Title: Solo Leveling Vol. 10
Author: Dubu (Redice Studio), Chugong (Original Story)
Publisher: Ize Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Genre: Fantasy, Action
Publication Date: August 20, 2024
The Story
Volume ten of Solo Leveling concludes the gate break arc. After Jinwoo takes down the massive giant in the city, he discovers that it is just a minion and not the master of the dungeon. He ventures inside to investigate when he runs into a chained main. This chained man wants to be freed in exchange for helping Jinwoo prepare for an upcoming war between the Rulers and the Monarchs. Jinwoo is pretty suspicious and although an Oath was cast over both of them, forcing them to tell the truth, Jinwoo still thinks that the deal is rather fishy.
After Jinwoo departs the dungeon, Ahjin Guild is invited to America. Before he takes the trip, though, Adam White pulls Jinwoo aside and informs him of some classified information that hasn’t been made public… yet. The information is extremely valuable to Jinwoo but also comes with a warning should he attend the gathering of guilds. Jinwoo goes anyway; however, things turn south when Dongsoo Hwang catches wind of Jinwoo’s arrival. Not forgetting about the death of his brother, Dongsoo has plans of his own despite being ordered by Thomas Andre to not do a thing.
Jinho accompanies Jinwoo to America; however, he ends up being captured. Jinwoo tracks him down and, of course, it was Dongsoo who was responsible, thinking that he could get the truth about his brother without directly interacting with Jinwoo. Now, a fight is unavoidable; however, Thomas shows up to intervene and it is here where we discover something about Thomas that could pose a major problem for Jinwoo!
Characters
Without giving too much away, the chained man in the dungeon ended up being one of the monarchs like Jinwoo. Through him, we were given a TON of answers about Jinwoo, why the Rulers and other Monarchs are targeting him along with the reasons for the gates themselves! It’s a HUGE lore dump that puts everything into perspective… and it offered up a clue about the Rulers that ends up playing out later on in this volume! I won’t say anything further but this was probably the biggest lore reveal in the whole series thus far!
Talk about long-term storytelling… we haven’t seen Dongsoo swear his revenge since the very beginning of the series. It took a very long time for them to circle back with it but it’s finally here and we are about to tie up this loose end. Dongsoo hasn’t changed one bit since we last saw him some 150 webcomic chapters ago. He’s still hot-headed and very motivated to end Jinwoo’s life to avenge his brother. This leads him down an uncontrollable path but we all know who those who are filled with rage end up. Will Dongsoo, though?
Thomas Andre has some major development here as well but it would venture into spoiler territory. We’ve seen him here and there in the past could have compiled volumes but we never knew why everyone feared him. Now, we know the answer to that question which is why I ended the story section by saying it could prove to be a major problem for Jinwoo. It’s definitely an interesting twist, though!
Jinho received some excellent development in the simplest form possible… by muttering two simple words. With those two words, it’s as if he transformed completely from how we were first introduced to him. It was clearly a defining moment for his character, one that forced you to cheer for and be proud of him! Definitely a great moment to see!
Final Thoughts
This was an incredible volume of Solo Leveling. It had some major lore reveals some great character development, and good story progression. On top of that, there was another long-forgotten plot point that the story circled back to which looks to be setting up the final arc of the series and if the seeds that were planted here were any indication of what is to come, it’s going to be one epic finale. I can see the aforementioned war between the Rulers and the Monarchs either playing out or not happening at all thanks to Jinwoo. Regardless of whether it plays out or not, after that, I can see Jinwoo’s greatest test before him in the form of a final battle that has been teased since the very beginning of the series.
There’s still a lot ahead but despite that, Volume 11 is going to kick off with an epic battle for the ages and I can’t wait to see how that one plays out!
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This item was provided for review by Ize Press.
