Level Up with the Gods is the latest series published by Ize Press in the Dungeon, System and Tower Appearance genre. But in a market already saturated with similar titles, is this series bound to stand out?

Yuwon Kim is a man from modern-day South Korea, who had to enter the Tower when it appeared in his country. He fought until he gained the highest status—god—and reached the top with his companions, who just happen to be some no-name heroes… kidding. Everyone knows them!  Among Yuwon’s companions you can meet Sun Wukong (the Monkey King), Hercules, Merlin, etc. They are fighting outer gods, creatures that are bringing destruction to the now-dystopian world, but it’s a losing battle. To make sure that Yuwon and Earth have a chance of success, Kronos sends Yuwon back to the time before the Tower made an appearance in his world.

Finding himself back in 2019 on New Year’s Eve, Yuwon doesn’t have much time left to prepare before the Tower appears and the first tutorial begins. In fact, as soon as the clock turns midnight and 2020 begins, all people have to face the first tutorial to gain skills and points if they want to survive. It doesn’t take long for them to realise that it’s neither a joke nor a prank, and it takes even less time for the population to dwindle. With his knowledge of the future and upcoming trials, Yuwon sets off to gain as much power as he can so that when the outer gods begin interfering with his world, he’ll be ready and strong enough to take them down.

While the plot is pretty much similar to other series in the same genre (think Solo Leveling, SSS-class Revival Hunter or even The World After the Fall) I enjoyed the art and the narration. Yuwon is just an ordinary college student until he reaches the top of the Tower and fights the outer gods. We don’t know much about his life before that, but we get a glimpse of it when he’s sent back in time. He used to be bullied by his classmates, but as he finds himself reliving one such bullying episodes, he fights back even if it means he’ll lose all his strength and stats. He also can’t remember the name of his bully, which I found epic! It shows how in the long run, his bully was nothing more than a coward and displayed his true cowardly colours when the Tower appears. Let’s just say that he got what he deserved. It’s too early to tell if Yuwon has the qualities of a hero or even an antihero. He doesn’t try to minimise human casualties, but he also doesn’t go out of his way to destroy people unless they come at him. His only goal is to become stronger because he knows what awaits him in the future.

Yuwon has a few interactions with other people in the first volume, but we can’t gauge yet if they will become relevant as the story unfolds. This really is just an introductory volume, and to figure out more details about the Tower and its manager, readers will need to wait for the story to progress.

The illustrations are quite detailed, and the artist took care to include this attention to detail in portraying the monsters as well, from zombies to earth worms. As you can imagine, the series is violent and gory, so blood and death are pretty much present throughout the whole volume. If you’re squeamish, it might not be for you, as monster blood is not the only blood you’ll see. The colour palette is dark to match  the cataclysmic events happening in the world.

As previously mentioned, Level Up with the Gods falls into the Tower and System genre to a T, but I still found the first volume gripping, making me want to discover more about this world and Yuwon’s story. I hope that he can meet his past companions in his new life as well. The only downside of this volume was that I found it quite short at 264 pages when I’m used to circa 300 pages volumes.

Level Up with the Gods started as a web novel by B. Ain before it got adapted into a web comic illustrated by Ohyeon. Both novel and manwha are serialised on Tapas, and Ize Press publishes the manhwa in volume format in the English language. Volume 2 is slated for release in January 2026.

Our review copy was supplied by Ize Press.