The First Class Change (2)

'But what kind of illness could it be?'

A small curiosity stirred in me. A disease that modern medicine had yet to identify. And yet one that could supposedly be resolved with a Cleric's Heal and Bless — a cure far simpler than anyone expected.

'A curse? A demon?'

Then, out of nowhere, concepts that had actually existed in my past life came to mind.

'No. It's not the curse of a demon or an evil spirit.'

But I quickly shook my head. If it were a curse, there was no way I wouldn't know about it.

'After all, this Earth has only just become a world where Mother has taken root. Curses and evil spirits simply don't exist here yet.'

Demons, evil spirits, curses — the concepts exist on Earth too, but here they were nothing more than occult superstition.

'Someone might ask: if divine power has descended, why wouldn't demons and curses exist as well?'

'For mana or demons to appear here like they did in Icadia, it would take at least another few hundred years.'

I was this certain for a reason. That was simply the order in which powers awakened.

'Even in death, there is hierarchy. Divine power comes first; mana and magic follow.'

That is the providence governing all dimensions.

In any case, I focused on the healing. With all my sincerity, I poured divine power into Yumi's body and mind.

"Ahhhh!! All things unfold according to Providence!"

Old Man Heo wept openly as he cried out in awe. Having become a devout believer, he could see not only the faint halo above my head but also the divine power radiating from my hands.

At this point, it looked less like the prayer of a devout believer and more like that of a fanatic.

"..."

Behind the old man stood Heo Yuna, unfamiliar with this version of her grandfather, watching with a frightened expression.

'She's ready to call the cops if things go sideways.'

A smartphone was clenched tightly in Heo Yuna's hand. Reading her emotions just a little, I found them brimming with disbelief and confusion. There was a glimmer of hope as well, but not much of it.

'About an hour should do it, I think.'

That seemed like enough time for the healing performance.

'My current maximum Divine Power is 200, so burning 160 in one go would be a heavy strain.'

It was a performance, yes, but there were physical limits to consider too — which made this pacing a reasonable piece of staging.

'Hoo...'

And so the healing show continued for roughly an hour.

Drip... drip... drip.

Beads of sweat rolling down my forehead. A desperate expression. Legs and arms trembling finely from exhaustion.

It was perfect.

"Uuugh..."

The effect made its dramatic appearance as well. Heo Yumi's sleeping eyes slowly fluttered open.

"Umm... who are you?"

The moment Yumi opened her eyes and saw me, she asked with curious eyes. Even with a sweat-drenched man stretching both hands toward her right in front of her, Yumi showed no alarm.

'A child's instinct.'

She instinctively knew the divine power that had healed her — and who it was that had wielded it.

"Wow... it's shining."

She had become a devout believer from the very start, able to see my faint halo and the divine power surrounding me.

"Ahhhh! Yumi!"

"!!!!"

The moment Yumi woke, Old Man Heo and Heo Yuna behind her both reacted. In the old man's emotions — a joyful cry of relief. In Heo Yuna's — shock and utter astonishment.

"...? Grandpa? Unnie?"

"How's your body? How do you feel, Yumi?"

"I feel great, Grandpa! So, so good! And I'm starving!"

Yumi's complexion upon waking was the best it had been in years. She looked comfortable, alive with vigor — nothing like the exhausted girl who had always been drowning in fatigue and drowsiness even while awake.

"Mother of All Things, thank you! Lord Seop! Thank you so much!"

"I-I'll order delivery food right away!"

Old Man Heo poured out his heartfelt gratitude to me and to Her. Heo Yuna scrambled to open a delivery app, fussing over everyone in a fluster.

"She's fully cured. We were lucky."

To the two of them, I offered a tired but happy smile.

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Sob... hic!"

The moment the definitive answer left my mouth, Old Man Heo and Heo Yuna wept tears of joy.

"Thank you... truly, thank you. From now on, I will do anything, anything for the Providence Church, Lord Seop."

The healing and the performance were over — which meant it was time to settle the accounts.

Just as expected, the status window changed right on cue.

'Two? Two fanatics?'

Something felt off. There were supposed to be one fanatic — not two.

'What is this?'

Puzzled, I turned my gaze and scanned my surroundings.

'No way...?!'

Then I felt it up close — a genuine emotion burning fast and fierce.

'Heo Yuna is a fanatic?'

There she was, staring at me with blindly blazing eyes. Just as Heo Yumi had become a devout believer from the moment she opened her eyes, Heo Yuna ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— who had been nothing more than a regular believer — had skipped the devout stage entirely and leapt straight to fanatic in a single bound.

The sensibilities of a teenage girl are this vulnerable to religion.

After healing Heo Yumi, I headed straight home, pleading fatigue. Old Man Heo tried every way he could to get a meal into me, and Heo Yuna still had the delivery app open, but I politely declined both. I figured the family deserved some time alone with Yumi to patch things up first. If I wedged myself into the middle of a family reunion, it would only make things awkward.

Back in my shabby, cramped one-room apartment, I set aside my weary body and mind and pondered the class change.

'If South Korea were at war like Ukraine, I'd be torn between Chaplain and Monk. But Korea is at peace right now, so those two are out.'

