The Gamer

[Flickerdart]

we don't really have any sense of how strong either is beyond 'They're a rank S' so we don't know what they're capable of in relation to Jee-Han.

I think the Witch of Carnage, her warrior, and the Black Summoner are all supposed to be A-rank, and they eclipse Jee Han in power by a pretty wide margin. So S-rank is going to be better still. At least in raw power - Jee Han's versatility and strategic mind has helped him against tough foes in the past, and I'm going to guess that through observing this new fight he'll be able to find an exploitable opportunity.

[lord_khaine]

It's probably because the main character barely appeared in this chapter.

Can be.. i just know that if i had started with this chapter i would have given it a single glance and newer looked at the story afterwards.

I think the Witch of Carnage, her warrior, and the Black Summoner are all supposed to be A-rank, and they eclipse Jee Han in power by a pretty wide margin. So S-rank is going to be better still. At least in raw power - Jee Han's versatility and strategic mind has helped him against tough foes in the past, and I'm going to guess that through observing this new fight he'll be able to find an exploitable opportunity.

Did BS not say he were going to deal with anyone of S rank if they showed up..? I took it to mean he were normally of S-rank himself.

[Flickerdart]

Did BS not say he were going to deal with anyone of S rank if they showed up..? I took it to mean he were normally of S-rank himself.

He said that about A-rank, didn't he? I don't think S-rank had even been mentioned until now.

[lord_khaine]

Could be, been a while since i read the comic.

But in the end i guess we dont really know much about the real power level of BS. We know that the initial level we saw on him were in a situation where he was greatly diminished, and suposedly he would be in a much better shape when starting whatever he had planned.

[Lethologica]

He said that about A-rank, didn't he? I don't think S-rank had even been mentioned until now.

This is correct.

[Olinser]

Can be.. i just know that if i had started with this chapter i would have given it a single glance and newer looked at the story afterwards.



Did BS not say he were going to deal with anyone of S rank if they showed up..? I took it to mean he were normally of S-rank himself.

When anybody states they can handle anybody of X rank, I assume it means they are rank X + 1 at a minimum. This also leads me to believe both of the others are A rank - their powers let them autodefeat anybody of lower level, bit they're no match for guys of equal power. They're only able to fight the A ranks because witch sacrificed so many low levels they we're able to summon two heavy hitters.

[tyckspoon]

When anybody states they can handle anybody of X rank, I assume it means they are rank X + 1 at a minimum. This also leads me to believe both of the others are A rank - their powers let them autodefeat anybody of lower level, bit they're no match for guys of equal power. They're only able to fight the A ranks because witch sacrificed so many low levels they we're able to summon two heavy hitters.

I don't feel like they're supposed to be *incapable* of fighting against their own ranks; it's just not where their strengths lie (well, ok, maybe the Witch doesn't feel like she can handle A ranks one on one, which is probably a big part of why she goes around with her personal bodyguard all the time.) That whole I'm-an-indestructible-forest, here-take-my-life-energy thing they nuked the Black Rock golem with certainly looked like a pretty significant amount of power.

[Flickerdart]

The scary thing is that an S-rank would have to be able to eclipse that kind of power when really going all-out.

[Aquillion]

When anybody states they can handle anybody of X rank, I assume it means they are rank X + 1 at a minimum. This also leads me to believe both of the others are A rank - their powers let them autodefeat anybody of lower level, bit they're no match for guys of equal power. They're only able to fight the A ranks because witch sacrificed so many low levels they we're able to summon two heavy hitters.

Remember, the Black Summoner is a Natural Ability User, which might make him better than his numbers indicate, or might let him cheat the rules somehow. In particular, he might be able to handle A-class threats by summoning something more powerful than himself (at a cost, presumably).

[Flickerdart]

Well, what do we know about the Black Summoner's abilities so far? He summoned the one craptastic slime to fight Jee Han, he created a bunch of Illusion Barriers with zombies (but this seems to be a pretty common skill) and he wrecked three mid-20s-level guys offscreen. Was there any other mention of him or any ability he used in his first appearance that would hint at a greater power?

[Aquillion]

Only his claim that he could handle A-ranks. But we haven't really seen him fight at all since his first fight (when he may not actually have been fighting seriously.)

[Dragoa]

Well, what do we know about the Black Summoner's abilities so far? He summoned the one craptastic slime to fight Jee Han, he created a bunch of Illusion Barriers with zombies (but this seems to be a pretty common skill) and he wrecked three mid-20s-level guys offscreen. Was there any other mention of him or any ability he used in his first appearance that would hint at a greater power?

