[Salvos] 728. How To Save Mavos Academy (Removed for KU)
Added 2024-10-14 01:37:55 +0000 UTC(Removed for KU)
Comments
"she is also not a hero burdened with greatness" - you seem to imply that a hero is someone in a shining armour, radiating an aura of heroic destiny, lifting his bright sword to the skies leading men into a glorious battle. That's a complete misconception, and it seems that's why everybody tries writing heroic characters and almost nobody succeeds. No, a hero, in a sense of a heroic narrative arc, is a common person whose life takes an uncommon turn, and he is cast in a situation where all the knights in shining armour tried to lead armies into glorious battles, and they all lie slain upon the battlefield as feast for crows, and the most brilliant of all heroes turned evil and is now known as the Dark Lord. A hero is cast into a situation where all is already lost, and he has no real plan, because all those with good plans either died or turned evil; there is no real strategy, no path to victory, and the only thing he has is the ability to make the next step before him the best he can, informed only by his innate sense of decency and doing the right thing, choosing whom to befriend and whom to oppose, choosing not to dwell on the darkness of the big picture but on the things he can actually influence, like saving one person in front of him, choosing to believe the right person, choosing not to give up when everything is darkness and despair, choosing to make one more step, until, eventually, against all odds, and despite all his mistakes and failings, he turns back and sees the One Ring evaporating in the chasm of Orodruin because he chose not to kill the despicable creature, not because he endured till the end. Luke Skywalker isn't a hero because he fought Dart Vader and the Emperor in a duel, and defeated them because of the light side of the Force. No, Luke Skywalker is a hero because he refused to kill his defeated father, and refused to choose salvation through embracing darkness. He lost the fight with the Emperor and was about to die, but then the one he refused to kill saved him and won the day. The heroic arc isn't about a bright destiny of certain victory because you're The Hero. In fact, it seems to be more about having an apparent choice between death and darkness, and choosing against darkness. It's about being saved by something unpredictable, but as a result of your prior choice for kindness and goodness, because the little things are everything in the end. Also, the hero never actually seems to win the battle, or wear the shining armour. He just refuses to believe what his eyes and reason are telling him: that everything is lost and hopeless, and he never makes the journey, he just repeatedly fails to give up and succumb to despair, and somehow, that's enough.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-16 08:33:23 +0000 UTC"and you doubled down on your bad mood" - my criticism isn't a result of my "mood", it's a result of a rational evaluation of the situation, and the evaluation is that the talks here in the comment section are for the most part more interesting than what Melas is writing, and at this point one starts to wonder what the actual fuck.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-16 07:04:37 +0000 UTC"Guys, this is the first chapter of a new book." - actually, it's the fifth chapter. However, that would not necessarily be the problem if not for the fact that the last actual chapter was a month ago.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-16 06:54:46 +0000 UTCAll right, (1) This is the start of a new book, so I agree that the focus is more on a soft recap than on progress. (2) As someone trying to become a writer myself, one rule that stuck with me is that every scene needs to describe or test a character. And I think Melas managed to do that better in the earlier books. I think the worldbuilding and overall story are honestly amazing, so I enjoy Salvos regardless. (3) To me, Salvos is not a strong female MC but she is also not a hero burdened with greatness. To me, Salvos is an example on how to indulge your desire and be a functioning member of society. I think that's the USP. Contrary to cultural ideals we are allowed to have and follow our desire. But that's actually not the thing that hooked me in the beginning. That was (a) the motive of struggling to navigate an unfamilliar world and (b) the intensity of Salvos' emotions. One of my favorite passages to this day is I think even from the very first chapter when Salvos compares rocks and despairs abour not being able to find that special first one again in a show of struggling with the inconsiquentiality of existence. This deep emotional tie to the philosophical points resulting from one's desires, that really resonates with me! Since I enjoy Salvos so much, I want to contribute to a positive atmosphere around Salvos. People react positively to positivity and negatively to negativity. So I'm honestly positively surprised about you, @Danijel, that after I disagreed with you and you doubled down on your bad mood, you managed to twist it into a constructive comment overall. I hope I'll also get better at that with more life experience.
