As a WN reader, so far nothing too interesting has happened yet and the new girl was kinda of a let down in terms of contributing to the plot. (Pun intended)
As far as I can tell, the manga really does makes the story more interesting. I'm always irritated at the fact of LNs always relies on illustrations instead describing a character/place/weapon/setting in the novel.
But I'm not dropping it though. Got a lot of hopes for this series.