Solo Leveling: Digispirit.

A/N: Bonus Chapter! The next one will be unlocked at 1,500 Power Stones.

Maybe some of you won’t like that I sent Digimon into the real world, but I honestly think it was the most logical direction to take. After all, if Takuya was able to cross between worlds, it makes sense that the opposite could happen as well.

As for the Digimon rankings in Solo Leveling, I made my estimations based on the established lore, with AI helping me organize and compare information. I also discussed the scaling quite a bit to make sure it felt consistent. If you’re knowledgeable about Digimon, feel free to leave a comment—I might have overlooked something.

In general, I place most Adult-level Digimon somewhere between C-Rank and B-Rank. Of course, there are exceptions. Some Adults can reach A-Rank, and a few extraordinary ones could even be considered S-Rank, but those are far from the norm.

End of the note

Takuya ran through the school, trying to keep track of the Numemon as they scattered in every direction.

He had counted eight of them...

At least, he thought he had.

He had even spotted two crawling across the ceiling.

"What annoying little creatures..."

Stopping for a second, Takuya pulled out his D-Scan.

Technically, it was his phone.

But it was also something much more than that.

"...Could you please help me for once?" he muttered. "Take a little initiative."

He could accept that it wasn’t some RPG system constantly handing him quests.

That was fine.

He knew the D-Scan wasn’t designed for that.

But a little assistance every now and then wouldn’t hurt.

Almost as if responding to his request—or perhaps simply reacting to his instincts—the D-Scan activated.

To everyone else, it still looked like an oddly designed smartphone.

But for Takuya, a holographic interface appeared before his eyes.

He immediately tapped the map.

It had worked before.

Maybe...

Just maybe...

It could help again.

A second later, several glowing dots appeared.

"...Nine?"

Takuya blinked.

"I counted wrong?"

Well, it didn’t really matter.

Whatever those dots represented, they were definitely moving.

Without wasting another second, he followed the nearest marker.

Sure enough...

A Numemon was right where the map indicated.

The Digimon panicked the moment it saw him.

It wasn’t completely stupid.

It knew it was doomed.

It immediately tried to crawl away.

Too late.

A burst of fire engulfed it, deleting the Digimon almost instantly.

Unfortunately...

A new problem appeared.

The students had seen the monsters.

The emergency alarm echoed throughout the entire school.

Teachers immediately began evacuating everyone, and hundreds of students flooded into the hallways.

"...Great."

The sea of people forced Takuya to take constant detours as he continued hunting the remaining Numemon.

As if that weren’t enough, the disgusting Digimon seemed determined to hide in the most inconvenient places imaginable.

One forced him to run into the girls’ restroom.

Another hid inside the girls’ changing room.

"...Seriously?"

Just what was wrong with these little perverts?

Then he found one peeking underneath a girl’s skirt.

...

At that moment, an old memory surfaced.

Back when he had watched Digimon Adventure...

Yeah.

Now he remembered.

Numemon really were creepy little bastards.

Takuya spent half an hour hunting down almost all of them. Now, only one remained. The problem was that he had no idea how it kept moving around. Just how? The Numemon seemed to appear and disappear from one place to another.

He searched the entire school while following the D-Scan. Unfortunately, it only displayed positions on a flat map. It didn’t show floors or elevation, nor how the creature was moving. Maybe it was crawling through the ventilation system?

No. He had already checked the vents.

Then his phone rang.

Jinchul.

Takuya kept running as he answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Hunter Takuya, are you at your school?" Jinchul asked immediately.

"Yeah, I’m handling it. They’re slug-type monsters, really weak—honestly weaker than goblins. They’re not dangerous, just incredibly annoying to find," Takuya replied.

"That’s a relief. You don’t need backup then? Are you sure you can handle it?"

"I’m one hundred percent sure. What’s more, I think there’s only one left, so this should be over soon. I’ll call you back—I think I found it."

Without waiting for another reply, Takuya hung up.

He turned the corner of the hallway.

The signal had been here just a second ago.

Now it was in the hallway next to him.

"...What the hell?"

Then a scream echoed from the direction the D-Scan was pointing.

"AAAAAH! A GHOST!"

A ghost?

No... the last one was supposed to be a Numemon.

Without wasting another second, Takuya made a quick decision and broke straight through the wall.

The moment he emerged on the other side, he froze.

It really was a ghost.

A floating figure draped beneath a white sheet, with black eyes and a mouth filled with sharp teeth.

Bakemon.

A Ghost-type Digimon.

And an Adult-level one.

"So that’s how it kept avoiding me..."

The Numemon had simply been 8, this was another one that scape the digital world.

From beneath Bakemon’s cloak, a black hand stretched toward the screaming girl. Of course, she also had to be one of his classmates—a close friend of Jinah’s. From what he knew, she was usually pretty brave.

The school had already been evacuated.

She had probably stayed behind out of curiosity to see what was happening.

Takuya dashed forward without hesitation, intercepting the attack. He knew that anything coming from a Ghost-type Digimon wasn’t something to underestimate.

His kick smashed into Bakemon’s arm, knocking it away from the girl.

The impact was solid.

This wasn’t some harmless Rookie.

In the very next instant, flames engulfed Takuya’s body as he transformed into Agnimon.

Without giving Bakemon a chance to react, he drove a powerful kick into the ghost Digimon, sending it crashing straight through a classroom window.

Takuya immediately leaped after it.

The Bakemon floated a few inches above the ground, rubbing its nonexistent nose as if Takuya’s kick had actually hurt it.

Takuya landed on one knee in front of the ghost Digimon before rising to his feet.

"...Can you speak?" he asked calmly.

The Bakemon answered with a grin, nothing more.

