History Literature / SoloLeveling

* TwentyFourHourArmor: Later in the story, [[spoiler:Jin-woo actually wears a lot of armor all the time, though no one notices, because he can make it invisible.]]

** Hwang Dong-seok's younger brother, Dong-soo, already makes his first appearance in Chapter 24 in the webcomic, [[spoiler:right after his brother was killed by Jin-woo]]. He also comes to Korea much earlier, when in the novel he first appears [[spoiler:after the "red gate" incident]].

** Kang Tae-shik was an assassin who tried to kill Jin-woo, Ju-hee and Song Chi-yeol, because they were witnesses of his murders.

* BigBrotherWorship: Jin-ah, Yoo Jin-ho and Han Song-yi really look up to Jin-woo.

** Kang Tae-shik is fabricating extremely obvious lies to explain how everyone but him supposedly dies inside the dungeon. First, he tried to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident, but has to change the story and intends [[FramingTheGuiltyParty to frame the criminals]], who are forced to clear the dungeons.

* BreakTheCutie: The double dungeon leaves Lee Ju-hee deeply traumatized. While she was always a bit reluctant in participating in raids, despite being a B-rank healer, she lost the rest of her confidence after seeing nearly the entire raid force killed, and having to leave Jin-woo to die. After Kang Tae-shik tried to murder her and the rest of the party, she decides to retire as a hunter and leave Seoul.

* BulletTime: By increasing his "Agility" stat, Jin-woo's thinking and reaction process gets a lot faster, giving him more time to think up a plan.

%%* ConsummateLiar:

%%* DanceBattler:

* DrawAggro: Tanks can uses taunt skills to draw the attention of the monsters to themselves.

* FragileSpeedster: Assassin-class hunters specialize in speed. Their speed is their strength and defense. Kang Tae-shik is one.

* GiverOfLameNames: Jin-woo doesn't really give too much thought about the names of [[spoiler:his shadows. He removes the edgy-sounding "Blood Red Commander" title from Ygritte, literally just uses Kim Cheol's given name in English, "Iron", and names his high orc sorcerer, Kargaran, after an orc's physical defining trait, "Tusk".]]

* GracefulLoser: Kang Tae-shik takes it well that he lost and died to Jin-woo, seeing it as the course of nature.

* HandicappedBadass: Despite having lost an arm, Song Chi-yeol's swordsman skills were still far above average. He managed to keep B-rank hunter, Kang Tae-shik, busy for a moment before being overwhelmed.

** Jin-woo, not wishing for Ju-hee and Chi-yeol to die, and him missing half of his right leg, asks them to leave him behind, with him keeping the exit open. This sacrifice of his triggers the secret quest that causes his reawakening as a Player.

** [[spoiler:The ''Hunters'' raid leader, Son Gi-hoon, accepts A-rank boss, High Orc Sorcerer Kargaran's, offer to meet him directly, so he and his team can kill the boss before a dungeon break occurs. He also wishes for Jin-woo to use an opportunity to run away and report what happened.]]
* HitmanWithAHeart: Kang Tae-shik supposedly accepted the contract killing, because he sympathized with the father who wanted to avenge his daughter. Although, since Tae-shik is a ConsummateLiar, it's hard to say if he was serious.

* IdealIllnessImmunity: One of Jin-woo's secret quest's rewards is Kandiaru's Blessing, which renders Jin-woo immune to all kinds of diseases and poisons. Unfortunately for him, that also means he NeverGetsDrunk, as the alcohol in his body is identified as poison.
* IllGirl: Jin-woo's mother is forced to stay in the hospital because of an illness. She is the motivation for Jin-woo still working as a hunter, and why Jin-woo's sister, Jin-ah, wishes to become a doctor.

* ItAmusedMe: [[spoiler:After the high orc sorcerer, Kargaran, trapped the ''Hunters''' secondary raid force inside the dungeon, he asks them to come to him. When the hunters oblige, he reveals that he could have killed them at the entrance, but wanted to kill them one by one for his amusement. He then slowly tortures raid leader, Son Gi-hoon, by levitating him and repeatedly smashing his body against the floor until Jin-woo interferes.]]
%%* ItGetsEasier: Since Hwang Dong-seok threatened his life, Jin-woo has stopped hesitating to kill when he has to.
* ItsAllMyFault: As the raid leader who asked the raid force to enter the second half of the double dungeon for more profit, Song Chi-yeol takes full responsibility for the deaths of the hunters inside the dungeon. Jin-woo doesn't agree though, as they voted and the majority (Jin-woo being the deciding vote) decided unanimously as a party, that they wanted to go on.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler:After "miraculously" surviving a group of high orcs without any casualties (Jin-woo helped while using Stealth), ''Hunters'' raid leader, Son Gi-hoon, decides that the monsters are too much for his raid force and reluctantly tells his team to abandon the raid and leave the dungeon, despite this possibly being the last opportunity for him to ever lead a raid again in the guild. This earns him Jin-woo's respect, as it is viewed as a wise decision. Unfortunately, the boss of the dungeon, Kargaran, did not intend to let the raid force leave and locked the gate.]]
%%* LeaveNoWitnesses: Kang Tae-shik decides to murder not only his target but everyone else as well to leave no potential witnesses of his assassination.

* NoSell: [[spoiler:When Kargaran tries to use his magic to curse Jin-woo and weaken him, everything is immediately dispelled by Jin-woo's passive ability, Kandiaru's Blessing.]]

** [[spoiler:He smashes A-rank boss, Kargaran, with one punch in the face.]]

* OptOut: Lee Ju-hee quits as a hunter after Jin-woo saved her life against Kang Tae-shik. She already couldn't cope with the trauma of the double dungeon, the assassination attempt on her life only gave her the final push.

* RegretfulTraitor: Kim Sang-shik in particular feels guilt for leaving Jin-woo alone to die, and can no longer work well, until he can properly apologize to Jin-woo. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, he only got the opportunity to apologize right before his death.]]

