Solo Leveling (Volume 5) – May I Kill All of These Magic Beasts?
Now that Jinwoo has pretty much been confirmed as an S-Ranked Hunter, the world is his oyster, which makes it all the more surprising when he signs up to be a miner for an A-Ranked Gate excavation team. He’s full of surprises!
Solo Leveling (Volume 5) – May I Kill All of These Magic Beasts?
What happened?
Jinwoo told Gunhee Go that his place was in the dungeons fighting monsters. It was refreshing for Go to hear and almost got him fired up enough to start raiding once more, if not for his age and position. Meanwhile, Dongsoo Hwang woke in the hospital to find himself with some serious injuries. How did that happen to an S-Ranked Hunter? However, he was asked if he still believed Ilhwan Sung to be a magic beast despite him helping Dongsoo out of the burning building after defeating him. Dongsoo refused to change his stance, but mostly because he still wanted vengeance for his big brother and now, he wanted to get even.
As Gunhee Go went over Jinwoo’s files once more, he received word that Jinwoo had joined a raid with the Hunters. So, was he all talk? Was Jinwoo just looking for a big signing bonus? Well, it turned out that he had signed up as an E-Ranked Hunter as a part of the Excavation Team, responsible for mining the precious materials once the magic beasts had been destroyed. Gunhee was surprised. However, not as surprised as the Excavation Team was when Jinwoo began mining. Because of him, they finished two hours early. The boss was so impressed he asked Jinwoo to come back tomorrow for another A-Ranked Gate where he would ensure Jinwoo got double the money.
During their lunch at the first job, Jinwoo went for a walk and found the boss’s lair. He considered fighting it but still wasn’t sure if he had it in him to defeat an A-Ranked boss alone. His thoughts were cut short when Haein Cha found him and asked him what he was doing. He put away his dagger and told her that he had gotten lost. She stepped closer to him and sniffed him… Jinwoo promptly turned and ran back to the job site. Haein Cha would not be in the party for the next gate as Hunters Guild had an A-team and a B-Team. The B-Team didn’t have any S-Ranked Hunters but made up for it with the number of A-Ranked Hunters. However, they were short a luggage carrier and asked the Excavation Team and Collection Team for a volunteer.
Jinwoo volunteered, desperate to get a good view of just how strong an A-Ranked Gate is. However, soon after entering the Gate, they were attacked by High Orcs. Jinwoo used his stealth to help them defeat the first wave, but when they tried to retreat the path was blocked by a magical gate that cursed the mages who tried to break it. More High Orcs arrived and demanded that they go with them to meet the boss. They agreed but were prepared to attack in mass as soon as the chance arrived. However, when they got there, they discovered an army of High Orcs. The boss was a High Orc Mage and he was accompanied by four extremely powerful High Orcs. Kihoon Son charged when he discovered that they were to be killed for sport, however, no one else went with him, terrified of what might happen.
Having spent the night thinking about Jinwoo and his “nice” scent, Haein Cha decided to follow up. She didn’t like that he had been snooping around the boss and was worried he might be a spy. However, when she went to check on him at the next Gate, she discovered that he had taken on the Luggage Carrier job and gone with the Strike Team. She decided to go inside and see what was going on. Meanwhile, the Strike Team watched as Karsalgan used gravity magic to bounce Kihoon Son between the ceiling and the floor. Once he was utterly defeated, Jinwoo approached him and asked if he could kill the magic beasts. Kihoon wasn’t sure what was going on but instantly agreed. Jinwoo didn’t want to step on any toes.
He used Karsalgan’s trick on his first bodyguard and then summoned his shadow army. They attacked the High Orcs, quickly carving through their ranks. The strike team could only watch helplessly as Jinwoo controlled an army of Shadows and even attacked himself. What was he? Meanwhile, Jinchul Woo of the Hunter’s Association arrived to check on Jinwoo and was shocked to discover that the reading on the Gate was wrong. They hurried inside to find him. However, Haein Cha had already found him. She stood in awe with the strike team as Jinwoo turned Karsalgan’s fallen troops into his Shadows and then used them to continue the fight. Eventually, Karsalgan turned himself into a giant to attack Jinwoo, but that just gave him a bigger target. Jinwoo defeated him and then summoned him as a Shadow.
What did you think?
It’s certainly impressive that this series continually manages to go bigger and harder with the action scenes. At the moment, there’s not a lot of development for the characters since it’s mostly focused on Jinwoo getting stronger and building his unstoppable shadow army, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t entertaining. In fact, this has been incredible. I can’t wait to see this volume turned into an anime too. Given how much more exciting the fights with Cerberus and Igres the Redblood were in the anime than the manwha, these fights should be unbelievable.
The main story development in this volume was that Jinwoo was going to make his own guild and asked Jinho to come with him. I think he’s going to run things differently to the existing guilds. I liked that he assigned some of his Shadows to guard Jinah and even sent a group to patrol the neighbourhood fighting crime from the shadows. I can see him doing something that makes it easier for lower-ranked Hunters to make a living. I see his approach as being very altruistic while allowing him to continually level up. Of course, we still need to discover the true nature of the gates and the magic beasts, especially as one of the ant magic beasts from Jeju Island has made it to another island. There’s more to the story than incredible action and while I am looking forward to finding out more about that, the action is always fun.
Volume highlights
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 |
| 11 | I Have No Regrets! | 31-33 | 147-158 |
Anime
Season One
I’m starting to re-read the volumes from the beginning again, and probably I should get to this volume (though I still remember what happened in it) for a deeper inspiration for my seventh story arc. There’s something about the mining scenes that became the setup for my next unforeseen incident.
Moreover, the actions scenes are always the highlight given how beautifully the details are colored and drawn by the late Jang Sung-rak (a.k.a. DUBU). I guess my own actions scenes, though hopefully they make sense, could be my way of commemorating him even though they’re all black-and-white words.
I loved the mining scenes, although it was the one when he went in as the baggage carrier that really took things to another level. It made me laugh that he still didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes and was sure to get permission to fight the magic beasts before he massacred them.
As far as action goes, this series does an amazing job of continually raising the bar. I don’t think there’s been on action sequence that hasn’t topped the last one. I hope that continues, too!