“I finally made it!”
Xue La placed the hat on her chest and examined it in the mirror in her room. Setting aside the fact that the color was an unappealing green, the stitching was extremely poor, some threads hadn’t been trimmed, and it might not be comfortable to wear…
She still thought she had been very successful!
‘Gosh, I’d never touched sewing and weaving in my past life!’
‘I really want to complain! So much for a leisurely life in another world!’
‘Every day I’m supervised by Vice Dean Sister Mo En to finish my work. Even when my period comes, I can’t stop. If the stitching is bad, I have to tear it apart and redo it…’
‘My fingertips have been pricked countless times by scissors and needle tips.’
‘Good thing Dean Catherine is here. Her healing spell handles these small wounds quickly and well!’
When the hat was finally finished, Xue La’s physical torment also stopped. She no longer had to endure the daily pain of a churning stomach and the chore of washing bloodstains.
But then… It seems next month it will come again.
Xue La pursed her lips.
‘I really seem to be going through something extraordinary.’
‘Is there any way to relieve this pain?’
‘There seems to be. For example, pregnancy—at least during the ten months of pregnancy, I wouldn’t have to worry about that.’
‘Wait, why did I think of that?!’
‘Where is my original intention? Where are my dreams?’
Xue La covered her face in the mirror.
‘My original dream was just to happily open a restaurant in another world and be a harmless NPC.’
‘But the damn will of heaven won’t let me have my way…’
She had succeeded in getting along with the Brave. But her mother despised the Brave, drove him away, and schemed to have her trained as a maid, planning to send her to serve the princess. The world line would still converge: just like in the original timeline, she would become Third Princess Salome’s henchman, a secret spy, and be chopped into fine mincemeat by the angry Brave—thirty pounds lean, thirty pounds fat…
‘My only hope is to learn divine magic well in the convent. Maybe then I’ll have an excuse to stay here and not become a maid…’
‘But it’s hard…’
‘I’ll have to hand the hat over to Sister Mo En for inspection soon. I wonder if I’ll succeed this time.’
***
[Life Skill Unlocked: Sewing and Weaving. Bonus EXP +1000]
‘Huh?!’
Xue La couldn’t hide a surge of ecstasy.
When Sister Mo En finally nodded and said, “It’s passable, you can graduate,” her own panel actually moved!
‘So I unlocked a panel?’
‘Although it’s a useless sewing and weaving skill—I saw this skill in my past life. It’s a bit worse than blacksmithing and other life skills. It can mend fabric light armor, but it’s not very useful for iron armor…’
‘I remember seeing other build streamers on game forums, going blacksmithing strength build… What’s a dragon-slaying treasured blade compared to a self-made Village Good Sword +99?’
‘Anyway, when calculating the efficiency of killing the Demon King, the latter is more powerful than the former.’
***
In Grino’s blacksmith shop, that was how Mason taught Luo Yi.
“When you’re out adventuring, don’t forget to maintain your weapons… I can teach you a few simple things…”
But currently, Xue La couldn’t achieve any “Village Good Sword +99.”
She was more concerned about what the extra experience could be used for.
Xue La leveled up again. But the Divine Magic panel was still locked. She didn’t know what to do.
Judging by how she unlocked the life skill [Sewing and Weaving], it seemed she had to actually learn how to make clothes and hats to unlock the skill.
‘So, am I stuck in some kind of dead loop now?’
‘I can’t learn divine magic because the Divine Magic skill panel is locked.’
‘To unlock the Divine Magic skill panel, I need to learn and cast divine magic.’
‘But I can’t learn or cast divine magic, so I can only wait for the panel to unlock.’
‘A dead loop, dammit!’
‘If this were in a game, it would be a bug!’
Xue La sighed inwardly, because in her past life experience, the game Epic Fantasy Legend had no shortage of NPCs with overly distinctive personalities, and some skills were completely locked and unusable.
Unless you were the Brave, or one of the official heroines.
The Brave could master all kinds of weapons and even study magic, walking the path of both magic and martial arts.
The official heroines were similar… Asuna, that noble girl blessed by the Moon Goddess, had a class as versatile as the Brave’s. She could be a good priest for healing, or switch to learn swordsmanship to fight, or combine both as a paladin…
As for Xue La herself…
Right, according to the game’s settings, she was just a disposable maid temporarily given to the Brave by the princess. Her proficient classes were pitifully few, like the Thief class.
‘I’m so screwed!’
Xue La really had no heart left.
She hastily selected the passive [Trap Making] on her skill panel. It was just the Thief class’s skill panel, and she had only been able to activate it with the help of a life skill.
