by Jakob Tanner
The instructor eventually arrived. He sighed, then took one last drag of his cigarette, and then threw it on the ground and stubbed it out with his boot.
“He isn’t really a great role model, is he?” said Casey, crossing her arms.
The instructor gestured for everyone to be quiet.
“Today I’m announcing something very exciting,” he said. “Something I’m sure all of you have been waiting for. The date for this years midterms!”
An audible groan came from the entire crowd. Casey looked particularly displeased.
“Ugh, midterms,” she said. “But it’s only week two of classes.”
Max kept his cool. He understood that this academy was all about pushing students to their limits and seeing if they could triumph. The midterms were just another stepping stone towards his goals to becoming a tower climber. He wasn’t going to stand there and groan while important information was being disseminated.
The instructor continued.
“The mid terms will be held on December 3rd. You now have the rest of October and November to train and prepare for the test. It should be noted that the academy’s trials will only get more difficult after the midterms, so failing them will result in a failure for the year. There’s no chance to catch up after them. Oh—and the winter ball will be held a few days after the midterms as well. Don’t forget that and, most importantly, good luck.”
With that, the instructor headed back into the academy building and the crowd of students erupted into a deluge of complaints.
“Are they ever actually going to teach us anything? Or is it all tests, all the time!?”
Max turned to Casey and her whole body was slumped over.
“Mondays are the worst.”
36
Max stood in the academy courtyard, tapping his foot and thinking to himself.
None of the students had left yet. They continued to moan about the midterms and lack of guidance from the academy in general.
Max went over what the instructor had told them. The midterms was an important test in two months time. They had now until then to train.
Max didn’t mind the idea of independent study, but there was just one problem. They weren’t allowed to go to any tower floors higher than The Endless Forest.
That was a problem. One of the best parts of Max’s trait was that he had the power to defeat monsters much higher ranked than him. He should be able to gain stats and power much more quickly than others; but he wouldn’t be able to do so on floor-2 where all the monsters were so low ranked.
All of the tower-zone’s rules were preventing him from being able to improve quickly.
“Any ideas of how you’re going to study for the mid terms?” asked Casey.
Max shook his head. “I’m trying to figure that out now.”
“Well, I’m going to go hit the gym, treat myself to a crêpe, and try and think of some ideas on my own,” she said. “So I’ll catch you later?”
Max smiled. “Sure, sounds great!”
She turned to leave and it looked as if she was waiting for something to happen.
“You know—with how independent the next few weeks of training are—we might not necessarily be bumping into each other as frequently,” Casey said.
“That’s true,” said Max. “I can’t wait to see how your training pays off.”
“Yeah but maybe we’ll discover something that might help the both of us, so wouldn’t it be a good idea to stay in contact somehow...?”
“Oh,” said Max. “We should exchange mobile numbers. I have a new one as well. I’m glad I thought of this!”
Casey threw a large punch into his shoulder. “I thought of it, you moron! It’s just more normal for a boy to ask for a girl’s number, not the other way around! I don’t know how they do things in the outer-rim, but you can be pretty dim, Max!”
“Uhh...” Max was at a loss for words.
He handed her his phone and she inputted her number while still red in the face. She then sent a text to herself from his phone.
“There,” she said. “Now I’m going to go do some laps at the pool, enjoy my crêpe, and imagine that you had simply asked for my number straightaway.”
“Okay,” said Max. “Bye.”
Casey strutted off.
Max shrugged to himself. He really was no expert when it came to girls, but he was happy he now had Casey’s number. She was the first friend his age he had made here in the tower-zone.
Max put his phone back in his pocket and looked around the courtyard. The majority of students were still there.
He still needed to figure out how to train as efficiently as possible.
“It’s total bull crap,” said a voice nearby. “We’re only allowed to go one floor up. The energy from those copper monster cores barely improves my mana affinity at all.”
Max kept his distance, but listened closely to the group of students. It was a group of three guys.
“I heard there’s a place where we can fight higher ranked monsters,” said another one of the boys. “And get this: we can even get paid while doing it too.”
“What! No way!”
“Believe it. Follow me. I’ll take you to this ultimate secret training spot.”
Max was intrigued by what they were saying. A secret training spot where he could fight higher ranked monsters sounded like exactly what he needed.
The three boys nodded eagerly and headed through the courtyard, completely ignoring Max’s presence.
“I can’t wait to kick some monster butt and earn some cash!” said one of the boys.
They made a left down the street. Max followed behind them.
Max made sure to keep a good distance away from the boys. He didn’t want them to spot him. They might not be keen to share their personal training spot for the midterms. Also, since the one boy had described it as a “secret training spot,” it might not be easy to find if you didn’t know where to look.
The boy’s hurried along the street, shadow boxing and hyping each other up.
