Demon King

Description

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After dying, I woke up as a weak goblin.

To survive, I have to destroy, consume, and evolve off of other monsters.

From the ugly guy to the king who rules everything!

Associated Names
One entry per line
왕악마
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Everyone Else is a Returnee (2)
Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society (2)
Stop, Friendly Fire! (2)
A Monster Who Levels Up (2)
Re:Monster (2)
I Reincarnated For Nothing (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. completed translated korean novels with a male pro...
  2. Progression Fantasy
  3. mc goood ?
  4. Monsters | Monstros
  5. reading/read

Latest Release

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Review
34 Reviews


edvy69
edvy69
Jun 15, 2020
Status: c1
edited 27/10
still a lot of poor quality translations early on like stuff that a quick couple of google translations
would fix or come closer to being more understandable than this, don't bother saying anything
wrong on their website they won't bother fixing any more translation problems with how they
"completed" it already.
bah read upto 13 thinking oh maybe not many or bad mistakes in the translation since the above says the fixed stuff up, but how can you stuff up things like lightning and lever... and boat ?
my best suggestion now is if you want to read it, read it small amounts at a time or you WILL
want to drop it because of translation.

{{"Shihaya, let's go eat."

"Where?"

"There is a pork cutlet near the door."

I answered with agitation.

..... yeah I will wait for someone else to translate this before
reading it, since it is a toika novel it is worth the wait and its only 175 chapters.}}
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Concernedcitizen
Concernedcit
Sep 23, 2020
Status: c65
Poor translation. Its a waste of Toy Car novel.

Though it is readable and mostly understandable, there are chapters that are very much confusing. Toy Car's novels give clues and hints early chapters for a bigger view at the end, it is mostly lost in translation because of poor job.

Lack of TL notes and inconsistency of the skills and status. I like the idea of having a smooth flow of reading a chapter without TLer's reaction but this one needs it. There are a lot of words here and there that... more>> are being swapped with a synonym of the word and this is a very poor job done by the editor. I dont know if there is a translator for the whole active group, or are they using MTL but its bad. The inconsistency of the words needs to be explained why they changed it because it happens a lot and to prove this is not MTL. There are times that the author might intend to make it so, but if this is MTL, we understand. Disregard what I wrote above.

Novel has the same concept as the jp novel "Re:Monster" and his very own, "Stop! Friendly Fire".

The difference with his other novel is the seriousness that the other lacks. As of chapter 65, there has been no funny or joking moments but it is still interesting for me because of the premise. The mystery of how 2 worlds become one and his importance to the whole scenario makes me want to read more. <<less
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ErikHarrison
ErikHarrison
Feb 09, 2021
Status: Completed
Probably one of the worst Toika novels imo.

The pacing experiences rapid shifts, the harem is underdeveloped and the story is predictably Toika (not a bad thing but here it doesn't work). The leveling system is cool, until it's dropped, the fights will always be against "someone sooo much stronger than me" but he always wins, the girls are as one dimensional as you can get.

Fights aren't interesting, plot isn't, world building isn't, characters aren't. I would recommend nearly any of this other works instead (I liked VIP and EER for... more>> similar styling but done better, NDE is good standalone).

