Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Jinwoo joins a strike squad for a C-Rank dungeon to make some fast cash and hopefully gain experience points. However, the friendly hunters he meets up with for the raid are not at all who they appear to be..."
The Dungeon & Lizards Arc is the 4th arc in Solo Leveling, a webtoon adapted from the web novel by Chugong, with art by DUBU (REDICE STUDIO) and story by h-goon. This arc consists of chapters 18-24 of the webtoon.
Having been thoroughly introduced to Jinwoo and his new reality, we now move forward and further into the world of dungeons and hunters. For me, this is where the start starts to pick up speed after the explosive beginning that was the first arc. It didn't quite hit the sport for me though, even though I still thoroughly enjoyed this arc.
Let's get into the details.
PLOT
This arc starts to take us a bit away from Jinwoo and the System, and starts to introduce the reader to the grander scheme of things. Essentially though, this is not much different from what we have already seen, with Jinwoo getting stuck in increasingly more difficult situations, fighting, and leveling up. Despite that though, we really get a taste of how Jinwoo is changing as a person, as well as the reality of the hunting business.
One thing that becomes clear with this arc is that the scenarios with the dungeons are repetitive. They enter a normal dungeon that ends up being not so normal and so on and so forth. Thankfully, that doesn't decrease the entertainment factor as you end up getting pulled into the action anyway.
What I also like about this arc is that we also start to see some consequences for Jinwoo's actions, which are going to come back around later on in the series.
WORLD-BUILDING
In this arc, we get more information about the gates in terms of the conditions of them. Instead of allowing anyone to go in, you need a party of at least 10 people, and half of them have to be the same rank as the gate or higher.
We also get to learn more about the different classes or types of hunters. While they don't outright give us a cheat sheet, which would be helpful though, we have classes such as healers, tanks, damage dealers, and mages. As we go on, I assume we are going to add to the list, and rather than telling you all at once, we learn as is necessary for the story.
We learn a bit more about dungeons as well, with the size of them not being related to the rank of the boss. To top everything off, more about the System is revealed as well, in terms of how it reacts when the player's life is in danger.
CHARACTERS
You can already see the results of Jinwoo leveling up, as physically he is a lot stronger and taller as well. His appearance is also starting to mature. Again while it doesn't seem logical for him to change this quickly, we do get an explanation for it which is appreciated. As his stats increase, his body gets stronger in order to handle the output. I do like how the author makes sure to give an explanation instead of just playing it off.
We also get to see more of how Jinwoo is more than just a brute-force character. He thought about what stats would be worth more to him at this stage of the game and adds them accordingly rather than adding them all willy-nilly.
One thing I really like about OP characters starts to appear in this. When you have characters who piss you off, you know that you are going to get the sweet satisfaction of seeing them get absolutely annihilated.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
We got some some fighting, some more world-building, and a character that is steadily getting stronger, there is no low point so far with this series.
Now, it is time to go into the thoughts I had while reading this, so if you don't want to be spoiled, you can stop reading here.
WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD - PROCEED WITH CAUTION
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This man got real buff real fast...and taller too.
Can you ask a patient for their number when they haven't been officially discharged yet...I feel like you can't...
Oh you sweet summer child, Jinwoo thinks the nurse is asking for his number to give him his exam results.
Is Jinwoo going to end up joining a guild?
It would defeat the purpose a bit but why introduce them if he isn't going to have some kind of role in them?
So if you need a party to get into a gate, aside from the gates the System gives Jinwoo, you can't go in solo?
I wonder how sketchy the association is going to end up being?
Organizations like that always turn out to be corrupt
They censored swear words in this?
Jinwoo is killing things left, right, and center, but swear words are where you draw the line?
Would you rather face one big beast or tons of tiny ones?
Big one for me, thank you very much
You know right away that since the squad offered to pay them, they were going to kill them to avoid that.
Don't be a spider, please don't be a spider...it's a spider 😭
Ohh man, we forgot the mining equipment, guess we have to leave you in the boss' lair to get them...meanwhile, Jinwoo literally is carrying them.
And the smart cookie returns.
Jinwoo didn't use the daily request reward and stacked up the status recovery instead to use in battle
I thought for a second that Jinwoo was going to incapacitate them, but nope, he straight up goes for the kill.
My question is, how is this gonna end?
Is he going to end up either dying or using his powers completely?
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