Dungeon Defense

Description

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Do you know how this world ends?

Become the hero and defeat the 72 Demon Lords. The game that was boasted as the absolute hardest strategy game, 『Dungeon Attack』.

I used to be the ‘hero’ who had accomplished everything in this game, but after answering a suspicious survey, I found myself in the game as the weakest Demon Lord, 「Dantalian」.

With only my eloquent tongue and my memories of conquest as a hero—.

In order to survive as Dantalian. I shall tear this world apart.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Deonjeon Dipenseu
ダンジョンディフェンス
던전 디펜스
Related Series
Dungeon Defense (WN) (Web Novel)
Recommendations
The Lazy King (13)
My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending (12)
Dungeon Hunter (9)
The Second Coming of Gluttony (9)
Your and My Asylum (9)
Sevens (8)
Recommendation Lists
  1. enjoyed my time
  2. An actual attempt at ranking
  3. Novels That I Have Read Over The Years
  4. Peak Villains
  5. Op Mc / simulation systems

Latest Release

Date Group Release
11/26/17 Shalvation Translations v5 afterword
11/26/17 Shalvation Translations v5 intermission
11/23/17 Shalvation Translations v5c4
11/11/17 Shalvation Translations v5c3
10/28/17 Shalvation Translations v5c2
10/17/17 Shalvation Translations v5c1
10/09/17 Shalvation Translations v5 prologue
10/06/17 Shalvation Translations v5 illustrations
02/03/17 Shalvation Translations v4 afterword
02/03/17 Shalvation Translations v4 intermission
02/03/17 Shalvation Translations v4c5
01/29/17 Shalvation Translations v4c4
01/21/17 Shalvation Translations v4c3
01/13/17 Shalvation Translations v4c2
01/04/17 Shalvation Translations v4c1
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316 Reviews sorted by


keklel
keklel rated it
August 15, 2016
Status: v2c2
>It shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right? This person wasn’t a simple guest, he was my friend.
>Now that I think about it, what was his name again?

There's only been one full volume so far but what I've read so far has been excellent. Written from different perspectives does the job of portraying the battle of wits, the constant guessing and deduction by different characters perfectly. Even though I dislike LaLa for being a stereotypical tsundere, I have to admit the rest of the novel is written incredibly... more>> well. The MC's f*cked up childhood and worldview does not impact on the enjoyment of the story, in fact it adds to the entertainment value somehow by explaining his ability to deceive and analyze others, as well as his motivation in life. <<less
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Niggatron
Niggatron
July 29, 2016
Status: v2 prologue
This novel. This novel is amazing. It's not the typical explosion, trope riddled piece of sh*t that goes around; it's about an intelligent guy who uses his brain. The prose is great, dialogue is dry and witty which fits the setting, and so far the world is being built up pretty nicely. A solid 10/10.
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Unknownadd
Unknownadd rated it
July 28, 2016
Status: v2 illustrations
This story is brilliant and a must read! The MC has that dark charm to him where you wish he succeeds and he does so in a magnificent fashion. The chapters are long and meaty and even in small reading sessions it feels satisfying to get through a chapter as it neatly encloses a particular story arc (at this time at least).
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orbis
orbis rated it
April 24, 2018
Status: v5 afterwords
I'm really surprised at how much can people ignore all the problems in this novel and rate it so highly

the first vol was great had the novel remained at that level I would have understood what the fuss was all about but it didn't and that brings me to the first problem inconsistency

after V1 it feels like the rest of the volumes are a spinoff of the original as dantalian broke every bit of his previously established personality and went full ret*rd out of nowhere and that's the second problem

in... more>> the beginning dantalian was a great character cold calculating intelligent a bit lazy and a shut-in the last two might not sound cool but that's just how it is and it really didn't matter because his other characteristics overwhelmed these flaws, from V2 onwards he became obsessed with authority and conquering the world you might think a motivated protag with a clear goal is a good thing and it is when it goes with the flow of the story and said protag doesn't act like he was written by a 12 year old who played too many violent video games what I mean is that his actions feels forced and unnatural just to move the plot forward and having a childish hate boner for his dad doesn't help either I know his father wasn't an admirable gentleman but he treated him better than anyone in the story so far

the third problem I have with this is forcing events and situations sometimes without even the decency to introduce a blot device to make it more natural, putting the story and characters aside even the violence is mostly done for the sake of shock value

i give it 2 stars for the first vol. <<less
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TakunDes
TakunDes rated it
January 28, 2018
Status: v5
[Spoiler Free]

