The Shovel System

Writing Quality: 3.5/5 The author does not separate dialogue from the other paragraphs. It’s annoying. He also makes some rambling run-on sentences. It’s forgivable for a doddering old man, however some random words are capitalized. It’s bad form in my eyes to separate adverbs from verbs. He smugly typed, “It is not that smugly he typed won’t work, but it would if smugly had a comma after it.” I’ll bump it to 4 because they’re easy fixes. Stability of Updating: 2/5 13 chapters about 5 months ago, so about 3 chapters a week. However, it went to about 2 chapters a month. It was last updated 2 months ago, I think. There’s hope for a stockpile of chapters, but I’m going with my doubt. Story Development: 2/5 I would’ve given 4 but then the story jumped into CULTIVATION. So much for comedic fantasy with a system. Yeah, the personalized system is confusing at first because it is infodumped on us. I expected a more normal western fantasy, with more monsters and vampires, not a wuxia novel. It hurts when the story is stopped by the unnecessary need to get students instead of viable lackeys. It especially sucks when the buildup to join a sect turns into him exploding and getting a crippled system. Not only that, after he trains by himself, he failed to have access to missions until after he is held up by a village and has trouble with his useless “students.” So he hardly can use his system and the plot now chains around his horrible students, with their awe at his power... Can I say I’m not impressed? Character Design: 2.5/5 I really liked the old man angle, but... Honestly, you cucked me with the sect of giants. At least they were interesting and notable characters. I liked the grandma approach too. Comparatively, the villagers are bland and forgettable. They’re like leeches that bleed the story, especially Silver Wolf. He’s cancer. 15 and he’s got a 13-year-old wife & a 1-month-old baby. Doing the math, he was about 14 when he f**ked a 12-year-old. In the Middle Ages, it was usually the nobles who betrothed around this age. However, they usually procreated at 16 because a girl’s puberty then matures for her to survive CHILDBIRTH. Not enough advanced medical techniques to help deliver in this time period. Only a few cases were there similar cases for NOBILITY. I can barely pass 14, but 12?! Considering this is a REMOTE VILLAGE and in a CULTIVATION setting, you’d assume they don’t have skilled midwives or doctors. Add in monster attacks and malnutrition, the village loses on the physical development of their children. You can wave it off as cultivators having stronger constitutions, but what kind of person can get off to a pre****? Poorer men waited until they could support a family before starting one. It doesn’t make sense. Unless, Wolf is a horn dog that busts a nut into a barely developed body and expects her to bear his child for him. MC accepts this scumbag as his student and even PRAISES this scum for being OVERPROTECTIVE of his wife and child. He provoked the almighty MC, but in the cultivation world, such stupid scum would be wiped out for not knowing his place, and that doesn’t even include his actions. I don’t care if you play this off as “true love.” It’s not. A 14-year-old fraternizing with a 12-year-old and making a child with her... Such a person is not a man, but pure scum. He protects what he sees as his property and looks down on others. His eyes “cannot see Mount Tai.” This scum sees a 3-meter-tall old man, rippling with muscles from his 1.65 meter perspective, and tried to rob him when he saw the MC had a lot of Celestial Stones. If the MC wasn’t strong, he would’ve died to this punk. MC doesn’t execute such a scum... he extols him for his violent and possessive nature. For being a true “father” with a 12-year-old child. I am in awe. I’m bumping it up to 3 in hopes the old man meets the grandma again. F**k the villagers. World: 3/5 Good BG, but worsens after leaving the sect.