Amazing story. Just read it for the second time and it was just as good. Thanks for writing this incredible world into existence :D

This story is just too good, pls gimme some after-stories, has been months since I've read it and I'm still starving for more

I really loved the story. The depth of the worldbuilding, the magic system, Zorian's character growth from being an antisocial misanthrope to BFFs with Zach. The ending was really satisfying and happy. I liked the symmetry at the end, with RR stuck in his own mental loop for information and how Silverlake's potion ingredients and the hunt for the Grey Hunter were pivotal in the end. I would have liked to see more Zach and Zorian interaction in the epilogue, as well as more scenes of them trying and failing to act normal. I also really liked how several characters had their own motivations, especially Raynie and her similarities to pre-timeloop Zorian, Novelty, and Daimen. I also loved how there was loads of foreshadowing in the early chapters and Zach's angelic contract, and the clever planning that went into making sure he would survive while keeping him ignorant of it. It makes sense the angels would make that part of the contract dependent on his perception.

Wow.
I just found this, and boy. It took me a long time to finish this. It was worth every second of it.
This story isn’t perfect, nothing is, but it’s pretty dang amazing. I would never have been able to plan and write something this massive for years. You are incredible.
The story concept interested me- I like magic and fantasy, and time loops are always fun to read. But this was much better than anything I cloud have hoped for.
The magic system is intricate and very well thought out. The world is very interesting and vast. I think you did an incredible job of world building. The plot was very long and had many twists. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was always wondering what the truth about the time loop was and became enraptured in the story.
In the beginning, it was fun watching Zorian learn more magic and interact with his peers. Then it got more serious, him doing all he could to train. The part where Zach was more inexperienced and didn’t notice he was a time traveler was great. Then, bam, he is a psychic. The araneae were quite fascinating. There is so much they accomplished together before they got soul killed by Red Robe, I can’t even keep track of it.
Then it got more dangerous. Zach punching Zorian was hilarious, and kinda deserved. And them working together to find Red Robe, the artifacts, and escape on time. So much, but it flowed well. I can agree, your descriptions of people could be a bit brief and the explanation were long, but I didn’t mind. I liked that while Zach was an insane mana tanking fighter, Zorian relied on his own creations and mind magic with a different fighting style. Them meeting Darien was cool too. I liked his character, especially since he really wasn’t that much of a jerk and even sacrificed himself for Zorian. I liked most of the other characters. I don’t think they are all too alike. I’m glad that even though Zach and Zorian learned lots and became experienced, they still had trouble fighting their enemies.
And the end was fantastic. I thought it was maybe a bit rushed, but I loved it. I was horrified when I thought Zorian died, but then realized it was an illusion. I did wish there could have been more of an epilogue, but overall this story was amazing.
I will definitely read it again, more slowly, to pick up all the details.
This was... I have no words. It was a masterpiece in my eyes. You are incredible. I have used that word so much it has probably become meaningless, but still. Fantastic plot, your dedication is amazing.
Thank you.

One of the best I read.

Despite some people saying that you may be using "repeatable" characters (at least as I understood of your afterword), I don't really think is true. You could indeed made a larger epilogue. Personally I found kinda unfair for Zorian to not have at least one woman in some point or more than one. But indeed it would be contrary to his character.

****Spoilers be warned***
On this note there are several things I want to tackle. You would expect grey hunter to want Zorian help instead of directing her to the dragon bellow or the primordials. I would like to see her as a familiar or a shapeshifter for Zorian.

Heck, it would be awesome if he managed to use the abilities of both the plant and the grey hunter. A man can dream right?

In the same thought Zorian didn't extract the information of the lich on how to raise his mama reserves since he CLEARLY slipped that he had a way to do it. Or replicate the blessing. Maybe a creature that would devour Mana as a second blood enhancement along with the plant.

That being said I would like to imagine Zorian using age stoping potion of "silver witch" and the rejuvenation potion. As well as a more perfected soul and mind potion considering he heavy relied on those in the beginning.

