Literature / Solo Leveling

"I alone level up."

Ten years have passed since Gates appeared in the human world, which are connected to another world. At the same time, some people awakened to 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 straight to hell 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 a voice suddenly appears that offers to make Jin-woo a "Player". With nothing to lose, Jin-woo accepts and loses consciousness. After waking up in the hospital, he notices a quest log that only he can see, which uses RPG-like terms. Soon after, he learns that unlike any other Hunter, he can gain character levels and improve rapidly by hunting monsters and training every day. This is the story of how Jin-woo goes from being the weakest to the strongest Hunter in the world.

Solo Leveling (나 혼자만 레벨업, na honjaman lebel-eob, also known as I Alone Level Up) is a Web Serial Novel, written by Chugong, which consists of 270 chapters and was collected into 14 volumes by Papyrus.

Has a 2018-2021 webcomic adaptation by Jang Sung-lak that was published by KakaoPage, and lasted for 200 chapters. In 2019, the novel was officially picked up by Qidian under the title "Only I Level Up". In 2020, the webcomic was picked up as well.

An anime adaptation by A-1 Pictures with music by Hiroyuki Sawano was also announced for 2023. (Announcement Trailer). Note that depending on which version you watch in Japanese, you may hear the voice actors use either the Japanese or Korean names.

On February 2, 2022, Solo Leveling is receiving its video game version and would be an action RPG title for PC and Mobile. On April 10,2023, Solo Leveling received a spin-off doubling as a sequel called Solo Leveling: Ragnarok following Sung Su-Ho.

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Solo Leveling provides examples of:

A-G

• 24-Hour Armor: Later in the story, Jin-woo actually wears a lot of armor all the time, though no one notices, because by equipping it with the System, the item disappears and its stats are added to Jin-woo's, effectively being invisible.
• Aborted Arc: Cha Hae-In's interest in joining Sung Jin-Woo's Ahjin Guild was quickly forgotten about after she failed to pass the test to join.
• Adaptational Badass: Thanks to an expansion of a fight in the webcomic, Song Chi-yeol can show off his swordsman skills (despite having lost an arm), though it doesn't change the outcome.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Han Song-yi, a friend of Jin-woo's sister, Jin-ah, makes an Early-Bird Cameo 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-seok's younger brother, Dong-soo, already makes his first appearance in Chapter 24 in the webcomic, right after his brother was killed by Jin-woo, when he first appears in the novel after Jin-woo defeated Kang Tae-shik. He also comes to Korea after merely two weeks, when in the novel he is held off in the States for more than two months.
  • The anime's first scene, set three years before the series, has Choi Jong-In, Baek Yoon-ho and Min Byung-Gu fighting in Jeju Island.
  • Episode 1 shows President Go Gun-hee speaking with Woo Jin-Chul, Yoo Jin-Ho and Han Song-Yi having their magic test and introduction to hunting at the Hunters' Association, and Cha Hae-In stopping a pair of purse-snatchers.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Kim Sang-shik is given more background story about his family, and his struggle to apologize to Jin-woo, whom he left behind to save his own skin. He is still alive when Jin-woo finds him after Kang Tae-shik mortally wounded him, and he is given enough time to at least beg Jin-woo for forgiveness before dying. In the webcomic and the anime, Jin-woo is clearly shaken by Kim Sang-shik's death, while in the novel he merely coldly acknowledges his death.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • Jin-woo's first encounter with Ahn Sang-min of the Baekho guild is significantly shortened. In the novel, Ahn Sang-min trying to recruit Jin-woo and Jin-woo selling the rights to the C-rank gates Yoo Jin-ho reserved is split into two scenes.
  • The Foreshadowing of the red gate incident, after Association employees screwed up the gate measuring, is not shown in the webcomic.
  • Yoo Jin-ho's family situation is not shown in the webcomic.
• Adaptation Expansion: The webcomic adaptation adds parts that weren't originally in the web novel.
  • There are more scenes with Song Chi-yeol shown right before he meets Jin-woo again, like him practicing swordsmanship at a dojo.
  • Kim Sang-shik's guilt for running away and his struggle to apologize to Jin-woo is shown.
  • The entire fight with Kang Tae-shik is, except for how it ended, different and expanded. Tae-shik plays around with a sword-wielding Song Chi-yeol for a bit before Jin-woo interferes. Furthermore, Jin-woo's tendons are cut after Tae-shik used Stealth only for Jin-woo to pull a Self-Recovery Surprise by using his full recovery quest reward, when in the novel Jin-woo merely fakes panicking and reads Tae-shik's attack in time.
  • Hwank Dong-soo arrives in Korea in Chapter 47 of the webnovel, where he encounters Woo Jin-cheol. The two of them go to Jin-woo's location at the red gate, where they encounter Baek Yoon-ho, and Hwang Dong-soo provokes a short-lived fight.
  • The fight with the high orc sorcerer is less one-sided in the Web Comic, and while Jin-Woo is still far stronger than the sorcerer, his summons have a more difficult time handling his minions and the tide is only turned once Jin-Woo starts raising the high orcs he killed to fight against their own.
  • The anime has a few original scenes itself compared to the novel and webcomic, primarily in the form of Adaptational Early Appearance, like seeing Yoo Jin-ho go through the Hunter rank evaluation or Sung Jin-ah at school. In particular, episode 8 is almost entirely anime original.
  • The efforts of Jin-ho's family's company to build their own guild are expanded, with Cha Hae-in being approached to become the guildmaster.
• Adventure Guild: The Hunter Association serves as a modern organization for hunters. They measure both the dungeons and the hunters' strength and sell the rights of gates to private raid parties and guilds. They also take in lower-ranked hunters (like Jin-woo at the beginning of the story) and assign them to raids that higher-ranked hunters don't want to partake in before a dungeon break occurs. While larger guilds receive a lot of benefits from the Association, the Association also mandates them to take care of certain dungeons if an emergency occurs.
• Aesop Enforcer: When Jin-woo is attacked by Hwang Dong-seok's raid force, he is taken aback that the System tries to punish him if he doesn't kill them. 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.
• Acrofatic: Vulcan, the 50th floor boss in the Demon Castle Dungeon, is very large and fat, yet can easily Flash Step.
• Alien Invasion: When a gate first opens, only humans can pass through, but if the dungeon inside isn't cleared within a week, the monsters inside will be able to use the gate to invade the human world. And all of them are compelled to Kill All Humans.
• Aliens Speaking English:
  • A perspective flip happens when Jin-woo goes through the red gate with newer members of the White Tiger guild. He encounters ice elves who refer to the humans as garbage, which Jin-woo takes offense to. The ice elves are shocked by a human speaking their language. It turns out the System auto-translates speech between Jin-woo and any intelligent monsters.
  • The Hunters raid force is very confused when the boss of the dungeon, Kargargan, suddenly starts speaking Korean to them.
  • The ant king's Cannibalism Superpower allows it to talk after eating Min Byung-goo's head. Since his level was so high, Beru is the first shadow soldier that Jin-woo raised, who can speak. Not even Iron can speak, despite originally being human.
• All According to Plan: This is what Jin-woo thinks when he deliberately faked his panic and "barely" blocked Kang Tae-shik's Stealth attack. He wanted Tae-shik to show enough Killing Intent, so that the System will give him an emergency quest (and thus a reward for killing Tae-shik).
• Almighty Janitor: Jin-woo is consequently this, as he gets far stronger than his official E-rank implies. At least until he reevaluates his rank, and the Hunter Association officially declares him to be South Korea's tenth S-rank hunter.
• Amplifier Artifact: Some companies can forge items that will amplify a mage hunter's power. The best items that can be produced amplify magic by 50%, so the Hunter Auction House is dumbfounded when Jin-woo presents to them the Marble of Avarice, which doubles the output.
• And I Must Scream: Those who arise involuntarily as Jin-woo's shadow minions are bent to his will. Thus, Kim Cheol received a Fate Worse than Death.
• Another Dimension: The monster world is a dimension separate from the human world. Before its denizens can enter the human world, hunters are tasked to take the monsters inside down.
• An Arm and a Leg: The double dungeon incident at the start of the story costs raid leader Song Chi-yeol his left arm, and Jin-woo his right foot, although the latter's leg is fully restored after becoming a player.
  • Happens to Jin-woo once more, his left arm specifically, during his fight against the Cerberus Gatekeeper of the Demon's Castle S-Rank instance dungeon, though he thankfully uses a Full Recovery item to undo the damage.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: The System's way of offering Jin-woo the power to become a "Player" is that he either accepts or declines and his heart stops within 0.02 seconds. It's more than implied that, despite succeeding the test of the double dungeon, he still receives a fatal blow from one of the statues, and he is now given a second chance just before death claims him. Wanting to live, Jin-woo really only had one option available.
• Armor Is Useless: Both averted and played with. Especially in the early chapters, Jin-Woo tries again and again to stab his opponents through their armor, rather than going for weak points, and is surprised every time how their thick metal plates and scales are actually protecting them from his attacks. Eventually however, most enemies seem to start believing this is the case, as they just stop wearing armor alltogether.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: After struggling against a horde of heavily armored knights, Jin-woo manages to acquire the Knight Killer, a weapon that specifically works better against these kinds of enemies.
• Armor-Piercing Response: A case of Rhetorical Question Blunder. When Jin-woo refuses to become the Hunter Association's future president, President Go Gun-hee is visibly disappointed and asks Jin-woo for his reasons, fully expecting it to be money, since the Association can't pay well. Jin-woo says that he's doing it because he wants to kill the monsters and clear the dungeons, which catches Go Gun-hee completely off-guard. He interprets this as Jin-woo being The Cape who only wishes to protect humanity, and from then on fully supports Jin-woo and asks his employees to do the same.
• Arrow Catch: Ever since Jin-Woo increased his Sense, he regularly catches arrows before it appears he even notices he was attacked.
  • He once killed an assassin knight using Stealth that snuck up on him, unaware that he stabbed a monster until its Stealth wore off.
  • Jin-woo is forced to catch an ice arrow to protect Han Song-yi, right after his raid party enters the red gate.
• As You Know: In the anime's first episode, President Go tells his assistant Woo Jin-Chul about the important role the hunters play for the economy, something he already knows as a veteran Hunter and high-ranking member of the Hunters' Association.
• Asshole Victim: Generally, the people Jin-woo kills don't deserve any better.
  • 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 wouldn't have to share the rewards with the fillers.
  • Kang Tae-shik was an assassin who tried to kill Jin-woo, Ju-hee, and Song Chi-yeol, because they witnessed him murdering other people, who he murdered because they witnessed him murdering other people, who he murdered because he was paid to. Of course, he also admitted he enjoys torturing and killing people, so he probably wasn't trying very hard to avoid collateral damage.
  • Jin-woo uses a criminal, who abused his awakened powers to rape women (driving at least one of them to suicide), as The Bait 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.
  • Inside the red gate: Considering Kim Cheol, driven by his starving and freezing madness, tried to kill his fellow hunters, including Jin-woo, who was fighting the boss to save everyone, there is no doubt no one will miss him.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Against the C-rank spider boss, Jin-woo aims for the eyes, eventually allowing him to land a successful Paralysis and secure a victory.
• Attention Whore: Lee Min-sung is a former actor, who makes a big show out of his awakening, his imminent testing and subsequent choice of guild. Yoo Jin-ho's actress cousin, Soo-hyun, reveals that the industry and other insiders already know that Lee Ming-sung already got measured as an A-rank hunter and was hired by one of Korea's top guilds, Grim Reapers. Lee Min-sung is extremely angry when on the official day of his testing, Jin-woo gets the Hunter Association's full attention, and he is even more furious when the press ignores him in favor of Jin-woo after it's revealed that Jin-woo "reawakened" as South Korea's tenth S-rank hunter.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Jin-woo's first weapon, the Casaka's Poisoned Fang, has an effect that applies Paralysis and Bleed. Sounds amazing, until you realize that most enemies that the effect would be worth a damn against easily resist it. The chance of a successful proc rises significantly on a critical hit to a weak point, but such strikes are often enough to end a battle anyway. The Paralysis effect at least has use in making that first critical hit count against enemies who would otherwise be tough enough to survive it and retaliate, such as the spider boss and Igrit. But the bleed part is useless roughly 100% of the time, as once that paralysis hits, the battle ain't lasting past 5 seconds.
• Babies Ever After: Jin-woo settles down with Hae-in in the revised timeline and have a son together, Su-ho.
