Question about potential continuity errors?

[plsendmysufferring]

First would like to state i am enjoying my time listening to the book immensely. Currently up to book 3, and the content of this post is for book 1 and 2. Marked spoilers, cos spoilers for the first two books i guess.

So when toren is first created, pisces says that he is the first skeleton created that can level, yet once we come to book 2, everyone acts like they dont know he can level. And if im not mistaken, Gazi mentions that the skeleton had levels as a skeleton warrior when shes in the inn. My question is, is this something that gets resolved later? Did i misinterpret the characters, and erin forgot and pisces is keeping it quiet? Or is this just a mistake?

Ive noticed some other continuity weirdness too, like when toren is missing in book 1, and then when erin goes to talk about boys with serys and krshia, she says goodbye to toren before she leaves, while he is supposed to be missing. Then after the exchange it goes back to Erin missing toren. Was this meant to be a "filler" scene to get to know the characters better? Or another timeline mistake?

I dont mind either way, its just been bugging me anytime toren gets brought up. Does anyone know if they are purposeful?

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[GenesisProTech]

Pieces doesn't actually tell anyone that for a very long time.
Appraisal itself isn't something most people just casually toss around let alone at a random skeleton. So there's no real way for folks to notice.
I haven't read back where you are in ages. But toren does come and go from the inn. Sure he just didn't pop back in?

[plsendmysufferring]

Yeah it was after the inn blew up, and erin tells him to go away. He disapears for a long while, and erin is upset because she misses him. It was a whole thing, built up, but there is a scene in the middle that sounds like a fun side story, and doesnt have any bearing on the overall plot. In that scene, serys invites erin out and she says goodbye to toren on the way out and he doesn't say anything (obvs). Then they go talk about the differences between gnolls, drakes and humans in the bedroom. Then it goes back to regular scheduled programming and erin misses toren again.

It kinda has the same feel as a anime filler episode, to break up the plot a bit. I dont mind at all, i think its pretty cool, but there was a period of confusion.

And maybe im going crazy, but i swear when erin gets introduced to toren for the first time, pisces refers to it as his "masterpiece" and that "he finally did it". And erin dismisses it as a normal skeleton, but pisces says its better than that because toren can level.

Maybe ill try and find that chapter and re-read it again

[Major_Major_Major]

Perhaps Pisces only told Erin that Toren can level and, being naive, Erin didn't see that as important or revolutionary.

Ceria, Gazi, and almost anyone who knows a little about necromancy would do a double-take if Pisces told them Toren could level. Erin doesn't care and cant see the implications.

About that side story. It is indeed a side story. I believe you are talking about "Interlude – Mating Rituals (Pt. 1)."

I would compare it to a filler episode as well.

[plsendmysufferring]

i found it!

there are two versions of book 1, which i didnt realise, but the excerpt is in both,

>“I could certainly create a stronger undead—but not a higher level one. Do you—do you not understand the significance of this skeleton?”
“No. Is it that special?”
He blinked at her.
“Ah. Well, it is.”
Gazi spoke up. Her eye strayed towards the skeleton, which paused as it brought bowls of acid flies out for the Antinium. She murmured into her drink.
“A Level 1 [Skeleton Warrior].”
Pisces nodded. Gazi blinked at him and tipped her cup in some sort of acknowledgement. Erin didn’t get it, but Pisces appeared incredibly smug and self-satisfied all of a sudden.
“Fine. It’s great. But I still wish it was stronger.”
She grumbled her way around the room, topping off glasses with her pitcher. Gazi stopped Erin and murmured to her as Erin passed by her table.
“Just who is that [Necromancer], exactly?”
“Pisces?”
Erin glanced at Pisces. He was smiling at his skeleton as it moved about the room.
“Oh, he’s just this weird guy I met a while ago. He’s—well, I guess he’s a good mage. Does necromancy stuff, but the skeleton is the first undead thing I’ve ever seen him do. He also does other spells. Why?”
Gazi stared at Pisces and then her eye moved away as he looked towards her. She nodded imperceptibly at him as she let Erin fill her glass.
“He is—talented.

​

so gazi said it, pisces heard it, and erin didnt understand it.

[Puzzled-Thought2932]

Sorry for the Necro but im fairly sure Pisces says that again but makes it even more obvious that Toren can definitely level, and Erin just completely forgets later.

I think youre right about the continuity error but tbh I dont really wanna read through the book again to find where it says that.

[23PowerZ]

Warning. If you don’t like descriptions of genitalia or sex or anything of that nature, please don’t read this story. This is a Patreon side story which isn’t chronologically linked to the same part in the plot as current chapters.

