He's found his new home. Now he has to defend it.
Denel's goddess has granted him the title of Paladin, and with it, the responsibility of protecting the people of his village, both reptilian and otherwise. The threats facing the faithful of Goddess Watch are numerous, and the last thing Denel wants to do is sit and wait for the enemy to come to him. Isolated and far from player civilization, Denel must forge bonds and friendships with races that view his friends as nothing more than monsters to be culled. Unbeknownst to him, he's no longer the only digital resident of Aelterna Online, and the newcomers are out to destroy everything he's worked to create! What he's become is more than the system is prepared to accept; what will he be forced to do to survive?
My Opinion: 335 pg, $3.99, Not Available on Kindle Unlimited
The cover art for this whole series does not do it justice, so please don’t judge it based on that. Book 1 did a good job of setting up a world in which the main character (MC) becomes the first digitized citizen of a fantasy VRMMORPG. It described not only an interesting magic and RPG system, but also did some good world building. Book 2 in the series builds and expands on that.
The scope of the story expands past the lizard person village the MC became apart of, to the larger game world. One of the things I like most about the series is the clear effort put into creating the cultures in the story. There are clear, distinctive, rules, social norms, rich histories for each race and community. It adds a subtle layer of depth to the world and an opportunity for some interesting storytelling.
There is still some good RPG progression and action too. In particular I liked how the MCs barrier magic is developing and how it was used in the story not just to protect but to give the MC an ability a story conflict could be shaped around. Crafting also returns in the story progresses in its own RPG way.
Overall, I had a good time reading the story and am always impressed by the author’s efforts to not only create rich characters but full cultures for them.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Faithful Defender: A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure Novel (Aelterna Online Book 2)