• Backstab Backfire: After he was earlier knocked out by Jin-woo, Kim Cheol tries to kill Jin-woo. Jin-woo, however, expected exactly this to happen and promptly orders Igrit to kill Kim Cheol, so he can use Kim Cheol's shadow for himself to defeat the ice elf boss, Baruka.
• Backup from Otherworld: After Cha Hae-in was seriously injured, Jin-woo brings S-rank healer Min Byung-goo back as a shadow soldier, so he can save Cha Hae-in. After the deed is done, Jin-woo releases Min Byung-goo, not feeling comfortable to keep Min Byung-goo in the world.
• Bad Powers, Good People: The nature of Jin-woo's increasing power is often noted to be associated with evil, such as assumed to be a false-ranker that have a stigma of being criminals. When Jin-woo gains the title "Necromancer" and raises the dead into his shadow army, it freaks people out even more that he fights alongside monsters. However, Jin-woo's good nature lead him to continue fighting to protect his friends and family, ultimately using his otherwise scary powers for good.
• Bait-and-Switch: After Jin-woo's first death by the hands of the Beast Monarch, a special skill activates and the next scene is of Jin-woo waking up in the hospital back when he first survived the double dungeon, but already powered up and grown. This sets the stage of a time-traveling shenanigan where Jin-woo has the ability to reset the world... only for Jin-woo to be fed up with this nonsense and demands to know the truth, where the Shadow Monarch reveals himself to bestow Jin-woo with his powers.
• Balance of Power:
  • Hunters are far superior to any governmental military and the only thing that keeps the big hunter guilds in Korea from taking over is the fact that the Hunter Association that governs the hunters is led by their S-rank president, Go Gun-hee. Go Gun-hee needs a Legacy Character who will continue keeping the delicate balance of power, as if one guild grows too strong, conflict will inevitably ensue. Jin-woo being identified as the next S-rank motivates Go Gun-hee to seek Jin-woo out and offer to mentor him. He warns Jin-woo that joining one of Korea's Big Five will probably destroy the balance that he has managed to keep for the last ten years. Jin-woo ends up starting his own guild instead.
  • Go Gun-hee later shows Jin-woo that there has been an increase in Gates at the same time more Hunters have been awakening. Jin-woo suspects it is this trope.
• Batman Gambit:
  • When Jin-woo realizes that Hwang Dong-seok's raid force consists of "lizards", he expects to be left behind as The Bait for the boss in the dungeon. However, this is exactly what he wanted in the first place, as he could then get the experience and the loot for himself.
  • During his battle against the ice elf boss, Baruka, Jin-woo realizes that he's in trouble even with Igrit by his side. He needed another strong shadow to help him, so he kicks a sword close to 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 Igrit 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.
  • The Architect was running one on Jin-woo, using the leveling system to keep him distracted and slowly but surely build up his strength. At the appropriate moment, Jin-woo would be sacrificed and the true Monarch of Shadows would return. Unfortunately, for the Architect, the Monarch of Shadows had other ideas.
  • Hwang Dong-soo attempts a version of this in United States by kidnapping Jin-ho to lure out Jin-woo, in hopes that their confrontation would lure out his boss, Thomas Andre, who Dong-soo expects will help kill Jin-woo out of pride as the strongest hunter and protecting the Scavenger guild members.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Yoo Jin-ho gains Undying Loyalty for Jin-woo, after the latter agrees to help Jin-ho in his quest to become his family's guildmaster.
• Berserk Button: Don't threaten Jin-woo's friends and family.
• Betrayal by Inaction: Intended to be the Japanese's plan on Jeju Island to let the Korean hunters die. Baek Yoon-ho figures out the betrayal and turns this around by sending the ant king to humanity's "king" (Ryuji Goto). Goto is immediately beheaded when he in his arrogance confirms that he is the king.
• Big Brother Instinct: Jin-woo displays this to those he genuinely likes and feels responsible for.
  • He has become his younger sister's guardian, which is one of the reasons why he stuck with working as an E-rank hunter for so long. He also would not allow her to become a hunter if she were to awaken.
  • He takes responsibility for dragging his sister's friend, Han Song-yi, into an extremely dangerous dungeon, and promises to protect her. She starts respecting him as an elder brother from that point on.
• Big Brother Worship: Jin-ah, Yoo Jin-ho, and Han Song-yi really look up to Jin-woo, the latter two respectfully addressing him as their "brother".
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Inside the red gate, Jin-woo appears just in time before Kim Cheol in his insanity can attack the hunters under Jin-woo's protection, and knocks him out with one hit.
  • In Jin-woo's second A-rank dungeon, he stops the boss, Kargargan, right before he can kill the raid leader, Son Gi-hoon. He could have interfered earlier already, but chose to wait until Son Gi-hoon could no longer help in the ensuing fight, as any "help" might have hindered Jin-woo.
  • During the Jeju Island raid, Jin-woo switches places with a shadow soldier that he left inside Baek Yoon-ho's shadow, when he learns that the raid went awry. He ends up saving all Korean hunters except Min Byung-goo, who died before Jin-woo realized anything was wrong due to the live feed being broadcast on a ten-minute delay.
  • When a dungeon break occurs inside Jin-ah's school, Jin-woo manages to save his sister just in time, despite being unable to use his Shadow Exchange ability.
• The Big Guy: Jin-woo's shadow soldier, Iron serves as a tank.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Hwang Dong-seok and his raid force are "lizards", and show their true colors when they realize that the dungeon they entered is extremely profitable.
  • Kang Tae-shik is an employee who works for the Hunter Association, but is also a sadistic assassin.
  • The actor Lee Min-sung is an Attention Whore, who reveals his true despicable self when he doesn't get what he wants.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Hwang Dong-seok 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. Jin-woo was made to carry said equipment the whole time.
  • Kang Tae-shik is fabricating extremely obvious lies, to explain how everyone but him supposedly will die inside the dungeon. First, he tries to Make It Look Like an Accident, but changes the story and intends to frame the criminals, who are forced to clear the dungeons. In both the novel and the webcomic, he offers to spare Jin-woo, Ju-hee and Chi-yeol if they keep their mouths shut about what they saw, but Jin-woo immediately points out that this lie isn't very convincing when he already attempted to kill them just moments earlier.
• Bling of War: Because of his wealth, Jin-ho begins raiding with extremely flamboyant equipment, which made him a target by lizards alongside Jin-woo. By the second raid, where he managed to obtain even more shiny equipment, Jin-woo talks him out of the equipment (after proving that Jin-ho was immobile and off-balance with it on).
• Blood Knight:
  • Hwang Dong-soo intentionally provokes everything and everyone to get a fight. He literally is lusting to kill someone.
  • Jin-woo seeks stronger and more dangerous opponents as he levels up. When the Hunter Association's S-rank president offers to make Jin-woo his successor, Jin-woo refuses, stating that he wants to fight in dungeons and hunt.
  • Most monsters that Jin-woo fights have this as well, notably the ice elf boss in the red gate where he finds the appearance of strong opponents very interesting.
• Blunt "Yes": When the committee claims Go Gun-hee is giving favoritism to Jin-woo to enter high rank Gates without meeting the mandatory minimum party size, Go Gun-hee flat out admits this is favoritism. He then explains to them that Jin-woo is powerful enough that he could just up and leave for another country that is willing to bend the rules for him, causing the committee to relent.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: When the Ahjin guild visits America, Woo Jin-cheol was assigned the prestigious role of... protecting Sung Jin-woo, a role that he finds deflating and which Jin-ho teases him about.
• Boss Battle: Every dungeon also has a boss. If the boss isn't defeated within a week of the gate's appearance, the gate will break, allowing the monsters inside the dungeon to pass through the gate and invade Earth. Once the boss is defeated, the humans have one hour to escape the dungeon before the gate closes.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: While hunter levels are fixed once they awakened, skills they gain and train on outside of their hunter abilities can enhance a hunter's combat potential. This is best showcased with Song Chi-Yul, who is a mage-class hunter and also a kumdo instructor, which allowed him to use a sword well-enough to contest the higher-ranked Kang Tae-shik for a short moment.
• Break the Cutie: 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 being forced to leave Jin-woo to die. After Kang Tae-shik tried to murder her and the rest of the party, she retires as a hunter and leaves Seoul.
• Bullet Time: 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.
• The Bus Came Back: The demon noble Esil appears once more in Side Story, since her last scene in Chapter 88 of the webcomic. She even expresses disappointment at Jin-woo for never meeting with her again despite saying so before his departure way back then.
• But Thou Must!: The System sometimes forces Jin-woo to do things he doesn't want to. If he fails to keep up with his daily training, he spends four hours in the "penalty zone", being chased by giant monsters. If another hunter displays sufficient killing intent toward Jin-woo, the system forces him to kill them or else it'll stop his heart.
• Call-Back: After Baek Yoon-ho accidentally activates his Magical Eye to analyze Jin-woo's strength after Jin-woo's rank remeasurement, he recalls the first time he accidentally viewed Jin-woo with his eye after the red gate incident. He remembers how strong Jin-woo was at that time, and then realizes that Jin-woo grew even stronger in the meantime. This leads Baek Yoon-ho to believe that Jin-woo didn't go through a reawakening and has acquired the ability to grow.
• Came Back Strong:
  • Jin-woo was on the verge of death at the beginning of the story, but was restored and came back as a "player". While his initial strength remained the same (besides getting Ideal Illness Immunity and a Healing Factor), he also gained the ability to become stronger.
  • Kim Cheol as the shadow "Iron" is bigger and stronger than he was in life and can even level up. He's still as stupid as ever though.
  • This happens again with Jin-woo during his fight with the monarchs, where the Beast Monarch killing him helps him assimilate with the Shadow Monarch and unlocking its true power.
• Came Back Wrong: The human reincarnates in Jin-woo shadow army are technically back from the dead, but are robbed of their free will and forced to serve alongside Jin-woo.
• Cannibalism Superpower: The ants on Jeju Island can develop new abilities by eating their enemies.
• Casting a Shadow: Jin-woo can raise the shadows of dead monsters and even hunters, who can then also level up.
• Character Level: The entire premise of the story is that Jin-woo can level up and become stronger, when almost everyone else is stuck at whatever power level they awakened as.
• Chekhov's Gun: After becoming a Player, Jin-woo learns that he must do a certain quest every day, or else he'll be sent to another dimension where he has to survive for four hours before returning. During his job quest, he ignores a warning over the daily quest, thinking he'll be able to do it later, but he gets stuck in the dungeon. He is locked out of any escape options and loses a means to leave, a dungeon-exclusive teleportation stone, when an endurance round begins after barely defeating the boss. Low on health and power, he has no hope to survive... only to luck out when the penalty quest triggers just before the finishing blow would've been dealt. Because of all the levels he has gained since the last time he got penalized, Jin-woo has a much easier time surviving the penalty zone; and because he can still gain levels in the penalty zone and has access to the item store, Jin-woo is able to restore his fatigue, recover from his previous injuries by gaining even more levels, and acquire a new weapon to better help him survive the gauntlet upon returning to the job quest. Because of all this, he receives additional "AP" since he not only didn't use the stone, he lasted longer than required as well as defeating all of the enemies during the round, resulting in a higher ranked version of the new Job given to him.
• Chekhov's Skill: When Jin-woo has a look at his status screen for the first time, he notices in his list of skills an "Unknown" skill that is maxed out, but doesn't think too much about it, because the System gives him no info about it.
• Chick Magnet: At the start of the story, the only woman in Jin-woo's life is Lee Ju-hee. After becoming a tall Bishōnen 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. He also attracts the attention of S-rank hunter Cha Hae-In when she realizes he's the only hunter who doesn't smell repulsive to her. Later, the demon noble Esil develops a crush on him after he not only spares her life, but also protects her from monsters while she's unconscious.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Hwang Dong-seok's raid force consists of "lizards", who constantly invite weaker hunters for quick profits (to fulfill Association-mandated party sizes), but then use them as The Bait. They got away with it every time, as governmental authorities cannot investigate what happened inside a dungeon once it closes, and while the Association suspected them to be lizards, they couldn't directly approach Dong-seok, because his brother is a famous S-rank hunter. However, Dong-seok and his raid force meet their end when they try to betray Jin-woo and Yoo Jin-ho.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Jin-woo initially felt responsible for the entire double dungeon raid force, but after being betrayed by the hunters who ran for their lives when an opportunity showed up, he has stopped caring about anyone he doesn't know.