This is the real deal. It's really good. Can't believe there's a gem like this out there. Truly unique compared to most Japanese novels out there. It's just a massive shame that Korea does not produce anime nor will a Japanese studio adapt it.

So, in the end, it will only stay as a Light Novel material. Which is a big shame since it has massive potential. Could potentially become one of the best anime ever.

Since the web novel is finished, since the author is translating based on the Light... more>> Novel its gonna take us a long time before we hit the end of the ride I guess. Nevertheless, the Translator did an amazing job of introducing us to an amazing Korean Novel. Big thanks to Shalvation <<less
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scribbledoutname
scribbledoutname rated it
September 23, 2016
Status: --
A disappointing read.

Someone described it quite well: after reading this, you feel cheated.

First of all, the story starts out with a dungeon management system with tonnes of potential. Except this is dropped almost instantly after the first conflict in favour of some friendship rating BS (the LEAST interesting of the abilities he could choose. He supposedly picks this because it lets him read minds, but it's useless when he can't even see what his enemies/acquaintances are thinking. Only friends. He may as well have picked something that would stop him... more>> being just an ant tier threat).

The MC is witty and ruthless, but he's also humane -- he does what he has to do to survive but also shows that he has a bottom line. Except, he suddenly does a heel-face turn in the second volume and becomes a heartless mass mu*derer.

The MC is meant to be a genius... except he suddenly becomes a spineless moron who can't make decisions for himself and starts trying things out to please his underling, Lapis.

At this point, you quickly come to realise that the MC thinks he's far, far smarter than he really is: a lot of his seemingly genius methods of dealing with situations rely heavily on luck and the s*upidity/baseless trust/naivette of the other parties involved. If they had common sense, the MC would be dead several times over.

The story just contains a lot of tr*sh talk and bragging from the MC as he takes credit for luck and makes decisions that would be common sense for anyone else with his cheat knowledge.

That said, it's enjoyable at times... but disappointing nonetheless. If I could go back in time I'd tell myself to stop at the first volume and treat it as a one shot. I'm craving a true dungeon management story now, so I'm going to go find one of those to read. It'll be 100x more interesting... <<less
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MondoX
MondoX rated it
September 15, 2016
Status: v3 prologue
The first volume was awesome, but the second volume was mediocre. My reason for the mediocrity of the second volume was how the romance developed. Throughout the first volume, and part of the second volume, the MC reiterated how he will not be like his father regarding women. The MC made it a point that he will not fall for any women, it became annoying of how much it was mentioned. However, the second part of volume two showed the MC falling in love too fast, and too deeply. I... more>> would not have a problem if the romance was slowly developed, but it changed from one extreme to the next. Also, the conclusion of the romance and how the MC and his lover were going to deal with it was ridiculous. The author wanted to make the MC cold and ruthless, but then added romance, and he tried to justify it by explaining that it was a different type of love, compared to normal love. <<less
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zaimokuza
zaimokuza rated it
September 6, 2016
Status: v2c2
Not bad, but not that great either. Just another over-hyped and overrated novel. We got a mentally unstable MC, irrational setting & development, and roundabout turn of event.

The reason I gave it three stars were purely because of the 'tutorial' and the reason I forced myself to read it till 2nd volume was because of lala. But well, perhaps it was just my personal disposition that dislike to see a weakling which act so high and mighty.
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kalp456
kalp456 rated it
August 4, 2016
Status: v2c1
NOTE: This is only an impression/ volume 1 review. It will be edited as the story progresses.

NOTE: May contain SPOILERS. Read at your own risk.

