Just read all of this and it was disappointing. Strong start that gets bogged down in unnecessary details and a super dumb MC. Seriously the everything after the picrate town was dumb and he should feel bad. The path forward should have been laid out.

Spoiler

Once he got the slave crew he should have started freeing other slave ships. Angry slaves are a great source for a new army, that's revolution 101. That would have defintely pacified his crew. Keeping the slave captain was dumb, he should have known dude would double cross him and had too much built up hostility with the slaves. Instead he regularly insulted him and everyone around him so that a takeover was easy. He really could have started a slave revolution and caused tons of chaos fulfilling his mandate and doing it in a way that could have not made him a fucking ghoul or whatever.

I finished what was out just cause, but I'm not picking it back up. Dom is too dumb. 2.5/5 for a strong start and being readable grammar wise.

 

It's getting better. Hasn't regained the charm it had when the story first began, but the MC has done more in the last 6 chapters than in the 30 before that.

 

After a long climb from the depths this story had sunk to, we finally see it return to its roots. The last chapter balanced light-hearted camaraderie with world building, while still maintaining the tension on the horizon.

The first half was a bit of a drag with all the talk about spending XP, but the latter half made it worth sticking with the story for so long.