Hello everyone.

So, you might be surprised as to why there's a chapter this week, even though I said that I was taking a bit of a break.

Well, that's because this isn't a chapter. Not really. I've seen everyone's reviews and it came to my attention that I should spend some time to explain myself and address your concerns.

So, as you've probably guessed if you read the title of this chapter (and please do read chapter titles, I really like writing them), we'll be doing some world-building here ! Well, not the kind of world-building that you'd slowly find out from reading the fic, but rather a full blown view of what's going on in the background and how it affects the story. Stuff that you usually never learn of but that do exist.

And I'll also be talking about how I write my fics.

So fair warning, this will have spoilers (for Neo the Gamer), and although I will do my best to keep them on "movie trailer" level, I know some people consider even that amount of spoilers to be enough to ruin their experience, which is why I'm warning you ahead of time.

Here we go.

Well, first of all, let's address the biggest criticism about last chapter : That Neo should've beaten Cinder.

And the answer here is simple. No she couldn't.

Neo still doesn't have aura, and while I am planning on giving it to her at some point, this is not it. That means that Cinder only needs one hit to kill Neo right now, and that's what she just did. And if you think Neo could've kept dodging, well let me tell you something.

When two characters fight, I actually roll the dice.

Once the rolling is done, I write the fight in a way that both follows it and is interesting for everyone. Sometimes, when there is something specific that I want to happen within the fight, I'll usually put in a secret win-condition. Overall, this means there are multiple possible endings to a fight.

The best example of this is the fight Lemon Curll and Neo did together against a grimm. In this fight, Neo was initially supposed to purposefully choose weaker or supporting abilities, to hide her true strength while dealing with the grimm. However, due to a low damage roll followed by Lemon doing more damage than her, and a crit, the fight became what it was, with Neo complaining and getting fed up with the damage she's seeing, or what the "god of dice" put her through.

The only exception to this are Pyrrha's fights, where I mostly only rolled for damage because canon Pyrrha is too OP and needed a plot device to stay at the same level of OPness (although she would have still won all her fights. She just wouldn't have been able to do it without being damaged). Well joke's on you Pyrrha, cause Cinder doesn't use metal so your plot device will be worthless there !

Anyway, for the fight between Cinder and Neo, Cinder managed to hit on turn three, and this is what we got. There was other options, of course. One where Neo won and would get stopped by Emerald's semblance, and one where Neo didn't manage to take down most of Cinder's aura and where Cinder wouldn't have been so worried about the result.

There's also the option where Neo lost on the first turn, but let's be honest here, that wasn't going to happen x)

And of course, Roman couldn't have done anything. He is absolutely incapable of going against either Mercury and Emerald, as he's still level 4, and that's not even counting Cinder. In fact, had he tried to fight, he would've only been a dead weight here.

I said we were going to talk about world-building right ? Well, here we go. This time we'll address the question of team RWBY's levels.

So first, let's go over how levels are constructed here.

Level 0 are most people without aura or classes. Meaning everyone that doesn't fight for a living, and then some. When Jaune enters Beacon, that's where he is.

Level 1 to 10 are Huntsmen and Huntresses in training, and people at around that level. To get to level 1, you need both aura and a class, which basically means figuring out how you want to fight. This is where our main-cast is supposed to be. We'll get back to this in a second.

Level 11 to 20 are Huntsmen and Huntresses, and people at around that level. To get past level 10, people need to find their "path", meaning they have to figure out what they fight for. At the end of V8, most of the cast would be around, if not at, level 20.

Level 21 to 30 are Legends. People who are known far and beyond for their deeds or in the realm of myths. To get past level 20, people need to find their "destiny", which is like a path but far more important. As an example, if Neo's "Me, myself and I" would become a destiny, it would be something along the lines of "All for one", where she considers her own self to be more important than the entire world (yes, I know what I did there).

As a matter of fact, becoming a Legend is practically impossible, and leveling up all the way to level 30 is something that has only been done by Ozma and Salem, thanks in no small part to their immortality.

Now, back to levels 1 to 10. Back to our Huntresses-in-training.