... more>>
Spoiler

First of all, the setting and premise. It is actually just another generic premise where a person is transported in another world, on a world he initially knows at that, thus, a cheating ability immediately comes into fruition. So great! Although that is the case, at least it has been made such that it has a lot of potential, albeit really annoying. The protagonist was transported into the body of the 2nd to the weakest demon lord. Although it was not explained if his physical strength/attributes can be improved, the intellect he was shown to possess is very much already a good potential. Fighting those stronger than you with wits is an enjoyable ride, maybe even more enjoyable than Death Note if done excellently (I doubt it, though). The protagonist also has a really bad family problem that he had chosen to abandon because of his personality, which could be the main theme of this series, the effects of bad parenting. The setting of the presentation of this theme is very bad-written though. Not plausible at all.

Second, the plot of the 1st volume. The 1st volume is basically introducing the setting, themes, and characters. The themes and setting is already said in the premise so the processs/presentation of these things will just be the one discussed (what I remember). The protagonist is transported in a world, but before that, the readers are hinted that he is a smart person. The ordeal he had to pass was used as a confirmation of this speculation. This is actually not bad, honestly speaking. But the way it was presented is bad since the characters he was forced to defeat are conveniently s*upid. People who will sympathise with a demon lord. The excuse of this was supposedly because his acting skills are spectacular. I call bullsh*t on this one. That is a s*upid excuse. Furthermore, throughout the story, you can clearly see that due to the setting, he already has an edge over the others, his knowledge about the world and its future, i.e., he is cheating. Great way of forcibly destroying my expectation for it to be at least half as good as death note. Also, his arguments are, most of the times, fallacious. Appeal to the majority, emotion, etc. So obvious. I really can't appreciate this even if it shows how good he is at manipulating people since duh, it is basically indirectly teaching people how to argue fallaciously. On the bright side, at least it said that it was fallacious, e.g. It said majority logic. I just don't know if people will get it.

Third, the characters. The main protagonist is a psychopath and/or sociopath. Although it was excused that it was because of the environment he grew up with, it is still not plausible. Although the novel is already trying to explain things thoroughly, it was still not explained that well to called as plausible. You just do not become a psychopath because you have family problems. The current heroine is at least decent. She at least has her own goals and quite the smart one, too. A pity her wits was defeated by the protagonist cheater. She is shown as an emotional person, though. Although it makes you curious on what her true personality is, in the long run, if she is not given permanent true emotions, it will be detrimental. The other characters are presented either as one (or two; only the goblin was shown/hinted as a somewhat 2d char) dimensional in the mean time but, at least, the majority already are shown to have convictions in their actions. I hope they are further fleshed out and presented to be 3 dimensional characters in the next volumes.

Last, the narrative style. Don't want to comment much here. It is both good and bad. Good since multiple perspectives. Bad since bad presentation.

[collapse]

Overall, I temporarily give it a 5/10. It has a lot of potential but its problems are already visible. If its themes and characters will be presented well in the next volumes, then it might become a 6 or 7. But right now, it is still up to debate.

EDIT: Well, what can I say. His backdrop is basically shit. His parents are one dimensional. He has the personality worse than asses, both before and current. I can't tolerate this kind of behaviour. The author seems to want to exaggerate things out of proportions. 3/10 <<less
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Gdog251
Gdog251 rated it
September 4, 2017
Status: --
This story is garbage. The author tries to sell you on a character that is such a good actor manipulator etc etc that he will rule the world with his words. Basically this turns into chapter after chapter filled with useless dialogue. Lots and lots of dialogue. Seriously you can skip entire chapters and still not miss anything as others have said. I usually don't bother writing reviews but some idiot said this garbage 5v ln gives berserk a run for its money. This psychobabble word vomit will never be... more>> anything like berserk. Don't waste your time reading this. I did and I regret it. <<less
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Lenard
Lenard rated it
January 26, 2017
Status: v4c3
The Best Novel that I've read. In my life. Ever. Actually, the author of the novel is beyond the level of a simple novel creator and could easily get on the stage as an professional writer. No idea why he haven't already done this.

A few words about the novel should be said I guess...

