Author's note: This isn't a chapter of our story. If that's all you're wanting to read; skip this. What is then then, you ask? It's my attempt to have an honest conversation with my readers and to answer many of the same comments and questions that I keep hearing over and over. I appreciate all forms of feedback, and I love hearing from you guys, but consider this to be a FAQ section that I can refer people back to when the same subject pops up over and over.

Reader Opinion: Drake's an idiot and needs to spend points in knowledge so that he can suddenly become smarter, more tactical, and a more experienced combat specialist.

Author Response: It's simply not going to happen. Contrary to what a lot of people wish to believe, there is no direct knowledge stat that will make anyone smarter when they train it up. If it did, then anyone with a 20 KNOW-it-all would be a master of all forms of combat knowledge, tactics, guerrilla warfare, and such things. IF two points can make a character go from dumb to average, why wouldn't they go on up another ten points to become a super genius? Why wouldn't everybody? Knowledge is power!

If this was a story where a normal guy got his mind trapped in a virtual world, would you expect the character to suddenly pick up combat tactics, battle strategies, and all those things? NO, you wouldn't. You'd say, "Well, his character's INT went up so he can now use higher level magics or intelligence based items, but you wouldn't expect the character to suddenly just toss off his niativity and become a super-tactical military genius. And the moment the guy unplugged from the VR-machine, he isn't suddenly a dozen times smarter in real life either.

Not unless you're in a system where knowledge is somehow broadcast directly into the brain. "Here's your calculus book for this year. Plug it into your skulljack and down its contents and be certain to memorize them...."

And, I'm afraid that type of story isn't the system that this one is based on.

If the story that our characters find themselves in, they are assigned game stats at the time of The Crackening that represents their own 'real world' statistics. Drakes SYI of 8 shows that he the system judged him an idiot, and as such he gets the basic 'cliff notes' of system messages. SYI isn't a representation of how smart he is, and increasing it won't make it smarter. It's a representation of how much knowledge the game system will impart to him via the pop up windows that they see in game.

That's it!

If his system information (SYI) goes from a 8 to a 800, he'll still be an idiot. He'll just be an idiot constantly bombarded with system messages that he'd end up tuning out and ignoring completely.

Edited to add and example, which I posted elsewhere but which might help people understand what KNO is a little better:

Higher SYI doesn't make a character smarter. It makes the game system reveal more information via the different game interface windows to the user.

Let's break it down to something like appraising a weapon:

SYI 8: Name: Old Goblin Dagger

SYI 10: Name: Old Goblin Dagger Durability: 10 (6)

SYI 15: Name: Old Goblin Dagger Durability: 10 (6) Weakness: Salt, Blunt Impact From Side Damage: 2-5

SYI 20: Name: Old Goblin Dagger Durability: 10 (6) Weakness: Salt, Blunt Impact From Side Damage: 2-5 LORE: This dagger was crafted by the goblin smith "Rugar" in the 902 Conflict of St. Dumas and has been passed down and misused by goblins of the Reed River Tribe ever since.

Perhaps an example like the above will help people see what it actually represents for our heroes. It doesn't make them smarter. It'd give them more information from the system to the information panels which the game generates and gives.

Reader Opinion: But Drake is an idiot!

Author Response: YES! And Drake is intended to be an idiot. It's purposeful and an intentional part of his personality and the plot of the story itself.

Many stories (in fact, most stories on the forums here) focus on a hero who starts out with a lot of advantages. They've had martial arts training in their lives -- even if they've let it slide for a while. They're obviously more intelligent and ruthless than other people. They out think, out fight, out barter, outmaneuver, out work, out quest, and defeat EVERYONE else from the very beginning of the story. They're constantly a bad ass, and they're always the most amazing person in their group. In fact, they only choose a group because they can only get something from the group, but first they have to powerlevel the poor saps up to the point where they can almost be useful to them. Almost, because no one can ever catch up to the might or the legend of the main hero!!!

And, there's not a thing wrong with that kind of story. BUT, that's not this story.

Drake is an idiot. He's intended to be an idiot. He's not expected to be some overwhelming powerhouse of knowledge, tactics, understanding, and bad-assery! He's a mama's body. A slacker who didn't study or exercise properly. He's dense. Where many stories start with the hero being already the pinnacle of human perfection in many ways, and just steadily advancing to the pinnacle of virtual perfect as well, that's not this story, nor is that intended to be Drake.

Why does every story have to focus on a battle genius? Or even a guy with average tactical and combat experience? Why does it seem bad to make a story based on a true underdog, and then slowly let him develop?

Reader Comment: The sex is taking too long to develop.