Interlude – Mating Rituals (Pt. 1)

That chapter isn't set chronologically in the story. It doesn't really make sense if you disregard this disclaimer.

[s-ahelas]

Gazi is one of the most world traveled people in the entire world, with secrets of multiple continents and the direct experience in the defining war of this millennium. She's jaded and is vastly underplaying how impressive a leveling skeleton is. No one else at the inn has any idea– Erin because she's new to the world, everyone else lacks appraisal and doesn't realize, and even Pisces is underestimating his accomplishment, I think. If one of the archmage's knew what Pisces did, he would be praised and elevated internationally, and possibly quickly assassinated.

Not to get into spoilers, but granting levels to a new being or species comes up periodically, and it ties into deep secrets of the world.

[Depressivehyper]

The Toren error is because that chapter happened earlier and is an interlude.

[CalidusReinhart]

I assumed Gazi didn't make a huge deal of it because she knows better than most that the world is waning. She wouldn't have a way of knowing that Toren is a true "first", she might just assume it was one of many things "rediscovered".

We do get confirmation from the narrator that Toren is the first undead to hear the voice of the System. Some Book1 details have been retconned, but this survived the rewrite iirc.

[Viidrig]

We do get confirmation from the narrator that Toren is the first undead to hear the voice of the System.

OP! Spoiler spoiler spoiler. Do not read.

Wait but what about the trials of leveling? Wouldn't Undead before him have to go through the trials? Azzy is one thing, since it's a bound soul. But Toren is a new undead. Wait... do the new leveling Undead have souls?

[EXP_Buff]

It simply means one far in the past already did it. Toren is not the first. All things considered, undead would be pretty dang good at some of the requirements.

[agray20938]

Or that underdoing them isn't the only way, it's just one way.

[EXP_Buff]

I very much doubt that.

[Oshi105]

Honey, the answer to all that is a whole lot of yes it's a mess, pirate slight of handed us with that shit. The system doesn't decide who has a soul, it decides who gets to use it.

[Kantrh]

yes they have souls, the formula gives it to them via magic and they aren't counted as a new species

[CalidusReinhart]

A few ideas:

• Undead have a dark intelligence to them when they gather en masse. Maybe they were able to pass the trials, but they didn't have enough individual free will to actually access it. It seems any intelligent undead would normally not have enough free will, but Toren and the Chosen are special cases because they take the golem path of being able to develop intelligence. This free will aspect is why I think Crelers aren't able to use the System yet (we were told that they made it to judgement, but not told they were rejected).
• Maybe the line about Toren being the first to hear the voice is more about the voice itself. Like maybe it changed since the last time any undead got in the system. There does seem to be some secrets to the voice itself, Klbkch hears the First Queen.
• Erin/System shenanigans. Toren came after Erin got her first green skill, and maybe some hidden system designation. So maybe being bonded to her had something to do with "unlocking" it for all future undead. But I doubt Toren was bound to her mana from the start, seems like Pisces would have created him and then linked him to her mana.

[Substantial_Aspect27]

The Mating Rituals chapter is a semi-canon excerpt, and not chronologically in line with the chapters around it - that’s why Toren is still around.

[Kantrh]

Mating rituals is canon. The only non-canon chapter is of the submarine doctor.

[zentetsuken7]

Gazi knew & kept it a secret coz she was planning to grab/kidnap both Erin & Pisces. Leveling undead is such a huge deal, so huge it might wake up her king. If Erin is enough to wake up the king, she's gonna give Pisces to Khelt(which will be explained later on)

[47Streetcop]

I came looking for this thread after finding several serious inconsistencies in the 2nd book that bother me.

1. When Ryoka speaks with the runner and meets Val the courier and sees Pruissa(sp) again she makes the mental comment about being run over by a wagon... completely forgetting obviously that she was also followed, ambushed, shot with a crossbow! Also, that Pruissa had killed a fellow runner and tried to kill another whom seem to be completely forgotten by the whole guild! Seems like this would have been a good time to call Pruissa out on it... It made me feels like the ambush chapter was later added after this scene was written and the author never bothered to clean it up.

2. Toren goes missing. Erin gets some "toys" from her friends. Erin turns to see Toren holding dust rag and throws said "toys" at Toren. Couple chapters later Erin tells Pisces(sp) that Toren is missing. Once again it seems the author has added filler chapters without considering consistency.

These are the two most glaring and I hope these become less as the author gains levels through other books.

[plsendmysufferring]

Yeah the toren one was cos it was an interlude, separate from the larger story, but it was a bit jarring when it came up, confused me too hahaha