Solo Leveling: Monarch’s Domain, Explained

During Sung Jinwoo’s battle against Kargalgan and his High Orc forces in Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-, episode 6, “Don’t Look Down On My Guys”, the necromancer unleashed his Shadow Army and made use of a new Skill he gained during his last visit to the Demon Castle, a Skill that directly affects the combat strength of his Shadows. The Skill is unique to the Shadow Monarch, and enables him to significantly buff his Shadows.

It is highly effective, enabling Jinwoo’s Shadows, which he appraised to be at around B-Rank level in terms of strength, to put up a decent fight against High Orcs, beasts of insane strength, each comparable to an A-Rank Hunter. How does the Monarch’s Domain Skill work?

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What Is the Monarch’s Domain, and What Does It Do?

“Chimera Shadow Garden!”

Put simply, the Monarch’s Domain Skill enables the user to project his shadow onto a region in which any Shadow caught within it will have a 50% boost in all their abilities during a battle. The ability also gives its user a high level of control over the region, to the extent of altering terrain to their advantage, making it quite reminiscent of the famous Domain Expansions from Jujutsu Kaisen, more specifically, like Megumi Fushiguro’s Chimera Shadow Garden, a Domain that takes advantage of its user’s ability to summon various Shikigami, much like Sung Jinwoo and his Shadows.

The Monarch’s Domain also grants its associated boost in power to the user, allowing them to fight boundlessly while also shielding them from certain kinds of attacks from beyond the Domain. The user’s uniqueness can also shine through in the Domain, with elemental variations also in the range of possibility, but this hasn’t been showcased in Solo Leveling yet. The known users of the Monarch’s Domain are, of course, Sung Jinwoo, his son, Son Suho, as well as the previous Shadow Monarch, Ashborn.

The best thing about this absurdly useful Skill is the fact that it can be enacted without any Mana cost to the user, so while Shadows can take up a lot of Mana to maintain and continuously resurrect when they’re taken out, the ability that augments their base combat stats can be performed gratis. While it didn’t lead to his Shadows being necessarily capable of 1-on-1 encounters with the High Orcs, Jinwoo’s top 3 Shadows, Iron (formerly, A-Rank Tank, Kim Chul), Igris (A-Rank) and Tank (at least B-Rank) were extremely powerful during their respective match-ups, managing to take down all four of Kargalgan’s strongest officers in a beautifully animated romp.

What’s interesting about the Monarch’s Domain is that it doesn’t seem to have a Level counter like other Skills, implying that it is at its maximum efficacy from the moment Jinwoo learns it. Not only did the boost help Jinwoo’s Shadow Soldiers fight better, but it also assisted in his total annihilation of the High Orc, finishing him off with the Shadows extracted from his former top four.

The Monarch’s Domain Skill’s Possible Limitations

Range and Duration Are Yet to Be Defined

Usually, more powerful abilities have drawbacks that prevent frequent use, whether it’s destructive to the user, the environment or simply has a high cost of use. With the Monarch’s Domain, the fact that it costs no Mana to grant a 50% stat boost to all Shadows caught within it makes it a very powerful Skill, not to mention the fact that Jinwoo had to clear Level 70 of the Demon Castle to get it, but there were no limits to its use made apparent during Jinwoo’s battle against Kargalgan.

When the Hunters Association Surveillance Team arrived at the Gate to monitor the soon-to-be S-Rank Sung Jinwoo, they were hit with a torrent of his aura from outside the Gate, which could mean that the Monarch’s Domain Skill had been enacted across the entire Dungeon. If that is the case, then the Skill might not have any range limit, meaning that Jinwoo could empower all of his Shadows spanning entire battlefields if it came to it. There was also no indication as to how long the Monarch’s Domain lasts once cast, so it can’t be said that there is a time limit, especially when there isn’t a Mana cost either.

Solo Leveling

Release Date

January 7, 2024

Directors

Shunsuke Nakashige

• 

  Taito Ban

  Shun Mizushino (voice)

• 

  Genta Nakamura

  Kenta Morobishi (voice)