I'm going to be putting this story on a sort of hiatus for the next few months. What this means is that I won't be uploading with any structure or frequency, and I may not upload at all. There's a few reasons for this, so hear me out.

I'm entering my last semester of college (which started today) and I'll be hopefully graduating this spring. That's obviously going to be a lot of work for me, and takes priority over my writing. However, I will still be working on this story when I get the chance, and not just the RR version.

I've mentioned before that I'm aiming to publish The Blight more formally, and the webnovel version here on RR is serving as a sort of sneak-peak, since this is functionally my un-edited first draft. Before I publish, I'm not just going to do a little clean-up of book 1, but rather a large scale overhaul. Entire chapters could be removed and replaced, scenes will be swapped around, story beats will be different, characters could be updated, removed or changed entirely... my point is, the finished version of the novel is going to be quite different from the RR webnovel. The reason for this is that I've grown a lot as an author over the 2 years spent working on this project, and my earlier writing doesn't hold up to the standards I set for myself now. I also have a much clearer outline in my head for the whole story going forwards, which will change things in even the earliest chapters.

Now, aside from the rewrite, there's a bit more going on that I'm happy to share. So, what to expect in the coming months?

Well, firstly, book 2 may well continue to get updated when I have the time. It's a lower priority now, but that doesn't mean updates will necessarily stop entirely. Second, the updated version of book 1 will NOT be coming to royal road, but that doesn't mean I'm done with book 1 completely here either. Not spoiling anything yet, but I'm working on something that I think you guys might enjoy for book 1 ;)

Lastly, I just want to clarify that all this is temporary. Once book 1 is finished and in a state I'm happy with, I'll continue to do the same thing with book 2. That is to say, posting my first draft here on RR, then going back after to rewrite and update it for a proper published release later. No idea how long all of that will take, especially with this semester coming up, but I have no intentions of abandoning this story. If there's ever a long period of silence from me, just know that I'm probably busy and I will be back eventually!

And hey, before I go... if you've read all the way to the end of this nonsense, I'd love to hear your thoughts on book 1 in its current state. Doesn't have to be a review, honestly just a comment or a dm or anything to share your thoughts helps me understand what I did well, and where I need to improve.

Okay, one final thought. This has been a passion project of mine for years now, and the fact that people (hundreds of people, somehow???) are enjoying it enough to read it just brings me a lot of joy. You guys are really the best, and I hope to continue being able to provide some entertainment for you all with the stories I write. I'm working hard to make that happen, so I hope you'll all bear with me during times like this where updates may be slow.

As always, thanks for reading everyone. See you next time!

~Lodus