• Combo Platter Powers: One reason for the Shadow Monarch's and Jin-woo's great power is this, being a combination of both the power of a monarch and a ruler.
• Consummate Liar: Nearly every word Kang Tae-shik says is a total lie.
• Cool Gate: Dungeons are entered via "gates". A red gate is a special gate that soon after closes off until all hunters are dead, 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 time is different. Hunters trapped inside a red gate dungeon would have to survive for roughly half a year before help from outside could come. Not only do red gate dungeons contain deadly monsters, but the dungeons also often have inhospitable climates such as scorching deserts or below-freezing forests.
• Cool Uncle: Of all of Jin-woo's shadows, Beru becomes this to Su-ho.
• Creature-Hunter Organization: The Hunter Association is an organization that hires smaller organizations (guilds) or individuals that hunt the monsters that are lurking behind the gates that lead to another world. Conventional weapons do not work, only awakened beings can hurt these creatures.
• Critical Hit: Jin-woo has instinctively gone for vital points with his attacks to the point where he was granted a skill, Vital Strike, that allows him to spend MP to always deal a critical hit to his target.
• Critical Status Buff: When Jin-woo is below 30% of his maximum health, the Unyielding Spirit skill activates, which reduces any additional incoming damage by half.
  • Later, after completing the job change quest, Jin-woo receives the title "The One Who Overcame Adversity", which boosts all of his stats by 1% for every 1% his HP is below maximum.
• Cultured Warrior: After regaining his ability to speak, Igrit shows aptitude in the academics as he helps Jin-woo in his studies in the revised timeline, as well as recommending more academic-oriented career options for Su-ho compared to more combat-oriented ones that Bellion suggests.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • The boss encounter in the double dungeon didn't even qualify as a battle. The hunters were nothing more than insects. The only reason any of them had a chance of escaping was because the boss amused himself by making a game out of it to see if they could solve his riddles.
  • Hwang Dong-seok's raid force is swiftly taken out by Jin-woo without posing a challenge once he is determined to kill them.
  • Any of the C-rank dungeons Jin-woo goes clearing with Yoo Jin-ho ends up being this. While a high-ranking hunter may need an hour or two, Jin-woo initially needs only thirty minutes and gets even faster once he advances to a class. In gaming terms, he is speedrunning.
  • Jin-woo's fight against high orc sorcerer, Kargargan, and his army ends up being one. He easily outclasses the orc, and then was able to take the boss's shadow without any problems.
• Curtains Match the Window: Choi Jong-in, a fire mage hunter, is depicted with both red eyes and red hair in the webcomic.
• Damager, Healer, Tank: Hunters are generally split into these three roles.
• Dance Battler: Hunters deputy guildmaster and S-rank hunter, Cha Hae-in, is known for her graceful fighting style, which is why she is also nicknamed "Dancer". The Hunters raid members note that Jin-woo moves in a similar way.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Jin-woo wields shadows, and while they are very scary, neither they nor him are evil. Jin-woo has killed before, but he only kills the worst people.
• Dark World: Jin-woo's instant dungeons are located in parallel universes of the places he visits. He can only unlock those dungeons with keys he has to find.
• Death-Activated Superpower: Jin-woo's transformation as a vessel of the Shadow Monarch and assimilation of its powers is completed when he "dies" by the hand of the Beast Monarch.
• Death from Above: Jin-woo surprises Kargargan with a punch from above, crushing the latter's head with it.
• Decapitation Presentation: Igrit has a tendency to decapitate his victims and present their heads to his master. Dumb as he is, Iron imitates Igrit, which annoys Jin-woo to no end to the point where he has to ask them to stop.
• Declaration of Protection: Jin-woo promises to protect his sister's friend, Han Song-yi, after their raid force was left stranded behind a red gate. The declaration was exclusively for her, he felt no obligation to protect anyone else (although after the stronger hunters tried to boost their own chances of survival by abandoning the weaker hunters to die, he ended up keeping the weaker group alive).
• Defeat Means Friendship: Enemies Jin-woo defeats can be enslaved with his necromancer abilities, but Igrit is a special case, as Jin-woo's first attempts to raise him fail. In the webcomic, Jin-woo interprets this as Igrit still being loyal to the owner of the throne he guarded, and Jin-woo asks him to serve a master who is actually still alive. Igrit seemingly accepts and is then raised as Jin-woo's shadow soldier. In the novel, Jin-woo seemingly frees Igrit by grabbing his hand and pulling his shadow out of his corpse.
• Degraded Boss: Many powerful monsters that might be found as Bosses can be found acting as the front-line troops for higher ranked Gates, almost always resulting in an Oh, Crap! moment for the Hunters. Not even Kamish, the most powerful monster previously encountered by humanity, is exempt from this; at least three similar dragons can be seen among the Shadows accompanying Bellion when the remaining members of the original Shadow Monarch's army arrive in Korea.
• Designated Girl Fight: During the 4 on 4 Japan/Korea Spar, both sides only had one female and they fight each other. The Japan S Rank even made a note of this.
• Determinator: Despite being mocked as the "World's Weakest Hunter", Jin-woo kept fighting to support his family. He retains this strong will after becoming a player, only now he also gets stronger every time he succeeds.
• Devious Daggers: Jin-woo's preferred weapon choice after becoming a "Player", which highlights his more cynical outlook on hunters after the double dungeon incident and the darker actions he takes against his enemies like the lizards.
• Dirty Coward: Kim Sang-shik shows his ugliest side when the double dungeon raid goes badly, willing to sacrifice anyone to get away, blaming Song Chi-yeol for everything that happened and ultimately running away to leave Ju-hee, Chi-yeol, and Jin-woo to die when he is able to flee. However, he eventually regrets his actions and asks for forgiveness.
• Disappeared Dad: Jin-woo's father, Il-hwan, disappeared, when a gate closed behind him while he was still in the dungeon. Years later, he emerged from a gate in America, with power firmly in S-rank territory.
• Dispel Magic: Kandiaru's Blessing comes with a handy permanent protection spell, which dispels any kind of debuffs Jin-woo may receive. It even prevents him from getting drunk, much to his annoyance.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Jin-woo has told no one why he keeps working as a hunter (to provide for his hospitalized mother and underage sister), despite being so weak and the job constantly threatening his life. He doesn't like revealing personal information to others, and it's implied that he doesn't want to be pitied even more than he already is for being the "World's Weakest Hunter".
• Dramatic Irony:
  • D-rank hunter Yoo Jin-ho promises to protect Jin-woo in the C-rank dungeon, when he learns that Jin-woo is an E-rank (despite him being a Naïve Newcomer). Jin-woo already dealt with the instant dungeon C-rank boss Casaka. He also is made to be the baggage carrier, even though he is stronger than the entire raid force.
  • Kim Cheol and his team mock Jin-woo, the E-rank, for supposedly leading his team to their deaths by wandering into ice bear territory, and are sure that he never received formal training like they did when they joined Baekho. One scene later, the audience learns from Jin-woo that he did this on purpose, because he deemed ice bears to be more reasonable enemies than ice elves or whatever lurks inside the dungeon, because the most dangerous aspect of a dungeon is the unknown. Jin-woo ends up using the ice bears as a reliable source of food, while Kim Cheol's group soon finds themselves weak with hunger. And while Jin-woo did not attend training courses, he is not New Meat and actually has four years of experience as a hunter, and several months as a player. Ironically, Kim Cheol unconsciously assumed Jin-woo to be the leader, feeling the actual power difference between B-rank Park Hee-jin and the other two C-rank hunters that were left behind, but ignored why he got them confused and moved on.
  • Like in the C-rank dungeon with Hwang Dong-seok, Jin-woo accompanies the second Hunters raid force as a baggage carrier in his second A-rank dungeon. At this point, he already was unofficially reevaluated as an S-rank, and was far stronger than the A-rank raid leader. Jin-woo volunteered as a baggage carrier as an excuse to watch a professional team clear an A-rank dungeon, but when the dungeon turned out to be more dangerous than expected, Jin-woo ended up showing them how it's done.
• Draw Aggro: Tanks can use taunt skills to draw the attention of the monsters to themselves.
• Dual Wielding: Jin-woo initially only fights with one dagger, but starts to wield two after acquiring a second weapon.
• Dump Stat: Originally Jin-woo ignored intelligence because he thought he would be a pure fighter. The suggested class he gains from his quest dumbfounds him as a result since it relies on the stat he leveled the least.
• Dumb Muscle: Iron is not really a smart guy, just like when he was still known as Kim Cheol, when he was alive.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After much trial and tribulations as a player and vessel of the Shadow Monarch, Jin-woo turning back time with the Cups of Reincarnation to defeat the Monarchs before the appearance of gates allowed the world that Jin-woo grows up in to be peaceful, which he continues to live in as a normal human.
• Elemental Eye Colors: Choi Jong-in is depicted with red eyes in the webcomic. He's a fire mage.
• Embarrassing Nickname: At the start of the story, Jin-woo was known as the "World's Weakest Hunter".
• Equipment-Based Progression: Hunters are usually stuck at their power level after they awakened (and while some may reawaken and get stronger, they cannot continue increasing their power), with Jin-woo being the sole exception. Getting better equipment that is infused with magic power is the only way for a normal hunter to improve. Good equipment makes up for a lot of shortcomings, which is first demonstrated with D-rank hunter Yoo Jin-ho, who was able to keep up in a C-rank dungeon despite his inexperience and lower strength, because his gear was worth hundreds of millions of won.
• Et Tu, Brute?: 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 Fire-Forged Friends, running away and leaving Song Chi-yeol, Lee Ju-hee, and Jin-woo to die. Jin-woo swore to never unnecessarily risk his life for someone else again, unless he benefits from it or it's someone he holds dear.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Apparently, not even Kang Tae-shik could refuse a father's plea to kill a serial rapist, who drove the man's daughter to suicide.
• Evil Counterpart: Kang Tae-shik serves as Jin-woo's very similar opponent early on. Both focus on agility and speed, prefer daggers and are killers. Jin-woo only killed to defend himself though, while Tae-shik is a psychopath who enjoys killing.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Some students come across a Gate in a school supply room. One mentions that this particular room has particularly low traffic. After hearing that one of the students realize that they don't know how long this Gate has been there for. Cue the Gate Breaking.
• Expy: An army of powerful ants who eat humans, and assimilate human traits to mutate, whose queen eventually uses all her energy to produce a far superior son, who is eventually called the Ant King. Is the king's name perhaps Meruem...?
• Extreme Omnivore: The ants on Jeju island are this as part of their [1], though it is showcased more when Jin-woo converts a number of them into his shadow army as they have a tendency to munch on rather valuable corpses and items in dungeons when not closely supervised, much to the chagrin of Jin-woo and his allies.
• Fatal Flaw: Kim Cheol's party fails, because of their impatience, inexperience, overconfidence and pride. While it seems reasonable to clear the red gate dungeon as fast as possible, he was utterly unprepared for what would await him. Instead of securing a safe base and food, his party was starving and freezing, leaving them weakened against a group of yetis, ice giants, and the ice elves. Like Jin-woo, Kim Cheol recognized that the forest would be full of ice bears, but ignored the fact that this would secure their food supply, help against the cold, and let them establish a relatively safe base, as they would know exactly which enemies they would have to face.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  • Baek Yoon-Ha convinces Jin-woo to not assimilate Min Byung-goo into his Shadow Army by portraying his fate as this, being a S-rank hunter who retired due to his dislike of fighting being forced to continue fighting under Jin-woo.
  • The abusive stepfather that Jin-woo confronts in Side Story is subject to this, trapped within a dimensional gap to be tortured by Jin-woo's shadow army.
• A Father to His Men: Various guild leaders show great care and protectiveness of their employees below them.
  • Baek Yoon-ho proves this when Hwang Dong-Su dares to confront one of his employees, willing to throw down with an S-rank despite the potential collateral damage that may result.
  • Thomas Andres of the Scavenger Guild as well which Dong-Su tried to exploit to make Thomas kill Jin-woo. However, despite being defeated, he offers to make amends with Jin-woo for the fact that he spared not only him, but all involved guild members in the fighting (sans Dong-Su).
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: While the common roles in a raid are Damager, Healer, Tank, there are other official roles that describe a hunter's class further, like support. Jin-woo is officially a "fighter", and his necromancer skill makes him a mage in his remeasurement, but he is actually a Master of All.
