Update from v5 to v9: lowering the rating from 3.5 to 3

Rating: 3, Translation: 5

[Rating/Translation scale: 5 = almost all readers may enjoy / infrequent minor errors. 4 = large majority of readers may enjoy / frequent minor errors or infrequent major errors, no difficulty to read. 3 = 50% of readers may enjoy / frequent major errors, unable to understand some sentences or a paragraph in a chapter. 2 = niche audience may enjoy / unable to understand moderate portion of a chapter. 1 = portion of niche audience... more>> may enjoy / unable to understand most of a chapter.]

A 14-y.o. Orphan farm-boy in a fantasy world goes to the dungeon city to become an adventurer. In this world, adventurers receive game-like levels, stats, and abilities through tattoos given by patron gods who have descended from another dimension. The MC starts off with no experience, being the sole member of a new goddess's guild, with the goal of becoming a hero with a harem.

Positives: Feels like a full-fledged novel series: full scenes and full storyline. Interesting mechanics on how adventuring works. MC starts off at zero, and has to overcome challenges each time he wants to advance to the next level. There seems to be a surprise in the backstory to the MC, but the author takes a very long time to reveal occasional hints.

Major Negatives: Some readers may dislike the MC. He has a cheat ability to level up dozens of times faster than anyone else. Almost every girl falls for him (usually for no reason), while he is totally oblivious and awkward around girls. He is extremely naive or impulsive. He is always stammering with exaggerated body language. His personality does not change, he does not get any less naive or oblivious even after 9 volumes.

The story's setting is bizarre and very depressing. The story seems to target teens, but the setting is more about personal violence, rather than typical adventuring/fantasy violence. The dungeon city is lawless. People murder, assault, kidnap/rape each other, sometimes on orders of their gods, often with no consequence. Adventurers are like slaves to their gods; they can only leave their guild with permission or run away. Many of the story arcs surround these types of violence, yet the MC never gets any more street smart. Although MC gains levels/income/harem, the world never improves and stays depressing/lawless.

There are s*x slaves and implied rape, but for some reason the author keeps calling the victims prostitutes. I don't know if this is some kind of cultural thing, like the Japan WWII "comfort women" issue.

Minor negatives: The story's scope is small. The setting is limited to the dungeon city, and the dungeon below the city. There's no romance, just scenes of MC being embarrassed, and the girls being shy or jealous of each other. Fighting scenes have annoying yelling or animal sounds in every page, or these overused sentences that are just exclamation marks. There are long explanations that I start skimming over.

Overall: Fair fantasy story about adventurers/dungeon diving. There are some major and minor issues, but they become more and more obvious when reading past volume 5 (which is where the anime stops). Personally, I eventually got tired of the MC and the story, but I think at least half of fantasy readers would disagree with me.

Other info: The anime goes through volumes 1 through 5. There are currently 11 volumes. Yen Press has translated 9 volumes, and you may need to read those as the fan translations are legally not available. <<less