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Chapter 102: Giants (Patreon)

Published:
2019-09-09 02:24:15
Imported:
2022-02

Content

https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/102/Mother-of-Learning

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning/chapter/400666/102-giants

Here it is, my dear patrons: the next chapter.

As stated before, this is the second-to-last update of the story. The next update is going to be the final one, and will include multiple chapters. Basically, I will not post anything until the entire story is done. Since I am not entirely sure how long this will take, I will not post a concrete date for the next chapter. Rather, the next target date is sometime in November. This is just an estimate. It could be published earlier, or it could be later than that.

Anyway. Enjoy, and hopefully you'll also enjoy the eventual finale. It will feel weird, but also kind of awesome, to finally finish this story I have been writing for the last eight years.

Comments

Anonymous

Thanks for the chapter!

Nepene

Thanks for another awesome chapter. I got chills at the ending.

Corwin Amber

thanks for the new chapter

Anonymous

A fight of giants indeed

Anonymous

When looking at the angel/demon

Anonymous

Shouldn’t it be cowered rather than covered?

Mikhail Gorodetskiy

Thanks. Also, just googled what mrva means. A crumb, a small amount, a bit. So, Mr. Tiny. I like Zorian's naming sense :-)

Anonymous

Eight years. Wasn't that how long Zorian... Ha! XD That's pretty cool. :D

HenryMorgan

Cheers for the chapter

Andrew

Thank you!

Anonymous

Steller. I had mixed emotions on angels and demons being left out for so long from the time loop as they were teased here and there the whole way, but this grand entrance was spectacular. I hope you get the chance down the line to further develop the divine plane of this world, even if its a different story

Anonymous

Probably a type: "but it was too little, too late." => "a little too late"

Anonymous
>>26658181

By the way, do you have a well-establihed way to report types like that?

Anonymous

Thanks for the chapter.. What a lineup for the final fight..

Anonymous

Wow. This chapter was epic! Absolutely loving the mind games those guys are playing! Wish you lots and lots of inspiration and luck with the writing the ending :D just take the time you need 🌞

Anonymous

Couple of typos I've noticed: (subtle covered) >> (subtly cowered) (demons beneath it covered) >> (demons beneath it cowered) The verb is "to cower", like "a coward". There are couple of "covered [in something]" there, so that might've caused the mishap.

nobody103
>>26798835

Yeah, a lot of people have noticed those. I guess that sort of repeating mistake is very noticeable, but I actually did know the proper grammar there. I just misspelled it multiple times. In any case, the typos are in my editing folder, waiting for me to get off my ass and actually correct the chapter in question.

Shawn Liu

just wondering, would you be able to give monthly updates on expected finish? Like on October 8th make a brief update on whether you still expect to finish in November, if its progressing well, if perhaps you might need till december or later.

Dark Prophet

I must admit I'm a little conflicted at this point. On one hand I'll finally get to read the ending. On the other hand - its ending. This has been a great story and I really hope its not the last we see of the MC

Anonymous

I just reread the recent chapter. What a rush. Good luck with the final release. Is it stressful?

nobody103
>>27304452

Probably could be a little more stressed about it, considering how slowly I write, ha ha. But yeah, a little.

Anonymous

I'm using the time until the next update to have a full re-read of the whole series, and there are so many little details I notice now that are so relevant in the whole scheme of things. The whole story is so well written, amazing work!! And I can't wait for the final part!

Anonymous

Can't wait to know what will be in the final conclusion. However, it is a bit sad to know that this will be the end of it. Will the book be available in ebook format after being finished? Its a little uncomfortable to read it from web, especially on smartphone.

Shawn Liu

Sorry to pester but could you please give an updated estimate on final chapters completion? Would be nice to know if November is still viable, or if the new estimate is something else :)

MatKal

Take your time, the ending shouldn't be rushed :)

Shawn Liu

Hey, I've had a friend who I recommended MoL to recently catch up with the story. He had a wish that I wanted to pass on - basically he's really hoping Zach will get a chance to show off before the end of the story. Like really show off something cool/amazing, not just be another caster in the background dealing with QI. Zorian is getting a lot of awesome cool moments, but Zach feels a bit neglected :(. I know you've probably already outlined/written most of the ending, so I'm not expecting you to change much. But just wanted to bring Zach's predicament to your attention, and perhaps if there is a good slot in the story (or maybe you've already done it), you could give him a really awesome scene. Thanks!

nobody103
>>28301455

Noted. Not sure if I can really do that, as the story is purely seen from Zorian's perspective, but I'm still considering exactly how to put the ending together.

