What the—? What was going on? Why was he in a classroom? What happened to the swordsman? What happened to the magic girl? What happened to the field of grass? And what happened to that darn tree in the distance that only served to make the scenery look less flat?

Was he dead? Was this the afterlife? Was this hell? Were these thoughts too morbid? In his defense, he was a Dark Slime, not a Happy Thoughts Slime. Maybe he should look around to take stock of the situation instead of ruminating. That sounded like a great idea. Okay, no thoughts in three, two, one.

Alwin whipped his head around, or maybe whipped his body around would be a more accurate term. Whatever, he was too confused to care about semantics right now. Alwin looked around frantically trying to understand what was happening. His eyes went left to right. It went right to left. It went up to down. It went down to up. It spun clockwise. It spun counterclockwise. It even went inside his head cause his eyes decided to roll inward for whatever reason.

Alwin's mind raced in a frenzy of confusion, he couldn’t for the life or maybe death of him figure out what was going on. That terrified him. Everything screamed classroom—the wooden desks, the chairs, the whiteboard, the teacher’s desk, and... the teacher. Wait a minute. That was the weirdest-looking teacher he had ever seen! Well, technically, the least weird too, since it was the first teacher he'd ever seen, but that wasn't the point.

The teacher was a monster with a vivid yellow, triangular body. Right in the center was a single, massive eye, and below it, a mouth that seemed more menacing than friendly. Instead of hands, the creature had eight legs—or were they tentacles?—that jutted out from the base of its triangular form. These appendages were incredibly thin, like paper, flapping slightly as if caught in a breeze. Just like its tentacle legs, the teacher's yellow body was paper-thin, looking more like a sinister origami project than a living being. Alwin stared, equal parts horrified and fascinated.

"My name is Milvus," the teacher said. "I'll be your teacher for the foreseeable future, and I welcome you all to the beginning of your new life. Quite literally I might add, considering that you've all recently been born. Now I know all of you are quite shaken up so I'll try to keep this brief so that all of you can get some much-needed rest."

Rest, that sounded amazing right about now, but what Alwin really wanted was answers. Milvus's introductory statement had only filled his head with even more questions. If there were any more unanswered questions, Alwin might just burst like a balloon too fattened up with air.

So the eleven other monsters in the classroom with him were recently born as well. Alwin scanned the room, noting three other Dark Slimes like himself, four green creatures with no fur, and four others sporting orange-brown fur. Three students per row makes four rows in total. From his vantage point at the back of the class, it was hard to make out all the details, but judging from the shape of their bodies they all seemed to be round like him. Not in a fat way, just in a spherical blob-like way.

Then, an almost genius idea hit him, harder than the sword from earlier. What if he looked to his left and right to check out the monsters next to him in the back row? It was such a stupendous idea that only an idiot wouldn’t have thought of it—and luckily for Alwin, he wasn’t an idiot.

To his left sat the green-colored monster. She was as green as a grassland, exuding an aroma that matched a dew-kissed field. Like Alwin, she was a round blob, but with actual skin instead of a gel-like body. Unlike him, she had a tail. One that extended out into a huge leaf that was as wide as her, but was a darker shade of green than her body.

To his right sat the orange-brown monster. He was as orange-brown as an orange left out just a bit too long, but thankfully, he didn't smell like it. In fact, he didn't smell like anything. Maybe it was because Alwin didn't have a nose? Then how did he smell the monster on his left? Mysteries for another time. Anyway, the orange-brown guy was just as round as Alwin and the green girl next to him, but covered in fur. He had a tail as wide as the spaces in between atoms. In other words, he didn't have a tail. Unless, it was an invisible tail, which Alwin doubted so.

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"Now I'm sure you all have many questions," Milvus continued his speech.

That's an understatement.

"But, basically this is an academy where we educate monsters on how to become hunters. We'll train you to be the best hunters that you can be. The goal of our academy? To rid the world of humans for the peace of monster kind," Milvus explained.

Yeah screw humanity, Alwin agreed.

"What you just went through, after being born, was a simulation to determine your aptitude for combat, and I'm glad that all of you were able to defeat at least one human. Honestly, if you didn't we'd have probably killed you just so that your Core Skill gets recycled and hopefully end up in a more capable monster," Milvus said.

So, that man was a simulation, and that woman was a simulation. Everything was a simulation. Did that mean the egg was a simulation too? Was this all a simulation? Wait, Milvus had mentioned killing them if they didn't kill a human and something about a Core Skill. You mean that useless Devolution skill that got him killed because he thought it would do something cool? Actually, what even was a Core Skill, and how did skills get recycled? Did that mean Core Skills could get Reduced and Reused too? Wait, where was he going with this?

"Hey, you. Dark Slime in the back lost in thought. Could you pay attention so that I don't have to repeat myself," Milvus said.

Alwin glanced around the back row. Who was that chump Dark Slime that didn't bother to pay attention? The guy on his right looked at him with a confused expression, while the girl on his left giggled as his head darted between the teacher, his left, and his right.

He was the chump.

"Oh, sorry," Alwin apologized.

Damn, that was embarrassing. How in blazes did that teacher even know he was lost in thought? Was the teacher a mind reader? Was his privacy being invaded? That no-good scoundrel, why he oughta—

"Hey, kiddo. Last chance alright?" Milvus said again.

Darn it how did he know? Ok, no more thinking. For now, his head would be as empty as the grass field from earlier.

"Sorry, again," Alwin apologized.

"No worries. Now as I was saying, all of you are special monsters, Core Monsters. Unlike regular monsters, you have a Core Skill unique to each of you. When you die, your skill returns to the Great Corenucopia for the next lucky monster. But let's save that for later. The important thing is, you'll be trained to become Coremmanders, the elite leaders of the monster army, bringing a new era, a new world, and a new peace for monster kind"

Core Monsters? Core Skill? Great Corenucopia? Coremmanders? What was any of that stuff? This was just information overload for poor old Alwin. His brain was already hurting from learning that up till now he had been living in a simulation. Sure, it had only been ten minutes, but those were the first ten minutes of his life—ten precious minutes he'd never get back. Now, poor little Alwin had to process all this new information,

"Now I'm sure all of you have a million questions, and I'll be more than happy to answer them tomorrow. Your brains need their rest after the information download you guys went through earlier. Now if any of you feel dizzy or disoriented, please let me know," Milvus said.

Information download? Like what he experienced inside the egg? Whose information was that and why were they pouring it into his brain? Alwin didn't like it when people poured things into his brain. It felt like an invasion of privacy. Then again, without it, he'd probably be as clueless as a newborn. So, for now, he'll let it slide.

"Alright, since none of you seem to be having any side effects, let's head over to the dorms," Milvus said with a casual wave of one of his tentacles. "You all look like you could use some rest. Tomorrow we—" He trailed off, scratching his head. "Actually, let's just keep going. Nothing urgent, but it's better to keep things moving. Follow me."