A man in a long dark coat stands on a colossal broken stone stairway in a ruined black fortress, looking up at a tower lost in storm cloud, with smoky soldiers on the steps below him. — The Demon’s Castle, round two: a hundred floors, and at the top the one ingredient Jinwoo still needs to wake his mother.

Solo Leveling · Volume 3 · Yen Press, October 2021

Volume 3

From a rank re-evaluation to the top of the Demon’s Castle: Jinwoo stops pretending to be an E-rank and climbs to the hundredth floor for the last ingredient of his mother’s cure.

Volume 3 of Solo Leveling (Yen On, October 2021; translated by Hye Young Im and J. Torres; 320 pages in ten chapters) is the one in which Jinwoo Sung stops pretending. It opens as he comes home from a week inside the Demon’s Castle, sixteen levels stronger and holding a recipe that could wake his mother, and it ends a hundred floors up, with the castle’s last boss dead at his feet. In between, the E-rank label comes off in public, in two steps, while a raid nobody is supposed to talk about shows a handful of insiders what it was hiding.

It is a hinge volume, and it reads like two books. The first seven chapters are about being seen: a re-evaluation, a president’s offer, a stint as a miner and then as a porter that the chapter titles treat as jokes, and an orc shaman who works out too late what he has trapped in his hall. The last three go back inside the castle, alone with his shadows and one demon guide, while the world outside begins to move toward Jeju Island. One goal runs through all ten chapters: the Elixir of Life.

This page spoils the whole volume. Only the opening of its first chapter could be read in Yen Press’s own text; the rest follows the plot as the webtoon and anime tell it wherever that fits Yen’s chapter titles and cover copy, and leaves out the details only they show.

Part 1

Rank Evaluation

The volume opens at the end of a week spent clearing the Demon’s Castle. Offered a choice of mystery boxes, Jinwoo takes the cursed one this time, curious about the road he did not take before. Then he goes straight home, showers for the first time in a week, drapes a towel over his wet hair and sits on his bed to sort through what he has won. He pours the twenty points from the castle quest into Intelligence (Strength 178, Stamina 137, Agility 147, Intelligence 149, Perception 119), meaning to become a Player who is good at everything, and checks his level: 77. He has climbed sixteen levels in seven days.

The third reward is a scroll, and it changes the shape of the book. It is a recipe for the Elixir of Life, which the System describes in one line:

“A mystical potion that cures all diseases using powerful magic.”

His bedridden mother comes to mind at once. She lies in a hospital bed on life support, kept alive by a machine that costs him millions of won a month. The recipe asks for three things. Two he already holds: World Tree Fragments, taken from Vulcan on the fiftieth floor, and Spring Water from Echo Forest, taken from Metus the necromancer on the seventy-fifth. The third is the Purified Blood of the Demon Monarch, which can only mean the ruler of the castle’s top floor. Thinking of her healthy, Jinwoo finds his eyes filling. He learns a new skill, Craft, and the counter reads two of three.

The smaller prizes are played for comedy and for menace. He swaps the Warden’s Collar, which he privately calls the dog collar, for the Demon Monarch’s Necklace, a string of small animal skulls, and wonders why every neck accessory has to look like this. The cursed box held a key. “The pitch-black key appeared to be absorbing the light around it.” No information window appears when he looks at it, he feels something ominous in it, and he puts it away against the day he will need it. The volume never explains it.

Then a decision. To buy and sell the high-level artifacts the castle demands, he has to stop pretending to be an E-rank, so it is time for a re-evaluation. He stayed an E-rank to avoid being pulled about by stronger hunters; now, having met even Yoonho Baek, master of the White Tiger Guild, without being intimidated, he is sure he can hold his head high in front of anyone. He phones Jinho, who greets him as his boss and reports that the talk with his father went better than okay, until the phone dies mid-sentence. For his sister he leaves a note on the table: “Your brother was here.”

The rank evaluation office of the Hunter’s Association is near his home, in a building still clean and new; the association itself is less than ten years old. At reception a reawakened E-rank draws a sneer from the high-strung assistant manager, Kisoo Jung, until the name on the licence rings a bell: White Tiger’s master had asked to be told if a Hunter Jinwoo Sung ever turned up. Kisoo finds a quiet corner and phones him. Baek asks him to delay the test and sets off at once. In the waiting room of Building B, where mana is measured, guild recruiters sit across from the newly tested, and Jinwoo notices how they look: “The way they watch us is like hungry wolves, too.” A sweating bald man, Junghoon Yoon, dabs his head with a handkerchief and introduces himself.

