I was not aware (at first) that MC needed to be spooked by the lizard to get more TPEF–or, it should be “TPEWF” I suppose–content. Why be scared of a little cutie, I mean? So I did miss it on a first pass of this scene variation. Either way, I am glad I have found something of a clue to the big ‘banned literature’ mystery. 
I do want to whine a little about something that’s bothered me about one instance of early game mechanics with this newly released update, though. 
Full acknowledgement of this is being taken into account, but there are nuances to at least think about. That in mind.
Please don't take it too seriously--I meant it when I said "whine" ^_^;
It seems like there’s not much dynamism in the responses of picking specific choices where combat is concerned.
The biggest context for this complaint-ish* bit of feedback should probably be cleared up so that Pingu has the best possible understanding of where I’m coming from in my MC’s specific case: he is male, so he gets the strength rather than the agility buff for the beginning attribute spread. Not the worst thing in the world, because I should (in theory) be able to eventually balance his combat the way I would prefer it be focused during my play experience. I speak only for myself in this particular case.
*I emphasize on an “ish” because it isn’t as though I expect this to be set in stone so soon after this WIP was released to the world. It just got here.
On to my point! The next bit of context happens with the bandit fight. If I want any early agility buffs sooner than an as yet unwritten part of the story, I have to pick the glaive, but as far as character origin goes, I love the bow (and what it means to him/his people) too much to not pick it as the main weapon specialty. This is not necessarily a punishment toward the stats I want to build, since archery is literally a very upper-body intensive exercise in raw power depending on the expected range of the bow in use. It isn’t helping my “stat developments for the future” cause, though my concession is that I just really wanted this one. 
Nonetheless, when actually fighting the bandits, I afterward picked the option of “dodging then striking” which–without any implied negative consequence for this choice–sounds on paper like I’m successfully utilizing something other than just strength, or accuracy; so I thought, outside of the weapon proficiency, that I was defining my MC’s preferred fighting style as being fast, dodgy, and indirect with this particular choice. This turns out to not actually be the case in practice later on, or choosing an identical choice to parallel this past decision in the Hansol sparring match would not count choosing the same in the spar as a bad-ish move… Sorta, since you can still win after this pretty handily, so that much is not a problem, but it also doesn’t bode well for things ahead based on my personal wishlist of potential narrative accomplishments.
I might be downplaying a smidge, but I really mean it when I do that since it isn’t anything close to being that serious yet. All of this is a fairly roundabout way of saying; it feels like some of my choices as the reader aren’t doing much when contrasted with the not-so-great results these choices result in, in this one following instance. Downplay well-earned since it is just the one.
Likely, even if I did try the glaive route after this, I still wouldn’t fully avoid the ‘getting nearly shaved off the top’ while playing a male MC. I haven’t checked, yet, so that much is free to be set straight if it isn’t true. Still, Hansol is that good as a warrior, and would know after 70+ fights what MC’s methods (disadvantage, or no) are like by then, I’m just not totally convinced the two choices I pointed out as paralleling each other should be completely impotent on some of the logistics of stat workings.
Not changing any of this is hardly going to make me mad about it, though; your story, your rules. It was more important to voice the ‘why it didn’t sit right’ than to actually get anything to happen. As well as maybe make sure that if others much later voice the same misgivings (‘later’ as in whole chapters’ worth of updates later) that it isn’t coming completely from nothing; it might merit some flavor text fixes to alter expectations sooner, if nothing else. I had an incorrect impression from two specific choices, but that’s the extent of it since I’m pretty stoked about everything else this WIP has, and may eventually become.
Hopefully, that wasn’t too much of a wall of text. Don’t lie; it totally was… I’ll say again; this WIP is something great, and I look forward to watching how it develops since it hits all the right story beats for me taste-wise. 
but I hope that all of you are sufficiently entertained by what I have thus far.
Choosing my character’s name from the name menu and I saw San which ofc immediately reminded me of a certain Mountain Choi San from Ateez 
or if anyone else knows how to change it, please let me know how!!
lol. I need more Asian empire wips!
