Isekai stories are fairly abundant at this point, so one needs to do something to stand out to spark my interest. Disciple of the Lich: Or How I Was Cursed by the Gods and Dropped Into the Abyss! by Nekoko seemed like it might have an interesting angle. Seven Seas Entertainment has even translated all seven volumes, so there’s no need to wait for translations beyond the first volume if it ends up being worth picking it up.
Learning from Lich
Disciple of the Lich opens with an interesting idea. Kanbara Kanata has been summoned by the gods to another world as entertainment. This is essentially their form of reality TV. Usually, they would grant him powers to become a hero, demon king, or whatever he prefers. Unfortunately, he manages to annoy the gods and finds himself cast down to the deepest part of a dungeon without any abilities granted other than the language skill. To make sure it’s still entertaining, they mention there are powerful items down there that might help if he can survive long enough, but they certainly don’t expect anything but for him to meet a quick and gruesome end for their amusement.
Their plans go astray when Lunaère, a lich who has made her home in the dungeon, saves him after he almost dies. She says that she hates humans and that saving him was only to satisfy her curiosity at first, but
it’s immediately evident that she cares more than she lets on. She decides to train him up, claiming it’ll be the best way for him to leave the dungeon and not annoy her with his presence.
Training Arc
Having a bad encounter with the gods and being sent into a bad situation is nothing new in light novels, with titles like Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy using similar ideas. The reality show spin is something I’ve not seen before though, and learning as a disciple is something a little different too.
Much of the first half of volume 1 is dedicated to Kanata being the Disciple of the Lich. Through extremely harsh training, powerful items, and Lunaère’s teaching, he soon becomes incredibly overpowered. It adds a bit of humor by having a Mimic monster companion there to poke fun at and provoke Lunaère as well as provide hints to Kanata about her. Kanata’s reaction to just how harsh the training was added some amusing moments too and became a setup for a later event.
More than anything in this part, I enjoyed reading about how Kanata and Lunaère slowly get closer. Seeing her slowly open up, the change in her interactions with Kanata, and certain decisions she makes was a satisfying read. It nicely lays the foundation for the romance too, which is made clear by the end of the volume rather than being teased or implied. A certain issue does begin to raise itself here though, which is made even more evident in the second part.
The Outside World
Kanata leaves the dungeon to find that he’s extremely overpowered. However, it takes him far too long to understand this. In earlier parts of Disciple of the Lich, we saw some denseness around his interactions with Lunaère, but I felt this was forgivable as she was his savior and mentor so there’s a lot of trust there and he did have some doubts. The trait of being a dense protagonist really comes to the forefront here though. It seems like it’s being used for humor, but doesn’t come across as particularly funny.
Him being so overpowered removes any sense of tension too. This isn’t unusual for an isekai light novel story, but does stand out here as death was a possibility in the dungeon, while not hitting a monster hard enough to pulverize it into dust is a challenge in the outside world.
What challenges there are relate more to the characters. Kanata runs into a few people, almost all of whom are rather unpleasant at best. It made me feel that Lunaère’s claim to hate all humans had some merit if they’re all like this.
The one kind character we meet, Pomera, is a half-elf. She’s incredibly nervous, which makes sense as we do see quite a bit of discrimination toward her and she isn’t particularly strong. They team up as adventurers, with Pomera teaching Kanata about the outside world and Kanata helping her to become stronger. Having Kanata suddenly thrust into the position of being the teacher this time allowed for some funny moments with callbacks to his own training.
Seeing Pomera’s development was enjoyable and a few low-stakes quests helped to understand the world that Kanata has found himself in. The builds up to a bigger event near the end which I found rather underwhelming as a plot point, but it linked in nicely to resolve an issue around Pomera.
All in all, the second half of the volume didn’t have much to make it stand out outside of establishing Pomera’s character and some humourous moments. The world itself feels rather generic. It does however end with an interesting couple of points for the story’s continuation and has set up some potential relationship drama, so I am curious to see where it’ll go next.
Art
The illustrations are by Yoh Hihara and do look nice. They mostly highlight character introductions and silly moments, with one combat scene and one moment with more emotional impact. The author mentions this in the notes, but they make the unusual choice using two of the limited amount of illustrations on a fairly minor character.
Lunaère’s expressions particularly stood out to me here, highlighting the muted emotions of a lich. Pomera’s design is cute, with her nervous nature made very clear in her first illustration.
Verdict
Volume 1 of Disciple of the Lich: Or How I Was Cursed by the Gods and Dropped Into the Abyss! has a fairly strong start, but starts to feel more generic by the end. The dense protagonist, lacking plot, and mixed humor don’t help it to stand out. Still, it establishes some interesting ideas and I liked it enough to want to check out volume 2 to see if it picks up.
WAIT FOR SALE ON DISCIPLE OF THE LICH: OR HOW I WAS CURSED BY THE GODS AND DROPPED INTO THE ABYSS!
Want to read something else? How about checking out I Kissed My Girlfriend’s Little Sister?! Or our other light novel reviews? And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter to stay up to date.
If you’re looking for another isekai light novel, you might want to check out Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement. We have also covered a variety of light novels, which you can check out here.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