* ShootTheMageFirst: When Hwang Dong-seok's raid force attack Jin-woo, he first aims for Jo Gyu-hwang, who is a {{squishy|wizard}} but powerful mage.
* ShootTheMedicFirst: When trying to get rid of the last witnesses of his murders, Kang Tae-shik's first target is Lee Ju-hee. Thanks to Jin-woo's reaction, he fails. He later tries again to kill Ju-hee while being preoccupied with Jin-woo, but since Song Chi-yeol is still around, Ju-hee is unharmed.

* ShoutOut: [[spoiler:Jin-woo's shadow knight's name,]] Ygritt, and the ice elves' nickname, the White Walkers, are possible references to Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire. The latter are alternatively translated as "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyakki_Yagyo hyakki]]".

%%* StressVomit:

** Jin-woo always had good hearing. After increasing his "Sense" stat, he can feel the magic power of others from a long distance and determine their strength.

%%* SuperToughness: Jin-woo has a special skill which increases

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: After leaving the Instant Dungeon early in the story, Jin-woo encounters a monster that broke out of a dungeon, and throws Kim Sang-shik's broken sword at it. Despite being extremely tired after single-handedly defeating a boss earlier, his attack shatters the monster's head.

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:The high orc sorcerer, Kargaran, absolutely loses it when none of his attempts to kill Jin-woo work, and his army is killed and then desecrated by Jin-woo's necromancer abilities.]]

* WeCanRuleTogether: Hwang Dong-seok false assumes that Yoo Jin-ho killed a C-rank boss with the help of his fancy equipment, and offers to let him join the raid force... [[ShootYourMate if he gets rid of Jin-woo]] (which he intended to record to extort money out of Jin-ho's father). Jin-ho refuses, which earns him Jin-woo's friendship.

* YouTalkTooMuch: Literally what Jin-woo says to Kang Tae-shik, whose MotorMouth keeps running.

* AesopEnforcer: When Jin-woo is confronted by Hwang Dong-seok's raid force who attempt to murder him, he is taken aback that the System tries to punish him if he doesn't kill him. When he is hit by a spell, the System goes even further and outright tells him that it will ''kill'' Jin-woo if he doesn't comply. Since that quest, Jin-woo has stopped hesitating to kill when he has to.

** When Jin-woo realizes that Hwang Dong-seok's raid force consists of "lizards", he expects to be left behind as TheBait for the boss in the dungeon. However, this is exactly what he wanted in the first place, so he could get the experience and the loot for himself.

* GutFeeling: Park Hee-jin concludes that Jin-woo is far better than an E-rank hunter, and decides to tag along with him instead of Kim Cheol, after the red gate closes and the raid force splits into two parties. To be fair, she just saw Jin-woo [[spoiler:being the only one who could react to the ice elves' ambush and catch an {{arrow|Catch}}. Her gut feeling ends up saving her life, as Kim Cheol's party suffers a TotalPartyKill, while all hunters that stayed with Jin-woo make it out alive.]]

* HandicappedBadass: Despite having lost an arm, Song Chi-yeol's swordsman skills were still far above average. He still managed to keep B-rank hunter, Kang Tae-shik, for a moment before being overwhelmed.

** Jin-woo, not wishing for Ju-hee and Chi-yeol to die, and him missing his right foot, asks them to leave him behind, with him keeping the exit open. This sacrifice of his triggers the secret quest that causes his reawakening as a Player.

%%* ImCryingButIDontKnowWhy: In the webcomic, Hwang Dong-soo wakes up with his eyes wet. His brother was killed by Jin-woo hours earlier.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler:After "miraculously" surviving a group of high orcs (Jin-woo helped while using Stealth), ''Hunters'' raid leader, Son Gi-hoon, decides that the monsters are too much for his raid force and reluctantly tells his team to abandon the raid and leave the dungeon, despite this possibly being the last opportunity for him to ever lead a raid again in the guild. This earns him Jin-woo's respect, as it is viewed as a wise decision. Unfortunately, the boss of the dungeon, Kargaran, did not intend to let the raid force leave and locked the gate.]]

* NewMeat: Everyone inside the red gate, but Jin-woo, was basically a new awakened hunter who received some classes, but basically never entered a dungeon before. Jin-woo notes how they are far too calm to grasp in what danger they are, especially since their combat experience is non-existent.

* ReluctantRetiree: The Hunter Association's president, Go Gun-hee, is getting old and suffers from {{incurable cough of death}}s. He seeks a LegacyCharacter who follows his ideals to keep the hunters in check.

* ShootYourMate: Hwang Dong-seok offers to spare Yoo Jin-ho's life, if he kills Jin-woo, therefore making him an accomplice. He intended to record the killing to blackmail Jin-ho's very wealthy father, so he could extort money.
* ShoutOut: [[spoiler:Jin-woo's shadow knight's name]] - Ygritte - and the ice elves' nickname - the White Walkers - are possible references to Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire. The latter are alternatively translated as "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyakki_Yagyo hyakki]]".

* SpoiledSweet: Yoo Jin-ho was raised in a wealthy family, unlike Jin-woo. In his first raid, his father provided him with equipment that was supposedly worth hundreds of million won. However, he is actually a NiceGuy, values fairness and comes to view Jin-woo as a brother, even more than his own brothers.

* SuddenGameInterface: A female voice accompanies Jin-woo, and he can see an RPG-like interface with which only he can interact.

** The ''Hunters''' S-rank, Cha Haein, has a supernatural sense of smell. She can't stand the stench hunters give off, though. The stronger they are, the stronger the smell becomes, [[spoiler:although she notes that Jin-woo actually smells very nice]].

* WillfullyWeak: In the class advancement dungeon, Ygritte decides to play along with Jin-woo pulling back his weapon, and goes for hand-to-hand combat. Jin-woo ends up defeating Jin-woo because he pulls out his weapon again, though Jin-woo later noted that he definitely would have lost if Ygritte had used his sword.