Then the measurement, and it does not go the way anyone in the building expects. The instrument cannot give the staff a reading they can use, and the official result has to wait until “the results are back,” in the back-cover copy’s phrase. Word moves faster than paperwork. By the time Baek arrives, Jinwoo has already brushed off Jongin Choi, master of the Hunters Guild, and left.

A young man with a towel over his wet hair sits on the edge of a narrow bed at night, studying a blank floating pane of blue light. — **3 · 1 Home Sweet Home** The volume opens as his week inside the Demon’s Castle ends: home at last, showered for the first time in seven days, a towel over his wet hair. He pours the twenty points from the castle quest into Intelligence, meaning to become a Player who is good at everything, and checks his level. “I leveled up sixteen times in one week.” Everything in the book starts on this bed.

A young man sits on his bed by lamplight holding an unrolled blank scroll, his eyes wet, looking past it. — **3 · 2 A Cure for All Diseases** The third reward is a scroll: the recipe for the Elixir of Life, a potion that cures every disease. His bedridden mother comes to mind at once. Two of its ingredients he already holds, from Vulcan on the fiftieth floor and Metus on the seventy-fifth. The third, the Purified Blood of the Demon Monarch, waits at the top of the castle. His eyes fill, and the goal of the whole volume is set.

A hand holds up a small ornate black key under a bare fluorescent tube, the key seeming to swallow the light, a frowning face blurred behind it. — **3 · 3 The Pitch-Black Key** This time he chose the cursed mystery box, curious about the road not taken, and inside is a key. “The pitch-black key appeared to be absorbing the light around it.” No information window appears, and Jinwoo feels something ominous in it. He puts it away against the day he will need it. The volume never explains it, and neither will this page.

In a clean, bright waiting room a calm young man sits at the end of a bench beside a sweating bald man with a handkerchief, while two men in dark suits watch from across the room. — **3 · 4 Like Hungry Wolves** The association’s evaluation office, in a building still clean and new. At reception a high-strung assistant manager, Kisoo Jung, has scoffed at a reawakened E-rank, then remembered that White Tiger’s Yoonho Baek asked to be told if this hunter turned up, and phoned him. In the waiting room of Building B, where mana is measured, guild recruiters watch the newly tested “like hungry wolves,” as Jinwoo puts it, and a sweating bald man named Junghoon Yoon says hello.

A young man rests his hand on a black crystal set in a squat measuring device while two staff in white coats stare at a blank glowing readout. — **3 · 5 Beyond Measuring** The measurement itself, and it does not go the way the staff expect: the instrument cannot give them a reading they can use, and the official verdict must wait until “the results are back” (the back-cover copy’s phrase). Word moves faster than paperwork. The Hunters Guild’s master, Jongin Choi, finds Jinwoo before Baek can even arrive, and is brushed off.

Part 2

President Go’s Proposal and the Excavation Team

Jinchul Woo, the association officer Jinwoo first met in the first volume, brings his superior to meet him at his mother’s hospital. Gunhee Go, President of the Hunter’s Association and himself an S-rank, needs no machine to know what Jinwoo is. He offers him a place at the association instead of a guild, on the argument that a new S-rank joining one of the big guilds would upset the balance between them. Jinwoo turns him down. He wants to keep fighting in dungeons.

He also needs a cover story. An E-rank on paper cannot plausibly own, let alone sell, the loot he is carrying, so while the paperwork catches up he signs on as a day labourer with the Hunters Guild’s excavation team. These are the miners who go into an A-rank gate after the guild’s strike squad has killed everything but the boss, and who dig out the crystals by hand, since machines fail inside dungeons. The chapter title, “The Paragon of the Excavation Team,” is the joke: the hunter no instrument could measure swings a pickaxe so fast that the foreman, Yoonsuk, doubles his pay.

As the strike squad walks out past the miners, one of its leaders pauses. Haein Cha is the Hunters Guild’s vice president and an S-rank, and she has felt something. Later, on a break, Jinwoo wanders toward the boss room, tempted to take the boss himself, and Haein stops him. Her burden is that every hunter’s mana smells foul to her, and this one does not. She checks his licence, finds an E-rank, and sends him back to his team, and afterwards she goes digging and finds his file classified. In the novel, by one comparison of the versions, this is still only curiosity.

