He flexed his muscles for a moment then smiled. "Nice."

"Now what?" he asked slowly. Did he really want to just rebuy his old upgrades? Was it even necessary? He now had a great new opportunity. No longer bound to a single body, he could custom build them around a specific theme. Albeit with limitations on the total number of body builds, and weird restrictions based on genetic variables.

"Human basic upgrades are fine. I'm already a little more disease and poison resistant overall from the hybridization, but not enough for it to count as a feat..." said Scott. He opened the upgrades menu then blinked. "The hell is this?"

What he saw was not the Earthling upgrade menu. It was a menu specific to his current bloodline. He had a few of the Earthling upgrades, and a further upgrade for the elemental feroki blast, but most allowed for greater enhanced coordination and senses in relation to certain weapons. There were only a small number of raw physical strength and vigor related feats.

"I'm not really in a close-combat body anymore, am I?" he said before looking down at himself. "Stronger than a normal human could ever be, but definitely better suited to gunplay than smashing through things like before. Is that what you're telling me?"

Most of the upgrades were actually quite low-end. It could be something to do with his level, as spending points on his stats had brought him back up to level two. They were also all more expensive than before. "Seriously, Improved Hit Point Regeneration One is a thousand experience points?"

It seemed that there was indeed a hidden cost to the hybridization system that the Life Werx offered. It made sense, but it was still irritating. The cost for many things had changed in the exchange system, but this amount of change was ridiculous.

One new feat did catch his eye, however. "Five thousand points for superior developmental training?"

His hybrid upgrades tailored to this body were few in number, but the ones that existed were eye opening. Expensive as hell, but highly intriguing! "I'll be having that..."

Scott purchased Superior Developmental Training, which doubled the speed that his stats grew through rigorous training, and Superior Feroki Ice Blast for another twelve thousand points. His level rose swiftly. It was close to where he was before!

"Twenty thousand points down..." said Scott to himself. He looked at the other hybrid options. There were only three more. One of them included Lunar Hit Point Regeneration, a feat that increased his hit point and health regeneration under the light of the moon. It was classed as a minor upgrade, though apparently superior to the incompatible normal human hit point regeneration feat.

In fact, most of the hybrid feats denied access to the normal human feats, and vice-versa. "Bestial Resolve... It's basically a better version of Improved Hit Points, mixed with a higher grade disease and poison resistance, and a faster hit point regen feat... incompatible with normal improved hit points and resistance upgrades."

"I see these feats cover most of the normal human physicality upgrades, but can't be upgraded further until my level is much higher," he said.

The third upgrade was called 'Life Force Enhancement.' It would upgrade his ability to produce excess life energy, which meant that it was the hybrid version of improved feroki upgrades designed to give him more of it. While the pure Feral Kai bloodline feats were not available, the hybridization of his two genomes allowed for a lesser variant to be used. Albeit, one that cost a small fortune in comparison

Another twenty-six thousand points were spent to acquire those feats. "Not a single direct strength, vitality, or resilience enhancement in the bunch."

A few other hybrid feats were left, but they were all related to coordination, weapons usage, and his senses. "Mind of the Warrior is expensive as hell, but it greatly reduces fear effects and increases concentration by three points... Best attribute upgrade I see."

Meanwhile, 'Senses of the Beast' upgraded all of his sensory abilities while allowing him to actually control how much stimulus he received.

"Why is it all so damned expensive!" snapped Scott. With a sigh, another twenty-two thousand experience points flew away. Rebuilding himself from scratch was just as irritatingly costly as he expected it would be and then some! A fanfare erupted from his exchange point the moment he purchased those upgrades.

[System Notice]

You have reached level ten, another milestone! Due to your rookie status, this qualifies you for alternate trials in the Battledome. Visit it sometime soon to see what you've been missing.

- You have also unlocked the difficulty level [Hell].

- You may now bring off-world items into Fear Rune that match the local technology level, even if they are not crafted via local means.

[==]

"Cool! Have to look into that," Scott checked his status then quirked his eyebrow. "Went past level ten a good while back, it seems. Expensive ass upgrades."

Seven thousand points shy of his fifteenth level, he figured it would be good to move beyond upgrades and head to skills. It did not take long to find that something unexpected had worked out for him.

"Shroom soldier kept its upgrades?" asked Scott. That was good news for once! He looked into it a little further then frowned. "And there it is..."