* BackstabBackfire: After being knocked unconscious by Jin-woo, [[spoiler:Kim Cheol tries to kill Jin-woo. Only Jin-woo expected exactly this to happen and promptly orders Ygritte to kill Kim Cheol, so he can use Kim Cheol's shadow for himself.]]

** During his battle against the ice elf boss, Baruka, Jin-woo realizes that he's in trouble even with Ygritte on his side. He needed another strong shadow to help him. [[spoiler:So he kicks a sword near Kim Cheol whom he slapped down earlier. When Kim recovers he notices the sword and ''immediately'' tries to kill Jin-woo as payback. This allows Jin-woo to have Ygritte kill Kim Cheol with the pretense of self-defense and raise him as his new shadow soldier. As he dies, Kim Cheol curses as he realizes that Jin-woo predicted his every move.]]

* BackstabBackfire: After being knocked unconscious by Jin-woo, [[spoiler:Kim Cheol tries to kill Jin-woo. Only Jin-woo expected exactly this to happen and promptly orders Ygritte to kill Kim Cheol, so he

** Hwang Dong-seok's raid force consisted of greedy "lizards", who would often betray and kill other hunters in the dungeons, knowing they could get away with it, so they don't have to share the rewards amongst themselves.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Hwang Dong-seok's raid force consists of "lizards", who constantly invite weaker hunters for quick profits, but then use them as TheBait, and gets away with it, as governmental authorities cannot investigate what happens inside a dungeon. However, he meets his end when he tries to betray Jin-woo and Yoo Jin-ho.

* AssholeVictim:
** Jin-woo uses a criminal, who used his given powers to rape women (driving at least one of them to suicide), as TheBait to distract a boss' minions. As Jin-woo puts it in the webcomic, he sees the rapist as even more worthless trash than the psychopathic assassin, Kang Tae-shik.

* BatmanGambit: During his battle against the ice elf boss, Baruka, Jin-woo realizes that he's in trouble even with Ygritte on his side. He needed another strong shadow to help him. [[spoiler:So he kicks a sword near Kim Cheol whom he slapped down earlier. When Kim recovers he notices the sword and ''immediately'' tries to kill Jin-woo as payback. This allows Jin-woo to have Ygritte kill Kim Cheol with the pretense of self-defense and raise him as his new shadow soldier. As he dies, Kim Cheol curses as he realizes that Jin-woo predicted his every move.]]

* DefendsAgainstTheirOwnKind: In only ten years, hunters have become stronger and more dangerous than a nation's military. The Hunter Association exists to govern criminal awakened beings and regulate the hunter guilds. The only reason the Association in Korea is still respected is because its president is Korea's strongest S-rank, Go Gunhee.

* GutFeeling: Park Hee-jin concludes that Jin-woo is far better than E-rank, and decides to tag along with him instead of Kim Cheol, after the red gate closes and the raid force splits into two parties. To be fair, she just saw [[spoiler:Jin-woo being the only one who could react to the ice elves' ambush and catch an {{arrow|Catch}}. Her gut feeling ends up saving her life, as Kim Cheol's party suffers a TotalPartyKill, while all hunters that stayed with Jin-woo make it out alive.]]

* ItAmusedMe: [[spoiler:After the high orc sorcerer, Kargaran, trapped the ''Hunters''' secondary raid force inside the dungeon, he asks them to come to him. When the hunters oblige, he reveals that he could have killed them at the entrance and wanted to kill them one by one for his amusement. He then slowly tortures raid leader, Son Gihoon, by levitating him and repeatedly smashing his body against the floor until Jin-woo interferes.]]

%%* RegretfulTraitor: Kim Sang-shik in particular feels guilt for leaving Jin-woo alone to die, and cannot function well, until he can properly apologize to Jin-woo.
* ReluctantRetiree: The Hunter Association's president, Go Gunhee, is getting old and suffers from {{incurable cough of death}}s. He seeks a LegacyCharacter who follows his ideals to keep the hunters in check.

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: After leaving the Instant Dungeon early in the story, Jin-woo encounters a monster that broke out of a dungeon, and throws Kim Sang-shik's broken sword at it. Despite being extremely tired after single-handedly defeating a boss earlier, his attack shatters the monster's defense, allowing the other hunters to defeat it.
* TooDumbToLive: Kim Cheol is a classic example of this. [[spoiler:He fights his way through a dungeon without knowing what to expect, leaving him and his team starved and frozen, which eventually leads to a TotalPartyKill. When he in his madness tries to lash out at Jin-woo's party, he gets knocked out with one hit, and when he wakes up to get kill Jin-woo, Jin-woo gets the excuse to kill Kim Cheol in self-defense. Jin-woo then rips out Kim Cheol's shadow and enslaves him.]]

* VillainsWantMercy: Hwang Dong-suk begs for his life, after trying to kill Jin-woo three times. Jin-woo ignores his pleas.
* WeCanRuleTogether: Hwang Dong-suk false assumes that Yoo Jin-ho killed a C-rank boss with the help of his fancy equipment, and offers to let him join the raid force... [[ShootYourMate if he gets rid of Jin-woo]]. Jin-ho refuses, which earns him Jin-woo's friendship.
* WhiteMagicianGirl: Ju-hee is a caring and compassionate young woman, who took special care of Jin-woo in his days as an E-rank hunter.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Kim-Cheol becomes murderously furious when he discovers the other group of Hunters has supplies such as food and warm clothing (courtesy of Jin-woo), blaming his group's TotalPartyKill on them for "hoarding" the supplies. This is after ''he'' abandoned them in the first place to fend for themselves because he considered the lower ranked rookie Hunters to be dead weight. Jin-woo even notes that Kim-Cheol was the one who chose to abandon the others to die first while smacking him down.

