If you watched the first episode of Solo Leveling and skipped episodes 2, 3, and 4, then watched episode 5, you’d probably be very confused because Jin Woo from the first episode is significantly different from the Jin Woo of episode 5.

He’s much buffer, taller, his beard is different, his aura is much more dangerous, but he’s still the quiet and smart character we all know and love. Either way, the differences are there and this could be a little confusing.

After the entire ordeal in the D-rank Dungeon, Jin Woo wakes up healthy and whole, even though the last he remembered, he had lost an arm and a leg and was killed. The officials tell him that he was found in the cave and that there wasn’t a door of any kind (even though all the survivors had mentioned it). 

As you may recall, Jin Woo is an E-rank hunter, so already a D-rank dungeon was him pushing his limits. But being able to survive when several of his stronger teammates died or were permanently scarred had everyone curious.

And so, the hunter organization was brought in to test him to see if he had had a Second Awakening. But they find that he’s still the same E-rank hunter he had always been, and they were still very baffled.

Solo Leveling is set in a world where special human beings are conscripted to fight against malevolent beasts and monsters because they have special abilities that they are born with. While some individuals spot their abilities at a very young age, for most people, it happens when they are teenagers, which is called The Awakening.

As far as we know from the episodes that have been dropped so far, our main lead had his first Awakening a few years before the events in the anime started, so he decided that it would be a good way to make money for rent and his mother’s hospital bills.

The good thing about being a hunter is that when hunters are sent on quests into ranked dungeons, if they are able to defeat the beasts in there, they have free rein to take whatever priceless jewel or essence they find. 

Stronger hunters between ranks S and C have a better chance of accumulating wealth since they are less susceptible to injuries in the dungeons, but hunters in rank E have it bad since they probably only take whatever is given to them or whatever is left behind.

What is a Second Awakening?

A Second Awakening or a Reawakening is what happens when a hunter whose skill level or power has already been determined to be in a particular rank goes through some extraordinary feat and then they grow stronger.

The officials sent from The Hunter Society were very much in doubt that he could have had a second Awakening because it is very rare and he isn’t exactly the strongest person.

Did Jin Woo have a Second Awakening?

The officials test Jin Woo and then we find out he did not in fact have a Second Awakening, but it definitely begs the question as to how he has become stronger in a short period of time.

If you remember when he woke up, he could see those monitors floating above him and after being punished for accepting to do a daily exercise and failing to do it, he decided to keep to it righteously and went on to fight different beasts of different levels. 

The more he obeys the system, the better the rewards he gets, and these rewards are then applied to whatever part of his psyche he wants.

So with the rewards he’s given after obeying the system, he levels up his ability, his speed, his agility, his perception. And the added fact that he has been putting his body through a lot of stress and exercise naturally built his physique and that is why he looks very different.

Now to the question of whether he did have a Second Awakening: I would say yes he did. If you remember, his abilities were tested the minute he woke up so at that point he had not had a chance to train or even get acquainted with the system, but now considerable time has passed since then and he is very noticeably stronger.

As I said before, I haven’t read the manhwa or webnovel, but something tells me that he might be stronger but on the hunter system, his powers might reflect that he has not had a Second Awakening, and that’s probably because his powers aren’t the ones the system usually deals with.

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So what do you think? Did he have a Second Awakening? Is that something else we who haven’t read the Manhwa are missing? Let me know in the comment section below.

And then check out the related post for more interesting stuff about Solo Leveling and other anime I have been watching and what I’d like to recommend to you guys.