People usually enter Beacon at level 1, and "normal" individuals would go through the school years as follow :

1st year : levels 1 to 4

2nd year : levels 4 to 7

3rd year : levels 7 to 9

4th year : levels 9 to 11

Now, our main cast and JNPR are not normal students in any way. In fact, they are quite skilled. Here was their level when they entered Beacon :

Ruby : level 1. She might be skilled enough to enter Beacon early, but she's still only 15 years old. It makes sense that she wouldn't be that far above her peers, if at all.

Weiss : level 2. Weiss have had access to the best of the best for her education. It is only natural that she is truly above her peers.

Blake : level 3. Blake has spent most of her life living in the rough, and fighting for the White Fang. As a result, she's stronger than most people.

Yang : level 2. Yang was training by her dad since she was young. She's certainly stronger than most people in Beacon by the time she gets in, and is actually near the end of level 2 where Weiss is closer to the beginning of it.

Jaune : level 0. Do I have to explain ? No aura, barely any idea of what he's doing. Jaune is going to have a hard time even getting to level 1.

Nora : level 2. Nora and Ren most likely did live in the rough for most of their life. However, contrary to Blake, they are likely to have mostly avoided grimm thanks to Ren's semblance rather than fought, so they would be lower-leveled than her.

Ren : level 2. As a matter of fact, both Ren and Nora are near the beginning of level 2.

Pyrrha : level 10. and Overtrained. Pyrrha is broken beyond normal main character standards, but she has yet to find her purpose, even if she believes she is meant to be a Huntress.

So yes. As you can tell, almost everyone is better than normal students, yet they are similar to each other. The only one far above the rest is Pyrrha, but let's be honest Pyrrha wouldn't actually try too hard in a food fight.

As for the Vytal Tournament ? Well, if you've seen the show you probably know by now that most teams that are shown are either first or second years. In fact, while we do not know in which year the teams from other schools are, because they continue their schooling 2 years after the fall of Beacon we know that they cannot be above their second year during the fall of Beacon.

Why would that be ? Well, the idea here is the same as for Mistral's tournament. 3rd and 4th year students are likely to be spending most of their time on missions, and as such value fighting for show far less than their younger peers. It would then make sense that only 1st and 2nd years attend the tournament, with maybe some weaker 3rd years.

But then wouldn't that still mean the top 2nd year teams are still level 7 ? How would team RWBY manage to win if their top member is still only level 4 ?

Well, that's a good question, and to answer it, let me show you a little something called... a calendar. We're going to see exactly when we are in the school year and when each event takes place.

So, if you remember, I'm using the French Revolutionary calendar, mostly because that's an existing calendar that uses seasonal events to describe its months rather than the Roman numerical one we have.

The calendar goes as follows (with events attached)

Vintair : 22nd of September to the 21st of October - Start of school year at Beacon

Mistair : 22nd of October to the 20th of November - Ruby born the 10th of Mistair

Frostair : 21st of November to the 20th of December - Neo born the 10th of Frostair

Snoweese : 21st of December to the 19th of January - Blake born the 30th of Snoweese

Raineese : 20th of January to the 18th of February - End of first semester, start of second

Windeese : 19th of February to the 20th of March

Germinal : 21st of March to the 19th of April - Mistral tournament

Flowal : 20th of April to the 19th of May - Weiss born the 26th of Flowal

Meadal : 20th of May to the 18th of June

Harvidor : 19th of June to the 18th of July - The breach, then Summer holidays starts

Heatidor : 19th of July to the 17th of August - Yang born the 10th of Heatidor

Fruitidor : 18th of August to the 16th of September

5-6 days of Vytal : 17th of September to the 21st of September

No, I did not make Ruby, Neo and Yang's birthdays all fall on the 10th on purpose. I used the canon birthdays for team RWBY, and gave Neo the birthday of November 30th because it's N30.

Anyway, here you can see how the school year goes. To understand it, we'll start with the breach rather than the actual school year.

So, here, I'm making the breach, or rather, their one week mission, to be a end of year exam. This is supported by Ruby going back home between V2 & 3. In this event, the Vytal Festival would actually just be an extracurricular activity between the two school years, giving another reason as to why 4th years wouldn't attend : because they would already be Hunters by now.

