Tower Climber

by Jakob Tanner

  “You insolent boy,” shouted Samuel Archer. “You’ll now see the real power of a true climber.”

  Max shrugged.

  “Look, that sounds great,” the boy replied. “And thanks for the offensive ability. But I got a preliminary test to complete.”

  17

  Max turned back to the shield slime, while Samuel Archer fumed behind him.

  Max felt a change inside of him. It was his mimic ability transforming itself into the special lightning attack Samuel Archer had come at him with.

  “Smart thinking Max,” cheered Sakura from above. “Now complete the test!”

  Max cracked his neck. The test was almost over.

  He knew from previous experience that he passed out after using the minotaur ability four times. He had used a stolen ability only once so far: the slime’s energy shield against Samuel Archer. So he had two more ability shots left before he was in danger of passing out.

  That should be enough to finish this.

  He ran at the shield slime and raised his fist. This time he willed his mimic ability to conjure lightning all around his arm and fist.

  He then smashed it into the shield slime.

  CRACK!

  The slime’s smile disappeared as its energy shield shattered.

  “Not so happy-go-lucky now, are you?” shouted Max, swinging another fist of lightning into the monster.

  With the energy shield destroyed, the lightning attack coursed through the shield slime, electrocuting it to death.

  It collapsed into a puddle of sludge. Then it turned silver and disappeared completely, leaving a small copper stone and some coins in its place.

  Sakura cheered from above.

  The clerk entered the room once more and said, “Congratulations, Max Rainhart, you have passed the preliminary trial to enter the climber academy. You’re now officially enrolled!”

  Sakura leapt from the balcony, landing on the floor gracefully, and rushing over to Max.

  “That was brilliant,” she said. “You had no means to defeat the shield slime at first, so you took advantage of the setting around you to alter the situation and make the battle more in your favor. Well done, Max!”

  The celebrations were cut short by a scowling voice. “That’s outrageous. The boy didn’t beat shield slime on his own. I contest this preliminary test.”

  The man narrowed his eyes at Sakura and Max could tell he was being serious.

  “You can’t do that, can you?” said Max.

  Max also couldn’t understand what he’d done to bother this guy so much. Why was he so against him entering climber academy?

  Samuel Archer turned to the clerk and said: “What steps must I undergo to contest this preliminary trial?”

  “None.”

  Everyone turned to the clerk in surprise.

  “What do you mean?” hissed Samuel.

  “What I mean is,” said the clerk, “there are no steps by which you can contest this preliminary trial. The rules state that you must defeat the shield slime by any means necessary—which he did.”

  The clerk raised a finger before anyone could interrupt her.

  “Of course, had Max convinced Sakura to lend her power to him and she did so willingly, you might have more of a case; but you were clearly in opposition to Max passing the test, so you were more of an obstacle than an ally. Yet, he was able to use that to his advantage. It was a very impressive display.”

  “That is absurd,” sneered Samuel, before stomping off and leaving the battle arena.

  “What’s up with that guy?” Max asked after Samuel was gone.

  Sakura sighed. “I honestly have no idea. I think when you get to as high a rank as Samuel you start to see the world differently. You encase yourself in your own pride and find opponents in anyone who threatens it.”

  Sakura placed her hand on Max’s shoulder affectionately.

  “You did good today,” she said, smiling. “And guess what? The day isn’t even over. Let me treat you to lunch.”

  Samuel strode down the street at a quickened pace.

  He ignored everyone around him and walked so fast he threatened to crash into people, but they all intuitively knew to just get out of the man’s way.

  So the boy had a unique trait, thought Samuel to himself as he strode back towards the Archer family penthouse. A powerful one at that. He could borrow other people’s power and attacks.

  That was incredibly powerful. As the boy grew in strength and gained ranks, it would become even more deadly.

  He waited until he was back in the penthouse before making the call he was eager to make.

  He held the phone to his ear.

  “We may have more of a problem than I initially thought,” said Samuel. “The boy has a unique trait. He might not be a threat now, but he could be later. Best to nip it in the bud. You know what to do.”

  With that, the man ended his phone call and strode off to deal with his other affairs.

  18

  The chef slid two hot steaming bowls of soup and noodles in front of Sakura and Max.

  The broth had orange bubbles of oil floating on top suggesting the soup had some hot chili spices within.

  “More ramen, really?” said Max.

  Considering that’s what they had for dinner yesterday, it seemed like a lot. Not to 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 st
ill 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 in sweat and his whole body ached.

  “How ya feeling?” smiled Sakura.

  “Ughhhh,” groaned Max.

  “What’s that?” said Sakura. “You want to do one hundred push-ups and one hundred sit-ups as well?”

  “I definitely did not say that,” sighed Max.

  “I think you did! Now get up and get started!”

  Max’s whole body hurt, but he knew he wasn’t going to give up. Groan and complain? Okay, maybe a little bit, but ultimately he knew Sakura was pushing him so he could get stronger and that’s exactly what he needed to do.

