Disclaimer:English is not my first language.

Sometimes,I find myself in a conversation with homogenous groups of people whose interests are very different from my own.Usually,that results in me not talking very much,lowering my energy,and falling back into the "Mysterious guy" role(or so I hope).Even though it feels unnatural,it has given me relatively good results so far. But this event shook my paradigm a bit:

A group of 10(6M+4F) people(including me) was sitting on the beach,talking and drinking.4(2M+2F) people(including my designated target,HB7) were from the same university,and they,having no regard for the rest of us,spent the whole time talking about their university.HB7 was the leader of the conversation.6(4M+2F) people split up into 3 pairs and talked 1 on 1.Then my friend left me and tried talking to the 2F pair(HB6+HB9) (we were in a "pickup competition" there,so he made no effort to invite me to be his wingman with 2F). He was unsuccessful since they were so engaged in talking to each other.

So I tried talking to the original group,and even though I made some witty remarks,I could not consistently contribute to their dumb university conversation,and obviously could not make them change their topic to something more universal(bad pun intended).

Since nobody was paying any attention to me,effectively I was not a "mysterious man", I was a chump drinking and listening to dumb university stories.

Later,I managed to isolate HB7.I used Amused Mastery and physical escalation,and she became submissive rather quickly.I led her to a bench and we kissed.IN AN INSTANT SHE TOLD ME:"I did not expect this from you,you seemed so shy." She resisted me touching her breasts,so I said I was going back and she went home.

Later that evening I did pretty much the same thing with HB9. (it was much harder though,she stretched my PUA skills to the limit) She was clearly fascinated with me,but she said: "OMG you are so smart and interesting,but why were you not more active in the conversation before? I almost gave up on you there!"

It was pretty clear that I had no "mysterious man" appeal and that my lack of conversational dominance LOWERED my value with both of these girls.

Lowering my energy and effort and being less responsive has improved my game in the past, but is it time to go back a bit? Or should I dismiss this case,as we were all pretty young,and the 4 people talking about university were pretty oblivious to the fact that the rest of us were left out from the conversation.I would guess that with time,people tend to improve their social skills.

What should I do?All advice would be greatly appreciated,except the:"GO LIFT BRAAAAAH!" :D