In a dim hospital room at night a young man stands near a sleeping woman’s bed, facing an old man in a dark suit and a broad man in sunglasses at the door. — **3 · 6 President Go’s Proposal** Jinchul Woo brings the president of the Hunter’s Association to his mother’s hospital. Gunhee Go needs no machine to know what Jinwoo is, and he offers him a place at the association rather than a guild, since a new S-rank in one of the big guilds would upset the balance between them. Jinwoo turns him down; he wants to keep fighting in dungeons. The Elixir is for the woman asleep behind him.

In a rock tunnel veined with glowing crystal, a young man swings a pickaxe in a blur while a stocky foreman in a hard hat gapes beside a loaded cart. — **3 · 7 The Paragon of the Excavation Team** Needing a cover story for selling loot no E-rank could own, Jinwoo signs on with the Hunters Guild’s excavation team, the miners who go into an A-rank gate after the strike squad has cleared it and dig out the crystals by hand, since machines fail inside. A hunter no instrument could measure, swinging a pickaxe, mines so fast that the foreman, Yoonsuk, doubles his pay. The chapter title is the joke.

In a torchlit rock passage a woman in a slate-blue jacket blocks the way, her hand on a sheathed sword, while a young man holding a pickaxe stands a few paces off. — **3 · 8 The Hunter Who Doesn’t Smell** On a break Jinwoo wanders toward the boss room, tempted to take the boss himself, and Haein Cha, the S-rank vice president of the Hunters Guild, stops him. To her every hunter’s mana smells foul; this one does not. She checks his licence, finds an E-rank, and sends him back to his team, unsettled. The series’ central couple has met, though in the novel, by one comparison of the versions, it is still only curiosity.

Part 3

The S-Rank Luggage Carrier and the High Orcs

At the next A-rank gate, Kihoon Son, acting leader of one of the Hunters Guild’s strike squads, needs a substitute porter, and none of the miners will volunteer. Jinwoo takes the job for the risk pay and shoulders the bags of a squad of A-ranks who think they are carrying him.

The dungeon is wrong from the start. Its jackals bear the marks of leashes, which means something in here keeps them tame. Then come the high orc warriors, each one a match for an A-rank hunter, and the squad starts to break. From the back of the line their porter helps where no one is watching; one hunter notices, and promises to keep it to herself. Falling back to the exit, they find it sealed by a barrier, a curse settles on them, and fifty more orcs arrive. Their master speaks through one of his soldiers: die here, or come and meet him.

Outside, Haein has turned up at the gate on her day off, looking for the miner who did not smell. Told he went in as a porter, she borrows a pickaxe from the foreman and goes in after him.

The squad is brought into a cavern throne hall before about a thousand high orcs, and the shaman Kargalgan explains the arrangement: the humans are entertainment, to be killed one at a time. Kihoon charges alone and is crushed by the shaman’s gravity magic.

Before a tall rift of blue light, an armoured man turns from a line of reluctant hunters as a young man steps forward under an enormous porter’s pack. — **3 · 9 The S-Rank Luggage Carrier** At the next A-rank gate, Kihoon Son, acting leader of one of the Hunters Guild’s strike squads, needs a substitute porter, and none of the miners will go. Jinwoo volunteers for the risk pay and shoulders the bags of a squad of A-ranks who take him for an E-rank. The second joke title in a row, and the doorway to the volume’s first real fight.

In a rocky cave, battered hunters brace against charging tusked orc warriors while a young man with a huge pack stands poised, half in shadow, at the back of the line. — **3 · 10 Attack of the High Orcs** The dungeon is wrong from the start: its jackals bear the marks of leashes, which means something in here keeps them tame. Then the high orc warriors come, each a match for an A-rank hunter, and the squad starts to break. From the back of the line the porter helps where no one is looking; one hunter notices, and promises to keep it to herself.

Wounded hunters slump against the rock before a glowing exit barred by a net of light, while a young man stands apart, studying it calmly. — **3 · 11 Sealed In** Falling back to the exit, the squad finds it sealed by a barrier, and a curse settles on them. Fifty more high orcs arrive, and their master speaks through one of his soldiers: die here, or come and meet him. Outside, Haein has come looking for the miner who did not smell; told he went in as a porter, she borrows a pickaxe from the foreman and follows.

