State of the Realms: August 2025

Holy crap, it's been a wild month.

I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to even start this update because honestly August has felt like someone compressed an entire year's worth of chaos into thirty days and then hit the fast-forward button. If you'd told me at the beginning of the month that we'd end up where we are now, I'd have probably laughed and asked what you were drinking. Then I'd have asked for some.

So let's start with the big news: we're back on Royal Road. You all probably know that already.

We started posting the rewrite on August 1st, and what began as me nervously hitting "publish" on a story I'd been editing and rewriting for months quickly turned into something I'm still having trouble processing. The response has been absolutely incredible. What started out great somehow managed to land us on Rising Stars Main in something like twenty-three days—I keep losing track of the exact number because time has become this weird, fluid thing where I check the stats and suddenly it's 3 AM and I'm wondering where the day went.

Now, we're sitting at 33rd position and slowly climbing. Every time I refresh the page, we've moved up another spot or two, and I keep expecting to wake up and find out this has all been some elaborate fever dream. The momentum feels sustainable too, which is the part that really gets me excited. This isn't just a flash in the pan—people are sticking around, engaging with the story, and genuinely seem to be enjoying Ben's journey through his cosmic clusterfuck of a situation.

Speaking of cosmic clusterfucks: Discord is officially up and running.

I know, I know—I keep bringing it up, but between Patreon and Royal Road, they both kind of suck at staying engaged with all of you.

For you paid members who prefer not to scroll through Patreon's sometimes-questionable interface, chapter packs are available through Discord. You get the same early access, just in a format that won't make you want to throw your phone at the wall when the app decides to update itself mid-chapter.

Now for some numbers that still make me do a double-take: we've hit 56 ratings and reviews.

Fifty-six. Real humans took time out of their day to not only read the story but to leave feedback. That number keeps climbing, and each new rating feels like a small miracle (Especially you 0.5ers). But here's where it gets really exciting—we've officially crossed the threshold for the Daily Chapter milestone for Book 1.

Starting September 3rd, you're getting 75 chapters, 3 interludes, and 1 epilogue. That's right, daily chapters. Every single day. I've been stockpiling content like a squirrel preparing for nuclear winter, and I think I'm finally ready to commit to that pace. The interludes are less fluff and more different PoVs that wouldn't fit into Ben's position when they need to happen... I wouldn't suggest skipping them.

But wait, there's more. (I know, I sound like a late-night infomercial, but stick with me here.)

If we can hit 10 reviews and/or 100 ratings before the end of Book 1, I'm unlocking the Secret Epilogue and some side stories for everyone. Not just paid members (they'll get some extras). It's already written, it's sitting in my drafts folder like a time bomb of plot revelations, and I'm genuinely excited to see if we can hit that milestone. The Secret Epilogue explores some implications of Ben's situation that I couldn't address in the main story without completely derailing the pacing, and it sets up some things for Book 2 that are going to be... significant.

Speaking of Book 2: it just sailed past the 75,000-word mark and shows no signs of slowing down.

I've been implementing feedback as I write, trying to keep the pace up in the first half instead of following Book 1's more gradual build. Don't get me wrong—I love the slow burn of Ben figuring out his situation and building relationships with the supporting cast, but I've heard from enough readers that the early chapters sometimes felt like they were taking their time getting to the good stuff. Book 2 hits the ground running. Ben knows what he's capable of now, the stakes are immediately higher, and the cosmic consequences of his choices start manifesting in ways that are going to make Book 1's problems look quaint.

I think you're going to love it. Actually, I'm pretty confident you're going to love it, because I keep having to stop myself from just posting spoilers in the comments like an overly excited golden retriever who can't keep secrets.

For you wonderful paid Patreon members: I'll be hosting a couple of polls in the coming weeks about things you might want to see. Chapter timing preferences—do you like the current schedule, or would you prefer chapters at different times? What kind of extras interest you most? Behind-the-scenes worldbuilding notes? Character development discussions? Voice overs? And I'm planning some live Q&A sessions where you can ask questions about the story, the writing process, or really anything except spoilers (because I have zero poker face and will accidentally ruin everything).

I've also been kicking around some other ideas that might be fun. Bonus chapters from other characters' perspectives? Short stories set in the same universe but following different people? A guide to the magic system that doesn't require you to keep track of whatever Ben's current understanding is? Let me know what sounds interesting, because I'm having too much fun with this world to stick to just Ben's story.

Which brings me to the last point, and probably the most important one: thank you.

All of you. Seriously.

This has been an absolute wild ride since the re-release, and I keep having moments where I have to remind myself that this is actually happening. The comments, the reviews, the Discord conversations, the fan theories that are sometimes eerily close to things I have planned—all of it has made this process so much more rewarding than just sitting alone in my office, writing into the void and hoping someone, somewhere, might eventually read it.

For those of you who are new to the story: Path of the Paladin was picked up by Aethon Books back in July. That means you can expect to see the complete series on Kindle Unlimited and Amazon once we finish up here, and possibly in other formats and translations as time goes on. The fact that a real publisher looked at this weird little story about a guy who gets isekai'd into a bizarre universe and thought "yeah, we want to publish that" still feels surreal.

But more than the business side of things, what gets me excited is that there are so many more fun things coming down the pipeline. Book 2 is shaping up to be everything I wanted it to be. The magic system is finally clicking into place in ways that let me explore concepts I've been dying to write about. The supporting cast is expanding in directions that I think will surprise you. And Ben... well, Ben's about to discover that figuring out that book 1 was just the tutorial.

Now the real game can finally begin.

TLDR:

Ascending the charts on RR, September is going to be intense. Daily chapters starting the 3rd, Book 2 is going to be awesome. This version of Book 1 is with Aethon for final edits and release schedule. Lots of fun stuff in the pipeline.

Thanks for being part of this journey. Whether you've been here since the beginning or just discovered the story yesterday, you're the reason this whole thing works. You're all the reason I get to spend my days writing.

It doesn't get much better than that.

Talk soon,
M.S. Davidson