Chapters (122)
- Tower Climber
- Jakob Tanner
- Contents
- Newsletter
- Dedication
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
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- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
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- 71
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- 73
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- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- 98
- 99
- 100
- 101
- 102
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- 108
- 109
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“I guess if I was going to be nervous about anything,” said Max, “It would be about you guys coming back at all? The kraken won’t kill you all, will it?”
The captain laughed.
“Hah! You just worry about surviving for two weeks on Ogre Island,” said the captain. “Now climb aboard.”
Max walked up the plank and sat on the deck, trying to stay out of the way of the other sailors.
Max sat on the boat and watched the sailors get ready to set sail.
They all had copper E-rank badges on them. He didn’t see any higher ranked climbers than that. Even though they had climber badges, they appeared more like regular sailors than climbers.
“Are you guys retired climbers?” asked Max to a passing sailor.
The man laughed. “Of course not! Though it’s been awhile since any of us have been back to Zestiris. We mainly work across this floor, the archipelagos, and what a floor it is!”
So that was their job. They loved the world of this floor and so they never left or explored much further beyond. Max figured that a top-level E-rank climber could go as high as floor-30 without suffering significant tower sickness, but if you found a floor you enjoyed and didn’t see yourself hitting D-rank, you might as well stick with it.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Yeah,” said the captain. “Stay out of the way.”
Max stood at the back of the deck and watched the sailors work: climbing rope ladders, loosening up sails, shouting orders.
They worked like a clockwork machine, all recognizing how their individual roles gave shape and control to the massive wooden frigate sailing across the ocean world.
They eventually arrived at an island of similar shape and size to the one he’d done his mid-term exams on, except this island one sailor assured him, “They’d never test students on.”
That sailor looked Max over, shuddering, and said, “Nice knowing ya, kid.”
The ship docked at the island and the captain came up to Max.
“There you go, kid,” said the captain. “First stop, Ogre Island. But I gotta ask: you sure about this? You can stick with us for the next two weeks on the trading route, learn some of what it takes to be a sailor of the archipelagos!”
“Thanks,” said Max. “But I gotta go train on my own. I got the climber final exams to think about.”
The captain laughed. “Oh my, it’s been so long since I had to do any such test, it’s making my stomach lurch just thinking about it. Alright. We’ll be coming back this way in about two weeks or so. See you then?”
“Sounds good,” said Max.
He then hopped off the boat and waved goodbye to the captain and sailors.
He then turned around and faced the looming island in front of him.
* * *