* GutFeeling: Park Hee-jin concludes that Jin-woo is far better than E-rank, and decides to tag along with him instead of Kim Cheol, after the Red Gate closes and the raid force splits into two parties. To be fair, she just saw [[spoiler:Jin-woo being the only one who could react to the ice elves' ambush and catch an {{arrow|Catch}}. Her gut feeling ends up saving her life, as Kim Cheol's party suffers a TotalPartyKill, while all hunters that stayed with Jin-woo make it out alive.]]

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Despite being clearly weaker than the rest of his party, Jin-woo showed concern for everyone in the double dungeon, hoping to save as many as possible. When an opportunity to escape however appeared, everyone but Song Chi-yeol and Lee Ju-hee run for themselves, leaving the rest of the party to die.

* OhCrap:
** Yoo Jin-ho is absolutely ''terrified'' when he sees that Jin-woo is probably a false ranker, as false rankers are stereotypically murderers, and he is AloneWithThePsycho in the dungeon.

** After clearing his first instant dungeon, he defeats a D-rank boss who got out of a dungeon by throwing his broken sword at it.

* ReluctantRetiree: The Association's president, Go Gunhee, is getting old and suffers from {{incurable cough of death}}s. He seeks a LegacyCharacter who follows his ideals to keep the hunters in check.

Ten years have passed since gates appeared in the human world, which are connected to another world. At the same time, some people awakened superhuman abilities. The awakened beings who can enter the gates, and hunt the monsters that are lurking inside, before they can break out into the human world, are called "hunters". One of these hunters is Sung Jin-woo, a 24-year-old E-rank hunter, who is mockingly called "the World's Weakest Hunter". Being barely stronger than the average human, Jin-woo struggled in the lowliest of dungeons to get by and provide for his family.

One day, however, things go awry for Jin-woo and his party when a low-level dungeon turns out to be far more dangerous than initially assumed. Alone, wounded and surrounded, Jin-woo faces his certain doom, until [[SuddenGameInterface a voice suddenly appears]] that offers to make Jin-woo a "Player". Having nothing to lose, Jinwoo accepts and loses consciousness. After waking up in the hospital, he notices a quest log that only he can see, which uses [[RPGMechanicsVerse RPG-like terms]]. Soon after, he learns that unlike any other hunter, he can gain {{character level}}s and improve rapidly by hunting monsters and training every day. This is the story of Jin-woo changing from the weakest to [[TookALevelInBadass the strongest hunter in the world]].

** Hwang Dong-suk's younger brother, Dong-su, already makes his first appearance in Chapter 24 in the webcomic, [[spoiler:right after his brother was killed by Jin-woo]]. He also comes to Korea much earlier, when in the novel he first appears [[spoiler:after the "red gate" incident]].

* BatmanGambit: During his battle against the Ice Elf boss Baruka, Jin-woo realizes that he's in trouble even with Ygritte on his side. He needed another strong shadow to help him. [[spoiler:So he kicks a sword near Kim Cheol whom he slapped down earlier. When Kim recovers he notices the sword and ''immediately'' tries to kill Jin-woo as payback. This allows Jin-woo to have Ygritte kill Kim Cheol with the pretense of self-defense and raise him as his new shadow soldier. As he dies, Kim Cheol curses as he realizes that Jin-woo predicted his every move.]]

* {{Bishonen}}: Jin-woo grows into one after leveling up. He gets noticeably taller and gains a muscular body. After earning more money, he decides to take better care of his appearance. When he visited his old school to talk with his sister's teacher, many girls in the school immediately crush on him.

** Hwang Dong-suk claims that he and the rest of his party forgot the magic crystal mining equipment and that they would have to go back to get it. It's pointed out how Jin-woo was made to carry said equipment the whole time.

* BloodKnight: Hwang Dong-su intentionally provokes everything and everyone to get a fight. He literally is lusting to kill someone.

* BreakTheCutie: The double dungeon leaves Ju-hee deeply traumatized. While she was always a bit reluctant in participating in raids, despite being a B-rank healer, she lost the rest of her confidence after seeing nearly the entire raid force killed, and having to leave Jin-woo to die. After Kang Tae-shik tried to murder her and the rest of the party, she decides to retire as a hunter and leave Seoul.

* ChickMagnet: At the start of the story, the only woman in Jin-woo's life is NiceGirl Ju-hee. After becoming a tall {{bishonen}} by getting a growth spurt and developing his muscles from raising his stats, the nurses in the hospital start to notice him, and when he goes to meet Jin-ah's teacher, he turns the heads of both the female students and teachers in Jin-ah's school. Park Hee-jin and Han Song-yi also seem to have fallen for him, after he rescued them from the red gate.

%%* DualWielding:
* EmbarrassingNickname: At the start of the story, Jin-woo was known as "the World's Weakest Hunter".
* EtTuBrute: What hits Jin-woo the hardest in the double dungeon is Kim Sang-shik, who Jin-woo saved several times and believed that they had become FireForgedFriends, running away and leaving Song Chi-yeol, Ju-hee and Jin-woo to die. Jin-woo swore to never unnecessarily risk his life for someone else again, unless it's someone he truly holds dear.

* GiverOfLameNames: Jin-woo doesn't really give too much thought about the names of [[spoiler:his shadows. He removes the edgy-sounding "Blood Red Commander" title from Ygritte, literally just uses Kim Cheol's given name in English, "Iron", and names his high orc sorcerer after an orc's physical defining trait, "Tusk".]]

* HealingHands: Healer-class hunters like Ju-hee display this.

%%* ImCryingButIDontKnowWhy: In the webcomic, Hwang Dong-su wakes up with his eyes wet. His brother was killed by Jin-woo hours earlier.

* InnocentBlueEyes: Ju-hee sports two. Jin-woo's eyes are greyish-blue, and become IcyBlueEyes after he TookALevelInCynic.