Without wasting another second, Takuya ignited his flames and burst forward. In an instant, he appeared in front of the ghost. Bakemon immediately fired a strange wave of dark energy, but Takuya raised his flaming arm and burned the attack away before it could reach him.

He had no idea what the technique actually did.

But he was certain it wasn’t anything good.

The moment the attack was neutralized, Takuya pressed forward and launched Bakemon across the field with a powerful kick.

He wasn’t using his stronger techniques because there was no need.

The purpose of this fight was simple.

He wanted to gauge exactly where an average Adult-level Digimon stood compared to Hunters.

And, judging by Bakemon’s performance...

It wasn’t even close.

"So the average Champion is somewhere between an upper C-rank and an A-rank at the very top..." Takuya muttered to himself.

No.

More likely between high C and low B for the average one, with exceptional Champions reaching A-rank.

That sounded far more reasonable.

Still, he wanted to test a little more before finishing the fight and absorbing its data.

Takuya circled Bakemon, carefully observing its reactions.

Its speed...

Its reflexes...

Its combat instincts...

"Definitely around solid B-rank," he concluded. "Then something like GeoGreymon should probably be B+, maybe even higher depending on the individual."

It was difficult to judge exactly.

But at least now he had a rough benchmark.

A/N: I came up with that considering the subway boss in solo leveling and other bosses, I think is a good estimate. End of the author note.

Suddenly, a raspy voice echoed across the field.

"I... hate... you."

Takuya blinked.

"Oh? So you decided to talk."

"You..." Bakemon hissed. "You’re playing with me."

Takuya tilted his head.

"Weren’t you the one chasing that girl? I’m pretty sure you could’ve killed her before I arrived... or before she even noticed you. So what’s the point?"

His words ignited something inside the ghost Digimon.

Bakemon let out an enraged shriek, twisting violently as its body began tearing apart. The cloth covering it split open while streams of Data leaked from every direction.

"...Idiot."

Takuya’s eyes widened.

"This is what I get for playing around."

He immediately rushed forward.

His flaming kick descended at full force—

—but Bakemon vanished beneath the ground, taking advantage of its ghostly body.

A second later, something emerged behind him.

Takuya turned.

...

"...Seriously?"

The Digimon looked almost exactly the same.

The only noticeable difference...

Was a witch’s hat.

Soulmon.

"...It evolved by putting on a hat?"

For one absurd moment, Takuya felt as though he could stare directly into an invisible camera like he was in some reality show.

Really?

Even so...

He wasn’t foolish enough to underestimate it.

Ridiculous appearance or not...

A Perfect-level Digimon was still a Perfect-level Digimon.

Without hesitation, Takuya attacked.

His legs became a blur as flames spiraled around him.

"Salamander Break!"

A blazing tornado erupted across the school’s athletic field, tearing apart the ground and scorching everything in its path.

Soulmon answered immediately.

"Hell Hand!"

A gigantic hand of darkness burst from beneath its tattered cloak, colliding head-on with Takuya’s flames.

For a brief instant...

The two attacks reached a stalemate.

Takuya frowned.

"A Dark-type..."

Then he smiled.

"...Bad matchup."

His control over the flames intensified.

Spirit Fire roared to life, overwhelming the darkness. The blazing inferno expanded violently, consuming Hell Hand before crashing into Soulmon itself.

The ghost screamed as nearly half its body was burned away.

Takuya didn’t give it time to recover.

He flashed forward once more.

"Burning Salamander!"

Soulmon desperately unleashed another blast of dark magic.

Fire and darkness collided.

For a single heartbeat...

Neither attack moved.

Then the Spirit Fire completely overwhelmed the darkness.

Soulmon was swallowed by the inferno, its body disintegrating into countless particles of Data until nothing remained.

Only Agnimon stood in the ruined field.

A moment later, the D-Scan chimed.

Large quantity of Data absorbed.

2 GB integrated.

Processing...

As the D-Scan processed the newly absorbed Data, Takuya sat down on the edge of the school’s athletic field.

He just hoped he wouldn’t have to pay for all the damage.

"Soulmon..." he muttered.

"It wasn’t that strong."

It had jumped from roughly a B-rank to perhaps a B+, maybe even the very bottom of A-rank by Hunter standards.

"It was a rushed evolution," Takuya reasoned. "Maybe it already had enough Data to evolve but was waiting for a better option. If it had evolved to something else... I probably would’ve needed backup. Or at least I would’ve caused a lot more damage trying to beat it."

Then there was something else.

2 GB.

That was an enormous amount of Data.

A single Perfect-level Digimon had given him more Data than countless ordinary monsters.

"If only I could freely enter the Digital World..." he sighed.

Without much hope, he looked down at the D-Scan.

"Can you take me there?"

As expected...

There was no response.

The D-Scan was clearly an incredibly advanced device, but it wasn’t an AI, nor was it some all-knowing System.

Just then, a familiar voice came from behind him.

"That seems a little excessive... for something weaker than a goblin."

Takuya let out a long sigh.

"...Jinchul."

"So you came anyway."

Woo Jinchul walked onto the ruined field, his eyes sweeping across the scorched ground.

"Well," Takuya replied honestly, "the last one turned out to be some kind of ghost-type monster. It was a lot stronger than I expected."

"How much stronger?" Jinchul asked, examining the destruction around him. "Because an attack powerful enough to do... this..."

He never finished the sentence.

Instead, he silently estimated what kind of opponent would require that level of firepower.

"I’d say somewhere around upper B-rank," Takuya answered after a moment. "Maybe even a very low A-rank."

For the first time since arriving...

Jinchul looked genuinely confused.

"...A B-rank monster..."

"...coming from a Gate that only allowed E-rank creatures to emerge?"

He frowned.

"that’s why I came, is imposible to know the level of gate just for the first monsters to came out"

Takuya simply scratched the back of his head.