Chapter 66: A Short misunderstanding

Chapter 66: Chapter 66: A Short misunderstanding

Victor swung down off the Dire Lion’s back, boots landing soft in the snow, and started walking toward her.

She looked just as striking as the first time he’d seen her, wild, fierce, utterly unapologetic about either.

Barbarian dress didn’t leave much to the imagination, covering the chest and lower half and little else.

For a brief, treacherous moment Victor’s gaze lingered a beat too long on the expanse of toned skin exposed to the cold. His perverted side, dormant for a while now, flared right back to life the second he was standing in front of her again.

The fucking hell!

Something about this woman specifically always did that to him.

He cleared his throat and kept walking.

Kiki, for her part, stood frozen, studying him with open scrutiny. Something about him had ...changed.

It was something she couldn’t quite name at first. Then it clicked.

Confidence?

The Milkshake22 she remembered had always carried himself like he was apologizing for existing.

But that was all gone now, and replaced by someone who looked like he’d walk straight into a war and expect to win it.

Whatever had happened to him on the other side of that Boundary, it had left a deep mark.

Well, she was not lying about her guess. Only it had happened in a different world.

"Were you waiting for me all these days?" Victor asked, a small smile tugging at his mouth.

Kiki blinked. "...Days?" Forgetting that this was the first time he was openly addressing her on his own terms.

There was something domineering about it, that forced her to respond even when she didn’t want to.

"Yeah, I—" Victor paused, catching her expression.

"I’ve only been here about an hour." She said.

"An hour?"

Victor’s mind started working the numbers immediately.

Six days had passed in the real world since he’d logged out.

If only a single hour had passed here, that meant roughly one hour in Gavalon equaled something close to one hundred and forty-four hours back home.

Six days. One hour. A ratio of 144 to 1.

Which meant every single hour he spent in this world was costing him six full days on the other side?

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Victor’s shout echoed off the mountain cliffs around them, causing birds to fly off into the distance.

Kiki was taken back, wondering what exactly was going on. But she sensed that even if she asked right now Victor would not answer her.

The Direlions were no exception.

Victor paced around, the place.

"This can’t be. This can’t be right—" His mind raced, panic clawing up his throat. Six days. Six days gone, just like that, for an hour here. If that ratio held steady, he could burn through his entire two-week hotel booking in less time than it would take him to get back to the tribe village.

He forced himself to breathe. Panicking wasn’t going to fix anything.

Think. Think, Victor.

He remembered the first time he’d come through, how he’d woken back up a full year earlier than when he’d logged in.

Time clearly didn’t move the same between the two worlds, and if there was any mechanism controlling that, it had to live somewhere in the system.

He willed his status open and started scanning.

Vitals. Skills. Nothing useful there.

Then his eyes landed on it.

CONQUEST POINTS: 12

He paused. He’d never actually touched these.

Now that he thought about it, they did not even exist in the original game.

And it was earned through fighting back the Encroaching Darkness, sure, but he’d never once considered what they were actually for.

It was just a number sitting there...accumulating.

He clicked on it.

The panel expanded.

[Conquest Points — Exchange]

[Conquest Points have a range of uses. Some of which include the trading of certain legendary items that the player’s inventory may not allow through the passage between worlds.

Furthermore they could be used toTrade points for extended time within Gavalon. They could also be used...]

Victor’s eyes paused there. The other information was not important. At least it was not important at the moment.

He clicked on the relevant button, ignoring Kiki that had her hand waving in front of him, trying to catch his attention.

[Exchange Rate: 1 Point = 6 Days extended stay]

[Current Ratio: 1 Hour (Real World) = 6 Days (Gavalon)]

His eyes widened as he read it through twice.

That meant spending points essentially bought him more hours back home, by extending how long he was allowed to stay here before the clock on the other side ran out too far.

If he spent points here, the system would stretch his stay, giving him more real-world time to work with while he was logged in.

In simpler terms, six days in the real world was already 1 hour here.

Spending 1 Conquest point allowed him another six days here, for one hour in the real world.

The days and hour spent were vice versa depending on the world he was in. Tge only difference was that he was paying for one while the other one was free.

That was easy to understand. But this meant that he would be in a constant state for hunting Conquest points.

Unless for some rare situation like the first time he leveled up and it gave points to all his stats, he would have specifically kill creatures of the Encroaching darkness.

[Spend Points?]

[Y / N]

"Yes." He said it out loud without thinking, then clicked.

[How many points would you like to spend?]

He hesitated only a second.

"...Two."

[2 Points Spent]

[Extended Stay: +12 Days (Gavalon) / +2 Hours (Real World)]

[Conquest Points Remaining: 10]

He nodded at this breathing out a sigh of relief as he grabbed his chest.

After all, the time he took to fight the Direlion alpha and skin it of its mane had already ate from his time here.

He did not want a situation where he would go back to the real world and he would find that he was already six feet under because everyone thought he was dead.

Now that he thought about it, he had heard cases of people that everyone thought died but were still alive and died for a lack of air in the grave.

The image of him in a coffin, nose covered with tissue paper came to mind.

He shook his head hard, chasing it away.

Such a situation would break his father’s heart.

But with how dangerous his life had gotten, maybe leaving some money or will with his father would—

"Milkshae22!" Kiki called, snapping him out of his thoughts.

He turned to her. He could almost see the fumes from her head.

She was really pissed. "I think you have some explaining to do." She pointed at the Direlions that followed through with him.

Aside the four she had initially seen, Victor had come from the other side with two more.

That was a total of six Direlions. White, huge and proud.

Babarians were huge and tall and these things stood on almost equal height.

And then there was also the mane on his shoulder. Clearly, it was more treasured than all the Direlions combined.

Victor smiled, "let’s just say I came across good fortune."

"Good fortune?" She raised a brow, ’was this another one from the ancestors?’ She thought. ’Are they blessing him? This... useless thing?’

She had a look of irritation on her face.

It does not seem like she is buying what I am saying. It’s not like I don’t want to tell her that I killed a level six Direlion, but considering the way she is looking at me now, I don’t think she will believe.’

(Author’s note: but bro you defeated a basalt Dragonic lizard ??)

He looked at her once more.

No, she will definitely not believe me. But that does not matter. Besides, there is a rule with these kind of things in manwhas and animes. One must never tell with his own mouth. Ability speaks better.

And so Victor took several steps back, and then he dropped to his knees.

The act itself stunned her.

’Wait a minute... what is he doing?’ She looked at him then all around her.

Something clicked in her head. An old memory of her father, the former shaman of the tribe telling moonlight stories.

It was just like any other one. Except this night, the story felt deeper... more romantic, a concept barbarians were grossly unfamiliar with.

It was a story unlike many that were passed orally from ancient times.

’Father told me that kneeling before a woman in a scenic environment was the way the humans asked for mating opportunities from their females. Don’t tell me. Does he... with me? But I am betrothed to the chief of the tribe. Is that what he learnt on the other side?’

This was a thought process that made no sense to none other than the usual quiet Kiki herself.

Then again, like most, fantasizing about what lay on the other side of the boundaries, she had made up her own conclusions.

Conclusions that Victor was very unaware of.

Subconsciously, she tightened her grip around her broadsword. She was going to carve him in two if he even...

"Kiki, I, Milkshake22, Son of late king Zaza, ask for your..."