I couldn't even make it through the 3rd chapter because things have gotten so brainless and impossible to follow. I won't even warn anything as "spoilers" because it happens so quickly in the book.
Right away things are ridiculous as Book 2 ended with Rugrat destroying his mana system in his body, but in Book 3 he is immediately running off to start to smithing and using his mana with no fear of repercussions. Erik is overhearing tons of conversations in a single shop that suddenly give him all of the key information that he requires, but which nobody would just be talking about in whispered tones in the middle of a giant crowd.
They find a shop where Rugrat goes crazy after discovering a new spell (mana knife) and spends the money on it without a second thought. Erik was capable of making "mana shot" and "mana bullet" without needing a spell in advance. Rugrat created a "mana drill" inside of his own body for breaking the mana gates. After hearing about the mana knife, how are they suddenly dumber than they used to be and not even considering alternate methods to do the same or better without making the purchase. (Side note: why did Rugrat never learn to use "mana bullet" or "mana shot" himself? He was the better marksmen of the two. What could he do with using that since he was superior with his mana system?) To top it off, the first thing that Rugrat does with the spell is to use the knife on an ingot of iron, as if he is whittling a block of wood!!! This entire scenario is epically brainless!
Next the story is back in Alva Dungeon where they are talking about Tier-Two buildings and how they cost gold to purchase. This was the dungeon of Expert and Master level gnomes, why would they have not already had top tier designs for all of their buildings??? And how would Egbert have forgotten all of the blueprints of the buildings he had to de-construct in the first place??? If the alchemy lab and smithy had never been taken down in the first place, then why are they suddenly the lowest quality versions of the buildings??? THE GNOMES MADE FREAKING ROBOTS!!!!!! HOW DO THEY NOT HAVE EVERY TOP TIER CRAFTSHOP DESIGN ALREADY????
It's as if the author is just trying to throw in things that he saw in other stories or games and thought they would be neat to add in, without stopping to think how, or even why, they should be added to the story.
I just can't go on with this series anymore. There was so much promise in the first and second book, but the quality of the writing has dropped off so much, both style and intelligence. Seriously, a halfway decent editor would have called for a complete re-write from chapter 1. If things have gotten this bad this fast, then I can't keep going any further. This is even worse than the disaster that was Nova Terra. At least that series had a slow decline that was due to just pushing further off course. This series just jumped off a cliff for no reason at all.
