Getting Stronger Just by Sleeping
Seo Ye-in was someone who pruned her sentences down to the absolute bare essentials. It was an economy of speech that routinely invited monumental misunderstandings, which meant bridging the vast canyons in her communication was perpetually my responsibility.
"What's today the day for?"
"Ranking up."
"Ranking up what?"
"Core."
I cocked an eyebrow, thoroughly perplexed. "Weren't we just talking about the Kim Ho Pillow?"
"Yeah. Kim Ho Pillow."
"Then why is your Core ranking up?"
What kind of metaphysical leap connected my body to her internal cultivation?
Ye-in tilted her head slowly, regarding me with an expression that asked why I was bothering to question something so blindingly self-evident.
"…Because I sleep?"
"You're telling me you cultivate mana while you're asleep?"
"Yeah."
Mana cultivation was supposed to be a rigorous, deliberate discipline. You entered a state of supreme concentration, carefully guiding the flow of internal energy through pristine pathways, cycling it relentlessly to incrementally condense power into the core. That was the universal standard every awakened lived by.
And she does that while dead to the world?
On paper, it sounded utterly preposterous. Yet the moment I turned the concept over in my head, an unsettling amount of puzzle pieces snapped cleanly into place.
Ever since enrollment, Ye-in had spent the vast majority of her waking hours trailing right behind me. Whenever she wasn't glued to my side, she was sprawled out in her dormitory room, sleeping like a log. In all our time together, I had never once witnessed her sit down and practice standard mana cultivation.
And yet her Core is already at C-rank.
While C-rank was the standard benchmark for first-year prodigies, it wasn't a milestone anyone reached without pouring agonizing sweat and countless hours into seated meditation. To never train, yet maintain a frontrunner's Core rank? The math had never added up.
I had harbored suspicions about that contradiction before, but now the truth was laid bare.
What if her innate mana control is so cracked that she doesn't even need conscious effort?
If she could sustain the razor-sharp focus demanded by cultivation while drifting peacefully through dreamland, her freakish growth curve suddenly made total sense.
Turns out she's an idle-game sloth.
Leave her completely unattended, and her Core simply leveled up on autopilot.
From my perspective, that was fantastic news. Nurturing long-term party development was always an operational headache, and one of my most nagging latent worries had just vanished into thin air.
Besides, as Ye-in had put it: Today's the day.
In practical terms, she was on the verge of punching her ticket to a B-rank Core. There was zero reason to hold back my support.
"Let's move right now."
Time for the Kim Ho Pillow to clock in.
I scooped up Ye-in and headed out.
"We're sleeping here today."
The destination I brought her to was none other than the academy's Mana Cultivation Room.
Even for an absurdly gifted sloth who cultivated by merely dozing off, her efficiency would inevitably soar in an environment saturated with thick, pure ambient mana. That held especially true when teetering on the precipice of a major breakthrough.
"……."
Ye-in, however, looked thoroughly unimpressed by the accommodations.
The Mana Cultivation Room was engineered strictly for ascetic discipline and rigorous meditation, not leisurely lounging. The chamber was as cramped as a studio cell, the stone floor was rock-hard, and the ventilation maintained a perpetually chilly draft. Aside from the dim, restful lighting, it was practically uninhabitable by sloth standards.
Well, a hostile habitat is nothing a little makeover can't fix.
I set to work remodeling the sterile stone cell with practiced ease. Having already anticipated that she would eventually come calling for the Kim Ho Pillow, I had prepared thoroughly.
Plush bedding pulled straight from the dormitories materialized from my inventory, followed by a compact electric space heater set up neatly in the corner. In a matter of minutes, the frigid, desolate chamber was transformed into a warm, inviting den.
"How's that?"
"…Pass."
Her eyes twinkled with quiet satisfaction.
And I still had my secret weapon left to play.
Rank:A
◈ Mana Circulation Efficiency: +150%
◈ Sleep Efficiency: Massively Increased
An A-rank utility lifestyle item, pulled straight from the Bad Guy Gathering random box courtesy of our household Lucky Charm herself.
As the description made abundantly clear, it was an artifact tailored exclusively for seated meditation and internal mana cycling. Since I needed to nurture my own Core, I couldn't hand it over permanently, but lending it out for a single night was an effortless favor.
"Raise your hands. Reach for the sky."
"Hooray."
Ye-in dutifully hoisted both arms into the air, and I slipped the oversized hoodie over her head.