Author Response: I'm sorry. Drake is a wuss who was raised to a conservative set of morals by his mother. He doesn't want his first to happen until both he and his partner can declare their love to each other, and he doesn't think he's in the proper setting or mental state to make such a declaration now, so he's fighting it.

Reader Comment: The sex is coming too quickly! Or too often!

Author Response: I'm sorry. Isabella has been transformed into a full fledged Ka'Lani -- which is the equivalent of a succubus! She can restore a certain amount of mystical energy by feeding on the 'seed of life', and she feels no qualms about trying to get it from Drake. And, as unpopular as his choice in stat expenditure might be, Drake has chosen to become the healthiest teenager in the world. Superhumanly healthy teenager! And, Isabella is erotic, willing, and purposefully tempting him to give into his urges -- which he finds hard to do with the world's most superhumanly healthy teenage libido!

If you don't think there'd be sexual tension and temptation in that type of situation, we must be experiencing two different stories.

Reader Comment: The sex scenes need more details and less ambiguity. I don't always understand what happened.

Author Comment: This is actually intentional. Drake is a mama's boy and talking about things like sex is embarassing to him. She's he's the main character and we see and experience things from his perspective, there's some things that he's simply shy and backwards about sharing at this stage in his life. Later, after he's did it a thousand times and Isabella has taught him the full pleasures of a completely willing partner, he might give such details that all the members of your family within two generations from you might blush in embarrassment!

Reader Comment: Drake shouldn't spend so many points in CON! He's going to come back to life anyway!

Author Response: This is true, he would come back to life. But if he's dead, who's going to stand in front of his party and protect them? He's not the soloing type of character, and he never will be. He won't run off and just solo everything while his group leeches experience off his awesomeness and only trains in buffs, enchanting, and other things to make him even more awesome. He's not that type, and as I said earlier, this isn't that type of story.

Drakes goal is to develop into a front line shield that Isabella and any other true companions he makes can hide behind. He doesn't have the slightest want or thought to building himself up as an ultra damage dealing, kung fu ninja killing machine that clears whole dungeons in the blink of an eye! He just wants to live, and wants to protect the people around him. And he'll do what he thinks he has to do, to do that.

He's not focused on taking down the enemy. Strength helps him hit harder. Dexterity helps him hit more often. He doesn't care. He's not really interested in hitting his enemies. His goal is to simply be the guy who stands there and takes the beating and keeps them off the rest of his group. Pure old fashioned "meat shield".

Reader Comment: The character's aren't growing powerful or developing abilities fast enough.

Author Response: How fast would be fast enough? It's been two weeks and in this world it takes time to learn and improve stats and skills. In this whole time, Drake has managed to physically train his strength one whole point without spending any 'cheat points'. Isabella has to spend a day to learn a single spell, and then multiple days getting the skill up to use it high enough that she can almost depend on it in combat.

These characters are level 9 and level 4 currently. They've lived a life of peace and study. Why do people think they should suddenly know how to build traps? Is that something taught in school today? They shouldn't panic, or freeze, or stand there when faced with a possible life or death combat? Why not? How many students today would have the sudden impulse to charge an armed knifeman who enters their school? Even if they had a baseball bat, a longer reach, and had trained swinging that bat for years, would they charge in and attack that guy with a knife? Or would they hesitate?

There's a lot of places in the story where readers exclaim: "What an idiot!", such as the scene where he found the 'goblin wall' and the first one crawled out and the second was already coming to join them, and the character froze there... Me personally, I don't see how another 100 points of knowledge would have made him smart enough to not freeze up. Genius or idiot, he's not a combat hardened veteran of 1000 battles.

He's just a normal, below-average guy, trying to do his best in the new world he finds himself in. He's not going to out-think, out fight, out-wit everyone he meets. He doesn't understand the system of the game that he's been suddenly stuck in. He's a lost mama's boy who has to try and learn and adjust to this new existence that is currently his life now.

And he's only had two weeks to do that in! Why would he master the game interface in that little time? Why would he know what everything on it means? Or how it all comes together and interacts? He's doing the best he can, as he can, and he improves slowly.

Author's Observation:

I don't think people are on the same page as me with the pace and growth of development of the story here. It seems most people want to see growth NOW, whereas I'm looking more into a looooooooong term story here. If he suddenly becomes a guy with an average intelligence today, and a well developed sense of combat tactics at this point of the story (he's only level 9), where does he have to grow and develop over the next few weeks and months? If he's an ace combat analyst at level 9, where's his improvement when he becomes level 99? Or level 999???

If anyone were to ask me, we're in the first two weeks of a story that should cover twenty to thirty years of the characters lifetime. Take a moment and process that kindly. If it seems like we've seen a slow development of these characters, it's because we've covered 1/10 of 1% (0.1%) of the time-frame which I foresee this story to cover.