Well yea, as it was already mentioned, this novel is not for everyone, so if you folks are looking for some guilty pleasures, OP MC, game elements (which "kinda" exist here, but you may as well... more>> forget about them from the start), tr*shy/idiotic/arrogant/andwhatnot enemies which will be defeated by MC in a instant to only give the reader a dose of hype... Well all of this and another big chunk of other bullsh*t that make other novels quite popular, you'll not find in this "novel" (ugh, I feel like I insult this creation by naming it this way).

What else... I can also say that this story is about characters. Like really. For example one entire volume is dedicated for showing the the relationship between 3 characters and increasing the "deepness" of the said characters. And by no means this is a bad thing. Like I said, this is not a story for everyone and it wasn't created to be spoon eaten by the majority of readers, hell, I think that you should have at least a few screw loses to be able to enjoy "Dungeon Defense" as much as I did (well, at least I judge based on myself, so, let's see how many likes this review will get).

And why many don't like this novel?

I can think of 2 answers:
1. "Dungeon Defense" it's not really what it seems to be on the first look. You know, "game-ish" name, "Harem" and "Seinen" genre, "Transported Into A Game World" tag, "game-ish" elements in the prologue, cool MC... all of this creates the wrong impression of a OP-MC-make-harem-beating-the-shit-out-of-idiotish-pseudo-enemies kind of novel. But nope, not even close. This is a story about politics, schemes, relationships, human's psychology, manipulations, the ugly side of human's (demons?) society, relationships, mass mu*ders (genocides I'd even say), betrayals, tactics, relationships, love, loyalty, geniuses, and in general about psychopaths and their relationship. And all of this is comprehended in (for now) 4 volumes. Isn't the author a genius?

2. And yes, the psychopaths. 4 characters from the 5 heavily focused ones are literally crazy (can't say for sure about the fifth one since her personality wasn't raveled enough, hopefully the fourth volume will do the job). But this are only the main characters. The current arch-enemy also have her share of madness. The witches... well, they are just bat-shit-crazy. And don't make delusions, I don't mean "crazy" in a cool way, I mean it in the "scary" way, you'll literally get goosebumps while reading this, the "Horror" genre isn't there for nothing. A certain someone, for example, don't shy away from mu*dering tens of thousands if it helps in accomplishing his aims, others were used as brewing sows for years in a row, another one killed her mother in cold blood... See with what kind of characters you are going to deal with? Not for everyone...

And in conclusion... Well, I guess I will just repeat myself and say that this was the best thing I've read classified as a, ugh, "novel".

And one more thing, if this will mean something for you, than I can say that I specifically registered to leave my first review, in my life, for a novel. (I guess I am not a virg*n anymore LOL. Feels good man...) <<less
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Skuzze
Skuzze
September 21, 2016
Status: --
Volume 2 is significantly different to volume 1, I picked up the insanity of it instantly. The MC seems to become much more s*upid and irrational with no good explanation, making me drop the story.
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ksnh
ksnh rated it
July 20, 2020
Status: v3c1
Volume 1:
MC isekais into game he plays as a weak demon lord. Contrary to your typical tale of MC getting OP powers (so far), our MC uses his brain to survive as his conditions aren't so great. This is similar to a time regression novel as he uses his game knowledge to his advantage while trying to maintain a lazy NEET life.

After this the novel changes drastically. We originally have a lazy character, he suddenly becomes more active and seemingly abandons his humanity.

From here on our it's just spoilers/complaints... more>> pretty much. You've been warned.
Everything below includes Volume 2 Spoilers:

Spoiler

Falling in love with the Lala. Nothing wrong with this but MC basically dances in her palm the entirety of volume 2. Uhhh, you're the demon lord. What happened to Lala being a lowly half? Where does she get off being so disobedient.

[collapse]

Continuation of first spoiler.

Spoiler

He allows someone he befriends that is humane/against s*avery but allows Lala to kill him. ??? Are we not going to talk about this? I know he's a demon now but there's no input from his human perspective. It comes across very strange.

