*Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?* takes place in the city of Orario in a fictional world where gods and goddesses of myths are very much real, though perhaps slightly different from hoe we would recognize them in the actual myths. On top of this, many of the concepts common to RPGs is essentially an integral part of life for the economy, culture, so forth of the city.
As the story opens, our young hero, Bell Cranell, is fleeing for his life from a massive Minotaur. With only a few weeks on the job as an "adventurer", he is a tad behind where he ought to be so far. He certainly is not prepared to face a Minotaur (or anything else, for that matter) that is from a dungeon far lower than where he is adventuring currently.
However, Bell's whole life is about to change when he is saved by the beautiful, and perhaps one of the most talented adventurers alive, Aiz Wallenstein. Feeling overwhelmed and terrified, Bell flees without thanking her. Still this does lead to an interesting development, in that Bell is very much smitten with Aiz, and so dedicates himself to rising as fast as he can so he can be at her level, and thus be worthy of her.
Of course, none of this sits well with his goddess sponsor, and head of their tiny (at only the two of them) *familia*, Hestia. In this setting, a *familia* is a group run by a god or goddess. You see, many years ago in the story, the gods and goddesses grew bored and decided that they wished to come down and live among the "children" as they call the mortals. Be they human, demi-human, animal person, or other creatures, all of these mortals had lives that fascinated the deities. Hence they came down to the lower world and made a pact to not use a their powers other than to bless those who associate with them and form *familia* with them. True to the name, the *familia* are very much like informal families that stick together through thick and thin to serve their patron god or goddessgoddess and each other.
Anyways, Hestia has a huge crush on Bell. In fact, she might even be in love with him. Of course Bell is completely ignorant of this fact, and for good reason. It isn't stated whether this is true or not, but I get the feeling that the gods and humans being together is not common in this fictional world. Hence, the reason for Bell not knowing of Hestia's feelings for him.
Add to all of this, his incredible naivete and early weakness, and he doesn't seem to be the most promising prospect for an adventurer. But Bell has a secret ability, that only Hestia knows about. Even Bell doesn't know he has this talent. It's called the Realis Phase. Essentially, the more he determined he becomes to succeed, the stronger he'll get. And rapidly, for that matter.
So essentially, he has being the "Determinator" as an actual power. This is the charm of the story. Or at least, part of the charm. Bell is relatable, in a very real way. He's not an instant expert at anything. True he has a super power of rising unnaturally fast, but the story of hard work really is a good moral and presents a charactrer you can root for.
In fact, it seems his naïveté, niceness, hard work, so on, are seen as impressive in-story as well. His woobieness is something that makes others want to protect him.
Now, he isn't completely pure, though. As the title suggests, part of Bell's desire to become an adventurer patrolling Dungeons is to rescue beautiful girls and start a harem. I kid you not. It starts out like a cleaner version of *High School DxD*, and then rapidly switches direction.
The other impressive part of the tale was how the author took various RPG elements and made them into a workable and remarkably believable part of the fictional world. Anyone likes RPGs, or certain Japanese media dranchises like *Log Horizon*, *Sword Art Online*, so on, will really like this story.
The characters are funny and really draw you in as well. You find yourself cheering for Bell and Hestia, and hoping that Eina, Bell's half-elf advisor, and Aiz pay attention to him. Also, seeing how much Belle and Hestia sacrifice for each other is really cool.
One of the pics in the front gallery might make you think this isn't your type of story. But don't worry, it is more about one goddess being a bully and not about some weird story. Just a warning so folks don't get the wrong idea, and refrain from reading a good fun book.
I can't wait until volume 2 is released at the end of April so I can continue the adventures of *familia* Hestia.
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![Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 1 (light novel) by [Fujino Omori, Suzuhito Yasuda]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ncmkBnxmL._SY346_.jpg)
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The story of Bell Cranel and his quest to go into the dungeon, defeat monsters, and, of course, pick up girls. The series is great, and after watching the Anime a few years back, I noticed it was still popular as so many of the r/LightNovel subscribers on Reddit have several volumes in their posts of light novel collections. I'm working on building mine! LOLThe story had me on the edge of my seat as it covered, IIRC the first, and maybe second, episode of the anime series. Still, getting into the minds of the characters is a big help.The only problem I found in my copy is that, after 6 years of publishing the English Translation, Yen Press has yet to correct several spelling/grammatical errors in the book. A good example was on page 102, on the fourth line: "Invitations to the Celebration had been disturbed by the host's Familia." Disturbed? I believe the correct word here is Distributed. This isn't the only error that slipped past the proofreader, but it, AHEM, Disturbed me enough that I remembered this particular line, having reread it several times to make sure I understood it. Fortunately, I only found less than a handful of these errors, but it can ruin a good reading rhythm as you go back to try to make sense of the previous line.
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 12, 2015
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 18, 2015
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 22, 2020
The story of Bell Cranel and his quest to go into the dungeon, defeat monsters, and, of course, pick up girls. The series is great, and after watching the Anime a few years back, I noticed it was still popular as so many of the r/LightNovel subscribers on Reddit have several volumes in their posts of light novel collections. I'm working on building mine! LOL
The story had me on the edge of my seat as it covered, IIRC the first, and maybe second, episode of the anime series. Still, getting into the minds of the characters is a big help.
The only problem I found in my copy is that, after 6 years of publishing the English Translation, Yen Press has yet to correct several spelling/grammatical errors in the book. A good example was on page 102, on the fourth line: "Invitations to the Celebration had been disturbed by the host's Familia." Disturbed? I believe the correct word here is Distributed. This isn't the only error that slipped past the proofreader, but it, AHEM, Disturbed me enough that I remembered this particular line, having reread it several times to make sure I understood it. Fortunately, I only found less than a handful of these errors, but it can ruin a good reading rhythm as you go back to try to make sense of the previous line.
The story had me on the edge of my seat as it covered, IIRC the first, and maybe second, episode of the anime series. Still, getting into the minds of the characters is a big help.
The only problem I found in my copy is that, after 6 years of publishing the English Translation, Yen Press has yet to correct several spelling/grammatical errors in the book. A good example was on page 102, on the fourth line: "Invitations to the Celebration had been disturbed by the host's Familia." Disturbed? I believe the correct word here is Distributed. This isn't the only error that slipped past the proofreader, but it, AHEM, Disturbed me enough that I remembered this particular line, having reread it several times to make sure I understood it. Fortunately, I only found less than a handful of these errors, but it can ruin a good reading rhythm as you go back to try to make sense of the previous line.
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Lucas Santa Cruz
Ótima qualidade.
Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on January 25, 2023
Lucas Santa Cruz
Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on January 25, 2023
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