What do you think?
Rate this book
던전 디펜스 #1
Dungeon Defense Vol. 1
Do you know how this world ends?
Become the hero and take down the 72 Demon Lords. The game that was boasted as the absolute hardest strategy game, 『Dungeon Attack』.
I used to be the ‘hero’ that had accomplished everything in this game, but after answering a suspicious survey, I found myself in the game as the weakest Demon Lord, 「Dantalian」.
With only my eloquent tongue and my memories of conquest as a hero—.
In order to survive as Dantalian. I shall tear this world apart.
Become the hero and take down the 72 Demon Lords. The game that was boasted as the absolute hardest strategy game, 『Dungeon Attack』.
I used to be the ‘hero’ that had accomplished everything in this game, but after answering a suspicious survey, I found myself in the game as the weakest Demon Lord, 「Dantalian」.
With only my eloquent tongue and my memories of conquest as a hero—.
In order to survive as Dantalian. I shall tear this world apart.
480 pages, Paperback
First published January 27, 2016
14 people are currently reading
300 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
February 1, 2021
This series was an enjoyable light read with a good deal of well-handled romance. This series is held back from 4 stars from me by its lackluster plot progression and heavy focus on comic relief instead of said plot.
This is the whole-series review. (up to novel 5/5)
Just like always, we go through characters, world, and story.
Characters:
The characters here are interesting and varied. There is a lot of comic relief in this novel, which is interesting and funny. The characters are genuinely interesting, and are the main thing that kept me reading through the whole thing. This is the first webnovel that has handled romance in a mature and logical way (although the characters are a bit twisted). The romance is believable and the relationships are fleshed out and meaningful. You really feel bad for people at times in the story, and that is something that I haven't experienced in a while. (The one exception was the scene with the dog in I Shall Seal The Heavens, but that was a dog so it's basically cheating.) Yes, this is a harem book. No, it falls into none of the pitfalls of traditional stories of the type. Do not consider the harem'y nature when deciding whether to read this. The characters are all unconventional, and are types of people that I have not seen before. That is refreshing.
World:
The world here is done well, given that it is not the focus of the novel at all. For an isekai, this story focuses very little on the 'strange new world,' and instead does well investing that time into the characters. The world makes sense and doesn't annoy me, and that's all anyone can ask for in a good, character-driven novel.
Story:
This novel tries the whole 'super smart protagonist' thing. It does it pretty well. Most stories achieve a relatively smart protagonist by making everyone else functionally lobotomized. This story does not do that. There are only a couple circumstances in which other people seem to be dumb. However, the main character being smart in this story isn't completely satisfying. The perfect way to do this was showcased in the holy grail of smart fantasy, Reverend Insanity. The main character is a devilishly smart 500 year old demon of a man. That book provides you all the same info that the main character has to work with at any moment, and then logically shows you why the main character makes every choice that he does. The choices that he makes are the best, but the reader only realizes that after hearing what the main character did. Because the reader had ALL the info, it becomes clear that not only is the mc smarter than everyone in the story, he is smarter than the reader themselves. This design philosophy is applied to every decision the mc makes to devastating effect.
This novel is not RI. This novel does not give you all the info, and the 'smart decisions' are less frequent than RI. It gives you some of the info, which is already admirable, but not enough that you feel like an idiot compared to the mc. It gives you some good decisions, but not enough to prove that the mc is the best for any reason more than "the book was written that way."
In the end, the story revolves and progresses around the mc being smarter than others and playing them, but you don't really get that vibe. Because of that, the story is a bit lackluster, although it is still better than many, and not bad by itself.
Since the story gets the characters right while doing meh work on the other two criteria, it gets one star more that the two star "it was okay" level, so it gets 3 stars.
This is the whole-series review. (up to novel 5/5)
Just like always, we go through characters, world, and story.
Characters:
The characters here are interesting and varied. There is a lot of comic relief in this novel, which is interesting and funny. The characters are genuinely interesting, and are the main thing that kept me reading through the whole thing. This is the first webnovel that has handled romance in a mature and logical way (although the characters are a bit twisted). The romance is believable and the relationships are fleshed out and meaningful. You really feel bad for people at times in the story, and that is something that I haven't experienced in a while. (The one exception was the scene with the dog in I Shall Seal The Heavens, but that was a dog so it's basically cheating.) Yes, this is a harem book. No, it falls into none of the pitfalls of traditional stories of the type. Do not consider the harem'y nature when deciding whether to read this. The characters are all unconventional, and are types of people that I have not seen before. That is refreshing.
