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

let themselves take on a defeatist attitude before the test even finished and for that, they failed. They only had themselves to blame.

“As you can see,” said the instructor. “There were many peaceful ways to pass this exam. Mr. Max Rainhart will get a special three points added to his score due to being the only student to propose an entire-class alliance at the start of the exam. For those who decided to attack their fellow classmates, that was probably more foolish than those who didn’t figure out the trick with the candle. For that, Ms. Sybil Westley and Mr. Cyrus Archer lose three points.”

“That’s ludicrous,” hissed Cyrus. “You have a bias against me. I’ll tell my father.”

The instructor raised his hands in mock fear. “Why do you think we have examiners here with us? To overlook my bias. We all discussed it together on the boat. I wanted to expel you for the means by which you have a lit candle, though the examiners argued that you had made significant preparations in the weeks building up to the exam and that should be commended no matter how devious the method.”

“But—”

“Furthermore,” the instructor continued. “You and Sybil decided to create enemies with a reason to hunt you—for no real reason or purpose in mind. Such malicious intent only creates an enemy that will then work at all costs to hunt you down. You jeopardized your success for what? Cruelty for cruelty’s sake.”

Cyrus had gone silent, though his face was red with angry frustration.

“In my book,” said the instructor. “That’s no way for a climber to ever behave, even as a student.”

The examiners walked up the plank of the boat, followed by the instructor.

Before telling the students to follow on themselves, he turned around and said, “And for those of you who did pass, before you go and celebrate, just remember: you’re not official climbers just yet and trust me, you still have a long way to go.”

64

The following evening was the climber academy’s winter ball.

There was a flurry of events leading up to it.

After the instructor and the examiners escorted the students back to the tower-zone, Max returned to Sakura’s apartment and collapsed onto his bed.

The B-rank climber quickly rushed to the foot of his doorway.

“How did the mid-term exam go?”

With his eyes closed, Max said, “I passed.”

Sakura smiled at the foot of the doorway and congratulated the young man, but by that point Max was already fast asleep.

He felt like he’d only slept for a few seconds when he heard the clambering of pots and pans in the kitchen of the apartment.

Sunlight shone through his bedroom window and Max rubbed his eyes.

Was it morning already?

He stumbled out into the living room and Sakura cheered happily.

“Good morning!” she said.

“Why are you so happy,” asked Max, “and so loud? I just passed my midterms, I would’ve thought you’d let me sleep in.”

Sakura smiled happily again. “I was going to, but then I remembered that tonight’s the winter ball. Then I asked myself: does Max even have a suit or anything remotely nice to wear? That’s when I realized: he doesn’t!”

“Uhh...”

“And, I need a new dress, so I figured, we could make a day of it,” she said.

“I guess that makes sense,” said Max. “Where—”

“First thing’s first though. Breakfast! The most important meal of the day—”

GROANNN!

Sakura’s cheerful face disappeared with a blush of embarrassment after her stomach growled loudly across the apartment.

“Max,” she smiled once more. “Will you cook breakfast!?”

“I see,” said Max. “Now I know the real reason you forced me awake!”

Sakura shook her head. “No, I promise it was because you need to go buy a new suit and I need a new dress and it wasn’t because I was about to die of starvation—erm, I mean—was a little peckish.”

She brought him over a mug of hot coffee.

“I did make coffee though,” she said in a conciliatory tone.

Max took the coffee mug out of her hands and walked into the kitchen. He took a sip and decided what to make for breakfast.

“How do you feel about pancakes!”

“Hurray!” shouted Sakura. “That’s exactly what I wanted!”

Max cooked them up some banana pancakes with maple syrup and butter with some fruit and crème fraîche on the side.

They sat together at the kitchen table and munched along happily.

After breakfast, they gathered their things and headed down to the tower-zone main shopping center.

Max and Sakura walked along the air-conditioned aisles of shops, looking out for a store that sold formal wear.

“Ooh! Let’s go to that perfume shop over there next, no to the shoe shop over there!” squealed Sakura in delight.

Max was still exhausted from the mid-term exams that he had no willpower to fight Sakura and so let himself be dragged wherever she wanted to go.

Eventually, they got to a shop that sold men’s suits.

Sakura rushed in ahead of him and picked out five suits.

“Try these on,” she said, pushing them onto him. “I bet they’ll look great.”

Max stumbled into the changing room with his pile of suits while Sakura waited outside.

“C’mon out when you’re ready so I can see,” she hollered across the change rooms.

Thankfully, apart from the shop owner, it was just Sakura and Max in there. So the embarassingness was kept to a minimum.

When Max came out in the third suit Sakura had chosen for him, she clapped with delight.

“That’s the one!” she said.

Max looked at the suit he was wearing and then at himself in a mirror.

Without being too immodest, he thought to himself, he did look pretty good in the suit. He was slender but toned with muscles on par with a professional athlete in the outer-rim. For years, he never saw himself ever wearing a suit and going to a dance like just another normal kid.

I guess my life is still far from normal, Max thought to himself. Yet so different from where I was only a few months ago. For the most part, his life was far better than it had ever been before.

He looked at