by Jakob Tanner
At top speed, he could now move faster than a jet engine.
At this level of endurance, the bullet from a human gun would merely bounce off of him.
Max couldn’t believe he’d attained such a level of strength and power.
This thought was then accompanied by a much more disconcerting notion.
C-rank stats are only the halfway point to the power of an S-rank climber.
If Max was this powerful now, what kind of power existed in those at the top of the climber food chain?
Max had never truly felt the gulf between himself and the best climbers than he did right then.
Harold, however, didn’t let him linger within his own thoughts for long.
“Good,” said the old man. “We can now focus on your mana affinity. It’s time to get you officially to C-rank.”
25
Max felt the fluttering feeling of descending through the tower.
His stomach settled and he knew he had arrived on the floor where Harold had instructed him to go.
Floor-20.
Or, as Max remembered it, the floor with the colossal-sized monsters.
“What are we doing here?” asked Max, walking up to Harold who was standing in front of him.
The old man was looking out into the foggy plains. A foot of a massive colossal monster could be seen far in the distance.
A number of thoughts went through Max’s head.
1) They were like ants compared to these massive monsters.
And 2) What was up with Harold’s training regimen always being on fog-filled floors? The old man seemed to be obsessed with mist.
“We’re not doing anything,” Harold answered. “You, on the other hand, are going to slay one of these cloudwalkers.”
Max blinked in disbelief at the nearest giant foot.
He gulped.
“You can’t be serious?” said Max.
How the heck was he going to beat one of these things? They were definitely gold-ranked creatures, maybe even ruby-ranked.
But that was probably why Harold wanted him to fight these monsters. Physical training could only raise your mana affinity so much. You needed to acquire monster cores and drain them of their power if you really wanted to increase your mana affinity and rank up.
“To reach the highest echelons of the tower,” said Harold. “One must be willing to attempt the impossible and then surpass that.”
Max grinned.
Harold’s words lit a fire under him.
He needed to keep climbing higher, to keep gaining strength, so hopefully one day he could find his sister.
He didn’t know how he was going to beat these giant monsters, but he knew he wasn’t going to defeat one of them just standing there at the bottom of this misty realm.
He rushed towards the colossal foot.
When he got close enough, he triggered shadow blink.
He reappeared just above the creature’s ankle.
He triggered the ability again.
When he reappeared he just barely grasped the armor-like plating of the creature’s kneecap.
His stomach lurched as he looked down.
There was already a big gap between where he was and the ground below.
He only felt worse looking up to the top of this creature that was still hidden in the clouds.
He had a long way to go.
Harold watched the kid rush the cloudwalker.
He grinned.
This kid really has drive, he thought to himself.
He wondered how long it would take the kid to figure out how to slay one of these things?
There was no way he would slay one on his first try, could he?
Harold whistled and looked around the empty area.
He’d just have to wait and see what the kid did.
The next question on his mind was: how am I going to pass the time?
He looked furtively around and accepting that no one was there, he materialized one of his antiques from the pre-tower era.
It was a magazine with a pretty lady on it.
He snickered to himself and blushed as he began to flick through the pages.
As he did this, he suddenly sensed a chilly presence of someone nearby.
“I’m only reading the articles!” he shouted in surprise. “It’s for...uhh...research. Yeah. Historical research!”
Harold looked around, suspiciously.
The presence he’d sensed was gone.
It had only been a blip.
He put his magazine away and crossed his arms.
If someone is spying on us, he thought to himself, I can’t afford a “research” break.
Max held onto the colossal creature’s shoulder for dear life.
The mist had begun to clear at this height.
A beautiful blue sky and blanket of clouds stood just above him.
I guess I know why they’re called cloudwalkers now, Max thought.
The entire way up Max couldn’t understand why the creature didn’t just swat him away. But then he came to the humbling realization that to this colossal monster he was infinitesimally smaller than even an irritating fly. He was more like a piece of bacteria. The monster didn’t even realize Max was there.
Oh, I’ll make it notice, Max thought to himself determinedly.
He shadow blinked once more.
Max’s plan was simple: first, he’d reappear on top of the monster’s head. Then he’d take a short break to let his trait usages recharge before pummeling the monster with his mana claws.
Emphasis on the world plan.
As in, what he hoped would happen after triggering shadow blink.
The reality was slightly different.
Max reappeared right in front of two giant yellow eyes.
They blinked at Max.
Wait, Max thought.
I’m not on the cloudwalker’s head.
Where am I?
He looked down and saw his feet stood on empty air.
