The Support Ate it All-Chapter 337: Hardship Sloth

The next morning.

I had already woken up and was keeping track of the time.

It’s about to hit 9 hours.

Counting in her nap, it was nearly there.

If she exceeded 9 hours, there would no doubt be some kind of penalty.

The chances were high that she wouldn’t wake up even if I tried, but I decided to give it a shot anyway.

I gently shook Seo Ye-in’s shoulder.

“You lazy sloth, the morning has arrived.”

“Not lazy…”

“Come on, little sloth, time to get up.”

“One more hour…”

She clung tightly to my waist, demanding an entire hour’s extension.

Lately, she had developed a habit of hugging me while sleeping. And for a very simple reason.

To keep from drifting away.

She had learned that losing contact with the Kim Ho Pillow meant losing sleep, so she’d installed a kind of safety mechanism.

Just like a sloth clinging stubbornly to a tree even through a typhoon.

I’d love to let her sleep longer if I could…

Unfortunately, we were in the middle of a hardship quest.

So I kept talking to her.

“Wouldn’t waking up now be the wiser choice?”

“Humans… are foolish…”

“You’re not wrong. Still, get up, foolish sloth.”

“Not… foolish…”

“You’re just saying whatever now, huh?”

After some more back and forth, Seo Ye-in’s total sleep time finally exceeded 9 hours.

And a notification message popped up in midair.

▷ Objective 1: Achieve close combat proficiency (12/100%)

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▷ Objective 1: Achieve close combat proficiency (11/100%)

“It actually dropped…”

I had a bad feeling about this. Sure enough, it was messing with her proficiency.

I poked Seo Ye-in’s cheek a few times.

“Miss Seo, we’ve got a problem. Wake up.”

“What is it…”

▷ Close Combat Proficiency (10/100%)

▷ Close Combat Proficiency (9/100%)

“It keeps dropping. This is a total crisis.”

“Crisis… is opportunity…”

Even so, Seo Ye-in only muttered words of wisdom like some great sage and showed no signs of getting up.

▷ Close Combat Proficiency (7/100%)

If there was a silver lining to this misfortune, it was that after a 5% drop, the proficiency didn’t decrease any further.

Considering she had trained all day yesterday just to reach 12%, even 5% was a painful loss.

“Still, I guess we came out ahead overall.”

At least I could let her sleep a bit longer, and we could always grind the proficiency back up.

If we kept making slow progress, wouldn’t we eventually clear the quest?

However…

True to its name, the hardship quest was brutal.

The drop in proficiency had only been the beginning.

Soon, the temperature in the room began to plummet.

At first, the air conditioner had simply kept the summer heat in check. But now, it felt like we had stepped into a freezer.

Crack crackle

I heard a freezing sound from somewhere, and when I turned my gaze, the water bottles on the table had turned into solid blocks of ice.

“How cold did it get in here?”

At that point, it seemed even Seo Ye-in had been jolted out of her sleep.

She gave a light shiver, half-opened her eyes, and looked up at me.

“Was it you…?”

“It wasn’t me.”

I made that clear immediately to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings.

The only thing I was guilty of… was trying my best to wake her up.

Then, Seo Ye-in looked around as if trying to find the culprit and realized that the room had practically frozen over.

The bed, the snacks, even the tiger plushie.

And only then did she check the notification message.

▷ Close Combat Proficiency (7/100%)

Her gray eyes widened slightly.

“……?”

“It’s been chipping away little by little.”

“I was scammed……”

Seo Ye-in had started her day in the worst possible way.

***

After a quick and simple breakfast,

As usual, we headed to the training room together.

Even on the way there, Seo Ye-in kept nodding off several times, but each time, the temperature around her would suddenly drop, waking her right back up.

Since she hated the cold so much, it was an effective method. But the side effects were just as intense.

By the time we arrived, she looked even more drained.

So much so that the Dragon King asked the moment he saw her.

“Niece, you seem to be in a bad mood today.”

“Godfather……”

“What’s wrong?”

Seo Ye-in shared her quest window as she spoke.

“Cancel it for me……”

“Was it that quest the young monarch gave you?”

“Mhmm……”

The Underworld Dragon King narrowed his eyes as he stared at the quest window for a while.

Then he slowly shook his head.

“There’s an extremely powerful binding force at work. Even I can’t do anything about this. The chairman won’t be able to help you either, so don’t bother pestering him.”

“No way……”

“You should’ve been more careful before accepting it.”

“I was scammed.”

Seo Ye-in once again brought up the unfair contract.

The Underworld Dragon King glanced at me briefly before continuing.

“Humans are creatures who deceive and get deceived in an endless cycle. In any case, there’s no other option right now. You’ll just have to finish it as soon as possible.”

“Mhmm……”

“Still, if you push through, your skills will improve quite a bit. Hang in there, niece. You’ll hear good news soon.”

With that, the Underworld Dragon King finished his conversation with Seo Ye-in and opened a teleportation portal for my training in [Time Sharing].

After I quickly whipped up a few clocks, he immediately left for his workshop.

What followed was close-combat sparring, just like yesterday.

Seo Ye-in fired her dual pistols wildly while I dodged this way and that before landing hits with my toy hammer.

Boing!Boing boing!

“……”

With every hit, Seo Ye-in’s enthusiasm visibly drained.

It was practically gone from the start, and now it had broken through the floor and was busy digging a basement.

Eventually, Seo Ye-in let her dual pistols hang limply at her sides.

“……”

“Want to take a break?”

“I want to go home……”

Seo Ye-in started to shuffle away.

Wondering if she’d forgotten, I reminded her of one important fact.

