I felt Naomi stiffen slightly beside .
"Still figuring it out," I said smoothly. "Support-based. Touch activation."
"Care to elaborate?" Misato pressed.
Naomi and I exchanged the briefest glance.
"Let’s just say I can temporarily... enhance certain sensations." I kept my tone deliberately vague. "Useful for battlefield first aid. Pain managent."
Not a complete lie. Euphoric Feedback could theoretically dampen pain signals. Theoretically. If I wasn’t using it exclusively to make won cum while I drank their magic milk.
"That’s it?" Belle looked skeptical. "Just... feeling manipulation?"
"For now," I replied with a shrug. "My awakening was recent. Still exploring the applications."
Misato didn’t look convinced, but before she could press further, a notification popped up on Belle’s tablet.
"Rankings are out," Belle announced, her eyes widening. "Garrett’s physical assessnt results."
Everyone leaned forward as Belle tapped the notification. A list appeared, ranking all fifty first-year Obsidian students by their combined scores across all tests.
"Blair’s number one," Belle read, surprise coloring her voice. "Charles Leone second..."
I scanned down the list, finding our team mbers:
Team Midnight Foxes
Misato Aya (11/250)
Jordan Wayne (228/250)
Belle Fox (91/250)
Naomi Love (87/250)
Jace Monroe (241/250)
"Two hundred forty-one out of two hundred fifty," I muttered, the number sitting in my chest like a bad al. "Fantastic. Nearly last."
"Could be worse," Naomi offered, doing her best to find the bright side. "You could be two hundred forty-nine."
Jordan was already scrolling toward the bottom of the list with the detached curiosity of soone watching a house fire from a comfortable distance. "Poor bastards. Ricky and Mira. Those two are cooked."
"Can we focus?" Belle pressed her fingertips against the table with real impatience. "As a squad, we’re sitting seventh out of ten Obsidian teams right now. That’s where our combined ranking puts us. Seventh."
"That’s not... terrible?" Naomi tried.
"It’s not good enough," Misato said, with the flat finality of soone reading a death sentence. "The academy only rewards the top five squads. Everything below that is noise. We need to move up, and we need to do it before the first monthly evaluation locks in impressions."
A quest notification was still sitting in the corner of my vision, pulsing with quiet insistence. Ten thousand points for pushing the Midnight Foxes into the top five. I pulled my expression into sothing neutral before the grin could get away from .
"Then let’s climb," I said.
Belle studied across the table. "You seem motivated all of a sudden."
"I don’t like being near the bottom of anything," I told her, which was the complete truth. "And I especially don’t like it when the ranking directly affects whether I survive this place long enough to complain about it."
"What about our competition?" Naomi asked, clearly trying to redirect the conversation. "Which teams are ahead of us?"
Belle swiped through her tablet. "Squad One is obvious - Blair’s team. Despite Javier being ranked one hundred thirty-eight, they have three top thirty students."
"Mismatched nightmare team," Misato snorted. "Blair will eat Javier alive."
"Squad Two has the highest overall average," Belle continued. "They’re all guild kids with combat abilities."
"And the other three?" I asked.
"Hard to tell just from rankings," Belle admitted. "But we’re only a few points behind Squad Five for that fifth-place spot in Onyx."
I finished the last of my pasta, considering our situation. My story quest aligned perfectly with the team’s goals. If I could help push the Midnight Foxes into the top five, I’d earn that ten thousand point reward while centing my place in the squad.
"So what’s our strategy?" Naomi looked at each of us expectantly.
"Training," Misato stated flatly. "We need a dedicated schedule. Three hours daily, minimum."
"Three hours?" Jordan groaned. "On top of classes?"
"You want to stay near the bottom?" Misato challenged.
"I want to sleep occasionally."
"Sleep when you’re dead," Belle snapped. "Or transferred to Amber."
"I’m with Misato," I said. "We need structured training. Each person’s individual rank affects the team average. I’m dragging us down, so I need to improve the most."
Naomi gave a small, proud smile that did strange things to my chest.
"You all can handle combat training," Jordan said, finally looking sowhat engaged. "My Shadow Bind needs accuracy drills more than anything. I can set up targets."
"I can help with stamina building," Misato offered, glancing at Naomi. "We’ll work on extending your Wave Motion duration."
"And I’ll help Jace," Naomi volunteered, her cheeks coloring slightly. "Since we’re both... still developing our techniques."
Belle clasped her hands together. "Perfect! Then it’s settled. Starting today, team training from four to seven, East Field."
"What about you?" I asked Belle. "Your ability isn’t combat-oriented either."
"Self-defense," Belle replied confidently. "I don’t need to win fights; I just need to not die imdiately."
"Smart," Misato nodded approvingly.
As lunch wrapped up, the Midnight Foxes dispersed for afternoon classes. I found myself walking beside Naomi again, our shoulders occasionally brushing.
"So..." Naomi glanced around to make sure no one was in earshot. "Training at four, then?" Naomi confird.
"Actually..." I leaned closer, keeping my voice light. "I was thinking we might need so... private training tonight. To work on my ability."
The blush that spread across her cheeks was answer enough.
"Sanctum session?" she whispered, her eyes darting around nervously.
"If you’re up for it," I said. "No pressure. You’re still recovering from yesterday."
Naomi bit her lower lip, considering. "What ti?"
"After team practice? Eight?"
She nodded once, decisively. "Eight o’clock. Your room."
As she walked away, her pink-striped hair swaying gently behind her, I found myself watching longer than strictly necessary. Six days on my tir, a story quest with a massive reward, and a second extraction session already lined up with Naomi.
Things were looking up. Now I just needed to avoid being in the bottom five of Garrett’s combat assessnt on Friday. The Divine Milking System might have given infinite potential, but I still needed to put in the work to reach it.
And work, as it turned out, was the one thing I couldn’t extract from anyone else.
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