Honest answer? I have no idea. So far, there were three characters that I initially designed to be 2nd FL (romance-wise), one I ended up discarding, second had her role changed and developed, while the third is a part of a much greater plot and I'm way off deciding her exact role in it (in a sense, whether she will sleep with MC or not is 100% minor, irrelevant stuff). I do have "seeds" as in, characters that will be close enough to MC to classify as FL but whose roles I have yet to fully decide on. For example (and 100% detached from the story) I might have an encounter with, let's say, MC and an orphan girl from a nearby village. But by the time MC reaches the village, meets with that orphan girl etc, I can pretty much decide that this village could become a source of a great arc, have it play a major plot in the story or be a "sacrificial lamb" for the story's sake. And with the village plot developing far beyond the confines of (Mc goes there, does stuff, shows how cool he is, leaves never to return), the role of the village orphan girl also changes. What start as potential lewd bait might turn into an oracle of a forgotten deity, cursed child with great destiny or some kind of pivotal element of the village arc. In other words, I do have certain, rigid structure to the story. Certain developments, encounters and twists are planned weeeeeeell ahead... But when it comes to the roles character serve, I'm doing my best to build them beyond the level of cuddly and lewd release. The very main female started like that only for me to develop her waaaaay beyond the initial bounds she was designed to fill. Main story framework is set, but its the characters that fill it with their personalities, desires, drives and goals. And while I have like 4-5 more females that will come in contact with MC in the near future of the plot (one of which just did), one of them has eyes for someone else, another one is this, next one is that (censor for spoilers)... Leaving me with like 2 more characters that I introduced that CAN, but DOESN'T HAVE TO turn into MC's lovers. WIll it happen? I have no idea. I'm merely a tool that this story uses to reveal itself to the world. If it will fit all the characters involved, then any development is possible. If it doesn't fit, then no matter how horny I am on the day I sit down to write, I'm not going to let cum get to my brain and result in me spoiling the story for the momentary satisfaction of writing porn fic. TL:DR There is no answer. If it will fall in line with my characters to form harem, they will. If it will go against their believes, goals, morals or decision, they won't. In a sense, it's up to the story and the characters, not me, mere author of said story, anymore :D

430 chapters in, still only one fl thus far

Partially true, but only partially. One example is never enough to prove a point (circumstantial evidence) but it's also enough to bury an incomplete/wrong theory (proof that goes against the grit) In other words, you can thousands of other people can be fine moving about with wet hair, but it doesn't serve as proof. It can serve to disprove the broad statement that going that having wet hair and going out ALWAYS makes you sick, same like me falling sick because of it cannot serve to prove the above but disprove the fact there's no correlation. Still, to move on from judging purely by words and enter the space of talking about the actual topic: - Only those very unfortunate in life or those who participate in war (or medics in general) have seen brain. Does it mean that those people are the only ones CAPABLE to perceive the existence of brain? No. There is a lot of "broad knowledge" that stems from the fact that a certain authority declared something and people trust in that authority enough to assume their claim is on point or, at the very least, not fraudulent. Thta's the only way in which knowledge and wisdom can operate now that we reached waaaaay beyond the point where a single man can possess all the knowledge there is in the world (the last time it actually happened was early on in XVII-XVIII, not exactly sure - but since then, the knowledge humanity possess simply grew to be too wide and deep for it to ever happen again). What I want to say is that by those "common teachings" of "not going outside/standing by the window with your hair wet" might not exactly be the one and only reason why people fall sick. But, when we bring it back to a reasonable level, I believe it's a massive factor. I'm not a medic/doctor/biologist or someone anywhere near those jobs with my fields of expertise. So, with the knowledge of the world that I have, I assume having wet hair on a cold air means there's greater rate at which the heat is sucked away from one's head (because water is the better transmitted of the temperature than just air) and that, in one way or form, can weakened one's body enough to let the viruses/bacteria etc we already have in our body to act up, conversely, have the body's response to the sudden drop of temperature in a way that showcases as symptoms we usually associate with cold/sickness. Am I correct in that line of thinking? I have no idea. This might be "it" or a complete load of BS. But I don't really care about the explanation. Enough of sources I consider to be authoritative within this specific field has marked the action of meeting cold air with wet hair to be dangerous to one's well-being/health. And because I trust in those authorities, I do and shall continue to believe that to be the case, irregardless of whether or not there are tens, hundreds, thousands or even million of people that are not affected by this issue. Who knows? Maybe it's not a bad idea to have wet hair in the middle of the desert/in the middle of a tropical heatwave/in the middle of hot period of Japan's weather/in the middle of a swimmingpool. There can be any number of circumstances that affect this rule, from genetics, biology, clothes, current state of health, outside weather, usual weather we are used to. Maybe even the fact that you go outside a lot with wet hair allowed you and your family to develop immunity to it, as in, get your body used to such state? I'm not an expert of the topic nor am I going to have this level of detailed discussion whenever this topic goes back around so, unless at some point I will have to learn all there is about this topic, I shall keep putting my trust into the wisdom of people in the knowledge of which I trust (one of which happens to be my older sister who just so happens to be a doctor :D) :3

That's because this isn't your typical wuxia story but a novel that takes "realism" of the given rules quite damn seriously.