* KillAllHumans: [[spoiler:Baruka tells Jin-woo that all dungeon denizens hear a "voice" in their heads compelling them to kill humans. For some reason the voice doesn't command him to kill Jin-woo, which is why he was willing to spare Jin-woo (and only Jin-woo). When Jin-woo asks him for more information about this voice and their origins, Baruka is about to but suddenly "glitches" and repeats his offer as if nothing had happened.]]

%%* LeaveNoWitnesses:

** Inside the Red Gate, [[spoiler:Jin-woo intentionally walks into the ice bear forest, so he can gather more experience and level up relatively safely, before facing the other unknown enemies.]]

* MasterSwordsman: Song Chi-yeol is a master of the sword, who even teaches an S-rank hunter. However, he awakened as a mage-class hunter, and {{magic knight}}s do not exist. His swordsman skills do not help him much in dungeons, though with the help of Ju-hee, he was able to fend off Kang Tae-shik for a while.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Despite being clearly weaker than the rest of his party, Jin-woo showed concern for everyone in the double dungeon, hoping to save as many as possible. When an opportunity to escape however appeared, everyone but Song Chi-yeol and Ju-hee run for themselves, leaving the rest of the party to die.
* OhCrap: Yoo Jin-ho is absolutely ''terrified'' when he sees that Jin-woo is probably a false ranker, as false rankers are stereotypically murderers, and he is AloneWithThePsycho in the dungeon.

* OptOut: Ju-hee quits as a hunter after Jin-woo saved her life against Kang Tae-shik. She already couldn't cope with the trauma of the double dungeon, the assassination attempt on her life only gave her the final push.

* PortalDoor: Dungeons are entered via "gates". A ''red'' gate is a special gate that soon after closes off until all the boss is defeated or a dungeon break happens after seven days in the human world have passed. However, the red gate leads to a dangerous dimension where [[YearInsideHourOutside time is different]]. Hunters trapped inside a red gate dungeon would have to survive for roughly half a year before help from outside can come.

* ShootTheMedicFirst: When trying to get rid of the last witnesses of his murders, Kang Tae-shik's first target is Ju-hee. Thanks to Jin-woo's reaction, he fails. He later tries again to kill Ju-hee while being preoccupied with Jin-woo, but since Song Chi-yeol is still around, Ju-hee is unharmed.

** Fan translations are split on whether "eo" or "u" should be used for names, e.g. Song Chi-yeol/-yul and Kim Cheol/Chul.

%%* {{Telekinesis}}:

* TotalPartyKill: [[spoiler:Kim Cheol and Jin-woo split up the attack force into two groups after entering the red gate. Kim Cheol's group is completely wiped out by yetis, ice giants and ice elves. Kim Cheol is later killed too, and his shadow is raised by Jin-woo.]]

* BatmanGambit: During his battle against the Ice Elf boss Bakura, Jin-woo realizes that he's in trouble even with Ygritte on his side. He needed another strong shadow to help him. [[spoiler:So he kicks a sword near Kim Cheol whom he slapped down earlier. When Kim recovers he notices the sword and ''immediately'' tries to kill Jin-woo as payback. This allows Jin-woo to have Ygritte kill Kim Cheol with the pretense of self-defense and raise him as his new shadow soldier. As he dies, Kim Cheol curses as he realizes that Jin-woo predicted his every move.]]

%%* BatmanGambit:

** Inside the red gate, [[spoiler:Jin-woo is the only one who can deal with the attacks of the ice elves, and becomes the leader of the split group. Every one of his group makes it out alive after Jin-woo single-handedly took down the ice elf boss, while the other group suffered a TotalPartyKill.]] A few chapters later, Jin-woo reevaluates his rank [[spoiler:and becomes Korea's eleventh S-rank hunter]].

* YearInsideHourOutside: One day inside a red gate equals one day in the human world. This is why a dungeon break can take months inside a red gate.

Ten years have passed since gates appeared in the human world, which are connected to another world. At the same time, however, some people awakened superhuman abilities. The awakened beings who hunt the monsters that are lurking behind these gates before they can enter the human world are called "hunters". One of these hunters is Sung Jin-woo, a 24-year-old E-rank hunter, who is mockingly called the "World's Weakest Hunter". Being barely stronger than the average human, Jin-woo struggled in the lowliest of dungeons to get by and provide for his family.

One day, however, things go awry for Jin-woo and his party when a low-level dungeon turns out to be far more dangerous than initially assumed. Alone, wounded and surrounded, Jin-woo faces his certain doom, until [[SuddenGameInterface a voice suddenly appeared]] that offers him to become a "Player". Having nothing to lose, Jinwoo accepts and loses consciousness. After waking up in the hospital, he notices a quest log that only he can see, which uses [[RPGMechanicsVerse RPG-like terms]]. Soon after, he learns that unlike any other hunter, he can gain {{character level}}s and improve rapidly by hunting monsters and training every day. This is the story of Jin-woo changing from the weakest to [[TookALevelInBadass the strongest hunter in the world]].

* EmbarassingName: At the start of the story, Jin-woo was known as "the World's Weakest Hunter".

In 2018, a webcomic, drawn by Jang Sung-lak and published by [=KakaoPage=], started serializing.

* {{Bishonen}}: Jin-woo grows into one after leveling up. He gains

* EmbarassingNickname: At the start of the story, Jin-woo was known as "the World's Weakest Hunter".

* IWorkAlone: Well, Jin-woo does it because he's a OneManArmy. He also doesn't want to miss out on the experience he can gain, so he prefers to solo all enemies.

* ArrowCatch: [[spoiler:Jin-woo is forced to catch an ice arrow to protect Han Song-yi, right after his raid party enters the Red Gate.]]

** Kang Tae-shik is fabricating extremely obvious lies to explain how everyone but him supposedly dies inside the dungeon. First, he tried to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident, but has to change it and intends [[FramingTheGuiltyParty to frame the criminals]], who are forced to clear the dungeons.

