Mel rolled her eyes and, with an unimpressed look on her face, said,

"You... old? You look like a seventeen-year-old thug."

"Oi, who you calling a thug? Always assuming shit.... oh, my bad language."

The old man rubbed his beard as he walked towards the door.

"I think you'll do nicely on this team. There is still one member missing, but he will be here soon. For now, it is time for class. You are also required to attend Asura. We must inform you of the situation and what is happening in the world before you can begin to help."

Asura looked around as he stretched. Uninterested in learning, he responded,

"Class is borrringggg. Unless it leads to more fights, count me out. Wait, how do you know my name?"

Plastered on the old man's face was a giant smile, and his eyes glowed passionately.

"Battles and fights, wars and death are among the few things guaranteed in this life. You are confident and strong, but your intelligence is lacking. If you will help us, you need to understand more than just how to throw a fist. I'm also not asking. I'm telling."

Asura put two arms behind his head and the other two in his pockets. Wait, he still had pockets? Noticing his clothes were now repaired miraculously, he was in awe. He assumed it was due to the repair field the room had. Very intriguing...

"Huh... suddenly, I'm interested in learning."

Mel groaned to protest his demand,

"We just trained and sparred all day. Can we just take a break?"

The old man ignored her comment as he continued walking. Without a word, they were forced to follow after the old man as he continued his pace. All four of them left the room and walked down the hallway. As they traversed through the building, they were met with Lilly, Marco, and Joel as they ran down the hallway towards them. From far behind, Asura could hear a nun calling out after the kids,

"Slow down! No running in the Cathedral!"

Noticing Asura, the kids ran towards him, eager to see their savior once again. Lily spoke first, asking,

"Mister demon, mister demon! What are you doing?"

Smiling, he hoisted Lily up onto his left arm, using both his lower arms to support her.

"Just beating up some idiots."

Mel rolled her eyes and kept walking while Ash grumbled.

"Moronic demon cheated or something."

Asura's face twisted in disgust.

"Racist bastards."

The old man's voice boomed in anger.

"Language!"

Shrinking his neck like a turtle, Asura prepared to be hit. However, nothing came as he waited patiently for the old man to discipline him. The old man seemed uninterested in correcting him further as he walked away. Quietly, Asura replied,

"My bad."

Lily pulled a white flower from her pocket, shoving it against Asura's face. The sudden object made Asura reel his head back to get a better look at the gross thing the child kept in her pocket. If Asura knew one thing about children, it was that their pockets held infinite possibilities of disgusting assortments of trash.

"This is for you, mister. It's like your eyes."

Surprised by the gift, Asura took it. A soft smile crept across his face as he studied the flower. Kind gestures were something Asura had not experienced in a long time... It warmed his heart to receive such a thoughtful gift.

"Thank you."

Mel could not help but smile as this unfolded before her. Although she hated the ogre, it was sweet to see the children having fun and being thoughtful. To her horror, though, Asura devoured the flower, eating it whole in one bite. Mel, Ash, and the nun stood horrified at the sight of him eating the flower while Lily giggled,

"You're silly, mister demon."

The nun quickly ran up and snatched Lily from his arms. Horrified by the fact that a monster was holding Lily, and everyone allowed it. The old man noticed her reaction and reassured her,

"It's alright, he won't hurt her. He is the one who saved them from the cultists. If he wanted to hurt the children, he would not have even brought them here. We have a control engraving on him in case he tries to pull something if you are still worried."

The nun, still worried about a monster being allowed around children, scurried by him with the kids.

"Just keep your demon on a leash and away from the children."

Asura, shocked and appalled, shouted after her,

"Aren't you supposed to be nice or something? Judgement-free zone, my ass. So, you all got racist nuns, racist paladins, do not tell me your police are racists too huh?"

The old man grabbed the ogre by the shoulders and led him forward, with the other two following behind. They had wasted enough time playing around with the children, and it was time to get to work. Every minute they wasted was a minute the cultists gained an advantage. After walking for some time, they finally stopped in front of a door. The old man smiled at Asura, stating,

"Welcome to most people's hell. The classroom."

After opening the door, a smallish room was revealed. Mel and Ash walked in first, heading towards a row of seats. Asura was familiar with the layout due to the shows he watched. Big on drama, Asura realizes the room resembles a college classroom. Before he was sent to this realm, he recently watched a show based on a group of college students obsessed with each other's relationships. It was a terrible show, but Asura could not help but waste time watching it.

