Back to the cave

Connor's plan was once Felix finished giving Vincent the pointers he needs, he would create a distraction in the opposite direction where he'd leave. The details he'll be figuring out on a whim since he didn't want to think that much. Connor was feeling a bit lazy so he didn't plan to use this for training instead it was just to rack up a few extra points.

Connor tiptoed around 50 meters away not knowing if he was still being watched by the supervisor. He just wanted to spam his teleport so that the supervisor would lose him, while he makes a clone of himself using his concept, he chose to separate disgust from him, and as his ability is now he can order his clones around without worry.

Connor began teleporting he ended up in the sky, in the dirt of a hill, in a pond where he's pretty sure he almost got attacked by a few piranhas then a few more while marking his landing spots, with different numbers he carved into trees. He separated disgust from him,

"Ew ew ewewewewewewewew why would you summon me in this gross forest me! of all the others you chose me ME? DO you hate US to look at all this mud on the ground it's on my shooeeeeessss :'("

Connor chuckled as he thought about his original body currently muddy self when he teleported himself into a hill.

"Yeah yeah complain all you want you know what to do right?"

"Ughh yeah I know I'm going to use a bit of our mana though I don't wanna end up in a hill like you OG."

Connor nodded and disgust ran into the forest while Connor slowly but surely found the right marks and found where the group was it had only been a few minutes but Connor made an overly complicated plan to distract them while he swooped in to snatch a few beasts. Behind him disgusted Connor tip-toed nearby but not too close and used the mask's metamorphosis ability to turn into a feminine appearance and screamed in feminine fashion.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!"

The group heard her only Vincent wasn't there and so Felix sat up from his cross-legged pose on the ground and Adrian stood steady in the direction of the scream.

They were at least confident enough in the supervisor to think they'd got it handled if the girl fell in danger. Though they did end up leaving enough wiggle room for Connor to teleport behind them as he sneakily picked up two monkeys that were asleep. It would seem that the animals were put to sleep by the glasses-wearing kid. He was sitting cross-legged and didn't respond to his surroundings even when the scream occurred.

Connor was just looking at the back of his head and the other 2 guys seemed tense maybe expecting beasts to come in their direction. Connor had a maniacal grin and before teleporting away with his injured prizes, he knocked out with a chop to the neck of the guy what was his name... oh right Adrian!

Felix and Kevin heard a few groaning and squealing sounds behind them and were shocked to see the animals they had gathered beginning to wake up. Felix quickly dashed before the animals collected themselves and grabbed Adrian who he saw knocked out. They didn't even notice the missing monkeys due to the surprise.

"These guys should really be thanking me, they'll get to really experience what it's like to get their first kill and I took two beasts off their hand UmU" Connor nodded with a satisfied smile.

Connor held the 2 monkeys in his hands they were very heavy and each of them was almost the size of an average man, but he could do it with relative ease using mana through his body. He still had around 40% on reserves since using teleportation frequently without mana doesn't drain him he does appear a bit pale since he never knows where he'll end up when he's not in control. The monkeys were waking up so before they did instead of using his dagger he twisted their necks 180 degrees since he didn't want blood splatters on him.

His job was done and left, he didn't bother to check on the group he left behind. A little while later looking at the time, it was time to regroup and along the way, he found 2 moles getting freaky so he shot them from behind and got back to the cave following the marks he left along the way. Meanwhile...

Sohan and Rando found themselves lying exhausted wiping the sweat off themselves. Sohan was covered in mud and blood but didn't gain any significant injuries, showing his improvement. Rando wasn't covered in as much grime but he was bleeding pretty profusely from his back. Sohan got 4 more kills bringing it up to 7 and Rando brought his up to 8.

Connor was most impressed by Nia upon seeing her she looked like she didn't break a sweat and only had a small scratch on her cheek. She came back-hunched and was beginning to yawn she informed the group she managed to bring her score up to an amazing 15 kills, hence leading the group. Though she used the least stamina it seemed her mana reserves were at least 10% so everyone decided to take a break.

They chose to settle down till the end of the competition even if it was almost half a day early the group itself was a rather lazy bunch, only Sohan wanted to get some action

"Can one of you please come with me I really need to rack up some more points and I'd feel more comfortable with one of you watching my back."