Dragonmaster_42
2024-10-16 06:05:57 +0000 UTCGuys, this is the first chapter of a new book. A review of the current situation to remind us of where we are in the story is not unusual.
Angworu
2024-10-15 20:32:54 +0000 UTCAnd yes, we want to see Salvos become great and do great things, because we ourselves want to dream about becoming great and doing great things, and it's only believable because she started like one of us - weak, small and lost - and we want to believe that brains, hard work, virtue and courage are the way to apotheosis, because that way we have a chance.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-15 18:02:47 +0000 UTCYeah, pretty much ends at the same point as the last chapter about them. It would have been better to split the 2 halves of the chapter into 2 separate chapters so we get a bit more progress in. If we get a Netherworld chapter next we have to recap the other plains again. But maybe this was meant as a recap i think it is the first chapter in this Book about them.
Tim
2024-10-15 15:31:27 +0000 UTCYeah, there's that "if I mention the problems, he's going to react like a typical gen-z: get depressed and not write anything at all, and that's not what any of us wants", but at some point affirmation doesn't work and saying nothing doesn't work either. I think the problem is that he doesn't understand what's so special about Salvos, he thinks it's just a "strong female character" in a litRPG/isekai setting, where he ripped off "I'm a spider, so what" and five other similar things and he thinks Kara and Amelia are also "strong female character" in an litRPG/isekai setting, and they are more original so they should be even more popular. That's obviously not the case, and that's why I think he doesn't even understand what he managed to stumble upon with Salvos. Salvos is not about being a strong female character. Nobody gives a shit about strong female characters these days, because everybody does them and they all suck. Also, Salvos is not strong, she's sympathetic because she's something we all can identify with. We all woke up in a strange world as strange beings, being completely weak and trying to figure things out and thrive in this super weird and hostile environment. In that sense, he stumbled upon an archetypal heroic arc: Salvos is a Luke Skywalker, a nobody, a farm boy with unrealistic dreams on a shitty backwater world, whose life opened up at some point and he just winged it from there, often getting it wrong and paying the price, then learning his lessons and eventually saving the world. Salvos is a Frodo Baggins, a nobody farmboy Hobbit in a backwater place, who just did what felt right at every step, guided by basic decency more than any grand scheme, who suffered and was hurt and made mistakes, but still did enough of things right to save the world, by just doing small things. Salvos started as someone who could be killed by literally anyone. When she got stuck in the Mortal Realm, in literally every forest there was something that could kill her. Also, literally every demon before her made the same mistake: waged war against the world and died. She didn't. Instead, she made friends, she played by the rules, she found universally harmful things to kill, she made herself useful and respectable, and she was a kind and decent person often enough to become a true, actual hero of the people around her. That's what the heroic arc is - a hero is never the most likely person to be seen as a hero. In a heroic tale, someone great like Isildur will fail, and someone normal, weak and unexpected, like Frodo, will have to pick up the burden and carry it where the great ones have faltered. That's what we can all identify with. We all woke up in a shitty nightmare, we are trying to figure things out, and that's why we love a heroic tale where someone equally weak, ignorant and confused, doing just the normal decent stuff we can all see ourselves doing, can ascend to greatness, and, essentially, return back home to God, to our true higher self that awakens from this nightmare. That's the great thing about the evolution/cultivation plot: it hits close enough to home for it to actually matter.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-15 14:12:13 +0000 UTCI also had that opinion for a while. I'm not sure if it's just a matter of perception, but that doesn't really matter anyway. I'm a guy, so I have no unique value to others. I get at most what I give to others. I don't like my work being degraded so I don't degrade the work of others. I just try to nurture what I enjoy and keep to positive reinforcement. The more I enjoy a chapter, the more actively I engage and comment. That way, I encourage writing and good writing. If I we're to complain, I would not only discourage "bad" writing but to some degree Melas from writing in general. I'd shoot myself in the foot with that.