  Max got into push-up position and got to work.

  He pushed himself up and down to the sounds of Sakura’s whistle. The shrill high-pitched sound of his mentor’s whistle began to take on a demonic tone.

  After the push-ups and sit-ups, Sakura made him do an hour of meditation while balancing a book on his index finger.

  “Now that’s volume five of Love Amongst Climbers,” said Sakura. “My favorite volume. So if you let it fall off your finger too many times that you damage it, you’re going to get into serious trouble! You have to keep it on your finger for an hour and if it falls, the timer restarts.”

  Max took a deep breath and focused on keeping the book on his finger. He could maybe balance the book for a second or two, but his finger wasn’t strong enough to hold the book up on its own. Within seconds, the book would fall off his finger and hit the ground.

  SHRIEK!

  The whistle was like a knife stabbing into his ears.

  “Restart the timer,” said Sakura. “You better not wreck my book!”

  You’re the one who came up with this insane training exercise, thought Max to himself, sighing.

  “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking,” barked Sakura. “Put that book back on your finger.”

  Max ended up spending most of the afternoon on this exercise and was never able to go longer than ten seconds.

  Sakura eventually sighed. “I guess that was too much to expect from you on your first day of training. Let’s call it a day now. We’ll get back to work straight thing tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow!?” balked Max. “But don’t you need to give time for your muscles to stretch and heal.”

  “Don’t be a smarty-pants kinesiologist with me, mister,” said Sakura. “That may hold true for normal folks, but you’re not normal, Max. You’re an unranked student climber. You have a unique trait. You have mana coursing through your veins. For this reason, you’ll be able to train harder and faster than a normal human. Plus, pushing yourself at this stage is going to help raise your endurance stats. And, finally, last but not least, I’M YOUR TRAINER AND I’M TELLING YOU WE’RE WAKING UP TOMORROW MORNING TO TRAIN. THAT’S AN ORDER, GOT IT?”

  Sakura was red in the face.

  Max nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Alright, good,” said Sakura. “Let’s go pick up some groceries. You need to eat a good diet of meat and vegetables, while I need you to make me more bacon and egg ramen, so let’s get shoppin’ and cookin’!”

  Max hadn’t had a chance during the training, nor while shopping or while doing chores around Sakura’s apartment, to check his profile and see how his stats had improved. Finally, once his insane trainer had gone to bed, he felt comfortable to take a look.

  His stats must have jumped loads after today. He couldn’t wait to see how much he had developed.

  He thought to himself, open profile.

  The liquidy screen appeared in his retina with all of his information, stats, and skills.

  Name: Max Rainhart

  Rank: Unranked

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

  Strength: 4

  Agility: 4

  Endurance: 5

  Mana Affinity: 2

  Passive Skills:

  Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)

  Max’s shoulders fell in defeat.

  His stats were exactly the same. After all that work, nothing had happened?

  He fell asleep, frustrated, and then woke up the next morning, even more frustrated, to the sounds of Sakura’s whistle.

  So began day two of training.

  That day as Max did his one hundred laps around the track, Sakura jogged alongside him.

  She was wearing a cute red jogging
outfit, which was saying a lot because in Max’s mind, she had become a sadistic bossy psychopath of a trainer.

  “Please don’t tell me you’re running beside me to blow the whistle some more?” asked Max, as he ran at a breezy pace.

  “I bet you’d just love that, wouldn’t you?” grinned Sakura, manically. “But that’s not why I’m running with you right now.”

  Uh oh, thought Max. Why was she running with him then? Was it to make him go faster?

  “This is a good opportunity to teach you about the different stats,” said Sakura. “I figured I could explain them all to you while you ran. Sort of killing two birds with one stone, you know?”

  If anyone is being killed, thought Max. It was him on this grueling training regimen.

  “So, let’s begin,” said Sakura.

  She ran ahead of Max and then went into his lane and started running backwards so she could face him.

  She ran like this with ease and grace. It was such a simple gesture, but it was the power of higher stats and mana affinity that allowed her to do this. Just like how during his preliminary trial, both Sakura and Samuel were able to jump down from the balcony of the battle chamber with ease.

  Max wanted such power himself.

  “As you already know on your profile, you have four stats: strength, agility, endurance, and mana affinity,” explained Sakura. “Strength measures physical power. In simplest terms: strength gives you a measurement for how powerful your punches are. Agility, on the other hand, measures speed and balance and dexterity. In simplest terms: agility gives you a measurement for how fast your punches are. Finally, endurance measures your body’s constitution and defenses. In simplest terms, endurance is a measurement for how well you can take a punch. You following, grasshopper?”

  Max nodded along, keeping his breathing steady as they started another lap around the track.

  “What about mana affinity?” asked Max.

  Sakura nodded. “And then we come to mana affinity. This is the single most important stat in your profile. Some people like to think it’s the profile and the traits that separate climbers from the rest of humanity, but that isn’t it. It’s mana.