Vol. 6: Part 2 by Chohokiteki Kaeru - ★★★☆☆, 136 MynePages™ - Finally some witch action in this volume, but there were a lot of fighting scenes so that sucks.

- Volume 01 by Umee - ★★☆☆☆, 226 MynePages™ - It's more palace intrigue than creating alchemy, and the end is extremely rushed and resolved too neatly.

<Starting on Hard Mode: God Levels, Got Problems> Volume 1 by ririnra - ★☆☆☆☆, 126 MynePages™ - Terrible prose, shitty and formulaic plot, and somehow even worse soyboy MC. Apart from the usual Japanese self-insert passive- and timidness, he is also describing himself as an anime, manga, and light novel otaku but doesn't understand what a girl means when she asks him to form a party <- complete with the usual stuttering and overreaction because uh-u-uh-uhh a g-g-g-girl talked to me?!?!

“A party?” I repeated. She looked deadly serious, but my response came out flat because I hadn’t fully grasped what she meant. The first thing that came to mind was a birthday party. But inviting a stranger to a celebration would just be creepy. That’d be straight-up flirting...or worse.

This "otaku" also speaks to a girl with animal ears and a tail, and when she introduces herself, she tells him her name and that she is a beast girl. We then get this banger of inner monologue:

Right. Beastgirl. Unfortunately, I had no idea what that meant. It was probably common knowledge in this world, but I was an outsider.

Let me remind you, he's supposed to be an otaku, is looking straight at the beast girl in question, already has commented on the ears and tail, and still is stupefied about what in the world a beast girl could be. It's the type of MC that's so infuriating that he makes me root for the monsters. Or suicide.

Oh, and the title is also a lie. General power levels in the world are described as strong when someone is in the 300s in one stat (yes, this series is using video game logic), and MC gets reincarnated with 10000 in every stat. So, no "hard mode" anywhere in sight.

Just because it's so much fun, let's put some more quotes:

I’d turned my eyes away in time, but the instant she’d pulled off her top, I’d still caught a glimpse of— No. Stop. Don’t think about it! Thankfully, I hadn’t seen anything beyond that. I’d only managed to cling to my last shred of sanity thanks to quick reflexes and, apparently, very high stats.

That's right. Seeing a boob would drive him insane, apparently.

Volume 12 by Hachi Komada - ★★★★☆, 219 MynePages™ - Typical Dahlia volume. This time, with a heavy emphasis on the relationship between Jonas and his stepfather.