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

Stats 61-70 (Rank C)

Stats 71-80 (Rank B)

Stats 81-90 (Rank A)

Stats 91-99 (Rank S)

“Why do you separate Rank-E across two sets of stats?” said Max.

“There’s usually two phases to the early ranks. E-rank phase one and E-rank phase two. Stats 11-20 signal a climber has the same physical attributes of world-leading professional level athletes. Beyond 20 though is when climbers start to develop even superior physical attributes.”

The more Max learned, the more eager he wanted to train and raise his stats.

“Alright, last question, just to make sure I’m understanding everything,” said Max. “Since I have a mana affinity stat of 2, does that mean I can only go up to floor-2 of the tower?”

“Not exactly,” said Sakura. “It’s a combination of your rank and mana affinity. You’re currently unranked so you could go as high as floor-10 technically without dying, though you might begin to feel a bit strange if you go that high. Does that make sense?”

Max nodded his head as he ran. He thought about his sister, Elle. He couldn’t know for sure, but he felt certain she was up high in the tower. Definitely higher than floor-10. He needed to get stronger.

“Mana affinity really is the most important stat then,” sighed Max as he quickened his jogging pace.

“Yep, glad that’s gotten through that thick skull of yours. Now,” said Sakura, “that concludes the academic portion of today’s training. So—”

She blew the whistle extra hard.

“I want you to pick up the pace and do another hundred laps. NOW GO!”

Only after another five days of training did Max begin to see an uptick in his stats. He lay down on his bed that night and stared up at his profile with satisfaction.

Name: Max Rainhart

Rank: Unranked

Trait (Unique): Mimic. Unleash the last move you were hit with at double the power.

Strength: 5

Agility: 5

Endurance: 5

Mana Affinity: 2

Passive Skills:

Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)

Amazing, thought Max. He had gained a point in strength and agility.

He was one small step closer to achieving his goals.

He couldn’t wait to progress more.

20

Over the next two and a half weeks, Max stuck to Sakura’s grueling training regimen. He managed to gain another two points in both strength and agility and another point in endurance. He stared at his new profile fondly.

Name: Max Rainhart

Rank: Unranked

Trait (Unique): Mimic. Unleash the last move you were hit with at double the power.

Strength: 7

Agility: 7

Endurance: 6

Mana Affinity: 2

Passive Skills:

Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)

He felt his whole body tightening as muscles grew and strengthened everywhere. If he was back at his old high school, people would have barely recognized him. Not just because he was walking around on two feet, but because he no longer stood out as a scrawny feeble kid. He looked like an athlete. A jock, even.

Max looked in the mirror and felt pretty good about himself.

Except for one thing.

He hadn’t managed to raise his mana affinity stat even one measly point.

The laps and exercises had become less of an excruciating experience, but one he had actually grown excited about. The laps brought him a new kind of satisfaction each and every day as he pushed himself further and further, but there was still one exercise that brought him pain and frustration though.

The balancing of the book on his finger.

“You’re going to have to buy me a new copy,” said Sakura, looking at him unimpressed, as he picked it up off the ground for what felt like the billionth time. “And not just one from the bookstore either, that one’s a first edition. You’re going to have to pay up, mister.”

Max didn’t understand. He had raised his strength stat by three points since he had first started doing this exercise. His finger was stronger now and should be able to hold the book up more easily. He should also be able to do it for slightly longer as well since he’d increased his endurance stat by one point.

Plop!

The book fell on the grass yet again. That time he hadn’t even managed to hold it up for five minutes. He was getting worse at the exercise the longer he did it.

Sakura got up off the ground.

“Where are you going?” asked Max.

“I have a quick errand I need to run over at the defense climber headquarters,” she said. “I’ll be back in two hours or so. Hopefully, you’ll have gotten better at this task I’ve given you. Seriously, you’ve been doing it for two and a half weeks and you haven’t gotten any better?”

Max’s shoulders slumped and the book fell off his finger.

“You distracted me!” yelled Max. “What kind of teacher are you!”

“Have fun,” she smiled and left him to it.

Max sighed and stared down at the book.

Why was this so hard? There must be a trick to it somehow.

If Sakura could do it, thought Max, then so could he.

He paused.

If Sakura could do it.

He realized he hadn’t actually ever seen Sakura demonstrate the exercise.

Was it possible she couldn’t do it?

Or, if she could do it, a demonstration would make it obvious on the method by which one did do it?

He grinned and picked up the book off the ground once more.

He was on the precipice of a big breakthrough.

“Good afternoon, Sakura!”

The whole defense climber department was cheery when Sakura passed through the door.

As the branch commander of the defense climbers, she was well-liked and respected in the department. She also knew quite a few of the junior recruits had crushes on her. Almost as many who were terrified of her and her powerful B-rank slice ability.

Sakura didn’t waste any time and went to her favorite clerk.

She looked furtively across the office and saw that everyone had returned their attention to their own tasks and weren’t focused on her.

“Did you look into that thing I asked about?” said Sakura.

“You mean, regarding last month’s monster wave?”

Sakura nodded her head.

“It’s as I told you the first time,” said the clerk. “And I went through all the files a second and third time just to satisfy you. None of the climber squads reported a