Dragonmaster_42
2024-10-15 13:19:33 +0000 UTCYeah, and I'm really trying to bite my tongue about all that. Also, when I compare the early Salvos books with the last 3, the drop in quality (actually, drop in author's focus and motivation) is staggering. It's as if he intentionally tried to wean the audience off Salvos to force us into the other stuff he wanted to transition into, and as we didn't care for it, he tried to "punish us" by diluting Salvos to the point of total WTF. I don't know if that's his idea or he's listening to some really bad advice, but if he wants to see what happens when an author tries to force the audience, he should take a look at the current situation in Disney. In short, if you don't want to write what the audience wants to read, get an office job and stop fucking with our patience.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-15 11:48:30 +0000 UTCTo be honest, there is nothing in this chapter
Użytkownik Przeciętny
2024-10-15 10:45:40 +0000 UTCWell, that's also an option how Edith and Salvos might meet. If Edith somehow ends up in the Netherworld, Salvos' clones might find her! Man! I can't wait for the next chapter!!!
Dragonmaster_42
2024-10-15 09:53:25 +0000 UTCAnd five clones are still roaming the wilderness, searching for "something".
Danijel Turina
2024-10-15 09:44:25 +0000 UTCAnd I almost forgot: she let Manos take the credit for killing Jofis, without even mentioning her contribution. This is no longer the insecure Salvos who constantly has to show how awesome she is. This looks like the onset of quiet confidence of someone who is approaching omnipotence.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-15 09:03:43 +0000 UTCThere's one more thing I noticed. Across the span of her life, Salvos was very self-centered and egotistical, with next-to-zero empathy, and I can see a gradient forming, where she learned to care about others, had her ego under control, and so on. However, in the recent days she brought this to an extreme, and it almost feels like some kind of a test by the System, to see whether she can completely control her "sin". A Salvos from five years ago would sulk, rant, do extreme things to show displeasure or attract attention, and so on. Now, she's basically taking care of a million demons, patiently working with them, letting Haec play leader, and her insecurity only leaked out slightly after she met an enemy in battle she felt she couldn't defeat and was genuinely scared, and then tried to get a hug from Hartia, which failed miserably. Also, she used to prefer looking scary to others, because she felt like it's a sign she's powerful. Now, she looks very non-intimidating, and the only person she actually scared on purpose is Hartia, but that's because he was intentionally dismissive and aggravating, so she showed her teeth a bit. I wonder where this is going.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-15 08:40:35 +0000 UTCIt's been 3 days since she fought Hartia, and slightly more than one day before that she fought the second Deathsquad. Essentially, it's been less than five days since they left the lake of molten lava. That's if I remember it correctly, because we've been getting the chapters by the eyedropper and it feels like some kind of ancient Chinese torture technique. :(
Danijel Turina
2024-10-15 08:11:02 +0000 UTCI really like her fights against Hartia and the Deathsquads and I hope for more of that! Maybe the currently lower frequency of chapters is just messing with my sense of time...