After a brief flurry of muffled squirming beneath the thick fabric, her face popped out through the hood opening. She immediately gave the collar a curious, delicate sniff.
"…Smells like grass?"
"I've been on a bit of a vegetarian kick lately."
Strictly speaking, the diet consisted entirely of lethal poison herbs, but the fine print was hardly important.
Herbal aroma aside, Ye-in seemed extraordinarily pleased with the garment.
Now arrived the grand finale: deploying the Kim Ho Pillow.
Ye-in grabbed my sleeve, steered me firmly toward the corner, and curled up right beside me. It appeared that tonight was designated for a lap pillow rather than an armrest.
A sudden urge to tease her bubbled up, and I bounced my knee up and down like an idling engine. Ye-in immediately reached out, resting a limp, gentle hand over my kneecap.
"No shaking……"
"Just kidding. Sleep tight."
"Mm……"
Resting her head back against my thighs, she wriggled until she found the sweet spot. Less than five seconds later, her breathing deepened into soft, rhythmic snores.
I looked down at the peaceful face nestled on my lap and couldn't help but marvel.
She can really cultivate mana just by knocking out like this?
The brothers Jeong Chong-myeong and Jung Jin-myung enjoyed a remarkably solid relationship. Sharing similar analytical temperaments, they had plenty of common ground, conversed often, and never hesitated to bounce questions or solicit advice from one another.
Today was no exception.
Striding into the White Magic Club room, Jung Jin-myung cut straight to the chase.
"Hey, Hyung. You know Kim Ho?"
"Of course I do. What about him?"
At Chong-myeong's prompt, Jin-myung laid out the entire sequence of events from the PvP arena.
How Kim Ho had brought up his older brother the exact second their eyes locked.
How that abrupt Ice Wall had severed Jin-myung from Shin Byung-chul, boxing him into a corner where he had no choice but to swallow an offer—or rather, a polite piece of extortion—that he couldn't possibly refuse.
Chong-myeong couldn't help but chuckle behind his desk.
"Tried to score an easy meal and ended up choking on the bone, did you?"
"Come on, that was just rotten luck."
Though he had finished that opening match in second place, he had rallied to seize first in the following round. His tactical compromise hadn't been entirely mistaken.
Chong-myeong conceded that much without needling him further, steering the conversation back to its original track.
"Did Kim Ho say anything about me?"
"Told me to ask you directly."
"My answer's pretty much the same."
Chong-myeong gave a casual shrug. Kim Ho wasn't the kind of individual who could be neatly summarized in a secondhand briefing; you had to experience him in person to properly measure his depth. Honing that brand of insight was an essential skill for any aspiring leader.
Of course, Jin-myung shared his brother's razor-sharp analytical edge. He hadn't barged in here empty-handed; he had already gathered every scrap of intel available before walking through the door.
After a beat of contemplation, Jin-myung voiced his assessment.
"No matter how I slice it, he doesn't belong in that bracket."
The spell Kim Ho had unveiled before him was merely Ice Wall.
It was hardly an advanced tier of magic. Yet that was precisely the problem. Had their foundational strength been anywhere near comparable, Jin-myung should have dismantled that barrier in a few strikes. Instead, it had proven unnervingly resilient.
That meant Kim Ho's underlying caliber was leagues above his own.
"I checked his battle records too. It's practically an unbroken wall of consecutive victories."
Kim Ho's current rating hovered in the mid-800s. But riding an unblemished win streak indicated that his true ceiling sat unimaginably higher than his nominal rank. Until that momentum finally cracked, gauging his ability through arena points was an exercise in futility.
"—That's everything I've pieced together on my own. Can't you toss me at least one insight, Hyung?"
Seeing that his younger brother had already formed a remarkably accurate profile, Chong-myeong figured a tiny nudge wouldn't skew his judgment.
Pushing up his spectacles, Chong-myeong spoke with measured calm.
"To be frank, I can't speak to his raw combat prowess either. He's revealed next to nothing."
During the Temporary Depot infiltration, Kim Ho had never taken center stage, simply tagging along behind the Thief Club crew. Tang Gyu-young had hinted that he played an indispensable linchpin role, but she had stubbornly refused to disclose what that role actually entailed.
"That said, the kid's vessel is massive."
The raid on the Temporary Depot had been packed with heavyweight third-years, and the situation had devolved into chaotic violence in the blink of an eye. Yet through it all, Kim Ho had remained utterly unfazed.
