Naruan, The Class Changes

The Exorsus southern mercenary quarter.

It was always a bustling place, but as the sun set the crowd swelled like at a celebrity concert.

Was there a concert for Kim Han? No.

Today’s protagonist was the eldest son of the Gu-Baek family, Gu Baek-won, who had an extraordinary tolerance for pain.

His face had already turned a deathly bluish pallor.

Around him stood mages in robes of five different colors.

Above them all was one of the tower masters—her robe embroidered with the tower’s emblem in gold thread.

Those who had angered people early in the “Battlefield of the Gods” by doing something absurd to Kim Han had, ironically, become his slaves and were now treated with far more respect by the citizens of Exorsus than before.

Moreover, their abilities had improved dramatically; by the standards of tower masters they were now over one and a half times stronger than before.

They had gained more recognition and reverence than when they once held the five magic towers.

Had they installed an overwhelmingly powerful barrier, then? No—nothing that spectacular.

It was simply a transparent barrier: those inside and out could see each other clearly, but leaving from the inside required applying a certain amount of force.

So why were even the tower masters present? Over time the Blue tower master left and the Wind tower master took their turn. In other words, the five tower masters took shifts guarding the place.

Gu Baek-won paid no attention to the crowd outside. He focused solely on his private struggle.

A lonely war with his own guts. For hours he had been unable to hold anything back.

Had word spread that he was the first representative to surrender? Or was his surrender simply that unexpected? The area outside the barrier swarmed with continentals.

“Ugh… uuh… eek!! Hey there.”

Unable to hold back, he pleaded with the mage who acted as an enforcer of the Rebound Legion and was about to punish him.

It was a short, frantic plea, but as if a dragon had uncoiled in his belly, Gu Baek-won let out a strangled shriek.

“H-hey there.”

“…Why.”

Lubeit answered bluntly. She was the Wind tower master, a hard woman.

Perhaps mistaking her curt reply for divine judgment, Gu Baek-won—still trembling—stepped toward Lubeit and blurted out desperately.

“S-something, please spare me. I-I—!! …I’ll offer compensation.”

He shrank inward, letting out another scream as if on a roller coaster.

Lubeit watched him and said, “Give me the compensation. I’ll look and then decide.”

Unexpectedly, she accepted words of payment.

Gu Baek-won hurriedly pulled a single 100-gold coin from his magic pouch. The muscles at the corner of his mouth twitched; his expression tried to look confident.

A commoner might have thought it a large sum. If one gold equals 100,000 won, that’s roughly ten million won.

But his opponent was a mage.

Mages were allocators. They grew stronger by consuming money.

To a tower master, a hundred gold was mere pocket change.

Contrary to his hopes, seeing the mage look down at his suffering with indifference, Gu Baek-won, face set, produced another 100-gold coin.

Nine coins—nine hundred gold. Lubeit stared at the pile, stepped into the barrier, and gave it a light kick.

“Use that to buy some fruit shaved ice.”

“P-please… eek!!”

Even if it had been ninety thousand gold, Lubeit wouldn’t have accepted. But nine hundred gold—she was true to her reputation.

As Lubeit continued to regard him, Gu Baek-won grew visibly paler with each coin he pulled from his magic pouch and placed on the ground.

Above all, the way the whites of his eyes showed at times made it look like the pain was something he couldn’t survive unless he became a representative.

Even Lubeit, who had been staring impassively, flinched and stepped back.

As time dragged on, Gu Baek-won turned his pouch inside out as if emptying its contents onto the ground. His hands shook.

“Eek!! Th-then… hey.”

“Hm? Ah, right. We were negotiating.”

Gu Baek-won, who had been desperately calling to Lubeit while she chatted with someone else, felt something snap as she continued speaking.

Just a moment—he had lost focus for an instant, and Gu Baek-won could no longer make any more offers.

Because…

Butatatata— Gurgle—

I’ll omit the details. Just know that the waiting mages and continentals all thrust out their video-recording crystals at once.

At the training ground, I faced Naruan one-on-one for the first time in a while.

Thinking it would be interesting, Talis and Bioss volunteered as spectators, and when they heard, Jimnas rushed over in a single bound.

Naruan, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, seemed to have stats that should’ve made her intimidating… but of course she wasn’t—this tiny thing kept hopping like a child in new shoes, grinning happily.

After bouncing around for a while and finishing her checks, Naruan gripped the True Flame firmly.

“Then can we start?”

Naruan asked with sparkling, eager eyes. I nodded.

At my approval she grinned and kicked the ground.

The True Flame stretched out long like a rubber band. As always, the end of it landed directly in front of me.

I blocked the True Flame’s charge while it spewed roaring flames.

“Don’t just charge straight at me…? Hm?”

The moment Naruan’s True Flame collided with Posik, the flame fizzled absurdly and bounced skyward.

A wave of heat and surging fire made me think she’d launched her usual fierce charge, but that wasn’t it.

