by Jakob Tanner
Max’s whole body froze. He wasn’t sure what to do, whether he should grab hold of Casey and move her off him.
“Mmm,” she said, before her eyes opened. “Ahh! What are you doing!? You pervert! Get off of me!”
She kneed Max in the groin and jumped to her feet.
“You were on top of me,” Max cried, rolling over in pain from Casey’s attack.
Casey crossed her arms and shook her head. “Inappropriate behavior! Did no one ever teach you how to treat a lady!?”
Max got up to his feet and stood away from the teleporter. To be fair to him, no one had really ever taught him how to treat a lady, but that was besides the point. She had crashed onto him!
He was about to explain all of that when Casey changed the subject.
“Where are we? This forest is pretty. I wonder if there’s any cute animals here we can play with! C’mon Toto, let’s make animal friends!”
“Uhh,” said Max. “Does that mean you’re not mad at me anymore?”
Casey picked up a stick and started poking around the small clearing they were in.
“Mad about what?” she asked.
I guess she’d gotten over it already, thought Max. Fine by me. I’m NOT going to remind her about it then.
“Uhh,” said Max, scratching the back of his head. “Nothing.”
The two defense climbers on guard duty snickered at the interaction.
After a minute or two, the rest of the class including the instructor were standing in the forest along with them.
“Welcome to the floor above our own,” said the instructor. “Also known as The Endless Forest.”
Everyone looked around the woods in awe.
The Endless Forest, huh?
So this whole floor was just a gigantic forest, thought Max. Nothing else. Interesting.
“Follow me,” said the instructor.
The group of students followed the instructor through the woods.
“The tower consists of two types of floors: wild floors and tamed floors,” said the instructor as they walked deeper into the forest. “I bet by looking around you can guess that floor-2 is a wild floor. Such floors are typically full of monsters and wilderness. The monsters that roam on a wild floor typically respawn every twenty-four hours if slain. Due to the harsh conditions, not many people choose to reside on a wild floor for very long. They have become more or less adventuring sites and training zones.”
Max peered around the forest. There was so much to learn about this world. It was so vast and overwhelming.
“And while we’re on the subject of the different types of floors,” said the instructor, still leading the group further into the forest. “Let me speak briefly about tamed floors. Not that you’ll be seeing one any time soon. Tamed-floors are usually multiple times larger than wild floors, to the point that they are sometimes referred to as world floors. Typically, the tower takes shape within a tamed-floor, which is the easiest way to differentiate the two floors. Civilizations and worlds have been built on this type of floor. There are less monster inhabitants, and a much slower respawn time if any at all. Only the most dedicated and well-vetted tower climbers visit such floors, acting as ambassadors for our city and world.”
The instructor’s words stuck with Max. Only the most dedicated and well-vetted tower climbers visit such floors. It was as Sakura had told him before; of all the different types of climbers, becoming a tower climber was the most difficult. It was also the only branch of climber that would help him go up to the highest floors where he’d be able to find his sister.
The instructor stopped walking and so did the rest of the class.
The man held up his hand, signaling to the students to stop moving and to stay alert.
“Quiet down, everyone,” said the instructor. “There’s a monster nearby.”
Max knew they were going to encounter monsters on this floor, and yet he still felt surprised that they were about to battle one so soon.
The shadow of a creature emerged from between the trees. Its eyes glowed red. It then came into view.
It was a warthog-like creature with sharp horns protruding from either side of its lower jaw.
The creature started kicking its feet in the dirt as an intimidation tactic. It was going to attack any second now.
“We’re all going to die!” screamed one of the students at the back.
“Calm down,” said the instructor, pulling out a cigarette and putting it in his mouth.
Max didn’t understand what the instructor was doing. Now really didn’t seem like the time to be lighting up a cigarette.
The boar roared at us and started to charge at the instructor.
All the student climbers hurried backwards.
If someone didn’t step in soon, someone was going to get seriously injured.
The instructor stayed calm and flicked his fingers.
Balls of flame ignited on either side of his hands.
“He’s a firebringer,” shouted Casey, excitedly.
Wow, thought Max. This man had the power to wield flames. The boar didn’t stand a chance against power like that.
The instructor stretched out his arm and shot a blast of flames into the incoming forest hog.
The flames surrounded the hog, roasting its fur, until the whole creature was a blackened crisp on the ground.
The instructor hurried over to the blackened crisp and lit his cigarette from the ash and took a puff.
“And that kids is how you slay a monster,” he declared with casual coolness.
The burnt boar carcass behind him suddenly turned silver, and the creature melted away even further. In its place was a small copper stone and some coins.
The instructor went and picked up the copper stone.
“This right here is what’s called a monster core,” he said. “When you slay a monster, they leave them behind. This forest boar is one of the lowest ranked monsters and so why it left behind a copper monster core. Monsters all typically leave a few coins behind as well, but that’s usually less important than the monster core itself.”
