The Monarch of Shadows
Introduction
Hey guys, today I'm gonna be talking about Sung Jin-Woo, the main protagonist of the South Korean light novel and manhwa Solo Leveling. In the Solo Leveling universe, there are portals known as "Gates" that lead to alternate dimensions containing "Dungeons". These dungeons house Monsters of varying levels and races that threaten to leak into the world if not for Hunters, special beings who are tasked with eliminating them and closing the gates before they do so. Hunters and Monsters are generally categorized from E-Rank to S-Rank with S being the strongest. Jin-Woo's story is of the Heroes Journey model, but one that moves at an accelerated pace and takes a subversive approach to the themes familiar with the genre.
This post was delayed because I decided to read the light novel in full, only having read the webtoon at the time the match was decided. There is of course a lot of detail lost in the webtoon version of Sung that could potentially change the game here, which I'm sure you're anticipating. But for the most part, I'll be alternating between the two, since the key information remains the same and I want to focus more on how Sung would approach this fight and win as opposed to flatly listing his abilities and recalling his exploits. This match is a random encounter with no prior knowledge, which is exactly how I would describe virtually every confrontation Sung had for the majority of the series. As a Hunter, raiding dungeons is a task performed in full ignorance, as no one ever knows what lies beyond a gate. There are also many situations where Gates, whose danger level is determined by the mana waves emitted from them, release false signals and are much more deadly than perceived.
Powerscale
It's still important to establish a scaling chain to contextualize the level of power that a peak Sung would operate at, especially since the series leaves a lot to be desired in visual feats up until the final battle. What Solo Leveling lacks in visuals however, it makes up for in its power system, the consistency of its pecking order, and the strength of presence of its lore. So the first thing I want to make clear is that the Solo Leveling planet is reinforced with mana, making it much, much harder to destroy than ours. Most Hunters receive their powers from an extradimensional plane of energy where two races of Godly beings reside. These two races are the Rulers and the Monarchs respectively, who are destined to be locked in an eternal conflict. The Monarchs were created to destroy worlds and the Rulers were set to oppose them, and their battles destroyed the Chaos Worlds countless times. When the time came to wage their decisive battle after ravaging their home dimension, The Monarchs opened Gates to Earth and deployed their monsters (or Denizens of Chaos) into the world to temper the planet through repeated mana exposure to withstand their ultimate conflict.
If the purpose of the Sovereigns was to destroy, then the role of the Rulers was to maintain the worlds.
Naturally, the Rulers grew angry at the fact that the thugs of the Chaos World they failed to eradicate the last time managed to bring down yet another world.
[...]
The Rulers did their best to rescue other worlds, but Earth was simply too fragile to host the battles between themselves and the Sovereigns. This planet with no magical energy couldn’t endure against the mass-scale battles.
Didn’t matter who won in the end between the Rulers or the Sovereigns, the result waiting for this planet remained the same. After going through several cycles of war and the destruction of the planet, the Rulers came to a drastic decision.
If saving everyone was impossible, then make sure that some would still survive and continue the life on this planet.
“If so, does that mean….?!”
[Gates are the process to create humans that would survive the collision of two forces. That’s how much the Rulers wanted to guard humanity.]
Only then did Jin-Woo finally realise it.
[...]
[The Sovereigns had a ‘light-bulb’ moment from the methods employed by the Rulers.]
And that would be to copy the method of the Rulers, that lent the portions of their powers to various humans and had them kill monsters, in order to spread magic energy throughout the planet. Sovereigns would also ‘borrow’ the bodies of human hosts to descend on the world and bring their armies far earlier than what the Rulers had been expecting.
[They plan to use the magical energy spread around the planet by the Rulers and turn the entirety of Earth into one large trap.]
“To devour the Rulers’ armies coming to aid humanity in one go….”
