The Daily Grind

Excellent.  It's existential Dungeons & Dilbert.  Something is profoundly wrong with reality, and the protagonist is well aware of that, but then again when wasn't something wrong with reality?  Anyway, there's money and candy.  Strange candy.

Started great, butbsaw a significant if gradual drop in quality, particularly as previously established character traits were disregarded entirely and suddenly in later chapters

This series has several positives:

---The viewpoint is written clearly and fluidly, making what is happening easy to follow and understand.

---Even though the premise isn't new, it is an interesting variant.

---The character's actions and reactions are consistent with what we know of him and his motivations.

---It handles suspension of disbelief nicely by having a clear demarcation between 'real world' and 'here be dragons'. It looks like that might blur as the story progresses, but the initial separation makes it easier to get the story going.

---The balance and timing of action versus the character thinking about and reacting to what just happened is good.

On a 'could be a plus, could be a minus' note, the protagonist looks like a slow developer, as opposed to immediately OP or quick growth. I personally like stories either way, so this isn't a negative for me.

So, overall a solid start. It is an open question as to whether this has a plot / larger theme or is more slice of life, but it looks like it could do well with either.

The Daily Grind is a decent story with an interesting premise and magic system that starts strong but makes some suboptimal story choices.

The basic premise of the story is that an IT Call Center employee discovers an office-themed dungeon dimension, and begins to explore it, eventually getting his friends involved and delving as a group.

The early plotlines where the focus is more on discovery and exploration is the strongest part of the story, with the novelty of the magic system and setting really shining. 

Eventually, the plotting of the story gets a bit too slow, with the story arcs feeling somewhat cyclical. A serious missed opportunity in the story is that the characters get skills and the story subsequently forgets about them. While a lot of the skills are seemingly useless, having the characters find creative ways to utilize or apply them would have been much better than just completely neglecting them. This leads into another issue I have. While I understand why the author paced the story the way they did, I think it took way too long for any cool or exciting skills to appear, resulting in skill gains being something just to glance over since the reader could expect that none of them would be story-relevant.

The characters in the story are a bit two-dimensional and simplistic in personality, and their interactions get very repetitive and lack depth. The intelligence of the characters and quality of their planning and strategizing seems to widely fluctuate based on the needs to the story. I personally have no issue with the MMF relationship that appeared in the story, but it came out of nowhere, and the lack of significant depth to the characters and their interactions makes it hard to care about.  

Finally, while the editing is good, it could be improved, specifically with regards to spelling and phrasing. 

Overall, if the premise intrigues you, give this story a shot, but don't hold your breath for solid plotting or complex characters.

(As of Chapter 60)

This is my first review, and I can actually say that is written from Spite. 

So before I begin, I would like to actually thank all the bigots that messaged Argus. Thank you for waking me up, I actually needed it.

But let's talk about this story. First point. The grammar. Did I find typos? Yes. Is it normal? Absolutely. There are things that escape even four re-reading. I know. It happens to me all the time. 

Point two. The style. I Love how the story is unfolding, the pace that is given, the cliffhangers that don't feel like cliffhangers at all, the fluidity I find in the dialogues, that brings me to point three:

The characters. Every single character is Unique, and is not defined by a single characteristic (sorry for the redundancy but it was needed). They feel and act like human beings. Sometimes rash, sometimes stupid. Sometimes in love, and the people who they love are just that: their love interest, developed through the pages. First time I actually see polyamorous and bi representation in a book. Hats off, Argus, you pulled it off in a fantastic, non - cringe way, I actually teared up when I read that because it was so spontaneous and heartfelt I thought "is this Bojack F*****' Horseman?" and to actually think there is actually (probably? Am I imagining things? ) Aro/ace representation warms my heart. 

And then the story. Is there dungeon crawling? Yes. Is there a real plot that is being developed as the adventure goes on? Yes. Is it going anywhere? I hope so because I want a copy to put on my drawer and read and read it to my future children and my significant other and translate it just to make my Parents read it because it is a novel worthy to be called so. It Is Novel. It's beautiful. Thank you Argus because I check the site every day to see you update and when I will be financially stable I Swear to support your story, as every other fellow reader, if he has the possibility, should do. 

Support this story, read it, talk about it, and spread it. 

Let's not be devoured by the Daily Grind.

Idea of this story is good, but implementation not. Author instead of  improving story or it's characters,  he made it into comedy and characters unrealistic.

Author is rushing story into action, forgets planning, like loot distribution, positioning.

Conversations are out of place, they get hurt, they are bleeding, and all they do is make few jokes.

Also, MCs boss shouldn't freely say to other strangers that mc is anoying or things like that. Relationship between employer and worker have to be strictly professional if not, it can be implemented as harrasing.

writing is not that good. it is hard to understand who is thinking what.

Other than that, this story is one of the good ones in RRL

Edit: So i feel like i should update my review. 

First, it's still feel like story is being rushed into action(But it's me who personally likes strategy and planning in books)

Second, conversations are getting better( maybe just I am getting used to them)

third, about relationships between employe and employer is wrong, in my country is totally different so i didn't even thouth that in america is like this.

Also respect for author for reading reviews and trying improve this story and himself. that got this story second chance from me. Keep writing this story, i got past what i don't like and it become one of the favourites in rrl.

I've read a lot of garbage on this site. Shit tropes on shit tropes, etc. If you've been on RoyalRoad for awhile and want something new to fantasize to that isn't absolutely cringeworthy, you've come to the right place.

I think the story is original, well written, somewhat realistic and would be an AMAZING SCP. 

C'mon Author. Talk to the people running the SCP foundation wiki and have a colab. 

Do you ever wonder what's like to have a stapler as a pet ? No ? To bad ! Now you know !!!

This is the first story that I read on this sight after having it be suggested to me by a friend. I work in a call center myself and this story really resonates with those experiences and makes me laugh since I can draw many links to my own experiences. 

The characters, story, and RPG elements are well done and I have become very interested in seeing where this is going to go in the next few chapters. It is always a good sign when an author is able to draw you in and have you sitting on the edge of your seat during a combat or reveal scene.

Keep up the good work argusthecat!