Chapter 122 : Letter
Letter
"Squeak—"
After a soft, nerve-jangling sound, the half-closed door was slowly pushed open.
Dust, accompanied by the scent of decay, rushed in. In the dim candlelight, that tall figure once again appeared in Chen Zixuan's sight.
Aesther Augustine Loren.
A terrifying woman who could shatter the void with a mere wave of her hand.
At the same time, she was currently Chen Zixuan's nominal mentor.
At this moment, aesther was not sitting on the only chair in the room, but was instead leaning against the desk, her long left leg crossed over her right, her eyes filled with amusement as she quietly watched Chen Zixuan, as if she had already expected him to come.
"... I have something to ask you."
Swallowing hard, Chen Zixuan spoke with difficulty.
"..."
The room fell silent.
A few seconds passed, but Aesther still didn't say a single word; her facial expression didn't change in the slightest either. There was still that half-smile, half-not look on her face, making Chen Zixuan's hair stand on end.
Gradually, an uneasy premonition began to rise in Chen Zixuan's heart.
It's only been a day since I saw her—did this woman get stupid or something?
So, after pondering for a moment, he continued to ask, "Are you... mute...?"
A few seconds went by. Still, aesther did not reply; she merely turned her head slightly and glanced at the desk behind her.
Relying on his Vampire's exceptional night vision, Chen Zixuan now noticed that there seemed to be a note on the desk, pressed under an ink bottle, densely covered in neat black writing.
Hesitating for two seconds, Chen Zixuan cautiously walked forward, sidestepped the dangerous woman, and picked up the note from the desk.
On the surface, it was a letter handwritten with a quill, the handwriting exceptionally tidy, the lines neatly arranged exuding a unique sense of beauty.
Only the most obsessive perfectionist could write such characters.
Although the words on the letter weren't Chinese, to Chen Zixuan's surprise, he could actually understand every sentence.
So, he let out a gentle breath, forced himself to calm down, and read on patiently.
[/踆五壹 7捌⒏ 令（七）陆衣 [To my dearest Cecilia]
"Eek—!"
The moment he had read just the first sentence, Chen Zixuan couldn't help recalling that woman's teasing expression. His whole body instantly became uncomfortable.
Still, he forced himself to continue reading.
[Hello, miss Cecilia. It's been a full day since we last parted, and I have not spoken with you since then. Through the long hours of the night, I have missed you deeply.]
[During this day, I believe you must have many questions and hope for me to answer them.]
[Yet, heaven doesn't grant everyone's wishes, and things rarely go as we want. For some reason—which is hard to speak of—I'm afraid neither of us will be able to converse openly for a while. Thus, allow me to express my sincerest apologies first.]
[Please don't worry. Though our souls cannot meet, our bodies can still closely intertwine. The doll I left you retains all functions except verbal communication. For now, let her serve as your temporary mentor. If you wish to learn new skills, just seek her out.]
[That's all I wanted to say. Let me add one more thing: with your abilities as they are now, it's really not suitable for you to know too much. If you grow stronger in the future, I'll be happy to share stories about the other world with you.]
[Where should I begin...? Oh yes, let's start from when we first met.]
[Yours, who loves you, aesther.]
With that, the letter's content ended.
Slowly putting down the letter and letting the heat rush to his head, Chen Zixuan glanced at the nearby, silent, soulless doll. He felt like he would have a cerebral hemorrhage from anger.
He had wanted to find that woman tonight for a proper talk, but who could have known she'd slip away in advance? Now, who knew how long it would be until he could see her again.
Still, anger aside, he had to learn the skills he needed.
Taking a few deep breaths, Chen Zixuan walked up to the Aesther doll. After testing, he discovered that, just as the letter said, he could smoothly open the skill learning interface, and he finally felt a bit relieved.
Although he was now level 9 and had a skill point to allocate, Chen Zixuan chose not to use it.
Perhaps to mark a new phase, every ten levels in this game featured several especially powerful ultimate skills. The ones he had now were already enough. Chen Zixuan decided to save up his skill points and use them after hitting level 10.
It was already 9 PM. Unless there was another town quest, going out now to grind would be more trouble than it's worth.
There were only a few days left until the week-long deadline, and things would only get tougher. With that in mind, Chen Zixuan left the dangerous building, found a random inn, and logged out of the game.
The midsummer nights always left people feeling hot and irritable. Slowly taking off the VR helmet, Chen Zixuan found his face covered in sweat, feeling as if he'd just stepped out of a steam room.
In a few more days, he'd probably have to turn on the air conditioner...
He took a shower in the bathroom, dried his hair, and returned to his room. Taking advantage of still being clear-headed, Chen Zixuan picked up his phone, opened up the memo app, and started carefully listing out what he had to do in the coming days.
There were 4 days left before the level 15 deadline, while Cecilia was only level 9 now.
Although this was already considered fast compared to other players, Chen Zixuan knew that if there were no new system events in the next few days, it would be tough to reach level 15 on time.
Therefore, he absolutely could not let go of the D-level world boss [Sawtooth Demon King Crocodile] first-kill!
To defeat those thick-skinned crocodiles, producing a [Rose Maid] set was essential.
Even taking down a few mobs was draining; without the max-level [Maid Outfit Mastery] buff, Chen Zixuan didn't feel he had any chance against a level 20+ D-ranked world boss.
However, even if he managed to overcome all obstacles and forge a full [Rose Maid] set, to equip it, he'd need to be at least level 15.
It felt like an unsolvable loop, and this was the problem Chen Zixuan thought about most during the day.
Add to that the gender-swap event in twenty days, the Angel's divine descent in a year, and Gu Yanxi's perverted classmates at cram school...
The more he thought, the more frustrated and restless he became. Randomly tapping the phone screen a few times, Chen Zixuan tossed his phone by the side of the bed, flopped onto it, and quickly fell into a deep sleep.
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(If I had known original plots were this hard to write, I should have just written a standard rebirth story with everyone else.)
LIST OF NEW NAMES, lOCATIONS, sKILLS, aND TECHNIQUES: