Title The Beginning After the End Vol. 6
Author: TurtleMe (Story), Fuyuki23 (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press, Tapas
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 264
Genre: Fantasy, Action
Publication Date: August 20, 2024
The Story
Art has passed his rank exam and received his adventurer card from the guild. He sets off with Jasmine who brings him to a secluded area where she intends to spar with him. After all, if she’s going to be adventuring with Art, she’s going to need to know his limitations in battle. After the spar, Jasmine makes a pretty peculiar remark about Art’s age!
Meanwhile, Sylvie goes off to explore. They worry if she will be okay on her own but she is linked to Art and sends updates. Art says that he only needs two out of the three years to get stronger, realizing that he had been focusing too much on his magic and now his swordsmanship. We get a two-year time skip and when we return, there are rumors of a masked swordsman flying around the local tavern. Art shows up and collects a sack of rations.
From there, Jasmine mentions that they are going on a dungeon delve. Here, we meet our cast of characters which includes the silent Elijah from the rank exam as well as the pompous Lucas from the same exam. They head in; however, there is a lack of teamwork among them. Art is, as expected, the only level-headed one of the bunch and when things go south, Brald, an AA-Ranked Adventurer and leader of the group passes leadership to Art!
They come across a room filled with mist. After they realize the mist is casting illusions, they prepare themselves to use Jasmine’s wind magic to blow it away. When they do, they reveal living vines to which it seems there is no end… that is until something else arrives…
Characters
Jasmine is the first one to receive some development. She opens up to Art a bit about her past. She says that in her culture, fire is a natural affinity and when she awakened and couldn’t use fire, she was shunned by her family and labeled as “lesser.” This riles up Art which she appreciates but it’s that outburst that grows the bond between them. It was also the cause for her little remark about Art’s age and how he seems a lot older than he appears.
Art recalled his time in his original world when he was a king. He compared the ki from his world to the mana cores of this one. He realized that despite having limited ki, he was much better at swordsmanship when he was king so he wondered why he was lacking with no limitations in this world… that’s when he realized that he was focusing on sharpening his magic rather than his swordsmanship and took it upon himself to fix that problem. His little outburst during Jasmine’s backstory also opened up his character beyond just thinking and rationalizing. It shows that he has compassion for others and that things can get to him.
As for our party… Elijah is still as silent as ever; however, when Brald notices that Art and Jasmine don’t have storage rings, Elijah offers his up and gets a bit embarrassed when Art thanks him. Seems as if compliments are something that he enjoys getting but never expects to get. Outside of that, he’s still silent and stone-faced which is funny because Earth is his elemental attribute.
Lucas is still as hot-headed and egotistical as ever; however, he does go through a humbling in the dungeon… especially when he crumbles under pressure and has to be saved numerous times. All talk and no action… perfect for some rich snob of a kid with a massive ego and too much money to lean on. Whether or not this will cause him to have a change in mindset remains to be seen but this type of character isn’t easily swayed. I’m sure he’ll find some way to make it about himself in the end but, for now, at least he’s cooperating because he realizes that without the others, he couldn’t handle anything himself. He’s dumb… but not THAT dumb. That’s a good sign… I think.
Brald seems like a calm and collected leader; however, when things go south, he has the option to quit but, for some reason, he wants to see the dungeon through to the end. In the battle against the vines, he becomes reckless which is uncharacteristic for someone who’s Aa-ranked; however, Art picks up on the reason right away and has to snap him out of it. I’m sure there’s more to his character and his reasoning for wanting to continue but none of it has been revealed as of yet.
Rounding out the rest of the party is Reginald an augmenter who seems pretty vanilla in just about every sense of the term, Kriol, their tank who is also vanilla but seems to have a touchy spot when it comes to his wife, Oliver, their healer who is a bit on the creepy side, and Samantha, a young teen girl who is a water user and the object of Oliver’s creepiness. Yeah… he might have a thing for her and not in a good way. Ew.
Final Thoughts
I will admit… when the time skip happened, I thought that this three-year adventuring story was a bust. I didn’t think we would get to see Art do any adventuring at all but then we were given a dungeon delve! The thing is, if you’ve seen one dungeon delve with a band of opposing personalities, then you’ve seen them all. The way things broke down, how some characters wanted to steal the spotlight, the perils they faced, etc… all of it was very paint-by-numbers without anything truly standing out. Of course, there is a big bad that they are going to have to face and I’m pretty sure it’s up to Art to save the day to show off what he learned during the two-year time skip. Otherwise, why else would he be in this dungeon? He’s not there to pick up the loot after everyone else has done the killing.
While the volume did heavily focus on the dungeon delve, before we got there, we had some nice bonding time with Art and Jasmine, we learned that Sylvie is still off training and won’t be rejoining until she feels as if she’s ready, and we checked in on a certain elf girl from a past volume who sewed the seeds for a future story! So, while this volume focused on Art and his training, it made sure to set up some things for the future… especially when Art enters Xyrus Academy.
While the dungeon part was a bit generic, there’s only so much you can do with this plot point… especially if the main character has yet to reveal the full extent of the results of their training. While I’m sure the battle ahead will be fun, I’m looking forward to the end of his three-year journey more. Whether or not we’ll speed ahead to that in the next volume remains to be seen. While it wasn’t the best entry in the series, it was far from bad. Still entertaining. I just wish someone could come up with a better and more interesting reason to do a dungeon story than rehashing the same thing every other manhwa I’ve read has done.
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by Yen Press.
