Teacher and Fran’s explosive debut into the world has them ranking for Rookies of the Year, but their reputation is drawing suspicions of corruption within the adventurers’ guild. To nip these rumors in the bud—and to dissuade opinion that he’s a pedophile—the guildmaster sends Teacher and Fran off to a dungeon to harvest some shiny rocks. But what’s supposed to be simple bitch work ends up putting them in high-level danger.
The Somewhat Improved Pace:
When Teacher and Fran started this volume by cooking their lunches, I was fearful it was going to be a repeat of the first volume, whose first 100 pages was just Teacher faffing about. Thankfully, it’s learned its lesson, but not terribly by much. A lot of the book is Teacher and Fran defeating a monster, acquiring a new skill, analyzing said new skill, and noting that they would need to practice later with said new skill. It’s so locked into its conceptualized RPG world that it doesn’t stray from anything that’s not replicated RPG gameplay.
The Uninteresting Battles:
What are supposed to be the exciting segments of the novel aren’t that exciting. Occasionally, it’ll racket up the tension with high stakes, but for the most part, battles are generalized descriptions of spells or sword swings. There’s very little concrete imagery to stand on, and there’s hardly any ricocheting reactions between Teacher and Fran and their foe, so you only have a tangential grasp on the tide of a battle.
The MLG Play:
There was one battle I did find exciting, and that was the end of the climax. It was basically the equivalent to a League of Legends newbie watch a professional player pull off the sickest plays. This contrast demonstrates the complete lack of skill Teacher and Fran possess and almost had me looking forward to see them pulling off equally sick plays down the road.
The Verdict:
After the disappointment the first volume left me with, I had no plans to return to the series, but I happened to glance the second volume sitting on my shelf and figured why the hay not. Reading it was a reminder as to why I dropped the series in the first place. It does have its memorable moments, such as the characterization of a dungeon boss, but it’s just throwing in whatever comes to mind, and whatever comes to mind is lacking in substantial detail. I didn’t think it was possible for a story to make a floating island boring, but making exciting things boring seems to be the one thing this series is good at.
CCC Yabbering 