In a vast cavern packed with orcs, a hooded tusked shaman on a raised rock throne lifts a hand as a lone armoured man charges across the open floor and the air bends above him. — **3 · 12 Kargalgan’s Hall** In a cavern throne hall before about a thousand high orcs, the shaman Kargalgan explains the arrangement: the humans are entertainment, to be killed one at a time. Kihoon charges alone and is crushed by the shaman’s gravity magic. It is the last moment anyone in the squad will think of Jinwoo as the porter.

Part 4

Fang

The porter steps in. Jinwoo saves Kihoon, flattens one of the shaman’s elite guards, and calls his army out of his shadow: Igris, Iron, the ice bear from the Red Gate and the rank and file. Kargalgan’s magic is strong enough to throw Jinwoo back and tear his soldiers apart, so Jinwoo drinks a potion and raises the orcs his army kills as fresh shadows, and the horde begins to feed his ranks. Igris, Iron and the still-nameless bear bring down one of the shaman’s generals together. A skill Jinwoo gained at level 70 shows itself here, spreading his shadow across the cavern floor and strengthening every soldier standing on it.

Jinchul Woo arrives with an association team, drawn by readings close to S-rank, and Haein arrives with her pickaxe. It is she who tells them that the dark soldiers are Jinwoo’s summons, and she notices that Jinchul already knows his name. Below them the battle turns. Nothing Kargalgan casts can touch Jinwoo; his shadow mages break the shaman’s shield; and the creature who treated humans as insects collapses in fear at whatever he senses in the man in front of him. Kargalgan dies, and his extraction takes several attempts before the smoke stands up as a hooded shadow. Jinwoo names him Fang.

The association swears everyone to secrecy. Kihoon thanks the porter who saved his squad, and when his own guild master, Jongin Choi, asks how strong Jinwoo is, Kihoon implies that Jinwoo is stronger than Choi himself.

In a cavern hall a man in a long dark coat stands before a fallen armoured man as smoke-black soldiers with violet eyes rise out of the shadow spreading from his feet. — **3 · 13 Out of His Shadow** The porter steps in. Jinwoo saves Kihoon, flattens one of the shaman’s elite guards, and calls his army out of his shadow: Igris, Iron, the ice bear from the Red Gate and the rank and file. A strike squad that hired him to carry its bags watches the soldiers rise, and the secret of the first two volumes is out, to a few.

A shadow knight with a crimson crest, a huge smoke-black bear and an armoured warrior with a tower shield close on a giant orc general from three sides. — **3 · 14 Knight, Bear and Shield** Kargalgan’s magic is strong enough to throw Jinwoo back and tear his soldiers apart, so Jinwoo drinks a potion and raises the orcs his army kills as fresh shadows, letting the horde feed his ranks. Igris, Iron and the still-nameless bear bring down one of the shaman’s generals together, and a skill gained at level 70 spreads Jinwoo’s shadow across the floor, strengthening every soldier on it.

On a rock ledge a woman holding a miner’s pickaxe stares down at a battle of ink and smoke, beside a broad man in sunglasses and another man in a dark suit. — **3 · 15 The Insiders** Jinchul Woo arrives with an association team, drawn by readings close to S-rank, and Haein arrives with her borrowed pickaxe. It is she who tells them the dark soldiers are Jinwoo’s summons, and she notices that Jinchul already knows him. A handful of insiders now know what the E-rank label was hiding, and the association will swear every one of them to secrecy.

A man in a long coat holds out an arm over a fallen robed orc as black smoke rises from the body and gathers into a kneeling, hooded shadow with violet eyes. — **3 · 16 A Shadow Named Fang** Nothing Kargalgan casts can touch Jinwoo, his shadow mages break the shaman’s shield, and the creature who treated humans as insects collapses in fear at whatever he senses. The extraction takes several attempts before the smoke stands up as a hooded shadow. Jinwoo names him Fang, the Yen Press name that gives the chapter its title.

Part 5

The Tenth S-Rank Hunter

Jinho has news: his father, Chairman Yoo of Yoojin Construction, will back a guild for his son only if Jinwoo joins it. At the association, reporters have packed the building for an actor, Minsung, who has awakened as a hunter. They get a bigger story. President Go walks Jinwoo into a testing room and asks him to show his summons at full strength, and the mana is felt across the building, by Choi and Baek as much as anyone. This time the demonstration is the evaluation. The result makes him, in the back-cover copy’s words, “the tenth S-rank hunter from South Korea”; the E-rank is gone for good.