The Chaplain is a combat-field priest; the Monk is a battle priest. Both are fine classes, but in the current environment, they were useless.

'That leaves Priest and Pardner...'

The Priest is an upgraded version of the Cleric — stronger blessings, stronger healing, and the ability to perform baptisms. The Pardner, meanwhile, is a production class devoted to crafting holy relics.

'Priest is the orthodox choice, but Pardner is awfully tempting...'

I agonized over the two for quite a while. South Korea ran on capitalism, and in that system, money wielded tremendous power. And no class earned money quite like the Pardner.

'But a Priest can make holy water, at least. And above all, a Priest can perform baptisms...'

After a long deliberation, I ultimately chose Priest. The Pardner's relic crafting tempted me, but in the long run, I judged Priest to be the better path.

The deliberation was long, but the decision was resolute.

Fwoooosh.

I could feel my maximum Divine Power increasing by leaps and bounds. Even alone in my room, the light bursting from my body was plain to see.

In the order of my past life, a saying had circulated often: a priest's true life begins only after Cleric. And sure enough, the moment I changed classes to Priest, even my status window transformed magnificently.

'Class Switch??'

Among all of it, what caught my eye above all was a certain common skill — the one that gobbled up the most Divine Power.

It was so unlike my past life, where once you chose a class, you could never change it again.

'So THIS is the reincarnation bonus?!'

For one day, I could hold any B-rank class I wanted. The cooldown was a bit long, admittedly, but something was still infinitely better than nothing.

'One day a month, I'll switch to Pardner and mass-produce holy relics. That'll be a huge boost to the church's finances.'

Our Providence Church is different from the run-of-the-mill cults. Cult — the word literally means a fake that pretends to be real. Systematically draining a believer's wealth and body through every form of gaslighting is the very definition of a cult. In that sense, we are the polar opposite. We will take money and labor from our believers, but through divine power, we will always pay them fair value in return.

The problem is that getting this machine up and running requires an enormous amount of money up front.

'Of course, right now, earning money with the Priest's Heal skill is far more efficient than a Pardner's relics.'

The Priest's Heal (B) could treat not only severe injuries and illnesses but even mild disabilities. And that wasn't all — Mind Healing was remarkably effective against depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, and PTSD, the Achilles' heels of the modern psyche.

'And if I stack Mind Healing and Bless on top of each other, and the Fortune critical procs on top of that? I could cure autism and intellectual disabilities too. Fortune's proc rate can even be raised using holy relics.'

At only my second class change, I already felt practically all-powerful.

'Second class change is done. Time to expand the church's influence in earnest.'

As I studied the status window, my gaze drifted to a different set of skills.

The single biggest reason I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had chosen Priest. Information on the skill Baptism floated before my eyes — the ability that would form the very foundation of the Providence Church's expansion.

'Even just Baptism alone would shock the living daylights out of anyone from Earth. With the barest sliver of faith, anyone can be baptized and see the status window.'

Our Providence Church possesses the single most unique idol on Earth. From now on, our believers would live out their faith as if playing an RPG game.

'All praise to the Mother of All Things!'

Alone, I traced the sign of the holy cross and sang the praises of Her grace and wisdom, which I had beheld in the mental imagery not long ago.

'But that said, this Status Window Idol isn't omnipotent. Ordinary people absolutely cannot see it. And it would be far too dangerous to evangelize by spraying divine power around from the very beginning.'

Divine power is a double-edged sword — and especially so when you're small fry like me. In a developed modern society, I wouldn't be burned as a witch, but that was precisely what made it scarier. Rather than a witch hunt, I could find myself kidnapped by some organization like the CIA and subjected to human experimentation.

In other words, using divine power openly would only become viable once the Providence Church had at least a firm grip on the leashes of power in the world's governments. Until then, evangelism would have to be covert and closed-door.

'We have the status window as an idol, but ordinary people can't see it... without an idol, evangelizing becomes tedious... divine evangelism has to stay secret... and making myself the idol to spread the faith just screams "cult"...'

How could I create an idol that worked on ordinary people ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠too? The kind that looked like nothing special to outsiders, but whose substance was the real deal.

"Ah!"

After racking my brain over and over, a sudden thought made me shoot up from my seat.

"I just have to make something ordinary people can see!"

My eyes turned to my smartphone.

"An app! That's it — I'll build an app! An app that displays the Providence Church's doctrine and the status window!"

The entry point would be the app; then, once a person's faith had grown to a certain point, I would administer Baptism and grant them the true status window.

Crack... crack...

Rolling out my shoulders, neck, and finger joints, I sat down at my desk and powered on the computer. At long last, a chance to put my actual degree to use had arrived.

Tap-tap-tap-tap!

I lost myself completely in the code. My awakening hadn't merely granted me divine power — it had also improved my body in positive ways. After a long break from programming, I could feel how much my coding skills had grown. And with AI assistance on top of that, a fairly respectable app was finished in less than a day.

'Wait a second. Can I consecrate a program as a holy relic too?'

When the app was about seventy percent complete, the thought struck me out of nowhere.

'Why not give it a try?'