Dragonmaster_42
2024-10-15 07:45:05 +0000 UTCI don't think that's actually true. Let's see what she actually used - not in the last fight, because she used everything there, and not against legion heads, because they were so weak they don't count. Second deathsquad - she transformed into an Ancient Centinel and used some kind of Holy Flames/Sacred Hellfire attack, she used Divine Demon's mark, and her clones used Claw of Corruption against two targets with fractal shields. Against Venas she used basically the same fire attacks; they worked, he died. Against Hartia she came unprepared; Claw and Divine Essence on cooldown after the second deathsquad fight, more-less played with him with space magic, needed Haec's help to get out of the Zombie Fairy Land, then needed Haec's help in his boosted state to really overpower Hartia, and eventually she used [Protection of the Corruption] to prevent Hartia from killing all the slaves with collars, and then wrapped The World of My Mind around it, combining GS space magic with corruption to create the Prison of Isolation, which won the fight. So, I can't say she just uses the scythe and fire attacks, although those are the first thing she resorts to. She had problems when her classic repertoire of attacks doesn't work - for instance, Hartia had a fractal shield that nullified both her kinetic and fire attacks, but a combination of corruption and realityspace neutralised him. With Jofis, nothing completely worked, but all kinds of things worked well enough that after a while his CRC data for immortality was depleted and he could be killed. In the end, Manos' axe worked better than her scythe, although the scythe did turn him into a Nearly Headless Nick. By inference, I would say that an attack of the same strength and type, but against a Primordial, would be too weak. Either it wouldn't cut deep enough, or the scythe would break, or both. However, she now has +50 baseline points to everything, including Strength, so strikes of this kind would work much better, at least when she has Divine Essence going. However, the real danger is the Flames GS. When that runs out, she has no secondary defensive skills or artefacts. She currently fights completely naked, simply because no artefact is as powerful as her skills, when they work. However, she used to have [Protection of the Sentinel], that turned into [Protection of the Corruption] and then she changed titles and lost it. She also used to have some medallion that created an Aura of Greater Protection or something, but she no longer has it and it would be too weak for the levels of enemies she's fighting anyway. She has to default on +150 to Vitality from the Title, and additional +50 she got from the new stackable title, which is an incredible +200 increase, which sounds like something a Primordial would get at their evolution, so she's quite sturdy. I won't even mention Corrupted Regeneration because fuck that one.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-15 07:15:38 +0000 UTCHer skill set is ripe for a shake-up! For a while now, she increasingly narrowed down her fighting style. And most of it is high-speed melee. We haven't seen her holy flame, star forge, enchantments and bow in some time! Salvos' ingenuity is falling behind her stats in some ways. I think that would be a good way for her to power up. Weave skills together! Bring corruption and space magic into divine creations!
Dragonmaster_42
2024-10-14 21:25:00 +0000 UTCDamn! There are so many pieces on the board! Elves, 2 kobold factions, 3+ larger human organizations, the human elites, 1-2 centinel factions, Daniel, Edithe&co, 3 demonic factions, spirits, soli, fairies, Lily, 1-2 agencies of corruption, beastmen, Sally, archangel, Arcraem, 3+ worldwalker factions, the Dreaded Goblet, the scythe of the Arcraem... I hope and feel like they will start coalescing soon. Some plot points will resolve along the way, but there are so many 2-4 way clashes ahead that I'm pretty hyped about every new chapter!
Dragonmaster_42
2024-10-14 21:07:21 +0000 UTCWe might be getting ahead of ourselves if Melas merely forgot that Edithe should get notifications; however, let's assume the opposite. Let's say this is a weapon that won't just lend its power to just any random wielder, but will unlock itself to someone who matches some criteria designed into it, the way the Sword of Alexander unlocked itself to Daniel, but would do normal things for anyone. Maybe it unlocks itself to Salvos immediately, but not its full power; let's assume that happens when she learns something, or makes some choice, and then she gets the full bonus from the weapon. That might be fun to see. But I do hope we get past prologue soon, because we've seen no new information so far. Edithe is still walking to the Archangel crash site, we don't know if he's alive or not, but he's certainly not moving for at least an hour. What if he's dead? Fairies, I guess, because everybody else does space magic only for Soli, and that's a no-go. In any case, that would delay things. Not that Salvos needs that thing immediately; she just got a big title bonus which should make killing highest-level Primevals almost easy. She does, however, need a serious weapon for Primordials. I'm afraid her current stuff won't get much past the skin.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-14 20:57:34 +0000 UTCWell, there aren't all that many options. (1) She gains some temporary skills and stats at the level up to the full ensemble of the treasures. (2) She gains a temporary skill or benefit that fundamentally changes our (and her) understanding of the world (likely related to the corruption) (3) The scythe is just a sturdy and advanced item. But Salvos analyzes it and thereby progresses her skills. (4) Salvos gains immediate power from the scythe, either in the form of a permanent general skill, an extra out-of-turn evolution, some skill upgrades or a powerful stackable title. Maybe she can absorb the whole thing thanks to the extra level in her essence GS. In any case, I expect Salvos to gain some fundamentally new skill or essence or get a massive upgrade to her divinity&corruption. And I expect her upcomming (regular) evolution to be greatly shaped by that new capability. Maybe a combination at some level.
