Feeling the light droplets of dew covering the grass below his feet, Ryan ran barefoot across a field.
It had been three days since Mara left, and the sisters started their conversion.
In these past three days, Ryan had successfully adapted to academy life, setting a strict training routine for him to follow.
Ryan knew from his previous life that if he left himself unattended, he would stray down the wrong path.
Aliza had taught him that holding yourself accountable was one of the most important things for personal growth.
While she had mostly focused on the aspect of conquering women, she delved into self-help a few times to "correct" Ryan's state of mind.
Ryan felt correct was a nice way of saying, "You need professional help."
Finishing his 10th lap around the field, Ryan dropped to the ground and started to do pushups.
Ryan had learned from going to the library that exercise was important for cultivators.
If cultivators didn't use energy when working out and actively contained it in their core, they could break down their muscles by working out and then release energy to repair them.
By repeating the process, one could build up their bodies relatively fast, although there was a limit to the amount you could do per day.
Building the body was important for upgrading your race, which Ryan also learned was more complex than he first thought.
His race started off being an F-Ranked Human, but after choosing his specialty, he became an F-Ranked Human Overlord.
He found a book called "Why you should start training your race today," the book was written by Dr. Porter of the Dragon Consortium.
In the book, Dr. Porter explained that building up your body was akin to building your foundation.
You could advance by taking special potions or cramming yourself with pills, but that would do a lot of harm in the long run.
Naturally attaining your upgrades in your race through daily exercise equates to a 50% increase in strength at B-Tier, as opposed to someone who artificially upgrades their rank.
Even the heavens say the same as when trying to level up your race artificially, cultivators will get a warning message saying that it could have permanent consequences if they choose to proceed.
Naturally, all the influential people already knew this, and when the coming of age ceremony happened for their children at 18, some had already achieved E-Rank in their race.
The book next went over the differences between race rankings. As an example, for humans, the ranks were Cursed Human -> Human -> Evolved Human -> Human Overlord.
Mostly these rankings were determined at birth. The children of two regular humans had a 0.01% chance of having a cursed human and a 99.99% chance of having a regular human.
Two evolved humans had a 99.98% chance of having an evolved human child and a 0.02% chance of having a cursed or regular human baby.
One evolved human having a child with a regular human would give them a 50/50 chance of having an evolved or regular with the same small chances of something going wrong.
No data was available for human overlords, but the book stated no one has ever been born an overlord.
Ryan also learned from the book that the "chosen" the girls were referring to weren't all overlords.
Humans chosen are called Overlords
The dragons chosen are called Dragon Kings
Phoenixes have chosen called Divine Feathered Monarchs
Demons have Demon Lords
Angels have the Celestial Winged Archangel
After reading about angels, he searched further but couldn't find anything related to them.
Focusing back on his workout Ryan finished his pushups and began to do squats.
These past three days, he had been mainly spending in the library when he was done exercising since he needed to fill the void of information.
His three girls were gone, and Emily still hadn't messaged him back.
He had thought about messaging her but decided against it. He knew he couldn't take the lead on this one.
Finishing his squats, he ran back to his dorm for a shower, then headed toward the library.
While he had been reading these past three days, he noticed two pairs of eyes watching him.
At first, he was cautious, but these pairs of eyes didn't carry with them any malicious intent.
Intending to introduce himself to the two pairs of eyes and the exquisite bodies they were attached to, he walked up to the library's counter.
His first watcher currently sat behind the desk. She had beige hair she wore up in a bun, thick rounded glasses, and a nice conservative flowery pink dress.
As she sat behind the counter, she was looking down, reading a book that gave her the perfect nerdy girl vibe.
"Hello, I'm looking to check out something."
Slightly startled by the close voice, the girl looked up from her reading.
Seeing Ryan's smiling face looking at her, she blushed and squeaked, "I'm not the librarian," Clearing her throat, she tried to sound more professional, "I can't process book checkouts. She should be back soon, though."
Tapping his chin, Ryan asked, "What if I'm not here to check out a book?"
"What would you be here to check out?" The girl asked obliviously.
Leaning towards her conspiratorially, Ryan whispered, "I'm actually here to see why two girls have been staring at me these past three days while I've been in the library."
"Oh, who are they?" The girl whispered back, leaning towards him to keep the conversation confidential while looking around for possible suspects.
"Well, I still don't know their names. I've only just started a conversation with one of them."
Nodding, the girl said, "Well, don't worry, Suzy will be back soon."
"We'll help you track them down and get answers from them."
"Oh, one of their names is Suzy." Ryan suddenly said.
Looking at him sideways, she asked, "I thought you didn't know any of their names?"
Just as she said, a black-haired beauty wearing high heels, a black mini-skirt, and a white blouse came through a door behind the desk.
Holding a coffee, she didn't notice Ryan standing in front of the desk and said, "Good morning Leah."
"Good morning Suzy. Have you seen anyone suspicious in the library these past three days?"
Putting down her coffee, she turned towards Leah, asking, "I don't think so. Unless you count the guy who started coming in three days ago. But he's only suspiciously ho-"
Failing to continue, she stared at Ryan, who was looking at her with a bemused smile.
Blinking, she turned towards Leah and slowly asked, "Why haven't you introduced me to your friend here?"
Blushing, Leah glanced at Ryan before leaning into Suzy and whispering, "Stop embarrassing me, mom. He just came for help."
Pinching her face, she whispered, "Don't call me that here. Here, I'm Suzy, remember?"
Clearing her throat, Suzy said, "Hello, my assistant tells me you need some help. What can I do for you?"
Biting his tongue to keep from cracking a smile, Ryan said, "Ah, yes. I came here to get to the bottom of a mystery."
"A mystery?" Suzy said, relieved he didn't bring up her previous words, which happened to be about him.
"Yes," Ryan nodded, "The mystery I find myself a part of is why two stunningly beautiful women constantly stare at me while I read in the library."
Opening her mouth to reply, Suzy felt her lips falter as she processed his words.
"Oh, and I think I now know their names."
"One is known as Leah, and the other goes by Suzy."