Title: Solo Leveling Vol. 9
Author: Dubu (Redice Studio), Chugong (Original Story)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 312
Genre: Fantasy, Action
Publication Date: August 20, 2024
The Story
Volume nine of Solo Leveling sees Russian S-Rank Hunter Yuri Orlav called in to use a barrier spell to seal the S-Rank gate that was detected in Shinjuku. Meanwhile, Jinwoo has received a key and a summons back to where it all began… the double dungeon which resides in a C-Rank dungeon nearby. Once inside, Jinwoo evacuates the team after unlocking the door. We meet the original God Statue from the beginning of the series along with the Architect who built the system! Jinwoo’s trump cards, his inventory, his use of potions, and his necromancy powers have been disabled! His final test is to defeat the Architect, his minions, and the God Statue by himself!
Jinwoo completes the task; however, he doesn’t get much in the way of answers but we do get some rather huge clues. In the meantime, an S-Rank search party went in to find Jinwoo only to discover him in a standing sleep with the Architect guarding him. Once this ordeal blows over, we turn our attention to Orlav who puts up the barrier around the S-Rank gate; however, the mission is a failure, and the gate breaks. A-Rank Gate bosses in the form of giants come pouring out! Through all of this, Jinho’s father summons Jinwoo and offers him money, claiming that he knows something about curing his mother’s disease.
Regardless of Jinwoo’s decision on that matter, he does decide something else… he’s heading to Japan, not because he cares about closing the gate or Japan’s fate but because he realizes that even at level 103, there are still more out there that are as strong or even stronger than he is and he’s going to do what he does best… Level Up!
Characters
While we don’t have the full answers, Jinwoo did get some massive development here. While I won’t go into spoilers, we do get a semblance of what his powers are, where they came from, and what resides inside of him that could very well be the source of his powers. That thing that resides within him increased his MP by 100,000! With that much mana, he could probably summon an infinite number of shadows! There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the system and how Jinwoo was able to do some of the things within it. I’m sure we’ll get those answers in time.
With Yuri Orlav, we know that he’s exceedingly greedy and highly overconfident in his abilities. As soon as discerned his personality, I could immediately tell that he was going to fail at the S-Rank gate. Despite that, while he was setting up his barrier, he noticed that he was being monitored by someone… someone who said that the beginning of the destruction was at hand. To that, other S-Rank gates have appeared around the world… one in Maryland in the United States, one in England, and one in India. Whoever this new character is, they are certainly linked to the gates and, possibly, the entire reason for their existence.
Final Thoughts
Another great volume of Solo Leveling although I can’t help but feel that things are coming to an end soon. We still have some information to learn about the system, why it was created, what Jinwoo knows about it, final confirmation of who he truly is, who is the “he” the Architect kept eluding to, on top of the S-Rank gates and the person who is seemingly behind them. Even though there is a lot of ground to cover, all of it seems like the beginning of a final arc. I know the first part of this series finished in Korea; however, Yen Press is combining chapters… I just don’t know how many they are combining. While we are on “Chapter 27,” it’s, realistically, that we look to be around chapter 135-ish in the webcomic with only 44 webcomic chapters to go.
Regardless, things are heating up to that “world-ending threat” level and Jinwoo is at the point where he clearly is the one true hope in the world. Considering there may only be a couple of volumes left, I hope there is enough time to answer all of our remaining questions. If not, there is a sequel series underway so… regardless, we’re far from done!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press.
