Afterword - Book 1 - Chapter 42 (Patreon)

Chapter 42: Ranger III

(Original Chapter Title: Ranger I)

They recovered from their loss (it was just one piece of equipment and two horses, they're fiiiine) and carried on!

Vert and the case of the corrupt guards feels all too plausible to me. It's the kind of abuse that feels ALL too plausible, and likely mirrors terrible events in our world too. Honestly, stuff like that skeeves me more than a little, but I do try to write realistic settings. But fortunately Ranger Team 13 was there to put the situation to the sword! Also Vert was fun to write; street savvy and cheeky is always a delight.

I mentioned before that Ranthia's misjudging her team a bit. She assumes Republius has a stick up his butt, yet he facilitated moments like the one here, where he helped them give out items and coin to those in need—even if it was plainly in violation of protocol.

Ranthia doesn't like companion bonds. In her eyes, they're a responsibility that evolved into a liability. She saw a promising Ranger trainee drop out because of his bond—and it'd been a combat beast!—and the bird is NOT helping her opinions. Fun fact though, in the original draft Ranthia was the one who asked if the bird could find the kid. While editing, I decided it was too out of character—it suited Secundia FAR more.

The battle with the ornithocheirus nest was originally told from Leoios' PoV and had to be almost entirely rewritten (also I'd WAY oversold Hail's power originally, had to tone it down more than a bit). Still, it's fun to show another glimpse at what Ranthia can do, not that I got to indulge in it very much here. Pibius' build was fascinating to me, but in reality I suspect he's wasting a LOT of power building up a reaction. I suspect if he used his elements more directly, he could do more damage per mana in general, thanks to how the System works. Still neat though.

But Ranthia's eyes have been touched by Void at last, and now she is ready for her next class up.