Samantha spoke up, "Shouldn't we check what we can do with our experience points first?"

Scott Blinked slowly, then nodded. "Honestly, yes. In fact, we should all see about using our respective orbs to heal before we go. It might even get rid of some of the gunk on our gear."

"Can you not do such after you return?" asked Vita.

He shook his head then made a face. "I think we almost did something terrible due to my own lack of foresight."

"What do you mean?" asked Kitty.

Scott pointed to the door then to his exchange orb. "Whenever I come back from a mission, I always touch my orb and heal up. In fact, I think we've done that every time we have returned here if we came in contact with the infected."

"The infected," Samantha took a step forward. "How likely is it that we might carry something from that world to another?"

"Minor at best, I think," said Scott. "I'm pretty sure the doors filter that sort of thing since they actively knock back anything that attempts to drag you out from one of them when you partially enter."

"You are not certain?" asked Vita.

"No, but it makes sense," he said. "However..."

"We should use our experience points to heal before moving on just in case?" asked Chaine.

"Yeah, the zombies were pretty thick during that mission. Blood and guts everywhere," said the blue haired champion. "The salvation area and the door should have cleansed a lot of that from our systems, but who knows what might be on our clothes."

The others went silent for a moment then looked to each other. No words needed to be spoken. There was no desire to turn another world into a zombie apocalypse no matter how unlikely that would be.

Chaine took Vita over to the guest exchange orb. The others went off to see what their own orbs had to offer.

Scott touched his exchange orb then requested a full-heal. The orb flashed lightly but did nothing else. His restoration to life in a new body, and acceptance of the deal offered by the game administrators, granted him pristine health status.

He glanced over to the guest exchange when a flash of light caught his attention. His eyes widened comically as he took in the sight of Vita floating in the air, naked as the day she was born. He did not blink for a full six seconds, the same length of time that she floated in the air.

When the light show died down, her undergarments returned once more. This time, however, they were not tattered and torn.

Scott continued to stare absent-mindedly until another light flashed and Chaine rose up into the air. His clothing disappeared. Revealed in all of his heroic glory, the sight of a floating naked Chaine caused Scott to wrinkle his nose then turn away quickly. "Eh? I'm sure someone would pay good money to see that, but I would pay better money to never have seen it," he grumbled quietly to himself.

Vita laughed warmly then glanced over to Scott, a certain sparkle in her eyes. He groaned a little. He'd whispered that bit, but she'd clearly heard him. Damned faux-elven hearing.

Scott coughed into his fist once and tried to fight down the color rising in his cheeks. At this point the princess of Ha-Ruul wearing her surprisingly tawdry undergarments was nearly as distracting as Samantha or Kitty in their everyday wear.

Briefly he considered the girls then smiled. The only one whom he'd seen naked for long periods of time was Saelil, and yet she also wore the least revealing clothing out of the trio.

"Enough of that..." he whispered. While they did somehow manage to survive their latest mission and successfully complete it to boot, there was much left to do.

"Do I do upgrades now, or take a few weeks to think about them?" he asked himself lightly. After he considered his options, he decided to at least see what had changed immediately regarding his status. The moment he attempted to check his status, however, a message screen popped up.

[System Administration Message]

You have accepted a divine contract.

This contract will cause you to forego your standard rewards package for the mission that you accepted. However, a pro-rated amount of your bonus experience earned for actions in the world setting will still be attributed. This additional experience will be granted in regards to enemies defeated due to the fact that you did successfully complete the mission, but defeat of individual enemies was not a requirement of the mission.

- Your fan base bonus will not be added.

- Days of life that you have currently remaining in your balance will be refunded.

[--]

Scott's eyes lit up as a smile crossed his lips. "Now that's good news!"

He would not get all of the bonus points that he would normally have gotten, but he immediately realized that the opponents he defeated were quite numerous. That extra experience might cover at least some of the expense accrued when he paid for maintenance costs and resurrections! Scott cleared the message and reviewed his status screen.

