Divine Milking System-Chapter 65 | Balance Point

A Ruby boy raised his hand. "What about ability augmentation?"

"Weapons training in my class is sixty percent physical foundation, forty percent mana channeling through the weapon itself. You will learn both. You will not skip the physical foundation because your ability is impressive." Her eyes moved across the room with the patience of someone who had made this speech before. "Every hunter I’ve watched die in a gate had one thing in common. They trusted their ability more than their body. Your mana runs out. A well kept sword does not run out."

Nobody argued with this.

"The other thing." She walked to the nearest rack and ran her fingers along a row of practice blades. "Weapons aren’t cosmetic. The reason IHC mandates this course is that mana flowing through your body elevates your physical baseline whether you want it to or not. You are all stronger than you were before you awakened. Faster. Your bones are denser. Your reaction time is shorter. A weapon in the hands of an awakened hunter is not the same as a weapon in the hands of a civilian." She turned back. "Which means if you’re in a gate and your ability fails you are not helpless. Not if you know how to use what’s in your hand. Clear?"

The room answered affirmatively.

"Good." She gestured. "Spend the next twenty minutes at the racks. Handle what appeals to you. I’ll come around. Don’t grab anything that requires a two-handed grip if you’ve never held a weapon before, you’ll hurt yourself and annoy me."

The room shifted toward the racks.

I followed the general movement and stopped in front of the first row. The selection was comprehensive. Straight swords in multiple lengths, short blades, staff weapons, a row of what looked like weighted training batons, pole arms, and at the far end some kind of compact crossbow that a Ruby girl immediately picked up and started examining with the excitement of someone who had been waiting for this their whole life.

Naomi stopped next to a staff. She ran her hand along its length, testing the weight, and lifted it with both hands. Her form was immediately more natural than I’d expected. Captain Cross hadn’t just given her a sponsorship letter, apparently.

Jordan materialized at my shoulder. "I’m getting the short blade."

"Why."

"Requires the least amount of moving to use effectively. I extend the shadow bind range. The blade is for if someone gets inside it." He picked up a short sword that sat about fifty centimeters, tested the balance with one hand, and nodded. "Done. That took four seconds."

I looked back at the racks.

The problem was I didn’t actually know what worked best with Wave Motion at Copper rank. The ability used stamina to propel either projectile shots or movement bursts. A weapon that extended range would stack well with the projectile function. A weapon that worked in close range would work with the movement bursts when I closed the gap.

But I also had E-rank Strength working its way toward D, which meant anything requiring significant upper body leverage was going to be embarrassing in live drills.

I picked up a short spear from the middle rack. Light enough that my current stats could manage it, long enough to create distance without requiring me to be within arm’s reach of something trying to remove my face. The shaft was smooth, the tip weighted for balance.

I shifted my grip, tested how it moved.

Tsukishima appeared at my left.

I hadn’t heard her coming.

"Interesting choice," she said. She was looking at the spear, not at me. The lollipop had reappeared. "Most lottery students default to the sword because it looks like what they’ve seen in media."

"The sword requires upper body strength I’m currently building. The spear works with reach and body mechanics."

She looked at me for the first time. Golden-brown eyes, calm and measuring, the specific attention of someone who actually listened to answers.

"You’ve thought about this."

"I have about six days to not die in my first gate evaluation. I’m motivated."

The corner of her mouth moved. Not quite a smile.

She moved my grip two inches forward on the shaft. "There. That’s your balance point for your height. You’ll find the leverage is better."

She was right. The weight redistributed immediately.

She moved on to the next student before I could say anything else.

Naomi was watching from three meters away with the staff resting against her shoulder, a small smile on her face.

"What," I said.

"Nothing." She turned back to test her grip width. "She likes you."

"She adjusted my grip."

"She corrected Jordan’s stance without touching him and told a Ruby kid to put the crossbow back and work on something he’d actually finish a training cycle with." Naomi glanced at me sideways. "She moved your hands personally."

I considered saying that Tsukishima was an instructor doing her job.

I considered saying that Naomi was reading into a two-second interaction.

Instead I looked at the spear in my hands at the exact grip adjustment Tsukishima had made, which was genuinely perfect, and accepted that Naomi’s perception stat was not a joke.

Belle appeared at the rack with her arms folded, surveying the options with the expression of someone shopping at a market where all the prices were in a currency she found personally offensive.

"I don’t want any of these," she said.

"Pick something light," I said.

"I want something that doesn’t require me to get within three meters of something dangerous."

"Crossbow. Far end."

Belle’s head turned. Her eyes found the compact crossbow the Ruby girl had put back after Tsukishima’s correction. Belle walked to the end of the rack, picked it up, held it, and her posture changed immediately. The calculation dropped out of her expression for about three seconds and something that looked like actual interest replaced it.

She looked down the sight line.

Then she looked at me.

"This is mine," she said.

"Class weapon. Stays in the room."

"Then it’s mine for the duration of every class." She carried it back toward our section of the floor with the conviction of someone who had just resolved a long-standing personal question.

Jordan was already sitting cross-legged against the padded wall with his short sword across his knees, eyes half-closed again. Naomi was running slow practice forms with the staff, getting the weight memory into her arms. Belle stood with the crossbow, already figuring out the cocking mechanism with the methodical patience she applied to everything that might eventually pay dividends.

I held the spear and watched Tsukishima move through the room, correcting grips, redirecting choices, occasionally saying something that made a student laugh.

Six days on the clock.

Weapons class. Combat assessment Friday. Midnight Foxes leaderboard. Belle’s attraction percentage climbing somewhere above twenty-four.

The spear felt right in my hands at the grip point Tsukishima had found for me, and the morning sun came through the annex windows in long horizontal strips across the padded floor, and somewhere behind me Naomi was doing staff forms with Captain Cross’s training in her shoulders and the buff from last night still running warm through her system.

I took a breath.

Rolled my neck.

Time to work.