World:
The world here is done well, given that it is not the focus of the novel at all. For an isekai, this story focuses very little on the 'strange new world,' and instead does well investing that time into the characters. The world makes sense and doesn't annoy me, and that's all anyone can ask for in a good, character-driven novel.
Story:
This novel tries the whole 'super smart protagonist' thing. It does it pretty well. Most stories achieve a relatively smart protagonist by making everyone else functionally lobotomized. This story does not do that. There are only a couple circumstances in which other people seem to be dumb. However, the main character being smart in this story isn't completely satisfying. The perfect way to do this was showcased in the holy grail of smart fantasy, Reverend Insanity. The main character is a devilishly smart 500 year old demon of a man. That book provides you all the same info that the main character has to work with at any moment, and then logically shows you why the main character makes every choice that he does. The choices that he makes are the best, but the reader only realizes that after hearing what the main character did. Because the reader had ALL the info, it becomes clear that not only is the mc smarter than everyone in the story, he is smarter than the reader themselves. This design philosophy is applied to every decision the mc makes to devastating effect.
This novel is not RI. This novel does not give you all the info, and the 'smart decisions' are less frequent than RI. It gives you some of the info, which is already admirable, but not enough that you feel like an idiot compared to the mc. It gives you some good decisions, but not enough to prove that the mc is the best for any reason more than "the book was written that way."
In the end, the story revolves and progresses around the mc being smarter than others and playing them, but you don't really get that vibe. Because of that, the story is a bit lackluster, although it is still better than many, and not bad by itself.
Since the story gets the characters right while doing meh work on the other two criteria, it gets one star more that the two star "it was okay" level, so it gets 3 stars.
February 21, 2019
This is one of the few books that I find very hard to forget. It always remained in my memory as a book I highly enjoyed and couldn't resist going on a marathon for.
I also managed to forgot the story of this book enough to read through it once again. Like how they say in ORV, everytime you read a book, it's a different book. You see new things. This time I was again fascinated by how the author managed to handle so many dark protagonists at the same time with almost no one "good" to set the contrast.
I felt that the author never really made up his mind if the MC is a twisted good or just plain evil. But I can tell you, you can't judge the characters by the common sense of our world. But it's possible, to see from their point of view.
Each volume feels more like a short story set in a universe, I wish it was a huge novel with a lot to read. If the author is reading this review, let me just thank you for creating this great story. I hope you find the time, energy and opportunity to write more, much more.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who can handle dark protagonists, likes intelligent characters, there is drama, politics, philosophy and brilliant illustrations
===== below you can see the review I wrote for novelupdates when I first read the 4 volumes
I just binge read the series, I do not know if it was because I was reading a mind numbingly boring fight scene in a wuxia novel that I just got captivated by the started of this book that I could not stop.
I am happy to say I enjoyed all four volumes, I am waiting for more. There are some logical inconsistencies but they are minor and will not be too glaringly obvious.
The MC is a ruthless man, he has a lot characteristics that NEETs will find appealing. He is lazy does not believe labour is something can be enjoyed. He craves authority which is basically power and no one has ever had enough of that. The MC stays true to his character and is a dark guy - no kind soul here.
He is smart. I love how the author makes him really smart. He is a great orator, skillful tongue. He is a very competent person.
The translation was written by someone with a great grasp on english, kudos. Like he used the right words in places. The story uses interleaving with the viewpoint suddenly shifting etc.
The story as a whole has to do with how our MC will survive living in this game. He settles into a NEET life when he gets sucked into the game through a survey (they don't explain this). He already played this game before so he knows a bit about what major events will happen and about the characters themselves, he is now forced to live the game as the weakest of the 72 bosses. He starts out penniless, physically weak, no subordinates. All he has is that head and... very importantly a sort of status which is legally powerful. He is revered by the commoners as he is afterall a boss.
Its deep at many places. I recommend reading it slow, its hard cause its really interesting but do try.
Eagerly waiting for the next volume
I also managed to forgot the story of this book enough to read through it once again. Like how they say in ORV, everytime you read a book, it's a different book. You see new things. This time I was again fascinated by how the author managed to handle so many dark protagonists at the same time with almost no one "good" to set the contrast.
I felt that the author never really made up his mind if the MC is a twisted good or just plain evil. But I can tell you, you can't judge the characters by the common sense of our world. But it's possible, to see from their point of view.