It just isn't a fun time <<less
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absenior19
absenior19
Aug 07, 2020
Status: c26
Well I have many problems with this novel and have dropped it. But I want to say something. 1st don't compare it too Re:Monster as it is not like that [ actually I wish it to be like that, but. sigh... it is not ]. Re:monster have a mature approach and angle to all the plot, like conversing with humans and other races. MC reasons and IQ.......i mean thinking, strategies.... But here MC is naive looser. Yes he is a looser and a coward.... and naive too. Like he think... more>> too good of humans and author has even written that MC is a big hypocrite clearly in many chps. But that's who MC is..... so that's it. I just didn't like the reasons for which he do things and his outlook on life and regarding the situation he is in and how he should respond, is too naive and silly and I even get frustrated...... This kind of thing never happened in Re:monster at least not until his harem started having babies and everyone started having titles because of MC [ like how strong MC or harem's husband and children's father is..... so they also get benefit and lv. up with him and so on. ]. But in here in just 26 chp.....i dropped it. Well it is not my cup of tea. Other will definitely like it but if any of my above reason is enough for you to think that story is not good then you should not read this. But if u think my reasons are not enough or u have patience to see MC whole growth [ if author decided there to be......i personally don't think there would be though. ] then u may like this novel. Well MC in this novel is : Kind to humans, hypocrite, coward, not understanding his situation, not accepting reality, positive thinking MC who thinks whole world is.... maybe kind or something, well his reasons for decisions says so at least. MC don't think about situation in a realistic manner especially with his goals, dreams, HUMANS, aspirations,....... and so. <<less
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Yobyoby18
Yobyoby18
May 14, 2020
Status: c1
this novel only has 1 chapter right now but has utterly captured me. the story takes place in modern earth... at least right now, were a while back every human on earth connected to a person on another world, and are able to speak to each other in their minds, and eventually use their abilities (such as magic). however, each pair are identical in their roll in that world. (AKA mafia boss might be connected to the leader of an assassin's guild) and the main character is connected to a... more>> farmer named fate, who dies at the same time when monsters appear on earth. and the MC finds himself as a goblin. <<less
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lotharking
lotharking
Sep 30, 2020
Status: c33
Everything is easy for the MC, it never tries for anything because the system always gives him something useful to solve everything, and when a challenge appears in some way, something really convenient makes it all too easy, the universe itself is not so interesting but it kills the fact that the MC does not even have to do a little more than the average, even a worm with so much help would kill a dragon, I was disappointed because I thought that world really improve
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HaxersDoom
HaxersDoom
Jan 19, 2021
Status: c80
It had potential, at first I was annoyed because of the poor translation and words being replaced all the time. Like strength turning into stamina and stamina turning into health and then turning back. Anyway I would rate it a 3 that I still enjoy if it was just that but:
Spoiler

later on the thing I looked forward to most, evolution, ended up being skipped over since the author seems sick of his own novel and wants to rush it to the point that he does want to write. MC picks a random evolution at his 6th evolution and doesn't tell us which of the 3 he picked and then time skips through a couple more evolutions before finally getting his final evolution from the dungeon which we do see but there is no choice in that one.

[collapse]
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MyRAMEN
MyRAMEN
Oct 28, 2020
Status: c39
I had to stop reading. The book was just a big time waster. Literally every chapter is basically the same as the next and the translation quality doesnt make it any better
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Arha
Arha
Apr 30, 2022
Status: c175
The worst Toika story I've read by a significant margin. I hesitated on whether to give it a two or a three at first, but after realizing that I had to go with two. The characters are rather flat, it's hard to understand what's going on sometimes and I'm just not invested. By the end literally the only thing I still had any interest in was whether he was going to bang his adopted sister too since she seemed to want it, but it seemed unlikely.
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promet
promet
Apr 04, 2021
Status: c141
The worst Toika novel I've read. Don't waste your time if you have other things to read.

Alright. Now to the long review.

Of Toika's novels, I've read Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society; I Reincarnated For Nothing; Stop, Friendly Fire!; and Everyone Else is a Returnee. Some of them were written earlier than Demon King, others later. Some guy (s) in the reviews claim (s) that the translator (s) didn't live up to the task, and stuff was lost in the translation, but I dunno, the translation was good at least in terms... more>> of English when I read it.

... Ah, wait. The translators did f*ck up big time in one aspect. I use a spoiler here, but you can read it safely (I only use spoiler in this case for convenience of display).

Spoiler

Basically, it was often unknown who was speaking. It was like this:

[speech] [line of narration]

[speech]

Now, the issue is that at least sometimes first speech was done by person A, line of narration described the reaction of person B, and the second speech was still made by person A. Really confusing as hell. I don't know if it was like this in the original language, but if it was, the least the translator can do is move his f*cking ass and put the speech together or something so that we know who's saying what. Unless even the translator has no clue.