[Shroom Soldier]

While your current bloodline is compatible with the Shroom Soldier lifestyle the genetic variables cause instability. Your skills will remain unaffected, but several of your feats will be unavailable due to current genetic concerns and chosen bloodline feats.

[==]

"How the hell is that fair?" Scott frowned at the information screen. "It's because of how broken the Life Werx is, isn't it? You get this incredible ability to mix and match bloodlines, but it nerfs everything else."

Was it because of his bloodline infusion style, as the blurb suggested? "I get it. This is just a way to keep people from having extremely high-end feats along with custom bodies early on. It's an alternate upgrade path, really."

Scott didn't like it one bit, however. Lifestyles should not be nerfed, especially shroom soldier. It was unlocked from its racial line, after all. Of course, the fact that it was unlocked from a race specific lifestyle might be the problem. As a purebred race such as Earthling or Ferakai it probably worked just fine, but his hybrid nature seemed to be the issue.

"Extra stats would be good, but it's definitely the skills that I need most," said Scott.

"I wonder if adding a bit of the shroom people into my body would fix that problem?" He could not remember them all, given how long it had been since he had seen that bloodline information blurb, but he did recall that shrooms had a few good traits alongside some negative ones.

A quick check of his status caused him to nod knowingly. "Yeah, it denied me the same kind of stuff I couldn't use from the pure earthling bloodline because of the hybrid feats."

"Damn, already at close to a hundred thousand points spent." Scott sighed deeply. He was much weaker overall than during his brief stint as a purebred Feral Kai, but at least he would not go insane under the moonlight.

The hybrid upgrades were actually pretty good for what they did, but they were far too expensive. "I doubt I'll upgrade anything directly much in the near future. This is about as good of a base as I can get without throwing all my points away."

He rubbed his chin then considered more immediate needs. His nano-cloud suit might not work in Ha-Ruul, and he would certainly need a weapon that he knew would work there. He could always purchase high-tech weapons from Hellespont in the future, but for now a low-tech choice would be best.

Scott opened up the exchange menu and searched for Ha-Ruulian gear. The price for it was as expensive as always. "I still can't believe a standard Ha-Ruulian Longsword costs eight thousand freaking experience points! Why is a buckler twenty-one thousand? It's a damned buckler!"

His thumb lightly scratched his nose while the owner of said thumb shook his head. The Ru-Ru nuts at least made sense. They perfectly healed hit points and health in a few seconds. Twelve hundred experience per nut wasn't a bad deal at all. If anything their cheapness made him cringe. "Something that good and it costs less than a damned sharp chunk of metal?"

"There has to be a reason..." Scott stared at the sword. He needed that sword. There was no guarantee that a gun would work there, but he knew out of all of the items in the exchange that sword would work.

"I can get a gun for a few hundred points, but this sword is eight thousand. Hell, the knight sword is thirty-two thousand," said Scott.

"Why, dammit!" The mystery drew him like a moth to a flame. "I could buy a fucking armory for that much," he groused.

"Maybe I should ask Chaine and Vita, they'd probably know if there was anything special about Ha-Ruulian weapons that warrants such an obscene price tag," said Scott.

He checked the exchange a bit more then blinked. "Wait, the discount section."

Scott looked under discounts then grinned. "I thought I saw them there."

It was a ten-pack of Ru-Ru nuts, for ten thousand experience points. While it was probably more than he could possibly need on his next mission, it was definitely worth having.

Unfortunately, there was one thing that he would have to buy regardless of the situation, clothes. His nano-suit was fine for general wandering, but it might not be allowed in Ha-Ruul. The last thing he would want would be to pop up naked when he went to work.

The cheapest Ha-Ruulian armor he could find was, of course, a padded chain-mail armor set beneath a tunic. "Really?" he asked with a laugh.

"Fourteen thousand experience points, though..." It had better be damned good armor. That was all he had to say. With a sigh, he purchased the armor set then set the color design for black with a gold border. The chain mail took on a slightly golden hue as well to match the darker golden accentuation lines of the tunic. At the center of the chest sat a stylized golden winged circle.

The item appeared before him, and Scott held it up to see its status. What he saw caused his eyes to bulge slightly. "Holy shit! No wonder!"

