Last time on Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, there was a murder, and Lyu seems to be the culprit! A witness testifies that she fled down to the 27th floor, so the group from the last volume, along with some people from Rivira, join up and head down. Again. However, Cassandra has another premonition, and it’s the usual “everyone is going to die” premonition. And like with all of those premonitions, everyone completely ignores it, except for the person who had it to begin with. Turns out that Lyu once slaughtered a Familia that attacked her old one, and she caught wind (no pun intended) of one of the survivors. Bell manages to find her attacking a dwarf named Turk, while the rest of the group finds the aforementioned survivor, named Jura. Bell chases Lyu, who went after Jura, and figures out that everything has been a setup by Turk and Jura to frame Lyu for the murder. After fighting two snakes summoned from floor 37, Turk and Jura set off a chain reaction of explosions that literally makes the Dungeon itself scream in pain, causing it to birth the Juggernaut, a powerful monster that’s meant to defend the Dungeon if it takes too much damage. This monster was summoned in the same manner to destroy Lyu’s familia in the past, and now here it is! With some nakama power by his side, Bell manages to put a big dent in it, but Jura uses his monster taming items to try to control the beast. It fails, but the already-tamed serpent hears his final order and attacks Bell and Lyu. They survive, but end up… in the deep levels of the Dungeon. It’s time to play some Dark Souls.
For me, this volume is definitely a step-up from last time, that’s for sure. Within about five seconds, a massive Floor Boss appears on the twenty-fifth floor, and our supporting protagonists have to fight it without Bell. This is probably one of my favorite fights in the series now, simply because of the ridiculous amount of close calls there are. Even if they manage to beat it, they still have to deal with the other mobs in the area.
Bell and Lyu aren’t doing much better. Although they are technically within the recommended level, they are absolutely exhausted and wounded after their battle with Juggernaut, which happens to still be alive and hunting them. If that wasn’t enough, the thirty-seventh floor is massive, and there are also the regular mobs to deal with.
Seriously, this is probably the most critical condition that Bell has been in yet. Usually, whenever he’s fought a tough boss, he gets to recover afterwards. But nope; this volume is like doing the Master Sword trials in Breath of the Wild with two rusty broadswords and no armor. Each skirmish genuinely conveys how close to Death’s doorstep they are, and how desperately they’re trying to escape.
I love the intensity in this volume, but for some reason, I just can’t get into Lyu’s backstory. I just don’t get it! There are even some special chapters set in her past, but I found them to be kinda boring. To be fair, Lyu wasn’t among my favorite characters of DanMachi in the first place. Maybe if she’s your waifu, you’ll like her backstory a lot better than I did.
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Verdict: 8.9/10
I’m glad that this arc was short. It’s not my favorite in DanMachi; but nonetheless, this was a powerful volume, and a quick reminder to us that Bell still has a ways to go in his character progression. Let’s just hope the next major arc will be even better than the phenomenal Xenos Arc.
Weeb Revues 