Afterword

The results of the poll are in! Eight out of ten readers want to see volume 2! Unfortunately, that's a parameter, not a statistic. Only ten people voted! (Well, 11, but it's funnier with 10). I believe Write-a-thon begins in about a week so I'll start posting volume 2 then. It will feature less Garfield, less silliness, less Bretten, and less hydras. So, what will the book even have? Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, more Beast people, Dragons, Giants, Trolls, Centaurs, more Goblins, more Hannah, more White Glow, more first princess Charlotte, more Kay (Court Mage), and perhaps, more interference from entities of a divine nature. There may be communist assassins but we'll see.

For those who voted for a different project or are interested, I do have ideas for other stories which I plan to move on to later. I'll reveal more information about what's to come at a later date.

I've been going back to earlier pages and adding in small images at the beginning of each chapter. If you haven't done so, please have a look and share your thoughts. Also, someone is helping me put together a rough map of the continent, which I'll need to decide if/when to share. It will become important for volume 2 which spreads out a lot more compared to volume 1.

I think this is the part where I'm supposed to thank my editor and everyone who helped me bring this story to it's written form. First, to my editor, myself, thank you for tirelessly correcting spelling and grammar errors. I couldn't have done it without me. Second, thank you to Royal Road for allowing me to share this story. Third, thank you to Microsoft for providing me Microsoft Word. It's not that good of a text editor, but I'm so used to it at this point I'm just more comfortable using it than anything else. Fourth, thank you to my sister for reading the first few chapters when I was beginning to write the story and providing some feedback (it's hard to get feedback here!). It's unfortunate that she won't talk to me anymore after reading the scene where the mother bear gets euthanized, but such is the burden of being an author.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Also, thank you to the readers who commented, reviewed, or rated. For authors who aren't trying to monetize their story, there's not much point in sharing it unless people read it and then respond in some way. Hopefully, now that volume 1 is complete (save for some minor editing I still plan to do), some readers will go back and write a review that covers the entire volume (so far, the only reviews are based on the first half or less of the book before the path of the book becomes clear).

I'll end this with a couple of promises. A few readers mentioned to me separately that they don't care for overpowered protagonists who encounter almost no struggle and find themselves in a harem. I promise that in volume 2 things won't go so easily for Garfield (hence why he's in the story less, as mentioned above). Also, he won't actually find himself in a harem. You'll need to keep reading to see how that goes.

Please share any thoughts you have below! They're worth their weight in gold (I'm not sure how to weigh digital comments but you get the idea). Thanks for reading.