Hey, first of all, thank you to anyone who has been reading (and to anyone who will be reading in the future, hi from the past, I guess, lol). I really hope you've been enjoying this story in some ways at least. I'm having fun writing it, and I hope it translates well to you guys reading this. So, again, thank you for reading.

Now, a few things I wanted to say. Sam's chapter is coming along shortly to conclude this little "back home arc". I never really meant to have arcs in this story, and I don't think I truly have them, but since I cycle through all of the characters POVs, I see those cycles as kind of "arcs".

Anyways, what I wanted to say is, after the next chapter (that is coming soon), I will take a short break from actively writing this stroy. I have 2 reasons for this.

1. I want to sit back, let this rest for a bit so I can better decide what's the best route to go down after these chapters.

2. I hope to go back, re-read everything I've written so far, and do some small revisions.

Now, to explain myself, I'm somewhere between being a Pantser and a Plotter. I have the larger plot points all set-up, obviously, but I've been letting my characters kind of grow, change and shift on their own.

So, even though I have this story planned ahead, I need some time to sit back and decide how is it that I want my MCs to do things in a future (in a way that makes sense).

I didn't want to rush into things, overexplaining their characters up until now. This "back home arc" was supposed to show what kind of environment they came from, and why they are the way they are. I don't regard it as full-on character development, more as an ongoing thing. This was an attempt to showcase the past that has made them, and further explain why they behave the way they do. Now that I have that down, I want to come up with some different things, give them an opportunity to interact differently. But, enough about that.

Obviously, I have future plans, so this break won't last too long ;)

Fun fact, I've actually started writing this story 4 times before this. I'd always start over again and do things "little bit to the left", lol. So, in order to actually stick to a form of this story, I decided to start publishing this. You could probably already guess, but what you are reading right now is the 1st draft.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

(Another fun fact, Ves didn't exist in the first few variations of this, instead, Teo had a Houndour, and there were 4 people on each team)

That's why I want to do revisions, they are definitely needed. Obviously, I'm not going to change anything important, I'm satisfied with my plot points/character development (as I have said, I do have those things mapped out already). What I mean to do is fix the typos (that are abudant, I think), start fixing up transitions between scenes and add some desriptions. Since my chapters are super long, I tend to write them really fast, so switching between scenes kind of falls flat, and I don't really take my time with describing things too much.

Also, I want to start picking up things I want to fix in future revision. I will definitely have to do that as well in the future, hopefully before I start writing the book two. Most likely I'll end up doing revisions while I write book 2, since my plan is for the second installation to pick up almost right where I left off. Or, where I plan leaving this story off.

All that said, nothing of importance will change in my revisions, so it's not like you have to go back and read everything over again.

Once again, assuring you, this break won't be too long, I'll need a month at best to go through, read it all, fix some small stuff, and think of the best way to put the plot I have planned into words.

In the mean time, I will do my best to put out a few bonus chapters, just to keep things interesting. I do have a lots of things I want to do with those, but I am yet to set up a few of those things within the story. But yeah, except to see more of small bits like Yamper on the Plane where pokemon are the focal points, as well as some things that follow side characters and their daily lives (and the main character will get their own bcs, of course).

Also, I think this is a good time for me to release the ranking list (even though there already is one in chapter 9). But, since the tournament is finally nearing, I think this is the right time to actually put that out, along with the list of all the current characters, their pokemon and (current) movepools (God, I probably won't be able to update that regularly, since the movepools will change up...). Anyways, I already have those lists, I just have to put it all in one place. I think it will be easier for all of us to follow everyone like that.

Though, I do the limited 3rd person naration, so obviously, my characters won't know when the side characters change their movepools. With some characters they still don't know full movepools. Anyways, I'll put up all the moves that we know so far, and the moves that pokemon knew when trainers recived them (even if the mcs don't know about them, if that makes sense). Then I'll update along the way, when enough changes have been made.

There are only a few more characters that haven't been introduced just yet, but I do have a few fun ones planned, so I'll put them on as well.

Anyways, that's all coming after Sam's "back home" chapter.

Once again, reassuring you that the break won't be too long (it's not even a real break...), and once again, thank you for for reading this story <3