Solo Leveling: Eternal Sleep Disease (Eternal Slumber) Explained!

Solo Leveling is a South Korean novel series that has recently seen an anime adaptation. Arguably the most popular manhwa in the world, Solo Leveling is sure to attract a lot of attention, especially in light of the fact that the anime adaptation is truly great. While we’re enjoying the episodes, we have decided to cover the series as we usually do, and this article is going to be about an important part of the series’ lore – the Eternal Slumber, also known as the Eternal Sleep Disease. We are going to tell you what you need to know about this illness, as well as how and why it is so closely related to Sung Jinwoo.

Eternal Slumber is a dangerous and fatal disease

The world of Solo Leveling is full of interesting concepts. The lore is quite intriguing and there are numerous things we could talk about. In fact, we at Fiction Horizon have been covering the series for a while now, and we have, indeed, covered many aspects already. This article is going to explain yet another new concept – the disease known as Eternal Slumber or Eternal Sleep Disease, in the anime series. So, what is it?

Well, Eternal Slumber is a supernatural disease that appeared alongside the gates, i.e., when the humans were exposed to mana and Magical Beasts. Namely, Mana was not something that was really part of the human condition before the appearance of the Gates, and when it appeared, the people were exposed to something completely new. And while most people could tolerate Mana, there was a certain amount of people (the disease is relatively rare) who could not tolerate Mana at all and if they were exposed to it for a prolonged period of time, they would catch Eternal Slumber.

The exact mechanism of the disease is unknown, although scientists do know what causes it and how it manifests. But they do not know why exactly it happens, which means that they are unable to come up with a cure. The disease is, thus, incurable at the moment, and the only thing they can do is support the patients. Namely, the first stage of the illness consists of a sleep phase – after their limit is reached, the person falls asleep immediately, regardless of where they are. After that, since they’re not waking up, they fall into an ever deeper state and eventually into a coma, which also drains their life energy away. Since the disease drains the organism, the patient has to be kept on life support, but not just any regular life support. They have to be connected to a special device powered by an Essence Stone.

This is the only was to keep them from not dying. But, these devices are expensive, and many people have died because their families were unable to finance the treatment. The only known way to heal it is via the Holy Water of Life, which is a very rare and powerful item that can be found in Dungeons.

How did Jinwoo’s mom get it? Will she be cured?

So far, we know that Sung Jinwoo’s and Sung Jinah’s mother, Park Kyung-Hye, fell ill with the disease because she was exposed to the mana that Sung Jinwoo was radiating. She could not tolerate Mana, so she fell ill with the disease, and her two children had to pay for her hospital bills. Sung Jinwoo cannot be blamed for what happened, but it is he that caused it, actually.

But, if you want to know what happens to her, we can confirm that Park Kyung-Hye will, indeed, be healed later in the series. In fact, she is only one of two people in the whole series who were healed of this disease thanks to the above-mentioned Holy Water of Life. Of course, we won’t be spoiling everything here, but you now have an outline of what is going to happen.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!