Rustpen

All right. Chapters 82, 83, 84, and 85 published. Chapters 68-71 also made public.

Still not done with 88 and 89, but I reckoned I had to publish something, so here you go for now (chapters 82-85 cover a whole mini-arc of sorts, and 85 doesn’t in a cliffhanger, so I figured they’d do.) I’ll try my best to wrap the remaining ones tomorrow and finish off this week’s batch at the promised eight. (It’s not doing me any favors how the chapters of this arc are turning out a bit longer, either.)

Chapter 89 is done. C88, on the other hand, is an ongoing struggle. I’ll try to wrap up today, but just in case I’ve already published chapters 86 and 87, and made public chapters 72 and 83.

And 73*

And there we go. Chapters 88 and 89 published, chapters 74 and 75 made public. With these, last week’s batch is finally over, at 8 chapters. For this week, I’m going for seven—though I’m delaying their release to this Sunday. I’ve managed to get a few chapters ahead while I was struggling with chapter 88, so it might just work out.

Chapters owed: 26 - 8 = 18.

Chapters 90, 91, 92, 93, and 94 posted. Chapters 76, 77, 78, 79, and 80 made public. Chapters 95 and 96 are coming out tomorrow to wrap up last week’s batch of seven.

Chapters 95 and 96 are ready, but I’ll be releasing them Sunday together with the rest of the new batch. These next couple of chapters might as well be a mountain range judging by the number of cliffhangers on them, so I figured I’d soften the brunt by packing them together.

However, there’ll only be a total of 6 chapters released Sunday. That’s because there’s the two remaining ones from last week, plus four from this week’s batch. For the month of June, and the first week of July, I’ll be releasing, alternatingly, 4 and 5 chapters per week. I’ve done the math, and this will allow me to wrap up the chapter debt by Friday, July 4, allowing me to resume publishing on Royal Road on July 5.

So here’s the schedule:

June 8: 6 chapters.
June 13: 5 chapters.
June 20: 4 chapters.
June 27: 5 chapters.
July 4: 4 chapters. (End of Chapter Debt.)
July 5: Royal Road Return.

(For those interested in the math, the current number of chapters owed is 16, after the five I already published this week.

Now, there’s 4 Mondays and Fridays between now and June 5, so +8. That leaves us with 24 chapters I need to publish between now and June 5. 6 tomorrow, 5 on June 13, 4 on June 20, 5 on June 27, 4 on July 4. 6+5+4+5+4 = 24.)

Chapters 95, 96, 97, 98, and 99 are published, and chapters 81, 82, 83, 84, and 85 have been made public. I’m almost done with chapter 100, but not quite—so I’m leaving it for tomorrow.

(And yes, I’m afraid chapter 99 ends on a cliffhanger—but chapter 100 isn’t much better. Still, I’m really excited about it: both because of what happens in it—you could say it’s what chapters 93 and onward have been building toward all along—and because of its number.)

Chapter 100 posted. Chapter 86 made public.

(With this, this week’s batch’s complete. As for the current chapter debt, it’s now at 10—but Monday’s scheduled regular chapter adds +1 to it, so 11.)

Rustpen — 2:34 AM
@everyone

Chapters 101, 102, 103, and 104 posted. Chapters 87, 88, 89. and 90 made public. I plan on posting 105 a few hours from now to wrap up last week’s batch of 5.

The current batch will be delayed by a day or two. I want to release all the chapters together, and I’m having trouble with some of them.

Also, I’ll also be postponing the Royal Road return for a while longer, but I’ll go into further detail after I upload this week’s batch (not last week’s, which I’ll be publishing tomorrow or Wednesday, but this week’s, which I’ll try my hardest to finish before this Sunday). Long story short, though, I’m very close to running out of my stockpile of chapters, and I’m not comfortable resuming publishing there without a buffer (I’m also editing some of the earlier chapters a little, and not done with that yet).

Just remembered to also post updates here.

Chapter 142 published on Patreon, chapter 128 published on Royal Road.

This release came a little late, but that’s because I had to tweak some things (and because like the last few chapters, it’s also over 3,000 words, rather than the usual near-2,500 range); tomorrow’s chapter is already nearly done, and it’ll in fact be coming out within 24 hours.

Got a bit delayed; the next chapter will be out in about 16 hours. Going forward, I’ll announce even small delays, just to keep communication clearer. This should be the last delay for a good while, though; from now on, I’ll be scheduling chapter releases both on Patreon and on Royal Road. (I made sure to keep this weekend free so that I could have enough time to pull that off.)

On a related note, I’ll put up a Patreon poll tomorrow about the release schedule: should I keep it at 2,000–4,000 words twice a week, or switch to 4,000–8,000 words once a week? The total word count stays the same—the only change will be whether those 4–8k words come as two shorter chapters or one longer one.

Now, tomorrow’s chapter will still follow the current schedule. But if the single-chapter format wins the poll, I’ll start next week with a double-sized release—either on Monday or Friday, depending on which day gets more votes. (The poll will have three options: (1) Twice a week, Monday and Friday; (2) Once a week, Monday; (3) Once a week, Friday. Both “Friday” and “Monday” options will count as votes for the single-chapter schedule; I’ll just pick the more popular day if that format wins.)

So. The poll was very close, but once a week won—on Mondays, specifically. Again, the weekly word count released doesn’t change (4-8k words); the only difference is that all those words will now be in one chapter rather than split into two.

This week we’ll still be sticking to the old schedule, though—so there’ll be another on Friday. Starting next week, though, expect double-length chapters on Mondays.

All right. The final chapter under the twice‑a‑week schedule has been published. From now on, chapters will be twice as long (around 4,000–8,000 words) and released every Monday. Tomorrow, I’ll be merging the 14 advance chapters currently on Patreon into seven longer ones, so free readers won’t fall behind with the new format. (Of course, Sect Elder patrons will still stay seven weeks ahead of everyone else!)

I’m afraid the last chapter’s delay (see above) carried over; I’ll need a bit more time to wrap up this week’s chapter, so expect it sometime tomorrow. (I also didn’t get around to merging the current advance chapters yet, so that’s also happening tomorrow.)

(On the bright side, I’ll have a whole week to get next week’s chapter done, so this should be the last delay; that’s one of the biggest advantages of the new schedule.)