Hmm ... a couple of really interesting stuff that wasn't mentioned in the current chapters (even though they're in the same chapters in the RAWs >.> ) * There's a once in a 100 year exam / trial that's coming up in 17 years. Those who pass is given "advanced education" - they're invited to live in one of the Divine Towers and are given special training. Only those who pass this training and successfully promote to become an official sorcerer is given the title / role of Sorcerer Hunter (the MTL calls it hunt for the evil spirit sorcerer). * Sorcerer Hunters are like the military force of the Sorcerer World. They're the ones given the tasks of hunting down black sorcerers (that's different from dark sorcerer which is the MCs current affiliation), enforcing the rules of the Sorcerer World, as well as the ones sent out to conquer other planes / dimensions / worlds. A bit of correction : * A Stigmata Sorcerer (this term is so awkward ... I wish someone has a better term for it. MTL calls them Saint mark sorcerer) doesn't get more power when a student becomes a sorcerer per se. It's based on the strength of the school / territory founded near the sorcerer's tower. From MTL : "The institute is more powerful, is the sorcerer are more, the Saint mark sorcerer receives more formidable strength". So even just having more enrolled students gives power to the Sorcerer, though of course sorcerer students counts more in this calculation than just apprentices. In later chapters it's revealed that it's one way for the World Will to encourage lvl 4 sorcerers to take care of their constituents : the more population base you have, the more potential apprentice candidates you have == more power you can get from the world. What happens if you promote to an official sorcerer without having the special training then? - the sorcerer can only be a Profound Sorcerer (MTL actually calls them deep meaning sorcerers), someone more devoted to academic research. *rant on* Ugh, it sucks that so much depth in the story is sucked out in the current translation. I don't see how the story in the future chapters can be laid out without the stuff they're leaving behind. Being a Sorcerer Hunter becomes a goal and major turning point for the MC and it's not even presented ... *rant off*
I am curious, if Qidian is butchering this translation, are they also doing the same for other translations too? This is so so stupid. many talented seedlings would have died from old age between those exams without being scouted
I just found a thread where they're complaining about the quality of the God of Slaughter translations. Also, someone in the thread I created for SJ translations mentioned that they were also experiencing issues with Sacred Ruins translation. So, that's three we definitely know about at least. I think the lifespan of an apprentice reaches around 200-300 years. There's enough time for them to wait around. Spoiler It's revealed later on that each Divine Tower has a quota (which they give to the top performing examinees in the region they administer) for which they can give a special prize : those in the quota are brought to the site of the World Will where they are exposed to the world's mysteries. This allows them to bridge the gap between apprentice and official sorcerer instantaneously. Otherwise, apprentices need to somehow feel those mysteries for themselves and make a connection to it. No connection == no sorcerer. A lot of apprentices are stuck at this phase. This direct communication with the World Will drains its energies tho, that's why they need to stagger the exams around to give it time to recuperate.
I am pretty sure that is a full sorcerer lifespan not an apprentice. Also, even if they could potentially survive long enough to get there, it is still a huge waste and misses such a huge portion of their life just bring in less people per exam instead of X people per 100 years, bring x/2 people per 50 years
I kinda agree with you on that (regarding the increase in frequency). In their defense tho I can see where upping the frequency would increase their overhead administrative tasks, leaving less time for the official sorcerers to do their research / experimentation, whatnot. Also ... there's this Chinese proverb that kinda translates as 'Honing your hatchet will not delay your effort of wood cutting'. Apprentices are totally free to still continue their efforts towards promotion while waiting for the special exam time to arrive, and that effort wouldn't be a waste.
Ok, now that the translation (for the latest chapter at least) has improved, let's kick off another round of discussions! I like this chapter. It's an example of how the novel has a way of gradually increasing your knowledge about the world while avoiding massive info dumps. You'll almost be surprised when you look back and realize that you have an incredibly rich, well-built world on which the MC does his adventures. What does this chapter give us? First, it anchors how sorcerer levels are treated - for Element Sorcerers, there's an established system on how their ranked and how to progress (which will be exposed bit by bit later on). For other sorcerer types - Mechanical, Body Refining (there's a couple of subcategories under this), Black Sorcerer, etc, as long as they have comparable power to an Element Sorcerer of same rank, then that's their level. Basically, the author just said that he'll only come up with complete specifics for the MC's type Next ... we're introduced to the concept of element activation which is a specific kind of sorcery available for Element Sorcerers. Basically, it's a way of creating a golem / lifeform based on the element(s) you specialize in. There's no simple formula in doing it though, it's highly personalized
I guess the above is one of the reasons why I find Age of Adepts a bit anemic compared to SJ... It takes? / has some of the same concepts (sorcerer types, summonable element biology, conversion of body to element type for power up / rank promotion, etc) and does its own spin on it, but in a watered down kind of way. The summon / golem in particular ... AoA hands everything off to an AI chip on how to create the golem. They're almost treated as disposable goods afterwards.
@Stark3 How is the latest chapters to you? I see they used the name Garfield again so much cringe. I really wish lnmtl would just do this series tbh.
To be honest, I stopped going to the Qidian site after the dual-hosting / DMCA incident so I haven't checked the quality of the latest set of chapters. Will still be around to answer questions anyone may have on the series on either the spoiler or LCD forums tho. Retaining the Garfield name ... ugh ... . I hope that doesn't mean that they'll retain HalfRobot as well. Victor makes a couple more appearances in the novel, and seeing HalfRobot would quickly kill off any atmosphere that may be building up.
Don't you guys care at all for the authors? I cannot understand you guys at all, it is like refusing to donate to an author who only uses paypal because you hate the company and don't want paypal to make money
Hmm ... I think I've done my share for the author by plunking a couple hundred $s at the Chinese Qidian site so that I have access to RAWs. (Well, technically it's not just for SJ's author, but also for the other series I'm keeping tabs on). Beyond that though, I don't want to support their English site for all the abovementioned reasons. Less money would go to the author, true, but it's a reasonable enough compromise in my head while keeping true to convictions
Sadly, 99.9% of people are not like you but they like to think so and are very loud about it lol. Qidian does not write the books, I won't let them prevent me from seeing what is important. One paying customer does not keep authors afloat, best wishes.
No, it's not. Paypal doesn't go around STEALING from its competitors and trying to actively ruin the community. If an author said "I only receive donations in blood diamonds" then it is entirely reasonable to not donate to him. By supporting authors through the qidian international you are actively harming the community and actively undermining the legal translators. Also, keep in mind that literally all the major translation sites have a contract with qidian. Meaning the authors do get paid when you donate to translators.
That is a pretty dumb thing to say since none of it is true. Qidan International is Qidian. You seem to be separating them.
Qidian international is a subsidiary, so they are separate. But no, I am not separating them, you just misread The first paragraph explains why your "boohoo support the authors by donating to an evil hostile corp out to destroy our community" is nonsense. The second paragraph explains that your "people aren't supporting qidian and the authors" is false. Those two are not contradictory because the second paragraph does not in any way shape or form says "you should donate". It is merely factual information on what actually happens when people donate. namely, qidian and then the author getting a share. Had I said "you should donate to wuxia world because they pay qidian who pays the author" then there would be a contradiction with the first paragraph. Well, at least on the surface of things. In actuality things are more complex. while qidian makes money off of local translators, that means the company is not at risk. But the QI website can still be deemed a failure by them if nobody goes to it and instead only use local translators. In such a case Qidian will close the english website and go back to only collecting money from local translators. which is much healthier