Rows of seats were lined up, each one slightly more elevated than the previous row. In the middle of the room was a single desk with a table next to it, which Asura assumed was the teacher's. Out of the corner of his eye, Asura noticed the old man standing in the middle of the room glaring at him. He obviously wanted Asura to sit down so he could give his lesson.

Taking the hint, Asura walked over towards the seats, noticing Mel sat in the back of the room while Ash was right in the front. Asura walked into the middle row and sat down. Propping up his feet onto the desk in front of him, he took the opportunity to relax his body. Leaning back, Asura put his upper two hands behind his head while the others were stuffed into his pockets. While looking at Ash, Asura couldn't help but sneer,

"I can already tell you're the teachers' pet."

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Ash ignored him as he propped his head up with his hand, leaning on the desk. He would not be provoked so easily; the old man would certainly punish him severely. Dreading the thought of having to clean the exorcist room, which they used to expel possessed people or kill captured monsters, was more than enough to make Ash swallow his pride. The old man stared at the three of them and smiled.

"Well, let's get started. We will begin with the basics to ensure we are all on the same page."

Mel groaned,

"Why do we have to cover the basics? We all know this stuff; you have only beaten it into our minds hundreds of times."

"Yet we have someone new who may know nothing about our realm. It would be detrimental to allow Asura to be on the team in the first place if he has no information about our world. Also, your previous test results have shown that you could also use a refresher, Mel."

The old man opened a book that sat on the desk while sliding his reading glasses on.

"First, we will start with the monster races that appear often in this realm. The Dragons, the Succubi, the Beasts, the Fallen, the Shadows, and lastly the Giants. These six races are seen regularly throughout our realm. The Faerie race rarely makes an appearance from time to time. The Ogres are even rarer. I think Asura is the first one seen in hundreds of years."

The old man looked up to see if Asura had any input as to why this was. Uninterested, Asura began to drool as he zoned out from the lesson. Slamming his book against the desk, the old man managed to wake him up, causing the ogre to slightly jump out of his seat. "This might be more difficult than I thought." The old man thought as he watched the ogre.

"The Dragons, the Shadows, and the Faeries all have enormous amounts of demonic mana."

Asura mumbled under his breath, hearing the word demon once again.

"It's called quotidian mana. Or you know you could just say ordinary mana."

The old man, hearing this, paused for a moment. He was interested in what Asura just said but did not pursue it any further,

"They are the three strongest races of the monster races. Their order is unknown, but we lean more towards dragons, who are the strongest of the three."

Asura mumbled again,

"Wait till you see the strongest shadows. Those guys are scary."

"Each race specializes in skills unique to their race and sometimes even mana that is unable to be produced by any other race. The ogres have not appeared in a long time, so little is known about them. Any input, Asura?"

"Building."

The old man paused once again.

"Building?"

"Yup."

He expected him to expand upon this revelation, but Asura again seemed uninterested. The old man has never heard anything about the ogres excelling in building or crafting. What do they build? He had many questions he would seek answers to later.

"Although we know about the Shadows, we do not confront them often, but there have been some encounters. Most of them prefer to remain hidden and operate more like scouts accumulating information rather than confronting anyone. The fallen and beasts use their monstrous forms to their advantage with the ability to make themselves stronger through demonic mana. As you can expect from the beasts, they tend to act off instinct like our everyday animals. However, the beasts are much tougher opponents. Although many of them look like larger tigers or bears, they are, in fact, more intelligent than our species. The higher the rank and more mana they have, the smarter they are. Do not underestimate them. The Fallen are similar, but their lower-ranking soldiers, like their Gruel's, are unintelligent. They must focus on orders given and can never think for themselves. It is only when you get to their upper ranks that they become far more formidable than most of the other races."

The old man looked up to see if the children were still paying attention. He knew it would be a long lesson today, but it was important to him that they understood the content. Asura was quietly beating his head on the deck while Ash wrote notes before him. Lastly, Mel was leaning back in her chair, about to fall asleep. The slow descent of her head made it obvious she succeeded. Letting out a deep sigh, the old man stood quietly for a moment before slamming the book once again, waking Mel up and gaining Asura's attention.

"I promise I'm listening!"

Mel declared as she adjusted herself in her seat.

"The giants are monstrously tall humanoid monsters that are born with the ability to control some elements, namely fire and ice. Their strength and ability to manipulate those elements make them incredibly dangerous in a fight. All monsters can use demonic magic, but not all races can utilize it in the same way. The Dragons are masters of using all elements and spells to gain advantages in a fight. Fire, ice, earth, air, lighting, all of it, you name it, and they will be better at it than you. The only exception is with nature or natural magic. Faeries are unrivaled when it comes to controlling and manipulating their surroundings. Trees become monsters, flowers become carnivorous, and the bees will beat the tar out of you."