Each volume feels more like a short story set in a universe, I wish it was a huge novel with a lot to read. If the author is reading this review, let me just thank you for creating this great story. I hope you find the time, energy and opportunity to write more, much more.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who can handle dark protagonists, likes intelligent characters, there is drama, politics, philosophy and brilliant illustrations
===== below you can see the review I wrote for novelupdates when I first read the 4 volumes
I just binge read the series, I do not know if it was because I was reading a mind numbingly boring fight scene in a wuxia novel that I just got captivated by the started of this book that I could not stop.
I am happy to say I enjoyed all four volumes, I am waiting for more. There are some logical inconsistencies but they are minor and will not be too glaringly obvious.
The MC is a ruthless man, he has a lot characteristics that NEETs will find appealing. He is lazy does not believe labour is something can be enjoyed. He craves authority which is basically power and no one has ever had enough of that. The MC stays true to his character and is a dark guy - no kind soul here.
He is smart. I love how the author makes him really smart. He is a great orator, skillful tongue. He is a very competent person.
The translation was written by someone with a great grasp on english, kudos. Like he used the right words in places. The story uses interleaving with the viewpoint suddenly shifting etc.
The story as a whole has to do with how our MC will survive living in this game. He settles into a NEET life when he gets sucked into the game through a survey (they don't explain this). He already played this game before so he knows a bit about what major events will happen and about the characters themselves, he is now forced to live the game as the weakest of the 72 bosses. He starts out penniless, physically weak, no subordinates. All he has is that head and... very importantly a sort of status which is legally powerful. He is revered by the commoners as he is afterall a boss.
Its deep at many places. I recommend reading it slow, its hard cause its really interesting but do try.
Eagerly waiting for the next volume
December 5, 2018
Best book I've read about an asshole having fun
Illustrations are gorgeous
And the banter is pretty fun to read.actually made me laugh out loud a couple of times.
Illustrations are gorgeous
And the banter is pretty fun to read.actually made me laugh out loud a couple of times.
May 9, 2017
Absolutely amazing.
The main focus of this novel is on dialogs which are beautifully written.
There won't be a lot of action or great battles in here, instead, there will be witty conversations and brilliant monologs.
You will enjoy it especially if you like the concept of an Antihero.
There are many similarities with Japanese novels. Translation by Shalvation Translations, is indeed, of very high quality.
Spoiler Alert
/*
Example:
“S-Spare……”
“Wrong choice.”
Without inquiring into the right or wrong, his highness swung his dagger.
“Gua, guuhaaak……”
“Spare me? That is a terribly boring line. In our already boring lives, that only further tortures us in agony. I see boredom as the sin of humanity, and find it similar to that of a harmful insect that deserves to be exterminated.”
*/
The main focus of this novel is on dialogs which are beautifully written.
There won't be a lot of action or great battles in here, instead, there will be witty conversations and brilliant monologs.
You will enjoy it especially if you like the concept of an Antihero.
There are many similarities with Japanese novels. Translation by Shalvation Translations, is indeed, of very high quality.
Spoiler Alert
/*
Example:
“S-Spare……”
“Wrong choice.”
Without inquiring into the right or wrong, his highness swung his dagger.
“Gua, guuhaaak……”
“Spare me? That is a terribly boring line. In our already boring lives, that only further tortures us in agony. I see boredom as the sin of humanity, and find it similar to that of a harmful insect that deserves to be exterminated.”
*/
September 21, 2019
I've read all 5 volumes. I didn't enjoy it much and skipped a lot of trashy dialogues and superflous sentences. Main character in volume 1 is a lazy "genius", but suddenly changes from vol 2 onwards into a pretentious psychopathic power hungry guy. In fact most characters have very little empathy towards anything. Dialogue is extremely repetative which basically boils down to saying something really simple in a complicated fashion. Also, heavy amounts of cursing. I have no issue with cursing, but its overdone here as most of the novel is about "putting down" other people. Though I will admit that this novel has its moments, and really beautiful ones, but you have to wade through the garbage to get there.
October 16, 2021
an eye-opener, i used to lurk around novelupdates to seek a new web/light novel to read when i stumbled upon this. the cover had me underestimate its contents, at first impression my thought was: ‘must be yet another one of those childish novels with edgy characters, repetitive plots and terrible prose.’ but no. i guess i really need to stop my habit of judging a book by its cover.
i never knew i was into first person narratives and philosophical grimdark fantasies before i read this. got my soul sucked into the novel from the first chapter. the book was filled with madness, yes, and rather edgy but well executed.
i never knew i was into first person narratives and philosophical grimdark fantasies before i read this. got my soul sucked into the novel from the first chapter. the book was filled with madness, yes, and rather edgy but well executed.
