The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1268

Once Ves enacted his plan and crudely fashioned a bit more rope, he began to summon up the courage to climb one of the trees. Although they looked like earth-species trees, they still looked taller than any tree on Cloudy Curtain!

Climbing them took a lot of nerve!

Still, if he wanted to find some hope of getting out of this seemingly endless forest, he needed a better view of his surroundings.

"Here goes nothing."

With his body weighed down by several coils of makeshift rope, he began the arduous task of climbing up the most hopeful-looking tree.

It took a long time as he was trying to be careful. He hadn’t exactly done anything like this before, but for the most part Ves didn’t feel a lot of peril, especially since he stopped looking down.

The riskiest portion came when he needed to overcome the three gaps. Each time, he uncoiled a rope and clumsily tried to throw them around a sturdy branch above.

His technique left much to be desired.

Still, as long as he kept hold of the rope, he could keep trying over and over again.

After twenty-three tries, Ves finally managed to loop the rope successfully around the branch.

With that done, he finagled his way upwards with the help of the rope. Although it was quite intense, he nonetheless felt a small amount of satisfaction for overcoming this challenge.

He chuckled a bit. "Here I am, a mech designer who designs mechs worth millions of credits enjoying the accomplishment of climbing a tree."

It was absurd how low he had fallen that he would feel actual pride for such a trivial solution. Ves shook his head and turned his attention back to his task. He still had to reach the top!

The rest of the climb proceeded without incident. He used the other two ropes he fashioned to bridge over the other gaps. He even held on to a spare coil of rope just in case.

Once he climbed past the tree cover and poked his head over most of the other trees, he beheld his simulated environment properly for the very first time!

A blue sky. An endless forest. An unmoving sun. A couple of birds. A tall and spiralling black tower.

That last one stuck out of the drab environment like a sore thumb!

"It looks a little ominous."

The tower resembled an evil wizard’s hideouts like in the fantasy dramas. All sorts of unnecessary spikes and gruesome features had been worked across its surface.

Although it looked a bit intimidating, it was the only landmark in the forest worth investigating.

"Well, I know where I need to go now. The next problem is getting there."

Ves tried to estimate the distance and figured he needed to traverse at least ten kilometers without going astray. Considering that it was hard to maintain a straight path in the forest, he might need to climb a tree again after he walked for a while.

He figured he could use the makeshift ropes he made to help him maintain a straight path. If he weighed down one of the ends and threw them straight in front of him as he walked, he could at least rely on something a bit more solid than his judgement to maintain a single direction.

Shortly after he started climbing down, Ves suddenly felt his entire perspective starting to shift. His vision blurred for a moment before he ended up in a completely new environment!

He had returned to ground level. He stood in a small clearing. To one side was the forest. To the other side was the base of what must be the same tower he initially observed!

"Took you long enough to get here."

Ves turned his gaze towards the voice. Leaning against the side of the obsidian tower was Tristan! The other mech designer looked bored as he idly threw a snapped tree branch in the air.

Aside from Tristan, Ves quickly discerned that a couple of other mech designers arrived as well. In total, Ves was the fifth one to arrive.

Four more had yet to come, which meant they were still stuck in the forest.

Ves sheepishly smiled at himself. He understood that he hadn’t exactly performed stellar in the first trial. He wasted an entire hour walking aimlessly when he should have figured out rather quickly that it wouldn’t get him anywhere.

Overall, the trial was meant to test a mech designer’s judgement in the face of the unknown. It was a good way to approximate someone’s decisiveness, ingenuity and willingness to bear some hardship.

Though it hadn’t surprised Ves to see that Tristan easily made it out, the presence of the other mech designers showed that they weren’t incompetent in the slightest.

A mech designer needed to be at least somewhat resourceful if they wanted to advance to Journeyman while they were still in their prime!

A plodding and indecisive mech designer did not have what it took to swim against the current!

As Ves approached Tristan, the other mech designer said something surprising.

"I’m not the first one to arrive. When I teleported to the tower, that guy over there was already here."

Tristan jerked his head towards a man who wore his dark hair long. His body was lean and thin, but his black ensemble contrasting against his pale skin made him look like a corpse.

"Do you know who he is, Tristan?"

"I didn’t realize it earlier, but if my guess isn’t wrong, he’s a Hexer!"

That caused Ves and the others present in the clearing to widen their eyes at the mech designer in question!

For his part, the Hexer grinned at them before ignoring their astonished glances.