"Get up, Alwin!" a voice hollered.

Who could be calling him so early in the morning? He didn't want to get up. Why should he be forced to get up now? Especially when his bed was so warm and comfy. It was practically asking him to snuggle deeper into its comforting embrace. He groaned, burrowing deeper under the covers as if they could shield him from the unwelcome intrusion.

"Five more minutes," Alwin groaned.

"If you don't get up, we're gonna be late," the voice yelled.

All of a sudden the warm embrace of his blankie was stripped from him. The cool air was an unwelcome visitor, creeping up on him, hugging his body just like the covers did. He shivered, his teeth chattering as he clutched at the empty space where his warm covers used to be.

"I'm cold," Alwin whimpered.

"Get up and move, then you'll warm up," the voice said.

The Dark Slime began to stir in his bed and his eyes began to flutter open. As his vision slowly adjusted to the glaring brightness of the room, he saw Gus looming over him, a blanket half-draped over his mouth. Alwin blinked, trying to make sense of the blurry scene. It looked like Gus was nibbling on his blanket. It must be his imagination. At least that's what he hoped.

Standing next to Gus was Uchronia. Her leaf-like tail swayed up and down, fanning the cold morning air into Alwin’s face. So that's why it was so cold. What a big meanie. When he fully woke up he'd teach her a lesson, but for now five more minutes. He burrowed back into his pillow, vowing that payback could wait.

"Wake up, Alwin," Uchronia said, a stronger gust of wind washed over Alwin's face.

"Alright. I'm awake. Geez," said Alwin, using his pillow to shield his eyes from the assaulting light as he rubbed them.

"About time. You missed breakfast, and class is about to start in five minutes," said Uchronia.

"Class? Five minutes! Let's go, we can't be late," said Alwin.

He hopped off his bed and made a mad dash for the exit, with Uchronia and Gus right behind him. They sprinted down the hallway, bodies bouncing against the floor in a desperate race against time. Just as the bell rang, they skidded into the classroom, barely making it. The three of them sat at their desks and waited for class to begin, as they recovered from their early morning workout.

"Morning class," said Milvus, strolling in through the door on all eight of his paper-like tentacles.

So what were they going to learn today? How to kill humans? How that useless Core Skill of his worked? Maybe how to sneak off to get some food during class, because he was famished.

"Hope you all slept well. How are your heads? Yesterday's info download gave you some basic knowledge. It’s not perfect, but beats having to start from scratch. Today, I’ll explain more about the academy and after that, you all will get to stretch your metaphorical legs with some fun activities that’ve been planned out. Sounds good?"

Fun activities? Wonder what Milvus has planned for them. Also, he should probably keep thinking to a minimum unless he wanted to get called out in front of the class again. Or maybe work on controlling his face when he thinks. Who even makes faces while thinking? That's just weird. Looks like Alwin’s weird.

"This is a three-year course. Once you all graduate, you'll be official members of the Monster Hunter Corp. Don't think being Core Monsters means everything will be easy. There will be a final exam each year, and your trials will be tougher than those for regular monsters. But don't worry, you'll be prepared to be the best monsters you can be. The goal of the Monster Hunter Corp is simple: eradicate humanity for the betterment of monsterkind. Now, any questions?"

Alwin still had a ton of questions from yesterday. What should he ask first? All of the brimming questions that were dying to be answered in his brain seemed to fade away into obscurity. It was like the moment he had the opportunity to extinguish any of those burning questions, they simply disappeared. They were still there in the deepest recesses of his brain, but now he struggled to pull them out. It was like trying to catch a shadow.

"What's the difference between a Core Monster and a Non-Core Monster?" asked Uchronia.

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"Hmmm, this info should’ve been covered in the info download. I’ll need to take a look at this later, but there are several differences between us and regular monsters," said Milvus. "The biggest is our Core Skill, a unique ability that no one else can learn. When a Core Monster dies, the skill returns to the Great Corenucopia for the next lucky monster to be blessed with. Core Monsters also grow faster, have larger cores, and increased mana capacity compared to regular monsters of the same stage."

"Then what's the Great Corenucopia?" asked Uchronia.

