Hey everyone!

I am back with a new chapter (the previous one) after being lazy for a whole two weeks! Isn't that wonderful?! XD

Just kidding. I was frustrated at myself for being lazy but my BODY. COULD. NOT. MOVE! Seriously! Whenever I say down in front of my PC on my luxurious sofa/couch (I upgraded my setup btw after improving the look of my house) that I automatically went on youtube and kept searching videos on house improvement. I don't know what got into me but I was like a demon on search for house improvement on a DIY style. I was mad. XD

Anyway, one thing I "just" realised when I was writing Rudius's name... is that it suddenly reminded me of Rudy from MT. You know. Mushoku Tensei. Now, I just want to make it out straight that this name I came up on the fly and not something I took from MT. In fact, the only thing I took or inspired from MT is the way the story opened in the fantasy world but I my hands are numb from explaining that for about 6 years. Anyway, just to be clear on that, Rudius is not an inspiration of Rudeus from MT. The only name I did got inspired from Roxy Migurd (because she was my favourite heroine from MT) which I chose to go with Rana Midgrad. The reason for the "Midgrad" was my word play with them being short so "midget" to "mid" and "grad" was because their daily lifestyle was farming so basically "grazier" which turned into "grad". After being called a "copy-cat" and downright bullied, I completely gave up trying to give meaningful names to my characters and just focused on giving names that I felt best described them. A dumb move on my part, but go easy on me. I was only 22 at that time, and I was a young man filled with hope... who was unprepared for the illogical and dumb hate in a society that is a cruel as a pineapple. I hate pineapple. XD

You know what other thing I did take directly from MT? Their character sheet on their wiki pages. Why? Because it was simple and easy to manage. After all, a wiki is just a website that readers go to read on info and stuff that they don't understand, want a better explaantion, or want to get familiar with the story. That was all, and it suited my very simple and basic style of information providing. Mind you, it's been a while since I updated PR's wiki so that's part of my to-do list as well (nothing related to the list Lucky gave to Rudius if you're wondering) =P

So, am I a copy-cat? Not really. I did copy the wiki character sheets though because it was easy, and I was very fond of using Rana Midgrad before cyberbullying ruined it! I'm still angry about that mind you. >:( But still, you should've already gotten your answer by now that I have a story more packed with inspirations coming from all over the place (just not Bleach for some reason, and I do like Bleach a lot. Mugetsu! XD)

By the way, we've just gotten past the half-way mark so WELL DONE FOR STAYING WITH ME FOR SO LONG! You ALL deserve a medal... except I'm currently broke because of political issues going on in my state of my country. :( But mind you, I don't take donations because I don't want to take your hard (or easily) earned money for something I write for fun and satisfaction because it goes against my principles. Heck, I gave up an easy job with high pay because I felt what I was doing was wrong and so I quit. Although, that led me to my wife and soon my baby boy so I don't feel I did anything wrong with it and instead I was blesed. =)

To this very day, the words "copy-cat" and "MT thief" still ring in my ears even though I've gone well past 588 chapters and shown pretty much everyone that I have a story that is big, prety open world though I don't cover all of it since the story's main focus is Lucky. Okay. Maybe I should've focused on the rest of the world like One Piece (god bless Oda because that man is something special) but I never focused on the world. I focused on Lucky because it didn't matter to me what happened to the rest of the world and only get to it when we get to that stage.

My writing strategy has always been to set a starting point and a finishing point and everything I write in the middle is nearly spontaneous, thought up on the spot to tie in loose ends or plot holes as you call it and all. It might be bad writing, but I generally love writing like this because it keeps me, as the author and the “unofficial” first reader on suspense about what to expect next. Anything is possible, something unexpected could happen like in chapter 587 when Lucky revealed his intents to make Lina the next ruler or queen. What could it mean? What would happen? The cliff-hanger is felt real, and I am excited about what happens next, and that’s why I love writing in this way because of the sheer delight I get from discovering something I haven’t thought about while on the fly.

While I was being lazy and all, I wasn’t wasting my time watching YT or playing with my kid. I was still thinking about Phoenix Rising. About Lucky. About his and Lagron’s next battle, which I’ve gone through almost 16 times by now even while I was having a shower and slipped by seeing how the two might fight it out and how it will end. Will Lucky win? Will Lagron finally win against his rival? Or will he make a fool of himself like when he dived in to save Amaranda when the Calamity Titan attacked instead of using his head and show that he is a badass.

My thoughts didn’t just stop at his battle, it also went towards the future. The next part of the Arc to see what Lucky does next. Who he will fight against? Or what he will do to live by after how things end up in Arc 18, the current arc? Only time will tell as I don’t want to spoil it just yet. XD

But the thing that I came across while thinking about all of it is… Lucky and Chandra, the Calamity Titan. Like, who are they really? I was thinking back to what the God of Calamity said about their origin, that they are the descendants of the God of Power. What does it all mean, and how does it tie the two of them and how the Nine Destiny Queens come together in all of this? That’s when I made a discovery so amazing that I was stunned. It opened my eyes to a new possibility that I did not see because of how I was viewing it with my tunnel vision. As I broadened my scope, I noticed what I was missing, and I was both amazed and happy to realise it.

Finally, I… actually am not done with the Alzard World arc. Actually, something did happen in that one week after Lucky defeated the alien demigod known as Overlord and his return back to his home world. Something unexpected happened that actually questions the very nature of humanity. Like, what is humanity? How do you define it? I had to question myself that, and the answer I found was very interesting. But I haven’t forgotten about it, nor have I written anything about hinting it because I thought of writing it separately in its own type of book. Consider it like a movie plot or something. That best fits what it’s like, and I am also excited to write it though not immediately since I never made plans on when to write it; just that I will write it in the unknown future.

So, that’s it for my rant! Thank you for tuning in on my rant. I hope I didn’t bore you with it, and you found some useful stuff related to how my brain works and some related information on Phoenix Rising.

Take care everyone, and I'll see you next time as the rising continues! =D