The whole “slice of life” thing is completely overdone …the character interactions feel really fake, and the narrator’s main voice doesn’t help make any of it more believable. The narrator does a good job changing voices for the respective characters, but the substance just isn’t there.
I think that the “drama” is weak, and in general the writer’s priorities are wrong. The whole tone of the story is just off-putting, and ruins what could’ve been a great series.
In my opinion, it kinda comes across as if the author is having a nerd fantasy where he’s “the cool guy” who gets the girl and wins at everything. The ease with which all the monetary gains and power-ups happen makes everything a forgone conclusion.
The magic system and action sequences aren’t good enough to tolerate such bad story telling. At the end of the book instead of feeling satisfied I just felt like I wasted a whole bunch of time.