“Now, go!”
With those words, Bell’s perception of time and space narrowed to a very thin line.
His heart beat in his ears. His feet were enveloped in heat. But his head was clearer than it had ever been.
Bell Cranell is just a village boy. Correction: He was just a village boy. Now he lives in Orario with the goddess Hestia and spend every day as an adventurer killing monsters in the dungeon to provide for the Hestia Familia, a dirt poor Familia with only one member: Bell himself. He’s weak and has no one to party up with, so he can only fight those easy monsters at the lower level floors. But one day a Minotaur find its way up to the low-level floor Bell is on and finds Bell. Certain he’s going to die, Bell can’t do anything. That’s when he meets – no – is saved by Aiz Wallenstein from the Loki Familia, one of the strongest adventurers. He is instantly infatuated by her and now he wants to be strong, just like her.
Imagine you live, and always have, in an RPG. You grew up where people could be adventurers and there are several races. There is one dungeon for adventurers to fight demons and to become one you needs the blessing of a god or goddess. Lamps are from some kind of magic stones from monsters and both the dungeon and the monsters are mysterious. You’ll put your life on the line to fight monsters on different levels in the dungeon everyday to earn money for you god or goddess.
That’s life for Bell, a 14 years old orphan. He came to Orario to become an adventurer when his grandfather died and Hestia was the goddess to pick him up after stalking him while he went from Familia to Familia to join. Bell has no real training as an adventurer (or anything else) and his really nothing special. Actually, he’s just a week newbie. Until he meets Aiz and he gets determined to fight to be stronger. That’s when he starts getting stronger at an alarming speed.
I expected a “I’m picking up girls in the dungeon” kind of story, but the title is more of a question Bell actually has, rather than questioning something he does. He doesn’t in fact pick up anyone in the dungeon. In fact, he’s so weak he’s laughed at when a person in the Loki Familia tells the story about how Aiz killed a stray Minotaur on the lower fifth floor, saving him.
The story is about Bell’s struggles to become a great adventurer, a bunch of girls loving him and his love for Aiz. There are, naturally, scenes where you know it has this harem idea behind it, but there is nothing erotic in it. At most Hestia sleeping on his chest or sitting on his behind writing hieroglyphs are the most erotic things that I can think of. Bell running into a girls bath? Not happening.
The illustrations are very simple in style and sometimes not entirely accurate to what my mental image is. I don’t really think they’re bad nor good, really. But I’m not familiar with Suzuhito Yasuda’s illustrations to begin with.
It’s a fun and good adventure novel and at the time of writing I can’t wait to read the second part that isn’t released yet. Well, by the time this post is up, it’s been out for a while and I’ve probably talked about the book on Twitter already. I’m glad it’s not full of soft porn and really think this series has potential to be great.
BUT! If you, like me, have problems with mythological gods/characters being messed up, I don’t recommend it. The Greek god Hephaistos is originally male and he was made female. D: Because Loki is probably that one god you could do anything with (when it comes to his sex or even species), I’m not so angry about the female-Loki, but… OMG WHY DID FUJINO OOMORI MAKE HEPHAISTOS FEMALE? I mean, except for boobs? At least keep him male and make him a bishounen.
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