Solo Leveling – 12 (S1 Fin) – Shadow Monarch

Jinwoo has gone and backed himself into a corner. The knights keep coming, his fatigue and HP continue to drop, and he has no way to raise them. He eventually ends up on the ground, contemplating his demise once again, and haunted by the voices of those who said he was the weakest hunter ever, and even kinder voices like Joohee who told him he didn’t have to push himself so hard. Even his former, weaker self shows up to tell him that beneath his tougher body he’s still weak.

While that might be true, and Jinwoo may be at the end of his line here, his past self doesn’t account for luck here. Because Jinwoo didn’t do his daily quest—push-ups, sit-ups, a run, etc.—he’s transported out of the job change quest and into the penalty zone. There, all he has to do is defeat a bunch of giant centipedes (which are no problem) and he can level up and recover his HP and mana. He even gets to purchase a new dagger that, while pricey, is perfect for armored foes.

When the system sends him back to the dungeon, he’s ready to go (he also has “ruler’s hand”, which lets him use telekinesis without mana), but he’s irked by the fact the knights just keep coming while the mages don’t seem to be attacking. It dawns on him that they’re summoning the gates that are bringing the endless knights through. So he changes his primary targets from the foot soldiers to the mages. As their number decreases, so do the gates.

The mages try to pivot their strategy by merging a bunch of knights into one giant armored golem, but by reducing the number of targets Jinwoo has to deal with, they are actually lowering their defenses. He carves through the scant knights remaining, destroys the three remaining mages, and then destroys the master-less golem.

With all enemies defeated, the system starts cycling through various messages. First, it analyses the battle Jinwoo just fought and deems that he can switch jobs to Necromancer. Jinwoo isn’t sure about that at first as it’s not a front-line job, but considering how strong he is, perhaps he can be the exception to the rule. That proves to be the case, as all the bonuses he earned end up blowing past Necromancer and advancing to the even more badass-sounding Shadow Monarch.

Jinwoo tries out his new ability to raise a shadow army from the dead knights around him, but it takes three attempts to convince their commander Ignis to serve him rather than a king of old who may never return. Jin-Ah is correct: Jinwoo isn’t late coming home because he has a girlfriend. It’s because he can now summon dead warriors of any rank to fight for him.

This likely means that it’s going to be a lot harder for him to keep a low profile and maintain his anonymity from organizations like the Hunter’s Guild / Association. It also means he’ll probably be able to afford treatment for his mother sooner rather than later.

How he figures into the battle of Jeju Island on which the S-Rankers are about to embark, we’ll have to wait for the confirmed second season. I’ll be watching to see just how far this former nobody can go.

Solo Leveling – 11 – The Red Knight

I’m going to … level with you. I simply do not care about Cha Hae-In, Baek Yoon-ho, or Choi Jongin’s quest to continue a raid on Jeju Island he believes never truly ended. The show has given us little tidbits of these characters, but it’s not nearly enough to get me invested, even if their battle costumes are pretty cool-looking.

I don’t really care about the Yoo brothers and their little tug-of-war for their father’s approval, either. I do care, however, that Jin-Ah has a good dinner and studies well before going to bed, though I was worried her one scene would indicate she’s being targeted by Hwang. Really, this episode is all about Jinwoo’s job-change quest.

His first opponent is a gray knight, and his best dagger can’t chip its armor. He is able to use his bare hands and brute strength to behead the knight and others like him, but he also ends up fighting mages and assassins, and without being able to use full recovery or potions.

It’s quite a handicap, but it’s a testament to how far Jinwoo has already come that he never really panics when the dungeon turns out to be tougher. He just steps up his game to match the intensity. And no foe has had such a threatening aura since the double dungeon than the dungeon boss, Knight Commander Igris the Bloodred.

Igris is as fast as Jinwoo, but much, much stronger, and also maintains his  ridiculous speed while in some top-notch heavy armor. Like the other knights, his armor can’t be penetrated by a dagger, and even though it drops its weapons when Jinwoo drops his, Jinwoo can’t score a good hit, and has to do everything he can not to get hit himself.

Ultimately Igris wears him down, and even when Jinwoo gets a slight hit on the knight’s neck, he’s then pulled and twisted and tossed all over the throne room like a ragdoll being caught in a building implosion. It’s some of Solo Leveling’s best combat animation to date, as while violent chaos reigns I could still tell what’s going on and get a really good sense of the three-dimensional space.

Jinwoo ends up slumped over on the throne, which I thought was going to have some significance—perhaps the throne and Ignis, were waiting for a ruler? The knight summons its sword and prepares for a killing blow, but Jinwoo blocks it with his bare hand. He’s not ready to die, and he hasn’t lost yet.

Finding another gear, Jinwoo drives his dagger into Igris’ throat, and keeps hacking at it until it’s deep enough to defeat him. He scores a rune stone for something called “Ruler’s Hand”, Igris’ helmet, 1.5 million gold, and an instant teleportation stone.

Unfortunately, he also gets a rude awakening: defeating Igris didn’t clear this dungeon. Dozens of gates open, and knights, mages, and assassins start flowing out by the dozens. While no one of them is something he can’t handle after beating Igris, he’s extremely exhausted and there are dozens of them.

This is the true job-change quest, and it’s a test of endurance. The longer he survives, the more enhancement points he’ll earn, which are needed to be assigned a “higher class.” My educated guess for next week’s finale is that he’ll find a way to earn those points, reach that higher class … and I’m sure we’ll get another mandatory check-in with Jongin, Hae-in & Co.