Title: Solo Leveling Vol. 3
Author: Dubu (Redice Studio), Chugong (Original Story)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Genre: Fantasy, Action
Publication Date: November 16, 2021
The Story
Volume three of Solo Leveling continues Jinwoo’s journey where he was challenging a Cerberus in front of an S-Rank gate. While things went a bit rough, he managed to win and gain a few levels in the process. Afterward, he meets back up with Joohee and goes on a mission with her, and some of the people who abandoned him in his original dungeon run from the first volume. They hardly recognized him since he has changed so much since then. They are monitored by Taesik Kang who accepted a hefty bribe to go in and kill the party. Jinwoo ends up in a battle against him and wins.
The incident comes under investigation but to atone for running away and leaving Jinwoo behind, Song says that he’s the one who killed Kang. With the investigation now dealt with, Jinwoo meets back up with Jinho and they buy a bunch of C-Rank Gate permits and hire a bunch of misfits to just stand around and do nothing while they go in. This draws the attention of the White Tiger guild who looked into Jinwoo and discovered that he has reawakened. After some clever manipulation, he cons them by selling them their unused C-Rank Gate permits in exchange for their silence on his secrets.
Jinwoo is also offered a job change quest and ends up having to take on opponents that he is weak against. He didn’t expect the quest to take long and he ends up missing his daily quest and is transported to the penalty zone in the middle of his job quest! There, he levels up some more and gains some nice items through the money he earned. Once he returns, he finishes the quest by figuring out the secret behind it. Once it’s cleared, he is offered a unique hidden job. Once pondering it, he makes his decision on whether or not to accept this job!
Characters
Other than leveling up some more, Jinwoo didn’t advance as much as one would think. He did show some cleverness when dealing with the White Tiger guild but he also learned of Dongsoo Hwang taking aim on him for killing his older brother. This prompted Jinwoo to speed up his leveling and take on the job quest. It’s not that he’s afraid of Dongsoo but rather that he recognizes his own weakness. After being called the weakest hunter in the world, it served as his motivation to continue on and get as strong as possible.
Joohee finally makes a return and the romance between her and Jinwoo is still very subtle but you can see it advancing. After the whole incident in the first volume, Joohee has become too scared to be a hunter. She decides that she wants to retire but Jinwoo makes a promise to her to go visit and ask her out on a dinner date (aww!). It was a rather cute moment but without her being there to be a constant reminder, the romance doesn’t really feel like it’s a priority for this series. Still, it will be nice to see the two of them get together in the future.
Chiyul Song got a nice redemption arc there where he atoned for running away and leaving Jinwoo and Joohee behind in volume one. Standing up to Taesik Kang showed guts and then taking the credit for killing him so that Jinwoo’s abilities could remain hidden during the investigation were both really cool gestures. I have no idea what will become of Chiyul from here on out but if this is the last we will see of him, then at least he did some good this time around. Respect has been restored!
Final Thoughts
There was plenty of action to be had in this volume! Seeing Jinwoo’s journey is quite refreshing. While he is growing, we’re seeing him make those leaps in small steps. It’s much better than most series where the protagonist is overpowered from the very start. Watching a character grow and get stronger makes you feel as if you are leveling up with them. I feel this series is capturing that perfectly with him having his hands in so many different facets of both the system’s world and the real world.
The big question of why the system chose him still remains to be answered; however, it just means that more action is in store whenever the system intervenes and that helps keep the pacing of the series at a nice speed that doesn’t leave you bored. Jinho is still the comic relief for the series which adds the breath of fresh air that you need between the action. Joohee serves as the love interest to offer those sweet, slice-of-life moments in an otherwise largely fantasy series that reads like a traditional RPG video game.
Plus, I can’t stop raving about the artwork. Having this in full color is a nice change from having to read strictly in black and white and/or hoping that a color page is thrown in here or there. The artwork was a little wonky in the first volume but it has stabilized quite nicely here and is definitely more consistent in quality! Solo Leveling is shaping up to be an epic fantasy series and I can’t wait to dive even deeper into it!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @JJPiedraOELN
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by Yen Press
