Sealed in Steel [ Tank Litrpg ]

What I journey since I published the first chapter of Sealed in Steel last January. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for accompanying me until we reached the end of Book 1. It's my habit to write an Author's Retrospective at the end of an arc/book/volume of my stories. Not only to assess what I've done so far, but I also want to share with you my thought process, my inspirations, ideas I want to explore, and plans.

How Sealed in Steel came to be is sort of amusing, as I had planned to write a different story. I prepared two months, stockpiling chapters for this other story. Then came the time to release it. The reception was lukewarm, and I understood what was wrong with it. Not even a week into its release, I scrapped that story and started to write Zero Attack Armor Stacker from scratch—this was the original title of Sealed in Steel. A week after starting to write ZAAS, I uploaded the chapters. This story really was a spur of the moment thing because I had thought of something funny.

COMING UP WITH SEALED IN STEEL

I mostly played as a tank in games, whether it be RPGs, MOBAs, or even FPS. And so, when it came to writing, I also wanted to write about a tank. I have written another story with a tank main character before. Another thing that I wanted was to have big battles instead of the usual main character soloing everything. I realized that a tank would be the best if I wanted huge battles because the MC wouldn't steal the show by wiping out opposing armies. The tank would be in the thick of it, too.

Since I had written a LitRPG story before, I know that I hate too many calculations and stats. I really suck at math and keeping track of things. My solution was simple—zero out all the other stats except Armor. (Health and Energy are still there, though.) And I also zeroed magic defense for added stakes and challenge.

I'm also entertained thinking of various strategies to make tank builds. To implement that in the story, the main character couldn't be a newbie to the fantasy world. That was why I chose it to be a redo story.

I'm far from a genius, but I think coming up with how the Tribulation is used in the story was truly smart. Just going to toot my own horn. Not just for Elian to do damage, but the entire religion and culture surrounding it. Yeah, I know I'm praising myself. It all started with finding a way for Elian to do damage while being a tank is still the core concept. I didn't want reflect, return damage, thorns, those kinds of things, because that requires the enemies to hit him. Having read a lot of cultivation stories, it was easy to yank the Tribulation aspect from them and apply it to Sealed in Steel. What came out of it was something I didn't expect beforehand.

READERS HELP WITH THE PLOT

As I've said, I wrote Sealed in Steel in a week and then published it online. That means I barely have any plans for its plot beyond general ideas, be it long-term or just Book 1. We're just winging it. Readers have been especially helpful in giving me ideas.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

For example, someone asked what would happen if someone hid in a cave for a year to train for the Tribulation? I hadn't thought of it before. A whole bunch of ideas came to me until the Cursed Tribulation became the main conflict of Book 1. Another reader said that they suspected Thalman to be a bad guy early on. He was supposed to be a tragic side character, and the real bad guy was someone else, but after thinking about it, I decided it was better for the story if he was the bad guy.

Readers really have helped a lot in molding the story, even the overarching plot of the whole series. It was a bunch of comments with differing theories that led me to come up with the 'truth' of the Magistrate's identity. I hope you continue to help me make this story better as we go to Book 2.

PROBLEMS WITH BOOK 1

Most LitRPG writers are pantsers; that's the opposite of writing with a plot outline. And I'm also like that. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to rein in myself and the weakness of pantsing showed. The 'temple arc' should've been only around 1/3 of Book 1. Maybe even ¼. And yet, it became the entire book. It pushed back a lot of content, and I apologize for that.

Another problem was the lack of agency of Elian in that he was carried along by the plot. Yes, most main characters usually just stumble onto a problem and then solve it, but Book 1 could've been handled in a much more satisfying way. And there are the usual problems of writers, such as pacing and character development. I do hope to gradually improve. I'm far from a good writer of LitRPG, but I hope to be one someday. This is a learning journey, and I'm thankful that you're with me.

PLANS FOR BOOK 2

In contrast to Book 1, where Elian mostly stayed in one area, Book 2 will be more of traveling, with each place having its own mini-arc. I'm thinking of dividing Book 2 into three parts. The first would be Sabyn Mountains and another place connected to it. Next will be Ohmenstrat. And the last will be Sarnival Port for the tournament. Hopefully, I'll be able to address the problems of Book 1, though it won't be instant. My specialty isn't LitRPGs.

I aim to have more character development and more characters. Since this'll be a huge war story someday, we should have great characters that readers care about. I also want to have different kinds of fights that show off Elian's tankiness. This will need a great deal of brainstorming.

I apologize that I have not been consistent with the release rate of Sealed in Steel. I'm still adjusting to having a writing career. I ask for your patience and understanding. My goal for Book 2 is to stabilize a release schedule of three chapters per week. I'm also looking at cutting my work hours, so I can write more, slowly transitioning into a writing career. Though this won't be easy and instant.

Sealed in Steel is still in its beginning stages, and so am I as a writer. Again, I express my gratitude for your financial aid in this journey.

Lastly, I'll appreciate it if you can try out my other story, REND, which is currently on Rising Stars. This version is a rewrite, and I'm more in tune in writing with this style. I'm hoping to branch out and become better at writing Sealed in Steel too because I really love tank builds and dream of writing awesome battles someday. Thank you!

(I'll start uploading Book 2 later or tomorrow. Note that the early chapters of Book 2 will be sort of recapping Elian's gear and skills, as well as the lore.)