His own belief in his power, how handily and readily he attacked Sun-Il(he had to assume the family would come attack him afterwards, and he doesn't seem like the type to pick a fight he's not sure if he could win), and his summoning ability[especially after these demon summons] all point to him being fairly strong, or at least self-assured in his power. He also created that orb which was going around slaying all of the zombies which presumably isn't a simplistic feat. Also the Witch seemed to believe he could handle the A-Rank people if he was at full strength(her only concern was him being weakened right now).

So while we haven't really seen anything concrete with regards to his power, everything seems to point towards him having a fair degree of power.

[Flickerdart]

He also created that orb which was going around slaying all of the zombies which presumably isn't a simplistic feat.

I don't remember this one, maybe I missed an issue...have you got a link handy?

So while we haven't really seen anything concrete with regards to his power, everything seems to point towards him having a fair degree of power.

Yeah, that's what I figured. I don't expect we'll see Black Summoner play any of his cards in this story arc - the Witch and her minions are there precisely because he's busy. At best we'll see him complete his thing and come to Jee Han's rescue while he is desperately trying to hold back the attackers, but even then we probably won't see much.

I'm also wondering how the story will progress from here. Are we following the events around the Black Soul through Jee Han's eyes, meaning that this arc will stretch out for longer regardless of whether or not the Summoner's plan succeeds (unless the story ends, of course) or are we following Jee Han's levelling process and this is just a side quest?

[Dragoa]

I don't remember this one, maybe I missed an issue...have you got a link handy?

It was really early on, and a quick sprint through has it at the end of Chapter 6/start of chapter 7.

[Douglas]

Random note, I'm kind of waiting/hoping for some clan elder or other major group leader to hear about how Jee-Han's ability works and react like this:

So, you're telling me this guy has the natural ability, in essence, to permanently increase his own power, at a rate that brought him from average non-ability-user to surpassing our best prodigy of his age group, who's been training hard her whole life, in 2 months (or however long it's been, I think that's currently an overestimate)?

...

Either we send utterly overwhelming force to overkill him right now, or we treat him as a developing major power in his own right and seek to make him an ally, because he'll surpass the Existence Eater long before reaching old age at this rate.

[Aquillion]

I think that that's just how Natural Ability Users are -- normal people have to train their whole lives just to keep up with them.

[Yuki Akuma]

There are two types of natural ability users - those who start with a very powerful ability that doesn't really get much more powerful with training, and those who start with barely any power at all but with almost infinite room for growth.

Jee-Han is the latter kind.

[Flickerdart]

I decided to re-read the comic from the beginning (because I have a 2:30 AM meeting today and needed to waste the time leading up to it). When Sun-Il attacks the Black Summoner, he mentions that BS had only started to learn summoning techniques. Isn't it odd that he was already level 46 with Black Summoner as his title? Could it be that he's able to scale his strength even faster than Jee Han?

Also he can teleport! That's pretty powerful.

[lord_khaine]

I decided to re-read the comic from the beginning (because I have a 2:30 AM meeting today and needed to waste the time leading up to it). When Sun-Il attacks the Black Summoner, he mentions that BS had only started to learn summoning techniques. Isn't it odd that he was already level 46 with Black Summoner as his title? Could it be that he's able to scale his strength even faster than Jee Han?

Also he can teleport! That's pretty powerful.

We can be pretty certain that when we saw him at level 46 it was at a state where he were already weakend somehow as the Witch of Slaughter commented on.

As for Sun-Il's comment, either he were wrong about when BS had started learning summoning magic, or else he has other skills to fall back to when it comes to kicking ass.

[Spojaz]

From the new page, Some pretty cool action scenes, now with underestimation leading to defeat!
Magneto-Jafar is pretty much unbeatable, while red-hot buffalo wings seems a little lacking...

[Dragoa]

I decided to re-read the comic from the beginning (because I have a 2:30 AM meeting today and needed to waste the time leading up to it). When Sun-Il attacks the Black Summoner, he mentions that BS had only started to learn summoning techniques. Isn't it odd that he was already level 46 with Black Summoner as his title? Could it be that he's able to scale his strength even faster than Jee Han?

Also he can teleport! That's pretty powerful.

I'm kind of guessing/thinking that he got most of his power in a sort of pact agreement, and his daughter's curse is the price of this pact. Which may explain his title and why he was just learning how to summon spirits. Only real proof of this is narrative tension, and the similarity of black curse and black summoner(which seems to vary depending on the translation, so hard to tell which is exact).

Also new Chapter.

