> NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
>
> A lot happens in the final 3 chapters, and they are my personal favorites (besides chapter 31 with the assassins' guildmistress).
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> As many comments have noted, Rin still hasn't discovered a way around the "observable" limitation of Craven's Transmutation. Many readers have pointed out he could get around the limitation by masking his body in a giant conjured garment of some kind. When I first wrote this story, I thought Rin would end up pursuing something like this, but then as things developed, he never figured that out. From readers' comments, I understand this is an ongoing source of frustration.
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> So I've decided to change transmutation's limitation from "cannot use the ability when being observed" to more emphatically "cannot use the ability in the presence of others." The end result is to eliminate all doubt and make it clear that Rin cannot use the ability in front of others, period. This affects several chapters, including chapter 27 when Craven is giving Rin advice and chapter 29 when he's pondering how to escape the assassins. It does NOT affect any of the final 3 chapters coming up next - not a word was changed because of this decision.
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> The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
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> I've updated all of the previous references to the ability as best as I could find. I left the following author's note on chapters I changed: "Edited 12/07/2024: Locked down limitation of main ability as noted by several comments."
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> Again, this change doesn't affect any of the remaining 3 chapters, it merely plugs a hole many of you have found frustrating. Please accept my apologies for not fixing this sooner — I read each and every one of your comments and take them very seriously. None of my dozen beta readers expressed this as an issue, and I decided to wait and make sure it was truly significant before having to go thru and update several chapters.
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> To reiterate the book's theme so far: Rin's main ability is overpowered against monsters. It is severely handicapped when fighting people. He is at serious risk during the duel.
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> Thanks for reading!
>
> BB