"The Great Corenucopia is our lord and savior. He is the one who blessed us monsters and provided our esteemed lordship, the King of Monsteria, the ability to escape from the treacherous humans holding him captive. It was because of the Great Corenucopia that our King was able to establish Monsteria," said Milvus. "I can go on and on about the Great Corenucopia, but that would be saved for our History lessons. Any more questions?"

"I have an important question. What's for lunch," asked Gus.

The whole class erupted in laughter. Milvus included.

"I don't know. I don't run the cafeteria. Any other questions, not involving food?" asked Milvus.

"What's the best Core Skill?" asked Bion.

Oh, Bion. I hope you enjoyed the wet blanket last night.

"There is no single best Core Skill, it’s about how well you use it. Some skills are easier to use than others which makes them seem better. Now, any other questions? If not I'll move on."

Milvus looked around the class, checking to see if anyone else wanted to ask another question. Alwin, from his perch in the back row, joined in, his gaze darting around the room. Uchronia had her eyes furrowed. Maybe she had a question to ask, or maybe she had to use the bathroom. Alwin couldn’t tell.

Meanwhile, Gus was snacking on a muffin he had snuck into class. Why, that lucky rascal. Alwin hadn't had anything to eat since he was born. Maybe he shouldn't have skipped dinner or overslept breakfast.

"Okay, moving on. What I'll teach you in the coming days are simple techniques: Offense, Defense, and Utility. This will prepare you for your first dip into the human world. While Core Skills are useful, relying on them and your Species Skill won’t be enough in the long run."

A Species Skill? Was that his Dark Tackle? Alwin's mind raced with questions. Were Species Skills something that they were born with? What were the differences between that and a Core Skill?

"What's the difference between a Core Skill and a Species Skill?" Uchronia asked.

It looked like she had asked his question for him. Well, that saved Alwin some trouble.

"Core Skills are unique to each individual, while Species Skills are specific to your species and its evolutions. The techniques I'll be teaching you all are ones anyone can learn, as long as you work hard enough.”

More skills? That sounded fun. With his defunct Devolution skill that did nothing, adding more abilities to his arsenal sounded like a great idea. Then again, the thought of putting in effort to learn skills seemed like such a bother. What if he just focused on improving his Dark Tackle? Maybe that would be easier. Or maybe there'd be a skill that gave him hands. That would be infinitely more useful than any other skill Alwin could think of. Not that he could think of many, but still, it was the thought that counted.

"What's an evolution?" Uchronia asked.

"When us monsters grow stronger, we'll eventually achieve a stronger form. I'll touch on it more during our Evolutionary Lesson, but the gist is that once the Evolution counter in your status hits the limit, you'll evolve into a more powerful version of yourself," said Milvus. "Now any other questions? If not, I've got a fun activity for all of you to try out."

Alwin still had questions, at least that's what he thought he did. He couldn't think of any right now, but he had an inkling of a feeling that the moment Milvus switched topics, a burning question would come to the forefront of his mind.

"What's the strongest evolution?" asked Bion.

"There are researchers still working on that question. So I'm afraid I don't know. If you're still interested in the topic, I could set up a lesson where a guest speaker will teach us more about the topic."

"That sounds good."

"Since there are no more questions, let's get started. I've planned some fun icebreaker games to help you get to know each other better. By ‘I’, I mean that the school has planned it. It’s an academy tradition. Also, technically, it’s just one game, but it’s a great way to learn more about each other and what you’re capable of. That’s why you all will be fighting one another.”

A fight? That's the activity that was planned out? This was the craziest class that Alwin ever had the pleasure of being a part of. Well, it was the only class he had ever attended, but that joke was beginning to get more stale than leftover bread. Anyway, who fights on the first day? It was madness.

"It’s a one-on-one fight, and I'll be pairing you all up based on some guidelines that I've taken into consideration. When it’s your turn to fight, you'll introduce your name, species, and core skills. Are you guys ready?"

"Oh yeah!" Bion shouted out.

The rest of the class lacked his enthusiasm, with Alwin being the most worried. At least, that’s how it seemed—he could only gauge his own feelings, not theirs. His heart pounded with the dread of being humiliated on his first day. Then again, yesterday was technically his first day, and he had already been humiliated. Or maybe yesterday was day zero? Now, he was just trying to distract himself from the panic setting in.

“Welcome to Human Hunter’s Academy’s mini-tournament.”

I just hope that everything will be okay.