Yay, broken metal powers? I'm not really sure what his powers are exactly, but they seem kind of intense, and rife for a whole host of abuse(hello iron in the body). And the flying buffalo continues to just swing furiously at the other guy in the assumedly most intense game of patty cake ever?

[Flickerdart]

I'm kind of guessing/thinking that he got most of his power in a sort of pact agreement, and his daughter's curse is the price of this pact. Which may explain his title and why he was just learning how to summon spirits. Only real proof of this is narrative tension, and the similarity of black curse and black summoner(which seems to vary depending on the translation, so hard to tell which is exact).

Oh, that's not a bad thought. Although given how determined he is to cure his daughter, it seems likely that either the demon he made the pact with didn't tell him what the consequence would be, or it was an unintended side effect. I doubt he would intentionally pay this price for his power.

It's also possible that it's the other way around - we know that Gaia grants natural abilities based on what's most important to the user, and Hwan Sung-gong's driving goal is curing his daughter. He could have gotten the power to call and dismiss spirits because he wants to banish the Demon's Invasion.

Also new Chapter.

Yay, broken metal powers? I'm not really sure what his powers are exactly, but they seem kind of intense, and rife for a whole host of abuse(hello iron in the body). And the flying buffalo continues to just swing furiously at the other guy in the assumedly most intense game of patty cake ever?

Well, it wouldn't be fun if both of the demons just wrecked the guys, right? I'm actually guessing that the demons are similar in strength, and S-rank guy is just so absurdly powerful that if he were the one fighting the metal user, he would still tank the attacks and win.

[Olinser]

Oh, that's not a bad thought. Although given how determined he is to cure his daughter, it seems likely that either the demon he made the pact with didn't tell him what the consequence would be, or it was an unintended side effect. I doubt he would intentionally pay this price for his power.

It's also possible that it's the other way around - we know that Gaia grants natural abilities based on what's most important to the user, and Hwan Sung-gong's driving goal is curing his daughter. He could have gotten the power to call and dismiss spirits because he wants to banish the Demon's Invasion.


Well, it wouldn't be fun if both of the demons just wrecked the guys, right? I'm actually guessing that the demons are similar in strength, and S-rank guy is just so absurdly powerful that if he were the one fighting the metal user, he would still tank the attacks and win.

Or at least be smart enough to get rid of his tie bar when fighting somebody that CONTROLS METAL.

[Dragoa]

Or at least be smart enough to get rid of his tie bar when fighting somebody that CONTROLS METAL.

Eh, I can understand that. His focus is going to be on everything else in this fight. There's at least 2 demons running around that can likely kill him, the BS himself and the Witch and Druid. Forgetting that he put on a tiny bit of metal onto his tie this morning(likely something he didn't even consciously do, because he's done it so much he's probably forgotten about the tie clip entirely, it's just part of his clothing now) seems like something you could do pretty easily.

[Dragoa]

New Chapter!

A new challenger approaches(and planting some more seeds that something beyond just the soul is going on here, since the Hopolites are beastly expensive). And Mister buffalo has been vanquished by the red headed dude. All around, meh chapter, mostly setting the stage for more stuff as Jee-Han realizes just how outclassed he is.

[Dragoa]

New Chapter!

Some dark machinations revealed! A new enemy approaches! And battle of the super high powers continues!

[Flickerdart]

I'm having some difficulty following the Korean faction names. Are the president guy and the Hoplites and the guy who punched out that demon all on the same side?

[Thrawn183]

I'm having some difficulty following the Korean faction names. Are the president guy and the Hoplites and the guy who punched out that demon all on the same side?

I think all the guys in suits are from the same organization, but the Hoplites are from temporary allies? I'm having trouble following what's so valuable that people are investing this many resources in the battle.

On one hand, it's saying the Black Soul is hugely valuable, on the other hand it's saying each Hoplite is 10x as expensive?

[Flickerdart]

I'm assuming that the Hoplites are like golems - permanent and repairable, so they're not being "expended" in the fight unless the demon blows them up. Also according to the president guy, the Black Summoner is also a very valuable capture himself.

[Dragoa]

I think all the guys in suits are from the same organization, but the Hoplites are from temporary allies? I'm having trouble following what's so valuable that people are investing this many resources in the battle.

On one hand, it's saying the Black Soul is hugely valuable, on the other hand it's saying each Hoplite is 10x as expensive?

I think the analogy to the black soul cost is messing with the idea of rarity. According to chapter 77 they want to bind the Black Soul into a Philosophers Stone. My guess is that black souls are pretty rare, despite them not being all that powerful(relatively speaking), so they're investing in a ton of resources because this is likely the only chance they'll get at it for a while.