Solo Leveling (Volume 10) – The Deal is Off!
Jinwoo arrived in Japan and began to make quick work of defeating the giants with the help of his shadow army. With each one he defeated, he gained another powerful warrior to add to his ranks, but the boss might be a different matter!
Solo Leveling (Solo Leveling (Volume 10) – The Deal is Off!
What happened?
After defeating most of the thirty-one giants that escaped from the gate, Jinwoo was ready to turn his attention to the one guarding the gate – the one who ate S-Ranked Hunter Yuri Orlov. With all of his shadow army back in one place, Jinwoo ordered the attack. However, the giant’s first counter wiped out half of his shadows. Luckily, Jinwoo’s HP was so large now that he had more than enough to regenerate them for a while. However, he wouldn’t want it to get too low. After several waves of attack, Jinwoo spotted the opening he was waiting for. The giant’s weakness had been revealed so he attacked and created an opening for Beru to fly into the giant’s eye and attack from within. They defeated it, but it wasn’t the boss.
Jinwoo entered the gate and was greeted by laughter. Inside he found one of the Monarchs restrained with chains that pierced his skin. He was Regio, King of the Giants and Monarch of the Beginning. Regio realised that Jinwoo was not the Shadow Monarch that he knew, but tried to make an agreement with him. He activated a truth pact that would force them both to only say the truth until it was ended. Jinwoo agreed and heard what Regio had to say. He learned about the Rulers and the other Monarchs, who would both be after him. Having Regio on his side would make for a wonderful asset, however, a shadow warrior would be better yet. The Monarch’s however could not be revived. Jinwoo was about to release Regio when he asked if he would kill humans, aware of how the other Magic Beasts were compelled to kill humans. Regio did not answer. He knew that Jinwoo would not like the truth, but Jinwoo understood and killed Regio, closing the S-Ranked Gate.
As they were cleaning up the final mess from the Gate break, Jinho received a call about his father. Jinwoo told him to head home and take care of what he needed to. When Jinho arrived home, he learned that his father had fallen asleep from the mana sickness and was likely never to wake again. As Jinho left the hospital, he thought that he felt another presence for a second, but shrugged it off as nothing. In actual fact, it was Jinwoo using his stealth ability to watch over Jinho. He administered the medicine that woke his mother from the final sleep to Jinho’s father and then left.
Thanks to their work in Japan, Ahjin Guild was selected to represent Korea at the International Guild Conference, meaning Jinwoo and Jinho would be going to the United States. Of course, National-Ranked Hunter Thomas Andre was aware of the issues concerning Dongsoo Hwang and his need to get revenge for his brother. He warned Dongsoo to stay away but he didn’t listen, kidnapping Jinho while Jinwoo was attempting to revive the most ferocious Magic Beast the world had encountered. It failed as the dragon had been dead for too long, but he did learn that several other humans had borrowed the powers of the Rulers. One of the National-Ranked Hunters had recently been murdered and Jinwoo’s father was the top suspect. Could the other National-Ranked Hunters have the Ruler’s powers?
Jinwoo learned of Jinho’s disappearance when he returned to the conference and instantly sent his shadows to look for him. He was annoyed at himself for not assigning a new shadow to Jinho after using the last one to transfer from Japan and heal Jinho’s father, but there was no time to get down on himself. The shadows were looking and it wouldn’t take long. When he found him, he transferred with the shadow and showed Dongsoo why he was not to be messed with. The power difference between them was staggering, however, Jinho was too injured for his healing potion to work on him.
Thomas Andre arrived shortly after to find Dongsoo barely alive. He told Jinwoo that if he let him live, he would pretend this never happened. Jinwoo told Igres to talk Jinho to a hospital and then turned to face Thomas, having tossed Dongsoo away like a dirty rag. Thomas was not about to let Jinwoo insult him and even questioned if Jinwoo knew who he was. Jinwoo said that it didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to back down and neither was Thomas Andre. This was about to get very messy!
What did you think?
While this volume was much better than the last one, I still can’t shake the feeling that we’re just supposed to accept that Jinwoo somehow devoured the System and then killed the architect, keeping the power of the Shadow Monarch for himself. I do like the idea that there are others who have acquired the powers of the Rulers and that they are likely the National-Ranked Hunters who are likely now being targetted by the other Monarchs. There’s still a lot to be revealed and I’m a little concerned that everything won’t be tidied up by the end, especially given the stuff with the architect.
