Vanacan
VIP
3 years ago
·
EditedNot recommended
Update: Chapter 50+ and it is moderately better? I’m still not gonna give it a thumbs up, but that’s because it hasn’t actually addressed any of my concerns. Just avoided them. So far it’s a decent time waster, and you can read it an kind of enjoy it without thinking too hard.
Things ARE picking up now and there is more dungeon drama. And the other dungeon baby’s (god that name still sucks) are *maybe* becoming relevant again? Debatable. They’re so far depicted as just this useless mob of people that are a pain in the ass because the MC is just so much better than them. That hasn’t changed much, they’re just being a pain in the ass more directly now.
No real degree of politics or understanding or characterization beyond just them being fodder at best and enemies that you kill on sight at worst. There are maybe two humans that go in dungeons that have names that I remember, and ones the stereotypical hot girl and the other is the ‘maybe enemy faction leader, maybe guy that you blackmail recruit into becoming your slave’.
All in all, things *are* picking up, but the flaws of the story still seem structural so it’s not great. That being said, it’s not that the story is hard or painful to read, so if you can turn off your brain it’s not a bad choice to read for a few minutes each day.
Original review below, read for context.
It’s not a horrible story. It’s just not really that good. I finished the first 20 chapters, and if it does get picked up I’ll probably keep reading until chapter 50 or so. That’s about the point where some webnovels need to get to in order to actually find their footing, but 20 chapters is enough to give a review for now.
As it is, the story is probably better summarized by other reviews, but I’ll point out my issues. There is essentially no character for any of the characters. No one has more than a single dimension, even the MC is pretty flat. His sister is getting married, and he wants to give her a dowry, so he goes to the underground world to earn money and… we skip the wedding and meeting the groom. His parents don’t want him in the underground world because they don’t want to take advantage of him, but they don’t seem to question what he does with his life while he lives with them, and he quickly moves out to escape their attention. They go bankrupt, but that gets resolved with a similar handwave as the wedding.
And the dungeons/underground, which is shaping up to be the meat and bones of the story has the habit of only caring about 1. The female leader of the party, and 2. Some guy who doesn’t like the MC because of various reasons, but may or may not be an enemy. Now, there are sometimes different versions of number 2 running around, and it’s not too hard to keep track of them so that’s not bad. Oh and there’s the shopkeeper, who is both a source of money and rumors/jobs for the MC.
Now all this being said, there are bits of a good story here, and the dungeon he controls is moderately interesting (the characters are still flat, but at least most of them have the excuse of being explicitly mobs in a dungeon), but there’s still issues here. Mostly with the fact that it’s just boring. No real interaction by the MC, and any choices he makes aren’t explored in the story, just elaborated on a tiny bit and then move on.
Most of his actual decisions are made by his Maid, who is the only dungeon creature to get a name and talk so far, but she also falls prey to the trope of all summoned creatures must unconditionally love/lust after their master and be beautiful. Oh and she doesn’t explain any of her choices either, so the MC just does what she says with our learning about why, until the subject comes up later in the story for the reader to learn about it.
For those of you who stuck it out so far, and read all of that, I’ll end by saying it’s not a terrible story and can pass the time well. It might even get better after some more chapters, but as it is right now the flaws I see are structural in the authors writing style and the way he designed the story.
Things ARE picking up now and there is more dungeon drama. And the other dungeon baby’s (god that name still sucks) are *maybe* becoming relevant again? Debatable. They’re so far depicted as just this useless mob of people that are a pain in the ass because the MC is just so much better than them. That hasn’t changed much, they’re just being a pain in the ass more directly now.
No real degree of politics or understanding or characterization beyond just them being fodder at best and enemies that you kill on sight at worst. There are maybe two humans that go in dungeons that have names that I remember, and ones the stereotypical hot girl and the other is the ‘maybe enemy faction leader, maybe guy that you blackmail recruit into becoming your slave’.
All in all, things *are* picking up, but the flaws of the story still seem structural so it’s not great. That being said, it’s not that the story is hard or painful to read, so if you can turn off your brain it’s not a bad choice to read for a few minutes each day.
Original review below, read for context.
It’s not a horrible story. It’s just not really that good. I finished the first 20 chapters, and if it does get picked up I’ll probably keep reading until chapter 50 or so. That’s about the point where some webnovels need to get to in order to actually find their footing, but 20 chapters is enough to give a review for now.
As it is, the story is probably better summarized by other reviews, but I’ll point out my issues. There is essentially no character for any of the characters. No one has more than a single dimension, even the MC is pretty flat. His sister is getting married, and he wants to give her a dowry, so he goes to the underground world to earn money and… we skip the wedding and meeting the groom. His parents don’t want him in the underground world because they don’t want to take advantage of him, but they don’t seem to question what he does with his life while he lives with them, and he quickly moves out to escape their attention. They go bankrupt, but that gets resolved with a similar handwave as the wedding.
And the dungeons/underground, which is shaping up to be the meat and bones of the story has the habit of only caring about 1. The female leader of the party, and 2. Some guy who doesn’t like the MC because of various reasons, but may or may not be an enemy. Now, there are sometimes different versions of number 2 running around, and it’s not too hard to keep track of them so that’s not bad. Oh and there’s the shopkeeper, who is both a source of money and rumors/jobs for the MC.
Now all this being said, there are bits of a good story here, and the dungeon he controls is moderately interesting (the characters are still flat, but at least most of them have the excuse of being explicitly mobs in a dungeon), but there’s still issues here. Mostly with the fact that it’s just boring. No real interaction by the MC, and any choices he makes aren’t explored in the story, just elaborated on a tiny bit and then move on.
Most of his actual decisions are made by his Maid, who is the only dungeon creature to get a name and talk so far, but she also falls prey to the trope of all summoned creatures must unconditionally love/lust after their master and be beautiful. Oh and she doesn’t explain any of her choices either, so the MC just does what she says with our learning about why, until the subject comes up later in the story for the reader to learn about it.
For those of you who stuck it out so far, and read all of that, I’ll end by saying it’s not a terrible story and can pass the time well. It might even get better after some more chapters, but as it is right now the flaws I see are structural in the authors writing style and the way he designed the story.