• Foil: Yoo Jin-ho is basically one to Lee Min-sung. Both are rich people, whose fathers are the leaders of one of Korea's most powerful companies, Yoojin Construction. However, Jin-ho, while relatively weak as a hunter at D-rank, is kind, generous and willing to put his life on the line for a teammate, while Min-sung is a Manipulative Bastard, an Attention Whore and a pathetic Dirty Coward despite being a powerful A-rank Hunter.
• Forced Sleep: "Eternal Sleep" is a disease that causes normal people that are exposed to too much magic power, to gradually fall asleep for longer times until they will no longer wake up. The body then quickly deteriorates, with magic cores being the only way to keep the patient alive. Jin-woo's mother already succumbed to this sleep, which is why Jin-woo tries to find a cure. Yoo Jin-ho's father, Myung-han, also is diagnosed with it. The doctor warns him that he can no longer see his hunter son anymore, or else he might sleep forever.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: Hunters with strong Super-Senses can feel the power of a being, be it monster or hunter. Jin-woo can improve this ability specifically by increasing his "sense" stat.
• Fragile Speedster: Assassin-class hunters specialize in speed. Their speed is their strength and defense. Kang Tae-shik is the first one that shows up in the story.
• Funny Background Event: In the webcomic, after Jin-woo asks Jin-ah how handsome she would rate Jin-woo, she can be seen in one of the panels texting to a friend that her brother must have finally gone crazy.
• Gaining the Will to Kill: Subverted, because it's actually forced onto Jin-woo. When his life is threatened by another hunter, the system makes him fight to the death, or else his heart will stop and he dies regardless.
• Genius Bruiser: Jin-woo already had a clever mind at the start of the story, shown when he was the only one who figured out the meaning of the "three commandments" in the double dungeon. After being given the chance to grow stronger, he adds the brawn to his brains, turning him into a One-Man Army.
• Giant Spider: The first C-rank boss Jin-woo encounters is a giant spider.
• Giver of Lame Names: Jin-woo doesn't really give too much thought about the names of his shadows. He removes the edgy-sounding "Blood Red Commander" title from Igrit, literally just uses Kim Cheol's given name in English, "Iron", and names his high orc sorcerer, Kargargan, after an orc's physical defining trait, "Tusk". When he tries to come up with a name for his new guild, he originally wants to call it Solo Play, which everyone else thinks is an awful name but they don't know how to tell Jin-woo.
  • Jin-ho also proves to be this in Side Story, where he proposes to title the video game his company developed as "Beautiful World", much to the protest of most of his staff members. He then considers asking Jin-woo for suggestions, but also comments that he is still terrible at giving out names.
• Glass Cannon: 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.
• Glory Seeker: The other common reason awakened beings work as hunters besides money: fame, and with it the rise in society.
• Glory Hound: One example is the actor Lee Min-sung, who awakened as an A-rank awakened being, and made a big show out of his retirement as an actor, so he can "work" as a hunter. Officially he does it to protect mankind, but he is actually only doing it for the attention and fame he will get.
• Go Back to the Source: The "Cursed Box Jin-woo obtained in the demon castle gave something that Jin-woo needed. It was a key that allowed him to enter the double dungeon, where he initially failed and became a player, once he reached a certain level. In there, he finds the creator of the system and the origins of the Shadow Monarch.
• Go for the Eye: When Jin-woo encounters the C-rank Giant Spider boss, he defeats it by going for its eyes. He also stabs Igrit in the eye with great effects.
• Good is Not Nice: Jin-woo fights to protect his family and friends but is not above getting his hands dirty and dishing out extrajudicial punishments to those that wrong or threaten him and his friends.
• Goo-Goo-Godlike: Jin-woo's and Hae-in's son, Su-ho, begins flying before he knew how to walk. He also shows signs of Jin-woo's Shadow Monarch powers, like being able travel between the real world and the shadow's World of Rest.
• Go Out with a Smile:
  • After Min Byung-goo's shadow saved Cha Hae-in's life at the end of the ant extermination operation on Jeju Island, Jin-woo lets his soul rest and releases Min Byung-goo, who with a smile on his face vanishes into nothingness.
  • Go Gun-hee goes out after being fatally wounded by the Frost Monarch, being proud to have fought alongside Jin-woo. He does it again in the revised timeline when Jin-woo unlocks his memory from his past life, once again expressing happiness to having met Jin-woo.
• Graceful Loser:
  • Kang Tae-shik takes it well that he lost and died to Jin-woo. In the webcomic, he states that it is only the course of nature for the weak to fall to the strong.
  • Thomas Andre also concedes his defeat after Jin-woo utterly defeats him in America.
• Grew a Spine: Part of Yoo Jin-ho's Character Development is him standing up to his intimidating father.
• Gut Feeling: Park Hee-jin concludes that Jin-woo is far stronger 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 being the only one who could react to the ice elves' ambush and catch an arrow. Her gut feeling ends up saving her life, as Kim Cheol's party suffers a Total Party Kill, while all hunters that stayed with Jin-woo make it out alive. Kim Cheol also had a similar feeling about Jin-woo as he made an assumption that Jin-woo was the other party's leader, despite the presence of higher-ranked hunters in the party.

H-N

• Hammerspace: Some hunters can use spatial magic to store one or two items in a pocket dimension. As a player, Jin-woo has access to an inventory with seemingly unlimited space, where he can store items and retrieve them at will.
• Handicapped Badass: Despite having lost an arm, Song Chi-yeol's swordsman skills were still far above average. In the webcomic, he managed to keep B-rank hunter, Kang Tae-shik, busy for a moment before being overwhelmed.
• Happiness in Slavery: It is revealed from several shadow incarnates that could speak within Jin-woo's shadow army that the process of transforming into a shadow is not merely the robbing of their free will to serve Jin-woo, but also an overwhelming sense of happiness and loyalty to be serving under him.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Initially played straight with Jin-woo, who simply couldn't improve and get stronger, despite his four years of experience as a hunter. This changes drastically after becoming a player. The harder he works, i.e. the more quests he completes and monsters he defeats, the more his level rises and the stronger he becomes.
• Healing Factor: 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.
• Healing Hands: Healer-class hunters like Lee Ju-hee display this.
• Healthcare Motivation: Jin-woo is initially 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. His sister, Jin-ah, wants to become a doctor, so she can heal her mother. Trying to heal her permanently with a special item also becomes a motivation of Jin-woo's.
• Hellgate: A special key gives Jin-woo access to the "Demon Castle" dungeon.
• Hellhound: The Gatekeeper of Hell in the Demon Castle dungeon is the three-headed Cerberus.
• Heroic RRoD:
  • A hunter's magic power is limited. If they use their magic and other skills too many times, they will be left exhausted until they have taken a rest. This is first shown in the double dungeon, when Ju-hee is unable to move her body, because she spent all her energy on futilely trying to restore Jin-woo's leg.
  • In addition to a mana pool, Jin-woo has a fatigue counter which goes from 0 to 100.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: Jin-woo cuts his hair and starts wearing fashionable clothes later on. Some people already noticed how attractive he looks, but after his makeover, he gets a lot more attention. Despite the newfound attraction, Jin-woo always thought he was just "average".
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • At the third and final stage of the double dungeon, once all but three of the survivors have fled, it becomes clear that one person will have to stay behind so the other two can escape or else everyone will die. Chi-yeol volunteers at first, but Ju-hee used too much healing magic on Jin-woo's crippled leg and is now too weak to stand, so Jin-woo asks Chi-yeol to help Ju-hee escape, with Jin-woo keeping the exit open. This sacrifice of his triggers the secret quest that causes his transformation into a player.
  • Inside the red gate dungeon, Park Hee-jin tries to buy time for her comrades when Jin-woo's split group faces an ice bear, which she deems as too strong for anyone in the group. Jin-woo quickly stops her though and one hit kills the monster with his bare hand.
  • The Hunters raid leader, Son Gi-hoon, accepts A-rank boss, High Orc Sorcerer Kargargan's, offer to meet him directly, so he and his team can kill the boss before a dungeon break occurs. However, he accepts that their chances of victory are low, so he also wants Jin-woo to use their attack as an opportunity to run away and report what happened so higher-rank hunters can enter the gate in case they fail. One of the guild members even writes her will down on a notepad and gives it to Jin-woo to deliver to her family. Jin-woo was actually supposed to be part of the mining team, and only joined the raid team as a baggage carrier when their usual one failed to show up that day, so everyone felt it was right to prioritize the survival of the (supposed) noncombatant.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Sung Jin-woo gets two versions of this from his time as the "Weakest Hunter in the World" to when he becomes a "Player". As an E-rank known to be one of the weakest, hunters know to expect that he will be wounded even tackling the weakest of gates (although they also see a benefit in that any gate that Jin-woo joins will be a relative breeze for any rank higher than Jin-woo). Once Jin-woo becomes a "Player" and gains the power of a necromancer, people begin to know him for how fearsome his shadow army is, especially when he leaves his shadows alone to interact with fellow hunters as the Knights Guild found out the hard way with Beru and the ant shadows.
• Hitman with a Heart: Kang Tae-shik supposedly accepted the contract killing, because he sympathized with the father who wanted to avenge his daughter. Tae-shik is a Consummate Liar, so it's hard to say if he was serious, but since his final words to Jin-woo in the novel were a final request to finish his job, it's likely true.
• Honor Before Reason: Igrit decides to accommodate Jin-woo not showing a weapon and fights Jin-woo barehanded. Igrit loses, but Jin-woo later remarks that he definitely would have lost to Igrit, if the knight had used his sword.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The Statue of God and its minions trample Jin-woo's raid force like insects, and the challenge is more about surviving the encounter by following the commandments that they were given earlier.
• Horrifying Hero: When Jin-woo gains the power of a necromancer, he becomes this, even to those that he saves. Everyone finds his ability to control a shadow army very unnerving, and his ability to raise the dead even more so due to the sheer potential of having an army that gets stronger with every enemy they defeat. Though his powers are fearsome, everyone also recognizes that it is because of his power that they may have the chance to survive whatever ordeal is thrown to them.
• Horrifying the Horror: Jin-Woo has scared a lot of monsters with his overwhelming power. With some of the more intelligent monsters, we even get to see their inner monologue as they realize the hopelessness of their situation.
• Hunter of Monsters:
  • "Hunter" in this world refers to the awakened humans who hunt the monsters behind a gate.
  • After killing a lot of lycans, Jin-woo acquired the title of "Wolf Slayer", which increases his damage against beast-type monsters.
• Hunter of Their Own Kind:
  • 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 Gun-hee.
  • This is also the reason Yoojin Construction intends to found their own guild. They fear the rise in power of the hunters, and try to hire hunters they can trust.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick:
  • Jin-woo's Dragon, Igrit, is early on at least on the same level as Jin-woo. Inside the red gate, Jin-woo notes how Igrit would have wiped the floor with him if he had used his sword against Jin-woo.
  • Cha Hae-in is only the vice guildmaster of the Hunters, but Jin-woo estimates that she is stronger than her boss, Choi Jong-in.
• 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 Total Party Kill 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.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Jin-woo usually has grey eyes, which by itself befit someone who Took a Level in Cynic and became colder, more strong-willed and less approachable, but when he focuses his senses or when he gets serious, they become such an intense icy blue that they seem to glow.
• Ideal Illness Immunity: Jin-woo's secret quest's reward is Kandiaru's Blessing, which renders Jin-woo immune to all kinds of diseases and poisons. Unfortunately for him, that also means he Never Gets Drunk, as the alcohol in his body is identified as poison.
• If We Get Through This…: When Jin-woo intends to sacrifice himself so Ju-hee and Chi-yeol can escape the double dungeon, he places a magic core he found in Ju-hee's hand, asking her to go buy dinner with it, referring to his earlier promise to treat her to dinner as thanks for taking care of him. She held on to this magic core as a Tragic Keepsake, but after being reunited with Jin-woo, who then saved her life from Kang Tae-shik, she returns it to Jin-woo and announces that she's retiring as a hunter.
• I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: In the webcomic, Hwang Dong-soo wakes up with his eyes wet. He doesn't realize it yet, but his brother was killed by Jin-woo hours earlier.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Kim Cheol meets his end at the hands of Igrit, who impales Kim Cheol with his sword.
• Innocence Lost: Over time, Jin-woo gets colder and deadlier. He himself notices the changes in him, but he still can smile amongst his loved ones, or if someone genuinely treats him well.