"Sohan come on dude, we trust that you can hunt on your own better now besides it's not going to change that there are only g-rank beasts out there and there'll be the supervisors there in case you get into any real danger." (Rando)

Sohan was glaring sharply in Rando's direction, the team obviously had no idea why Sohan was so desperate to get higher in the rankings. Sohan was putting on a fierce glare but that's not what Connor sees; he sees a mask triple up his face and Sohan's pupils were dilated and eyes widening as if imagining something horrifying he didn't know what was scaring his long time bully so deeply but he didn't like it.

Whoever or whatever had Sohan practically quivering in his boots, Connor wanted to get rid of not because it would help his friend or whatever, but because wouldn't it hit harder if the person who helped you was the one to hurt you? He was in no rush to pay Sohan back for all the cuts and bruises he got over the years. In the first place, Connor wasn't particularly angry at Sohan for the abuse but because of what a pain in the ass it was to change into his normal look and explain his injuries to people.

"Sohan, listen to me bud I'll come with you for like half an hour you get what you want but first let me replenish a bit and I'll only come for the last couple of hours I want to train in this environment for the time we have remaining... k?" Connor told Sohan nicely.

"Fine, thanks, Connor."

Rando had a pretty deep cut on his back apparently a mole he missed did it. Connor wanted to get some of his questions answered from Nia,

"Nia you got a minute?"

"Hmm? yeah sure" Nia was messing with the settings on her device there was no signal or access to the internet but there were still a few options.

"Do you mind if I ask about how you got to select your element before entering the school?"

"Yeah I can answer that a bit, so basically my family is a vassal family to a much larger Concept family, and using various connections my uncle helped me get my elements almost 3 years ago when I was 11."

"A concept family? What's that?"

The three looked at Connor a bit weirdly even Rando's was open while he was focusing on recovering his injury with an immense amount of sweat dripping down his face. Nia quickly asked,

"How do you not even know what a concept family is? They're like literally the biggest force behind the Realm-Cross itself and are on the same level as the crescent tower."

"Crescent tower?"

*Slap!*

They all slapped their forehead even Rando did so agonizingly.

"What be lenient with me, I don't know much beyond what I learned from education capsules when I was like 10."

"Though Connor it is literally like the general knowledge of all general knowledge, people should learn about these things as like a 6-year-old."

"Well in that case it's probably because I lost my memory when I was 8, my aunt found me when I was nine, and before you say anything there's no reason to apologize none of you did anything wrong, I don't even really care anymore."

They looked at each other and nodded but felt a bit downcast at the somewhat tragic info. Sohan collected himself and started talking,

"Hmm... in that case should we hold a quick crash course?"

Connor looks at the time and shrugs

"Sure go ahead teach."

*cough* Sohan found a sudden liking to being called teach but whatever

"Ok let's see, you should know about concepts right?"

"Yeah, I've been online I know the basics."

"Okay, then would you like to tell me what you know about it?"

"Sure."

Connor didn't plan to tell him everything he knew since he had one himself but he couldn't find much on ways to train a concept or something similar. Instead, he only found celebrity names who apparently had concepts but weren't allowed to speak of their family or their powers.

"So from what I remember, a concept is found at an identity pool the origins of which no one knows. Humans aren't the only ones with concepts, then what concepts are described as, they give the person a sort of message to the brain. They get a word something pretty vague and can use powers similar to superpowers, but are something that can be expanded upon rather than fortified like powers... did I get that right."

"Well, yeah pretty much the thing is that information behind concepts are held so tightly behind bars that it's pretty much impossible to get an idea about how they work until you enter RCA."

"Alright, then what about the families, and what was it the... present tower?"

"CRESCENT tower, geez is your memory that bad."

"Pfft, noooo I just didn't care when you first mentioned it." Connor whistled

"Whatever, anyways a concept family are those run by families that are surprisingly pretty philanthropic despite their immense wealth and high statuses. They're run by people who found identity pools and operate similarly to an organization. They accept people into their "family" and raise them to become successful people, heroes though some don't turn out so good."

"The crescent tower is another organization that by itself rivals a lot of major concept families, and they work to research magic and other scientific endeavors.; related to magical beasts, technology, and the mysteries behind superpowers. They seem to butt heads with each other pretty often but also work together to study how concepts function."

"What sort of mysteries?"

"Oh well, why do humans have superpowers and other kinds don't, and where mana came from and such. They also search for the mysteries of the universe and other pretty existential shit, catch my drift?"

"Yep, I got it."