More fun times are ahead for the former “sage” who aims to face the monsters from outer space, as he continues to train Lurie and Alma in preparation for the upcoming demon invasion. While aiding them for a while, once they proceed to go lower in the dungeon, he leaves the two to fend for themselves. And they have a fairly powerful wolf monster that he believes they can handle. Do they end up proving him correct?
The answer is of course yes, but them showing so in their own flair!
This is, more or less, a third volume that’s mainly just training and again a showcase of not necessarily how broken Matthias is, but how far magic just really has fallen for humans in this world. The big drama, therefore, is when two demons arrive earlier than expected, and Matthias guesses they’re starting to suspect humans are finding out that they can do wordless magic. So now he, Lurie and Alma take the initiative and venture to defeat them quickly before they cause major damage to the city.
Have to say, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest continues to surprise me with how engaging it is. The outlandish plot about the monsters from outer space notwithstanding, the state of the world and the way magic has been manipulated has become a source of fascination, and Matthias helping Lurie and Alma get stronger has been pretty fun. It’s still got your usual isekai tropes — heck, you know the scene isekai works have when the main overpowered lead brings in a ton of rare things that makes the adventurers at a guild fall back in shock? Yeah, that’s here — but done with good timing. It’s not anything worthy of praise, but it’s effective, which is all this manga needs to be at least good.
That said, I feel like it leans a bit more on the usual RPG tropes in volume 3 — like Matthias telling Lurie and Alma to fight the monsters in the dungeon alone, but as he sits and watches them battle he has an item that allows him to gain experience. But it is a fantasy world so it’s not necessarily surprising, but the pacing makes it stand out rather than feel like it’s tacked on. The battles in this volume are stronger too — it felt a little chaotic when we had the first demon battle in volume 2, but with the monster and demon battles here, we can get a better sense of what’s happening and how.
So all in all, this was a fun, clean read that tells a fine story with some good-looking art. It still doesn’t do anything original, but through three volumes, there’s enough to look forward to with The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest. You probably have enough isekai on the market to read ,so it’s understandable if you’re not interested in adding another one. But if you are, this isn’t a bad one to try out.