The instructor tossed the core in the air and then snatched it with his hands.
The instructor had a grin that Max didn’t like. It reminded him of the sadistic looks Sakura gave him during training exercises.
“That concludes the lecture part of today’s lessons,” he said. “But now, there’s one last test.”
28
“Today’s last assignment,” said the instructor, “is to collect four monster cores and then meet me back at the arrival teleporter.”
The instructor then looked down at his watch. “You have until the end of the day, or roughly, three hours. If I have to come looking for you, you’ve failed the test and will have a significant deduction in points. Trust me—you don’t want to lose points. It will matter in the final exam. That is, if you even live through today’s test.”
Before any of the students could ask a follow-up question or berate the instructor for his extreme teaching style, he vanished.
“That teacher is crazy,” said one student. “He should be arrested.”
Max ignored the naysayers and tried to pay attention to the other more knowledgeable students to see how they were going about the test.
The most confident climbers turned away from the group and marched off into the woods. Cyrus and his thugs left together in their own direction as well.
Max considered the parameters of the test. Each student needed to collect four monster cores. This was a difficult task because climbers at their level could only use their trait three times before needing a significant break. Three wasn’t the daily limit, but you didn’t want any dead time in a pressurized time test. That meant you either had to be so efficient with your trait that you could defeat two monsters with one attack or you had to team up with others. Perhaps that was even the secret point to the whole test. Evaluate the assignment and figure out the most efficient way to get it done.
Max grin
ned. He was going to crush this test. He looked around to see if there were any super powerful students he could team up with when a girl with bright green eyes stood right in front of him, blocking his vision.
“Want to partner up!?” said Casey.
Max looked over the pretty girl’s shoulder and saw that most of the students had already disappeared on their hunts for monster cores.
“Sure,” he said.
“Hurray,” the girl cheered. “Honestly, I felt like I had to do you the favor. You wouldn’t get far with a weak trait like slice during this test.”
Max looked at her dumbfounded. He thought he was doing her the favor, but he would keep that to himself.
“Okay,” he said. “Step one. Let’s go over our abilities and figure out how we can best complement each other’s powers.”
Casey nodded. “Good idea. I’ll go first. So as you already know, I’m an airbringer. I can manipulate the wind and air around us.”
“That’s incredible,” said Max, sincerely. “Now tell me: can you deal significant damage with this wind ability.”
“At my current rank, no,” said Casey. “If I want to use it offensively, the best means is to amplify a projectile to give it more speed and damage.”
She then pulled out a pouch from her cardigan pocket and materialized a slingshot from the little bag.
“That’s why I have this slingshot!”
Max smiled. Paper airplanes and a slingshot. Behind the cute exterior, this girl was a devilish prankster.
“Okay, I’ve shown you my powers,” said Casey. “Show me yours.”
Max paused. He wasn’t sure how much of his trait he should reveal to Casey. Sakura told him to be very careful with who he trusted. He figured he could tell her a little bit though.
“So my slice ability is no ordinary ability,” said Max. “Even though I’m unranked, I have a slice ability at the level of B-rank.”
Casey’s eyes widened. “You have a B-rank ability!? You’re unranked and a student climber and a new kid and you have a freaking B-rank ability!? That’s incredible, Max! I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Max nodded. “I’d appreciate it if you kept what I’m telling you to yourself. I’ve been told to be very careful about trusting people here in the tower-zone.”
“My lips are sealed,” said Casey. “I’ll even pinky promise?”
She waved her pinky in Max’s face.
He gently moved her hand away. “It’s all good, I trust you,” he said.
“Bold move,” said Casey. “A pinky promise is an unbreakable vow. It’s basically the foundation of civilization. The social contract. To forego it...well, let me just say I’m honored you trust me so highly.”
Max shrugged. “I mean, it’s just a pinky promise. Isn’t that a kid’s thing?”
Casey replied with the most eloquent retort. She stuck her tongue out and made an odd noise.
Casey’s reply was definitely not persuasive at all, but he found himself silently taking back his words. He contemplated his sister, Elle. He had made a promise to her when they were little. Pinky or no pinky, promises were important. He understood that much.
Max turned his thoughts to Casey’s ability for a moment. She had the power to control the air and wind around them. Such a power could be used in so many different ways.
He shared with her the semblance of a plan.
“That sounds awesome,” she said. “Let’s do it!”
With that, they started heading deeper into the endless forest.
They walked and walked, waiting to come across a monster to attack.
“Where is everyone?” said Casey, looking around.
There were no monsters and no student climbers either.
“Let’s keep heading forward,” said Max.
They kept moving through the forest, hoping to find a monster target.
The trees began to blend together.