Dragonmaster_42
2024-10-14 20:41:42 +0000 UTCOr being an [Angelic] being. Or being authorised by Arcraem. I wonder what happens when Salvos takes it.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-14 14:57:31 +0000 UTCIt might be the type of weapon where u need to meet certain requirements to wield, like having divine essence
Travis Brown
2024-10-14 14:21:56 +0000 UTC"Because it was clear that her knowledge of how anything worked was evidently lacking." - that's for sure. It's not just that she was raised by the church and espoused their inane belief system, and not just that the Humans have a completely wrong picture of the Spirit Realm, and think it's some kind of a heaven and the Spirit Lord is some kind of a Jesus with angels serving him in a heavenly hierarchy and other bullshit, which is of course what he wants them to believe. I think only Daniel actually noticed that the System must exist and some kind of a computer is processing all those info screens, stats, levels and classes. All the natives think it's just how things are. Also, any worldwalker would notice that Soli's creation of "angels" and the entire fake celestial hierarchy in imitation of what the System has in other Universes is completely wrong, but here, nobody thinks anything of it, other than the Archangel who went ape shit over the entire thing. Also, this is why Salvos being an angelic being was either misinterpreted or went under the radar altogether: if anyone even thought of it, they thought it means she's a Spirit, one of Spirit Lord's [Angels], but if those are fake, designed by some kind of magic that also manipulates the system of classes, and we have very good reasons to believe so, it means Salvos was given angelic properties by the System, and that means she's being selected as its champion. General, widespread ignorance about the System seems to be a major problem in Nexeus, and only Samuel and Belphegor seem to even know about Arcraem at all. Also, whatever knowledge exists is fragmented and isolated in individuals who don't even know about each other. If Edithe, Salvos, Samuel, Belphegor and Tera sat at a table and compared what they know, I think that would significantly increase the probability of not just blindly rushing into a disaster of some kind, because that's what seems to be happening. Salvos, in particular, is currently flying blind, and what she thinks is going on and what is actually going on might be completely different things. Although, at this point she is still too weak to be able to actually use the knowledge.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-14 09:03:01 +0000 UTCEdithe took the scythe in her hand. Shouldn't she be getting a zillion notifications about the temporary skills and stuff?
Danijel Turina
2024-10-14 08:13:05 +0000 UTC"artifact3" - typo
Danijel Turina
2024-10-14 08:10:43 +0000 UTCI would say that, while others are born with a soul that either stays the same or evolves with levelling and the choices made, the Centinels are all born completely wild, with no soul or reason, but at some evolution they have the potential to develop ego and reason, but don't, due to lack of stimulation and inertia. I guess it's just too tempting to continue doing what you always did. Also, as that sage centinel Salvos fought shows, having soul and the ability to reason doesn't by itself make you good. That one was still motivated by the same hatred, he just went about it more strategically, and the Ancient Centinel seemed to be the same.
Danijel Turina
2024-10-14 08:09:06 +0000 UTCWhile I wouldn't be entirely surprised, I imagine it's the other way around. A creature without consciousness has no need of a name. To "accept" a name for itself, a creature must be more than a mindless beast.
WingedIkaros
2024-10-14 03:56:31 +0000 UTCIs being given a name or born with a name the conduit for monsters demons and spirits to have a ego instead of being driven on instinct
Travis Brown
2024-10-14 02:46:47 +0000 UTC
