Just like what entelegent and tallrice had pointed out, the novel has its drawbacks. I personally don't like and even despise some of the characters. There are also some parts, like personality, conversation, filler plots, that I don't agree with with the author. Even so, I can't help but love this novel. This novel is ridiculously addicting for me. I gave it a 9.5 because of all the enjoyments I got from reading the novel. I hope that it'll get localized soon with better English translations than the one from before.

As entelegent commented before me, the idea is is good (though hardly original with similar stories around like Yureka, SAO, log horizon, .hack, 1/2 prince, ark, etc...) and the story is pretty addicting - you're always wondering what stat is going to level up next and the adventures are, overall, good premises (though again, hardly original considering all the actual MMORPGs around).

But... I think the biggest problem can be summed up in a single sentence: the author never tries to 'show' anything in his writing, whether it be character relations, thoughts or actions, but always 'tells' the reader what to think.

This style essentially results in us being told, every chapter that Weed is amazing, smart, cunning, powerful and somehow smarter or more capable than everyone else. There is no character who I would particularly call interesting in the series - all the girls introduced are the simplest of stereotypes, and all of them are somehow the most beautiful girl you can imagine - in fact, I'm not sure any of the women introduced were not introduced in this way (minus Seoyong's psychologist or Weed's grandmother), whether it be Seoyong, Lee Hayan, the shaman girl, Hwaryeong or Jihoon... even Surka and Meyoon were supposed to be hot, if not 'the most in the world' like all the others... (And the male characters who are friends with Weed are all the same - Zephyr the closet heir to a big company, Ahn, the greatest master of the sword in Korean martial arts... well, Pale isn't anything special, just has a TV anchor as his girlfriend... and Mapan was never really more than a side character, and I don't remember if there was any other male character that lasted more than a paragraph...)

Then, the story essentially devolves into 'Weed' or "Lee" does this and that, is idolised by all, is smarter than all, and somehow is the only person (of 100 million) in the game who cares about his stats and skill levels (rather than character level). As a result, he easily surpasses everyone and goes around stumbling into badass supper hidden quests that he hoodwinks NPCs into doing for him with his cooking skills. Not only that, but on one side, he is always described as stingy and money-obsessed, scamming people out of their money or gold, or labour (in the pyramids for instance) and yet a) everyone who meets him likes him and he treats them super well (if patronisingly), b) whenever it comes to NPCs, they seem to react only to Weed's charms and never to anyone else... Not only that, but in any matter except money, he is described as a paragon of virtue - helping his family and extending charity to the his friends who can't do anything without him.

Even more problematic is that most of his 'badassedness' appears to be luck... he just happened to get quests for grinding scarecrows, just happened to be pushed into his legendary class, just happened to meet supermodels playing the game, just happened to be the first to discover tons of new dungeons and regions, just happened to say the write thing to trigger NPC events...

As for setting, the beginning was not so bad with the Rosenheim capital city's specific places, but later on Weed just appears everywhere and nowhere and there is very little that isn't superficial RPG environments. Description is also pretty much non-existant, most of the places, cities, monsters, foods, items or anything else are assumed to be recognised by anyone with the most basic of RPG knowledge (?). The author does not hesitate to tell us point blank what people and things are 'beautiful' or 'special' though... so if you like that type of description, you'll enjoy it for sure...

So as for all the comments about how the writing style is good but the translations are bad... I'd like to say that the writing style (original) sucks, but the translations are pretty good, all considering. There are grammar problems here and there, but hardly every paragraph and never anything that makes it difficult it understand, and the layout and presentation was nice. Note that I was reading the Royal Road translations or at least uploads on their site. It takes a ton of work to translate novels like that, particularly if they're pretty monotonous, so I think they did an impressive job.

Anyway, no reread or literary value, in the slightest, but it is an addicting and uplifting tale of someone who excels above others in a game. So it does have appeal in that respect.

... Last updated on May 17th, 2014, 3:13am

To be blunt it's amazing. The world is awesome, the characters are diverse and interesting, it is hilarious, really I laughed countless times so far. Still I didn't give it a perfect rating, why?

It is very well written, the translations are kind of screwed at times, but that's tolerable. The point of view is regularly changed and even minor characters seem special. Really one could argue the author does everything right what he could do. BUT.

It's the flow. Small things like you really want a certain character to appear now. Or knowing what will happen now exactly and wanting to just get things done. It shows other characters nicely but sometimes it just completely destroys what was build so far. It is often glossed over with humor or character development, and don't get me wrong, very skillfully. But disturbingly enough for me to lower the score no matter how insignificant.

I'd recommend this any day, especially if you want to have a good laugh and less sleep.

flawless novel for most people, you won't regret reading this - 9.5/10

... Last updated on May 16th, 2014, 5:14pm

The main character Weed is a extreme money-obsessed hard-worker for who the end (covering for his little sister's studies) justify the means (two to four hours of sleep per night, selfishness, extreme greediness and heavy-handed use of flattery). The setting is very cliche where poor orphaned Weed works extremely hard since the age of ten to pay off huge debts from his deceased parents to loan sharks (sharks being way too small a word for them, since these guys add a 50% interest rate each year). Somehow the legal aspect of this is not questioned, and Weed manages to find the time to go to school and to play a MMORPG (sometimes apparently 10 days without sleep) where he has by far the strongest character despite always playing alone (yes this makes no sense, as many things in the novel). Selling his account for the equivalent of 3 million dollars (people in this world really like games) Weed manages to barely pay off his parents debts. And now in order to make more money he sets off to a new mmorpg, Royal Road, which is a virtual reality world much resembling ours except for the fantasy setting and strange mmorpg rules. In this world non-player characters (npc) have amazing artificial intelligence that makes them completely human-like, and characters make the exact movements the players do, resulting in a transfer of skill between the character and his avatar. After spending a year to train in martial arts and collecting information about mmos, Weed starts his great quest for money.

