Webnovel Author: NitrogenousBeing - Novel Collection

Yeah, only a couple of chapters later I’m feeling addicted to the story again.

So far the story has been a delightful read. I enjoyed Leo's predicament immensely. When there's drama from misunderstandings and acting, the story shines. The writing quality is passable. The grammar can be a bit spotty, but read aloud, it sounds okay. The chapters I'm reading now are the slow part of the novel as it's the training stage. Other novels, would cover this with more time skips. It's still a decent read here but the energy is slightly fizzling. However, I can see how the increased skill of the characters from this training arc will likely amplify the future shenanigans I'm so looking forward to.

Up to now, it’s a fun, relaxed-paced, military academy training novel. It’s a pretty relaxing read, but there may be a lot more combat when the MC grows up a bit more. The MC doesn’t keep too many secrets compared to a lot of novels. And why would he when he is surrounded by feel-good helpful characters and not so many direct antagonists? He has a lot of good luck and is unique in his class. Recorded history was lost sometime in the past and the country is rediscovering a lot of its magic including his. Writing quality is good.

Warning: Don't read this if criticism offends you easily. I’m not trying to offend, but I will be honest and blunt with my opinion of the story so far. I expected more from the top of the collections rank. The story is dull confusing and feels like a lot of filler for no payoff. Yes, it’s early in the story, but I only enjoyed about 3 of the 48 chapters. The growth of MC’s stats is like watching paint dry because it doesn’t feel like any effort, and it drags on without enough explanation and description. Everything is madness this madness that blank here blank there. It’s supposed to evoke mystery, but it is confusing and feels like unnecessary BS. I couldn’t develop a stake in the character. He’s not developed enough, and what’s there doesn't blend well enough. I kept thinking the teased city building would be better, but at this point, I don’t know. Lastly, there’s some unengaging element in the writing style itself. Sorry, I don’t have time right now to analyze it to clarify specifically what it is. Here is the positive side: The author has a larger plan and a proven track record of commitment with regular releases. There are also signs of high effort. The story needs just needs to get there. Maybe also a better starting point.

No, you don’t get it. The title came true. The MC succeeded.

Yeah I feel like it’s conflicted between trying to get somewhere fast and giving the whole story. Perhaps I’ll enjoy it more when I get there. Thanks for the signpost.

I was expecting more. The story isn't progressing in an exciting direction so far. The MC has too few challenging obsticles in his path for the theme. The drive behind the main character is very tacky. I find the MC’s interactions with the main antagonists to be immature and cringeworthy(maybe it should be like that if he's an inexperienced kid, but I don't like the time-hardened system acting like that). The intrinsic logic behind the narration is often immature. There is a lot of rushing through infodump after infodump, which leaves events and characters of the story feeling trivial and impersonal. In many scenes, the writing style lacks sufficient description and immersiveness. Don't get it wrong, it’s not a terrible read, just not great. To sum it up, it's readable and feels original, but it could and should be so much better.

The story is great! (despite my dislike of shadow power MCs and the novel’s title). However, it's a bit too slow and padded sometimes. Its slow burn resulted in it taking me a while to get into. Some things I’ve been anticipating take forever to happen. The story is a good mix of predictable and surprising. It does mystery world-building and most aspects of the main characters very well. There are a couple of small flaws in the plot and some lopsidedness to the cast of characters, but overall worth reading and enjoyable all the way through at about 1.5x speed.