Before I could reassess, a sharp strike hit my left flank. I held Posik in my right hand at face height; my left was exposed.

“…Hehe! Huh?!”

Naruan’s childish laugh and the punch she threw were cut off by a surprised sound.

Her attack had come from a direction I hadn’t predicted at all.

If the weapon in my hand hadn’t been Posik—in its paired-sword form—I might have taken that hit.

“…Phew, as expected, chief! Amazing!”

Naruan had already stepped back. Returning with the True Flame in hand, she closed her eyes, inhaled so deeply her small chest rose, exhaled in one go, and opened her eyes.

She didn’t sulk or regret her attack being blocked like before. Her expression was…

“Truly amazing! Even more than that old man! This is so fun! Really… I love it.”

She was enjoying it. No—excited, like someone drunk on passion.

“That old man?”

“Yeah! They said fighting talent comes from constantly thinking and enjoying it. I won’t assume I’ll automatically lose to the chief anymore. So…!!”

Who was she talking about? Some fighting prodigy she’d seen?

As Naruan spoke, a warmth surged at the crown of my head.

[‘Due to the influence of “The Gate,” the protection of the highest-grade fire spirit Saleana activates immediately. Since the spirit was not summoned, the limit is 5 seconds.’]

“Oh?! I-it worked!”

“Wow…”

“Naruan is amazing… Hm? Ki-Kim Han!”

Those who had been praising Naruan shouted when I emerged slowly from the flames.

At first I was flustered, then embarrassed, and I couldn’t shake off the lingering heat.

Though weaker than the representative I met in my previous life who wielded flame, Naruan’s True Flame was still formidable. Their fire carried divine blessing and thus divine power.

A red dragon, perhaps; its fire had divine-level force.

I expelled the chaos that had been swirling within to protect my body, shook off the flames, and felt a sharp, cold pressure at my throat.

It was the familiar bite of a blade. A weapon. It was obvious whose it was without saying.

While Guardian began the analysis, I raised my right hand and flicked the hilt of the True Flame with fingers full of chaos.

Taang—!

“…Ugh!”

The True Flame tried to break free outward.

Naruan groaned from behind as she tried to control the unruly weapon.

But she had clearly changed. After a brief struggle, she let go of the weapon that wanted to break free.

Instead, as if channeling all the resentment she’d been holding, she drew the black-sided sword she’d used before and tried to split me vertically as if to see my spine.

There was enough time to turn away. I wrapped Naruan’s weapon with Posik and tossed it backward.

“Offense is good. You’ve definitely grown. How about defense?”

Naruan had indeed improved. I’d have to ask what happened, but from what I’d seen, it felt like someone else was wearing Naruan’s shell.

As if she’d recovered some lost combat sense.

She coated Posik with divine power and swung fiercely.

Because paired blades trace unpredictable, sinuous paths, Naruan had no choice but to focus on defense—wrist movements alone can draw complex trajectories.

Nice.

If it had been before, she’d have rushed recklessly; now she guarded prudently, watching for opportunity. The sharp light in her large eyes hadn’t dimmed.

Hoping to tempt her, I reduced my offense to show an opening, but she didn’t bite at it easily. Only after several repetitions did she pounce the moment a gap appeared.

Charging while swinging the True Flame, after several blocked attacks, she stabbed the True Flame into the ground, infused it with divine power, pulled it out, and threw it.

“Throw it?”

Flames roared at her feet, and the thing charging at me, spewing fire at head height, was the True Flame itself.

I could have blinked away, but first I wrapped divine power around my body like a shield to block the heat and stopped the flying True Flame with Posik.

In short, I was stopping each attack with raw stats. Something I’d never do in a real fight, but I wanted to see Naruan’s change.

After blocking every strike, I felt hands clamp around my neck from behind and my body was flipped backward. It was a move no biped could resist; it required no strength beyond perfect technique.

With crossed legs hooked around my neck, Naruan smoothly executed the technique and flipped me over.

My vision spun, and as I twisted midair to land I felt weight pressing down. Before I knew it, Naruan had quickly climbed onto my torso.

Kuwung—

The impact of my back hitting the ground. And then a secondary impact followed.

Naruan clenched her tiny fist and, incongruously filled with force for such a cute hand, swung it down while perched on me.

A good move—if the opponent had been anyone else.

Her method was the one I used to use: turn a fight into super-close-quarters brawling with overwhelming strength and stamina.

Against another opponent she might have struggled. Even a pro would find it tough.

Having lived with this fighting style for over twenty years, I easily defended Naruan’s punches and smiled faintly.

I hooked my leg over Naruan’s upper body as she rode my chest swinging her fists, flipped her, and, filled with chaos, delivered a solid punch to her face.

Kuuuuung—!!

The sound of the training ground vibrating spread out.

When the tremor stopped and the dust cleared, Naruan’s bright, innocent laughter rang out.

“Hehe. Smack!”