[collapse]

His laziness. (Still vol 2 spoilers)

Spoiler

He rescues a s*ave to lead an army to lead a war against humanity. I guess we're dropping being a NEET now? Furthermore, she's exceedingly cruel--more cruel than probably how tr*sh he describes the 72nd demon lord in volume 1.

[collapse]

The harem.

Spoiler

"I don't like people that look like kids."

>Proceeds to f*ck loli. Okay then. I also guess demons don't care about harems? I wish some discussion went into this though but Lala just doesn't care I guess.

[collapse]

Conclusion:

Could be decent if you ignore character changes and read volume 2 as a clean slate but I'll pass for now. Overall, this is heavily overrated. I wouldn't mind volume 1 being called a masterpiece, but afterwards it's questionable.

5/5 vol 1

2.5/5 vol 2 <<less
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AntsCool
AntsCool rated it
October 20, 2019
Status: v5c2
After some time having it pushed aside I finally decided to write a review.

    • The characters
a bit bland at first but they grew on me. They all have different personalities and motives that really fit with the characters and for the most part get the stereotypes and smash them apart in a good way.

    • The story
10/10, with the mysteries and schemes slowly revealing themselves in a grand fashion and sometimes unexpected ways while giving you just enough information to make you own judgements and guesses. It is masterfully done. Except for the plot holes and inconsistencies which makes you question whether or not you are in space or the writers room... go in with the need to suspend disbelief and you will enjoy it.

    • The edginess Dark themes
It mostly works, it starts off mostly explaining that the MC has daddy issues and convincing his dad to commit su*cide because of his mom who wants to make a meat toboggan out of him. While it was surprising the rest of the novel just runs off shock factor and an internal competition of 'who wants to be

a millionaire the darkest scene, ' it is done really well in the earlier volumes and actually isn't that bad overall but it just becomes an edge-fest fast but an enjoyable one.

BTW the translation is amazing props to them!

Overall I quite enjoyed it (and actually did a assignment on it and did well XD, the teacher never questioned it) but it really does require a suspension of disbelief and to not look overly deeply into things and enjoy it for what it is; a dark novel based entirely off shock factor with pretty good writing but not using everything it should have.

EDIT: I just found out that my assignment on this is being used as a high mark exemplar for the school, LOL.
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cleesus
cleesus rated it
December 9, 2018
Status: v2
The first volume was pretty good and gave me hope that I found a new series thats worth reading. I read a good number of reviews before I started reading and I was hoping that all the reviews about the story being tr*sh after the first volume was wrong, but they were not.

Its really amazing how you can take a good story concept and ignore it while doing a 180 on everything. The main character and plot in volume 2+ doesnt even really resemble the main character from volume 1.

Save... more>> your time and only read the first volume or skip the series <<less
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SoulZer0
SoulZer0 rated it
April 8, 2017
Status: v4 afterword
A fairly good novel, I like it. It's rare to find this kind of novels but that does not make it great. There are several problems that I'd like to address here. I have to remove two stars from my rating due to the problems below. My original rating was 3 stars because of its mediocrity.
Spoiler

First and foremost, about his ability to see people's affection. Somehow after the second volume, that ability has never been used again. Oh wow, Dantalian is a real pro in gaming. The choices that will appear when he's making an important decision. This, too, has never been mentioned after a certain point in the story despite he has been clearly making very important decisions throughout the entire chapters up to date. Well, these two things will probably be used again in the future so no big deal but it's absent for few volumes, that's inconsistency, which is a big flaw in novels.


