The next morning, Max woke up to a shrill wail of a whistle in his ear.

The noise woke him up instantly, giving him heart palpitations.

“Get up, rookie,” barked Sakura. “It’s time to train.”

“Ughhh,” said Max. “What time is it?”

“Five a.m.,” she shouted. “We got a long day ahead of us, so let’s get a move on. Hustle hustle hustle!”

Max couldn’t remember the last time he had woken up this early. In fact, he couldn’t recall a time ever in his life when he’d woken up this early.

Even the evil Mr. Grimes let them sleep in until at least 7:30 a.m. most mornings.

Max sluggishly got out of bed.

Sakura threw him a pair of shorts and blew her whistle a few more times.

“Alright,” smiled Sakura. “We’re going for a jog.”

It was still dark outside in the tower-zone. Sakura and Max did a light jog towards a training facility near the tower.

“Alright, now do one hundred laps around the track,” shouted Sakura.

“One hundred!?”

“You want to be prepared for your first day of climber academy, don’t you?”

Max groaned and started jogging around the track.

Sakura blew a whistle after his first lap. “That’s one,” she said. “Ninety-nine more to go.”

“One hundred!” cheered Sakura.

Max collapsed on a patch of grass beside the track. He was covered