- #1
4/5. It's Guts from Berserk in the world of Goblin Slayer, but with more interesting characters, particularly the priestess. If that sounds remotely appealing to you, then definitely give it a shot because this one stands out from other similar light novels. It almost reads more like a western pulp with each volume being a self-contained incident at a relatively snappy pace and many of their problems have to be solved with a bit of wit and elbow grease rather than special powers.Why not 5/5? The first volume is too derivative. I'm not generous enough to call it a homage to Goblin Slayer. Even if you don't mind that, it's my belief that this has caused a major problem with this work. It took me 3 volumes to figure this out, but I think the author thinks he's writing a comedy. It would make sense to do this so you can handwave charges of plagiarism, but it's causing a real problem with the tone. Spoiler
In one scene there's a life and death struggle with a slime using the corpse of a girl adventure that it has eaten the insides out of, which is genuinely horrifying. In a slightly later scene a girl adventurer has been caught by slimes and is slowly being eaten alive, but is rescued. However her clothes come off in the process and the main character gets stuff thrown at him by the female lead as if this were a cliche ecchi harem, despite the refreshing fact that they aren't really romantically involved. *Confused John Travolta*
[collapse] The humor can just be really off-putting and it's often right in the middle of the action. It's hard to take seriously and I guess we're not supposed to???To be fair, this is why it's called The STRANGE Adventure of a Broke Mercenary, it's just that it'd be better as The Adventure of a Broke Mercenary.