The news travels; the miners see it, and so does Jinah. Baek and Choi try again to recruit him, and he turns them down: joining any guild, he believes, would only hold back his growth. Baek, watching him go, concludes that this is a hunter who keeps getting stronger.

Then he prepares for the castle. At the hunters’ auction house he looks through the private collection for gear that can take heat, finds the prices too high, and has an appraiser examine the Sphere of Avarice, the red crystal ball Vulcan left behind: it doubles the magic of whoever wields it. Jinho, given the choice between his father’s guild and Jinwoo, chooses Jinwoo. And Jinwoo tells his sister he will be away for a week, and hides shadow soldiers in her shadow to guard her while he is gone.

In a large bare hall an old man in a dark suit watches as smoke-black soldiers pour from a young man’s shadow until they fill the room. — **3 · 17 Show Me** Reporters have packed the association for an actor, Minsung, who has awakened as a hunter, and they are about to get a bigger story. President Go walks Jinwoo into a testing room and asks him to show his summons at full strength. The mana is felt across the building, by the guild masters Choi and Baek as much as anyone. This time the demonstration is the evaluation.

A composed young man holding a plain card walks through a crowd of photographers in a glass entrance hall as camera flashes burst around him. — **3 · 18 The Tenth S-Rank Hunter** It is official: Jinwoo is “the tenth S-rank hunter from South Korea” (the back-cover copy’s words). The news reaches the miners and his sister. Yoonho Baek and Jongin Choi try again to recruit him, and he turns them down: joining any guild, he believes, would only hold back his growth. Baek, watching him leave, concludes that this is a hunter who keeps getting stronger.

A schoolgirl at a lamplit table looks up at her brother by the door with a travel bag, while small violet lights open in her shadow on the floor. — **3 · 19 A Week Away** Before he goes back into the castle, Jinwoo tells Jinah he will be away for a week and hides shadow soldiers in her shadow as guards. The power that frightened a shaman becomes a brother’s precaution. Jinho, meanwhile, has chosen to follow Jinwoo rather than run the guild his father, Chairman Yoo, would back.

Part 6

Demon’s Castle, Round Two and Party Member

Back in the castle he picks up where he left off, above the seventy-fifth floor, and hands Fang the Sphere. The shaman’s fire, doubled, wrecks a demon many times his size. A new quest, Collect Demon Souls (2), names the target: the ruler of the top floor, and his soul. Jinwoo splits his army into groups to sweep the floors ahead of him.

On the eightieth floor something is cutting his shadows down. They are demon knights, and he kills three of the four. The fourth pulls off her helmet and surrenders. She is Esil Radiru, eldest daughter of the Radiru clan, and her almost human face is part of what stays his hand. She offers a bargain: spare her family, and she will get him the permit he needs to climb higher. She tries one stab in the back, and it gets her nowhere.

Esil tells him what the demons know of themselves. They lived in a realm of their own until a voice set them to guard this castle, preparing for a war against a terrible enemy, and when she tries to say more her speech breaks up as if something has cut it off. The castle, it seems, has an author. Her father grants the permit, and Esil becomes the party member of the chapter title, guiding Jinwoo upward through floors held by ever stronger demon clans. His shadows grow as they climb: Igris rises to elite knight, and the ice bear reaches knight rank and at last gets a name, Tank.

In a ruined black stone street a hooded shadow shaman raises a glowing crystal sphere and a torrent of fire engulfs a huge horned demon, while a man in a long coat watches. — **3 · 20 Round Two** Back in the castle, he picks up where he left off above the seventy-fifth floor and hands Fang the Sphere of Avarice, the red crystal Vulcan left behind, which an appraiser at the auction house has confirmed doubles a caster’s magic. The shaman’s fire wrecks a demon many times his size. A new quest, Collect Demon Souls (2), names the target: the ruler of the top floor, and his soul.

In a shattered stone hall a horned young demon woman kneels with her helmet beside her and her hands raised, looking up at a man in a long coat who holds a dagger lowered. — **3 · 21 The Fourth Knight** On the eightieth floor demon knights are cutting his shadows down. Jinwoo kills three of the four; the last pulls off her helmet and surrenders. She is Esil Radiru, eldest daughter of the Radiru clan, with a face almost human enough to stay his hand, and she offers a bargain: spare her family, and she will get him the permit to climb higher. She tries one stab in the back, and it gets her nowhere.

