The moment the principal and vice principal saw me, they ran off toward the castle as if they had lost their minds.
I could only stand there dumbfounded by the sudden, nonsensical event.
"They were saying something about leveling up and certificates... What was that all about?"
But there was something else that concerned me far more.
It was the addition of "Ninja" to the jobs I could choose with "Versatile Job Change."
Ninja was a type of assassin that originated in the eastern countries.
Their techniques, born from rigorous physical training and mental discipline, were known as ninjutsu and inspired fear in others.
There were ninjas at the Royal Pioneer Academy too. Shinobuko from Class 1-2 was one of them.
"Ninja is supposed to be one of the advanced jobs...
Can someone like me, who's jobless, really take it?"
So far, all the jobs available for me to change into had been lower-tier ones.
"For now, I'll head back to the house and check it out."
Since Monaka's house was finished, I left the residential area.
Once I returned to my home in the forest, I immediately tried switching jobs.
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**Leopin**
**Occupation:** Carpenter → Ninja
**Job Skills**
**Shuriken Throw**
Increases the speed, power, and accuracy of thrown handheld weapons.
**Izuna Throw**
A throw technique performed after restraining the target from behind.
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"When it comes to ninja, it's all about shuriken, right?"
I took some leftover "Gisu wood," carved it with a knife, and made shuriken based on what I had seen in pictures.
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**Gisu Shuriken**
**Quantity:** 30
**Quality Level:** 18 (Material Level 9 + Dexterity Bonus 9)
Handheld throwing weapons made from high-quality Gisu wood.
Thanks to various bonuses, they excel in power, accuracy, and throwing distance.
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I decided to enjoy the ninja vibe right away with my homemade shuriken.
I took aim at a tree branch about ten meters away and threw one of the star-shaped wooden projectiles.
...Shup!
A leaf fluttered down neatly.
"Oh, it's got more power than I expected. All right, next I'll aim for a leaf even farther away."
I felt like a kid again as I hurled shuriken one after another.
All fifteen I threw hit their marks perfectly.
"When I threw those arrows back before, having the Focus stat really does make them fly exactly where I want."
While I was impressed with myself, I heard the rustling of bushes being pushed aside behind me.
When I turned around, a group of male students wearing magician robes was approaching my house.
"Can I help you with something?"
The boy in the lead spoke to me in a overly familiar tone.
"Hey there, you're Leopin-kun, right? I thought I'd specially give you some fire."
The students behind him immediately protested.
"Hey, Nasuo-kun, what do you mean!?"
"We followed you because you said you'd give us fire, but you're giving it to a dropout like Leopin first!?"
The boy called Nasuo calmed them down with a "Now, now."
"Don't get so worked up. I'll make sure everyone gets fire too."
In survival situations, "fire" was considered the next most important thing after drinking water.
Judging by his appearance, Nasuo was a magician, so he had probably succeeded in starting a fire with the basic spell "Ignition."
He seemed to be using that power to draw attention from the other students.
Nasuo turned back to me and showed off the "Ignition" spell with exaggerated flair.
After failing a few times, he finally set the wooden branch in his hand ablaze.
Then he waved the burning branch as if to say, "Want it?"
"If you want it, get down on your knees and say 'Please, great magician Nasuo-sama, bestow your fire upon me!'"
"Why did you come all the way here just to act like this? I can start a fire myself, so I don't need it."
Starting a fire was easy enough with the Ranger skill "Survival Techniques."
When I turned him down, Nasuo's face twisted into obvious displeasure.
It seemed he hadn't gotten the reaction he expected.
"Come on, don't act so tough! Here, I'll give it to you!"
With that, he tossed the blazing branch through the window of my house.
Then he burst into loud laughter all by himself.
"Ahahaha! Everyone! This house is about to burn down, so feel free to take the fire with you!"
His entourage laughed along with him.
"I get it now!"
"That garbage knocked over our houses and pretended nothing happened, so this is payback!"
"As expected of Nasuo-kun! That's why they call him the future great magician!"
I hadn't done anything, but the students banded together and blocked me from entering the house.
"Whoa there, Leopin-kun! You won't get away with rushing inside to put it out!"
"Exactly. It's your fault for knocking over our houses!"
"Just stand there crying while you watch your own house burn!
Feel even a tenth of the sadness we felt!"
However, the house showed no signs of catching fire no matter how long they waited.
One of the students peering through the window let out a pained cry.
"Eh!? Why!? The fire went out!?"
"No way!? How!? There's not even a single scorch mark on the floor...!?"
"That's impossible!? How could the fire I started lose to a garbage guy's house!?"
"You guys really only ever think about dragging other people down, huh.
My house has Fire Resistance, so it won't burn easily.
And if you want fire that badly, I'll give you some."
While feeling thoroughly exasperated, I picked up a fallen wooden branch and some vine-like plants from the ground.
I wrapped the vines around the branch and stood it upright on a stump that would serve as the base.
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**Hiroeda Fire-Starting Stand**
**Quantity:** 1
**Quality Level:** 10 (Material Level 1 + Dexterity Bonus 9)
A fire-starting stand made by combining Hiroeda branches, a stump, and Twining Vine tendrils.
Though simple in construction, various bonuses make it easy to start a fire.
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All that was left was to hold both ends of the vine and pull them back and forth alternately...
...Whoosh!
The branch spun at high speed, and embers appeared in no time.
I touched them to the dry leaves I had prepared in advance and built a proper campfire.
The surrounding students stared in stunned silence, as if they had just witnessed a magic trick.
"Eh!? Wh-what was that...!?"
"He made fire in an instant!? Wait, was he a magician all along!?"
"No, there was no chant, so that wasn't magic!"
Once they came back to their senses, their attitudes suddenly became much more humble.
"Hey... Leopin-kun. Could you share a bit of that fire with us?"
"Yeah, it's almost lunchtime. We need to bring fire back to our class to prepare meals."
"Nasuo only kept teasing us and never gave us any... But you're different, right?"
I looked over the noisy group through the roaring flames and said,
"Yeah, I'm completely different from you guys."
...Shup!
I threw shuriken in every direction.
The shuriken that cut through the campfire turned into flaming scattershots and embedded themselves in the hems of the students' robes.
"Whoa!? What are you doing!? It's burning!? It's buuuurning!!!"
They tried to pat the flames out immediately, but one of them shouted,
"Wait! Don't put out the precious fire!
If we transfer it to a wooden branch before it goes out, we can take it back!"
"That's right! Then we'll be heroes!
Ouch, hot!? Hang in there! Hang in thereeee!"
The budding magicians were hopping around like they were standing on a burning iron plate with bare feet.
They grabbed some of the "Gisu wood" that was stacked near my house without permission and tried to transfer the flames to it.
"No, that wood has fire resistance, so no matter how hard you try..."
But no one was listening.
Right in front of me, a scene resembling self-immolation was unfolding.
They wrestled with the flames while screaming, on the verge of becoming human torches.
After a while, when the fire finally burned out, their robes had been shortened to the length of ultra-mini skirts.
They didn't have any burns, but they had failed to obtain any fire and collapsed in tears.
"Ugh... uuu... We were going to burn down the garbage's house and become heroes..."
"I can't believe... I can't believe our robes got burned..."
"Waaaaah! Mooooom!!!"