• Innocent Blue Eyes:
  • Jin-woo is depicted with grey eyes, which initially fit his innocent appearance.
  • Lee Ju-hee sports two.
• Invisibility: "Stealth" allows the user to hide their appearance, smell, sound and aura.
  • As an assassin-class hunter, Kang Tae-shik is the first one to display this ability.
  • Jin-woo learns Stealth too, after he loots a runestone from Tae-shik's corpse.
  • The ice elves inside the red gate can use Stealth too. They follow Kim Cheol to Jin-woo's group's base, after finishing off the rest of Kim Cheol's group. However, Jin-woo immediately notices their presence.
• In the Hood: Jin-woo tries to avoid most people and generally prefers to keep his hoodie up.
• Invisible to Normals: Jin-woo's status/information screens are completely invisible to other people, including high-ranked hunters due to how unique said system is, only Jin-woo is capable of seeing them, given his current status as a "player".
• It Amused Me: After the high orc sorcerer, Kargargan, 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.
• It Gets Easier: Since the time Hwang Dong-seok threatened his life, Jin-woo has stopped hesitating to kill when he has to.
• It's All My Fault: As the raid leader who, in the hopes of making more money, asked the raid force to enter the second half of the double dungeon without stopping to gather more party members, 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 as a party that they wanted to go on.
• It Runs in the Family: Sung Jin-woo's father, Sung Il-hwan, was one of the first hunters ten years ago, but mysteriously disappeared when a gate closed before he could get out of a dungeon. After Jin-woo reaches S-rank, his father emerges from a new gate on the other side of the world, also wielding S-rank power.
• I Work Alone: Well, Jin-woo does it because he's a One-Man Army. He also doesn't want to miss out on the experience he can gain, so he prefers to clear the entire dungeon alone.
• Karmic Death: Days earlier, Kim Cheol mocked Jin-woo for going into the forest because it was full of ice bears, when his own decisions lead to a near Total Party Kill, while Jin-woo's group is fine in the forest. Kim Cheol, who treated his fellow hunters like shit because he didn't want to get slowed down by weak hunters, ends up humiliated and killed by the "World's Weakest Hunter", Jin-woo.
• Kill All Humans: 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 answer, but suddenly "glitches" and repeats his offer as if nothing had happened.
• King Mook: Igrit was a red-colored knight, much like the other knights Jin-woo encountered in the class advancement dungeon. However, Igrit was far stronger and more agile than the previous knights and posed a real danger to Jin-woo even one-on-one.
• Knife Fight: The battle between Jin-woo and Kang Tae-shik is an intense fight, as both are assassin-like agility-based fighters.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: 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 lead a raid again in the guild. This earns him Jin-woo's respect, as he sees it as a wise decision. Unfortunately, the boss of the dungeon, Kargargan, had other plans for them and blocked the gate with a powerful barrier.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • The "lizards" thought they had an easy target in Jin-ho and Jin-woo when they left them to die to the spider boss. They got all messily killed by Jin-woo.
  • Yoo Jin-ho standing by Jin-woo's side (even before he learned how strong Jin-woo is) and keeping Jin-woo's secret earns him Jin-woo's trust. The two then genuinely become friends and treat each other as honorary brothers.
  • Kim Cheol acting like an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy ends up with him humiliated and weakened. Worse, he doesn't show any sign of reason and blames anything and anyone but himself for his own failure. Jin-woo punishes Kim Cheol's emotion- and madness-driven actions by baiting Kim Cheol into attacking Jin-woo, which leads to Kim Cheol's karmic death and subsequent resurrection as Jin-woo's shadow minion.
  • The Japanese Hunter Association's plan to weaken Korea and conquer them, ends up with them weakened instead after losing many of their S-rank hunters. Instead of Korea losing most of their S-Ranks, including the leaders of a good portion of their top Guilds, they lost a single S-Rank that was retired. To contrast, most of the 11 Japanese S-Ranks that participated were killed, including Ryuji Goto, the nation's strongest.
    • Furthermore, Goto's plan was to use this event to indicate to the world that he was a National-Rank Hunter, as the only requirement he hadn't completed was clearing an S-Rank Dungeon, and he would have "cleared" it on a technicality. Instead, it simply showed the world Sung's true power, and made many across the world speculate if HE could be considered a National-Rank.
    • To add icing to this karma cake, Korean Association President Go Gun-hee found out what the Japanese Association planned to do, and this has destroyed any future positive relationship between the two associations.
    • And the final nail in the coffin, when Japan was under attack, with least a million citizens dead, and many were asking why the Korean Association weren't helping Japan at all. Their response? Exposing Japan's betrayal attempt to conquer them, all but effectively ruining any sympathy Japan had. The only reason they were saved was that Jin-woo chose to help them.
• Last Request:
  • In the novel, Kang Tae-shik's final words to Jin-woo were him revealing that his assassination target was still alive, implicitly asking Jin-woo to finish the job and kill the serial rapist. Jin-woo finds the criminal, sees that he shows no regret for what he has done and then uses the rapist as living bait for the monsters.
  • Hunters raid leader, Son Gi-hoon asks Jin-woo to find an opportunity to flee and tell others of what had happened in the dungeon. One of their healers also asks Jin-woo to pass a message to her loved ones if he makes it out. It's not necessary though, as Jin-woo saves them all by single-handedly defeating the boss and his minions.
• Leave No Witnesses: Kang Tae-shik intends to murder not only his target but every other hunter as well and come out of the dungeon as the Sole Survivor, to leave no potential witnesses to his assassination.
• "Leave Your Quest" Test: Association President Go Gun-hee's offer to make Jin-woo his successor can be seen as such. If Jin-woo had accepted, he could have become a very politically important person, but he would then have to give up effectively as a hunter, as he would no longer be able to participate in dungeon raids, which would mean that he could no longer level up.
• Level Grinding: Jin-woo gets stronger with every opponent he kills and every quest he completes.
  • As part of a daily quest, Jin-woo has to work out every day. As a reward, he can increase his stats. Before he entered his first dungeon after he became a player, he first raised his strength stat to a level where he could defeat the monsters alone.
  • Shortly after entering his first instant dungeon, unlike inside regular dungeons, Jin-woo realizes that the monsters respawn. He uses this opportunity to level up for several hours before facing the dungeon's boss. Eventually, the System rewards his perseverance with the title "Wolf Slayer", which comes with a significant stat boost when he's fighting beast-type monsters.
  • Raiding C-rank gates with Yoo Jin-ho is a way for Jin-woo to level up consistently. This is convenient for Jin-woo, as he was lacking the funds to reserve the gate rights, and Jin-ho helps him with the mandated party sizes, while no one but Jin-ho, who already is Jin-woo's Secret-Keeper, will get to see his abilities.
  • Inside the red gate, 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.
  • The demon castle instant dungeon is full of demons, and Jin-woo in fact is tasked to kill lots of demons to gain their essence for his quest.
• Lightning Bruiser: Jin-woo is not a Fragile Speedster. He is very durable, wears a lot of armor (which doesn't impair his movement at all thanks to his strength), and he still packs the power of a damage-focused hunter.
• The Load:
  • Jin-woo used to be the load of Association-mandated raid forces, as he struggled against even the weakest of monsters. This is reversed later on, as he overpowers his fellow hunters in later raids.
  • Hunters who are seen as expendable are left behind by some of their colleagues. Those who do this are referred to as "lizards" (named after lizards who leave their tail behind when it becomes a hindrance), and a friend of Jin-woo's once warned him that Jin-woo, as the "World's Weakest Hunter", was in frequent danger of this.
  • Kim Cheol leaves half the raid force (all hunters below B-rank) behind inside the red gate, as he doesn't want to get slowed down by them, calling them dead weight, and "subtly" gestures to them to not follow him. In an Ironic Echo, he is humiliated by "E-rank" Jin-woo and gets called dead weight, after suffering a terrible defeat at the hands of the monsters.
• Load-Bearing Boss: The only way to shut down the Gate is to defeat the Boss. The trick the Guilds have to get the most profit out of a Gate is to merely knock out the Boss and let the Mining and Retrieval Teams clean out the rest of the dungeon before killing the boss, as after killing it the Gate closes in an hour.
• Locked in a Freezer:
  • The penalty zone for not completing a daily quest cannot be left until four hours have passed. There are also gigantic monsters out there to kill Jin-woo. The first time he was inside the penalty zone, he was still Level 1, so he had no other choice but to run for his life.
  • Jin-woo's first instant dungeon locks him inside. The only way to get out was using a stone to get home or defeat the boss.
  • The class advancement room is another special dungeon that locks Jin-woo inside it until he is able to clear it. However, he spends so long in it that he ends up getting sent to the penalty zone for failing to complete the daily quest, allowing him to level up more, replenish his health and prepare for the rest of the dungeon upon his return.
  • Red gates are special gates that are shut both from the outside and the inside as soon as a hunter enters it. These gates are especially dangerous because of the drastically different environment (possibly including extreme temperatures, something hunters don't normally prepare for in dungeon raids), the fact that time flows different inside, and help can't arrive until a dungeon break happens. Because of the difference in time, hunters may have to survive for nearly half a year or kill the boss before they can leave.
• Loophole Abuse: Jin-woo accidentally ends up discovering an "exploit" in the game that saves his life. In the Class-change dungeon, healing and store usage is prohibited, making the whole area a grueling test of endurance, and leaving the dungeon by using a Hearthstone makes it (presumably) permanently missable. However, just as he's being completely obliterated by the final gauntlet, Jin-woo is suddenly transported to the Penalty area as he had failed to do his daily quest for that day. In that area, healing and shop use are not restricted, and Jin-woo is able to recover. Since he left the Class-change dungeon without using a Hearthstone, the dungeon is not lost. Furthermore, the four hours he spends in the Penalty area are added to his score for the gauntlet, allowing him to absolutely ace the quest.
• Love at First Sight: Or in this case smell. Cha develops a crush on Jin-Woo when he is the first Hunter she has come across that actually smells nice to her super sense.
• Lured into a Trap:
  • The double dungeon can be seen as a trap for hunters who thought they could get easy profits, just because the first half of the dungeon was relatively easy.
  • After noticing that the dungeon is going to be very profitable, Hwang Dong-seok leads Yoo Jin-ho and Jin-woo, who are fillers, to the boss room, so he can trap them there and let them die to the boss.
  • Kang Tae-shik pulls off a Wounded Gazelle Gambit, so he can kill Ju-hee quickly.
  • After killing Kang Tae-shik, Jin-woo sees that the boss room was full of hobgoblins and a powerful boss... for a D-rank dungeon that is. He notes that this likely would have caught hunters off-guard, because earlier they only had to fight against normal goblins, who didn't engage in large numbers.
  • Red gates are basically massively dangerous traps. They initially appear to be normal dungeons, but the gate closes soon after a hunter enters it with no one being able to get in or out. The hunters are then trapped in a dangerous environment, like an icy waste, a hot desert or a hot and humid jungle full of poisonous denizens. Furthermore, an hour outside equals a day inside, and the only way to get out alive is to either wait seven days in the human world so that a dungeon break can occur or to kill the boss of the dungeon.
• Magic Knight: Unlike most mage-class hunters, Jin-woo is both a strong mage (in form of a necromancer) and strong in close combat. He only became better in magic and improved his intelligence stat, because the System made him one, when originally he fought like an assassin-class hunter.
• Make a Wish:
  • After completing a secret workout quest, Jin-woo is offered a "Blessed Box" which contains something that he wants or a "Cursed Box", which contains something he needs. He takes the former, which gives him an instant dungeon key, which again leads to a place where Jin-woo can earn money, experience and items. And more importantly, he was given a potion recipe and the means to make it, to cure his mother from her illness.
  • After completing another quest inside the demon castle dungeon, Jin-woo is allowed to get one specific item of his choice. He takes the "Cursed Box", which he earlier passed on. It gives him access to the double dungeon where Jin-woo's story as a player began.
• Manly Tears: Jin-Woo when his mother finally wakes up.
• Master of All: Unlike most assassin-class/mage-class hunters, Jin-woo is very durable despite his speed and agility. And as a summoner, unlike others, he is also proficient in close combat. He is not a tank nor a powerful destructive mage, but he has an army at his back that compensates for what he is lacking.
• Mass Super-Empowering Event: Deconstructed. With people being empowered seemingly at random, inevitably there would be ill-intentioned individuals from gang members to hardened criminals, to serial rapists eager to abuse them.
