Just another world with Monsters: Aethrena
Aethrena is a completely different world from ours. It is governed by magic and what works in our world may not necessarily work there. Most importantly, while Aethrena resembles 9th to 14th century Earth, it is in fact as advanced as modern Earth. The reason why there isn't modern weaponry is because the magic laws governing Aethrena doesn't allow modern weaponries to have same level of effectiveness. Magic Cultivation is the quickest way for anyone, humans and monsters alike to get ahead in life. The environment in Aethrena contains high concentration of magic essence that can be absorbed by Cultivators.
Magic Cultivation is a very long and tedious path regardless if you are human or monsters. However, it is the only way to become an immortal and hopefully ascend to Godhood. In the past, humans and their allies found with monsters over resources in Magic Cultivation. However when the fighting went out of control, the resource both sides were fighting over ended up being destroyed and from then on, people and monsters came to agreement to share resources. The involved Organizations will agree on a competition and rules, then send lower ranking members to compete. Winner will take a larger share.
Regardless if you are human or monster and no matter how talented one can be in Magic Cultivation, there will always come a time when you need external help to raise your cultivation level. This is important for monsters as increasing cultivation level will give them greater chance of evolving to a higher state or those at higher state will gain greater power, extend their lifespan etc... In short, people and monsters will always fight over resources.
Magic Cultivation are divided into Stages and every stage there are at least several levels. The difference between human and monster cultivation lies in their 1st three stages.
The "Human" Cultivation The "Monster" Cultivation
Stage 1: Chi Refinement (Levels 5) Awaken Intelligence
Stage 2: Foundation Building (Levels 15) Realizing own Spirit
Stage 3: Spiritual Realization (Levels 30) Monster Core Formation
Once a monster gains a Core, they will be able to create a True Human Reflection. A human form that are a reflection of how they look to their own species. A form that other species can tell how ugly or good looking they are. The core is also the fruits of their training and provides them with additional power. A monster without core is similar a high performance machine that needs to run on power saving mode because it was using batteries and one with Core is powered by nuclear generator with engines upgrade to make full use of nuclear power. There are no contest in terms of strength!
Humans can only follow Human cultivation path, most monsters can only follow the Monster's path, some can choose to practice either path while very few individuals can practice both at once without getting devoured by the extremities of the two paths. There is no clear definition to how one can practice both paths at once without getting devoured by the two opposing powers they developed. Except these individuals are very rare and all of them had nothing to do with each other!