I'm not shooting for a quick story. I'm not shooting for a story where the characters quickly rise to power and conquer things, build towns, cities, or gain titles of nobility and power within any short period of time. At this point, I've only introduced two whole characters to the story -- we don't even have a full party yet -- and yet people want them to grow and become fully self-reliant and self-sufficient already.

My question is: If the characters become fully capable of making it on their own, why would they ever pick up another companion? Or four?

They have flaws. They have weaknesses. They're trying to learn to help cover each other weaknesses, but let's be honest: there's just too much lacking for two people to do it all. Sure, Drake is trying to do the tanking at this point, but they have no real healer. One fight, and he's out for sex hours resting. They have no real damage dealer. They have no thief who knows the shady side of life and lock picking, trap setting, or anything of that sort. They have no prophet, seer, loremaster, oracle to help guide them. No merchant to help them barter. No craftsman to really make things for them. No tactician to lay out a battle plan for them!

Drake is trying to learn the system of the world he's now in. Almost every few chapters, he uncovers something new. He's learning, growing, trying to find his path. He's started to take abilities to help keep the enemies attention on him. Honestly, I don't see where all this hate comes from with folks calling him an idiot all the time. I truly don't see him as an idiot -- I see him as a young school kid out of his depth who is going to make foolish decisions and bumble into things.

Isabella is a very intelligent little rich girl who is clingy and doesn't want to be left alone. She's accepted and embraced the fact that the magic book she read has altered her forever more. She's now a demon. A lifestealer. A succubus. Normally, she would think that people would fear, hate, or attempt to kill her -- the Salem Witch Trials being a prime example of how people treat 'demonic monsters'. And in this new world, where monsters are real, she's quite afraid of what people may think, say, and attempt to do to her -- and yet she has Drake who treats her the same as always, doesn't really do anything (even though she'd let him), and who hasn't once acted like she's any sort of monster. She's young. She's brilliant. She's beautiful. She's just now learning the very basics of magic...

Neither of them have had time to grow or develop into battle, fight, tactical, powerhouses of any sort. They're just ordinary kids such in the most extraordinary of terrible circumstances, and they're trying to grow and survive.

And, as the author of their story, I'd like to think they're doing that. I'd just like to think they're doing it gradually, one step at a time, and without just bouncing into any wild "cheats" like suddenly finding a magical ring that instantly teaches the past 10,000 years of combat history and experience to our hero. I want to let them bumble along, fumble their way into things, and then slowly grow and learn from their mistakes as they continue on.

I'm going to let them develop slowly, over time. I'm in this for the long haul, and thinking forward in terms of several thousand chapters in this story eventually, as it slowly grows and expands to include more characters, more places, more lore and understanding of the world I want to present. I'm in no rush to just level them up, nor to instantly correct their flaws. They are who they are, and it's going to take time for them to evolve and become more gradually.

And I'm having a wonderful time telling the tale of their slow growth and evolving personas. I hope everyone is enjoying reading the story as much as I am writing it.

If you guys have any other questions, comments, or insights, feel free to speak up and have your voice heard. I do listen to everyone's opinion, and I treasure all the questions you guys ask and the things you want to know. I won't answer everything because sometimes the answer is coming in the story and there's no need for me to answer, if the story itself will in a chapter or two. I'll listen to concerns and try and fix things that I feel are appropriate to fix -- particularly in terms of grammar, wording, and spelling. Sometimes I might even take a reader's suggestions and incorporate them into the story itself, if I think they have a good idea and it can fit the storyline or expand upon it.

But, at the end of the day, I've got to stick true to the story that I'm trying to tell. Slow growth, slow development, and yes: with an inexperienced and below-average main hero at this point in his timeline. (He hasn't even gotten out of the beginner "dungeon" yet for goodness sake!)

But, there you have it: An honest post, with honest answers and thoughts, from me to all of you who took the time to read all this.

Now it's your turn: Feel free to post any questions, comments, thoughts, speculations, feedback, rants, raves, or just plain hellos that you'd like here. I may not respond to all of them, but I will read all of them. You guys can trust that I truly do value all the feedback, support, and even criticism that everyone has shared with me so far.

Another thing of note that absolutely amazes me: Thanks to everyone's support so far, this story has rocketed up the charts to # 2 on the Top Weekly Fiction chart, and is already # 96 on the Active story chart -- and this whole project is just now 2 weeks old!! My first story shared via any form of message boards like these, without art and with me still having issues with the BBC and chart making and such sometimes, and still the story has risen so far, so fast. It's actually hard for me to believe this little work has grown so popular, so quickly!

Thank all of you for your being here and sharing this tale as it unravels from my mind to yours. I fondest hope is that everyone simply enjoys reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. :D