[collapse]

Now, Demon King has many elements that appeared in the other four, such as low-level monster start from SFF!, dungeons (all four novels), grim reaper powers (EEIR and ICDS), beast familiar (EEIR, SFF!, IRFN), and so on. Some were executed okay, others were very meh and felt irrelevant (maybe the author was trying them out, or maybe he included them because he liked them, or maybe both).

All in all, DK feels like a skeleton (a framework) of a novel. It's like the author wrote out the novel focusing on the plot, but forgot to flesh it out and give it muscles, blood, skin, and various finishing touches. As all Toika novels, this one has a somewhat complicated plot that isn't clear from the start. This is good. We don't know everything from the start, and it's revealed gradually. I didn't read to the end (30-odd chapters left, but I don't have the will to finish for now), but the plot seems more or less solid.

The issue is making the reader care about the plot. Honestly, I didn't care from the start.

The biggest issue is characters. All characters are very shallow, and characterization is dead in this novel.

The protagonist is very shallow, and is so much inferior to the protagonists from the other four novels.
Spoiler

His former self seems to be eroded quickly, and he assumes a monster persona of sorts, but this persona is pretty boring, and before it develops into something, it turns out he seems to be a merger of two people (one from earth, one from the other world, but it feels like Toika is just teasing the readers, and he's been one and single individual from the other world from the start), with the second one being some powerful dude, but he has no memories of it. The issue is that even if he slowly regains those memories, his character growth is close to zero. There's simply no compelling reason to care about him. His motivations, for one, are very simple and I don't feel any resolve or desperation in him as he tries to fulfill his goals. It's just like he's merely randomly growing stronger because.

[collapse]

Other characters aren't any better. They are very simple, there is barely any growth to them, and the depth there is to them that should've been revealed isn't revealed, because there actually isn't any depth (unless that changes in the last 30 chapters lol). To use an analogy, the more important side characters are like those in the protagonist party in a shounen manga/anime, and yet they feel like some random side characters that only appear in one arc (they of course appear much more often, but the depth they have is no different). Additionally, I feel that some characters appeared for no real reason in the novel, and were just randomly added.

Let's take a look at the harem. I'm actually not sure if it can be called one. Read the spoilers at own discretion.

Spoiler

The only one that is close to MC and vice versa is L, but she like others is very poorly characterized. She seems to be the lover of the past version of the protagonist, but their interactions are really poorly written and it doesn't feel much like it. At most it feels like they are in a relationship that is in a slump, and they're on the verge of breaking up, which MC does not know what to do with, and the woman is trying to fix the relationship as if against her better judgment, forcing herself to do so.

As for others, they don't really deserve individual paragraphs. The second most prominent harem member is an elf, but she is both shallow as a character and has a very weak relationship with the protagonist (especially from his side). As for others, another person like L who calls herself L's sister just appeared before I stopped reading, and while it's too early for me to judge her, the first impression was pretty weak and superficial (somewhat similar to Helena (was it? the succubus) from EEIR where she had a weak first appearance and felt forced compared to other heroines). Next, there is one human girl whom MC has once spared/saved in his early days and who has barely any presence and characterization, and there is mc's sister (I somehow feel she might become part of the harem, esp since it's implied that they are not blood-related), and she is more or less similar to the elf in terms of characterization.

[collapse]

Another weak link of the novel are character interactions. They're very superficial and either short or repetitive. Not to mention that they are quite boring. Honestly, all other four novels of Toika I read surpass this one by far in that regard. It is hard for feelings to develop among characters this way, let alone show their emotional links to the point we as readers can feel them. Considering this is supposed to be a harem/romance (tags), it's a big disappointment.

Characters aside, the narration is very dull. This novel uses 1st person narration where the protagonist is the narrator, similar to, I think, all other four novels of Toika I mentioned? Anyway, because MC is dull, so is the narration. The whole writing (or translation) is also dull as hell. This is supposed to be a comedy, but I don't recall ever finding a single funny moment here (and if there was, it was written in a very dull tone, which made it lose its luster). There were some jokes in conversations, but that's it. Not sure if it's the author forcing himself or the translation failing to reflect the author's efforts.

