Chương 2: Announcement: Big Edit Completed and Going Live Now

Working on a full edit of all 300, 000+ words of this story. This was primarily for an Amazon release next year (won't be stubbed for ages), but as I was editing, I made some things much clearer (Jack's PTSD and his lack of weapons training, for example). Also brought forward something important related to the dagger, which up until now was only hinted at (in the edit it's blatantly obvious).

I planned to do this in a future book, but can see now subtle hints aren't the way with web novels (so many readers miss/forget the signs and hints), so making things clearer. For example, some readers haven't appeared to have noticed Zia is an important future component in the story. They see her as a random orphan rather than someone Jack needs. The Gods have literally pushed them together. I suppose it's my fault.

I assumed the single mention in the epilogue to protect her would be enough to make it clear (in hindsight) that Jack has been told during his 13 visits to Thantos to protect Zia (protect the girl). He is being weakly compelled by his past self to help her. The same as he tried and failed to compel himself to choose the Novice Inquisitor class. From the epilogue: And so Jack did.

For half an hour, while Thanatos read a book, he repeated under his breath, "Choose inquisitor, kill blood mages, protect Zia," until his head throbbed with the words and his doubts grew louder with each repetition. Over and over again, he chanted, with his thoughts of not wanting to be an assassin getting in the way. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Also doesn't help that important parts of Zia's story is in the novella on Patreon (the novella was initially part of the main story, but it confused readers). So, that's been made much clearer that Jack is being compelled by himself to protect Zia. The spider prank is gone. It was originally planned to be a quick funny chapter. Jack's face would be paralysed/swollen by spider bites (allergic reaction, not life-threatening) and Polly would tease him. I took it down the darker route instead, and it drags on a bit.

The spider prank has been replaced by a dungeon run with the young adventurers he met just before he fought the goblin and the rat-faced rogue in the forest. That was originally planned for book 1, but I wasn't able to fit it in. With that in mind, I'll be reducing the number of new chapters posted until the edit is ready. I've got 4 future chapters with shout-outs on them (July 24th, July 31st, Aug 5th, and Aug 7th). Those 4 chapters will go out; everything else will pause until the edit is complete.

I've edited 166, 000 words so far. That's taken me about 2 weeks working on it full time. The remaining 150, 000 words are probably going to take more time/effort. The further the story diverges, more work there is. I tend to get obsessed with anything I work on and can put 10+ hour days on things until they are done. I also enjoy editing, so who knows, could be ready by Aug 7th. When it's all edited, I'll delete every chapter here and reupload them in bulk.

Since I'm aiming for Amazon now, chapters are getting combined, ruining all my cliffhangers.: -) I'm editing chapter 137 now. The previous 136 chapters have been turned into 51 chapters. The average chapter now comes in at 3, 262 words, so significantly longer than they are now. I'll try to create a single chapter detailing all the major changes so you don't have to go reread it all.

The overall story is fundamentally the same, so though there are lots of small additions and a couple of new chapters (dungeon run) it shouldn't require a reread. Right. Back to editing. I'm at the part where Jack has just become a blood mage and is learning about how the class works from the noble blood mages.