Casey whispered in his ear. “The Archer family is one of the most powerful and prestigious families in the tower-zone. His dad is one of the few A-ranked climbers in the city. Cyrus is said to be a prodigy. He’s not someone you want to mess with, even though he is a jerky jerkface.”

“Stop muttering to yourselves,” said the boy. “You are talking to your betters. Don’t you know any manners?”

Ugh. This guy sucked, thought Max. Which wasn’t a surprise as he’d met Cyrus’ father already. Samuel Archer. The man who had tried to thwart him from even getting into the academy in the first place.

Being an asshole must run in the family then.

Max figured he should end the conversation as quickly as possible.

“Good to meet you, Cyrus,” lied Max. “I’m Max and my trait is slice.”

Max figured there was no reason to tell him the truth and as far as he’d seen, slice was a pretty badass trait, so hopefully that would keep the boy off his back.

The kid’s eyes widened at that before he full-on guffawed with smug laughter. He held his stomach theatrically as if what Max had just said was so funny it was hurting him.

Cyrus wiped a tear from his eyes. “Oh man, that’s too good. I guess both my mates and myself were wrong. Slice! The most common trait there is. What a loser!”

Max was shocked. Slice wasn’t considered a good trait? Sakura was a slicer and one of the strongest climbers he knew.

“And look who he’s mates with,” Cyrus laughed, pointing then at Casey. “A commoner and a fake-vein. What a match! It’s too much.”

Casey bristled at the boy’s comments.

There was that word again, thought Max. Fake-vein.

What were they all talking about?

He was about to retaliate against Cyrus’ condescension when the academy doors swung open and a man stepped out.

The whole crowd of teenagers went silent.

The man had spiky matte hair and wore an unzipped black parka with a white undershirt beneath it. He wore a necklace with a silver dog tag. A burning cigarette hung between his lips. He looked to be in his mid to late thirties. He had a gold badge with the letter C engraved on it pinned to his jacket.

“Good morning,” said the man. “So you lot are all here to become climbers, are ya? Well, let me tell you what it means to be a climber. To be a climber is to face some of the most ruthless monsters and even deadlier warriors—fellow climbers from other floors, other worlds, and, of course, rogue climbers from Zestiris. You need to be willing to kill. To be merciless. They call this the climber academy with an exam at the end. Make no mistake: the whole term is an exam. Starting right now.”

24

The group of students was stunned.