* IllGirl: Jin-woo's mother is forced to stay in the hospital because of an illness. She is the motivation for Jin-woo still working as a Hunter, and why Jin-woo's sister, Jin-ah, wishes to become a doctor.

* InnocentBlueEyes: Ju-hee sports two. Jin-woo's change are greyish-blue, and turn into IcyBlueEyes after he TookALevelInCynic.

* MoralityAdjustment: Jin-woo is still a good person, but as he levels up as a Hhnter, he becomes colder and more of an AntiHero.

* PortalDoor: Dungeons are entered via "gates". A ''red'' gate is a special gate that soon after closes off until all the boss is defeated or a dungeon break happens after seven days in the human world have passed. However, the red gate leads to a dangerous dimension where [[YearInsideHourOutside time is different]]. Hunters trapped behind a red gate would have to survive for roughly half a year before help from outside can come.
* PowerLevels: The magic power of a hunter can be measured by special devices. The higher the value, the higher the rank the hunter is graded with.

* TotalPartyKill: [[spoiler:Kim Cheol and Jin-woo split up the attack force into two groups after entering the Red Gate. Kim Cheol's group is completely wiped out by yetis, ice giants and ice elves. Kim Cheol is later killed too, and his shadow is raised by Jin-woo.]]

* YearInsideHourOutside: One day inside a Red Gate equals one day in the human world. This is why a dungeon break can take months inside a Red Gate.

One day, however, things go awry for Jin-woo and his party when a lowlevel dungeon turns out to be far more dangerous than initially assumed. Alone, wounded and surrounded, Jin-woo faces his certain doom, until [[SuddenGameInterface a voice suddenly appeared]] that offers him to become a "Player". Having nothing to lose, Jinwoo accepts and loses consciousness. After waking up in the hospital, he notices a quest log that only he can see, which uses [[RPGMechanicsVerse RPG-like terms]]. Soon after, he learns that unlike any other hunter, he can gain {{character level}}s and improve rapidly by hunting monsters and training every day. This is the story of Jin-woo changing from the weakest to [[TookALevelInBadass the strongest hunter in the world]].

* ChickMagnet: At the start of the story, the only woman in Jin-woo's life is NiceGirl Ju-hee. After becoming a tall {{bishonen}} by getting a growth spurt and developing his muscles from raising his stats, the nurses in the hospital start to notice him, and when he goes to meet Jin-ah's teacher, he turns the heads of both the female students and teachers in Jin-ah's school. Park Hee-jin and Han Song-yi also seem to have fallen for him, after he rescued him from the red gate.

* InnocentBlueEyes:

** Inside the Red Gate, [[spoiler:Jin-woo is the only one who can deal with the attacks of the ice elves, and becomes the leader of the split group. Every one of his group makes it out alive after Jin-woo single-handedly took down the ice elf boss, while the other group suffered a TotalPartyKill.]] A few chapters later, Jin-woo reevaluates his rank [[spoiler:and becomes Korea's eleventh S-rank hunter]].

%* WillfullyWeak:

* CharacterLevel: Duh. The entire premise of the story is that Jin-woo can level up and become stronger.

Ten years have passed since gates appeared in the human world, which are connected to another world. At the same time, however, some people awakened superhuman abilities. The awakened beings who hunt the monsters that are lurking behind these gates before they can enter the human world are called "hunters". One of these gunters is Sung Jin-woo, a 24-year-old E-rank gunter, who is mockingly called the "World's Weakest Hunter". Being barely stronger than the average human, Jin-woo struggled in the lowliest of dungeons to get by and provide for his family.

%%* BeautyMark: Han Song-yi

** He takes responsibility for dragging his sister's friend, Han Song-yi, into an extremely dangerous dungeon, and promises to protect her.
* BigBrotherWorship: Jin-ah, Yoo Jin-ho and Han Song-yi really look up to him.

** Hwang Dong-suk claims that he and the rest of his party forgot the magic crystal mining equipment and that they would have to go back to get it. It's pointed out how Jin-woo carried the equipment the whole time.
** Kang Tae-shik is fabricating extremely obvious lies to explain how everyone but him supposedly dies inside the dungeon. First, he tried to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident, but has to change it and intends [[FramingTheGuiltyParty to frame the prisoners]], who are forced to clear the dungeons.

* BreakTheCutie: The double dungeon leaves Ju-hee deeply traumatized. While she was always a bit reluctant in participating in raids, despite being a B-rank Healer, she lost the rest of her confidence after seeing nearly the entire raid force killed, and having to leave Jin-woo to die. After Kang Tae-shik tried to murder her and the rest of the party, she decides to retire as a hunter and leave Seoul.

* CastingAShadow: [[spoiler:Jin-woo can raise the shadows of dead monsters and even hunters, who can also level up.]]
%%* ChickMagnet: Park Hee-jin and Han Song-yi.

* EvilCounterpart: Kang Tae-shik serves as Jin-woo's very similar opponent early on. Both focus on agility, prefer daggers and are killers. Jin-woo only killed to defend himself though, while Tae-shik is a psychopath who enjoys killing

* GlassCannon: Kang Tae-shik is an Assassin-class hunter, who can very quickly and easily take out his target, thanks to his superior speed. However, he doesn't wear any armor and Jin-woo can kill him with one well-placed stab after locking him down with his Bloodlust skill.

** As an Assassin-class Hunter, Kang Tae-shik is the first one to display this ability.

** Kang Tae-shik also uses daggers, since he's an Assassin Hunter.

* LevelUp: Duh.
* MasterSwordsman: Song Chi-yeol is a master of the blade, who even teaches an S-rank Hunter. However, he awakened as a Mage-class Hunter, and MagicKnights do not exist. His swordsman skills do not help him much in dungeons, though with the help of Ju-hee, he was able to fend off Kang Tae-shik for a while.

* MoralityAdjustment: Jin-woo is still a good person, but as he levels up as a Hunter, he becomes colder and more of an AntiHero.