A horned demon woman leads the way up a colossal stone stair between broken towers, a man in a long coat behind her and a huge smoke-black bear heading a column of shadow soldiers. — **3 · 22 Party Member** With her father’s permit, Esil becomes the party member of the chapter title and his guide upward. She explains that a voice set the demons to guard this castle against a war with a terrible enemy, and her speech breaks up when she tries to say more: the castle, it seems, has an author. As they climb, Igris rises to elite knight, and the ice bear reaches knight rank and at last gets a name, Tank.

Part 7

Imminent Threat

The last chapter’s title belongs to the world outside. About four years ago an S-rank gate opened on Jeju Island; the raid sent to clear it failed, the giant ants inside broke out and took the island, and two more raids have failed since. Now a winged ant escapes the island and kills many people before hunters bring it down. President Go judges it as strong as an A-rank; Jeju can no longer be left alone, and preparations begin for a fourth raid, this time together with Japan, whose association president, Matsumoto, enters the story. Choi tells Haein that the S-ranks are being summoned. The Jeju raid itself belongs to Volume 4.

High in the castle, above the ninetieth floor, live the strongest clans. Esil goes as far as the ninety-ninth floor and turns back there for home, so Jinwoo climbs the last stair without her. On the hundredth floor Balan, the Demon Monarch, descends on his winged dragon, Kaisellin, and calls up an army of demons. Jinwoo answers with his own army and his spreading shadow, the wyvern comes down, and Balan falls. By the wiki’s account of the novel, it is a cleaner win than the webtoon’s.

The volume ends at the top, with Balan fallen. Volume 4 picks up seconds later, on the shadow soldiers, fresh from wiping out an army ten times their size, standing in rows among the demon dead, and on Jinwoo unwrapping the bandages from his hand. The Purified Blood, the crafting of the Elixir, the shadow of the wyvern and his mother waking all wait there. So do the threads this volume leaves lying around: the pitch-black key, the shaman’s terror, Esil’s broken sentence, Haein’s nose, and an island full of ants that have learned to fly.

At dusk a single giant winged ant skims low over the roofs of a small harbour town while tiny silhouettes run in the street below. — **3 · 23 Imminent Threat** The last chapter’s title belongs to the world outside. Jeju Island has belonged to giant ants since an S-rank gate broke there about four years ago, and three raids have failed. Now a winged ant escapes the island and kills many people before hunters bring it down. President Go judges it A-rank strong, and a fourth raid, this time with Japan, begins to take shape.

A horned demon lord rides a vast storm-grey wyvern down out of storm clouds over a stone plateau filled with demon ranks, while a man in a long coat stands in the foreground with smoke-black soldiers rising behind him. — **3 · 24 The Demon Monarch** Esil goes as far as the ninety-ninth floor and turns back there, so Jinwoo climbs the last stair without her. On the hundredth floor Balan, the Demon Monarch, descends on his winged dragon, Kaisellin, and calls up an army of demons. Jinwoo answers with his own army and his spreading shadow. By the wiki’s account of the novel, it is a cleaner win than the webtoon’s.

On a stone plateau under a clearing storm, smoke-black soldiers stand in neat rows before heaped fallen demons and a still wyvern, while a man with a bandaged hand looks across the field. — **3 · 25 The Last Floor** The volume ends on the hundredth floor with Balan fallen, and Volume 4 opens seconds later on this field: the shadow soldiers, fresh from wiping out an army ten times their size, standing in rows among the demon dead, and Jinwoo unwrapping the bandages from his hand. The Purified Blood, the Elixir, the wyvern’s shadow and his mother waking all belong to that next book.