The cloudwalker blinked at him, nonchalantly once more, before Max started falling rapidly to the ground below.
His stomach lurched. His heart paced. His ears popped.
He was falling so fast he couldn’t even scream.
Right now would be a perfect time to shadow blink to a safe ridge in the colossal creature’s body, but he couldn’t because he was temporarily out of trait usages.
Is this it? he thought. Am I just going to die while training?
Maybe Harold will be able to help him. Only if the old geezer wasn’t distracted by some pervy magazine.
No, Max suddenly thought. I know how to survive this type of situation.
As his body rushed towards the ground below, he focused his mana, preparing to channel it all to his feet a second before he landed.
The clouds flew by him, he tried to stay calm, but he couldn’t help thinking that while he had survived jumps from high elevations before, they had never been this high.
The ground was in sight and he prepared himself.
Three seconds.
Two seconds.
One second.
KABOOM!!
Max felt his legs smash into the ground and push back in the dirt.
Smoke swirled around him.
He caught his breath.
He had survived the fall.
As the dust cleared, he saw that he was standing in the middle of a massive crater.
Had I done that?
In the distance, Harold emerged.
He had a stern look on his face.
He only had one thing to say to Max.
“Again.”
Mirabel returned to Caesaria, out of breath.
The old man training the kid had almost spotted her.
But that was the least of their problems.
She found Gregoire at their meeting location on the temple dome roof.
“Any updates?” said Gregoire.
“It’s not looking good,” said Mirabel. “The boy is increasing hi
s stats at an alarming rate and his old man mentor is no slouch either.”
“So, you’re saying we won’t be able to take him out?”
“Yes and no,” she said. “If we want to slow down his development and lead to a disqualification, we could go and slay all those cloudwalkers on the floor he’s training on. That sounds tedious, though, and they’ll find another way to get the monster cores they need.”
Gregoire sighed and scratched at one of his paws.
“It sounds like we need an insurance policy in case the boy succeeds at ranking up then.”
Mirabel looked down to the city below and spotted a pair of humans walking through the streets.
“Funny you should say that,” said Mirabel. “I have just the idea.”
“Oh, do tell,” grinned Gregoire, mischievously.
Mirabel eyed one of the human girls below.
A diminutive human girl with black hair and glasses.
She grinned menacingly at the girl, the idea of her new plan beginning to excite her more than her previous one.
Finally, Mirabel shared her thoughts with her accomplice.
“We take out the weakest member of the human team instead.”
26
A few days later, Max was climbing on top of the cloudwalker.
Fighting these giant monsters had become like clockwork for him.
First, he shadow blinked up to their head, where he would momentarily rest and catch a breath and let his trait usage recharge.
Then, he’d leap off the cloudwalker, unsheathe his mana claws and stab the creature right in its eye.
This was more difficult than it initially seemed.
The first few days of training with these monsters, Max had desperately tried to figure out the monster’s weak spot because with armor-like skin, the creature didn’t have many.
That was when Max decided to attack its eyeballs and learned that these giant monsters could also be quick when they wanted to be. He found himself swatted away like a bug by the creature’s gigantic hands.
Max needed to figure out a way to attack the creature’s eye without getting swatted.
That was when good old time magic came in.
Harold’s trait acted more like a defensive force field than anything else.
So, just as he was about to slay his third colossal that day, he leaped off the creature’s head, unsheathed his mana claws, sending them right into the monster’s eye.
As the creature tried to swat him away, Max’s temporal defense allowed him to pause the creature’s hand mere inches away from smacking him across the sky and let it linger on top of him while he stabbed the colossal monster to death.
Once the eye was stabbed and Max resumed time within his force field, the cloudwalker’s hand shifted away to protect itself.
It was too late, unfortunately.
With one eye gone, Max stabbed the other.
The cloudwalker began to fall through the clouds towards the surface below.
As it made its descent, Max shadow blinked back onto the creature’s head and rode it down to the surface below.
“Kowabunga, baby,” said Max, before a massive explosion and tremor rippled across the area as the cloudwalker smashed into the ground.
Max leaped off the monster and landed in the rubble.
The giant creature began to glow and materialize into a ruby monster core.
Harold stood nearby with his arms crossed. He nodded to Max approvingly.
Max walked over to the shining ruby monster core with a big grin on his face.
That would be the third ruby core he’d collected that day.
After every cloudwalker he destroyed he’d drain the ruby core straight away.
In doing so, he’d already gotten his mana affinity stat up to 50. He was now only one stat point away from hitting C-rank.
He held the core in his hands.
