Update – 31 August 2021 – Major Sneak Peek at a New Story?

Hello! Let's just jump right into this update since it's gonna be a long one! (Right now, it's over 51k words!) (Most of it is in spoiler tags to make it easier to read and digest.)

Initially, Book Three was supposed to be the shortest one thus far. It was supposed to have Momo kidnapped by the Mafia, then Servi going on a rampage to get her back. And yes, while that did happen, a lot of other things were added during the various stages of planning and writing. Let's go over them!

And now, I want to talk about the elephant in the room.

Okay, I've gotten a lot of feedback about these chapters. Some feel they don't provide anything worthwhile, some say that they're showing what we already know about Servi, and some say it's all senseless violence and torture porn.

I want to talk about what I was trying to do. It probably just felt like one long block of sadness, and that was on purpose. It is supposed to mimic Servi's journey through the Mafia. She has nothing around her to give her joy and happiness except killing her enemies, and the book reflected that by not breaking up the depression. Well, it did so one time near the end of chapter 8, and that was something I added in after finishing everything. I thought that little daydream-like sequence was fitting for the story. It reinforced what Servi was fighting for, but at the same time, it was just that: a dream.

But the crux of the story is that it was each of the character's darkest and lowest points. Servi shrugged of Momo to fulfil her desire for murder and chaos, Itarr was forced to watch what her tampering accelerated in bringing about, and Momo, the victim of it all, was mentally tortured and threatened for days on end. There just wasn't any spot for me to put any humorous or funny side stories without disrupting the flow I was going for.

That's also why I didn't do anything to shorten or summarize it, which was what a few readers would have preferred.

In short, I wanted the readers to suffer along with these characters. I wanted the readers to get upset with Servi, I wanted them to feel for Momo. I kind of wanted them to be a bit hesitant to cheer for Servi because she started killing innocents, but at the same time, only Servi could save Momo, who was completely innocent.

For the record, I do fully understand everyone's complaints with these chapters. I just wanted to throw this out there so it doesn't seem like I'm ignoring my readers.

How did you like them?

Was Sakdu worthy of being a villain?

What about Roger?

Carrie was a pseudo-replacement for Momo for part of the book, so I wonder how many people thought she might have been promoted to a main character?

Old Man did a lot of horrible things to provide his granddaughter the medicine she needed. Did he go to far? He even had to resort to killing to pay for her medicine. He showed up near the end as a ghost, but do you think he should have made himself known when he was alive?

What about Emi, Lori, and Leigh? Those three were the unfortunate victims of Servi's and Old Man's first assignment, but as we learned a few parts ago, those three have used Servi's gift to buy a horse, wagon, and protection as they head for greener pastures.  Who knows? They might show up again somewhere down the line...

His granddaughter only showed up at the very end, so there wasn't much to time to get acquainted with her. And it was the same with the woman looking after her. Any brief thoughts about Moko and Angie?

How did you all feel about Carmelo and Clarence? Carmelo had a reason for trying to usurp the Mafia because he needed its power and resources to save his home forest. He even managed to recreate Red Monotonia and enhance it.

Speaking of Monotonia, I suppose that pill could be considered a character as well since it was the whole reason the Mafia became as strong as it was. It's certainly an ugly thing.

And now that I think about it, the Mafia itself was its own character. Its reaches can't be understated because it has pawns and plots in Westera, Keywater, and Lando, and Servi still believes that what was at Arcton was all the Mafia had to offer. And now with a few officers / leaders, the Mafia has set its eyes on another continent.

And then we have the bodyguard. He was, by far, the toughest foe Servi has had to fight. And she came out victoriously, but only because it turned into a battle of attrition. Her immortality really saved her because she just getting walloped back and forth, dying tens of times. I have some notes about his past I have written down, so I might do a bit involving him. Maybe even a few short interludes where we follow his rise to power?

(HINT: Yeah, the bodyguard may or may not be pretty important... He was absolutely incredibly strong with hundreds of years of experience under his belt. In a sense, he was a 'Hero' in regards to how he saved entire countries and continents, and he was felled by a pissed-off girl with the soul of a Goddess who can't die. That has to have drastic consequences, right? Right?)

I'd like to get to know your feelings on Servi, Itarr, and Momo, now that Book Three is over. Do you still feel the same way about them as you did when the Book started? Do we have any Servi fans that switched over to Team Momo? Or did Servi's sheer ruthlessness manage to win anyone over?

A while back, I mentioned I had a few plans for other stories I wanted to write in addition to this one. I still kind of plan to do that, but I have hit a snag. You see, I was working on a revenge-isekai called True Demon Lord Training System.

But here lies my problem. Right after I wrote the prologue for it, I started reading(I'm on Chapter 3 of it) a book called Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells. It's a revenge isekai, and our prologues are so very similar that it isn't even funny.

I will put this in a spoiler box. The spoilers I will talk about mainly concern the first quarter of the book. But the spoilers are easily guessed from reading the back of the book and just having general knowledge about revenge-isekai stories.

