Hello, my lovely readers, and welcome to my story.
First of all, thank you for getting this far. I genuinely appreciate it.
Before we begin, I want to get a few things out of the way.
I want to be upfront: I do use some AI assistance, specifically ChatGPT. I know some of you might feel the urge to drop the novel the moment you read that, but I ask that you give it a chance first. You might be surprised.
I put hours of effort into refining each chapter. This is actually my third novel. In my first, I relied heavily on AI. In my second, I used it significantly less. In this one, I'm trying to minimize its usage as much as possible. As my writing improves, my reliance on AI decreases—but I'm not yet confident enough to write an entire novel completely without it.
That might just be a confidence issue, but it is what it is.
My usual process is this: I write a chapter averaging between 800 and 1,200 words (sometimes more, sometimes less depending on inspiration or difficulty). Then I run it through ChatGPT to help refine it. After that, I spend about an hour cleaning up what I jokingly call the "ChatGPT-ness."
Sometimes it adds ideas—some good, some bad. Sometimes it glosses over or summarizes things I consider important, which is honestly frustrating because I then have to put them back in. It's a process, but the goal is always the same: to give you something legible and enjoyable without you thinking, "Wow, this is AI slop."
Please remember, I write this for fun. I write because I enjoy creating things and bringing something positive into the world. I submitted this novel to Webnovel and in the future potentially other platforms because I believe some of you might enjoy it too, and I want to share that joy with you.
That said, this novel focuses on things I like.
Lore.
Kingdom and company building.
Politics and manipulation.
Action consisting of both the sword and magic variety.
And an amoral main character.
I personally can't stand the "I'm a hero and I never kill anyone" trope. That works for Marvel—Spider-Man webbing up criminals and leaving the stolen cash behind for the police—but it's not my style. If someone is robbing and killing drug dealers, I'd rather see them take the money too. That's just me. To each their own.
My main character is edgy due to his dark past, but I'm trying very hard not to turn him into an edgelord. You can be the judge of whether I succeed.
If you enjoy the story, please let me know through comments, reviews, or stones. I thrive on positive reinforcement and reader feedback.
If you want to critique something, that's fine too—just please be kind. In my last novel, one reader left around twenty highly negative comments across forty chapters, and it honestly drained the joy out of writing for me. I checked his comment history later and found he'd done the same thing leaving thousands of negative reviews for hundreds of novels, but it still stung more than I'd like to admit.
To my returning readers: welcome back. I genuinely believe this is the best-written novel I've started so far. My other two novels are currently on hiatus—not abandoned. I have more chapters written for them; they just need editing. For now, my focus is entirely on this story. When I hit writer's block here, I'll probably release chapters for the others.
To both old and new readers: I'll try to release a chapter daily for the time being. I currently have about fifteen chapters written ahead of time, each needing roughly thirty minutes to an hour of editing before release.
Before starting this novel, I spent a couple of months brainstorming ideas. Once I hit 128 pages of notes in a Google Doc, I figured it was time to make an outline and actually begin. So, hopefully, writer's block won't be a major issue—though I realize I've probably just jinxed myself.
I love kingdom-building novels, but they're rarely done the way I want them to be, so I decided to write my own. My previous novels were also kingdom-building stories, but the released chapters never truly reached that phase. This time, I'm starting the kingdom-building much earlier in the protagonist's life.
In my last novel, I rushed the character into adulthood while still trying to handle childhood plotlines, which caused everything to feel compressed. This story will have a slower start, especially during the early years, but it pays off later.
One last important note: the first chapter is dark.
I used some of my own life experiences to make the character feel real. This does not set the tone for the entire novel. It isn't dark throughout. In fact, it's not particularly dark after the opening chapter. I wanted the protagonist's previous life to feel visceral and meaningful, so I bled some of my less pleasant experiences into it, making this novel more personal than the others.
The story progresses as follows:
Childhood and training
Kingdom and company building
Eventually, travel to other worlds
Later, the Skyrim game storyline
Don't expect inter-world travel anytime soon. That path leads to overpowered nonsense too quickly, and I want the main character properly prepared—especially before fighting dragons.
Because dragons, in my world, are basically fire-breathing F-16s with scales as strong as iron and spear-like teeth. They also wield the Thu'um. Preparation matters.
This is a real world, not a game world. Trolls can tear your arm off and beat you to death with it. Skyrim here is closer to Dark Souls or Warhammer 40k than a normal fantasy. I wanted it to feel visceral and dangerous.
I treat this novel the way parents treat a baby.
I really do love it.
And I hope you do too.
Lastly—don't be afraid to stone me. Bring on the stones. Hopefully, by the end of the novel, we'll have enough to build a pyramid.