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Poll: Quest Academy Issue and Chapter 17 (Patreon)

Published:
2024-03-03 20:36:14
Imported:
2026-06

Poll

Poll: Quest Academy Issue and Chapter 17

  • Chapters 11-16 need to change. Sal isn't completing things. 39
  • Chapter 17 resolves the issue, keep going. 196
  • Different Concern: Add comment below 26
  • 2024-03-03
  • 261 votes
{'title': 'Poll: Quest Academy Issue and Chapter 17', 'choices': [{'text': "Chapters 11-16 need to change. Sal isn't completing things.", 'votes': 39}, {'text': 'Chapter 17 resolves the issue, keep going.', 'votes': 196}, {'text': 'Different Concern: Add comment below', 'votes': 26}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2024, 3, 3, 20, 27, 43, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allow_multiple': False, 'total_votes': 261}

Content

Hey Everyone,

So, this is great. Some of you that read Chapters 11-16 noticed some issues with Sal's focus going from topic to topic and not finishing things. I've attached a poll to get a better understanding of what I need to do.

I know that not everyone feels comfortable commenting on posts, so I thought votes might be more helpful. If you could tell me where you felt it went in the wrong direction, then that would be great, thank you. :)

All the best,
Brian

Comments

Mike

Maybe reformatting certain sections to give them less focus and more “filler”? He needs to gain experience in weaves, so maybe remove the multiple abilities listed he looks at in the catalog and just summarize it with a time-skip by a few hours. Also I think Gallant’s thing should come after Sal looks at himself first. That or more emphasis by Upgrade on why Sal needed to pause going down that route. I enjoyed Ch. 16 with the foreshadow setup and Sal’s scheming. I’m thinking Chapter 17 could be a good summary/combination to move forward with the drink solving most of the issues.

Don Stanwick

Personally, I think the chaotic mindset is a perfect representation of a young adult. No one knows what they want and jumps from task to task. I think 17 brings it back and shows the mentorship and guidance provided by Upgrade. I would like to see Sal finish some things without a last minute miracle but I would also like to see him fail at something in a critical moment to explore more self growth. Just my opinion but I feel it is on the right track

David Fletcher

Sal has no agency and isn’t making meaningful progress in any one area. The whole situation with the weaves and Quest forcing all of these restrictions on his ability doesn’t make sense either. Humanity is in jeopardy, but we’re not going to gather the experts to teach the guy who can see, fix, and create new abilities. That’s mind numbing stupid of them.

Thomas Todd

I'd say the content is fine it just needs to be streamlined a bit, this chapter addresses him jumping from one thing to another fairly well but in the previous chapters it would make it easier to read if you changed it a little by focusing on a single thing and have him skipping mentally and getting snapshots of his new focus rather than a full explanation and maybe added a greater sense of nervous energy to Sal to make it clearer he's rushing and panicking a little On another note not sure if it's the same for everyone but this chapter has some strange formatting for me "Omnachie ofnethe . It 3had D Pjrust inteers noucagh medeinto tailfothacus t MinytShcal'rsafmteinr dpicked as hisup hanon dswdharetwhe out wathe s crstrueaticnturg, e anodf tShe al could "

Alteron

Chapter 17 helps a lot, but i must agree with Mike, it makes more sense if he looks deeper into the different waves, it gives a better background for chapter 17. And for some reason, him moving away from the machine, to pen and paper bothers me, taking notes while operating the machine makes sense, since the others are helping him so he can spend time with the machine.

Kieran

I think one thing I noticed is this doesn't seem to be the first time somebody says something and Sal has a brainwave like oh it's so obvious now. I'd perhaps like to see him make those leaps himself but as to the pol I think the early chapters are a bit unfocused and potentially could do with tightening up or being extended a bit but the later chapter does a great job of moving things along.