Reading the Legendary Moonlight Sculptor feels as the author going on his character's adventure, having a faint idea of his global direction but discovering with us what will be on the way. This gives a sloppy scenario with many holes, but a nice feeling of freshness and unexpected. Weed is a very unrealistic character, and while many things about him don't make sense due the sloppiness and flawed logic of the author, his extreme personality and greed make him a fun character to follow. The other characters are a little bland, but this matter little as most of the focus is spent from Weed's perspective.

Overall if you can bear with the poor writing style, the many holes and non-sense, the Legendary Moonlight Sculptor is a fresh and fun novel of adventure.

Spent somewhere about 90 hours over a week reading this and it was worth it, cant wait for him to do stuff with all the awesome sculpture things he has gotten recently. Also if you enjoyed this series Ark is a similar series that hasnt progressed as far but still seemed interesting right after reading LMS japtem has it finished to volume 2

Weed is awesome i love how he is greedy and immoral.I really like the way he plays people to do what he wants in royal road the only things about him that bothers me is the way he looks down on his class and the fact that later on in the novel he doesn't level up as much but that's due to his class abilities which are really cool i also kinda wish he would go beat the shit out of the loan shark that messed him growing up but i'm sure he will get even some day he is after all pretty evil that is what i love about him.Over all weed is a great character loves his sister and grandmother above all and sees the world for what it is he works really hard to get what he wants and doesn't give a danm who he has to trample to get it.

If I thought SAO was the end of VR related novels, after reading this I came to know I couldnt have been more wrong. The protagonist is fun and his actions can catch you of-guard. Though stingy at times he still makes you smile through his actions. His ability to analyze the situation seem pretty good. Though the translations are not that great but the story still get a hold of you. Though writer should spend probably a more time on other character, but still the story as it is uptill Vol.17(latest i have read) works for me.
He is really focused and hard working and has quite a bit of luck. Though even with this luck no one could deny that without his own strengths and hard work, he wouldn`t have been able to achieve what he did. A highly recommended one to every LN fan out there.

The story gets a few points for the basic idea and for being so long; nothing added to that though. What follows is a small portion of the problems with the novel.
Again, the series has a fun idea. But that's about it. It doesn't improve over time, instead piling more mistakes to the hill each chapter and rarely trying to fix what's bad and wrong. Partially successful ideas are reused endlessly, seldom trying anything new. The story doesn't even stick with its RPG elements very well. Ignoring missions and related things: stats, leveling, skills, and gold lose whatever value they once had, and not for the usual reasons. The author just doesn't try.
Translation quality aside, the author isn't an effective writer at all and doesn't express ideas well. And the foundation of the story is absolutely full of enormous holes. For just one example: time passes four times slower in the virtual world, so people live four times longer while they're in it. And that's not used logically or taken advantage of by anyone; no people enjoying much longer lives, no classes taking place there, no companies getting a huge edge over others, nothing like that, though benefits would far outweigh the costs.
There are also very annoying things. As powerdown put it, Sudden Girlfriend Appearance. Numerous beautiful and/or famous women have circled around the protagonist. Most females have little thought put into them for their debut, and later they become very attractive; or they are 'love' interests from the beginning, decided by an author who seems to have no idea what love is. On another note, the protagonist is terribly written. It's not that he's an antihero; he started out as a potentially interesting one, with awesome if bland determination, a history and perspective that induced musing, and a potential purpose that could have been interesting or at least consistent. Instead the purpose becomes murky and he increasingly ignores logic; since he doesn't even have much empathy, there's little left. As part of that, he'll spend great amounts of money on risky endeavors but pinches pennies. Instead of complaining and bargaining, he could instead agree and leave sooner, then increase his money, inventory, experience, and reputation in that time. He fails at providing a refreshing viewpoint. His potential complexity never arrived at intriguing dissonance, instead falling into the underworld of failed characters. His holes aren't intended, he simply isn't well constructed, and the same applies to the larger story.
Characters, plot, writing skill and effort: everything's terrible.

... Last updated on February 9th, 2014, 10:08am

Well this is a great story and i think they will be very involving in the feauture. But the only complain is the slow release (15v 11ch at the moment) from the translation group but isn't their fault. Here someone can help with translation? I could help if is a manga (i'm an editor) but with translation i can't do nothing.

weed is one of my favorite MC in a light novel ever.
he's refreshingly unrepentant about his greed and upfront about his motivations. He's unscrupulous and always trying to figure out a way to get the better part of any deal. But he works hard, even if his motivations differ from most and he is absolutely hilarious in his terrified interactions and his suspicions with seoyun, especially in the beginning.
despite the fact that the fan translations need a lot of editing love (sentence structure, syntax, name continuity) its a very addicting series and i'm very glad that there is someone out there that is working on it at all!!
well worth reading, but the MC will either make it or break it for you.