Max followed them from across the street.
The city was in full swing as Max followed the boys.
Wafts of gasoline and manatech exhaust fumes filled the air, mixing with the smell of fried chicken and ramen restaurants. Cars honked. Construction workers drilled a hole in the ground. If it weren’t for the odd glow of a monster core powering a manatech street sign, Max felt like he was in the outer-rim again. Just another city going about its day-to-day business as the tower that dictated so much of their lives loomed far above them all.
As soon as Max had learned that not everyone in the tower-zone was a climber, he had wondered what they all did with their time, but it was very much like any other city. You had bakers, carpenters, janitors, bus drivers, and the list went on.
And then there was him, a student stalking three boys in the streets.
The boys turned another corner and Max crossed the street to catch up with them.
They turned into an alleyway next. Max hurried to the corner and peeked around and saw that the boys had completely disappeared.
What the heck!?
Max looked to the end of the alleyway and could see that it had no exit, so where had his fellow student peers gone then?
They couldn’t have just simply vanished, could they?
In the middle of the alley was an unmarked black door.
Max approached it and pulled the handle. The door opened up into a plain white hall with a stairwell leading underground.
“Is this really it? You’re not tricking us, are you?”
It was one of the three boys. They had already gone down the stairs.
Max tiptoed down the steps being as quiet as possible. He hung back on the last step and listened further down the hall.
“Password?”
It was a new voice entirely. A gruff older man.
“Zodiac,” said the boy and Max listened to their steps go further and further down the hall until they dwin
dled out of earshot.
Max then took a step into the basement hall.
A large man in a black suit and tie stood in front of a hanging red velvet rope.
A powerful thrumming sound like the bass of a nightclub trembled all along the walls.
When Max got close enough to the man, the man spoke. “Password?”
Max gulped and said. “Zodiac.”
The man nodded and lifted up the velvet rope and gestured for Max to walk past.
Max went forward towards two large wooden doors. The floor trembled and vibrated more and more the closer he got to the entrance.
He got to the door.
This was it.
He pushed it open and stepped into a massive underground arena.
Bright white spotlights shone down on a fighting ring in the center of the large room, surrounded by seats of onlookers.
“Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!”
The crowd around him chanted.
In the ring was a burly man fighting a saber-toothed tiger, but it wasn’t a normal saber-tooth, as this creature could blow fire out of its mouth.
The tiger shot out a blast of fire. It was like a hose of flames.
The attack would have been enough to roast the opposing fighter alive if he got hit by it.
Luckily for the man, he leapt over the flames and kicked the tiger in the ribs.
The tiger slumped to the floor and the man started punching it back and forth.
Max was trying to determine what the man’s trait was and at first he couldn’t tell. Then he saw the silver glint in his arms and fists as he pounded the lion.
Holy smokes! That man could transform parts of himself into powerful metal!
POW!
The metal man’s fist broke through the flesh of the fire-breathing tiger and it yelped on the floor in defeat.
It eventually turned silver, disintegrating down to its monster core.
It was a gold color. A C-rank monster core!
Max looked on with wonder. How much would such a core improve his mana affinity?
The metal man picked it up triumphantly and raised his fists to the audience.
The crowd cheered with applause.
Max glanced around, feeling newly motivated.
It looked like he’d found a new place to properly train.
37
A new monster was brought out for the metal man to fight. It was floating spirit that looked kind of like an oversized seahorse and it was able to shoot ice shards at the man.
Max looked on with awe.
What floor did that creature come from?
Max thought about the situation further. There must be a whole business of tower climbers who capture monsters on other floors and bring them down to the tower-zone for training and entertainment purposes.
I guess this was just another way the tower-zone made up for all the things it lacked compared to the outer-rim.
The crowd cheered as the next battle round began.
Max looked around for the three students who he had followed, but he couldn’t see where they had gone.
It didn’t matter though. His next step would be to ask someone about signing up to fight.
Max approached a woman polishing glasses behind a bar.
“Excuse me,” he said. “Do you know how someone signs up to fight in the arena?”
She smirked as she polished a wine glass.
“More chattel coming through, huh?” said the woman. “You gotta speak to the manager. You’re looking for a skinny old geezer in a purple pinstriped suit. He’ll be wearing an old hat and sunglasses. He’s hard to miss. He runs this place.”
Max nodded and thanked the lady for her help. He then started moving through the crowd to find the man she spoke of.
More chattel coming through, huh?
The woman’s words stuck with him. He guessed the other students had enquired about signing up to the woman as well. But why call them chattel? It made him uneasy.
He walked on the outer limits of the arena where he found the old man in the purple pinstriped suit, leaning against the wall with a cigar hanging out of his mouth.