Speaking of narration and writing, the combat in the novel was also quite disappointing. The skills were very vague (some of them were supposed to be vague at first, but they stayed that way even after being explained), and their description during use (in battle or not) were often very shallow, making it difficult to picture what was going on. Fights were generally very dull, often skipping much of the action or only describing results (such as: MC fights X opponents, then he attacks, and they die, and he gets exp). Many fights are completely skipped, and we're only told about the result. This does make sense somewhat since numbers were in thousands at times, but Toika shouldn't have done it if that was to be the result. Comparing to this novel, EEIR which I think was written by Toika in the same year (this site lists both as written in 2016) is so much better in this regard, making fights interesting and lively even despite the great numbers and grinding. Coupling with lacking descriptions, they really don't get you excited in this novel.

Overall, this doesn't feel like a Toika novel. It feels more like a ghostwriter's work (at best, if not a copycat's!), and this ghostwriter was sleep-deprived the whole time, and only superficially stuck to the guidelines Toika has written for him/her. I would've liked to finish the novel and only then score it, but I really can't seem to read on. I don't know when I've started to force myself to read on, but it was long before chapter 100. Perhaps this is also why Toika has made it his shortest novel I know of.

Even many Chinese webnovels are better than this, and yes, I mean the cultivation ones, which says a lot. <<less
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unclebebby
unclebebby
Jan 04, 2021
Status: c135
So Demon King has certain elements that Toy Car fans will recognize: weak MC growing OP. RPG element where Skills are being condensed due to OP.

There are certain things that Toy Car has improved on, for example - fights. It used to be that Toy Car's novels are plagued with "and then <insert MC name> summoned his strength and <insert enemy name> was shocked at how quickly they are being destroyed." That still happens, but it feels like Toy Car is putting in the effort of making it look like... more>> the MC is having a harder (comparatively) time.

There is one major element missing from a story written by Toy Car that I don't see: lightheartedness. Demon King starts in a pretty grim world and it stays there. In the previous stories like Everyone Else is a Returnee, Infinite Competitive Dungeon, Stop Friendly Fire, or I Returned for Nothing there's always an element of lightheartedness and fun which I just don't feel from Demon King. Maybe it's the pandemic times influencing my mood...

Also... active attempt at avoiding a harem? That's a first. Our boy is trying!

Anyway, this series is short and moves at a fast clip, give it a read if you have nothing better to do.

Word of warning: the first 20 or so chapters are plagued by bad translation or grammar. I think it was in chapter 13 or 14 where the MC talked about boats... except I think they may be talking about mana? I don't know. <<less
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gottesurteil
gottesurteil
Nov 04, 2020
Status: c100
So just going to throw this out there: this is one of Toika's earliest works, and I'm seeing some people talk about how he's 'gone downhill'. No, this is before he started going uphill lol.

Personally, I'm very disappointed by this novel. It's good, I guess. Were it any other author, I might give it a 5. 4.5/5 really, but depending on how generous I was feeling, I might round up. Except. This is Toika. But it's not? Like seriously, LitRPG style aside, I basically can't tell that Toika wrote this.... more>> So yes. I gave this a 4, and I feel that's generous, but that's mostly because I feel an incredible sense of disappointment due to my own expectations lol

The worst part is that I actually adore ICDS, which was prior to this, and definitely had that 'Toika flare'. I can sense almost none of it from this novel. The MC is completely unlike literally every other Toika MC. There is no humor. There's an intense overly-useless sense of mystery that pervades everything. I'm not sure that mystery is a tag here, but it damn well should be on this novel. And when faced with the prospect of getting answers, the MC just kinda shrugs. He may or may not be reincarnated (err, even before he reincarnated into a Goblin). He may or may not have had his past messed with. People may or may not be mistaking him for someone else, or maybe he just has amnesia. Worst part is that the MC is apparently apathetic about finding answers, though he supposedly really wants to. The entire novel is a confusing mess. I think Toika tried to go for an ephemeral feel, like perhaps he wanted to be thought-provoking, or solemn or something.

It doesn't work. It's a mess.