• Master Swordsman: 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 knights do not exist. His swordsman skills do not help him much in dungeons, though with the help of Lee Ju-hee, he was able to fend off Kang Tae-shik for a while.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Baekho literally means "white tiger", and is a portmanteau of its guildmaster's name, Baek Yoon-ho. He also can turn into a white tiger, which is why his name is very fitting.
  • Kim Cheol's first name literally means metal or iron. And like iron, he broke before he bent (i.e. accepting his failure as raid leader and making up for it).
• Meaningful Rename: Jin-woo names Kim Cheol's shadow "Iron", since "Cheol" literally means iron. It's also a fitting name for a tank.
• Mercy Rewarded: Invoked by Jin-woo. Inside the 80th floor of the demon castle, he spares Eshil, eldest daughter of the Ladir clan, in exchange for passage to the next floor, for which he wasn't able to find the entry permit. Eshil even added that she would let him know where the permits are on each floor, which considerably increased the speed at which Jin-woo could clear the dungeon.
• Mistaken for Murderer: After realizing that Jin-woo's rank is inaccurate, Yoo Jin-ho fears for his life, as false rankers are often rumored to be mass murderers. Jin-woo uses this misunderstanding as a way to make Jin-ho keep Jin-woo's strength a secret.
• Mistaken for Romance: 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). Jin-woo just rolls his eyes at the misunderstanding in the novel, while he is left clueless what Jin-ho is talking about in the webcomic.
• Mook Horror Show:
  • Once Jin-woo literally unleashes his Bloodlust, Kang Tae-shik is terrified of facing the monster Jin-woo has become to the point where he slows down and ends up with a knife in his chest.
  • From the high orc boss Kargargan's perspective, Jin-woo is an insane monster, who is immune to any of his spells, kills his high orc soldiers and then raises them as his own minions. Jin-woo leaves Kargargan to be the last to kill, just so he can instill fear into the boss's mind.
• Moral Myopia: The "lizards" were all ready to kill Hin-ho and Jin-woo, but the moment he proved to be more than they could chew they started to call him a monster.
• Morality Adjustment: Jin-woo is still a good person, but as he levels up as a hunter, he becomes colder and more of an Anti-Hero.
• Motor Mouth:
  • Kang Tae-shik talked so much that even Jin-woo told him so.
  • Kargargan couldn't stop talking about how magnificent he supposedly was. Jin-woo quickly made him shut up.
• Mugging the Monster: Hwang Dong-seok's entire raid force is killed by Jin-woo after they tried to kill him three times, not realizing until it was too late that he had far surpassed his official E-rank status.
• Naïve Newcomer: Especially early on, Jin-woo encounters newly awakened hunters. Yoo Jin-ho is on his first raid when the two meet, and everyone but Jin-woo has no dungeon experience when they enter the red gate.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Jin-woo names his ant king shadow soldier "Beru", after Bernard Werber, who wrote a famous book series about ants.
• Neck Snap: This is how Jin-woo kills Hwang Dong-seok in the novel. In the webcomic, he decapitates Dong-seok instead.
• Necromancer: This is literally Jin-woo's class 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 in the quest, he immediately is promoted to "Monarch of Shadows".
• Never My Fault: A-rank tank, Kim Cheol, initially accepts that he, as the raid leader, is responsible for the Total Party Kill, but then blames the hunger and cold for his failure (when it was his decisions that led to this). When he runs away and sees Jin-woo's group being fine, he blames them for not providing his team with the food and clothes he needed. This, despite the fact that he abandoned the weaker hunters days earlier, viewing them as dead weight which he didn't want to carry to safety.
• New Meat: Everyone inside the red gate, but Jin-woo, was basically a newly 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.
• Nice Guy: 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. He has a strong moral sense, values fairness, and comes to view Jin-woo as a brother, even more so than his own brothers.
• Nightmare Face: After the first trial, the Statue of God from the Double Dungeon contorts its face into a Slasher Smile that looks like it was taken straight off The Joker's face, and is just as terrifying.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: 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. However, when an opportunity to escape appeared, everyone but Song Chi-yeol and Lee Ju-hee ran for themselves, leaving the rest of the party to die.
• The Nose Knows: Hunters S-rank hunter, Cha Hae-in, can smell the magic power of a hunter. The more magic power they have, the stronger the foul smell becomes, which is why she doesn't like being near too many strong hunters. Jin-woo piques her interest when she smells him and finds his smell quite pleasant.
• No-Sell: When Kargargan 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.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In the webcomic, after realizing that Jin-woo has killed before, Kang Tae-shik states how he and Jin-woo aren't that different.
• Number Two:
  • Association President Go Gun-hee's Number Two is A-rank Woo Jin-cheol. Notably, Jin-cheol is on the upper end of A-ranks. He would love to make Jin-woo his Number Two after Jin-woo is remeasured as an S-rank, but Jin-woo politely refuses.
  • The Japanese Association President Matsumoto Shigeo's Number Two is Japan's strongest hunter, Ryuji Goto.

O-Y

• Oblivious to Love: Jin-woo can't take a hint that several women in the story have fallen for him after becoming a "Player".
  • The first instance was the nurse at the hospital who happened to see him shirtless and working out. She asks for his number, but Jin-woo only interprets this as contact information for hospital follow-up.
  • After cleaning himself up for Jin-ah's parent-teacher conference, he got both teachers and students swooning over him, but he doesn't pick up anything more than the fact that he is Jin-ah's brother.
  • When meeting with Esil's father, Jin-woo asks to "borrow Esil" for a moment (as a guide) and grabbing Esil by the shoulder, and was initially confused on how his wording and actions could get her father worked up into a fury.
  • Finally, there is Cha Hae-in who tries her hardest to give Jin-woo the hint that she likes him (although her own failures to communicate her feelings also hinder that aspect). Jin-woo does end up reciprocating Hae-in's feelings and goes out with her a few times before the climactic battle against the monarchs and after reversing time with the Cup of Reincarnation and settling down in a peaceful world, marries her.
• Odd Friendship: Yoo Jin-ho and Jin-woo see themselves as brothers. Their backgrounds are entirely different, but both have strong morals and Jin-ho ends up being one of the few people outside of family who get close to Jin-woo.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Yoo Jin-ho is extremely scared when he sees that Jin-woo is probably a false ranker, as false rankers are stereotypically murderers, and he is Alone with the Psycho in the dungeon.
  • After Jin-woo gets out of the red gate, he is confronted by Baek Yoon-ho. Baek Yoon-ho instinctively pulls back when he realizes how strong Jin-woo is.
  • Baek Yoon-ho is again terrified when Jin-woo was remeasured and for a short moment reveals to Baek Yoon-ho's Magical Eye that he became even stronger. He then investigates Jin-woo and concludes that Jin-woo didn't go through a normal reawakening and is capable of growth.
• One-Hit Kill: Over time, Jin-woo grows so powerful that he can defeat many opponents with just one attack.
  • After clearing his first instant dungeon, he easily shatters a D-rank boss' durable barrier who broke out of a dungeon by throwing his broken sword at it, thus making it easier for the low-ranking hunters who were having trouble getting through it earlier and thus defeat the now-vulnerable boss..
  • Inside the red gate, Jin-woo can crush an ice bear's head with a single punch. He also knocks out Kim Cheol with only one hit.
  • He smashes A-rank boss, Kargargan, with one punch on the head.
• One-Man Army: Jin-woo grows so powerful that he can clear dungeons by himself. 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.
• Only in It for the Money:
  • Due to the danger that gates pose to mankind, and the fact that hunters are the only ones who can deal with these threats, being a hunter is a very lucrative job and is the reason most awakened beings work as hunters. Jin-woo was initially also motivated by money, but is later only interested in getting even stronger, after money becomes a non-issue. Hunter Association President, Go Gun-hee, also assumes that Jin-woo doesn't want to work for him because it doesn't pay well, but is extremely impressed when Jin-woo declares that he wishes to fight in the highest of dungeons, and working for the Association would prevent him from doing so.
  • Notably subverted with Yoo Jin-ho's father, Myung-han. Jin-ho initially assumes his father wants his own guild because it's a profitable business sector, but his father eventually reveals that he wants trustworthy hunters for protection of his family against other hunters.
• Opt Out: Lee Ju-hee decides to retire after the double dungeon incident, and finally 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 attempt on her life by a hunter only gave her the final push, as she also got to see Jin-woo again, only to see that he is no longer the innocent weak man she grew to care for.
• Outside-Context Problem: The dungeons and humans awakening and gaining magical abilities at first. After a few years this situation became normalized and the world carried on while adapting to these changes. Then another one arose in the form of Sung Jin-Woo who is an anomaly even by the standards of the wonders that changed the world. Almost everything about Sung Jin-Woo has gone beyond what whould be possible like;
  • Awakend humans gain a certain level of power and are locked into that level. They can increase their abilities with magical equipment and a rare few can re-awaken to an even greater level of power but for most your level is what you are stuck with. Sung Jin-Woo gains the ability to grow and become more powerful through fighting and killing enemies. Also, while other hunters are stuck with their specialities (mage, fighter, thief, etc.) Sung Jin-Woo can allocate his "points" into specific areas of capability or "stats" like strength(physical power), vitality(durability, stamina, and endurance), sense(physical senses and magical senses), agility(speed, reflexes, and dexterity) or intelligence(ammount of magical power and strength of magical abilities).
  • Sung Jin-Woo gains an extradimensional inventory and shop where he can store items without limit and purchase items not available to hunter society with his own special currency allowing him to carry anything he needs while gaining incredible items no other hunter has access to.
  • Sung Jin-Woo gets access to specialized dungeons, enemies, and rewards that no other hunter can get which further puts him ahead of others.
  • Enemies that Sung Jin-Woo kills may drop a skill stone with the enemy's special ability in it that he can use to gain the ability. It's even possible for him to obtain an ability from another hunter.
  • Sung Jin-Woo becomes a necromancer/shadow lord that can revive the fallen (be they monster or human) into his personal army of shadow soldiers, and unlike a traditional necromancer, these are revenant shadows with all of the powers and intelligence of their living selves, grow stronger alongside Sung Jin-Woo, can be summoned at will from shadows, and cannot be destroyed as they will just reform from shadows so long as Sun Jin-Woo has mana. Not only is this ability way outside of normal for hunters, hunters that can summon can only summon 2 or 3 monsters at most but Sung Jin-Woo's shadow summons can number into the hundreds and they only drain mana if they are damaged and cost him nothing to maintain their existence.
  • In the revised timeline where hunters and gate no longer exist, Cha Hae-in is left totally lost when her and Jin-woo's son, Su-ho, begins flying.
• Panacea: The "Holy Water of Life" is supposedly a potion that can heal any possible illness. Including Jin-woo's mother's Forced Sleep illness, which is why he intends to clear the demon castle dungeon and acquire the necessary ingredients.
• Paper Tiger: Lee Min-Sung is an A Rank Hunter, which makes him extremely powerful, however he is utterly terrified of actually fighting monsters that's close to his own strength.
• The Paralyzer:
  • The first dagger Jin-woo loots off a monster, Casaka's Poisoned Fang, has a chance to apply a paralysis effect on the affected target, although stronger opponents can shake it off.
  • Jin-woo later learns Bloodlust, which is a Supernatural Fear Inducer skill.
• Parental Abandonment: Jin-woo and Jin-ah's hunter father is missing after failing to escape a dungeon before the gate closed. Their mother is hospitalized due to a supernatural illness.
• Playing with Fire: Most mage hunters and many monsters can use fire magic to some degree. This is also the reason why fire resistance equipment is the most common type.
• Poisoned Weapons: Casaka's Poisoned Fang is a dagger that can apply a bleeding and paralysis effect.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Baek Yoon-ho's hair can become white, when he is starting to get serious.
• Power Levels: The magic power of a hunter can be measured by special devices. The higher the value, the higher the rank the hunter is given. Jin-woo's level initially only is at a value of 10, which is very low and qualifies him as an E-rank.
• Practical Taunt: Tank hunters have a skill which allows them to draw a monster's attention to themselves. This is very useful if other party members are a Glass Cannon or Fragile Speedster.
• Pretty Boy: 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 visits his old school to talk with his sister's teacher, many girls in the school immediately crush on him.
• Promotion to Parent: Due to Parental Abandonment, Jin-woo is acting as his sister's guardian.
