What exactly do you do when your last quest had young, talented, but ambitious adventurers who think goblin slaying is beneath them take on a horde of goblins invading your friend’s village?
Well, you of course accept a quest of slaying more goblins…from an archbishop that killed a Demon Lord back in the day.
Goblin Slayer Volume 2 continues Goblin Slayer’s “kill all the goblins” agenda as his road takes him into a somewhat peaceful town. Of course somewhat peaceful means not completely, as the goblins reside underground and have been a thorn to the people for a while. For the government though, that’s the last of their problems. So with no aid incoming from them, the archbishop, known as Sword Maiden, has enlisted Goblin Slayer to drive them out. With Priestess, High Elf Archer, Lizard Priest, and Dwarf Shaman, this seems like it would be a tough but satisfying task. It soon turns out this quest is even more than they could’ve imagined.
The first volume of Goblin Slayer had its moments of peril, especially with the orc; this volume introduces goblins that are still dumb, craven, and cowardly in every way — still, smarter beings could be pulling their strings. Along with additional threats that don’t even involve goblins, not only is the major storyline in play, but how Goblin Slayer gets ties into it all is eventually approaching.
But that’s all so far — a hint. The use of the Interlude to reveal what else is going on has turned out to be annoying. As they’re generally two page breaks it’s not a huge problem, but the way they’re written is not always good. Sure it’s nice to reveal that yeah, there are gods and other people that will eventually affect the main cast, but with little idea of who they are I just can’t help but feel at the moment that it’s tacked on. Since it varies from third person description to nothing but chatter from people who aren’t fully described, it feels pretty thin right now.
Thankfully the way the main lead interacts with the cast around him is very much a treat. While there’s some general LN tropes (main male lead finds himself in bed with two girls for “healing” purposes), Goblin Slayer’s disparate personality compared to the rest of the crew makes any action he takes worth reading. He also does make you wonder at points if he’s too good at what he does, until he gets smashed into a wall and begins bleeding profusely.
The characters are a bit better than in Volume 1, or I can at least tolerate them more. That’s probably due to the task of killing goblins in an expansive dungeon. This means we see characters like High-Elf Archer or Dwarf Shaman react to what at times are foreboding situations, but also, as I mentioned earlier, the hints of the larger story are taking place that will eventually affect Goblin Slayer.
A neat bonus is getting some background into how he became the Goblin Slayer. Flashbacks are sometimes unnecessary, but in this case, seeing who trained him and knowing what happened to Goblin Slayer and his family makes his desire to eliminate them understandable. So as this quest continues you hope the narrative remains consistent and sticks with mostly goblin slaying. Either way, this is definitely worth a look when you get a chance.