I was honestly shocked that I had thought up of something that was nearly the same. Even the Soul Rating thing is almost the same, but Failure Frame uses 'S-Class Hero' or 'A-Class Hero.' Granted, the process leading up to the betrayal is supposed to paint him as being pathetic and selfish for not going along with it (Pretty much, if he dies, the Goddess can use the energy released to summon another hero, who is 1000% assured to have at least a 1-Star Soul.) So he's technically bullied to death, and another hero is summoned, but he swears he'll come back and get revenge.

I definitely do not want to be called a plagiarist, so I'm gonna have to alter it quite a bit. Thankfully, it's just the prologue that's super uncomfortably similar, and again, I definitely didn't know about Failure Frame before I wrote my prologue.

The first chapter is different enough, I hope, and it changes from there. They still both strive to acquire power, but they do so in their own ways. One uses his unique skill, and the other uses a system that is designed to train future True Demon Lords. And as I said before, a Demon Lord is only someone who can use Dark Divine Energy, so don't expect him to rape and pillage everything he sees. At the same time, the MC isn't a pushover, and he's going to have to be ruthless and surround himself with ruthlessness because he's starting at the very, very, very bottom. And it's a long, long, long way to the top. And since the stat boosts will be smaller at the start, it just makes the road that much more difficult.

If you want to get a sneak peek of what I have, then the Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and part of Chapter 3 are below.

Keep in mind that very little editing has gone into these early chapters!!! I'm just looking for general thoughts about the plot and how it progresses. Editing will come later once I have the tone I want locked down.

(I know it seems like a lot of content, but I want to get a bit of feedback on my ability to write in first person. I'd like to get some comments before I devote a substantial amount of effort in this story. All I really have written down is an outline of the first 8 chapters. But don't worry. The Story of a Girl & a Goddess Whose Souls Became Interconnected will always be my main priority.)

If you want to read it, please visit this link. https://www.scribblehub.com/series/346136/true-demon-lord-training-system-very-rough-draft/

On that story's page, you can find a feedback chapter with my thoughts.

Alright, I think a part of why Book Three might've been a bit rough to read was because of the uploading schedule. Once a week isn't the best because of how I write. And I think the same can be said if I upload two or three times a week, and that brings me to this.

I think part of my problem is that I'm taking the advice, 'show, don't tell' to heart. I very rarely 'tell' things, and I mainly focus on the 'showing.' That's why I'm over 700k words deep, and I'm only on Book Four. 'Showing' is also why Chapters 9 and 10 are the way they are, but I still think they're properly needed because I needed them to convey what I wanted to convey.

And that's why, for Book Four, I'm taking a different approach.

I'm taking a hiatus until it is fully written and edited. Then once that is done, I will just have straight daily uploads, (weekdays, so not Saturday or Sunday) until it's done.

And I know I said this before, but this shouldn't be that long. There's going to be two stories going on at the same time.

At the same time, I swear I'm working on saying more without actually writing more. I think I can afford to 'tell' just a little bit more.

Some readers think Fisher got off way to easily just because he had a family to take care of, but that's not true. Servi just didn't kill him because she truly believed he regretted all he had done. He convinced her of that with his actions, words, and plans to build a orphanage. But just saying sorry isn't enough. Karma will eventually catch up to him, and this is Karma catching up.

I'll say this because I don't think it's a spoiler, but very rarely will anyone get off without a punishment. That includes the main characters and side characters. If it does seem that nothing bad will happen, it just means that it isn't the right time for punishment to occur. Every one will get their comeuppance, it will just take time.

I was going to say I want to start uploads before Christmas stuff goes up, but there's a store near me that are already selling fake Christmas trees, so I can't do that. So, I want to start uploading before the year ends.

And since Book Five now a collection of side stories, I can probably knock those out pretty quickly.

Actually, I lied. The first Side Story of Book Five takes place probably 10 minutes after Book Four, but Book Four will just end on the perfect moment. And I didn't want to have two epilogues.

But everything after Book Five Chapter One (Prologue?) is all side stories that are all going to be fluffy.

Except one, of course, which brings me to something completely else that I want to do, which is Fanfiction Crossovers!!!

They'll be non-canon, of course, but what if I have a way ( I already do have a way that fits with the story, but because it's fanfiction, it's non-canon) to allow Servi, Momo, and Itarr to crossover into different worlds? The first one I have planned is a Goblin Slayer type thing. I have a decent way of going about that won't involve nerfing Servi to the ground, and I think I can tell a fun story. Book Five won't include it, but it'll lay down the foundation. That'll probably be its own story on scribblehub.

I also want to do one with Pokémon, but that involves a character that hasn't been introduced. Like, what if Servi, Momo, Itarr, the character that hasn't been introduced, and Feral were transported to the world of Pokémon? There won't be any killing of the Pokémon, so rest assured, you will not see a Pikachu sliced in half. Think of the Pokémon anime, and you're already there.

I have some other ideas that involve Danmachi (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?) and Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, but those are just in the bare concept stages, so I just have the basic idea and that's it.

And here we have it! The end of this update post. I know Book Three has had some ups and downs, but I do hope you've enjoyed it. And I hope you're looking forward to some Rest and Relaxation in Book Four! We all know our Servi, Momo, and Itarr need it after what they've been through. I'll be working hard to get it written, edited, and scheduled for upload!!!!