What the anime and webtoon took from this volume

Where it went. The anime covers this volume in Season 2 (Arise from the Shadow), episodes 16–20 by the series’ running numbers: “I Need to Stop Faking” (aired in Japan January 26, 2025) through “Looking Up Was Tiring Me Out” (February 23). The webtoon it follows covers it in roughly chapters 61–87. Episode 21 opens on Volume 4’s first chapter: the Elixir, the wyvern’s shadow, the mother waking.
Names. Fang is Tusk in the anime’s English dub and on Tappytoon’s English webtoon, and Kiba in the Japanese anime; Balan, the Demon Monarch, is Baran, the Demon King; the Elixir of Life is the Holy Water of Life; Barca’s Dagger is Baruka’s Dagger on the English webtoon (the anime’s credits keep Barca); Haein Cha is Cha Hae-In. The Japanese broadcast also renames the cast and calls Jeju Island “Kanan Island.”
The phone call. In the novel it is the association’s own assistant manager, Kisoo Jung, who tips off Yoonho Baek; the anime gives the call to a White Tiger scout and trims the evaluation office’s chatter.
Haein. The webtoon and anime let the miners explain her sensitivity to smell and drop the novel’s longer account of it as an affliction she had taken to doctors (reported for the web novel; which volume holds it is unconfirmed), so her interest in Jinwoo reads as attraction to a scent. In the novel, by the same account, her feelings come only after Jeju.
The orc gate. The anime shrinks the strike squad (the webtoon has eleven A-ranks and six B-ranks; the anime eight and three) and has Kargalgan fight bare-handed.
Jinho’s quarrel. In the webtoon his father throws him out and Jinwoo shuts his own door on him; the anime lets Jinho stay the night. The anime also shows Jinho’s father falling ill during the climb; the sources disagree about where the novel places that, so this page leaves it to later volumes.
Jeju. The anime’s winged ant wipes out a town that Wikipedia’s summary places in South Korea, while the fan wiki says Japan; the novel’s version was not found, so this page names no place. In the webtoon Japan proposes the joint raid through its top hunter, Ryuji Goto; in the anime President Go starts it.
Esil and Balan. The webtoon puts Esil on a horse, the anime on foot. Both keep her at the final battle, where in the webtoon she throws a dagger at Baran’s face and Jinwoo finishes him with his bare hands, and in the anime her distraction lets him win only just. The novel sends her home at the ninety-ninth floor and gives Jinwoo an easier fight. The anime also recolours Baran a bright purple with bronze-gold armour.
Pulled forward. The anime ends episode 20 on the skill Shadow Exchange by one account (Wikipedia; the fan wiki puts it in episode 21); in the novel the reward and the wyvern’s shadow both belong to Volume 4.

Continuity notes

Jinwoo goes from a hidden E-rank at level 77 to Korea’s tenth S-rank, official and public, belonging to no guild, and ends on the castle’s hundredth floor with the last Elixir ingredient within reach. Volume 4 opens with four level-ups arriving at once, to 97.
New shadows: Fang (Kargalgan), the high orcs of his hall, and soldiers raised along the way. Igris rises from knight to elite knight; the ice bear reaches knight rank and is named Tank.
Haein Cha enters: S-rank, Hunters Guild vice president, with a nose for mana. She has seen his army and is summoned for Jeju.
Gunhee Go and Jinchul Woo know what Jinwoo is and keep the orc gate secret; Jongin Choi and Yoonho Baek have both been refused.
Jinho chooses Jinwoo over his father’s plans for a Yoojin guild.
His mother is still asleep; the cure comes at the start of Volume 4. Jinah is guarded by shadow soldiers hidden in her shadow.
Esil Radiru is an ally, back with her clan; Balan is dead; Kaisellin is dead and not yet raised.
Jeju Island: the ants can fly now, and Korea and Japan are planning a fourth raid (Volume 4).
Unexplained: the pitch-black key; the voice that set the demons to guard the castle; what Kargalgan sensed.

Notes

How this page was built. Only the opening of chapter 1 in Yen Press’s text was read (the Google Books preview, up to the waiting room of Building B); everything there, from the stats to the note for Jinah, is the novel’s. The rest follows the plot that the webtoon and anime share with the novel, matched to Yen’s chapter titles and back-cover copy; staging, gestures and dialogue that only they show are left out, and where a source reports that the novel differs, the page follows the novel.
Yen Press forms come from Google Books’ term list for the volume: Balan (not Baran), Demon Monarch, Fang, Esil, Tank, Sphere of Avarice, Barca’s Dagger, Hunter’s Association, Hunters Guild, excavation team, luggage carrier, knight rank.
Running jokes: the neck accessories (the dog collar, then a string of skulls); two chapter titles, “The Paragon of the Excavation Team” and “The S-Rank Luggage Carrier,” that turn an unmeasured S-rank into hired help.
Web-novel span: the characters’ debut chapters suggest this volume covers roughly chapters 75–107 of the Korean web novel; no source states the mapping outright.

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