The strongest Hunters borrow powers directly from the Rulers, AKA "Fragments of Brilliant Light". These Hunters are the Nation Level Hunters, who serve as a convenient bedrock since their titles are a direct reference to their strength. Each National Level Hunter can match the military might of an entire country's armed forces on their own, including world superpowers. It was later reaffirmed that a National Level Hunter who was capable of physically shifting an entire country from their power would kneel to Sung Jinwoo, and this is before he awakened his true powers as a Monarch.
The ‘Special Authority-rank’ Hunter, capable of shifting a country with his individual power, had to kneel before Seong Jin-Woo. How could a measly little Association demand anything from someone like that?
One of the top Hunters in the world caught a brief glimpse of Sung's Shadow Army and stated that he would be able to wage war against the United States military with just his shadows alone. Keep in mind Hunters are considered part of a nation's fighting force. Eventually, Sung inherited the original Shadow Monarch Ashborn's army, which included at least three dragons that the National Level Hunter Thomas Andre instinctively sensed were individually capable of life-wiping the entire planet.
The novel goes into detail to equate these dragons to Kamish, who was specifically stated to have nearly burned the entire planet up and ended the world and human race (if it wasn't for every Hunter in existence coming to stop him, including 5 Nation Levels).
Hunters pointed to the back of this army of black soldiers, their complexions paling greatly. More specifically, they were pointing to the three black Dragons at the back of the army who were obediently lowering their heads before their owner, as if they were house-trained pets or some such.
The gathered Hunters were now rendered completely speechless after discovering those Dragons being the part of the line-up of these black soldiers.
The Dragon that appeared for the first, and last, time in human history had been ‘Kamish’. That one creature alone managed to wipe out almost every single elite Hunter alive back then, and the whole world was in danger of being thrust into a horrifying conflagration of destruction.
Seriously now, would people begin calling that Dragon with a name carrying the meaning of ‘undying flames’ for no good reason?
And so – only one such creature was enough to threaten the very existence of the human race, yet there were three of them now. It couldn’t be helped that the Hunters gathered here to fight these things felt as if all of their energy was quickly abandoning them.
Sung Jiwoo's army grows vastly more powerful even after this. Around the time he had over 130,000 soldiers in his shadow army, but by the end of the series he had millions at his beck and call; for a more exact estimate it would be around 10 million (including countless Dragons) after he defeated the Antares, the Dragon King, and Monarch of Destruction.
Antares was my name.
I was the ‘First Sovereign’ born from the darkness, as well as the ‘Strongest Sovereign’. I was the king that lorded over all Dragon-kind, an existence that signified terror and destruction.
That’s right.
All those who knew me referred to me as the ‘Dragon Emperor’ as a sign of respect and awe.
However, something strange happened.
On a certain day, as I was getting ready to invade the planet called ‘Earth’ alongside the ten million-strong soldiers within our hideout inside the gap between dimensions….
======================================
“Honestly…. I’ve never imagined that you would successfully finish your mission and return home like this. By the way, I see that your steps carry the weight of ten million soldiers.”
The ‘Army’ was defeated, and without a single exception, the denizens of the Chaos World that made up its fighting force came under the influence of the Shadow Sovereign.
Jin-Woo now wielded the biggest fighting force when both the Sovereigns and Rulers were taken into account.
The scale of Jin-Woo's army, even disregarding the Dragons and high-ranking officers like Generals, Commanders, and Grand Marshals, would easily overrun the planet.
The expert pointed towards the Shadow Army displayed on the screen. Beyond Jin-Woo standing before them, one could see a nearly-infinite number of soldiers busy bowing their heads.
The emcee didn’t think too deeply about it as he began counting with his eyes before dry saliva automatically slid down his throat from that outrageous number on display.
One didn’t even need to bring up the fact that there were three Dragons included in this army. That was how horrifying the overall number was.
“If our Hunters were to fight those things, then it would no longer have been the issue of whether we’d win or lose. No, the remainder of humanity would have been counting the hours until those creatures get to the other side of the planet and completely exterminate us, instead.”
