- #1
The story does have some potential, but the further I get into it the more of a letdown it becomes. The story isn't bad per se but theres nothing that really makes me care about the characters or get invested. (Although part of this might be due to reading machine translation) Its system of each person having a grade from legendary to common with levels is somewhat unique. The issue I have with this system is that the author set it up as a restraint for the protagonist, in a world where attribute means everything he got the lowest grade, but they ruined this. Rather than focusing on how he can overcome the differences between grades or anything like that the story is hinting that the spearman attribute is actually special for various reasons. I never get why authors do this type of thing, create some situation that makes the protagonist have a weaker ability but then decide to say f*ck it, their "weaker ability" has special powers that makes them strong.Another possible issue with the novel, and this one is iffy since MTL makes the nuances of relationships complicated, but its starting to go down a shitty harem route. Just to clarify, a shitty harem route is different than a good harem route, although most harems become shitty harems. The issue with creating a harem is that for every member you add it takes up space in the story, this is why generally the best romance/action novels don't have harems. To specify for this novel you first get the wind sword girl as the first heroine, someone who got interested in him and has a somewhat unique personality. Then you have the teacher who was his favorite character in the novel. In this situation I wouldn't say its negative even if its harem because the author can actually develop their personalities and relationship with the protag without interfering with the progression of the plot, but rather than focusing on a few unique heroines that improve world building and character relationships the story is becoming closer to the shitty harem type where someone is introduced and have enough to be classified as a harem member while also then being disposed of for 90% of chapters. Anyway, to summarize the author is starting to develop love interests in a way that will most likely destroy relationships. I would actually try to make a coherent explanation about why harems normally end up ruining a book (because its difficult to write in a way that makes it good, not because of bias against harems) but I'm sleep deprived so I can't make something coherent.Another major issue with the story, that could be due to translation, not sure, is the main characters personality is kind of wishy washy. The author had some good progress towards developing a good MC with things like them knowing that they are weak but then being hurt when it actually happens, its not realistic but his way of training to overcome it is also not bad. The idea of an unbreakable will MC isn't bad but the issue is just how shaky his will is. He is able to get essentially tortured (Beaten to a pump to the point where enhanced healing and potions can't heal him) for hours just to break his heart and accept reality but the next day he doesn't want to be a loner and tries to make friends with a girl, goes to a cafe and orders unhealthy foods, then proceeds to have a line about how if she is kind of his type and she might be into him. This entire part does not feel anywhere close to the iron will MC, usually this type of MC is strong because they are training themselves to the limit, so the idea of them having time for anything other than training just shows that they aren't truly trying that hard. Effort is something hard to do, thats why a MC who spends all their time putting in effort to get stronger creates a good story, but when that MC uses "effort" but spends time socializing, thinking of picking up girls, eating foods that they know are negative for the body and might impact their strength, ect. It just lowers the quality of the character. The "effort" mc's are essentially people that are abnormal, they are special because they put in effort to an insane degree, they train until they hit the literal limit, but this MC while trying to play off as an effort MC just doesn't fully commit causing discrepancies in his character.Anyway, overall the novel isn't bad probably, MTL makes it a lot lot worse making it hard to judge quality when you only get the vague idea of a paragraph and are half guessing since what it actually says doesn't make sense in context, but there are a lot of things in this novel that I personally think just lowers the quality and makes it feel like the author doesn't have their priorities right and that they are just mixing different elements together which ends up causing minor issues that I'm nitpicky enough to not like the story for.
