Update #2

Hi everyone,

I think it is time for another update.

There will be some spoilers ahead but I will mark them so don’t worry.

Firstly, I would like to give massive thanks to my Patrons and Readers who follow my work here. I appreciate it a lot and I am truly grateful for sticking with me.

That said, I realised that the last arc (The White Masks) is not going in the direction some of you hoped for. Also I have been losing followers (but I can’t be sure why – it could be the old followers who just started reading and didn’t like it – I will explain where I stand with revision below).

Going back to the White Masks arc; yes, I have sidetracked myself, and while long term goals have remained unchanged some of my mid plot goals have shifted and got more political.

I want to believe that the reason for this is simply the world Keynes lives in – it is not a frontier where anyone can go out into the wild to explore and progress; this world is ruled by power and money, and nothing can happen without politics, as everything is owned by the top people. I wanted to show how Keynes goes through that layer and finally gets to the part we all want (slaying monsters and looting). It is also the birth of a truly magical society and it is not an easy process, both in terms of writing it and the transformation itself.

But I have made mistakes (Keynes’s slow progress and too few rifts, etc).

The truth is, it has been a few very stressful months (parenting, job, writing the story to the schedule, sometimes giving myself hard deadlines, revising first chapters). It led to rushing the story and losing sight of where I wanted it to be.

Some minor spoilers here:

The White Masks arc will have the most rifts so far. This arc will set up a lot of Keynes’s future adventures.

Serious spoilers here:

Yes, Keynes will level up during this arc and WAY more.

Some of the most important facts about rifts will be revealed in this arc.

And yes, after this arc, there will be more rifts and looting.

Revisions?

Chapter 1 is finished and is available on my discord.

Chapter 2 is being revised and I hope to finish it in a week's time.

It turned out revisions take way more time than writing. I am hoping to start uploading the revised chapters once I got the fourth chapter revised to not create too big a gap between revised and unrevised chapters (story-wise nothing changes, everything stays the same. Only Keynes’s personality is adjusted and small details – world-building stuff mostly).

Some minor spoilers for Path of Ascension and He Who Fights with Monsters here.

As for Keynes’s current character, I feel like he is going in the right direction but he is not yet there. He’s 16 years old and being in the centre of attention of the entire world can be extremely daunting. Matt in Path of Ascension had Emperor and two crazy royals backing him up, so he is sheltered while Keynes has none of that. If Matt was born in any other place he’d be locked up and turned into a living mana battery.

As you know, many people want Keynes to become their private key to open rifts.

Even Jason, from He Who Fight with Monsters, has a powerful backer who allows him to step out of line while the powerful would love to put their hands on him.

I didn’t give Keynes a powerful backer because… well, never mind, but yeah, I understand, stability is important in a story and I love both PoA and HWFwM. I guess this is what may be missing here.

It obviously must have an impact on Keynes. He is trying to find himself but it isn’t easy for him. There is always that voice at the back of his head – am I being betrayed?

He will find himself eventually but as Kaladin Stormblessed said; journey before destination. So expect stupid decisions and confusion about the world and people from Keynes.

Once again, thanks for sticking with me and I’d appreciate your feedback 😊

PS. Special thanks to my spell checkers! You’re great! English is my second language and while I have spoken English for a very long time, I have started writing fantasy literature (in English) barely 3-4 years.

So, yeah, sorry for my bad grammar ☹

Have a nice day!