[Name: Scott Davidson]

[Age: 20]

[Race: Feral Kai Warrior][Third Class]

[Lifestyle: Shroom Soldier]

[Level: 7][4850/7000]

[EXP: 113460]

[Life Span: 1 year]

Hit Points: 559[1248]

Feroki: 308[686]

Floral Power: 308[336]

ATTRIBUTES

[Strength: 11.00[24.00][Resilience: 11.00[12.00]

[Vitality: 11.00[24.50][Dexterity: 11.00[12.00]

[Concentration: 11.00[12.00][Charisma: 11.00[12.00]

FEATS

[Lunar Revelation]

[Undying Beast Revelation]

[Altered Beast Revelation]

[Feroki Attunement]

[Improved Feroki II]

[Improved Regeneration III]

[Improved Hit Points III]

[Feral Kai Warrior Enhanced Senses]

[Soldier's Resolve]

[Improved Floral Power II]

[Improved Floral Power Regeneration II]

[Improved Strength II]

[Improved Vitality II]

POWERS

[Gravitas Super Jump][FP: 3]

[Burning Smash][FP: 0.75]

[Ferakai Awakening][FKI: 4+]

[—]

His good humor continued unabated as he saw how many experience points he earned as a result of their latest mission. Between the bonus items received, access to Ha-Ruul, and the experience earned a lot was accomplished due to one disturbingly difficult mission.

Scott's thoughts soon turned to his acquired items. He still had the coupon from the Battledome to consider as well. "I'll soon possibly have access to two new world settings... though Dead Men Walking is off the table for a while."

The most important items that he'd gained were the map that showed all treasures in a given area, even a hub area. There was no doubt where he intended to use that thing. Hellespont in the Bounty Star setting held several treasures according to the information that he'd gathered previously. His Nano-Cloud suit was one of them, but there were clearly others.

"Several is more than a few... Right?" he asked thoughtfully. He debated with himself for a moment and decided that there must be at least four or five treasures at that hub. The problem was that they would cost experience points to purchase, if his suit was any indication. While he did want to spend his experience points right now, they practically burned a hole in his non-existent pockets every time he thought about them, he could not in good conscience spend many of them until he knew what to expect.

Scott looked through his upgrades for a moment then nodded. There was not much that he could get for his Shroom Soldier lifestyle at the moment other than upgrades for his special abilities. He had nearly maxed out what that lifestyle had to offer. His racial ability offers were slightly better, but expensive.

He looked to his information regarding the experience points needed to reach his next level. "Less than twenty thousand to reach level ten... That'll unlike my last difficulty upgrade outside of Battledome victories."

Did he want to upgrade his level, though? It seemed like a bit of a no-brainer. His level multiplied everything from hit points to his feroki. The problem was that it was also something the system checked when it determined difficulty levels for mission assignments. A mission that was Ranked F for a level ten champion might be a nigh-impossible Rank D mission for someone at level one, even on an easy difficulty level.

After a brief moment passed he nodded. "Level ten has to be an important milestone level... I should upgrade to that point at least."

He grinned like an idiot right after he spoke, however. "Gonna check those treasures first, though."

Scott had less than thirty days remaining on their exclusivity after all. If he did not collect those treasures first, some other champion might wander in and take them. There was no guarantee that they would be particularly useful, but that was beside the point. He found far too few of them in the course of his adventures, and despite their utility they might prove to be worth something as a trade item, or as a companion upgrade.

There were other champions to consider, some of which whom might have cool treasures they do not need but would be willing to trade. Such thoughts caused Scott to frown. "You'd think we would have some sort of inter-champion auction site."

He looked around hopefully for a moment, but not surprisingly helpful menu appeared to grant him access to such a thing. "Yeah, let's not make it too easy for the champions to trade items, huh?"

Scott shut down his status information then looked over to Vita and Chaine. They were both still busy with the guest exchange.

Since he was going to spend a little time in Bounty Star while searching for treasure he opted to spend some more of his experience points on credits. Another four hundred sixty experience points were spent, bringing his credit total to a bit of six hundred thousand with the amount exchanged earlier and his left over credits from his last visit.

"That's all for now..." he said with a slight nod, "Can't be stupid and continue to spend all of my points at once."

Other opportunities might arise in the near future. Scott curtailed his desire to spend his experience points and sought out his companions. Perhaps they would find something worth purchasing.

Upon arrival in the companion area Scott's eyes widened. "Oh my. What's all this then?" he asked curiously, a cheeky grin slipping into place. This was certainly an interesting turn of events!