I do find it implausible that Jinwoo would not have instantly assigned another shadow to follow Jinho, although I appreciate the attempt to come up with a reason as to why he hadn’t. Also, the fights continue to be big and flashy, but they are ultimately a slugfest with no skill or nuance. How many times has the eye been the weakness of the big monster? It doesn’t feel like Jinwoo is learning anything from his challenges. Now, he just overcomes every obstacle by simply being stronger than they are. In the beginning, he needed to think more, which made the fights more interesting. I’m still enjoying the series, but it peaked for me at Jeju Island. Hopefully, it can change my mind in future volumes.
Series Information
| English Title | Solo Leveling |
| Japanese Title | Ore dake Level Up na Ken |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Fantasy |
| Demographic | Seinen |
Manwha
| Series | Solo Leveling | ||
| Author | Chugong | ||
| Artist | Dubu | ||
| Volumes | Ongoing | Chapters | Webtoon Chapters |
| 1 | The Weakest Hunter of All Mankind | 1-3 | 1-12 |
| 2 | The Lizards | 3-5 | 13-26 |
| 3 | Job-Change Quest | 6-8 | 27-44 |
| 4 | Unless You’re An S-Rank! | 9-10 | 45-63 |
| 5 | May I Kill All of These Magic Beasts? | 11-13 | 64-81 |
| 6 | I’d Lost My Cool Too! | 14-17 | 82-97 |
| 7 | Everything Will Be Fine! | 18-21 | 98-110 |
| 8 | One-Man Guild! | 22-24 | 111-122 |
| 9 | It Was War! | 25-27 | 123-134 |
| 10 | The Deal is Off! | 28-30 | 135-146 |
Anime
Season One
Till today, I’m still surprised there are diehard SoLev fans thinking the story from the beginning to the end makes sense even though I start to wonder if “relatable bias” somewhat blind them to not see how monotonous Jinwoo’s fights become after getting his Shadow Monarch upgrade powers.
I’m gonna get flak from the extremist diehards, but SoLev is meant to be a romanticised LitRPG power fantasy story; hence the plot-driven story works despite the mystery elements had an underwhelming execution for me. It’s no surprise since that kind of premise & setting was a fresh thing back when it was written and published on Munpia website back in 2014 (and two years later becomes D&C/Kakao intellectual property). There’s nothing wrong with it, but if storytelling wise, it would’ve become a bit more memorable if it was really a character-driven story.
I’ve seen some of them saying “Jinwoo is meant to be showcasing his dominance over his enemies”, but if you ask me, this is one of the writing elements that don’t aged well (though it might’ve been a novelty back in the 2010s), and why SoLev remains as a “time capsule story” in my POV. Then again, my own webnovel series is heavily inspired by SoLev so it might not aged well, but I’m trying my best to go in different directions that I wished SoLev did in its last few arcs from its ending.
While I have been enjoying the series, it has not continued with the same intensity that it started with, which is a massive shame. It was building nicely and then it reached a point (Jeju Island for me) and then it’s plateaued. I think once the anime has finished, the series will not live on as long as some of the more complex series that continue to push things and develop their characters. It’s been fun, but I don’t think I’ll think about it for too long once I’m done.
If Jinwoo beats all of his opponents in the exact same way it gets very boring, very quickly, and that is what’s happening. It looks good and it’s all very flashy, but it has no substance. As an underdog, he had to fight for everything using every trick at his disposal. There are plenty of stories with overpowered protagonist that get it right. Sadly, this is not one of them.
Ah~ now that I think about it, TBATE (which unfortunately got an anime studio that’ll not be able to create the great experience of the webnovel and webtoon version to initial fans) has its beginning chapters inspired by Jobless Reincarnation. I probably will read it soon since I’m currently “rearranging” my future arcs though at end of the day, I’m just doing it for “another good read to myself” reason.
It’s going to be interesting to see how TBATE does. I’m certainly going to give it a good chance to grab my attention. That reminds me I need to finish reading the third light novel of Jobless Reincarnation.