The emcee’s head nodded all by itself.
“Fortunately, they are summoned creatures of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo. And it seems that he can control them just fine.”
Grand Marshal class soldiers like Bellion were stated to have single blows destructive enough to make the Earth crumble, and he was able to concentrate enough mana in his arm that distorted space and would destroy the head of a Dragon in one hit.
Now rendered immobile, Beru writhed his entire body to free himself, but Bellion remained unmoved. The latter simply concentrated Mana once more on his free arm so he could attack for the last time and end this fight.
A horrifying amount of Mana, more than enough to easily shatter the head of a Dragon in one hit, gathered around and distorted the space around his arm.
Antares was stated to be capable of burning down the entire planet with a single breath... and he and his armies have a proven track record of reducing entire worlds to ash.
Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to guarantee the safety of everyone. He also couldn’t promise whether the world would be able to retain its former appearance or not, either.
That was how stupendously powerful the Dragon Emperor was, as seen from the memories of the former Shadow Sovereign.
The Dragon Emperor and the Army of Destruction led by that guy reduced just about everything before them to piles of ashes. And such creatures set their sights on Earth as their next target to destroy.
That was why, not only him, but the entire world needed to prepare themselves.
So to give you an idea of just how durable the Solo Leveling world is, Sung Jinwoo, who was aware of the destructive capabilities of the Dragon King, chose to have their fight take place on a specific island in Japan fortified by heavy mana concentration:
Soon, the shadow swallowed up both Jin-Woo and the Dragon Emperor.
The darkness blinding them quickly rescinded and they re-emerged at the pre-selected destination.
Having succeeded in his endeavour of inviting the Dragon Emperor to the true battlefield of his own choosing, Jin-Woo quickly distanced himself away from his opponent.
And now, finding itself in a location very far away from its underlings, the creature began scanning the surrounding scenery with mystified eyes.
[And this is….?]
“A place on the opposite side of the world from where your army is.”
Truthfully, it was a bit incorrect to call it the exact opposite side, but regardless, that’s how far they were now.
They were in Japan, a land where an enormous amount of Mana had densely permeated into its every pore after the King of Giants died.
The land and atmosphere fortified by Mana should be able to withstand much of the potential impact forces resulting from his battle against the Sovereign of Destruction.
And yet, a single island only tens of kilometers in size was able to contain the energies of not just Jinwoo the Monarch of Shadows and embodiment of Death, but the full force of the battle between him and Antares, the Monarch of Destruction who was destruction incarnate. In fact, during their actual battle, their clash was described as a world-ending calamity that still shook the planet to its core:
Indeed, the battle between these two was no doubt a world-ending calamity but, at the same time, it was a spectacular once-in-a-lifetime event as well.
Tears slowly fell from the eyes of Fangs as he continued to take in the sight of two god-like beings colliding with everything they had.
The power of Destruction and the power of Death smashed into each other, writhed around, and shook the world to its very core.
Jin-Woo clenched his fist even harder.
Despite how durable mana made the then-current Earth, it was still stated in plain words that the Dragon King's army alone could destroy the mana-fortified planet in one day.
And so, the King of Berserk Dragons, the Sovereign of Destruction, had entered the fray. What appeared now alongside it was the main portion of the Army of Destruction.
Forces capable of destroying this planet in one day had been mobilised in their entirety just to deal with the lone Shadow Sovereign. And in front of them stood the King of Kings, the Sovereign that lorded over other Sovereigns – the Dragon Emperor.
Attempting to quantify this would yield insane numbers but the point is that Sung scales several notches above baseline planet level. A lot of time will be spent discussing his Shadow Army as they are his main fighting force after becoming a Monarch. But I won't neglect to talk about his individual fighting prowess and all the techniques and powers he gained under the Architect's System before reaching his full potential.
