Solo Leveling Volume 11 Review

Warning: spoilers in the review

After S-rank hunter Dongsoo Hwang attacks Ahjin Guild’s vice president, Jinwoo won’t stop at anything to get back at him, even if it means going against the national-level hunter Thomas Andre—the strongest hunter in the world. Thomas wasn’t planning to have a fight with Hunter Sung, but his hand is forced to protect one of his guild members, even if unsuccessfully. Jinwoo climbed the hunters’ ranks pretty easily, but he made the last jump to the top by fighting the strongest one.

His strength is not a mystery anymore, and all the strongest hunters in the world are aware of it. So much so that when Jinwoo’s father is accused of having turned into a magic beast and being the killer behind the murders of some powerful hunters, Jinwoo makes it clear to all hunters present at the International Guild Conferences who’s the top dog and what will happen if someone hunts an innocent man—Jinwoo’s father disappeared in a dungeon years ago and apparently has come out of a dungeon in the USA transformed into a magic beast. However, no one knows where he’s hiding now. Jinwoo still doesn’t know if what they say about his father is true, but he won’t hesitate to get the answers he seeks.

First stop though is getting revenge on one of the Monarchs who dared to kill the Hunter’s Association President of South Korea. Jinwoo arrives too late to save him, and the enemy disappears before he can deal with it. However, when a giant gate appears over Seoul, Jinwoo is ready to face the new enemy, but he doesn’t expect three Monarchs to show up simultaneously.

The series continues to be full of action, and Jinwoo can’t seem to take a breath; it’s one fight after another. He’s showing his superior strength and abilities against other powerful rankers, but now that the Monarchs have noticed him, he has to step up his game. He’s the only one who can deal with them because not even Thomas can manage to defeat one. The volume ends in the middle of the fight with the Monarchs, and I was so engrossed in the story that I was left quite disappointed to find out I wouldn’t know the outcome of the fight until the next volume.

Solo Leveling also keeps its gory theme by adding the death of a character that grew on the readers in these eleven volumes: President Go. He was one of the strongest hunters in Korea and his power as the head of the Hunter’s Association allowed him to keep the biggest guilds in a power balance. However, his death introduces a new character(s) to the readers—the fragments of luminosity. We are not sure yet what they are, whether they belong to the Rulers or are a different entity. The fragments are definitely enemies of the Monarchs as they want to get rid of them, but are they allies to humanity or a new enemy? It’s still a mystery, but the fragment that was backing President Go seemed to want to protect humans. We’ll just have to keep reading to find out more.

However, something new happens in this volume, which probably many readers weren’t expecting…Jinwoo goes on a date with Hunter Haein! It was clear to us that she has a crush on him, but it seemed that Jinwoo didn’t reciprocate. Maybe that’s changing. He takes her out because she’s his only friend, but the illustrations say something else…we know what the artist is implying. Is it the start of a romance vein in this series? As a voracious romance reader, I hope so, but from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think it will become a focus of the story.

Solo Leveling is written by Chugong, illustrated by Dubu (Redice Studio) and adapted by h-goon. It’s released in volume format by Ize Press, and Volume 12 is slated for release in May 2025.

Our review copy was supplied by Ize Press.