Lacan

My two bits: Pacing and Chapter Breaks. As a reader, I think that he issue of Sal not “finishing things” is more that he’s acting exactly how I probably would when given the Skill Manipulator, namely that there are a thousand different things to test and try. For two books, Sal’s exploration of Skill Master has often been shunted to the side in favor of Mythcrafter, and in part this is because the first months at the Academy had a set of pretty clear defined (if evolving) goals, and so the progress was linear toward them. Now, we have a moment to breathe: the week before everyone else comes back from the training before the “push” for tackling the tower. This has given the narrative a chance for Sal to do some reflection but also delve into his original talent without having to constantly spend time crafting stuff. That’s good, but it does mean that the pacing feels a bit different, and tbh, I think the thing that would help fix this is chapter consolidation. Some of the feelings here of Sal skipping around are, I think, in a small way because the chapters are breaking at the 2K mark (for writing reasons, I'm assuming), and a longer 4K chapter in the final book will/could resolve some of this. For instance, the whole negotiation with Alex in Chapter 16 felt maybe a bit too long in that it took up most of the chapter, but if 15 and 16 were combined in the final edit, it would mitigate that. Characterization and Structure. As I said, Sal is doing what my brain would do, jumping from thing to thing because you have a bunch of ideas. However, this is a character who has been described as focused and organized, with long to-do lists. Chapter 17 fixes this somewhat in the conversation with Upgrade, but it also feels like trying to put the genie back in the bottle. There are a million things to try with Sal learning about how skills work and interface with essence gates, how evolution trees of skills work, creating new skills via combination, and now, apparently, starting a performance enhancing elixir side business. It’s like the light bulb repair scene from Malcolm in the Middle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbSehcT19u0). As a reader, I want it all, because there’s some fascinating stuff to work through here, especially from a world building perspective (that has potential for long-term consequences re: the Portals). But I also think Sal starting therapy cannot happen fast enough. He needs a mentor who is outside his crazy (i.e., someone who isn’t Upgrade) who can give him perspective. Because right now he has almost no real structure imposed on him beyond Quest telling him to, in short, “get better.” I empathize with him a great deal because I had something similar happen when I started work on my dissertation in grad school and had virtually no faculty oversight of the process and was just sort of told to go off and write the thing. I had to figure out the whole process for myself, and I made a lot of the bouncing mistakes Sal is making. At this point, then, what he needs is a program, structure, and someone to talk to besides Upgrade or his peers and from whom he can obtain perspective.

Jeremy

Sal should incorporate the oxygen mask analogy. Why is this an important rule for ensuring survival at the academy? Because if you run out of oxygen yourself, you can't help anyone else with their oxygen mask. Or put more simply: if you die, you can't help anyone else. Once he gets a little bit more focus on his skills he can help his team.... he can help his friends... and by that time ,hopefully by that time Divinity will be back from the field and expand on Fabi...

Joran Spans

Maby actually write down the things he has to do, as in. Sal writes it down and then looks it over and we see what he has writtrn down. Because sometimes i just forget whats even going on in the book. Especialy in chapters 11 to 16 (could just be me tho)

Abraham Gilbert

I just have a question. Why back when he was showing Quest the weaves did he not go in the direction of creating his own guild tied or backed by the academy? As far as I know it hasn't been said that he can't attend the academy and be in a guild or lead one for that matter. I know he wants to get more situated before moving into the spotlight. But a lot of the hypothetical benefits to the support students/workshop area/ fallback during evaluation, could of given him some favor with the students. It could be paid for by the other guilds through contracts he made with them for services. That he then endow to Quest Academy to implement workshops etc. That is the thought process I went towards when they talked about having the other guilds pay for the upgrades. Now I'm not sure what the registration requirements are and how transparent that is to the other associations, I could see that being a issue if he was trying to stay in the background longer.

Abdulmohsen

I liked the first book because it had a balance. There was crafting in it, it also had Sal attending classes, talking to different teachers and learning from them. Meeting and interacting with fellow students, making friends and enemies. It finished with the action of the tournament with Sal and his team prevailing at the end. Book two and so far in book three that balance isn't there. It's been mostly crafting, with Sal going from one project to another. No attending classes, not interacting with students unless they were fellow crafters, barely spending time with friends. It's like the future that Divinity hated is starting to come true. Sal being locked in a room with Upgrade or Quest and doing projects for them. The series is called Quest Academy but the latter part is disappearing. It's not an academy series anymore, it's just a crafting one.

Davi(d)

First of all, I apologize if I came off too complainy lol. I feel like this chapter addresses the main problem w the other ones, though I'm not sure if it's in character for Sal to be so unfocused. Maybe if the other chapters were tweaked just a bit to fit with the anxious theme (bc that wasn't clear at all at least for me), or maybe if some parts (like all that dialogue w Alex) were cut totally or partially so you could expand on others (him messing with skills or crafting idk). I think Lacan described how I feel about the last chapters almost perfectly. Anyways, if you leave it as is it can work bc of this last chapter, but I feel like it could be even better, even if you were to leave the distracted/anxious theme going.