• Propaganda Hero: Lee Min-sung is really only doing promotional work as a hunter to push his fame further. He joins the Grim Reapers, who are not as big of a guild as the Baekho or Hunters guilds, but that makes him stand out more as an A-rank, and they share a mutual interest of promoting themselves.
• Put on a Bus: After the encounter with Kang Tae-shik, Lee Ju-hee retires from hunter activity and goes back home to Busan, putting her away from Jin-woo's story.
• Purple Is Powerful: After Jin-Woo's shadow army ranks up to another tier, their blue light turns purple.
• Puzzle Boss: The boss from the initial double dungeon is this. The only clue is the Commandments of Carthenon, which are shown in a tablet within the boss room: "Worship the Lord", "Praise the Lord" and "Prove your faith". The first requires bowing to the biggest statue in the room, which is also the boss. The second requires placing only one person near every statue carrying musical instruments so they will play music. The third requires holding position at the middle of the room, keeping an eye on all the statues so they won't move, showing you have faith in your own survival.
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: Jin-Woo is able to mix and match armor from defeated enemies to increase his stats. He notes how lucky it is for the fact said armor is Invisible to Normals or he would look ridiculous.
• Random Power Ranking: 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 Stat-O-Vision is given an S-rank. And then there are special S-ranks who are on a "nation"-level.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Jin-woo kills a serial rapist by using him as The Bait, stating that he is even worse than serial murder, Kang Tae-shik.
• Rare Candy: Many quests, including the daily quests, offer Jin-woo attribute points as a reward, which he can individually use however he likes. They are not tied to him leveling up.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Deconstructed: Since to be labeled an S-Rank is for your readings to be unreadable, Jin-Woo believes that there is actually larger power gaps in the S-Ranks than there are in any other rank.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning:
  • In the webcomic, the Hwang brothers, Dong-seok and Dong-soo, feature glowing red eyes when they reveal their sociopathic selves.
  • Gatekeeper of Hell, Cerberus' eyes turn frighteningly red when it activates its Unstoppable Rage skill.
• Refusal of the Call: Jin-woo doesn't join the Korean-Japanese raid force of S-rank hunters who try to rid Jeju Island of the ants, because he wants to spend more time with his recently cured mother, and not immediately make her worry about her son. However, he feels compelled to intervene when things go awry and ends up saving every Korean but Min Byung-goo.
• Regretful Traitor: Kim Sang-shik in particular feels guilt for leaving Jin-woo alone to die, and in the webcomic can no longer work well, until he can properly apologize to Jin-woo. Unfortunately, he only got the opportunity to apologize after being fatally wounded.
• Reluctant Retiree: The Hunter Association's president, Go Gun-hee, is getting old and suffers from an unspecified disease. He seeks a Legacy Character who follows his ideals to keep the hunters in check.
• Regained Memories Sequence: In Side Story, Go Gun-Hee and Woo Jin-Chul go through this after Jin-woo unlocks their memories from before he used the Cup of Reincarnation
• Remote Body:
  • During the class advancement quest, Jin-woo notices that some of the enemies don't give him any experience. He eventually realizes that they are simply summons of the actual enemies he was supposed to kill and quickly runs to the defenseless summoners. Once they summoners were taken out, the soldiers they controlled all fall apart.
  • A-rank boss, Kargargan, uses one of his minions to speak to the Hunters raid force, demanding from them to come to him.
• Rescue Romance:
  • Park Hee-jin and Han Song-yi seem to be smitten with Jin-woo after he got them out of the red gate safely.
  • Cha Hae-in already was interested in Jin-woo when she noticed that he didn't give off a foul stench like other hunters, but she crushes on him after he saved her life on Jeju Island, and even asks him to join his newly founded guild.
• Resting Recovery: Kandiaru's Blessing allows Jin-woo to rapidly regenerate when he sleeps. Apparently, he can even grow back lost limbs.
• Retirony: Min Byung-goo only came out of retirement to complete the Jeju Raid and then was planning on quitting permanently. He becomes the only Korean Hunter to get killed.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder:
  • Go Gun-hee expects Jin-woo's answer why he refused to become Gun-hee's Number Two and eventual successor to be money, but then is taken aback that Jin-woo is really only interested in fighting in dungeons and defeating the monsters inside. He then wrongfully assumes Jin-woo is doing it out of pure altruism, and starts to use all his resources available to support Jin-woo.
  • When Jin-woo curbstomps Kargargan's army, Kargargan uses all his power to annihilate Jin-woo's shadow army. Thinking he did serious damage, he attempts to mock Jin-woo by asking if Jin-woo still thinks he looks like a fool. Jin-woo responds with a Blunt "Yes" and then crushes Kargargan with one fist to the head.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: After Jin-woo turns back time with the Cup of Reincarnation, several other characters other than Jin-woo demonstrate this: his father Sung Il-Hwan (due to his service as a vessel for the Rulers) and Norma Selner (due to her psychic abilities).
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Jin-woo is seemingly the only one who operates with "the System", which allows him to see and increase his "stats", and gives him quests which are rewarded with items or a stat boost when they are completed.
• Running Gag:
  • Jin-woo's terrible naming skills are noted by his peers.
  • Jin-woo's Shadow Exchange allows him to switch positions with one of his shadows anywhere in the world. Given Jin-woo's propensity for leaving abruptly with nary a goodbye, this constantly causes people who want to speak to Jin-woo to unexpectedly bump into one of his shadows instead. Hilarity usually ensues.
• Schmuck Bait: The contract Jin-woo signs to join Hwang Dong-seok's raid offers him 200,000 won without having to fight. Jin-woo realizes later that it is too good to be true as he considers the raid team, which is proven true when they leave him and Jin-ho to die in the boss room.
• Script Breaking: Jin-woo ends up going "off-script", when he asks the ice elf, Baruka, about the origins of the monsters and the voice that commands them to kill humans. When Baruka is about to respond, he "glitches" and continues the conversation as if he didn't hear Jin-woo moments earlier.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Baek Yoon-ho is the first one to figure out Jin-woo's ability to grow in power. He keeps it to himself, though.
• Secret Test of Character: Side Story reveals that Jin-woo's first encounter with Igrit was this as Igrit had served with the original Shadow Monarch, who had assigned Igrit to test Jin-woo to see if he was suitable to be the Shadow Monarch's vessel.
• Seeking Ultimate Strength: Sung Jin-woo, who had a reputation of being the "World's Weakest Hunter", dies and is reborn in the Double Dungeon, gaining Sudden Game Interface. In relative secrecy of others, he takes every quest the system offers, so he can neutralize any Dungeon that appears, quickly becoming the strongest Hunter in the world and still going.
• Shadow Walker: Sort of. Jin-woo learns to swap places with one of his shadow soldiers, and he can take other people with him. He also can place his minions inside the shadows of other people, allowing him to instantly teleport to their location no matter the distance.
• Shock and Awe: The final boss of the demon castle dungeon, Baran, uses lightning attacks. His sword can also produce lightning.
• Shoot the Mage First: When Hwang Dong-seok's raid force attacks Jin-woo, he first aims for Jo Gyu-hwang, who is a squishy but powerful C-rank mage.
• Shoot the Medic First:
  • When trying to get rid of the last witnesses to 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.
  • When the Ant King realizes that the Korean extermination team has a healer with them, he tries to locate Min Byung-goo and then kills him first.
• Shoot Your Mate: Hwang Dong-seok offers to spare Yoo Jin-ho's life if he kills Jin-woo, therefore making him an accomplice of their schemes. He intended to record the killing to blackmail Jin-ho's very wealthy father, so he could extort money. Of course, Jin-ho knows that Jin-woo is way stronger than him, and suspects that he may be a serial killer, so Hwang Dong-seok's offer isn't the least bit tempting.
• Shout-Out:
  • Jin Woo's training regimen after becoming a player is akin to Saitama.
    • A similar shout-out is made in Side Story with Su-Ho, Jin-woo's son, mowing through a demon tower very easily with single punches, all with the facial expression very similar to Saitama's face.
  • Ahn Sang-min's ringtone is TWICE's "CHEER UP".
  • Jin-woo's shadow knight's name, Igrit (or Ygritte), and the ice elves' nickname, the White Walkers, are possible references to A Song of Ice and Fire. The latter are alternatively translated as "hyakki".
• Skewed Priorities: When the Knight Guild approaches Jin-woo for an alliance to tackle a dangerous gate near Busan, his first thought is not on the danger the gate represents but on if he should meet Ju-hee over there and have her treat him a meal.
• The Sociopath: Kang Tae-shik, among others.
• So Proud of You: Yoo Jin-ho's father, Myung-han, wishes for Jin-ho to lead the Yoojin Guild, after learning that Jin-ho has become friends with Jin-woo, a strong and reliable hunter. He is extremely angry and disappointed when his son declines and wishes to follow Jin-woo and his plans to create his own guild. Myung-han freezes all of Jin-ho's bank accounts and kicks him out of the house that is under his name to teach him a lesson, but his wife points out that he is actually really proud of Jin-ho for standing up against him for the first time.
• Squishy Wizard: Mage-class hunters generally can't defend themselves very well, which is why they need to stay behind their tank. The mages Jin-woo encounters in the class advancement dungeons also do not pose much of a threat by themselves, it's the minions they summon that will overwhelm anyone in sheer numbers.
  • Heavily averted with regards to Jin-Woo. Because of his extremely high level of magical power, the fact that he can summon, can spread out his magical power, and is a necromancer, he is labeled by the hunter association as a mage class hunter(A mage class hunter is usually a Glass Cannon who can cast detructive AOE magic but aren't much stronger than normal humans). The many monsters and enemies he has fought, brutalized, and slaughtered with melee weapons and his bare hands would beg to differ.
• Spell My Name With An S: Due to the many ways Korean can be romanized and translated, this is to be expected.
  • The protagonist's family name can be written as Seong, Sang or Sung. ^*It's pronounced like the past participle form of sing (sung), hence the different ways to spell it.
  • Translations are split on whether "eo" or "u" should be used for names, e.g. Song Chi-yeol/-yul and Kim Cheol/Chul. Same with "oo" or "u" like with Dong-su/-soo and Joo-hee/Ju-hee.
  • Kang Tae-shik's name can also be written as "Gang" and "Tae-sik".
  • Is it Igrit, Igris or Ygritte? One translator has chosen the latter, because it matches the Korean form of a certain redhead's name.
  • Eshil or Esil? Translations differ. Also the name of her clan can be spelled Ladir or Radir.
• Spoiled Brat: Lee Min-sung's father is the vice president of Yoojin Construction, who spend considerable amounts of money to support the Hunter Association. Min-sung tries to point this out, when Association President Go Gun-hee and Woo Jin-cheol don't let him get his way.
• Staring Down Cthulhu: After Jin-woo escapes the red gate, he is still furious that he couldn't get the shadow of the dungeon boss, Baruka. When S-rank and Baekho guildmaster, Baek Yoon-ho, is irritated at Jin-woo's dismissive behavior, he tries to intimidate him, but backs down when he accidentally measures Jin-woo's strength and realizes how strong Jin-woo is. This encounter left a deep impression on Baek Yoon-ho, who then tasks his chief recruiter to use all their resources to bring Jin-woo into his guild.
• Stat Grinding: Jin-woo's skills have to be used often and successfully to level them up.
• The Stoic: Jin-woo grows into one after he Took a Level in Cynic and became a player. He rarely openly shows emotions, and when he's angry, he usually is in a Tranquil Fury state.
• Stress Vomit: In the webcomic, Yoo Jin-ho has to throw up after seeing Jin-woo's scary power.
• Sudden Game Interface: A female electronic voice accompanies Jin-woo, and he can see an RPG-like interface with which only he can interact.
• Suddenly Speaking: Jin-woo's shadow soldiers do not speak, even those that were humans before their resurrection like Kim Cheol and Min Byung-goo. However, when Jin-woo resurrects Beru, it surprises Jin-woo by speaking to request for a name.
  • After Jin-woo unlocks the full power of the Shadow Monarch and releasing the true potential of the shadow army, most of the humanoid shadow soldiers like Igrit become able to speak to Jin-woo.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Jin-woo notes how stupidly overconfident the Baekho guild's New Meat raid force inside a red gate dungeon is, just because they had received some training courses. Seeing how Kim Cheol's party is completely wiped out because of a lack of food, clothes and facing too many enemies in that icy waste, Jin-woo was completely right.
