The beginning of this book involves our protagonist’s attempt to get crafting materials from a nearby hobgoblin city. This requires the usual MMORPG series of chained quests, which work out about as you might expect. These are done pretty well, with decent underlying logic and an interesting set of complications.
In the ending, the conflict between our hero and his nemesis comes to a head. Here the writing becomes more chaotic, with an ending that seems as if it might end the series. But looking at the available books, it’s clear that the series continues.
The character development for the protagonist is interesting; he is clearly suffering from psychological problems caused by his prolonged immersion in a full sensory simulation. The supporting characters are drawn (intentionally) as rather too artificial, which limits their ability to show progression. And the villains are evil caricatures rather than sensible anagonists.
The world is interesting enough, but doesn’t much change in this volume from that shown in the previous volume.
The first part of the book is rather well-done LitRPG, but in the ending, it feels like Kuznits was getting tired of writing the story he had begun. The result is a less satisfying story than I would have hoped. Because of the way it ended, I think I’ll read the next volume, since this was clearly a transitional book, but it won’t be a priority.