[Combat Item]

Ha-Ruulian Adventurer's Garb

Level: 1/4

EXP: 0/1200

Hit Points: 0.37

Defense: 10

Durability: 70/70

Special Options

Resist Curse: 15% [No Upgrade]

Resist Elements: 10% [No Upgrade]

Improved Impact Resistance: +50%

Improved Slash Resistance: +120%

Increase Dexterity: +1[No Upgrade]

[—]

"This is definitely the reason," said Scott. "I guess the exchange shop only offers stuff that a true adventurer would wear when it comes to Ha-Ruul. This thing's the cheapest armor set and it's only a step below my nano-cloud suit."

Scott quickly donned his new apparel then grinned. "Like a glove," he said while he twisted one way and then the other. The suit came with the tunic, but also offered black leggings, black and gold shoes, a black cap with gold trim, and a set of black gloves. At his waist he had a belt with a single hip pouch that could apparently hold ten small items, and a sword sheath.

He eyed the other low-end Ha-Ruulian items. Swords and the like were actually hard to come by in the games that the world poked fun at. Sure, people had them but the ones worth getting had to be quested after.

Given how the tunic worked, Scott made an assumption based on cost. The standard Ha-Ruulian longsword would be like something worthy of a notable adventurer who just started out, or the beginning of a new Zelda game. The knight sword was probably worth a lot more as a weapon, but he had spent too much already. Scott took the risk. He purchased the Standard Ha-Ruulian Longsword.

[Combat Item]

Standard Ha-Ruulian Longsword

Level: 1/3

EXP: 0/700

Damage: 56

Durability: 88/88

Special Options

Blade Beam – (Weak)

[—]

"Blade beam?" Scott checked for further information then nodded. "As long as I have full hit points, I can send out a weak burst of energy that does one-fourth of the damage compared to the sword's base damage... Range thirty feet."

Scott went ahead and maxed out the sword, as it would be his primary weapon in the next mission. "Seriously? Are we serious right now?" he asked incredulously after he saw the results. There was only one thing he could upgrade directly, though the other aspects increased on their own to a small degree.

[Combat Item]

Standard Ha-Ruulian Longsword

Level: 3/3

EXP: 1400/1400

Damage: 80

Durability: 120/120

Special Options

Blade Beam – (Standard)

[—]

Scott threw back his head and laughed. "The upgrade means I can do as much damage with blade beam as with the sword itself..."

He was not drunk with power, so much that he was amused by how the numbers turned out. His maxed out longsword did slightly more damage than his old pistol, and the same as his nano-suit provided he bothered to max that out again. With over a hundred durability it could take a beating, too.

"The buckler... It's probably a good idea, but I'll hold off," said Scott. He had hit points, after all. If he maxed out his tunic he'd have at least another three hundred seventy of those. "This stuff should work in Fear Rune since it just looks like the same technology level, so that's something at least."

He maxed out his adventurer's garb then checked its stats one last time to be certain.

[Combat Item]

Ha-Ruulian Adventurer's Garb

Level: 4/4

EXP: 1800/1800

Hit Points: 370

Defense: 30

Durability: 130/130

Special Options

Resist Curse: 15% [No Upgrade]

Resist Elements: 10% [No Upgrade]

Improved Impact Resistance: +50%

Improved Slash Resistance: +240%

Increase Dexterity: +1[No Upgrade]

[—]

"So, it'd be over a hundred points of defense versus slashing attacks and about forty-five versus impacts..." Scott nodded quietly to himself then considered his next move. Inevitably, he realized that he lacked knowledge of swordsmanship. In a way it was weird to have a piece of armor with an actual defense stat. Most of the ones that he found only alluded to such a stat and added hit points. Even his nano-suit mostly relied on structural integrity and hit point production. Though, admittedly that thing was only a swarm of nanoscopic robots pretending to be skin-tight outerwear. His other items most likely didn't have enough worth to have much in the way of an actual defense stat.

A quick search through his exchange allowed him to acquire basic swordsmanship, and then upgrade it to novice swordsmanship. Unfortunately, he could increase it no further due to his level and lack of actual experience.

"I should try to get some real training soon, and read my engineering manual. If I change bodies, these granted skills might not come with me," remarked Scott thoughtfully. "Though, now that I think about it... could I even buy stuff like that before?"

Intellect score aside, a lot had happened recently including multiple body switches. It was hard to recall if he could always purchase skills of that type directly or not, when it came to things like swordsmanship. He did recall that he could buy feats that allowed for better usage of weapons. Though, at the moment he did not want to splurge on more feats.

Each of his bodies would have its own level, feats, and powers. In a way it would be like swapping avatars in an online game, but there was never more than one experience pool. He would need to give it a lot of thought before he made his next alt-character.