“If you really want to leave, go ahead, but you won’t be able to sleep.”

Wherever she goes, the moment she closes her eyes, the surroundings will freeze over. So even if she rests, it’ll have to be with her eyes open.

Whether that really counts as resting is debatable.

Seo Ye-in came to a sudden halt.

“A dilemma…”

“Big words, huh. Anyway.”

“……?”

“Let’s just push through for a few more days and wrap this up. The longer it drags on, the harder it gets.”

On the first day, there had been a fair amount of trial and error, so the proficiency only reached 12%.

Starting from the second day, when things were supposed to really get going, it would have been normal to see a bigger increase. But at this pace, it seemed likely it wouldn’t even reach 10%.

If she kept losing progress from sleeping over nine hours, then only barely gaining 10% again, and repeating that cycle, there was no telling when she’d ever fill the proficiency bar.

In that case, wouldn’t it be better to give it her all each day, build up proficiency steadily, and just finish everything in a matter of days?

Of course, Seo Ye-in probably knew that in her head.

Her body was just out of control and sluggish, that’s all.

Times like this were when I also needed to act energetically.

“Alright, repeat after me. You can do it!”

“…Let’s finish this.”

Seo Ye-in gripped her dual pistols once again.

***

▷ Close Combat Proficiency (28/100%)

Knew it. Just had to push through.

Even though I made her do it half by force, she still gained 21%.

Once again, I was struck by Seo Ye-in’s incredible talent.

But still, since it had been half-forced, the result was that Seo Ye-in had ended up in a state where she couldn’t even lift a finger.

Even now, she was sprawled out carelessly on the training room floor.

I walked over and casually asked,

“What’s your battery at?”

“Things like that… don’t exist…”

Her battery hadn’t just drained. It had completely shorted out.

I continued speaking in a gentle tone.

“Looks like you can sleep now.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. But let’s go lie down inside.”

At that, Seo Ye-in who was still lying flat slowly raised just her hand.

I helped her up, but she kept her hand stretched out toward me.

“What are you trying to say with this gesture?”

“Carry me.”

“Haah… alright, let’s do that.”

She really was a handful.

I carried Seo Ye-in on my back and moved toward the room.

On the way there, she fell asleep.

***

The next morning.

Once again, she was on track to clock nine full hours of sleep.

Soon, just like the day before, her proficiency would drop, and the room would freeze over like a walk-in freezer.

Whenever Seo Ye-in got stressed over her proficiency, it left not only me but also Ahn Jeong-mi feeling heavy-hearted.

We’d been watching her give it her all, so we could empathize all the more with how it must feel to see some of that effort go to waste.

There was another thing to worry about.

There’s no guarantee it’ll only drop by 5% today.

It could go down by 8%, maybe even 10%, or it might reset completely.

After much deliberation, I made up my mind.

Let’s be the bad guy for just a few days.

That seemed far better than letting her get stressed over her proficiency.

Later on, I’d just take the hit. Whether it was a pot or a frying pan.

And with that, I cast Chillwind on Seo Ye-in.

I adjusted the output to keep it moderate.

Whoooosh—

As the sudden cold wind blew through the room, Seo Ye-in shivered slightly and slowly opened her eyes.

The very first thing she checked was her proficiency.

So she had been worried about it after all.

She must’ve expected it to have dropped, just like the day before.

▷ Close Combat Proficiency (28/100%)

Her proficiency hadn’t dropped a bit from 28%.

Seo Ye-in tilted her head in confusion, then glanced around the room.

Far from frozen, everything was perfectly fine.

“……?”

Finally, she looked at me.

As if to ask, “What’s going on?”

I kept a perfect poker face and answered,

“Beats me. Maybe you woke up earlier than usual today?”

“……Can I go back to sleep?”

“If you do, it really will drop.”

“Sorrow…”

I headed to the training room with the sad little sloth in tow, and we carried on with the day’s training.

▷ Close Combat Proficiency (45/100%)

▷ Close Combat Proficiency (59/100%)

The next day, and the day after that, I woke her up with Chillwind every time she hit the 9-hour mark, successfully avoiding any decrease in her proficiency.

The only issue was that the rate of improvement had started to decline.

On Day 2, it rose by 21%. On Day 3, by 17%. And on Day 4, by just 14%.

The effect’s starting to wear off.

What a three-day-resolution sloth.

Wondering what kind of sweet talk I’d have to try next, I took Seo Ye-in to the training room once again today.

As usual, the Underworld Dragon had arrived first and was already waiting for us, but today, he brought some welcome news.

“Niece, I’ve been waiting a long time.”

“……?”

A pot floated out of subspace soon after.

A familiar shape. It was dented twice in the same way as my head.

It used to be made of tin, but now it had been replaced with a far sturdier metal.

For some reason, a hole had been drilled into the handle, and a string had been threaded through it.

When Seo Ye-in realized what it was, a rare glow of happiness appeared on her face.

“Godfather, you’re the best……”

“I went through a lot making it. Your father did too, so make sure to thank him later.”

“Okay.”

Seo Ye-in held the pot close to her chest like it was a treasure and was lost in the moment.

Then she started inspecting it from all angles, before flipping it over and putting it on her head.

She pulled the string down to her chin and tied it to secure it.

So they made it double as a helmet.

Was she planning to wear it around and swing it when things got rough?

I was also curious about its performance.

“Let me see it.”

“Here.”

Seo Ye-in willingly shared the item description.

The more I read, the more speechless I became.

What the hell did they do to the pot?

[Immortal Kim Ho Kim Ho Pot (S)]