"Wait!"
They froze in their tracks, turning back towards Monica.
"Although you're not officially part of this department, you participated, so you will receive the rewards."
She waved her hand, and ten small plastic bags materialized, hovering before each of the ten students. Tentatively, they all reached out and opened them, their eyes widening slightly as they saw the contents: low-stage Beast food.
".....?"
They were momentarily stunned, clearly not expecting any form of compensation for their terrifying experience.
"Now go." Monica urged. "You can feed that to your beasts to increase their combat strength. Do note, however, that it's only beneficial for beasts with a combat strength between Level 1 and Level 3. This means it can, for example, take a beast from Level 2 to Level 3, but it won't be effective in taking a Level 3 beast to Level 4, as it is merely low-stage beast food."