Ten years have passed since gates appeared in the human world, which are connected to another world. At the same time, however, some people awakened superhuman abilities. The awakened beings who hunt the monsters that are lurking behind these gates before they can enter the human world are called "Hunters". One of these Hunters is Sung Jin-woo, a 24-year-old E-rank Hunter, who is mockingly called the "World's Weakest Hunter". Being barely stronger than the average human, Jin-woo struggled in the lowliest of dungeons to scrape by and provide for his family.

One day, however, things go awry for Jin-woo and his party when a lowlevel dungeon turns out to be far more dangerous than initially assumed. Wounded and surrounded, Jin-woo faces his certain doom, until [[SuddenGameInterface a voice suddenly appears]] that offers him to become a "Player". Having nothing to lose, Jinwoo accepts and loses consciousness. After waking up in the hospital, he notices a quest log that only he can see, which uses [[RPGMechanicsVerse RPG-like terms]]. Soon after, he learns that unlike any other Hunter, he can LevelUp and improve rapidly by hunting monsters and training every day. This is the story of Jin-woo changing from the weakest to [[TookALevelInBadass the strongest Hunter in the world]].

''Solo Leveling'' (나 혼자만 레벨업, na honjaman lebel-eob, also known as ''I Alone Level-up'') is a WebSerialNovel, written by Jang Sung-lak, which consists of 270 chapters and was collected into 14 volumes by Papyrus.

In 2018, a webcomic, drawn by Gee So-lyung and published by [=KakaoPage=], started serializing.

** Han Song-yi, a friend of Jin-woo's sister, Jin-ah, makes an EarlyBirdCameo in Chapter 11 of the webcomic. In the novel, she first appears as the sole female Hunter of the group that tags along with Yoo Jin-ho, while Jin-ho and Jin-woo clear the dungeons.
** Hwang Dong-suk's younger brother, Dong-su, already makes his first appearance in Chapter 24, [[spoiler:right after his brother was killed by Jin-woo]]. He also comes to Korea much earlier, when in the novel he first appears [[spoiler:after the "Red Gate" incident]].
* AnArmAndALeg: The Double Dungeon incident at the start of the story costs raid leader, Song Chi-yeol, loses his left arm, and Jin-woo his right foot, although the latter's leg is fully restored after becoming a Player.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Jin-woo displays this to those he genuinely likes.
** He has become his younger sister's guardian, which is one of the reasons why he cannot quit being a Hunter initially. He also would not allow her to become a Hunter.

* BreakTheCutie: The Double Dungeon leaves Ju-hee deeply traumatized. While she was always a bit reluctant in participating in raids, despite being a B-rank Healer, she lost the rest of her confidence after seeing nearly the entire raid force killed, and having to leave Jin-woo to die. After Kang Tae-shik tried to murder her and the rest of the party, she decides to retire as a Hunter and leave Seoul.

* CastingAShadow: [[spoiler:Jin-woo can raise the shadows of dead monsters and even Hunters, who can also level up.]]

* DamagerHealerTank: Hunters are generally split into these three categories.
* EtTuBrute: What hits Jin-woo the hardest in the Double Dungeon is Kim Sang-shik, who Jin-woo saved several times and believed that they had become FireForgedFriends, running away and leaving Song Chi-yeol, Ju-hee and Jin-woo to die. Jin-woo swore to never unnecessarily risk his life for someone else again, unless it's someone he truly holds dear.
* FragileSpeedster: Assassin-class Hunters specialize in speed. Their speed is their strength and defense. Kang Tae-shik is one.
* FreshMeat:
* GlassCannon: Kang Tae-shik is an Assassin-class Hunter, who can very quickly and easily take out his target, thanks to his superior speed. However, he doesn't wear any armor and Jin-woo can kill him with one well-placed stab after locking him down with his Bloodlust skill.

* GutFeeling: Park Hee-jin concludes that Jin-woo is far better than E-rank, and decides to tag along with him instead of Kim Cheol, after the Red Gate closes and the raid force splits into two parties. To be fair, she just saw [[spoiler:Jin-woo being the only one who could react to the ice elves' ambush and catch an {{arrow|Catch}}. Her gut feeling ends up saving her life, as Kim Cheol's party suffers a TotalPartyKill, while all Hunters that stayed with Jin-woo make it out alive.]]

* HandicappedBadass: Despite having lost an arm, Song Chi-yeol's swordsman skills were still far above average. He still managed to keep B-rank Hunter, Kang Tae-shik, for a moment before being overwhelmed.
* HealingFactor: Due to Kandiaru's Blessing, Jin-woo is given a healing factor. A nurse who witnesses Jin-woo healing a papercut in seconds asks whether that is normal for Hunters, and later learns that only the rarest of Hunters have a self-healing factor, and they usually belong to the highest ranks.
* HealingHands: Healer-class Hunters like Ju-hee display this.
* HealthcareMotivation: Jin-woo is a weak Hunter and actually doesn't want to work as one, but the Hunter Association is paying the bills for his mother's treatment. Jin-ah actually wants to become a doctor, so she can heal her mother. [[spoiler:Trying to heal her permanently with a special item also becomes a motivation of Jin-woo's.]]
* HyperCompetentSidekick: [[spoiler:Jin-woo's {{Dragon}}, Ygritte, is early on at least on the same level as Jin-woo. Inside the Red Gate, Jin-woo notes how Ygritte would have wiped the floor with him if he had used his sword against Jin-woo.]]

%%* MistakenForRomance: Yoo Jin-ho mistakenly assumes Jin-woo is dating high schooler, Han Song-yi. He tries to cautiously remind Jin-woo that Song-yi is a minor (making him an {{ephebophile}}, which would mean she is JailBait. Jin-woo just rolls his eyes at the misunderstanding.