Shawn Liu
>>28301455

I asked my friend about what he considers to be Zach's high points. For him, he really liked the moment when Zach's mini speech about how he doesn't want the power if it means he has to kill his friends to keep it. But otherwise, the last time Zach had a memorable role in a fight for him was back when they first fought the hydra.

Anonymous

I quite like that all the last chapters will be released together. I'm curious though why you made that decision. My guess is that it's easier to get the ending right if the remaining chapters are not set in stone by being released one at a time.

nobody103
>>28505675

That's the hope, yes. I want to get the endinging right, which will likely mean rewritting large parts of earlier chapters to make everything fit. I already often do that with individual chapters, so I'm basically treating the ending chapters as one big chapter, basically.

Shawn Liu

Hey, just wanted to check in again, wondering if november still viable for the final update or if anything has changed deadline-wise. Thanks for the story!

nobody103
>>28740956

It's still viable, but it will happen towards the end of the month if it does.

Anonymous

So one of my favorite parts of a story like this is the epilogue, I was wondering if there will be an epilogue, and if so will it be long? If you are planning to make a sequel maybe there won't be one... I don't know if you would consider answering this question a spoiler, if so then I'll just wait and see.

Anonymous

It's been since the last chapter that I read any MoL, yet I happened to have a dream last night where I was Zorian. I was thinking about how fortunate I am that the brother I despised so much growing up, I now consider a friend. But at the same time, there's still some trauma that I haven't discussed with Daimen that needs closure. Maybe those things he did to Zorian weighs on Daimen's conscience and that's partially why he's trying hard to be a good brother and friend now. I wonder if at some point we could get a discussion between them to bring some closure to how Daimen treated young Zorian. Or did I forget that this kind of conversation already happened?

nobody103
>>29071069

Well, I don't think it would be appropriate for the story to really delve into such a topic this close to the end... and I didn't put anything like that earlier because it's hard for me to see such a situation occur unless Zorian deliberately tried to make it happen. Which he obviously wouldn't do. However, if I ever decide to write that sequel thing I am considering, the relationship between Zorian and Daimen, both past and present, is bound to be an important aspect.

Tur4

I have a crazy idea for a sequel after this is done. Zorian who has always had a desire for independence and planned on starting his own magical crafting business when he graduates all along now takes advantage of the time loop and takes those plans much further than he thought possible. He figures out that he has access to a figurative gold mine and starts a trading empire headquartered in Cyoria that takes advantage of his contacts with the silent doorway adepts and his brother in Miasina (by use of gate spells and Damien's contacts there) allowing him to forge a trading empire. He also can take advantage of his network of knowledge of experts from around the world that he developed in the time loop and his masterful crafting ability. Combining all these he eventually becomes the richest merchant in the world which is entertaining because originally he had no desire to going into the family business and instead basically does something similar but even better. Its basically an economics fantasy series which is very seldomly done. But he can still do tons of side quests and interact with friends, and tons of other things.

nobody103
>>29318778

It would certainly be possible for something akin to that to happen, though it would take a lot of effort to actually create such a trading empire and Zorian would probably only reluctantly go for that option. Most likely, he would do something else and only start assembling his own trading company when he needs large amounts of money and resources and no longer has convenient invader stashes to raid for them... and even then, he would probably try scaling back his expenses and such before going down that route. Plus, I'm not sure I'm really capable of writing an economic fantasy story. But yeah, it's an interesting idea if nothing else.