• Summon Magic:
  • During the class advancement quest, the mages keep summoning more knights to fight Jin-woo. In order to complete the quest, Jin-woo had to kill the summoners.
  • After becoming a Necromancer, Jin-woo learned to summon the shadows of fallen foes.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Baek Yoon-ho's eyes are unnaturally golden. They are the eyes of a white tiger, which he can shapeshift into.
• Superpower Lottery: How strong an awakened being becomes is purely based on luck. Some weaker beings can reawaken and get another boost, but their power is set, and those who are above D-rank can earn a lot of money. S-ranks are even rarer, with only nine appearing in Korea since the gates appeared ten years before the story began. Jin-woo eventually also hits the jackpot, when he is given the ability to grow.
• Super-Reflexes: Hunters who focus on agility have great reflexes. Since Jin-woo used a lot of his stat points on agility, he also has superhuman reflexes.
• Super-Senses: Awakened beings have enhanced senses.
  • Jin-woo always had good hearing even before becoming a "Player". After increasing his "sense" stat, he can feel the magic power of others from a long distance and determine their strength. This also makes it easier for him to spot obscured and invisible enemies, as he immediately managed to sense Kang Tae-shik, in the novel, who hid himself with Stealth.
  • The Hunters' S-rank deputy guildmaster, Cha Hae-in, 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, although she notes that Jin-woo actually smells very nice.
  • The Baekho guild's guildmaster, Baek Yoon-ho, possesses magical eyesight. He can measure the strength of an individual by analyzing them with his eye. Since he first met Jin-woo, and was shocked by his power, after Jin-woo got out of the red gate, he is the first one to notice that Jin-woo became even stronger, which leads to him figuring out that Jin-woo didn't reawaken and continues to grow in power.
• Super-Speed: Especially agility-based hunters are known for their superhuman speed. Jin-woo can even go further and activate the Sprint skill, which will temporarily give him a speed boost.
• Super-Strength: Most hunters get physically stronger after they awakened. The first attribute Jin-woo increased when he was given the chance to grow was his strength stat.
• Super-Toughness: Jin-woo has a special skill, Unyielding Spirit, which increases his toughness if his health is below a certain threshold, and a title that increases all his stats proportional to the health he is missing. He also consumed Casaka's Poison, which gave him strong physical damage reduction without having to pay the price of a lower strength stat, since his Ideal Illness Immunity dispelled the negative effects.
• Stealing the Credit: Not so much stealing, but more like Taking the Heat happens twice at the beginning of the story, to Jin-woo's benefit. The first time, Yoo Jin-ho officially takes the credit of defeating a C-rank boss with the help of his powerful gear, and the second time happens when C-rank Song Chi-yeol claims to have defeated B-rank Kang Tae-shik with the help of B-rank healer Lee Ju-hee. Both times they want to hide the fact that Jin-woo has grown far stronger than E-rank, but Baekho's recruitment chief, Ahn Sang-min, notices anyway that the common denominator was Jin-woo and seeks him out.
• Take a Third Option: When word gets out about Jin-woo's supposed reawakening and new powers, Jin-woo is presented two options: Join a powerful and influential guild (Hunters, Baekho or Yoojin) or the Hunter Association, and become its future president. Since Jin-woo wants to level up on his own and not rely on anyone else, he takes the third option and decides to found his own guild.
• Telekinesis:
  • After defeating Igrit, Jin-woo learned Igrit's signature skill, Ruler's Hand, by using the runestone Igrit dropped.
  • The high orc sorcerer, Kargargan, can use gravity magic, with which he can levitate others.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Jin-woo takes his sister's friend Jin-ah to a nearby dungeon in order to scare her away from the hunter business: after he learns it is a low-level dungeon, he muses that it will be hard to achieve his objective. As soon as the two of them enter, the dungeon becomes a red gate dungeon, which are not only extremely dangerous, but they also force people to survive for months if they want to return.
• Terror Hero: Jin-woo alone with his intimidating magic power and Death Glare can scare many (not to mention his shadow army will also make many think twice to cross him), but he also has skills like Bloodlust, which supernaturally induce the Fear status effect and weaken his enemies.
• Think Nothing of It: Jin-woo appears to be someone who respects authorities and isn't very interested in fame or money. For instance, he explicitly asked the Hunters raid leader, Son Gi-hoon, if it's okay for him to kill all magic beasts, and when he is done, doesn't want any loot after saving the secondary Hunters raid force despite single-handedly clearing the A-rank dungeon. There are multiple reasons for this. First, Jin-woo doesn't feel like he deserves it because he didn't pay for the gate rights, but also because he was more interested in observing what an A-rank dungeon looks like. He also already was rewarded by getting powerful shadows for his army and experience with which he levels up. Hunter Association President Go Gun-hee interprets this as Jin-woo being The Cape who only wants to protect people, and wholeheartedly starts to support him.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works:
  • 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.
  • After Jin-woo repeatedly throws his knives at enemies, he learns the Dagger Throw skill, which increases the accuracy and damage he can potentially do.
  • After defeating Igrit, Jin-woo learned Igrit's signature skill, Ruler's Hand, which lets him move relatively small objects without touching them. This lets him catch opponents off-guard by changing the trajectory of his knives after throwing them, and he can also easily retrieve them.
• Title Drop: Jin-woo discusses the name of his newly founded guild to his sister Jin-ah, who thinks the name "Solo Play" isn't really appropriate due to Jin-woo's necromancer skills. She suggests a better guild name by rearranging her own name to make "Ah Jin" which can be translated as I Alone Level Up.
• Too Dumb to Live: Kim Cheol is a classic example of this. 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 Total Party Kill. 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 back at Jin-woo and kill him, Jin-woo gets the excuse to kill Kim Cheol in self-defense. Jin-woo then rips out Kim Cheol's shadow and enslaves him.
• Took a Level in Badass: 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 a D-rank boss 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 Baekho's Ahn Sang-min.
  • Jin-woo kills B-rank hunter, Kang Tae-shik, when he and his party are targeted by the assassin.
  • After completing the class advancement quest, Jin-woo is given the unique class of Necromancer, allowing him to summon his own army of shadow minions that can also level up with experience.
  • Inside the red gate, 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 Total Party Kill. A few chapters later, Jin-woo reevaluates his rank and becomes Korea's tenth S-rank hunter.
  • When an A-rank dungeon goes awry, due to the far superior boss and his minions, Jin-woo is forced to reveal his abilities to the Hunters' raid force, but easily kills the boss's 150 men strong army and then the boss. Unlike against Baruka inside the red gate, Jin-woo didn't require Igrit and Iron's help and was able to successfully extract the boss's shadow.
• Took a Level in Cynic: The double dungeon incident has given Jin-woo very Jade-Colored Glasses. He has no interest in saving as many people as possible anymore, and will only go so far to protect the people he feels obliged to.
• Total Party Kill:
  • Hwang Dong-seok's entire party is killed by Jin-woo, after they tried to leave guest hunters, Yoo Jin-ho and Jin-woo, to die.
  • 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.
• Traitor Shot: The webcomic makes it pretty clear that Hwang Dong-seok and his raid force are not as nice as they initially seem.
• Translation Convention: Showcased when for instance exclusively Americans or Japanese are speaking.
• Translator Microbes: The System allows Jin-woo to understand and speak with the denizens of the dungeons who cannot speak Korean. This is first showcased inside the red gate, when Jin-woo speaks with the boss of the dungeon.
• Tranquil Fury: Jin-woo doesn't rage out openly. When he's pissed, he lets his actions speak.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The most unforgiving thing for Jin-woo is betrayal. He himself was betrayed, and he has no problem killing people who betray their comrades.
• The Unapologetic: In the novel, Kang Tae-shik, after having lost to Jin-woo, asks him to kill the rapist he was supposed to kill. When Jin-woo finds the man, he asks the rapist if remembers his victim, who obliviously asks which victim Jin-woo meant. Seeing as the man showed not one ounce of regret for abusing the powers he was given, Jin-woo decides to feed him to the hobgoblins.
• Uriah Gambit: The Japanese Hunter Association President and his right hand, Ryuji Goto, intended to let all Korean S-rank hunters die in the Jeju Island raid, so they can sweep in, save Korea by killing the enemies, leave Korea's power in hunters crippled, and make Korea indebted to Japan to eventually take over lands. It backfires horribly when Goto and several other Japanese S-ranks are killed, and Go Gun-hee figures out what they intended to do. He refuses to send help when Japan is facing a dungeon break and no longer has the manpower to deal with it.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: The Penalty Zone Jin-Woo goes to if he does not complete his daily routine. At first he was Level 1 so all he could do was flee for four hours from the giant monsters there. The second time he gets sent there, he's leveled up so much that he treats it more like a relaxing break.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • The high orc sorcerer, Kargargan, 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.
  • Later on, the newly-born ant king suffers a similar fate when he easily one-shot the number one S-Rank in Japan, only to end up fighting and losing to an unstoppable Jin-woo, who doesn't have much trouble with the one-on-one encounter. The ant king tries to make a run for it and gets cut down for his effort, before becoming Jin-woo's greatest shadow warrior, Beru.
  • The system's architect suffers this as well after it discovers that Jin-woo had locked out the architect's own administrative access to Jin-woo's power, as well as the implication that the architect had been betrayed by the Shadow Monarch for his own agenda with Jin-woo.
• Villains Want Mercy:
  • Hwang Dong-seok begs for his life, after trying to kill Jin-woo three times. Jin-woo ignores his pleas and coldly executes him.
  • Villain is debatable, since Jin-woo is technically the invader, but Eshil, the noble daughter of the Ladir demon clan, begs for mercy when she realizes Jin-woo is completely out of her league. Luckily for her, he accepts and she in return provides him with information that helps him clear the upper floors of the demon castle much faster.
• We Can Rule Together: Hwang Dong-seok falsely 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... 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 trust.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Yoo Jin-ho craves the approval and respect of his father, which is why he intends to become the Yoojin Guild's guildmaster.
• White Magician Girl: Lee Ju-hee is a caring and compassionate young woman, who took special care of Jin-woo in his days as an E-rank hunter.
• Who Watches the Watchmen?: The narration uses a variant of this trope when the Monarchs begin hunting and killing the strongest Hunters across the planet:
  "Humans are protected by the Hunters, but who will protect the Hunters?"
• Willfully Weak: In the class advancement dungeon, Igrit decides to play along with Jin-woo pulling back his weapon, and goes for hand-to-hand combat. Jin-woo ends up defeating Igrit because he pulls out his weapon again, though Jin-woo later noted that he definitely would have lost if Igrit had used his sword.
• Wistful Amnesia: After Jin-woo uses the Cup of Reincarnation to reset time, his former friends feel some deep sense of familiarity and comfort seeing and interacting with Jin-woo, even though it is their first-time meeting in the new timeline.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In the novel, Kang Tae-shik pretends to be seriously hurt to get Lee Ju-hee to come and try to heal him. Jin-woo realizes the trap and stops Tae-shik before he can kill Ju-hee.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: One day inside a red gate equals one hour in the human world. From the perspective of a hunter trapped inside, the week it takes for a dungeon break can feel like nearly six months.
• You, Get Me Coffee: When Cha Hae-in shows up at his doorstep asking to join his guild, Jin-woo claims that she first needs to pass a test by defeating one of his Shadows. While this is not an Impossible Task for someone of Hae-in's caliber (she proceeds to defeat Igris with relative ease), Jin-woo had not expected her to accept at all. The very idea of asking an S-rank Hunter, vice-master of the biggest guild in the country, to pass a test in order to enter a fledgling guild that technically hasn't even been founded yet is humiliating and laughable, and Jin-woo's real goal is to get her to reconsider leaving the Hunters Guild. Of course, he failed to account for the fact that Cha Hae-in is obviously and desperately in love with him.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Jin-woo's reaction when he realizes that the penalty quest warning was very much real.
• You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: Played for Laughs with Lee Min-sung. Bringing up his status as a celebrity and his rich and influential father is pointless. No one in the Hunter Association cares, especially when they ignore Lee in favor of Jin-woo.
• You Talk Too Much!: In the webcomic, this is literally what Jin-woo says to Kang Tae-shik, whose Motor Mouth keeps running.
• You Will Be Spared: Baruka, the ice elf boss of the red gate dungeon, offers to spare Jin-woo, if he abandons the other hunters under his protection. Jin-woo refuses and kills Baruka.

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