August Q&A

Nope, no consequences. The main reason to open all the easily openable ones is to increase the speed at which you gather, and improve the body as much as you can. Every meridian allows for a minor improvement to every body part it flows through, so not opening them reduces your benefits, even if you don't advance past the initial stages. Yup, awesome character, died instantly. Mostly to show how stupidly powerful the Jellyfish was. It's equivalent level in people would be two tiers beyond Perfect Core, and the only reason it didn't kill the entire kingdom was its brainlessness. I don't think I've gone back and changed anything beyond wording. If I have to retcon something, I'll probably twist it as 'common knowledge' which was wrong. If I did go back and change a major, or even minor, plot point I'd probably put it in the Appendix of the next book and post it on Facebook too. Feel free to ask more questions!

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to shotgun some more things that I was curious about at you. In the first book, it was important that they open the easily openable meridians before advancing. In Condensation the main crew ended up with new easily openable meridians. Are there consequences for opening those so late? Did Stanislaw Gniew die fighting the Jellyfish? He seemed cool and powerful, so I was surprised that it seemed like he didn't survive the encounter. Do you ever go back and make additional edits to the previous books, and if so is there a way for us to know that occurred? Glossing over minor inconsistencies doesn't bother me at all, but I imagine as a writer you encounter many things where you don't like a decision you made earlier because abiding by the decision paints you into a corner or disregarding it confuses people. I could probably keep asking questions, but I'll stop there. I love the books. Keep them coming.

Derek Lokey

I'm currently thinking that Perfect Body is a similar level from another land. The Weltreich use a form of body cultivation that is different from the Craesti (where Aiden is). At one point I was thinking it was the next level, but I'm not sure. I'm still figuring out where I want to take gathering after Perfect Core. Any thoughts from y'alll?

What is the difference between “Perfect Core” and “Perfect Body”? I have only seen one reference to “Perfect Body” that I can recall, and it wasn’t in the list of stages at the back of the book.

Derek Lokey

Often just forgetting about it, or the assumption that the roads are damaged. In my case, there weren't many bikes to be had, and the group dindn't want to split up. People might also worry about the ability to respond to an attack quickly, as getting knocked off a bike by a mutated eagle could be scary.

Something I noticed today about not just Mana Daemons but all the post apocalypse books I've read is why don't people ride bikes instead of walking? Roads are still there and it's faster and easier than walking. Just wondering.

I live in the front range of the rocky mountains. Yup, the naming convention is based upon how the Chinese use them. A lot of the magic system is based upon Chinese cultivation web novels, and the naming system is very good at emphasizing the prevalence of "family/clan first" philosophies rather than the more individualistic western philosophy.

Hi, sorry I thought I posted this the other day - not sure if you have mentioned before, wondering where in the world you live? Also, the inspiration to have the Azyl Academy world be somewhat modelled on Chinese with reverse names etc?

Kat

thanks for your good work

I’d love to post more than one chapter a week, but what you see is what I got! I’m posting them almost as I finish them.

Hi Chris, thanks for your good work. I am big fan of your elemental gatherers series. waiting for its next chapter. would love to have more than 1 chapter a week for that series.