In Solo Leveling, Jinwoo enters into a mutually beneficial partnership with D-Rank hunter Yoo Jinho.
Jinho comes from a wealthy family. His father owns Yoojin Construction and seeks to establish a guild of his own.
Jinho’s father plans to recruit an S-Rank hunter to serve as the guild’s master, with Jinho’s older brother acting as the vice-guild master, as he is not a hunter.
However, Jinho wants to become the guild master of his father’s guild, which requires obtaining a guild master’s license.
One of the conditions to get this license is that a hunter must have participated in a minimum of 20 raids, but Jinho has only participated in one.
He has studied hard to pass the written exam for the license, and now all he needs is to participate in 19 more raids.
Jinho’s offer and Jinwoo’s condition
Jinho decides to put together a strike team for his next 19 missions, and his first choice is Jinwoo, the E-Rank hunter who saved his life on his previous mission.
He is aware that Jinwoo is much stronger than an E-Rank hunter, making him valuable on the raids.
Additionally, Jinho wants to earn his father’s favor, knowing his father would be more impressed if he participated in raids with low-rank hunters rather than high-rank ones.
He approaches Jinwoo with an offer: if Jinwoo agrees to join his strike team for the next 19 missions, he will give Jinwoo the building intended to be the guild’s office.
Despite the building’s value of 30 billion won, Jinwoo declines the offer, as he believes he will grow stronger with the system.
Jinwoo is reluctant to team up with anyone without fully understanding the consequences of leveling up with the system.
However, he needs to grow stronger for various reasons, including his desire to obtain the Elixir of Life from the Demon’s Castle.
As a result, Jinwoo eventually accepts Jinho’s offer, but he has a condition of his own: he wants himself and Jinho to raid the dungeons alone.
This way, the secret of Jinwoo’s powers will remain between them, and there will be no casualties, which will further impress Jinho’s father. Jinho accepts his terms.
A successful partnership
Jinwoo and Jinho need to meet the quota of eight people to enter a C-Rank dungeon, so Jinho hires injured hunters, drunkards, and minors.
These hunters are unable to work and struggle to make ends meet, so they readily agree to wait outside the dungeon in exchange for a generous payment.
Jinwoo and Jinho enter the dungeons alone. While Jinwoo fights the magic beasts and defeats the dungeon bosses, Jinho collects mana crystals and essence stones.
Jinwoo levels up and acquires a number of skills. Meanwhile, Jinho takes a step closer to becoming a guild master.
Their strike team is asked not to disclose this arrangement to anyone, but it is only a matter of time before it attracts attention, with Manager Ahn Sangmin of the White Tiger Guild being the first to notice.