The extra passive bonus [Precise Dexterous Hands] from the life skill [Sewing and Weaving] could slightly increase the character’s perception and agility. It matched Xue La’s Thief class reasonably well.
‘A harmless little bonus.’
Having made this green hat that she would never wear, Xue La didn’t know what to do next. At least her stomach had returned to normal, and she no longer had to lie in bed.
‘Alright, let’s go out for some fresh air!’
Maisonlogi, this ancient convent, was indeed “sharp-edged,” not just solemn and majestic in appearance. The key was, these edges were really useful!
‘If I use [Gale Step] to parkour…’
Xue La really wanted to try.
You see, in her past life as a game fan, she played not only Epic Fantasy Legend but also exciting games like Assassin’s Creed and GTA V.
‘Days of lying in bed all day are really boring!’
‘Might as well find some fun, really.’
She was fed up with her boring life and the “stuck” problem.
‘I’m getting further from my dream of a leisurely life in another world. Might as well try other pleasures.’
Xue La fixed her direction, leaving only a brief breath at the base of the wall. The start was only the third step of her run-up, because the first step had to crush the puddle from last night’s autumn rain, the second step allowed her to try stepping on the protruding edge of the wall. Only on the third step did her entire body become airborne.
Xue La’s [Gale Step] was extremely useful; she directly grabbed the neck of the gargoyle under the lower flying buttress.
To be honest, the gargoyles of this convent were quite ugly, carved in the likeness of manticores—Xue La really didn’t want to recall these things.
But she couldn’t help it, because she always couldn’t stop wondering how Luo Yi was doing.
Had he found Bali Saihe?
Had he and Asuna become a perfect match?
Strange, why did she care about these?
Xue La didn’t know.
On the statue, the rough scale marks bit into her palm—she couldn’t hesitate, hesitation would make her fall.
So Xue La swung her body, her feet stepping one after another onto the sloped ridge of the buttress: two exposed stone tendons formed by rain erosion at about a sixty-degree angle. If she lowered her body, it was enough to stand on.
Xue La’s judgment was correct. She pressed her center of gravity down and nimbly walked several steps on it.
At the end of the sloped buttress, the angle became steeper.
Xue La understood that this was the time to use [Gale Step] a second time. She needed to use it instantly before her feet completely lost strength, to gain enough power to bring her right hand over her shoulder and hook it onto the crenellation gap of the second flying buttress.
There was an inverted trapezoidal trough that perfectly accommodated Xue La’s five fingers.
Xue La pulled herself up and climbed to the ridge of the second level.
From here, the building’s “sharp edges” became more friendly. On the second level, there were countless statues of saints and apostles whose names she didn’t know. Their shoulders and heads were the best footholds and a staircase to the heights.
So Xue La ran, each step landing on the heads of these iron saints (somewhat blasphemous, to say the least). The blue-haired, golden-eyed girl stretched her arms to keep balance, as if walking a suspended stone bridge barely one foot wide…
Ahead, between the end of the flying buttress and the main spire of the convent, lay a stone arch.
Its underside had no exquisite relief, so naturally she couldn’t copy the method.
But Xue La’s attention focused on the center under the arch: a vertical gap, the seam where two keystones joined.
Xue La used [Gale Step] a third time to leap, stuffing all ten fingers into the gap. Using this, she could still gain leverage, swinging and flipping like a clock pendulum, conquering the building.
From here to the top bell tower, no skill was needed. The side walls were covered with dense decorations, a stark contrast to the bare stone arch before.
Xue La didn’t need to maintain a standing posture. She turned sideways and climbed with hands and feet, at a steady, slow pace…
The last few steps!
Xue La used both hands to grab the railing of the bell tower balcony and vaulted over. She was only three steps away from the highest point of the convent.
Maisonlogi was a temple dedicated to the Moon Goddess Lu’anna. Naturally, the tower top decoration was a crescent moon made of pure white marble, supported by an octagonal marble pillar of the same white.
The pillar itself had no grooves. Here, she could only slowly climb up using the simplest tree-climbing method. Just like in her past life, on the trees behind the orphanage, she imitated a stray cat, wriggling her body to climb.
‘Gosh, it’s so high…’
Xue La couldn’t help looking down. She saw a chessboard-like town—Privet Town was a small town with clear streets, orchards, and wheat fields. Not far away were green rolling mountains and forests.
She finally felt a trace of fear.
‘Should I go down?’
‘Going up is easy, but coming down is hard…’
‘Can someone save me?’
Xue La didn’t have much hope.
But she quickly discovered that there was someone on the crescent moon sculpture at the highest point of the convent.
“Help me,”
she tentatively sent the message.
Then she regretted it.
That person was Dean Catherine. A little old lady, yet she was even wilder than the girl Xue La!
How was she here?
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.