They’d been training for over three weeks now. The first round of the tournament was fast approaching.
With the core in his hand, he’d be able to rank up and their team wouldn’t get disqualified.
They’d get to compete.
They’d get to show the strength and resilience of the human race.
“Go on,” said Harold. “Don’t just stand there. Drain the core.”
Max grinned.
The old man was right.
What was he waiting for?
Max sat down on the ground and held the ruby core in front of him.
He closed his eyes.
He channeled mana across his arms and into his fingertips, creating a mana bridge into the ruby monster core.
The core lit up as Max’s mana began to flow inside of it.
Now that the bridge had been created, Max pulled the mana back from the monster core.
First the core’s mana entered him gently, then it turned into a torrent of energy coursing through him.
His hair shot up from the powerful energy percolating around him. He felt a jubilant slightly nauseous sensation flow throughout his body.
The intensity was so much, he couldn’t maintain his calm sitting position and found himself shaking on the ground, his hands clawing into the dirt.
Finally, the sensation subsided.
Max caught his breath and smiled at the message in his profile.
Congratulations! You have ranked up!
Name: Max Rainhart
Rank: C
Trait (Unique): Mimic. Unleash the last move you were hit with at double the power.
You may choose to retain five abilities you’re hit with, adding it to your arsenal of attacks at double the power.
You can now fuse two abilities together to create a new ability. You're able to test and see the new ability, but once gaining the ability you lose the original two abilities in exchange for the newly created ability.
Ability Slot: Shadow Blink (Rare)
Ability Slot: Chain Lightning (Rare)
Ability Slot: Phase-Out (Uncommon)
Ability Slot: (empty)
Ability Slot: (empty)
Strength: 54
Agility: 54
Endurance: 52
Mana Affinity: 51
Passive Skills:
Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)
Holy moly, Max thought. I’m a C-ranker now!
Even better than the bragging rights that came with being C-rank was the fact that his trait had evolved yet again.
Now, he could hold up to five abilities plus the one he’d been most recently hit with. That alone was incredible in and of itself.
It was a cool evolution, but it was more of the same from what he’d gained from E-rank to D-rank.
The real interesting change was the ability to now fuse abilities.
Max grinned, just thinking about the possibilities.
But then he grew slightly confused.
How did this fusion actually work?
He concentrated on his profile and thought about the new ability fusing power.
A message appeared?
Would you like to fuse two abilities? Please pick two abilities you would like to consider combining together?
Interesting, Max thought to himself.
He didn’t want to lose any of his current abilities, but he was curious to test out the parameters of this new fusing power, so he chose shadow blink and chain lightning out of curiosity.
Multiple Fusion Options Available!
Current Fusion Option: Lightning Chain Blink
Combining these two abilities will give a maverick sense of maneuverability to chain lightning, letting the ripples of lighting shoot across an area in an unpredictable fashion!
Would you like to see another fusion option?
Whoah, Max thought. That’s cool.
Essentially, he’d be augmenting his chain lightning ability with shadow blink, which was super cool; but in the end, keeping the maneuverability of shadow blink seemed far better than sacrificing it to improve chain lightning.
&
nbsp; He was curious to see what other abilities could be created from just the two options he currently had inputted to fuse.
He chose to see another option.
Current Fusion Option: Shadow Chain
Combining these two abilities will give you a powerful offensive shadow-magic attack, sending ripples of shadow magic chains to multiple enemies at once!
Would you like to see another fusion option?
Max couldn’t stop grinning.
The breadth of this fusion power was truly astounding.
He could now take individual amazing aspects of one ability and apply it to another.
The options were near limitless.
Previously, the big problem with his mimic ability was that he most often had to use a new ability against someone who knew how to wield that ability already. The fact that he doubled the ability’s power more than mitigated that disadvantage; but now if he could fuse abilities on the fly, that meant he could hit his opponents with something truly surprising.
He didn’t plan on combining any of his current abilities just yet, but he couldn’t wait to start fusing others.
And, to think alongside all these great perks already was the basic fact that whenever you ranked up, you could simply use your trait more. Now, at C-rank he’d be able to use his ability ten times consecutively at a total of thirty-five times a day.
Max suddenly felt unstoppable.
A shadow suddenly loomed over him.
Max looked up to see Harold, grinning.
“Looks like you ranked up, kid,” he smiled. “Good work.”
The old man held out a hand to help him get up and Max gladly took it.
“We can call it a day on training a little bit earlier than usual,” said Harold. “Let’s go back to Caesaria and celebrate with the others. I’ll treat us all to dinner.”