Travis Nevins

Upgrade the wise....The second book ended with him feeling pulled in many directions. If the next chapter talks him through his fear of demons/trauma from erica, it could also bring up that feeling of being pulled in many directions/overwhelmed by expectations/work life balance. I personally found the last few chapters fine. It shows how Sal is still naive in ways. Sal needs to learn his limits, set his own expectations and realize what is unrealistic or do able. what upgrade said was priorities and Sal needs to learn his. Second guessing himself is all well and good and we all do it, but at some pint we all have to accept that life isn't a zero-sum game, but everything is dynamic and connected. Sal can be a guild master, while being a crafter, and hero. He just has to set his own path, while taking in others point views as guidance for him. Realizing his true potential with and without his albites is the goal of the academy, right? So, its learning process. idk about writing advice, but like upgrade said in this chapter...what are the priorities for story beats...what is the direction you want for the character, world building, side characters, threats/danger/antagonists, small/larger story arcs. I like the chapiters so far and look forward to the tower/scavenger runs. Not everything needs chapters dedicated to it as long as side plots or other story threads are explored the way you want them to be then the readers will like it.

Lacan
>>131345048

The restrictions do, I think, make sense for several reasons. First, Sal doesn't fully understand his ability, and the story so far has made it pretty clear that some of his early "unknotting" was, in retrospect, recklessly stupid and could have had severe consequences; he just got lucky. There are no OSHA regulatory agencies for skills, it seems. And with the limited number of essence gates he has open, Sal's ability to effectively use Skill Master to even copy other people's skills is restricted. He's still working through the entry-level stuff, even while exhibiting some savant-like behavior. Second, we have to remember that everyone else is finding out the extent of what Sal's skill can do right along side him. It was only in extremis that he discovered he could bind other people's skills. It was only after he gained access to Analysis that he realized some of his earlier tinkering was super risky. And the entire series thus far has only covered a few months of in-universe time. Finally, just from an ethical perspective, it's pretty clear that Quest et al. are aware of the risks of making Sal's power too widely known, especially before it's been fully mapped out. He risks getting boxed by the Guilds/Bureau. Only if you view him through the most mechanistic, utilitarian lens can that be justified, and as we've seen with Gallant and Erika, coming into your power before you're ready can have dire consequences to your mental, emotional, and social development as a person, even with proper training.

Dutch Palmer

I’m tempted to say that 17 is enough… but that really depends on what comes next. You’ve set up at least three (and possibly a fourth with the automation angle) major threads, and it isn’t clear which are resolvable in this book versus which are currently just breadcrumbs and won’t get major attention until future books. I think the main concern is that you’re making the same mistake Upgrade accused Sal of—- throwing everything out at nice and not prioritizing.

RedThyra

I think chap 17 was basically him writing notes down that tried to fit together. He has some head issues that need to be fixed. That kind of bone deep fear is NOT resolved with 'suck it up buttercup' tough love. Been there, done that gave the t-shirt back.

Sébastien Kingsbury

I think chap 17 helps a lot, but the pacing on the last few chapters still seems a bit frantic to me.

John Curtis
>>131363288

the frantic thing kind of makes sense if you look at it from the point of view that he feels he needs to accomplish all of it before the tower.

Tim Walloch

Yay, bonus chapter! Yah, I was hoping Sal's scatter brain was leading somewhere. Good work.

Travis Snelgrove

I wanna see him complete things, if it takes too long before he's allowed to make cool stuff like the sniper rifle or making someone stronger, it just seems like it's being dragged out too much, he clearly is a character that will push to get his results and he's intelligent enough to learn fast as well, so there no reason to drag stuff out, plus money should never be an issue for him with his crafting ability. I'd have assumed he would have a bigger room and everything by now just because of how important he is, but he could also afford it by himself

John Curtis
>>131353920

I think and maybe its just me a chapter of Quest talking to the associations about upgrading the hall for support. Also Quest talking to Sal about making the guild for supports, and him making the supports better. It would actually be pretty sweet to see all the guilds and things coming to him and his guild for things.