At some point I would like if House Noveda and Kazinski united... Zach and Kirelle had a lot in common. A bargaing should be struck to recover the sovereign gate... So we could see 2 full archmages with relative immortality (Zorian and Zach) founding a new house with psych soul and shapeshifter powers along with tank Mana capabilities. It wouldn't be that overwhelming since we saw that there are SEVERAL creatures more powerful than them.

Sadly we didn't see the epilogue of Zach. It did sadden me a lot. (Shame on you author of this amazing story - said him with sarcasm)

I don't think the lich will die or the dragon. And it's very misterious that since Zach knew they have time travel knowledge they weren't erased as Divine intervention.

I couldn't help but notice that you didn't explain were the demons ACTUALLY came from.

Ideally it would be incredibly if House Noveda-Kazinsky made a second accelerated orb with all the Divine keys in it... And isolated partially of the world, maybe with access to one or other gate or some especial ways that hermits would search for them.

Again I know both of them would be stupid powerful with those things but again I will remember again that there are SEVERAL person's creatures and entities far more stronger than them. They could be very well the "last shield", for every new planar alignment.

That and house Noveda-Kazinsky creating a collective mind as the araneans did. And an improved colony of araneans with the principal colonies aligning together and making an aranean parliament. (A council of several matriarchs)

I could go on and on but I suppose this was your choice in the end, and I am very happy. Few are the histories that I can feel that make me with fully closure. You got like 95% of that and that's plenty.

Thank you for your hard work and please do tell or even send any new chapter for us (I mean ME, if you could I grow VERY fond of the history.).

May your career in writing be successful as possible.

I did like the story special the part that make the world more real, and I come here after asking for something similar to "Lord of the Mysteries" both are great and the world is so well build

Thank you so much for this amazing story! I've followed you for 8 years, hard to believe it's finally over! This story is had always been one of my favourites. It's sad to it end, but I'm really love how it turned job! Looking forward to Mother of learning sequel.

Oh my god, this story was amazing in every single way. The magic system and world more well thought out and complex than anything I have ever read or watched, EVER. By Far. You captured reality so well, the fact that even hundreds of restarts in, they were learning new things that were going on and being surprised by people really showed the sheer scale of different events going on in the world. It's crazy when you think about it, how many moments we miss because we can't be everywhere at once. How many potential friends we miss out on because we're feeling grumpy, how seemingly innocent actions can completely change the direction of our future.

I would love to see this published, but please don't let them talk you into cutting it down. I have seen many incredible authors go the way of publishing and end up with a butchered story with no soul left in it. The story is indeed long, but I enjoyed every moment of it. The twist of this time loop having an additional looper made it way more intense. Even time alone could not give our heroes god-like advantages, which I see in too many stories. I was on edge the entire story start to finish. I fell in love with all of the characters in the world.

I also disagree with people who say the characters are too similar to each other. I disagree strongly. So many stories make characters that are caricatures of what a real life person is (the obnoxious character, the quiet character, the serious character), while you chose to make your characters have more subtle and realistic personality traits. Sure, everyone might seem similar when you first meet them, but not once you get to KNOW the characters and their backstories/motivations. Then they are night and day apart. It is like that in real life too! I can look at a crowd of people, and even talk to them casually, and say wow, they are all the same. But the truth is, personality is usually something much deeper and comes out when you really know people.

For example, Damien, at first just seems like a perfect genius. Then you get to know him and you realize he deeply values his family, he's diplomatic, compassionate, he sees everyone's point of view, he's extraordinarily selfless, but at the same time hyper focused on his ambitions and blind to the needs of those he loves.

I loved every character! And I love how the ending hints at a possible sequel. I was so scared there was going to be a sad ending. I really thought Zorian had died. I was shocked he killed his original self, I thought for sure knowing him he would keep it and try to find a way. He always finds a way. But it makes sense, there can't be two Zorians!