April 14, 2020
One of the worst character balance in anime.
1.The main characters apart from the MC all seem to be girls
2.The characters are all painstakingly similar to each other
3.Brutality is uncalled for,unreasonable and extremely boring
4.Lacks any thrill or flavour in its plot
5.The MC constantly does things that do not match his character
UPSIDE
1.a little of its reasoning makes sense
OVERALL
2/10 best
1.The main characters apart from the MC all seem to be girls
2.The characters are all painstakingly similar to each other
3.Brutality is uncalled for,unreasonable and extremely boring
4.Lacks any thrill or flavour in its plot
5.The MC constantly does things that do not match his character
UPSIDE
1.a little of its reasoning makes sense
OVERALL
2/10 best
February 27, 2019
Tem vários fatores que me desagradam no começo dessa série, principalmente sabendo que o autor melhora muito nos volumes posteriores mas o final desse 1 volume é simplesmente incrível. É uma historia muito divertida e prazerosa de se ler e que por ser de origem coreana torna ela mais interessante ainda pra conhecer.
April 26, 2020
Solo puedo decir que la historia me fascinó, es una trama encantadora que te engancha al instante, que apesar de no estar de acuerdo en algunos puntos te va a seguir interesante y te muestra como un pensamiento retorcido es lo que la sociedad necesita para su salvación.
November 22, 2020
This korean light novel was rather good. The actions scene was minimalist, more on politics. Being reborn as the lowest demon king, bribing the banker, and going to survive in this law of jungle world. This book was a good opening 😆
November 8, 2018
For the first time, I'm finding the villain POV engaging to read. I don't usually like thrills but I can stand it for this book.
July 3, 2020
I didn't like the writing or how the mc acts smart when his actions is just plot armor and i didn't like how the story is progressing so i'll just drop it
August 31, 2020
Bullshit of legends
August 2, 2021
La ostia, esto es una pasada. Tanto Lala como él se han convertido en mis ídolos, eso sin duda.
Ha pasado a convertirse en una de mis novelas favoritas, estoy sin palabras
Ha pasado a convertirse en una de mis novelas favoritas, estoy sin palabras
March 1, 2022
lei esto hace mucho pero debo decir es una joyita. Me encanta la crudeza del protagonista y como afronta todo lo que se viene
June 24, 2022
One of the first books i read.
good shet
going to make people read it on gun point
good shet
going to make people read it on gun point
April 3, 2024
Fun read! If you're looking for a "popcorn" book this is perfect!
April 28, 2024
Cool start. Mind games-ish. Pretty short.
April 8, 2019
A funny light novel of the isekai variety. The MC is reincarnated into the body of a demonlord about to be killed by adventures and that's just the start of his problems.
June 11, 2019
This novel is just amazing, is like overlord but in demential difficult.
August 25, 2016
Hey look another...portal fantasy into being an evil overlord in a fantasy setting...sigh Japan...ohh it's Korea this time, sure. Huh, the main character has a personality and is actually kind of screwed up in the head, ohh wow these are actually fun characters this might be an actually good series.
June 17, 2021
LN review: I completed the first volume of the LN but dropped the second volume because of the drastic done shift. 3 stars
WN review: This story features a pathetic and depressing protagonist who is seriously mentally ill. While the story is mildly interesting, it’s far too demoralizing for this kind of story. This is pure tragedy in a typical transmigration setting. 1.5 stars
-Dropped Ch 29
WN review: This story features a pathetic and depressing protagonist who is seriously mentally ill. While the story is mildly interesting, it’s far too demoralizing for this kind of story. This is pure tragedy in a typical transmigration setting. 1.5 stars
-Dropped Ch 29
June 25, 2025
A black comedy with strong personality and some real cleverness.
That being said . . . the main character really walks the line of whether I'm able to like him. When he's the underdog, sure. But the more powerful he becomes . . . the less tolerable. So although I really enjoyed this book, I may not pick up the sequels.
That being said . . . the main character really walks the line of whether I'm able to like him. When he's the underdog, sure. But the more powerful he becomes . . . the less tolerable. So although I really enjoyed this book, I may not pick up the sequels.
December 16, 2016
Another series with the concept of protagonist ending up in a game world, except that this protagonist is pretty interesting.
April 29, 2017
This is my first Korean light novel but it turned out to be very similar to its Japanese counterparts. I read the fan translation by Shalvation Translations which was of very high quality (for a fan translation).
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews