Discoveries

Randolph had asked Archibald to prepare food for a reason. The reason had popped up while they were making their way through the hotel.

I'm hungry…

It seemed like the moment he had gotten a bit of exercise, his body began demanding sustenance. It was fierce in its cry, his stomach nearly rumbling out loud several times during the walk.

The event had given birth to a few new conjectures in Randolph's mind as to why his body had become like this.

Walking further into his room, he very slowly stripped his body of its clothing. His every movement had to be deliberate. It was almost like a game of precision.

It was an exhausting ten minutes later than he tossed his suit to the ground, walking entirely naked into his suite's bathroom.

The large mirror on the bathroom wall stretched through the entire room, and it allowed him to get a solid view of himself in the mirror. As he turned on the shower tap, he surveyed his body scrupulously1.

"Huh…" Randolph couldn't help but be astonished as he looked at his reflection.

His body before – while having hidden muscles due to his constant labour – was thin. While he couldn't be called lanky, he definitely couldn't be called muscular. But his current body was an entirely different story.

Lean muscles roped themselves through his body, almost like knots. They weren't exaggerated or large, but they were incredibly chiseled, as if they had been refined carefully. The veins on his body stood out, blue, green, and red as steadily throbbed. It was actually slightly disturbing. It was as if they were trying to escape from his body. 

It was immediately obvious to Randolph at what had happened to his body.

The system took Arnold's muscles and converted it to my body. That's the only explanation.

But just to confirm the statement, he swiped open the orange screen in front of him.

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{Randolph Ivy}

Strength (STR) – 22

Dexterity (DEX) – 12

Constitution (CON) – 13

Intelligence (INT) – 18

Wisdom (WIS) – 20 

Charisma (CHA) – 18 

[Abilities]

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Indeed, his strength had increased by an entire five points – to 22 from its original 17 – confirming his guess.

But there were still several large questions that went unanswered in the young man's mind.

"…" Frowning, he washed his head as he thought.

The first problem was related to the system message that he had gotten after completing the trade with Arnold.

[STR Conversion Successful – Rate (7) > (5)]

The fact that the man's status points had lowered to 5 from its original 7 basically confirmed his guess that Arnold had been doping. He had probably been using steroids while he had been exercising, otherwise his arms, legs, and chest would not have looked so unnaturally large compared to the rest of his body.

This almost meant that there were differences in stat indicators between different people. If the strength conversion had fallen from 7 to 5, it could only mean that the system had converted that 7 to a higher quality 5.

But to Randolph, this stat quality difference likely only affected him and not other people.

The reason why? Well, it was because of his body.

While he couldn't say that the bulk of muscle was comparable to a bodybuilder, they were incredibly chiseled. They were almost like rock, spread throughout his body – even his smaller, lesser used muscles such as his fingers.

Simply put, the large and bulky muscles from Arnold's body had been distributed evenly throughout his body, increasing their overall quality.

The system basically converts the STR stat to its most ideal form.

Randolph knew this was no simple task.

When he had been observing the potential trade candidates in the gym, he had also been lifting weights at the same time to blend in.

He had pushed himself for four days straight, but his strength stat hadn't increased a single point.

The stats were fairly low numerically in the first place, which probably meant that every single increase was substantial. If there was a decimal counter it probably would have gone up, but there wasn't.

The ringing of the doorbell broke Randolph out of his train of thought.

Washing the shampoo off his head, the young man turned the tap off and exited the shower. As he slowly walked to the bedroom, he towelled his body off.

His wardrobe was fairly barebones, but it still had a selection of clothing that Archibald had picked out for him. Randolph didn't want to go through the tedious process of changing into a suit again with his current body control, so he picked out a set of casual wear to change into.

After doing so, he walked to the door. Pushing open the door, he was greeted with a bowing Archibald at the side in his usual position.

"My Lord, the food has been prepared."

"Fantastic."

Archibald straightened up, waiting for Randolph to move forward and lead the way. He stayed a few feet behind the young man, only moving forward to assist him in opening doors or pressing buttons.

It was already dark out in the day. The large glass window walls of the restaurant showed the nightlife of the city, with its interior lit by a dazzling array of golden lights.

Archibald directed Randolph to a closed booth that had already been preprepared. It held a great view of the city, and was mostly closed off by wooden separation boards. Only its front remained open and in view of the restaurant.

The table was a large one, round and circular. It could spin on its axis, allowing the diner to reach any food that they pleased, but Randolph didn't need it.

At the side of the table were two large trolleys of steaming hot food, to which Archibald stood by as Randolph sat down.

As the young man straightened out his clothing, the butler prepared his cutlery and handed him a disposable handkerchief before beginning to lay out the assortment of food on the table. He moved swiftly but elegantly, plating steaks, burgers, bowls of all sorts of soup, rice, meat pies, spaghetti, and all sorts of other food and setting them down in front of Randolph.

"I have prepared foods that are quick and easy to eat."

"Very nice. Would you like to sit and eat with me?" Randolph knew the man's answer, but decided to give it one last shot.

"Please have mercy, my Lord." As expected, the dignified butler only shook his head, his face showing no expression.

Nodding, Randolph turned his gaze to the variety of beautifully prepared dishes in front of him.

The sight was enough to make a man full just by looking, but Randolph had no such reservations.

The young man felt hungry enough to eat a horse, and that led him to his second unanswered question.