Tur4
>>29318778

For some reason I thought you mentioned you were an accountant by day so I figured it might be in your wheelbox. I figured that by the time Zorigan spent so much money building that magic room, and all the armies of golems that he built to combat the invasion he probably would have burned through most of the money he had stolen and would need to generate a significant income if he wished to keep spending money as he got used to in the time loop. Plus I'm sure he has a lot of expensive research he still wishes to do and building your own airship is also expensive. :) Anyway whatever way you take it I'm extremely excited and hope you do work on a sequel at some point as this is one of my favorite fantasy stories of all time. Thanks again for writing the story and the reply!

nobody103
>>29318778

I *am* an accountant. That doesn't necessarily translate to being able to write an engaging economy-based story, though. And yeah, Zorian definitely burned through most of the money he had on battle preparations, but he wouldn't necessarily continue spending money like crazy after the month is over, so the need for money wouldn't immediately hit him. But yes, if/when he actually decides to build an improved version of Mrva or his very own airship, he would have to get his hands on a lot of money somehow.

Shawn Liu

Just wanted to add my 2 cents - Far too many web serials progress the main characters powers way too far and keep on expanding that, and it ends up feeling really contrived/ridiculous/lacking tension. There are a few serials I loved, which at one point had the main character become so op that every other character he met either treated him with disdain (becasue they don't know his power/look down on his humble roots), or heavy respect. It got really really boring. While there probably is a way to make a post-timeloop zorian centered story very good, I feel like by doing so you're limiting yourself to something that will become and ever-more ridiculous power fantasy. While it is the logical next step for zorian, what true challenging and interesting obstacles could he possibly face? I think you have under-explored talent at creating fascinating diverse characters. While MoL did a great job of presenting fleshed out and realized side characters, you could do so much more. I mentioned before my friend was sad Zach didn't have much to do in the final battles, and you explained that it was partially a consequence of the story being from zorian's pov, but in the future why limit yourself? You could totally make your future stories more heavily feature a large band/party of characters, even if you don't want to do multi-povs. I don't know if there's a comment size limit so I'll continue this thought in a reply below.

Shawn Liu
>>29391381

Originally, I really really wanted you to further explore Zorian's world through the perspective of other characters. As I write this though, I realize that probably isn't the best option moving forward. Hear me out- the problem is that in setting up this grand epic clash in Mother of Learning, you've basically, reasonably, demonstrated the limits of magic. Anything you introduce in a direct, recent sequel, will leave a nagging feeling in attentive reader's head of 'why didn't zorian hear of this/why didn't the bad guys use this'. Of course, you could always choose to broaden and flesh out rather than heighten the power levels, but even then its a precarious tightrope to balance on, and it will continually limit the magic potential of your new work. There are ways of course around this, but given your abilities, it seems like a pointless challenge to add to yourself, just for the sake of nostalgia. I'm sure you have the ability to create other worlds that will continually draw in fans. Instead, I'd propose you should turn to a new world, a new cast, have a bigger emphasis on a broader core cast of characters to share the limelight, with personalities and quirks that appear more frequently and thus spice up the story a lot more (your side characters are fascinating, just appear too rarely imo). You can set up new lore, new systems, new creatures and world details, and dont have to worry about restraining yourself with the details set up in MoL. Anyways, hopefully I'm not overstepping my bounds by saying this stuff, and I hope you'll find your pace wherever you go after you finish MoL. I eagerly anticipate whatever you write!

nobody103
>>29391381

Nah, you're definitely not overstepping your bounds. I agree with a lot of what you say - I made a story with a specific end in mind, so there are big issues with continuing the story. It's definitely something I think about, which is why I haven't confirmed a sequel when people asked. I still need to think about it and (more importantly) try to make a plot outline to see if it would work. And I definitely have ideas for other stories, set in other setting as well. We'll see how things develop. For now I need to focus on actually finishing this.

Anonymous

Everytime I see a Patreon update these days, I get super excited. 😂

Anonymous
>>29391381

Power levels are certainly a problem in a lot of fictions. Many people feel things need to always get more intense and crazier, when that's not remotely necessary to write interesting stories. My opinion is that more realistic and interesting power limits come in tiers of leverage: Do you rely on just yourself, or do you involve tech, friends, teams, organizations? Linking power to leverage is more realistic and also creates natural soft power ceilings with severe complexity constraints.

nobody103
>>29445735

You know, thank to your comment I finally realized it's just two days till the end of November, and that I cannot possibly finish things in just two days... so I posted an official delay post not to give people any false hopes. I kind of lost track of days. Anyway, the story is still not finished I'm afraid. Too much to write, too little inspirations. I have hopes that it will get better in the coming weeks, though.