In the end, he also agreed to her idea. If his look could help him achieve his goal, getting more students and money, then he would use it. After all, he just didn't want to work hard to get back his lost strength and skill. He wanted it to be easy and casual.
When they finished buying his stuff, Ava suggested they go out for dinner. Peter couldn't say no as he was also hungry.
The mall was pretty large and had a lot of restaurants inside it. Many people were walking around them or just sitting and enjoying their meals. Their attention was strangely focused on him. All the girls were giving him a glance or two while giggling to themselves as if he was interesting to them.
'Is this how beautiful girls feel back in my world? Their gazes on me feel like needles on my skin.' He thought to himself as he followed Ava into a small restaurant with a waiter greeting them.
She gave them a menu and they looked through it before ordering some dishes. While waiting for their food, Ava asked him again about his abilities and how it worked.
"To what extent can you see a person's growth?" She asked as she sipped her water, "Like... Can you see someone's growth limit or something?"
"Yes, I can."
Peter's answer surprised her slightly as she looked at him with interest in her eyes.
"Really? How high? Are you able to see every person's limit? And can you determine the best training method for them based on that?"
"That's basically my ability," Peter replied with a nod while leaning back against his chair, "I can see their status and how they grew during training. I will be able to see more detail if a person is willing to be my student. You can summarize my ability as a Coach-Student relationship."
"Like those in a game?"
"Exactly." He nodded.
That perfectly described his ability and how it worked. It was like a game where he could see a person's status and raise them. He didn't need to explain that he gained 10% of his trained student's growth as well, but he chose not to mention it at this point. It wasn't important.
"Oh... Interesting." She leaned back against her chair with a slight frown on her face before sighing to herself, "There must be a reason why Rasha told me about you."
"She doesn't know about this ability. I only told her I have the ability to help people train." Peter chuckled lightly.
"Haha, typical." Ava scoffed before looking at him with a knowing look, "That bitch got what she deserved. If she knew, I bet she's going to take you under her wing in the police force. Good thing you didn't tell her too much. Being a police officer in this world is not easy, especially for a man like you. You will face many sexual harassment there."
'Sexual harassment?' He raised an eyebrow at her. "Isn't that illegal?"
"Hmm? In what way?" She tilted her head to the side while looking at him, "You see, in this world, men are not allowed to have certain privileges. People with superior perk always use their authority to... let's say, make demands on their subordinates. And sometimes even hit on them."
Her tone was serious and full of bitterness as if she had witnessed something like that happening before. Peter only listened to her in silence, knowing that he couldn't do anything about it.
After all, he was still a man. And men didn't have any rights or privileges in this world. Or at least fewer than those of women.
"Of course, I won't do anything like that." She assured him with a smile on her face, "I have my own rules as a gym owner. No sexual harassment or discrimination based on gender or race. You can relax in my gym. Though I might try to seduce you when I am drunk." She giggled at him.
Peter smiled back at her with a knowing look in his eyes as if telling her he knew what she was trying to do. She would try to make him addicted to her and keep him inside the gym for her own gain.
Though he was ready for that.
'I will be the one to make you mine if you even try something like that.' He mused to himself with a small grin on his face.
They talked more about the gym and random things before finishing their dinner.
"Let's go-"
Just before Peter finished his sentence, an alarm blared out loudly in the mall.
Beep beep beep!
[Alert! A Rank 2 dungeon has appeared nearby! This is not a drill! Please evacuate the mall immediately!]
[Alert! A Rank 2 dungeon has appeared nearby! This is not a drill! Please evacuate the mall immediately!]
They both turned toward the speakers and looked at each other with worried looks on their faces.
"Dungeon? Right here?" Ava frowned as she stood up from her chair, "It's so sudden. I didn't even feel it coming."
Peter sighed to himself as he looked at the people around them who were starting to panic and run toward the exit. The ground suddenly rumbled and shook slightly as if something big was happening underneath their feet.
"We need to go." Ava grabbed his wrist and pulled him with her.
"Why?" He asked in confusion while being dragged by her, "The dungeon is about to appear here. It's a perfect chance to get stronger."
"It's dangerous! Not even I am confident to go in there." She snapped at him while looking at him with a slightly annoyed expression on her face, "I used to explore the dungeon, but I had a team at that time. And I will tell you it's not easy."
"I know that it's not easy." He answered while looking at her seriously, "I have survived 10 years inside a dungeon, filled with monsters ranging from Rare-Class to Calamity-Class."
"10 years? You've been inside a dungeon for that long?" She stopped and looked at him with shock on her face before chuckling wryly to herself, "It's not a time for a joke."
"I am not joking." He pulled his arm away from her grip and stepped back slightly while looking at her seriously.
"Awakeners will only get stronger if they face danger. I don't know about you or what you think about getting stronger. But from what I see, you still have a long way to go. You're still far from hitting your limit."
Hearing that, Ava's expression changed slightly as she looked at him with a complicated look in her eyes. She did want to get stronger. However, she thought that she had hit her limit. Breaking through a bottleneck wasn't easy.
After hearing what Peter said, she realized that she might have another chance to get stronger. If she faced the dungeon now.
"Are you using your ability on me?" She asked him suspiciously as she raised an eyebrow at him.