Solo Leveling (Volume 6) – I’d Lost My Cool Too!
Jinwoo continued to scale the Demon’s Castle and even took a young demon noble under his wing as a guide. However, no other demon family was as willing to negotiate. Can Jinwoo defeat the Demon Monarch and create the Elixir of Life?
Solo Leveling (Volume 6) – I’d Lost My Cool Too!
What happened?
After defeating the Demon Noble’s knights, Jinwoo was surprised when the demon begged for mercy. When she turned out to be a woman too, he decided to try something different. He asked her about the demons and whether they heard a voice telling them to kill humans. She doesn’t, but there is a voice telling them to defend the Demon’s Castle. Esil then told him that they woke up one day in the castle, however, before that the demons were uniting together to fight a war with a fearsome enemy, however, everything she said next was redacted by the system. Jinwoo decided to keep her around providing her family could give him the entry permit to the next floor.
Her father gave Jinwoo the permit and allowed him to leave, although in truth he had no choice in the matter. On the next floor, Esil gave Jinwoo a gift to give to the demon family in exchange for the next permit. That didn’t work, so Jinwoo took it. The same thing happened on every floor after that. Eventually, Jinwoo made it to the one-hundredth floor and came face to face with the Demon Monarch, Balan. He had given Esil the chance to leave before he climbed to the last floor but she decided to stay with him. It proved pivotal as she decided to aid him, creating an opening for Jinwoo to kill Balan. He claimed his rewards and also revived the Wyvern Balan had been riding on as a Shadow Warrior.
After Jinwoo had successfully crafted the Elixir of Life, Esil told him that her father would likely celebrate their success, especially now that they were the top demon family by default. However, Jinwoo gained the ability to switch with any of his shadows instantly, no matter how far away they were. He thanked Esil for her help and then vanished, reappearing in his home neighbourhood. He summoned the Wyvern and rode it to the hospital where he gave his mother the Elixir of Life. It took a moment to fully work, but eventually, his mother woke up.
She was pleased to see Jinwoo although surprised that four years had passed. Jinah arrived shortly after which made all of Jinwoo’s hard work worth it. Then, Gunhee Go phoned Jinwoo and asked to meet with him. A joint operation to defeat the S-Ranked Gate with the Japanese Hunters’ Guild had been set in place and he wanted Jinwoo to join them. While at the Hunter’s Association headquarters, Jinwoo felt a powerful aura and was compelled to see what was going on. Several of the S-Ranked Hunters from both nations were sparring in preparation for the raid. However, when one fight got out of hand, Jinwoo instantly stepped in, subduing the Japanese Hunter with ease.
This caught the attention of Ryuji Goto, the strongest Hunter in Japan who asked that Jinwoo have a one-on-one fight with him. Goto has seen through Jinwoo’s destination as a Hunter Mage, realising that he was definitely an Assassin. However, he had no idea that Jinwoo was both. After a while, things heated up to the point that both sides had to step in before Goto and Jinwoo destroyed the building. Regardless, Goto had seen enough to be interested in Jinwoo’s future. However, he was stunned to see that Jinwoo had not agreed to take part in the Jeju Island raid. Of course, he also had no idea that Jinwoo had planted some of his Shadow Warriors in the shadows of his fellow Hunters. Jinwoo was determined to help his mother settle back into life and needed to be there for her first.
The Raid started well with the Japanese Hunters drawing all of the magic beast ants out of the colony and engaging them across the island. Meanwhile, the Korean Hunters dropped into the nest and hunted for the Queen. Everything was going well until suddenly it wasn’t. One of the four teams suddenly stopped responding and when another team went to check on them, they too disappeared. The ants had evolved again, but what was this new terror that they had produced that was capable of easily defeating S-Ranked Hunters?
What did you think?
This series just keeps getting better and better and I’m worried that to keep up that sort of level of improvement, the last book is going to have to be out of this world. Anyhow, this was excellent. I had to laugh when Jinwoo compared Esil to Jinho as he wondered if he just gets along with dummies. I do wonder if any of the other demon nobles he thought were cute girls like Esil or whether they were easy for him to fight given they probably looked more like Baran. Anyhow, I’m not judging Jinwoo! It was the right call in my books… Then, seeing his sister when she realised that their mother had woken up from the incurable illness that is a result of exposure to Hunters (no doubt caused by their father, Ilhwan Sung) made all the hard work worth it. That was a great moment.
The practice fights between the Japanese and Korean Hunters were great too, but it was Goto and Jinwoo’s fight that really took things to another level. It was cool that all the other S-Ranked Hunters had to jump in to stop them from going too far. I loved it when it showed that Jinwoo had hidden Shadow Warriors in Haein Cha, Yoonho Baek, and Ryuji Goto’s shadows and how Jinwoo was disappointed that they didn’t notice. Of course, this gives Jinwoo the chance to monitor the Jeju Raid and jump in whenever something gets out of control. It certainly showed us how Jinwoo could do that with the guy he stopped from attacking a girl in his neighbourhood. The fights on Jeju Island were great, but I also feel like those are just getting started, so that’s as good a reason to dive straight into the next volume. I know what I’m doing!
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 |
Anime
Season One
I better reread this arc soon because it’s a first for me that you see Jinwoo feeling disappointed with S-rank Hunters being unable to detect his shadow soldiers. I thought of him being impassive about the difference between his and their powers. Funny enough, I’m currently writing a chapter where my female protagonist’s powers get noticed not by an S-rank person, and it’s due to the subclass’ traits that person has.
The manhwa’s humorous moments (mainly the comedic visuals) does give a breeze so I think I can understand some fans are disappointed it’s not seen enough in the anime version so far. As much as I appreciate comic relief characters, my ongoing series may not have an official one though I’m tempted to count my female protagonist being that in terms of doing something that looks normal to her, but looks ridiculous in others’ POV. Hopefully I can describe these traits more in my later arcs.
Yeah, it was really interesting to see him realise that the S-Ranks are not what he had expected after hiding a shadow warrior in several of their shadows. I love little things like that so am often quick to notice those details.
And, that sort of comedic relief worked in BOFURI where everything Maple did was insane, but seemed perfectly natural to her. I love those sorts of stories. It’s the same way people react to overpowered protagonists who don’t realise just how powerful they are.