Author's Note
Hey everyone, Solace20 here.
I want to take a moment to be upfront with you about something because you deserve that as readers
The early chapters of this novel — roughly the first 35 or so — have some problems. The biggest one is the power system. One of you pointed it out in the comments and honestly? You were right. The rank scaling in the beginning doesn't hold up properly. A C rank struggling against F rank wolves, an E rank boss making B rank students astonished, while an F rank with a sword handles it cleanly — that doesn't make sense and I know it.
Here's what happened. I was so excited to write and get the story out that I didn't properly ground the power system before I started posting. That was a newbie mistake and I own it completely.
But there's a deeper issue I noticed when I went back and read through everything. I made the important characters around Lysander too strong early on. And here's why that matters — if Lysander's whole journey includes protecting the people he cares about, the threats that come for them have to be beyond their level. Which means the only person who can face those threats is him. But if he's supposed to be the one standing between them and something dangerous, his growth has to make that possible in a way that actually makes sense. If they were closer to his level from the start the power scaling would have been cleaner and the story would have been easier to follow.
The pacing in the early chapters was also too fast. I was rushing to get to the good parts when the good parts needed more foundation.
These are all things I can see clearly now. Unfortunately those chapters are already posted and I can't go back and change them. So if the beginning confused you — I understand and I'm sorry. Give the story a chance past chapter 35. It gets better and more consistent as it goes.
What I can tell you is that going forward I'm making sure the power scaling makes sense. You'll see how I'm addressing it in the Arc 1 ending and it's something I've thought carefully about — not doing it for the sake of it, but because it's the only way the story works the way it needs to.
Thank you to everyone who brought these things up. That kind of feedback makes me better. And thank you to everyone who stuck around anyway.
I'm not perfect. I'll probably make mistakes again. But I'll keep working to make them fewer.
— Solace20