“Should we turn back?” said Casey. “Maybe go another way?”
Max bit his thumb, nervously, and considered their options.
We screwed up big time, Max thought to himself. We weren’t just competing against the clock, we were competing against the other students for the easy monster kills.
Now they’d have to search further away and work that much quicker to get back to the instructor.
“We have only one option,” said Max. “We gotta go deeper into the forest.”
29
Max and Casey ran deeper into the forest.
They rushed by trees and shrubbery.
“How far have we gone?” asked Casey.
Max looked around and saw no monsters.
“Not far enough,” he said.
Something didn’t seem right, thought Max. They’d seen plenty of monsters in the distance when they’d been walking through the forest with the instructor. Where had they all gone to?
They kept running until eventually Max heard a large snort sound.
He turned to Casey.
Her cheeks blushed. “You don’t think I made that sound, do you!?”
Max knew he was about to say something that was offensive to her. He wasn’t sure why it was so offensive, but regardless, he was going to leave it alone.
“There’s a monster nearby,” whispered Casey, standing against a tree to conceal herself.
Max followed suit. He peered around the tree and saw there was a cluster of four monsters.
They were small hairy beasts that were chewing on a plant shrub.
The mule-like creatures were significantly less threatening than the forest boar they’d seen earlier.
The mule-like creature glanced up as if it sensed Casey and Max’s presence.
It then made a strange noise.
Max and Casey looked at each other with quizzical glances.
A horrible smell then filled Max’s nostrils.
He raised his hands to his nose and mouth. So that was what the mule was doing.
It was taking a dump!
Max turned to Casey with a serious expression.
“You’re joking?” she said.
“No, I’m not,” said Max. “There is no better opportunity than right now.”
Casey nodded begrudgingly.
It was time to enact their strategy.
Quietly, Max hurried a few trees over to get into position.
Casey stood where she was and triggered her trait.
She manipulated the wind around the nearby group of forest mules with enough force to irritate them and cause them to move.
The group of mules then started to move away from the area they were residing in.
Casey looked at Max across the forest and nodded her head.
Casey’s trait was part one of their strategy. She would manipulate the air and get the monsters into position. Part two of their strategy now rested in Max’s hands.
Max stretched out his hand and triggered his slice ability.
A bright golden shard of energy appeared in front of him.
Max stretched his arm out, manipulating the shard, shooting it out further in front of him.
The blade stretched out like a zooming bullet and cut through the group of mules.
The energy blade sliced through the monsters at the perfect angle at the perfect opportunity, damaging them all.
Max lifted up his fist like he was doing an uppercut and so did the energy blade, ripping through the flesh of the forest mules like a deadly sickle.
The energy blade dissipated with that final stroke, but Max had done enough damage. The forest mules were dead on the ground.
The creatures were clearly copper-level monsters. A B-rank ability against them was like using a rocket launcher against a bunny rabbit. It was effective, but absolutely overkill as well.
Max and Casey stepped towards the fallen forest mules as they glowed silver and left behind a few coins and their monster cores.
Max picked up two of the copper cores and tossed them to Casey.
He
then picked two up himself and placed them inside his pouch. He watched as the small bag gobbled up the two large copper stones with ease.
“Alright,” said Max. “We just need to find another four monsters and then we’re done.”
Casey looked down to the coins on the ground. “Let’s divide the coins up equally too.”
“Sure,” said Max, looking down to the ground. “They didn’t drop much. In total, it’s about twenty copper coins. So we’ll each get ten.”
Casey scooped up the coins and then handed Max his share. He let the coins fall into his pouch. So far Sakura was pretty much paying for everything he did, so he was glad to be collecting some Zestiris currency for himself.
“Let’s get back to the hunt,” said Max. “I don’t think we’ll have to travel nearly as much to find a second set of monsters.”
Max was proved right fairly quickly. They only had to travel another five minutes into the forest to find another set of mules.
They quickly got to work with their strategy and finished off the set of mules with ease.
“Hurray,” cheered Casey. “We completed the assignment!”
Max dropped the two copper monster cores into his pouch with satisfaction. He looked down at the coin drops with disappointment.
“Huh?” he said. “They didn’t leave as much.”
This time there were only sixteen copper coins on the ground.
“The money drop is always a bit random from what I understand,” said Casey, crouching down and picking up the coins. When she was done, she handed Max his share of the loot.
“I guess we should head back then,” said Max.
“Yeah, totally,” said Casey, turning and marching off.
“Wait, where are you going?” asked Max.
“I’m heading back,” said Casey. “We headed in this direction, didn’t we?”
“I thought we came from that way,” said Max, pointing in the opposite direction Casey was heading.
Max looked around, his heart beginning to beat with panic.
They had been so focused on the first part of the test, they hadn’t considered the intensity of the second part: getting back to the teleporter.
