"Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!" (bless this wonderful world!) volume 2 by Akatsuki Natsume. Despite the cover art, this volume is more about Aqua, the cause of, and the solution to, all of life's problems.
Highlight of this volume is the "Destroyer", a final boss that is fitting for a fantasy world, but designed in a very goofy way that is consistent with the spirit of this novel. The diary of all the flukes that caused this Destroyer to come into being is brilliant, and how it all ended allowed Megumin to earn her place on the cover.
Otherwise, this volume had way fewer explosions than volume 1, and it was mostly about how surprisingly capable Aqua is. Besides having seemingly unlimited magic energy, exercised her healing skills at all the right moments, and protected Kazuma from countless undead beings. Ignoring the fact that the presence of Aqua is why those undead came about, Aqua left a much better impression in this volume.
Kazuma also did quite well in this volume, particularly in a chapter where he joined a different party for one day, and demonstrated his worth as a capable adventurer while using only low level magic skills. It's a good account of how quests normally would progress, and would suggest that most of the difficulties in this novel were due to poor choice of party members. But of course, it's just so much more fun to see Kazuma back with his usual party, and approach problems in unusual ways.
For anime viewers, this volume covers all the remaining episodes up to episode 10, plus two extra chapters that have not made it to the anime series (yet). Coincidentally, they are the two chapters where Aqua and Kazuma each performed better than usual while not going in the usual party of four. Maybe the anime skipped these for character balance reasons.
Looking forward to unfamiliar content in volume 3. Maybe next time, Kazuma won't immediately die in page 1.
Previous (2016-04-30): "Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!" volume 1 by Akatsuki Natsume
Next (2016-05-17): "Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!" volume 3 by Akatsuki Natsume