Tactics
Here I'll discuss Jinwoo's stats and abilities, and how he'll use them here. This was his final player profile before he deleted the System:
And a massive inventory of equipped items that give him considerable stat boosts. Most of the numbers won't mean anything to you, but two key takeaways are that all physical damage is reduced by 65%, and all magical damage is reduced by 44%. Now before he was Sung Jinwoo, the God of Death and Monarch of Shadows, he was Sung Jinwoo the S-Rank Hunter. As a Hunter, he defied every single convention and norm of the Hunter society thanks to the System. Most Hunters specialize in a specific area such as Magecraft, Healing, Fighting, Assassination, etc. with each category having its own set of skills. But Jinwoo mastered all areas which blessed him with some ridiculous versatility.
An important thing to remember when you read these scans is that EoS Jinwoo deleted the System, and as such, no limitations that applied to any of his skills or abilities could be enforced on him anymore.
[‘Player’ Nurturing System delete code has been entered.]
[The System will now be deleted.]
Jin-Woo was now bestowed with the true power of the Shadow Sovereign, which meant that the System was now rendered irrelevant to him. So, it began deleting itself.
[...]
In the meantime, the System continued on with deleting itself step by step.
[All limitations imposed on the power ‘Player’ possesses has been lifted.]
[With the removal of the limitations, every Shadow Soldier of ‘Marshal’ grade enjoying the authority of the Sovereign will regain all of their original powers.]
[Marshal grade soldier Igrit’s powers have been restored in full.]
[Marshal grade soldier Beru’s Stats have been enhanced greatly.]
[The former Shadow Sovereign, ‘Ashborne’, is returning to the world of eternal void.]
For example, he could freely use the Shadow Exchange skill to teleport anywhere in the world where shadows exist, without any sort of cooldown. Before, he could only swap places with his shadow soldiers and had to wait 2-3 hours before using it again.
The sixth sense possessed by all animals; the inexplicable sensation travelling down the back of its neck caused all sorts of goosebumps to break out on the Sovereign’s body.
It wordlessly shifted its gaze over to the same spot where the nervous beasts were glaring at, before its own eyes narrowed down to a slit. The shadow of a tree several steps away was wavering noticeably, that was why.
The voice thickly laden with despair leaked out from the mouth of the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs after picking up the scent of death quickly permeating into its hideout.
[...]
Didn’t matter what his identity was, this man now possessed the perfect, complete power of the Shadow Sovereign.
‘He chased after me all the way to here?!’
The terror of death seemingly had invaded deep into the beast’s bone marrows, and as a result, the creature trembled greatly in pure fear.
And when Jin-Woo’s entire frame completely emerged back into the world…
He also has a complementary Camouflage skill that not only makes him invisible but completely hides all traces of his presence. Allowing him to pull off easy sneak attacks mid-battle.
On top of that, Jinwoo can hide his Shadow Soldiers in other people's shadows without them noticing. He was able to store his soldiers inside the shadows of even S-Rank Hunters who have enhanced perceptions and mana detection, and none of them ever perceived them. He can summon his armies through your shadow without giving you a chance to ever process what happened.
The elite Shadow Soldiers numbering over 130 thousand that managed to survive the last war under the guidance of their Sovereign erased their presence as much as possible and hid within the human’s shadow.
It was a trap.
Now suddenly finding itself coming face-to-face with the Shadow Army, the Sovereign of Iron Body felt this dizzying sensation of being sucked into a quagmire.
‘They got me.’
Another skill he has is Bloodlust, which paralyzes his opponents and reduces all of their stats by 50%. An even more powerful version of this technique is the Dragon's Fear, which is when he releases a roar from his soul that can spiritually and mentally dominate anyone who hears it, completely immobilizing them.
From Jin-Woo’s mouth, a loud and vicious roar exploded out. It was the cry from the soul that pushed every single being near him, every single being weaker than him, into a state of pure despair!