Secondly, this is probably the biggest flaw in this novel.
Languages.
At the start of the series, when Dantalian encountered some adventures, it has been established that our MC perceived conversations in Korean. However, when he met Laura for the first time, Laura tested him by speaking in several different languages and somehow Dantalian could perfectly differentiate those languages. Wasn't he supposed to hear it in Korean? It would have been better if he managed to differentiate languages by reading their lips instead. Our MC could appear even more "genius". Also, during Laura's speech before the war, I'm wondering as to what language she had used to make ALL OF THE COMMONERS AND PEOPLE BELOW THAT from all of the nations of the opposing side to understand her. Those people are highly unlikely to be bilingual, let alone multilingual. There was no clarification at all, the only thing that was described in the chapter was how the witches used sound amplification magic to make Laura's speech audible to everyone. This is a serious matter in my opinion, because this speech plays a major role to cause internal problems to the enemy.
Then the Imperial Princess also conveyed a speech, she at first asked a mage to stop invoking a spell to translate her speech into the demon's language by saying she could speak in demon's language so that she could intercept Laura's speech. Well, it was a complete waste though since she didn't intercept it and she also didn't speak in demon's language I assume since her people could understand her but not the soldiers of neighboring countries. This had no problem whatsoever but it shows that this novel lacks crucial descriptions.
[collapse]
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Dragon God
Dragon God rated it
January 14, 2017
Status: v4c2
This is a light novel. But it's not just any novel. It's the Magnum Opus of light novels.

This is the most amazing Asian translated novel I've read. The writing quality and translation quality is amazing. The writing is so good that I'll be hard pressed to call this a light novel. The plot is intriguing, the characters deep and wonderful. The style is much more eloquent than expected from a light novel. Each volume is brilliant on its own and builds upon the magnificence of the previous volume.

For those of... more>> you who have not yet read it or dropped it, I entreat you to read it again. You'll be hard pressed to find a novel that will captivate you as much as this one. And maybe, just maybe like me you'll become an addict.

The MC is a Magnificent Bastard like Lelouch Vi Brittania and Light Yagami.

He's in the same realm of intelligence as them, albeit a bit more insane.

If you liked either Death Note, Code Geass or both, you'll love this novel. <<less
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NowFooMe
NowFooMe rated it
October 25, 2016
Status: v3c5
The prologue has this "sasuga" feel in the overlord ln but with the MC knowing what he does instead of just bluffing it. First vol was masterful, with the MC showing off his intelligence and btfo his foes. 5/5

Here comes vol 2 which while not as good is still written by someone that knows what he's doing (unlike most jap stuff that literally wings it). But then there's vol3 where everyone is acting like they're different characters. MC becoming generic isekai shitstain and it just went bad. I hope it... more>> would go back to normal by the end of vol4 or this thing is dropped like my balls <<less
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rissira
rissira rated it
September 24, 2016
Status: v3c2
This novel has some problems. Volume 1 was great! but then I read volume 2 and I was like... Wtf just happened to the main character? Like most here that did not rate this with a 5/5, including myself, is mostly due to the character degrading into a psychopath. Its just unbelievable that the MC, who was introduced as a lazy free living protagonist suddenly became an insane psycho with no remorse for the deeds that he and his partner has done. The change was too sudden, without any life... more>> threatening event, mind braking torture, or anything that would explain his decent to madness. The story is unique but shallow at best. if you are looking for smart and crazy MC then you might enjoy this. <<less
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Flufflebutter
Flufflebutter rated it
August 24, 2016
Status: v2c3
This review may be a tad disorganised.

People who like the usual OP genius MC who facerolls all his enemies will probably dislike this story. This piece is possibly the closest thing to an actual western novel in terms of character development here in novel updates, and which appeals to the majority of us who're sick of the usual translated worked.

From the way the story is going, I can guess that the MC probably won't ever be the strongest, or the smartest, nor will he bang all the girls. (I might... more>> be wrong about the last thing), and that's ok. We have an over saturation of those kinds of stories anyways. The "cheat" that he receives early on might be a good tool for harem building, but it doesn't appear to be that kind of story (thank god) as it focuses alot on relationship building.

The MC also feels like a real person. Although he has a s*upid amount of eloquence in his speech which doesn't match his background, that is what makes it so much more enjoyable. There have been quite a few who judge the characters based on first impressions from the first chapter. Please don't. The characters aren't one dimensional, and they don't follow too many tropes. You need to give the story a chance to let you explore each character. You have to ask yourself why does each character act the way they do? Instead of expecting it to be laid out on a plate for you.

Personally my favourite part so far about the story is that the antagonists aren't s*upid people with powers that are fuelled by rage all the time. (Besides the first one who was essentially cannon fodder #1). Definitely recommended to anyone experiencing light novel burnout. <<less
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