Blurb: A new world. A new life. A chance to become a Legendary Alchemist.
When the apocalypse comes, a mysterious entity grants Theo Spencer the gift of reincarnation.
The gift of a quiet life as an alchemist.
He awakens in a small town in the southern reaches of a small kingdom in a non-human body. Broken Tusk doesn't seem like much, but if Theo's Alchemy Skills have anything to say about it, he will soon turn their fortune.
Review: When the sun is about to destroy his world, Theo Spencer is offered the gift of a new and quiet life. He gains a new body and a job as an alchemist. The small village of Broken Tusk is covered in mud and doesn't seem to offer much, but Theo is determined to make it shine. With his special skills and the hard work of his friends, he will put Broken Tusk on the map.
This wonderful low-stakes cozy fantasy LitRPG is exactly what it promises to be. Broken Tusk is the perfect starter town. It's a little hovel in a swamp and there's mud everywhere. The village hasn't had much growth over the decades. It's populated mostly by half-orcs, and the mayor isn't much interested in her job. She does it because no one else will. Like people, the buildings and the town can level up, and at the beginning, Broken Tusk is a tiny level 2 town.
That's until Theo a.k.a. Belgar shows up. He was once a human on a dying world. Not just any human, but one trained from childhood to kill. He has no fear. A strange and powerful being gave Theo a gift of knowing how to distill potions at his first level, and he quickly starts to make a name for himself. He doesn't focus on himself, though, but on the town and everyone in it too. I would have loved to know more about Theo's motivations and his emotions. He seems to immediately push aside his former self and jump right into being a demon alchemist. He feels to me more of a catalyst for the town than the hero of the story, even though he's narrating.
Theo makes an unbreakable bond with a marshling named Tresk. (Imagine a walking and talking pink axolotl who is growing from a rogue into a killing machine.) This bond gives them both advantages and connects them on all levels. Except romantically. It states very clearly that neither character is ever allowed to have romance/fall in love while bonded this way. I do understand the author not wanting to write any romance, but this was stated harshly when the author could have simply omitted any romance in the story.
With a nearby dungeon growing, the town needs to level up before more monsters come out, but the question is if it will all be enough. Theo quickly becomes mayor and makes that one of his first directives. He's great with delegating and sorting out what needs to be down to help make the town prosper, and it's interesting even though it's not high stakes. Great details about herbs, ingredients, and aspects of potion making. Again, all of this is through Theo's perspective, and we get no reason why he wants to do any of this or his feelings other than being happy and proud.
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