After reading this seventh novel of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon, it's easy to conclude that the anime ended before the best parts of the story really began. This second story to take place after the end of the animated adaptation is one of Fujino Omori's most ambitious, both thematically and in terms of complexity, and it's also the first to actually work with the series' misleading title to a degree. As you can see from the cover, it tackles some more adult content than previous volumes as well, and Bell is the victim of three separate women's sexual advances, none of which he welcomes and none of whom are Hestia, Lilly, or Aiz. That fits in with the overall theme of sexual slavery and the cult of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, who is the latest divinity to enter the story.

In the mythology of the Ancient Middle East, Ishtar wears many hats – she's the goddess of love and beauty, yes, but also of war, sex, and power. She is said to have treated her lovers cruelly, and Omori uses the possibility some scholars have raised of temples of Ishtar engaging in sacred prostitution as the basis for his interpretation of the character. The large and powerful Ishtar Familia is in charge of the so-called Pleasure Quarter of Orario, and while most of her familia members are there willingly and engage in prostitution because they have no problem with it or enjoy it, there are also those who have been sold into sexual slavery. One of these is Haruhime, a young noblewoman from Mikoto's homeland with whom she and the other members of Takemikazuchi Familia were friends. She's a “renart,” a fox person, which makes her particularly special, and Mikoto is aghast to discover her whereabouts. When Bell accidentally encounters her (and declines to have sex with her), he becomes aware of the situation as well, and he and Mikoto decide to throw caution to the wind to get her out of Ishtar's clutches.

The story largely follows Bell and Mikoto alone of the familiar characters in the series, while also introducing two of Ishtar's familia members, Phryne (named for a renowned Grecian courtesan) and Aisha, whose name is a bit more problematic, as mythologically it belongs to one of Mohammad's wives. Both are Amazons, as are most of Ishtar's followers, based on the idea that Amazons actively hunt men who can father strong children, so being a sex worker in an adventurer city is an ideal way to seek out the best potential dads. Phryne is very much the actual villain of the piece, and her attempts to rape Bell are very reminiscent of the Big Bad Wolf chasing Little Red Riding Hood. It's an interesting gender reversal of the norm, and Omori seems to use it to indicate that consent is consent no matter what the victim's gender. He's very clear in his author's note that this was something that he wanted to explore with this novel, and he draws a parallel between Bell, who is able to turn the tables each time he is faced with unwanted sexual attention, and Haruhime, who spends most of the book chained both literally and figuratively. This leads to the most interesting theme of the novel: choice versus compulsory action. Phryne delights in her work, actively seeking out men and happily dosing them with aphrodisiacs if need be (and it always needs be), and even Aisha seems to enjoy herself to a degree. But Haruhime feels defiled and unworthy, like she is indeed fallen from a better, worthier place for a woman. She tells Bell that she knows that she will never be rescued because heroes don't save the prostitutes – they're not worthy of being saved. When Bell and Mikoto do determine to save her, Omori is telling the reader that Haruhime was always worth saving, and that her feelings of shame were all in her head. Sexual activity does not determine a person's worth, a point driven home by the fact that Aisha is also redeemed at the novel's end.

Granted, Omori does trample on this theme a bit with a late novel revelation about Haruhime's supposed impurity, but that, like the novel's title, feels like it was thrown in to appease the market. In this case the band-aid is particularly troubling, as it stands to undo a lot of what he previously attempted to thematically establish. Notions of “purity” don't quite follow through for most of the book, but whether that is editorial interference or simply Omori's own conflict about long-established social norms is unclear. He does deserve a lot of credit for tackling the subject in a light novel rather than a literary work, however, and by and large his willingness to try pays off.

Overall this is a very dense story, with a lot of exciting action at the end prefaced by more emotional turmoil. Omori's writing has improved with less overwriting and farting around with overblown descriptions of the female characters – the writing feels more natural as a whole. The action scenes, particularly towards the end, are exciting and dynamic, while the emotional content has a real weight to it. The lack of Hestia, Lilly, and Welf is a bit of a letdown, but it does allow Mikoto to develop as a character while also granting Hestia a bit more of a divine air; this is probably the most godly we've seen her. Freya also takes a much bigger role, reminding readers why she has one of the top Familias in the city, and Hermes plays an interesting part. He's vaguely reminiscent of Xeloss from Slayers Next – sly and deceptively helpful, but fully aware of everything that's shaping current events, both past and future. He definitely bears keeping an eye on as the story moves forward.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon is proving itself to be one of the strongest light novel series currently available in English. Fujino Omori's willingness to go beyond typical light novel themes and fare pays off, and his use of mythology continues to be fascinating, particularly as pertains to Ishtar and Hermes. At almost four hundred pages, this is the longest book in the series thus far, and given what he can do with these longer stories, it's worth hoping that the stories continue to maintain this length and depth going forward.