Chapter 45: Fine Structures

It's in finishing phases. Technically done but I'm still editing it.

Domagoj Kurmaic

How's the chapter going? Busy cause holidays?

Green0Photon

I was slowly getting bored by the city a bit. The plot change will definitely change that. Hell, it made me so wanting for the next chapter that I even became a Patreon ;)

Dull Pen

Nice Chapter. Instead of teleporting maybe he can use his superior shaping skills to move himself around creating an unstructured dodging magic.

I already answered some of your concerns in the response to your review on fictionpress, so I won't do it here. I just wanted to note that Zorian is reactive because new issues and revelations keep cropping up, requiring him to respond to them, not because he can't figure out how to exploit the hell out of the time loop. In any case, thanks for reading, and I hope you continue enjoying the story.

Domagoj Kurmaic

Great chapter! I agree with most of what Taiven said. I also consider Zorian's pro-copyright stance very scope-insensitive. When you need to stop an invasion AND primordial AND other time traveler, you get powerful fast, or you lose. Prying information from other wizards is a relatively safe way to get powerful quickly. The stakes are too high to respect copyright. I also really liked all the little additional plot threads in this chapter coming together. Bakora gates, soul sense, Raynie... However, I will keep complaining that Zorian doesn't use loop to it's full potential. Sadly, it's true. He was mostly hitting targets of opportunity so far. Reacted instead of acting. The most awesome loop exploitation was when he played multiple arenean webs to get benefits from all of them. I really enjoyed reading that part and wanted to see more. Still, while I complain, I like this very much. Zorian may not be as ruthlessly goal-oriented and munchkiny as I'd like, but he is still interesing to read about. I also really like Taiven and Kirielle. Overall, I enjoyed reading chapter 45. Thanks for writing it! I can't wait to read more.

Am I the only one nervous about the next chapter? Going through the portal seems like a risky maneuver that could land Zorian right in front of the big bad.

Denis Dube

I thought of all the exploits mentioned, but for most of them I have three basic complaints: 1. They trivialize the risks inherent in their proposals, claiming that Nothing Can Go Wrong and all risks can be mitigated (ha ha). 2. They ignore the set-up time needed to make some of the scenarios come to pass. Some things cannot be done in a month. Other can, but would take years of repetition until you could align everything just right, which is a dubious time investment. 3. A fair number of them depend on assumptions that just aren't true. The setting doesn't work that way. As an aside, a lot of proposals focus on recruit a lot of people for his projects. This is obviously a potent tactics, if fraught with its own issues, but consider this: if Zorian was the type of person who was inclined to do this, he would be already dead by this point in the story. He would have made himself noticeable within the first couple of restart and gotten soulkilled by Red Robe before he was capable of doing anything about it. The same reason that is limiting his growth is the only reason he is alive right now.

Domagoj Kurmaic

I read the reddit threads at RationalFiction and NovelTranslations, the SpaceBattles thread, DarkLordPotter thread and the AnimeSuki thread. I also have a bunch of other thread bookmarked, but they seem to have died. If you have any further discussions somewhere on the internet, let me know!

Domagoj Kurmaic

Thank you! This chapter went by very quickly, which means it must have been particularly enjoyable. I can't help but feel things are going down soon. Out of curiosity, do you read any of the forum threads online about your work? I've seen you post very occasionally on reddit, but what about the others. Certainly there have been a few cheeky jabs at fan speculation in the story. :p

Hello, some users on /r/rational are complaining that there are MANY ways for Zorian to abuse the time loop to become way stronger and more efficient at his goal. Are you limiting what Zorian can do on purpose to avoid breaking the story? Or you just didn't think about all the exploits?

Andrei

Thanks for another chapter! Looking good as always, and Taiven has certainly surprised me. Really looking forward to more, of course.

I saw a partial post and then kind of forgot about it. Sorry. Patreon only notifies me when the post is first made, not when it's edited.

Domagoj Kurmaic

I'm glad that a bunch of stuff actually happened. Getting closer to that release of tension in the next chapter. Especially with the future of Taiven, Zorian's soul, and the Ibasians, I can't wait to see what's gonna happen. I still wonder what's gonna happen to Zorian's soul, being bonded or whatever. BTW, Domagoj, I dunno if you saw my second comment on the last post, since you haven't responded to that wall of text. Thanks for the new chapter!

Green0Photon

Tanks... now I have to wait another month.

BRUNO ASTUR

First! Can't wait to read, thank you for writing this awesome story!