4 stars. Started very strong, but losing steam.
This novel has an interesting twist on the iseaki trope.
(Note: I hear it was actually written before The Primal Hunter and Defiance of the Fall, so it’s one of the OG’s of the genre.)
A new system comes to Earth and our hero, Randidly, is accidentally dropped into a high-level dungeon that is way above his starter level. He comes near death several times, and has to learn how to sneak around to gather food and survive. He establishes a safe room, and trains his levels inside there to get strong.
Upon leaving said dungeon, he realizes that many months have passed inside the dungeon while only a few hours have passed on Earth, and he’s now one of the strongest people on Earth because he had those months head start being put to a difficult test.
The story goes on from there. He, of course, begins killing the easy monsters on Earth and helping various survivors form a town.
Things I like about this series:
- An interesting scenario where the world goes back to basics – cabin in the woods
- An interesting scenario where the MC gets several months head start over others – overpowered
- Despite being OP, the MC does not win every fight easily; sometimes nearly dies
- Other characters with complex and unknown motivations
Things that could be improved:
- Main character feels the need to protect a bunch of strangers, many of whom are not nice to him
- Main character is almost uninterested in everyone else but himself, contradicting the above
- MC motivation seems to be to “find his friends” but he does very very little to find his friends; at least the character acknowledges near the end that he’s no longer interested in finding his friends
- Main character gives obviously bad people second chances
- Author teases romantic elements but none of it adds to anything
- Maybe too much time spent city building
- Maybe too much time spent on characters that don’t progress the story
I just don’t understand how someone can be so “apart” from the newbie city, and yet so invested in protecting it and helping the residents grow in power. Either it’s yours and you care, or you’re part of it and you care, or you don’t care. There’s no option of not being part of it and caring. I don’t get that.
It’s a decent book overall. I do wish I could find out how the story ends for some of these characters, but I probably won’t read book 2 to find out.
