Unsurprisingly, it’s not a very good one.

— We actually pay a visit to the ol’ Bauermeister family. They’re still a bunch of hobo farmers, but to make matters worse, Kurt is resentful of his infinitely more successful younger brother. See, if he’d just swallow his pride and simply pretend to be nice to Wendelin, he’d be living lavishly right now. Unfortunately, he played himself.

— Out of nowhere, Kurt is informed that Wendelin has died in some ancient ruins. Dun dun dun!

— When the show cuts to Wendelin, we see that there has been a time skip. Apparently, he’s an adult now. That makes him… what? 15? 16?

— The rest of the gang is all “grown up” too. This means we pretty much just skipped through the whole adventurer school portion of the story.

— Wendelin thinks he’s now free to do what he wants, but the king immediately orders him to explore a dungeon. To add intrigue, we’re told that no other adventurer has returned from said dungeon. See, this is why a lot of recent isekai series have the hero forming their own nation. This way, they are not beholden to anyone. Meanwhile, Wendelin will probably be the king’s lapdog for the foreseeable future.

— Interestingly, Wendelin’s party calls itself The Dragon Busters. I have no clue if they’ve actually killed more dragons since we last saw these kids. I kinda doubt it, though. After all, these kids still act as if they’ve never been on an adventure before.

— Exploring a dungeon in anime pretty much means lots of dark, empty rooms and hallways. Yawn.

— And triggering traps with lame special effects like inverting the characters’ color palette. Oh no, I’m being attacked by Adobe Photoshop.

— Eventually, the party encounters waves and waves of trash mobs. Yup, there’s hardly any enemy variety in this dungeon. You can tell that this game was rushed by the developers.

— Like I said, these guys seem pretty green. Brantag is barking out orders, but they’re essentially nothing more than super basic RPG 101 tips. Really? A healer should heal from the backline? You don’t say!

— Ooh, environmental storytelling. It’s called mise en scene, bahahaha.

— Back in the capital, it turns out that Wendelin and his party have been gone for over five days. As a result, people have started to assume worse. Some are actually happy that a bunch of kids might have potentially lost their lives because the king capriciously decided to explore a dungeon.

— We eventually learn that an evil, scheming dude is responsible for spreading rumors about Wendelin’s death. I would’ve waited a little longer than five days. Just sayin’. When Wendelin returns, he should hold up a newspaper touting his defeat much like Harry Truman.

— Back in the dungeon, the gang are still fighting the same boring mobs. 2/10 game at best.

— Towards the end of the episode, the party encounters a mechanical dragon. They call it a dragon golem, but I know a robot when I see one.

— What ensues is a boring DBZ-esque tug-of-war between the dragon and the mages. The way color has been used in this anime has to be a crime.

— Unfortunately, everyone’s worn out from five days of constant fighting, so even an overpowered dude like Wendelin is about to go down. This is when Elise runs in and kisses him. All of a sudden, his magical beam gets stronger if you know what I mean. Phew! I really thought the hero was gonna bite it in episode eight of a one-cour series! Good thing they pulled it off!

— In the aftermath, we learn that Elise cast a spell that would give Wendelin more “stamina.” It’s called MP, people. Use proper JRPG terminologies! As for the kiss, she didn’t really have to do it. She just did because she didn’t want to die with any regrets. In any other series, I’d be like, “Awwww,” but it’s hard to feel romantic when a dude spreads his love around to like five different girls.

— Good thing this dungeon has a bed.

— So how do we escape from this dungeon? Well, how ’bout a convenient hanger full of airships? And it looks there’s just enough for everyone!