Asura perked up hearing the last bit about bees. It sounded like the old man had experience with it as if he had lost a fight with them. The idea made Asura chuckle, knowing that the mighty old man in front of him lost to a few bees. Was it like a bumblebee or a hornet? Either way, the thought was hilarious.

"There are nine monster kings who rule their realm over their races. Judex Divinum created ten realms and divided each one by race. The kings are unique to their races and have different traits that separate them from the rest of their families. Tiamat, the mother of dragons, has five heads, each master of their own element, making her a nightmare in combat. Each king has incredible power that can be only rivaled by the other kings. Thankfully, they do not care to harass the human world as of right now. In each race, rankings are decided by the strength of the monster. The weakest is the basic grunt, a gruel, a magmatic bear. Nothing special, just an unintelligent monster that roams around the land."

"Next is the captain. Stronger with more developed mana than the normal monster, they usually command a few monsters underneath them. After them comes the centurion. They command an army of monsters and have several captains in their ranks. The only monsters above them are Apocalypses. The Apocalypses are right under the monster kings in terms of rank. Each monster king has three apocalypses, and they act like generals within their armies. They command unending armies with enough monsters to conquer cities. They are named Apocalypses for a reason. If one were to come over to this realm it could mean the end of millions of lives."

Asura, annoyed, sat up in his chair. The humans were not wrong about how the armies worked within the monster realms commanded by the Kings. But they were not correct either. Knowing from experience, several monsters broke this mold repeatedly.

This only applied to those inside the armies, not those who refused to be a part of the kingdoms within each realm. However, Asura did not intend to correct them. It was too much of a hassle to explain to the humans how stupid these ideas were. Their structure worked, he figured, but it would definitely be fun if monsters who broke these molds began to show up,

"Why are you explaining this to a monster from a realm himself?"

Asura watched as the old man stared at him for a moment,

"Just in case you were a little special and needed some help."

Asura, taking offense to this, glared at the old man.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Ash chuckled and leaned back, enjoying the situation. Asura snapped his head down to glare at Ash angrily. Leaning forward over the desk, Asura pulled his arm back, prepared to punch him in the back of the head. However, he was interrupted by the old man,

"Let's start talking about the Angel and Temple rankings."

Asura stopped after hearing the word Angel. He had heard about them briefly before but had never seen one himself. The other races often talked about the divine beings with awe. Guardians of heaven with unrivaled power, but that's about the end of what he knew about. Holy mana was also a topic he was interested in. According to the humans, it was completely different from quotidian mana or demonic mana. Asura became very interested in the topic. It would most certainly lead to more entertaining fights.

"Is everyone as strong as Mel?"

A large smile spread across the old man's face as he pushed his hair back, knowing he finally got Asura's full attention,

"Sadly, no, Mel is a Paladin-ranked priest. She's quite strong and has a higher rank than most of you will come across."

"So, what's Ash then?"

"Ash is a high priest. He's a rank under Mel."

Laughing, Asura responded,

"No wonder he was so weak. Baby bit... uh bitter boy... bitter..."

The old man's eyes filled with burning anger, causing Asura to shrink in his seat.

Annoyed, Ash turned around and stood up.

"I'll kill you the next time we fight. I do not know why we are even entertaining the fact that a demon could help us. We should have killed you the moment you entered this place. I'll slice that throat you love to speak nonsense with."

Annoyed because of the word demon being used again, Asura stood up enraged, ready to fight in the classroom,

"What are you a child? Wanna fight again, sore loser? For being priests, you sure do like being racist all the time. I told you once that I ain't no demon. I am an ogre, you moron. Multiple races of monsters ain't called demons. You can't group us all up if we ain't even from the same family. I'll make sure I kill you the next time we brawl instead of letting your dumbass live."

While the two argued, yelling insults at each other, the old man rubbed his forehead, annoyed by the boys' constant bickering. He slammed his fist against the wall next to him, shaking the room. Terror filled both boys, causing them to sit down quickly, not wanting to get beaten by the old man. Asura and Ash could not help but have whimpering expressions that reminded the old man of puppies who knew they had done something wrong but did not want to be punished by their owner.

"Now that it's quiet again, let us continue from where I left off. In each realm, monsters cannot be killed without holy mana or demonic mana. It's a law of the universe that humans can't figure out. For some reason, when Judex Divinum created the races, the humans were left without this ability."

Asura mumbled again,

"Quotidian mana."