* {{Necromancer}}: [[spoiler:This is literally Jin-woo's class name after completing the class advancement quest. He cannot exactly raise the dead's bodies, but he extracts a "shadow" out of the enemies he defeats. Due to his strong performance, he immediately is promoted to "Monarch of Shadows".]]
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished:
* OneHitKill:
* OneManArmy: Jin-woo grows so powerful that he can clear dungeons by himself. [[spoiler:Subverted later on, as he gains an army of shadow minions. It's still technically only one Hunter, but he is not fighting and leveling up alone anymore.]]

* PowerLevels: The magic power of a Hunter can be measured by special devices. The higher the value, the higher the rank the Hunter is graded with.

%%* RegretfulTraitor: Kim Sang-shik

* ShoutOut: [[spoiler:Jin-woo's shadow knight's name]] - Ygritte - and the ice elves' nickname - the White Walkers - are possible references to Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire. The latter are alternatively translated as "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyakki_Yagy%C5%8D hyakki]]".

%* SuicidalOverconfidence:

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: After leaving the Instant Dungeon early in the story, Jin-woo encounters a monster that broke out of a dungeon, and throws Kim Sang-shik's broken sword at it. Despite being extremely tired after single-handedly defeating a boss earlier, his attack shatters the monster's defense, allowing the other Hunters to defeat it.
* TookALevelInBadass: The story shows Jin-woo's journey of the weakest Hunter to becoming the strongest Hunter.
** After clearing the Instant Dungeon, a fatigued Jin-woo easily shatters the defense of a D-rank monster that broke out of a dungeon.
** He later defeats a C-ranked boss and a group of D- and C-rank Hunters, who tried to kill him. He then teams up with Yoo Jin-ho to clear several C-rank dungeons to make money, though the speed at which he clears them catches the attention of the White Tiger Guild's Ahn Sang-min.

** Inside the Red Gate, [[spoiler:Jin-woo is the only one who can deal with the attacks of the ice elves, and becomes the leader of the split group. Every one of his group makes it out alive after Jin-woo single-handedly took down the ice elf boss, while the other group suffered a TotalPartyKill.]] A few chapters later, Jin-woo reevaluates his rank [[spoiler:and becomes Korea's eleventh S-rank Hunter]].

* WhiteMagicianGirl: Ju-hee is a caring and compassionate young woman, who took special care of Jin-woo in his days as an E-rank Hunter.

* SuperToughness: Jin-woo has a special skill

* ExposedToTheElements: Due to Kandiaru's Blessing, Jin-woo can't get cold, even when he's in a world where the temperatures are causing frostbite. To not

* GlassCannon: Kang Tae-shik is an Assassin-class Hunter, who can very quickly and easily take out his target, thanks to his superior speed. However, he doesn't wear any armor and Jin-woo can kill him with one well-placed stab after locking him down with his

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Jin-woo throws Kim Sang-shik's broken sword at a monster that broke out of a dungeon. Despite being extremely tired after single-handedly defeating a boss earlier, his attack shatters the monster's defense, allowing the other Hunters to defeat it.

[[caption-width-right:350:I alone level up.]]

Ten years have passed since gates appeared that are connected to another world. At the same time, some people awakened superhuman abilities to hunt the monsters that are lurking behind these gates before they can enter the human world - the so-called "Hunters". One of these Hunters is Sung Jin-woo, a 24-year-old E-rank Hunter, who is mockingly called the "World's Weakest Hunter". Being barely stronger than the average human, Jin-woo struggled in the lowliest of dungeons to scrape by and provide for his family.

One day, however, things go awry for Jin-woo and his party when a lowlevel dungeon turns out to be far more dangerous than initially assumed. Wounded and surrounded, Jin-woo faces his certain doom, until [[SuddenGameInterface a voice suddenly appears]] that offers him to become a "Player". Having nothing to lose, Jinwoo accepts and loses consciousness. After waking up in the hospital, he notices a quest log that only he can see, and soon after learns that unlike any other Hunter, he can LevelUp and improve rapidly by hunting monsters and training every day. This is the story of him changing from the weakest to [[TookALevelInBadass the strongest Hunter in the world]].

''Solo Leveling'' (나 혼자만 레벨업, na honjaman lebel-eob, also known as ''I Alone Level-up'') is a webnovel, written by Jang Sung-lak, which consists of 270 chapters and was collected into 14 volumes by Papyrus. In 2018, a webcomic, drawn by Gee So-lyung and published by [=KakaoPage=], started serializing.

* AnArmAndALeg: The Double Dungeon incident at the start of the story costs raid leader, Song Chi-yeol an arm, and Jin-woo his right foot, although his leg is fully restored after becoming a Player.

* EtTuBrute: What hits him the hardest in the Double Dungeon is Kim Sang-shik, who he saved several times and believed that they had become FireForgedFriends, running away and leaving Song Chi-yeol, Ju-hee and Jin-woo to die. Jin-woo swore to never unnecessarily risk his life for someone else again, unless it's someone he truly holds dear.

* IdealIllnessImmunity: One of Jin-woo's secret quest's rewards is "Kandiaru's Blessing", which renders Jin-woo immune to all kinds of diseases and poisons. Unfortunately for him, that also means he NeverGetsDrunk, as the alcohol in his body is identified as poison.

* RandomPowerRanking: Hunters are measured after their magic power and are given letter grades with A-rank being the strongest, and E-rank being the weakest rank. They are then assigned to the similarly graded gates. Someone who cannot be measured by the StatOVision is given an S-rank. [[spoiler:Jin-woo eventually becomes Korea's tenth S-rank Hunter after he reevaluates his rank.]]
* ShootTheMedicFirst: When trying to get rid of the last witnesses of his murders, Kang Tae-shik's first target is Ju-hee. Thanks to Jin-woo's reaction, he fails.

** Is it Kim Cheol or Kim Chul? Fan translations are split on this.
** Is it Igris or Ygritte? One translator has chosen the latter, because it matches the Korean form of a certain [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire redhead's name]].

* {{Telekinesis}}: