Light Novel: Death March Vol 3

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol 3
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Twenty-nine year old Satou had only closed his eyes for a brief nap at work, but when he opened them he found himself in a game-like alternate world. Fortunately, thanks to some excellent luck, his level is high and his wallet is full. After successfully saving the elf girl Mia from the evil Zen, he's set off on a journey to accompany her back to her village. Satou is enjoying his break from work and touring a brand-new world, but such a journey couldn't possibly end without a little adventure, right?

Okaaaay, I'm not going to lie, I'm loving the light novel of this more than the manga. I feel like the manga is a lot slower, among other things. The light novel is fast paced, there's lots going on and I feel like this works better as a light novel. However....yes. There's a however....I feel like this volume is a bit slower than usual. 

Satou's having some weird visions which I'm sure are going to pop up in the next volume and he spends a good chunk of this volume gaining and levelling up a tonne of new skills which, again, I'm sure are going to come in to play next volume although some of them where used this volume. We spend this volume moving on from the previous setting and venturing out in to the world. We get some more tidbits of how the world works and the history of it, and we visit various towns and cities...uncovering a plot as we go along. 

We even get to learn some more about how the magic works, and meet a couple of new characters that might come in handy later...or next volume. I'm sure you can see what I'm saying here. This volume, to me, felt like a transition volume. We move from one setting to another, a lot of things have been set up, some connections made, some new skills gained and so on. There was a good pace to this volume but not much really happened until towards the end of the volume, making this slower than the previous two volumes and it didn't grab my attention as much. The plus side is the knowledge we've gained and the set up for the next volume and presumably the next story arc! 

There may or may not be some trouble ahead, and it looks like Zena will be back next volume which should prove interesting! I think things are going to pick up again next volume, but this volume on it's own was a tiny bit of a drag compared to the others so far. Although I did end up dubbing Satou King of the Life Hacks after this volume! We must all learn from him.