PRSR | Chapter 7.1

The next morning, I woke up to find myself pinned down under Rio-turned-Jjikjjiki. By now, this kind of situation didn’t faze me anymore. It was just… heavy.

“ Jjikjji, wake up.”

“……”

“Move your arm.”

“……”

“ Jjikjji.”

“……”

“Kang Jjikjji!”

The more I called his name, the tighter his arms wrapped around me. I bet he’d later claim this was some unconscious act while asleep. But what’s the point of pretending to sleep with his eyes closed when the corners of his mouth are twitching?

“If you don’t get up now, we’re booking two separate rooms and sleeping apart from now on.”

“Ah, such a good night’s sleep,” he said, suddenly springing awake as if he had just stirred from a deep slumber. Then, without warning, he leaned in close.

“Morning kiss.”

“Nope.”

I knew this was coming.

I quickly shielded my face with the pillow I had been holding. His head landed with a muffled thump onto the pillow.

“Get yourself back to your original form. For now, you’ll live as a rat. While we’re around other people, you can’t transform into a human. Got it?”

“I mean, I get to kiss Soul, curl up in Soul’s pocket, and even have Soul pet me. But don’t you want me to act like a human?”

“ Shin Youngho …”

“Who’s that? I don’t know anyone by that name.”

Yeah, sure. Like that expression doesn’t scream liar.

“Yesterday, the Awakened we met mistook me for someone with a taming skill. I can’t let them know I’m a non-Awakened.”

“So you’re hiding your identity from everyone else.”

“Basically.”

“Then I’m the only one who knows your secret.”

“The Manager knows too.”

“My own little secret about Soul. I like it.”

“I said the Manager knows.”

I was starting to worry. How could Jjikjji, who turned human in his sleep without realizing, possibly keep his secret safe? I could already imagine it—Jjikjji turning human in the middle of the night while we’re camping, stuffing himself awkwardly into a sleeping bag.

“……”

This could be bad. Really bad.

Guess we’ll have to avoid camping altogether. Even if it’s inconvenient, insisting on separate rooms every time should work… right?

As I mulled it over, Jjikjji sneakily moved the pillow aside and clung to me. Caught off guard, I almost started petting him before I snapped out of it and shoved his arms away.

“Seriously, change back into a rat. I need to get ready and head out.”

“You’re washing up?”

“Just washing my face. Don’t give me that look.”

I finished getting ready in record time and headed to the Brown Merchant Caravan with Jjikjji. It hadn’t even been 24 hours since we rescued Shin Youngho’s group, but the Brown Caravan had already gathered all the necessary intel and was waiting for us. Sure, the coin pouch probably sped things along, but the caravan leader’s hatred for slave traders likely played a big part too.

“Their group is headed to a port city.”

“A port city?”

“Yes. They’re planning to move the outsiders to another country by ship. Once they cross the sea, we’ll have no way to track them. If we want to rescue them safely, we must act before the ship departs.”

“What if someone’s already been taken to another country?”

“We’ve investigated every ship that left the port city in the past month. None were suspected of carrying outsiders. They likely delayed departure to save on the high costs of running a ship.”

Time was tight. If the carriage carrying Shin Youngho and his companions didn’t arrive on schedule, the kidnappers would realize something was wrong. As soon as they found out the carriage had been ambushed, they’d set sail and escape.

If that happened, rescuing the Awakened would become impossible. And Jjikjji’s quest would fail. My goal of returning to Earth? Also failed. Everything would fail.

We have to move now.

To reach the port city before they suspected anything, we had to leave Trine immediately.

“Thank you so much. We’ll prepare to leave right away and head to the port city….”

“One moment, Soul-nim. This way.”

Seeing my impatience, one of the Brown Caravan’s staff guided me to the back door of their headquarters. There, a carriage, a coachman, and the supplies needed for the journey were ready and waiting.

“We anticipated your immediate departure and prepared everything in advance. Usually, a journey to the port city requires at least ten mercenaries to fend off monster attacks, but….”

The staff member glanced at me. Their expression clearly said, You don’t need that kind of help. You could handle it all on your own.

After spending the past few days skinning every monster around Trine Village and selling their hides to the caravan, I seemed to have earned a bit of a reputation.

“Since Soul-nim is so strong, traveling without an escort will be much faster.”

They explained that we could arrive at the port city well before the kidnappers’ carriage if we left immediately and skipped the usual entourage of mercenaries.

“You may depart whenever you’re ready. Once you arrive at the port city, our people will guide you further.”

“We’re leaving now.”

And so, we left Trine right away, taking Shin Youngho and the other two Awakened with us.

The first day of the journey went smoothly—well, except for one thing. We couldn’t avoid camping.

“Should we decide the watch order? If it’s okay, I’d like to take the last shift.”

“We’ll take the watch shifts. Soul-ssi, please rest.”

“I can’t let that happen when we’re traveling together. I’ll take my turn too.”

