Solo Leveling Season 2 is the hottest anime of Winter 2025 as the action-packed series returns with more of Jinwoo’s adventures. The story is running at full speed, covering several arcs from the manhwa. The season begins with the Red Gate Arc, where Jinwoo takes Songyi to a C-Rank dungeon. He plans to expose her to the horrors of the dungeons but doesn’t expect the gate to turn red. After a brief setback, Jinwoo clears the dungeon by himself. He then tries to gather more ingredients to make the Elixir of Life for his mother. After his second attempt at the Demon Castle Gate, Jinwoo only needs the final ingredient.
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He knows he is capable enough to be an S-Rank and that there is no point pretending anymore. He gets his rank retested only to find out that his powers are off the charts. That’s because an S-Rank Hunter’s powers can’t be measured with any device. Although Jinwoo’s status is basically confirmed, the Hunters Association needs a three-day buffer before publicly announcing his rank. They deal with a bunch of formalities, including trying to recruit Jinwoo as a high-ranking member of the Association. Jinwoo rejects Go Gunhee’s request and joins the mining team of the Hunters Guild, only to end up clearing the dungeon by himself again. However, Season 2 Episode 6 excludes an important foreshadowing through Kargalgan.
Warning: Spoilers From the Solo Leveling Manhwa Ahead!
[RELATED: Solo Leveling’s Underrated Side Characters Finally Get the Exposure They Deserve]
Kargalgan Figured Out Jinwoo’s Identity in the Solo Leveling Manhwa
In Solo Leveling Chapter 74, Kargalgan questions himself, “Could he really be…” the rest of the sentence gets cut off by the System. This means he had already figured out Jinwoo’s identity. However, the anime changes this scene entirely. Not only does the anime remove Kargalgan’s question, but it replaces it with an original scene. Just moments before dying, he remembers two people from the past.
The anime doesn’t show it, but the two of them are definitely the Shadow Monarch and Igris. Kargalgan asking that question in the manhwa was an important foreshadowing confirming that the monsters can easily recognize Jinwoo, but the System keeps interfering. Kargalgan is more like an ordinary monster, killing humans on instinct because a command keeps ringing in his ears.
Who Is the Shadow Monarch?
Jinwoo gained the title of Shadow Monarch in the Season 1 finale, but the anime still hasn’t explained what it means. However, the manhwa reveals that Jinwoo gained the power of the Shadow Monarch, who lived at the dawn of time when light and darkness first existed. There were nine Monarchs at the time, powerful enough to oppose the Rulers and other powerful entities in an eternal war. Jinwoo was supposed to be a vessel of Ashborn, the real Shadow Monarch, but the latter betrayed other Monarchs. Ashborn was impressed by Jinwoo’s determination to stay alive and gave him all his powers. Jinwoo will enter the Double Dungeon again in Season 3 and fully awaken Ashborn’s powers.