“Excuse me, sir,” said Max, approaching the man. “I hear you’re the person to talk to about signing up to fight in the arena.”
The man stood up straight. He had a wide Cheshire cat smile with yellow stained teeth.
“You think you got what it takes to fight in the arena, do you?”
Max nodded.
“What rank are you, kid?”
“Unranked,” said Max. “Does it matter?”
The man chuckled. “Of course, it matters, kid. We’re here to make money, take bets, and put on a show. I can’t put on an unranked kid in the center of the arena, but don’t worry, we have special rings just for chattel like you.”
There it was again.
Chattel.
“Follow me, kid,” said the man.
The man led the way entering a new chamber with a smaller arena.
The fighter below wore a copper badge on his shirt, so Max could tell the fighter was E-rank.
He was up against a giant serpent.
But unlike the metal man who’d dominated the firebreathing lion, the E-rank fighter was getting devoured by the fangs of the large serpent.
He was bleeding out on the floor.
“Is anyone going to help him?” asked Max as he followed behind the purple suited man.
“Like I said before, kid: we’re putting on a show here. If you can’t satisfy the crowd’s bloodlust by killing the monster, well, in that case, we let the monster kill you.”
Max shivered.
He wondered to himself: was any of this legal?
They went past a few more smaller arenas until they were at the very back.
“Wait here,” said the man who went and spoke to another arena worker.
The purple suited man came back a few minutes later.
“So here’s how it works, kid,” said the man. “This is the lowest stage we got. This is where you start as an unranked fighter. We’ll start you off with something close to your level and if you win your battles we’ll let you fight monsters as high as two ranks above your own.”
Amazing, thought Max. Two ranks above his own meant D-rank. Monsters with silver cores.
“If you win, you get to keep the core and the money dropped from the monster,” said the man. “Sound fair?”
Max nodded his head. He got the feeling that the man didn’t expect Max to get very far; but he felt more confident than the man was giving him credit for.
“After each battle, if you win,” said the man, “you’re given a mana potion so you can keep going. We want our fighters to go as long as possible. Give the people a show is our motto!”
Max nodded his head.
“Does that all make sense?” said the man. “We can have you down there in the arena in ten minutes. How you feeling? You ready to fight?”
38
Max stood in the small battle arena and faced a floor-2 forest boar.
The crowd around him cheered.
“Fifty coppers says the boar kills the boy in under three minutes!”
“Aye! I’ll take that bet!”
Max smirked. These guys really didn’t think much of him, did they?
That was why the manager referred to him as chattel. This arena at the back was for people betting on the fighters to lose, for people who enjoyed seeing monsters kill weak climbers.
Well, Max thought, I’m about to show them.
In fact, he was more disappointed than anyone else to see a forest boar as his first monster opponent. He came here to fight more powerful monsters than this, but he guessed he had to start somewhere.
The forest boar rushed him and Max triggered the slice ability.
The energy blade shot forward and sliced the boar completely in half.
Seconds later all that remained on the ring was Max and a copper monster core and a few coins.
The
crowd was silent and dumbfounded, then they started cheering and heckling with excited fervor.
“Bring out another monster!” they yelled.
“The kid is hustling us! Give the little prick a bigger challenge!”
Max scooped up the monster cores and then leaned against the ropes of the fighting ring to rest and wait for the next monster he was going to fight.
One of the arena workers came up to him and handed him a small blue vial.
“You’re allowed one mana potion after each fight,” said the staff member. “You can use your traits as much as you’re normally able to.”
Max took the vial and thanked the man and took a sip.
Max couldn’t help but make a face when he swallowed the drink down.
It tasted like very powerful cough syrup.
He felt a new urgency and vivacity to the mana running through his body after finishing the potion.
So the blue liquid was a form of liquefied mana then? Max wondered if he could figure out a way to create such a potion on his own using his own internal mana. That would have to be a project for another day though.
The staff members came to the arena with a monster in a steel cage. They placed it in the ring and then opened it and stepped out.
“Let the fight begin!”
Waddling out of the cage was a large overgrown mushroom with arms and legs and red angular eyes full of blood lust.
The crowd cheered and started calling out bets.
Max took in the monster. He hadn’t seen anything like this before, but he suspected it probably existed within the endless forest and therefore was probably another E-rank monster. Maybe slightly more powerful than the boar, but he wasn’t sure.
The mushroom monster clenched its fist and winced its eyes.
Slowly purple vapor began to emanate from the monster.
Purple tendrils of smoke began to fill the ring.
Two members of staff with the power of elemental stones manipulated the air so that the purple smoke didn’t waft into the crowd.
Crap, thought Max. I can’t get hit by that vapor, otherwise mimic will make that my new move instead of Sakura’s overpowered slice ability.