Travis

I think C17 resolved most of the issues. I think the problem that were listed is fair and hoping the next chapter comes up with him making an actual list and prioritizing. He does seem to get distracted and not complete things. I kinda see him like an old tinker with half finished contraptions all over a workshop and never actually completing them atm.

BaguaBrady
>>131344408

I agree with all of this. The detail that went into those possible projects brought a lot of expectation and to have them all get pushed back felt like a tease, especially relative to the standard of this book. But I like the lesson Upgrade gives him on being so scattershot and think if the projects were more glazed over and described less specifically I wouldn't have built that expectation.

Robert Smart

I guess my concern is Upgrade only spoke to what she saw and Sal had jumped through a hell of a lot more issuse than those. But he didnt really seem to get that it might be a larger problem than Upgrade outlined in chapter 17. Worried for my boy. But perhaps its an intentional character plot thing? I assume so since it is starting to be addressed in chapter 17.

Steve

C17 helps resolve the issues depending on the path forward. He does seem to be in a crazy state of mind battling his own demons over the past couple weeks. So if that is what you are going for I agree that this works out well. As well I would love to see the rankings updated. We are getting close to month 3 of 5, if not past, and I would love to see the progress others like Blathnaid and Sals friends have made. Hell even Sal might have moved up earning 3 Challenge crests. Overall good work and keep it up

ShadowOfHavoc

Definitely agree that Sal needs to stop jumping from project to project without finishing anything. Honestl tyhis is honestly a series wide issue. Sal hasn't worked on the crown once, the crown that his best friend gave him to fix. Nor have we heard anything from Anna Sakura about getting him to make her something both of those were talked about in book one and again hinted at in book 2. Yet they seem to have fallen to the wayside.

ShadowOfHavoc

Is Sal the one accepting these commission requests that Upgrade is talking about or is he? Because if I am honest the last few times these have come up these don't sound like requests but more like orders that need to be filled. It has sounded like every request has been auto accepted since the faculty learned about Myth.

Nafisha Low

I'm not sure if ch 17 solves the problem, that would depend on what Sal does going forward. I think he lacks structure; he really is all over the place when it comes to projects. I realize that evets are dictating a frantic pace but for how long is that going to continue. There are lots of comments about lack of knowledge, but no effort to rectifying that issue; even though he has all the resources available to him. What's the phrase, 'slow is fast and fast is slow'? Is Sal going to keep brute forcing his way through or finally actually learn to master his gifts?

Merauder315

Yeah nothing has really been fixed as far as accomplishing anything. He was told to focus and not burn out, which is nothing new. He's giving himself more and more work, spreading himself thinner and thinner.

Abhishek

Sal needs to focus on himself first. We keep hearing how important it is to be strong enough to not be led around by the guild etc and he’s constantly prioritising other things.

LitLeveler

There are so many little issues, and the bouncing all the time is completely off-putting. So many little things seem to have been forgotten for the current flavor of the moment, and it is stressful for readers. On top of that, the whole Gallant thing is just a bit much. That has become more important than Barry or Divinity, and I cannot understand his reasoning. To make things worse, somehow, he feels he is the subject matter expert on fixing people's issues and how well-rounded someone is. As the person above said, he needs to focus on himself and then on his friends. Also, not asking for Divinity's opinion on Gallant is a bit much. The mind tells you he is a mass murderer and just zero caution, really. He's still going to "fix" him.

Charles Gillentine

She addressed the biggest issue with Sal, he needs to make his own choices and quit relying on others.

Marun

After reading through chapter 17 I still have two concerns / frustrations about this Novel. 1. The timeline of this story feels too rushed. I have not go back and counted but we are on the 3rd novel on chapter 17 and I do not think more then 6 months have passed since a Sal has first enrolled in Quest. It feels like it has been nothing but a sprint and a blur of activities / issues. There has been no down time for the characters to reflect and grow. 2. Sal's self doubt. Again we are on chapter 17 of book 3 and it feels like the main character still self doubts them themselves at every turn. This weakness gets old after a while. Especially when the main character Sal has already been through some challenging events. For example when Upgrade forced him to run the dungeon. Weakness is an okay trait to have in a main character but it should not be their main trait. I find myself growing tired of main characters that self doubt themself at every turn. In conclusion I think the novel would improve if the overall timeline of the store would slow down a bit. Also, I think improving Sal's trust in himself would help out a lot.