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Sung Jinwoo, an E-rank hunter, stealthily rose in ranks after becoming part of the system after the double dungeon arc in Solo Leveling. Although, much isn’t known about his family except that he has a sister, a comatose mother and a missing father.
Luckily or unfortunately for manhwa readers, the Solo Leveling anime has skipped some scenes here and there from the manhwa and has introduced a mighty hunter obsessed with Jinwoo. He goes around claiming to be the father of Jinwoo and will do anything to protect his family. But is he Jinwoo’s father? Let’s find out.
Is Sung Il-Hwan Jinwoo’s Father in Solo Leveling? Is He A National Level Hunter?
Yes, Sung Il-Hwan is the father of Jinwoo. He had been a firefighter for a decade before the gates appeared on the planet. He was a hardworking man, a provider and loved his family. Additionally, Il-Hwan was a good human being, he cared for humanity and wanted to protect everyone.
Hence, after gates appeared and Hunters began to appear, Il-Hwan joined the fight for humanity’s future. In comparison to other Hunters around him, Il-Hwan was an exceptional Hunter, his powers were on the level of an S-rank. However, since this was before the time of Hunter’s association, Il-Hwan couldn’t get the desired fame and monetary compensation that S-ranks get now.
This left him no choice but to go on more raids and gather materials to sell and earn a livelihood while protecting humanity and his family. During one such raid, Il-Hwan gets stuck behind a gate after he and his team kill the gate-master.
After the gate closes on him and his teammates, the world outside presumes him dead and his wife gets comatose due to mana poisoning. Thus, leaving Jinwoo alone to fend for his family.
During his time being stuck in the dungeon, Il-Hwan with his S-rank powers fights off monsters continuously for 10 years. Sometime between this decade, Il-Hwans’ constant scuffle against the monsters catches the eyes of the Rulers.
The Rulers are Angel-like beings made along with Monarchs (Demon-like beings) by the Absolute Being. We will cover their entire story in another article and will make sure to link it here. For now, this information is enough.
So Rulers contacted Il-Hwan and blessed him with their powers making him an Apostle of the Brightest Light and raising his status from S-Rank to a National Level Hunter. He was tasked with the mission of defeating all the Monarchs, including Shadow Monarch aka Jinwoo. Although, Il-Hwan was unaware that Jinwoo is the Shadow Monarch. He solely wanted to protect Earth. After witnessing that despite being the Shadow Monarch, Jinwoo wants to protect the Earth, he is proud of his son and fights alongside him.
As a National Level Hunter, Il-Hwan can be considered as strong as or even slightly stronger than Thomas Andre. It is evident from his battle against the Ice Monarch and the Beast Monarch as he stood his ground against all of them without much difficulty. Unlike Christopher Reed who was done for by these same Monarchs without breaking a sweat.
He was only defeated when Jinwoo got caught and he had to defend Jinwoo which gave them an opening to attack Il-Hwan. This is the same battle where other S-rank members like Baek and Choi Jong-In were left helpless and Thomas Andre had his ass handed to him.
Through this battle, we can conclude that Sung Il-Hwan is a national-level hunter at the very least. This makes him one of the strongest characters in Solo Leveling.
Is Sung Il-Hwan dead in Solo Leveling?
During his battle against the Monarchs, Sung Il-Hwan gets fatally wounded and disintegrates into light. However, after the final battle between Jinwoo and the Monarch of destruction, Jinwoo asks the Rulers to turn back time and takes on the burden of fighting all the Monarchs even before the gates appear.
Thus making it so that gates never appeared on Earth. Without gates, there will be no mana hence no hunters. Meaning, Sung Il-Hwan never left his family to fight off monsters. Although, since he was an Apostle of the Brightest Light, Il-Hwan retained memories of the time that was changed and how his son protected everyone, twice.
Later on, after Jinwoo returns to the mortal realm forever, Il-Hwan asks the Rulers to wipe his memories as he cannot constantly see his son shouldering the burden of being the Shadow Monarch while he lives a normal life.
In this new timeline, Il-Hwan grows old as a Chief Firefighter while living with his wife and occasionally meeting his son’s and daughter’s families.
