Author's Thoughts, open for Discussion.

Hey all!

So, this is just some of my thoughts about chapter 50, but more so for the story overall, and I'm welcome to any discussion on it.

If you haven't already, I recommend catching up and reading chapter 50 before reading this post.

First off, if you've read chapter 50, you'll notice at the end that Enya comes up with a pretty... wild idea, or I guess, ideology. Instead of helping the caravan out of the goodness and innocence of her heart, she would rather... reap the rewards out of the goodness and innocence of her heart.

When I first posted my story on Royalroad, I had this section in the synopsis:

The main thing to focus on is the 'Morally Ambiguous Protagonists.'

I'm sure by now, most of you have a pretty concrete idea of Pell's personality. You may also know about Enya's personality now, considering she was off adventuring by herself for half the story so far.

The thing is, I didn't want to write Enya as an entirely 'goody-two-shoes' innocent girl, blind to the injustices and cruelty of the world she is in. She's... a necromancer, not a saint.

The dungeon has definitely warped her perception of the world and what it means to survive. I'm truly hoping that the end of chapter 50 doesn't completely blindside you guys as to how you expected Enya to be like.

She isn't evil.
But her sense of values... are, to put it plainly, morally ambiguous.

I'm not going to have her going around killing the random innocent—that makes no sense. This isn't a murder-hobo story. But she also isn't one to go around assisting every single person that needs help, unless, she does it on a whim or finds it fun or entertaining.

I think she would closely relate to a Chaotic Neutral alignment, if anything.

On another, separate note, I am hoping that Pell comes off as a real character, despite his flaws. For the first half of the story, I intentionally wrote Pell as a scumbag. He is deplorable, rotten, and typically an asshole. He wasn't supposed to be likable, and more of an anti-villain—not necessarily a mean antagonist.

I guess I succeeded with how he turned out because people hated him. A lot more than I imagined. Not sure if that is a good thing... I was a bit worried that people would be turned off by my story because of that.

I am hoping to redeem Pell a bit as he opens up to Enya. However, he isn't going to just become a hero of justice or anything. I really like the juxtaposing, opposite nature of Pell and Enya. Maybe I went a bit too hard on making him unlikable, but he is a person on a mission, to help someone he cares about. If he stayed in the dungeon, he wouldn’t just die alone. His promise would, too.

I hope people start to like Pell a bit more as I continue my story, even if he may still be a bit... unsavory at times. Don't try to apply real-world logic to the story. It's a world with magic, where any unsuspecting person can commit a murder with a simple fireball. Sometimes, you really have to look out for yourself.

With that aside though, we have essentially just finished the first arc of the series! Book 1 will be coming to an end soon, and I never really thought that I'd get to this point after I started writing 3 months ago.

But with that being said, nothing will change for you readers. After Book 1 ends, I may take a one or two-week break from writing, either to enhance my backlog or to go back and revise some of my earlier chapters. These edits won't be public (unless you guys want to see them as I do them).

My end goal with all of that is submitting to a publisher. If that happens, I would be more ecstatic than Enya trying out cake for the first time.

If I decide not to take a break, then Book 2 will instantly begin, on its regular schedule, so nothing will change for you guys. The main reason for the break would be to revise my manuscript for submission to a publisher, so I'm hopeful for that.

If you refer back to that image up there, the last bullet point, 'An Academy Arc,' will be the first arc, or possibly the entire main theme for Book 2. It will be about her life while in school, but possibly also going on adventures with Pell. I'm still thinking of ideas.

I don't plan on separating them again, at least not for such an extended period of time like inside the dungeon. I think the interactions between the two of them are much more enjoyable to read and to write.

I originally didn't plan for Enya and Pell's separation to take so long, but oh well. Live and learn.

In other news, I may also release some short, one-shot side stories. No idea what they would be about yet, but I am thinking of them. I may also be introducing a $10 tier for 10 advanced chapters. The only thing stopping me is my backlog. Writing a serialized novel with a MWF upload schedule is a lot tougher than I originally imagined. But somehow, I'm doing it. I just don't want to disappoint anyone, so that's all my motivation. I also just happen to work better under pressure.

If anyone's got any comments, please let me know! I'd be happy to discuss anything. Maybe some suggestions for scenes, items, or characters, interactions, plots, etc. that could be explored in Book 2?

I was also considering a Discord, but not sure if there are enough people to justify it. If you guys would like one, let me know!