So to contrast all that though, the novel DOES do many aspects well. As I said, if it wasn't Toika, I'd probably appreciate this a lot more, but instead it feels like a betrayal. This is nothing like literally every other one of his works. They were all FUN. Don't get me wrong, they all (hmmm, except for EER?) had moments of seriousness, and Bad Things could still happen, but on the whole, each and every one of Toika's novels are really fun to read. That aspect may differ in form from novel to novel, like with parody and humor with EER, to absurdity and humor with his hero reincarnation one, or even with it's classic fantasy with ICDS. I don't think there's a single bit of humor in this series in the 100 chapters I've read. If you turn your head sideways and squint, you might see some aspects of Toika novels, but I think that's just me having seen the tags and seeing 'polygamy' and expecting a harem (so now I'm eyeing every female as a potential harem member).

So yeah, the novel is weird. I can't really say I'm having fun reading it, despite how good it is, and coming from a Toika novel, that might as well be a sin.

TL;DR: Good story, but totally unlike Toika. You have to leave all expectations at the door, and you might enjoy it. <<less
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fewer
fewer
Sep 30, 2020
Status: c60
It's an alright novel, the translation is a bit rough at the start but it definitely gets better. As someone else said, it definitely lacks tension but that's not all.

My main issue with this novel is the mc's personality. The authour tries to portray him as a brutal antihero protaganist, but at the same time (and this is an issue with many other novels too) his human morals still remain. It feels strange having our MC turn into a monster but still hesitate to kill/consume humans especially when there are... more>> clear advantages to doing so. Other readers may enjoy this but I personally find it annoying seeing the same "main character who looks evil but is actually a good guy" in every novel I pick up.

Aside from this, the characters in this seem suffer from the same arrogant young master personality present in many chinese cultivation novels. This removes any nuance from the story since any enemies our MC encounters are either brainless monsters or brainless idiots who get cut down after trying to kill him for his loot. There are no moral dillemas present since everyone he kills clearly deserve it.

Overall this novel is a fun read, but don't go into it expecting anything more than a time killer. <<less
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doodle0211
doodle0211
Sep 19, 2020
Status: c30
Although the translator said that they have edited 90 percent of chapters, the quality is still not really good.

The story is also kinda meh for me. The main protagonist is a bit naive, optimistic, and pessimistic at same time, because most likely the author wasn't really sure how to set the character's personality and it changes depending on the situation to serve the plot.

Furthermore, some of the irrational actions of the protagonist are explained to be the best decisions possible and produce good results. Because of that, the story lacks... more>> a lot of tension even though it desperately wants to make the situation seem dire; the protagonist just seems to level up at the right time, get the appropriate item at the right time, make a blind decision that is perfect at the right time, etc.

Honestly, due to how much plot armor the main character has, it's not very exciting reading his slow climb of leveling up and you get sick of his constant reminder that he is in so much danger. It's not convincing. <<less
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darkangeljack1
darkangeljac
Feb 09, 2023
Status: --
All low rated review are basically ppl who stopped reading after around 30th chapter where it was still kinda slow.
is the novel perfect? Heck no.
is it fun and nejoyable read. Yes it is. And finishing it is quite rewarding.
as any web novel it has its up and downs. Some things get repetative. Not all character are likable. And I know for some people harem is a let down, but thats just Toika being Toika.
should your read it. Absolutely! All toika writings are at the same style, but also as much they are predictable, they are also unpredictable.
its true that characters are bland tho. But most people are acting like critics while their read list contains something like Peerles martial god, where every vilian is like the previous. Just read the god damn novel instead of reading the comments and you will find if you enjoy it for yourself
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Valixiant
Valixiant
Nov 05, 2021
Status: c27
I'm not even going to try to give a normal review here, I can't rate the plot, characters, main character, etc because the translation is so bad. Everything comes off as stiff and confusing. Basic proofreading would fix 90% of the mistakes in the novel, yet for some reason it was never done.

