“So you figured it out,” said Sakura, upon her return from the defense climber headquarters. She crossed her arms, impressed at Max’s display. “Imbuing mana into different parts of your body is instrumental to being a climber. You can break your fall from high distances. Endure tougher attacks. Sending internal mana to your finger is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to mana manipulation.”

Max cheered triumphantly.

“Good thing, you figured out the basics,” said Sakura, crossing her arms. “Your first day at the climber academy is in two days.”

21

With only one more full day until classes started at the climber academy, Sakura gave him the day off.

In the end, he practiced the book-balancing exercise in Sakura’s living room for most of the day.

He managed to finally raise his mana affinity by one point from two to three. He only needed to raise the stat by another eight points to rank up to E-rank.

He couldn’t wait for that to happen.

“Give yourself a break,” said Sakura once more. “You won’t be able to get your mana affinity stat up by another point by the time classes start. Besides, once you’re in the tower you’ll be able to grow the stat at a faster pace. If the tower monsters don’t kill you, that is.”

Max lay back on the floor. Sakura was right. He needed a break.

“Hey! Can I come help you with the monster wave tonight? Then I can level up my mana affinity faster.”

“Fat chance, mister,” said Sakura. “You’re going to stay inside here and have a nice relaxing evening in. You have a lot to do tomorrow and none of it is going to get done if you’re dead. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

With that, Sakura closed her apartment door behind her, and left Max to his own devices.

Max then stood up, thinking of something and ran to the door.

“Sakura, wait up—!”

* * *

It was ten-thirty p.m. and the monster wave was in full swing.

Ninja stalked the streets. He was a slithering shadow. Those who didn’t know better would struggle to say whether he was a climber or one of the attacking monsters.

In some ways, Ninja thought, he was both.

He clung to the shadow of an alleyway as an E-rank climber stepped into the streets.

What the heck was this guy doing here?

His assignment that night required there be no witnesses.

He reached for the knife he kept at his side.

I guess I’ll have to kill this guy, Ninja grinned. No witnesses mean no witnesses.

Ka-kaw!!

A harpy flew down to the street and attacked the lone E-rank climber. The lone climber shot out a puny slice skill at the demonic bird woman, which barely cut through her flesh.