[Kuwaaaaaaahhh-]
It was the Dragon’s Fear. The vilest and cruellest Skill of Dragons he learned from Kamish’s Rune Stone. He hadn’t been interested in it since its powers didn’t differentiate allies from enemies, but now…
‘But now, it’s different!’
The skill that drove hundreds of elite Hunters gathered to hunt down a Dragon to the pits of hell had now been used against the Dragons, instead.
[-Aaaaaaaahhh-!!!]
Just like how Kamish had done to the human Hunters all those years ago, the Shadow Sovereign froze up all the soldiers of the Dragon Emperor, too.
There was no being alive that could break from the effects of Fear produced by the near-bottomless supply of Mana belonging to the Shadow Sovereign, save for one lone individual, and that would be the Dragon Emperor.
After making every single one of the enemy forces freeze up in an instant, Jin-Woo reached out and grabbed the Dragon Emperor’s arm next.
This ability is mana-charged and it's stated no being alive could escape from its effects due to the near-bottomless supply of mana belonging to the Shadow Monarch. So you could be frozen and at the very least have your speed, strength, and durability halved. Meanwhile, Jinwoo can outspeed a light-speed attack over a distance of at least several dozen meters, and he has a Quicksilver skill that allows him to boost his speed an additional 40%.
Said light-speed attack is Antares' Breath of Destruction, which not only scales to planet busting but also has clear existence-erasing properties.
Almost at the same time as the blinding flash of light exploded forth from the Dragon Emperor’s jaw, Kaisel descended at the rate of knots. The flames capable of erasing everything – the chill-inducing white beam of light brushed past right above Jin-Woo’s head.
[...]
Not even giving him any time to un-summon Kaisel, in came the ruthless beam of light signalling true destruction spat out by the King of all Dragons.
RUMBLE-!!
Even though they were in a free fall, Kaisel still twisted its body to push Jin-Woo away to a safer location, and collided head-on against the Breath of Destruction with its body.
“NOOO!!”
Jin-Woo cried out as he watched Kaisel disintegrate in an instant, not even leaving behind ash in the process. Utterly disregarding his wishes, the Sky Dragon was erased from existence without a single trace.
===========================================
And naturally, the aim of the Breath was shifted towards Fangs, as well.
Just before the attack capable of erasing everything could be fired from the Dragon’s maw….
A humongous black shadow that had risen up high into the sky, before anyone had noticed it, viciously punched the head of the Dragon Emperor.
KA-BOOOM!!!!
Even in the webtoon, Sung stated no immortals would be able to survive getting hit with the Breath of Destruction. Sung is the King of Death and literally has control over the concept of death yet he wouldn't be able to revive any of his immortal shadow soldiers hit by it.
Yet Sung himself is capable of tanking it. So his speed, power, durability, and hax resistances are no joke. He even has a skill called Kandiaru's Blessing that makes him immune to any negative status effects or "abnormalities in his status" which works as a blanket hax resistance that protects him from a wide range of metaphysical abilities.
In order to kill Jin-Woo, the Shaman began chanting a spell.
“…”
The lips of the Shaman quickly moved up and down.
The song of slowness, the song of blindness, the song of crippling fever, the song of intolerable pain, and the song of demonic slumber; five different types of hexes were completed in an instant and flew towards their intended victim.
“It’s done!” The corners of the Shaman’s lips arched up.
The moment all those hexes were completed, Jin-Woo also sensed the unnatural movement of magic energy.
‘….Magic, is it?’
Jin-Woo’s eyes met those of the Shaman’s. The Orc Shaman smirked derisively.
‘It’s already too late, human.’
Hexes were different from normal magic spells and couldn’t be evaded. The moment it was cast, that would be the end.
Unfortunately for the monster, however…. A familiar mechanical beep rang in Jin-Woo’s ears.
Tti-ring.
[Abnormal status has occurred.]
[All abnormal status will be removed with the effects of ‘Buff: Immunity’.]
Tti-ring, tti-ring, tti-ring.