After Vytal comes the start of the school year. I haven't put in any dates because I don't actually need a set date so it's better to keep it roughly within the month. However, this does mean that Ruby would actually enter Beacon when she was fourteen and gets fifteen within the first month or so, but I like it that way.

As for where we are in the story ? Well, second semester has started, but considering we have a practically 3 month long summer break, this means that first semester lasts at best 4 and a half month. In French schools, which starts the year on the first week of September, first semester ends in January, so that's why I put the end of the first semester in Raineese.

As for when team RWBY meets Neo for the first time ? Well, that's still in Winter. Both because it gives them almost an entire semester to grow, and because the outfits they wore back then had a more wintery vibe.

So yes. Yang and Weiss are currently level 3, Blake is level 4, Ruby is level 2, but they still have half of their school year to grow, plus additional training during summer break to get ready for the tournament.

And as for where team JNPR is right now ? Well, Pyrrha is still level 10, Jaune will finally get his level 1 a bit before the year ends, and Ren and Nora are both level 3.

Finally, let's talk about how I have planned to write this fic.

I'm going to be honest, since the start the plan was always to catch back canon and follow it for a while. As for how far I'm actually going to follow it, well that's still up for debate.

I'm currently able to keep everyone in character all the way up to V8 included, and am pretty happy with what I'll add to the story, however that is subject to change, if only due to the way I write my stories.

How do I write my stories you ask ?

Well, think of it as a hiker going from peak to peak, with little care as to what path he's going to take between each.

Right now, my next peak is V3, and then it's the end of V8. And while for a while I've been scared of the main path between those two peaks, the more I think about it the more beautiful it seems.

Yet, that does not automatically means that I'll take that path. Who knows. Maybe I'll find another path that I'm more interested in, and maybe I'll find a better peak to climb than the end of V8. Only time will tell.

Right now, what's for sure, is that I'm going to continue on this path, parallel to canon, until the Vytal Festival, at the very least. And what I know is that even if Roman survives, Ruby will be the biggest influence on Neo from now on.

And I want to be clear. I am not going to ship Ruby and Neo in this fic. At least not unless V9 happens before I can catch up to it and pushes canon in a way that both brings this ship closer and I'm happy with.

But the reason I'm usually shipping Ruby and Neo in the first place is because I see them as two sides of the same coin, and believe as the best character to push the other forward, whether it is as enemies or as allies.

And that's the plan really. The current plan is to have them as enemies, or at least antagonistic to one another even if they work towards a common goal. And how they'll behave against each other will help both of their character develop.

Does that means that the story will only really start to be interesting once we get out of canon ? Well no.

Because, while I read every single one of your reviews, and am always taking them into account to give you a story you can all enjoy, I am still writing for myself.

And as I wrote this story, as I planned it, as I found this path between V3 and V8, it helped me build on the show, and everything I built makes me appreciate it even more.

As I've written Thrillseeker, I've grown to accept the way they brought Neo back, even though I initially hated her thirst for revenge, and considered it to be completely out of character, mostly due to how I had built her in my head.

And while I completely hate Cinder and how she always somehow tries to be the main villain of the show, I've finally written it in a way that I'm happy with, even though she still has her full blown delusions on being the main character, just because Salem is up there laughing at her antics all the time.

This is what I hope to write, this is what I hope to bring you before we go on our own way.

By showing another side of the story, one that has barely been touched on by the show, or simply cannot be properly expressed without the written word, I hope that I can bring you to appreciate it even more.

And if you'd rather like a story that doesn't follow the show at all, well don't be sad.

"Detective Rose and the Thieving Duo" is set to be updated once this one is over.

I've written a "Strawberry Shortcake compilation" on AO3, along with two smut fics, under the username "exodud". If ffnet ever goes down, I'll also post all my fics there, but for now, it'll only be for smut and compilations.

And who knows, maybe I'll be posting some new fics soon. This break has filled me with ideas, although I'll be sure to finish those ones before starting to post, so they doesn't go on indefinite hiatus like the others.

And with this.

See you next week.