If you get bored, which I am sure you are 100 percent tired of this story, we would love to see short one-shots of his daily life later on. I would love to see him finally get that date with Taiven. Have Kirielle enroll in school and how that conflict sorts itself out. I want to see some kind of resolution with Fortov, I can't believe he hates him that much! I'd love to see something with Kana, Kirielle, and Nochka, like a spin off where we see them going through their school years. Two granddaughters of witches and a shapeshifting cat... all three armed with doll golems... could there be a cuter spinoff than that?!

Anyways, just wanted to say I donated to your Patreon because the level of enjoyment you gave me in this quarantine is unmatched. My younger brother actually suggested I read this, he has been reading it through many years. I am so happy I did! It sucked up a lot more of my time than I expected, I seem to have a harder time focusing on books lately but I am getting back into it! So thank you!

I can't thank you enough for your hard work. I have enjoyed your work so much that checking for the update was one of my favorite routine of the month.

Although one small disappointment is that... My favorite character Taiven did not show up in the story too much and even in the epilogue... Taiven only showed up for two lines only, without even saying anything... So Zorian and Taiven went back to old mundane relationship... This is just personal opinion but it would have been nice to see Zorian find some romance in his life...

Anyway, your work was great and the glance of the future mentioned in the ending was amazingly good. The Silverlake and the Gray Hunter, with the essence of Primordial... Well thats one future I can't wait to see lol

Writing is hard and you did a good job. I could never stick through 8 or 9 years of keeping a story's thread spinning in my head. I can barely manage it for a month. I would have given up long ago. But I really think the story kinda falls apart with Silverlake's betrayal. That's the perfect "twist" or whatever, don't get me wrong about it, but I really think you owed the story 25-50 more chapters of plot/intrigue/complication after it happened; in particular to resolve all the entanglements of Zorian involving himself with so many varied characters. You're only able to put 'bows' on these things in this chapter by just alluding to, 'oh yeah, Zorian will take care of that stuff, i guess, whenever'. So many of his classmates feel left in the dust, too, which is understandable given Zorian's fucked up psyche. In general, I would have liked to see a little more conflict observed between himself and his parents considering just how much of his problems stem from that. I think you could even expand it by as many as 5,000 words - I think we need more resolution there, all you sort of allude to here is that Zorian is not over his parents and has no interest in trying to steer them on the right path; even though he is now more wizened than them in years.

I do understand you probably ran out of energy, or that it was just too big of a task and that exploring certain detail is exhausting especially now after it's all "done" in your mind, but I hope that, if you do publish this story in full, that you will consider adding at least 10 - 15 chapters of additional connective tissue to try to give more rising action and climax to some of these interpersonal relationships/conflicts. For instance, Novelty was a really popular character, but after her 'death'...well, what kept me reading this story for so long was the hope that I would learn more about her at some point, but that never really happened. I hope that you do this, but... I have never been able to personally do this. For me, writing is so free-form, that after you've typed the chapter, trying to "inject" an entire chapter between two seems an impossible task, at least not without substantially rewriting what comes after. So it's probably a pointless ask.

I think it's easy to fall into the trap of "giving too much closure", but I don't think you did that here. White space and imagination are important too. But I was still really craving more. Being a greedy reader is evil. So I really hope you find the strength and ability to integrate a little more tissue into the end here at some point. In particular, I think you could have a little more fun egregiously fluffing up the epilogue with unenumerable and small things I'm sure Zorian will do to get "revenge" on people and fate. They could practically be little vignettes of color, with no particular order or context, to make it easy. I'd think Zorian would delight himself in leveraging all his foreknowledge and insight to at least snipe some fun at the expense of others.

Thank you for entertaining everyone for this long.

I was a little annoyed Taiven barely got two words mention at the end, but aside from that, it was satisfying to have been able to live long enough to finish reading this! Haha, 9 years is a long time. You know, I could have died during this duration! So hats off and good luck.

Yep, I called it, Silverlake was always going to be more trouble than she was worth

I think they are being too liberal with the whole crown thing, especially including Silverlake! Forget honor or whatever, that's just reckless

Damm, with how intense things are at this point you would expect that this would be the climax of the story rather than the halfway-point

I gotta say, the matriarch is such a delightful character, my favorite so far