Time flew by, and before anyone knew it, the relaxing lunch break had ended.
Like most schools, Luo Qi's public school followed a schedule of classes starting at 8 AM and ending at 4 PM.
Aside from the one-hour lunch break, mornings consisted of four academic classes—Of course, in order to avoid all kinds of unnecessary troubles, Luo Qi naturally became a member of the after-school-go-home group.
In an ordinary school, the morning is generally for so-called academic courses, such as Federation Linguistics, Mathematics, History, Geography, Magic Theory, and so on...
In the afternoon, it is basically for practical courses, such as Physical Education, Magic Practice, Monster Training, and so on...So every afternoon is the most troublesome time period for Luo Qi.
And that last one was Luo Qi's personal nightmare.
Every afternoon, without fail, something troublesome happened in these hands-on classes. If a day passed without incident, he considered it a blessing.
Today's lesson? Monster Training—the bane of Luo Qi's existence.
The course involved interacting with magical creatures to understand their behaviors.
Monsters, as the name suggested, were beings capable of magic but lacking the higher intelligence of humans or demons.
They typically dwelled in uninhabited "Monster Forests," which, despite centuries of human-demon coexistence and technological progress, still covered over 50% of the planet's landmass.
These areas were officially designated "Hazard Zones"—enter at your own risk, as the government provided no rescue services. And that wasn't even counting the far more numerous aquatic monsters lurking in the oceans or the deadly creatures inhabiting deserts and mountain ranges.
So, although demons and humans have intermarried for a long time and have had many generations of offspring, and technology has also made great strides forward, most of the land in this world is still occupied by monsters. And this doesn't even take into account the even more astonishing number of marine monsters that are spread all over the oceans, as well as some more dangerous deserts and mountainous regions, where a large number of terrifying monsters inhabit.
Most monsters were highly dangerous, and even in this modern era, A-rank monster rampages in urban areas weren't uncommon. When those happened, it was all hands on deck for the military, government, and news crews.
To improve civilian survival rates, Monster Training had been introduced into public school curriculums at some point.
And speaking of monsters, one couldn't ignore their historical ties to the Demon King. For generations, low-level monsters had served as expendable shock troops in the Demon King's armies, perfect for grinding down human forces.
The 43rd Demon King, for instance, had been infamous for his "Tide of Razor Rats"—a swarm of magic-resistant, poison-spewing rodents with terrifying reproductive rates. They could birth offspring mid-battle, and the newborns would gorge on corpses to grow into arm-length threats within hours.
This "sea of monsters" tactic is said to have once pushed humanity to the brink of despair, and it almost declared a great victory for the Demon King. If it hadn't been for an extremely famous great mage at that time who desperately cast a forbidden spell and perished together with the Demon King and hundreds of millions of serrated giant rats, this planet would probably have long ago become a planet ruled solely by demons.
In addition to these serrated giant rats, the monster armies under the successive Demon Kings throughout history have all left psychological shadows of varying degrees on humanity.
However, interestingly, the monsters that each generation of Demon Kings could command were almost different. From the perspective of Luo Qi, the 77th generation of the Demon King, this should be related to the fact that different generations of Demon Kings could communicate with different monsters. After all, in order to command a monster, one must first be able to communicate with it.
Alternatively, perhaps humanity had simply hunted certain species to near-extinction after each war. The Razor Rats, despite their absurd fertility, had allegedly been eradicated millennia ago through relentless culling.
Yet Luo Qi had discovered something unusual: he could communicate with all monsters. Not just that—he could control them at will, even simultaneously commanding thousands of different species. This went far beyond historical records of past Demon Kings.
He suspected his predecessors might have shared this ability but chose to specialize for tactical simplicity. After all, monsters were just cannon fodder—the real threat had always been the intelligent demon races under the Demon King's rule.
Unfortunately, with the Demon King's lineage extinct for 700+ years and no "Demon King's Diary" left behind, Luo Qi could only speculate.
"Reporting in, Teacher! Class 2-2, all present!"
As usual, the students followed their class president, Benjamin, into the specially reinforced training facility—necessary given the occasional high-threat monsters used in lessons. Professional instructors stood by to prevent casualties.
"Good, good!" The ogre-blooded instructor—a bald mountain of muscle—nodded approvingly. He clearly favored proactive students like Benjamin.
"No time for chatter! Guess what rank of monster you'll be studying this week?" he asked with theatrical mystery.
(Also as usual, this was his weekly ritual.)
"Benjamin! Your guess?"
"An A-rank, sir!" Benjamin answered without hesitation.
"Hah! Bold! But A-ranks are under constant surveillance—way too unstable to bring here!" The teacher laughed, having expected this answer.
"Wrong again, huh…?" Benjamin sighed. He'd dreamed of facing an A-rank—in his mind, only such battles could forge true strength.