It's at 130 now. Really great series. I'm a big fan of strategy games to life style stories, as opposed to just being RPG, and it looks like they aren't going too heavy into game breaking. An interesting reveal is that Nameless was the reason that the monster waves were not too bad for so many years. I was a little dissapointed by the conversation with Ash and the vampire king during this latest batch release. Okay, so the vampire king says he wants to die. If he's serious about that, then Ash should be using that. The question isn't if Ash can kill him, it's does Ash even know how to kill him? If the vampire truly wants to die, then he should have been wanting to tell Ash what it takes to kill him. Ash saying he definately will kill only means that Ash wants to kill. If he doesn't know that the vampire can only die after all his troops are dead, then Ash obviously can't make good on his threat. I think there could have been an interesting relationship build between the two in the lead-up for this battle. Now, Ash actually knows how to kill the Vampire, but the materials he needs are normally unavailable to him. I think it would have made a lot more sense if the vampire had collected the branch that inhibits damage reduction, rather than the dwarf. If the vampire wants to die then have him do something so that Ash can actually kill him.
Latest batch was an important milestone. One thing I look for in these death worlds is the willingness to kill off characters. This guy was sent to a world where he talked about spending lives like water, because you can't survive otherwise. However, aside from the first round, deaths have been very rare. Circumstances constantly give the protagonist exactly what he needs to barely scrape by, with little to no casulties. That's great to read, sure, but if every single impossible situation gets solved almost perfectly, then it starts to feel like a constant cop out. The setting is that the defenders die, a lot, and I expect to see that reflected to some degree. Stage 5 has meaningful deaths. The regular soldiers have died, over a hundred, heroes have died, and even one of the (former) main party members died. I like that I didn't know which main party member magic user would die. At first I assumed it would be the old woman, because that would be how it normally goes, but then when I found out the younger magic user was dying, I thought maybe it would be her. It was the old woman though. Still, I liked not being sure who, if anyone would die. Also, good show on making the whole "using power kills the magic user" work better. The caster clearly suffers constantly from the use of magic. Very annoying when we just hear the magic uses up life force, but it doesn't have any tangible impact on the person's daily life. Plus, the time limit is short. She has less than a year. Usually it's something like this person won't live past 40, but by that point the story is already over, so it doesn't matter. Making the time limit a year, when the story has to last at least 3 years, minimum, makes this a real worry. I took a quick look at the chapters. I didn't want to spoil myself, but I'm pretty confused by how few waves seem to happen during year 2. Stage 1 has has 14 stages, plus stage 0. Honestly, that doesn't feel like enough. The first 5 stages seem to have only taken 2-3 months. Even if 5 stages took 3 months, there would be time for at least 20 stages. Stage 2 goes from 15 to 23 though, not even 10 stages for a full year, and why can't the years end on a multiple of 5, since those are the big battles? Year 3 goes from 24 to 40, which makes it the most stages of any year, for some wierd reason. Actually, is 40 the final stage? I had assumed this was an ongoing series, and I think it's ongoing, but it's already year three, and that was a lot of stages. I don't want spoilers, I just don't understand the timing of the stages. My understanding is that the game is supposed to last 3 years, so it seems like it should be about over.
First time posting in this forum. Is it fine to discuss latest chapters here? With spoilers and all? I don't want to post a spoiler if it's not allowed.
Just an FYI, not sure if mods read this, but Reaper Scan is no longer hidden. Their links are dead though.
Chapters 381 to 390 came out, and I very much appreciate the direction the story went. The stage 15 goblin hoard was defeated by a last minute coilition of the various people that were partially inspired by the actions of the MC, but the losses were crushing. The Saintess was a character that was strongly built up in the earlier part of the story. I had assumed that we would be seeing her get to level 50, at least, so we could see her ultimate abilities, but now she's dead. I'm sad for this, but releved that the author is still willing to kill major characters. Moreover, his plans failed here, with the worst casulties to date, and he knew perfectly well that it was a lot of luck that turned the tide at the end. This almost failure caused him to reconsider his values and actually make the decision that they needed to be tossed away if he was going to win. His subordinates feel that if he goes down that path he will destroy himself so they are determined to stop him. The pain of everything got so bad that he ended up almost dying going through the dungeon gate and got saved by the succubus. Looks like we are getting an arc where the MC is stuck behind enemy lines for awhile. In the end, I feel like he will decide that he will need to stay true to his values, but the fact that the story has even gone to this level is astonishing. Most authors don't have the balls to give their MCs this level of introspection, and this story needs it. This is supposedly a hellgame. Yes, the MC has additional advantages, but they aren't overwhelming, and the enemy also got various bonuses as well. In an envoronment like this, it really shouldn't be enough to do the right thing and have things just always work out, without any major issues cropping up. Even for most edgy stories, it really doesn't go that far. Goblin Slayer got all this contreversy due to a bunch of no names getting gobbed at the start, but after that all the main characters manage on. Closest things got to losing was under WaterTown, but everyone came out fine, as always. This is definately the closest thing to Grimgar I've read since... Grimgar. I really appreciate it when the heroes are pushed to the limit, but still come up short.
Grimgar was definitely something else. But yeah, the MC was fantastic and the developments were unexpected
Read up to 774, anyone know what happens beyond this point? Also, any spoilers just ask me questions.
Finished ~chapter 400 and I just came here to say that the MC's character development arc was PEAK. I spent the entire morning reading and crying instead of doing work, but it was worth it. I also kinda predicted how the MC's identity would turn out, but I'm glad to see it confirmed... but RIP my new best girl.