Even after being apprehended by Prefect Leader Oh Se-hoon and dragged into the dreaded Room of Truth, he hadn't displayed a flicker of panic. Instead, he had brazenly provoked Oh Se-hoon into a high-stakes wager—and walked away victorious.
Jin-myung's eyes flared with renewed intrigue.
"……So there really is something lurking beneath the surface. Good thing I didn't push my luck after the match."
"Refusing to react emotionally was the right call. That said, there's no need to walk on eggshells around him either."
"Yeah, I know."
Whether to treat Kim Ho as a rival or cultivate a lucrative partnership was a choice Jin-myung would have to make for himself. Chong-myeong held complete faith that his brother was shrewd enough to navigate that dynamic.
FLASH!
A blinding glare erupted overhead, making Tang Gyu-young wince in irritation.
The brilliant flash stung her vision, but the sheer aggravation of it grated far worse.
Aargh, seriously!
She was currently hemmed in on all sides by iron training dummies. She had deliberately cranked their parameters sky-high, turning them into juggernauts that would pulverize an ordinary lower-year into paste. Even a third-year could easily end up hospitalized if they let their guard down for a split second.
Naturally, that also meant she could dismantle them without breaking a sweat if she fought at full throttle.
KRAAAASH!
Surging from the darkness beneath her feet, massive shadow arms erupted from the floor, wielding an arsenal of blackened armaments. Greatswords, warhammers, and battleaxes forged from concentrated shadows battered the iron constructs, sending them flying in every direction.
Yet like unyielding roly-poly toys, the metal automatons sprang back onto their feet the instant they struck the ground, surging right back into the fray.
Up to that point, the rhythm had been flawless.
Here it comes again.
Gyu-young shot a venomous glare toward the ceiling of the training hall.
More specifically, at the radiant sphere of light hovering serenely above her head.
Right on cue, the orb pulsed violently, detonating with an overpowering flash reminiscent of a camera strobe.
FLASH!
Instantly, the colossal shadow limbs that had rivaled the arms of giants withered down to the proportions of a toddler's forearms. The lethal weapons gripped in their hands shrank into pathetic toys, and several flickering silhouettes dissolved into thin air entirely.
Because of that sudden collapse, the incoming iron dummies barely flinched from the weakened strikes, instantly tightening their encirclement.
Two automatons closed the gap with frightening velocity, driving heavy metal fists straight toward her vitals.
WHOOSH!
Weaving frantically through the incoming blows, Gyu-young couldn't stem the steady stream of complaints bubbling up her throat.
"What kind of glory was I even chasing to take this upon myself?!"
That floating orb had manifested the very moment she accepted the [Penance] quest from Kim Ho.
Every single time she initiated a training regimen, the wretched sphere materialized out of nowhere, hovering relentlessly over her and detonating with blinding flares at unpredictable intervals.
Shadows were fundamentally powerless before overwhelming radiance. The shadow arts Gyu-young practiced were no exception to that natural law.
Whenever the light flared, the reach and volume of her constructs plummeted, their destructive output slashed by more than half. Her smooth, fluid combat flow was violently severed over and over, piling on an excruciating mountain of mental fatigue.
This is disgustingly hard.
She had anticipated an uphill battle, but this truly lived up to the name 'Penance.' There was a very good reason Kim Ho had double- and triple-checked her resolve before handing the trial over.
And the terrifying part? This was merely Stage 1.
What kind of madness awaited in Stages 2 and 3, let alone whatever lay beyond? She couldn't even begin to fathom it. It felt like standing at the foot of a steep foothill, only to gaze up and realize an endless mountain range of dizzying peaks loomed beyond the clouds.
FLASH!
The radiant orb erupted once more.
The shadow techniques she had been preparing to unleash instantly fizzled out, sending her scrambling across the floor to dodge another flurry of iron fists.
Yet despite the relentless whining, there wasn't a trace of defeat in her eyes.
Let's see who breaks first.
Right now, she was barely keeping her head above water, struggling just to endure rather than clearing the trial objectives. But she would conquer this.
She would shatter the immovable wall that had stagnated her growth for so long.
Because I made a promise to Kim Ho.
—Are you confident you won't give up?
—I'll do whatever it takes. I won't quit.
Tang Gyu-young steeled her resolve once more, dredging up every drop of dark mana slumbering within her core.
A tidal wave of shadow limbs erupted from the earth, crashing over the iron dummies like an apocalyptic deluge.
BOOOOOOM—!