Because both wisdom and inteligence refer to specific ranges in which Peter's brain can perform. It's explained later on in detail, but it's not universal "get smart and cunning" type of stat. (This point is actually one of the base rules of the deep lore that I still have yet to fully explore 400 chapters deep, but well, that's my love for deep stories). As for the boredom early on - you are perfectly justified, not gonna spew BS to try to cover that fact. Knowing my tendency to overcomplicate stuff and throw readers right into the deep water (just like I plan to do with my next story that shall start 10 years after where a typical story of that genre would begin), I did my best to make things simple and easy to follow... and as I've already admitted to multiple times - I ended up overcorrecting by a huge margin. In all honesty, my years-long habits still kicked in, pushing me to ramp up the pace after going premium, so I would suggest you save some fast passes for when you reach it, to judge how the story goes from there on, rather than in the part where I kept telling myself to make it as idiotically simple (and thus boring, which I realized a bit too late) as possible. Alternatively, if you want a story with a much steeper pace and, strangely enough, quite a similar but much darker setting, you might want to give my freshest novel, "Lord of the Rifts" a try.

What is it like to be a scribe? Is it good? In my opinion it's not about being good or not good. If I were to say what I esteem the most in life, I would say - people. People, who gave me a helping hand when I was a mess, when I was alone. And what's interesting, the chance meetings are the ones that influence our lives. The point is that when you profess certain values, even those seemingly universal, you may not find any understanding which, let me say, which helps us to develop. I had luck, let me say, because I found it. And I'd like to thank life. I'd like to thank it - life is singing, life is dancing, life is love. Many people ask me the same question, but how do you do that? where does all your happiness come from? And i replay that it's easy, it's cherishing live, that's what makes me build machines today, and tomorrow... who knows, why not, i would dedicate myself to do some community working and i would be, wham, not least... planting .... i mean... carrots.

Don't ask me how webnovel works, honestly, I don't think the guys up the IT department have no idea either. I just take what words used to be problematic in the future (for example, hiding your reviews the moment you post it, making you the only one capable of seeing that review) and try to avoid them. Also, keep in mind, there is a chance webnovel changed something around ever since. As for the "haram" question, I can honestly say that I don't know yet. Up to chapters nearly 400 where I am right now, there's no harem. But I do already have an encounter planned, even if in a far-off future. Will it be the start of a harem or will the encounter develop beyond just a sexual target for readers to simp for? I honestly have no idea. While I do have some frames for the story, it's up to my characters to decide how they will fit their lives into the narrative at this point. So, the only answer I can give is, I'm as clueless as you guys are :D

Oh, trust me, I plan to :D

There are those who like it and those who hate it. Not for me to judge, so I'm writing books in both 1st and 3rd pov :D

I just happened to have a song going on when I saw this and, for some reason, this gif moves perfectly to the song's rhythm :D

Thanks for the review man! And well, yeah, your concerns are totally valid. In my long history of writing on this site, I often ended up creating novels that were either too enigmatic or, to be more straightforward, too complex for the readers liking. And with my dislike for giving out hints for the mysteries I set up only compounding the issue, I tried my best to avoid this problem in this novel... But from the looks of it, I compensated a little bit (waaaaaaaaay) too much. In this situation, I would recommend you to continue reading with fastpasses until you get to the parts when I'm no longer holding back as much. So, if you even reach a moment when you do not feel like waiting for new FP to read the next chapter... You will have reached the parts where things get more interesting :D

I mean, if you are stupid enough to belive a small fox is capable of biting a human's head off, then I guess this novel might seem stupid to you. Or rather, the entire world might seem stupid to you. The question you should ask yourself though, is: If everything around me is stupid, is the world really stupid or is it my inability to understand it that makes it seem as if everything but me is stupid? STOOOOPID.

Nope, although I can guess what made you think so :D For real though, I'm going back home today, grinding out the backlog on my main tomorrow and exactly 2 weeks after taking a break from it, imma finally get enough time and means to do 2ch/day until the end of days! (days being a random variable I myself decide the value of)

Its an issue every writer faces of finding some expression and just getting used to them. So, just like you have "incandescent fire" in every other chapter of Shadow Slave, you have characters gulping, squinting their eyes and sighing in my novels :D

no man-child ever*

Worry not, I'm 350 chapters deep and I'm only starting to see the distant path to the events that will lead the main cast to the experiences and meetings that will result in further development of the story necessary for me to... drop another hint.

Smol advice - on webnovel, the "haram" word is banned so if you use it, people see your response as "deleted" because its autocensored.

Definietly not because back when writing that chapter I forgot the upgraded texhnique name and was too tired/lazy to look for it, deffo not...

What is it like to be a scribe? Is it good? In my opinion it's not about being good or not good. If I were to say what I esteem the most in life, I would say - people. People, who gave me a helping hand when I was a mess, when I was alone. And what's interesting, the chance meetings are the ones that influence our lives. The point is that when you profess certain values, even those seemingly universal, you may not find any understanding which, let me say, which helps us to develop. I had luck, let me say, because I found it. And I'd like to thank life. I'd like to thank it - life is singing, life is dancing, life is love. Many people ask me the same question, but how do you do that? where does all your happiness come from? And i replay that it's easy, it's cherishing live, that's what makes me build machines today, and tomorrow... who knows, why not, i would dedicate myself to do some community working and i would be, wham, not least... planting .... i mean... carrots.

Yeah man, I fell really bad about it but recently went down with a heavy fever and I'm still somewhat recovering. Was about to write today, but the chapters that I have in store are waaaaaaay too important to do them just for the sake of getting over with them, hence the prolonged delay, sorry.