Skill names change every chapter. Stats change every chapter. Fights turn very mediocre, and I feel like theres no tension because of it. No matter how many times you say the main character gets a injury, I can't... more>> feel any tension due to how easy it is for him to heal. Every time he gets a "major" injury (novel just says he feels a lot of pain, doesn't expand on this) he heals due to his skills or a convenient level up.

Plot is repetitive as hell. It's just the same thing with different names. They put a fresh coat of paint on enemy, call it new, say it's dangerous, main character will effortlessly overcome said danger, repeat.
Spoiler

For example, the first boss fight against the goblin king had absolutely zero tension. He got a ring from the shopkeeper that allowed him to reflect the goblin king's most powerful attack, his ebony heart defended him from a mind control attack, and any other attacks do virtually nothing against the main character. The whole fight was a waste of time.

[collapse]

The main character's thoughts are all over the place. Does he want to become dead set of becoming stronger? Does he want to save humanity? Who f*cking knows. He says he doesn't care about killing humans but he literally saves one because it's a "matter of pride". Furthermore, combined with the awful translation, whenever he has thoughts about humanity or emotions in general, it just seems chaotic. Nothing is remotely orderly, and I struggle to understand what was written.

Overall, poor novel, maybe it's better but I can't stand this translation. <<less
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strangeirdo
strangeirdo
Aug 09, 2021
Status: c30
I like the concept, I like the story. I think I would've liked the writing. I say I would've, because I can see the remnants of what Toika wanted to depict, but the translations are so shoddy that I can't actually see it.

I can't believe Active Translations have the audacity to say that they fixed the earlier chapters when it is still filled with tons of typos. Simple stuff like spelling mistakes and, like another review mentioned, they just randomly switch out skill names and stuff with synonyms. After seeing... more>> some of the reviews, I now know that this is the 'better' state...

The thing is, this is a novel. Just doing basic translating does not do it justice. It reads like a 7th grader wrote the story. Any semblance of a deeper meaning is replaced with a face value translation. Literally just enough to get the idea of the meaning across. For example, the past couple chapters have ended with "I will enjoy this food" which I assume is a translation of "잘먹겠습니다" which is a term used before eating, somewhat similar to itadakimasu in Japanese. You would NEVER get that connection unless you knew some korean like I do. <<less
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n0panze
n0panze
Feb 21, 2021
Status: --
What a waste, it could've been pretty damn enjoyable if not for the absolute mess that was the translation. The story itself is like that of any Toika novel, actions scenes are alright (would've been better if the translator actually put in effort), romance is practically non existent, the little amount that remains is just artificial and doesn't feel genuine.

As it currently stands, this book desperately needs either an entire redo from the translation team or get an editor to polish up the chapters, but as it is, I would... more>> not recommend this book to any reader, even if you're new to the world of light novels and haven't experience all of the tropes of said genre. <<less
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Yoburi
Yoburi
Oct 25, 2020
Status: --
A excelent novel to kill time if you like Kumo desu ga or Re: Moster. We got a nice dungeon system and items plus after every boss battle autor puts a nice plot happeing so you don't get bored.

So until 85 chapters half of this novel you will have a blast, the problem starts on the other half so people will love the twist others will hate its classic Korean plot twist like in that movie Parasite or even better the plot twist of reincarnator. Well I dislike the twist... more>> and pretty much stop at chapter 100 end of volume 4.

I recomend giving a try part 1 everybody will love and the part 2 is trying to be cleaver but I think it destroys the charm that made part 1 so good. <<less
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Valtize
Valtize
Oct 24, 2020
Status: c85
Its a great novel. The translation quality is really nice and I love the progression of the MC thorughout the journey. The only thing I dislike is that the entire thing is mostly situated inside the dungeon. Atleast by chapter 80 the setting hasn't gone back to Earth with the humans, and has been mostly the MC fighting in the dungeon or other dungeon-like places. The only interaction with humans is when they come in the dungeon itself.

I was hoping to see development on the outside, perhaps not the MC... more>> himself, but just get a viewpoint from characters outside the dungeon as well to make it more interesting.

Regardless, I gotta say the translation quality is pretty good and the speed of release is phenominal. Hat's off to the translaters. <<less
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