“This isn’t a suggestion for your sake, Soul-ssi. To be honest, among all of us, you’re the strongest. If monsters appear during our travels, you’ll end up the most exhausted. You should get as much rest as you can at night.”

No matter how much I insisted on taking a watch shift, Shin Youngho and the other Awakened were practically shoving me into my sleeping bag.

What do I do?

My plan had been to take the last watch, so I could turn Jjikjjiki back into a rat before anyone woke up. But that plan was already unraveling. I couldn’t just tell Jjikjjiki not to sleep and to stay awake all night, could I?

I fretted until it was time to set up camp and crawl into my sleeping bag. I was too anxious to sleep, worried about when the rat in my arms might transform into Rio.

Should I leave Jjikjjiki outside the sleeping bag after all? Or maybe tell him to sleep a little farther away? What do I do, seriously?

In the end, I stayed up all night, eyes wide open. And then…

Even by morning, Jjikjjiki didn’t transform into a human.

“……”

You little punk. So it wasn’t that you couldn’t control it—it’s that you didn’t bother to.

“Jjik!”

When I tapped him lightly on the nose, Jjikjjiki startled awake, blinking and glancing around. When our eyes met, he gave me a big grin.

“Morning-jjik.”

A rat that doesn’t even know the alphabet talking about morning? Really?

We’ll talk later when there’s no one else around.

Mouthing the words silently, I moved my lips without making a sound. Jjikjjiki tilted his head in confusion.

“Did you say you love me-jjik?”

Ignoring his nonsense, the journey to the port city continued.

Occasionally, groups of monsters appeared. Every time, Jjikjjiki would dart forward without being told and take care of the situation.

“Wow. Jjikjjiki is really strong. That must be so reassuring.”

“ Jjikjjiki, come here. Want an apple?”

Shin Youngho and the Awakened tried to win over Jjikjjiki with compliments and snacks. Unsurprisingly, Jjikjjiki didn’t even glance in their direction.

“To be able to command such a strong monster… Isn’t there a significant penalty?”

“Since Jjikjjiki is so strong, my personal stats are on the lower side. It’s just low enough not to raise suspicion even if I were a non-Awakened.”

“That’s quite a critical weakness. It’s probably best to keep that under wraps.”

Thanks to Shin Youngho coming up with an excuse for me, no one thought it suspicious when I got tired easily or struggled along the way. If it had been an ordinary Awakened, they might have found it annoying for someone to huff and puff on such a simple path. But these people seemed genuinely concerned for me. Maybe it was gratitude for saving them from being kidnapped. Or perhaps they were trying to build a connection with me.

“Are you low on stamina because you started with fewer base stats? Or is it because you invested too much into magic and neglected the other stats?”

“…Excuse me?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. That was a rude question. I was just amazed by how you can command such a strong monster without any restrictions.”

But his apology barely registered in my head, which was now swirling with thoughts.

Base stats?

If he meant base stats… Was he talking about the ones you start with before leveling up?

“Do people all start with different base stats?”

“You didn’t know? Well, I guess not. I only learned about it while helping other Awakened distribute their stats in the Beginner Village. From what I found, the average base stat is around 5.”

“…What?”

I stopped walking, utterly shocked, and Shin Youngho looked at me with a pitying expression. He must have assumed my base stats were far below average and misunderstood why I was reacting like this.

But that wasn’t it. Not at all.

It was the opposite.

Jjikjjiki’s base stat was 10.

I needed to calm down.

Even though it was twice the average, the difference was just 5. That could easily be made up with two level-ups. Jjikjjiki might be a bit stronger than others, but I couldn’t let myself fall into the trap of thinking he was special. Letting my guard down could lead to disaster.

“If you didn’t know about differences in base stats, I assume you’re also unaware of talent stats?”

“Talent stats?”

“Yes. If it’s not too forward, may I ask what your talent stat is, Soul-ssi?”

“Eighte… Uh, eight. Yeah, eight.”

“Pardon?”

“My talent stat is 18.”

Jjikjjiki’s talent stat was 80. Even without knowing the average for other Awakened, I could tell that was an absurdly high number.

Trying to downplay my abilities, I couldn’t just blurt out a stat like 80—it would raise too many questions. But wasn’t 18 a bit too low? I should have said 40, or at least 30….

“18, huh. That’s not bad.”

…Not bad?

“The average talent stat among the Awakened I’ve met is 20. While 18 is slightly below average, it’s not terrible. Though, to be fair, most of the people I met were those who struggled with the tutorial quests. The actual average might be higher. Among the frontrunners in the quests, there are probably those with much higher talent stats.”

“What would you consider a significantly high talent stat?”

“Hmm, maybe 30 or 40?”

A talent stat of 40 was considered incredibly high? That was only half of Jjikjjiki’s.

80 is… even more incredible than I thought.

The sheer shock made my jaw drop.