Mechanical beeps fired out one after the other.
[‘Hex: Slow’ has been dispelled.]
[‘Hex: Blindness’ has been dispelled.]
……..
All five hexes were dispelled even before they had the chance to activate.
Jin-Woo smirked at the results. There was this ‘Buff’ he received when he changed into the ‘Player’.
[The blessings from the Grand Sorcerer, Kandiaru]
– Continuous effect ‘Good Health and Long Life’: You’ll be immune to all types of diseases, poisonous substances, as well as all forms of status debuffs. During sleep, your recovery rate will increase exponentially.
Thanks to that, he didn’t have to worry about status-altering magic, such as hexes.
“W-what?!”
The Shaman shuddered in shock. Fitting for a boss of the rank A dungeon, the High Orc Shaman had immediately realised that its curses were rendered ineffective by an even greater power than it.
Sung Jin-Woo has many more skills and abilities than this, but they would take up a lot of space to go through. With my bases covered it's time to move to my strategy.
Opening Strategy
So in a random encounter, Jin-Woo is most assuredly going to summon his army. You'll be facing over 10 million opponents that can instantly and endlessly spawn from your own shadow without your knowledge. The most overwhelming aspect of the Shadow Soldiers is the fact that they can regenerate unceasingly as long as Jinwoo has mana. How much mana does he have to sustain his shadows by EOS? Well, enough to supply his endless army to fight for over 30 years straight against the Monarchs!
So he's not going to be running out of juice any time soon. Even if you wipe out his entire army, they'll just keep coming back over and over. It's hard to describe how impressive this is; remember, the Monarch of Shadows battle with the Monarch of Destruction in Japan released world-ending energies, and yet the destruction was contained within tens of kilometers. Sung's full army should be capable of destroying an entire planet as durable as that within 1 day, and he has enough mana to keep them fighting endlessly for 30 years non-stop.
But wait--there's more! Sung can activate his Monarch's Domain technique which boosts the stats of all of his Shadow Solders by 50%.
And after deleting the System and inheriting Ashborn's power, his Shadow Solders become much more stronger than when they were alive:
In the past, he also revived monsters that got killed during the battles and added them to his stock of soldiers, but these new additions were on a different scale altogether compared to those guys.
Quite far removed from the recent past when the System suppressed the powers of the Shadow Sovereign and resulted in the creation of Shadow Soldiers that were weaker than their living counterparts, Jin-Woo was now the bonafide King of the Dead, and the restrictions of the System no longer affected him. He could create the perfect Shadow Soldiers at will now.
These soldiers were so much stronger than when they were still alive. Black smoke rose up vigorously like flames from their bodies. It was pretty obvious that the stronger the soldiers of the Chaos World, the stronger his Soldiers extracted from their shadows would be.
And so, this would be how the unparalleled power that tried to destroy this world ended up becoming the noose that tightened around his enemies’ necks.
So the first tactic would be to overwhelm you with sheer force; the stupefying scale and grandeur of numbers, and crush you under the energies released from your own shadows. There's nowhere to run or hide, as Sung Jin-Woo can cover the entire planet in his shadow:
Gallery
He can use a combination of other techniques such as Bloodlust, Ruler's Authority Telekinesis, Dragon's Fear, and Camouflage to reduce your stats (including durability) and restrict your mobility to allow for some more lethal finishing moves, like the curses/hexes you saw earlier (petrification, eternal sleep, fatal disease/illness).
Or he can kill you by summoning the power of the concept of death itself, shaping it into physical form, and attacking you with it.
‘The b*stard…. Could he be summoning the power of death to the surface world?’
But, how could that be?
How could a man who used to be a normal human not too long ago control the power of death to such an astonishing degree?
[So, that’s how it was.]
Another sigh of admiration left the mouth of the Dragon Emperor.
[You have spent a lot of time on the border between life and death, haven’t you?]
And this is all the tip of the iceberg. Good luck!
