And here we are, as usual, in the epilogue at the end of the volume, where I remind you that I share a bit of my thoughts on the novel and give you some additional details.
First of all, I sincerely hope you enjoyed the previous volume.
In fact, I intended to make this last volume as cool as possible (and in part, I think I succeeded), but I have this feeling that I could have done better, and right now I don't have any other ideas on how to improve it beyond what it is (with my skills).
I hope you liked the duality between Attila and Batu, meaning that the chapter didn't focus solely on Attila but also explored Batu's journey, his character, and that of his wife.
I aimed to make the conflict between the two more than just a simple protagonist vs. enemy, but rather a clash between the protagonist and a significant historical figure.
I could have only written from Attila's perspective, but that would have felt too sterile and lacking in excitement.
I can already tell you that I will try to give more space to other characters as well (at least a little, so they don't seem totally useless).
I want to share a vision for the future of the web novel and how it needs to change; follow my reasoning.
I started writing this web novel with the goal of telling a story with historical and realistic elements.
The starting point is that of a "new virtual reality video game" (which is the basis of other works) but with the characteristic that it isn't fantasy (which is still a cool idea) but more "realistic" and "historical," indeed.
In this game, the player doesn't have the prerogatives/objectives they would have in a fantasy work; their goal is to live a parallel life in the historical past to achieve goals they have set for themselves.
But it's difficult to keep everything together; let me explain better.
In a fantasy work, there's almost absolute creative freedom; literally anything can happen (this applies to this and almost all other genres), like: random events, consecutive events, journeys, battles, etc.
But in a work like mine, based on both historical and "practical" realism, it's not possible to "drop meaningless events from above."
For example: how long does it take an army to go from point A to point B? Days? Months? Years?
How long does it take for anything to be built? We're not on Clash of Clans where you just wait a few hours/days, and it's all built. How long does it take to build (for example) a mine? Walls?
As you might have guessed, building these things takes time—time that translates into months/years for Attila.
But the same applies to historical events.
I was somewhat lucky because I chose a historical period where many things happened in a very short interval, and I managed to connect almost all of them, but over time it becomes difficult.
Also, the issue of gameplay difficulty, a detail that adds spice to the work, is still challenging to utilize.
It's true that the difficulty is at its peak, but Attila can't be poisoned at every meal or with every step he takes.
So what's my solution?!
My solution is to use a special event (which I won't reveal for spoiler reasons) to unlock the narrative from a storytelling perspective.
A friend of mine gave me this idea, and the more I think about it, the more I believe it would be an awesome twist, and I hope you'll like it too.
I can already tell you that between today and tomorrow, I will write and publish the prologue of the new volume, and next month I'll see if I can bring you an extra chapter compared to normal.
Of course, if you have ideas to share, feel free to do so in the comments (I read them all).
Thank you so much for your attention; have a great day and enjoy your reading!