Chapter 22: Accumulated Growth

Two years later.

*Ahaaha*

"What time is it?" I thought aloud whilst rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and checking the time.

7:00 AM

Eh, it's pretty early, but it's time to get up regardless, since today's my big day. I finally set foot outside of vault 101. And man, I really can't wait to get out there and begin leaving my mark on the wasteland.

Pumped to start my adventure, I wasted no time and got out of bed and began getting dressed and ready for the eventful day I no doubt had ahead of myself.

Throwing my clothes on speedily, I cleaned myself up and went over my mental checklist in my head to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything that I'll need for my journey to the RobCo Facility. The second I was sure I had everything prepared, I moved onto the next big task at hand, that being to check my stats on my Pip-Boy and spend the level-ups I had accumulated over the years and turn in the quests I had completed ages ago.

Since this will be a massive upgrade in all my parameters, it will probably be a good idea to take a seat on the edge of my bed before I open up my Pip-Boy. There is a not so small possibility that I may pass out from the overload of information I'll be receiving from my skills increasing so much. And that's not even taking into account the adjustments my body is going to experience due to the massive increase in all of my stats that will happen right as I exit the holographic Pip-Boy screen.

With my next action decided, I sat down on my cushy bed and opened up my Pip-Boy to check my current stats. A split second later time began to freeze as usual and after a few moments had passed the same old holographic screen that I've grown very used to over the last several years appeared before me, displaying all the hard fought gains I've made since arriving here as a baby over a decade ago.

Pip-Boy

Level Ups Pending 9

Name: Harold Todd Woods

Age: 16

Height: 6 Feet 6 Inches

Body Weight: 295 lbs

Race: Human

Level: 6

Experience Points: 950/950

Total Experience Points Earned: 17,325

Experience Rate: 195%

Health: 690 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 30) + (Level# x 10) |

Healing rate: 2.8 Health a minute | Formula: 0.1 x Endurance

Carry Weight: 1,220/2,800 | Formula: (150 + Strength x 10) |

Resistances:

Armor: Body Damage Threshold 18, Armor Damage Threshold 166, Total Damage Threshold 184

Poison Resistance: 85% | Formula: (Endurance - 1) x 5 |

Radiation Resistance: 36% | Formula: (Endurance x 2) |

| S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |

Strength: 23

Perception: 14

Endurance: 18

Charisma: 8

Intelligence: 17

Agility: 15

Luck: 7

| Skills |

Barter: 57

Energy Weapons: 82

Explosives: 64

Guns: 91

Lockpick: 53

Medicine: 83

Melee Weapons: 75

Repair: 99

Science: 99

Sneak: 58

Speech: 59

Survival: 49

Unarmed: 66

Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|

Perks: |All Seeing|, |Ambidextrous|, |Monstrous Physique|, |Daddy's Boy Rank 1|, |Educated|, |Gotta Go Fast|, |Herculean Strength|, |Human Supercomputer|, |Junk Rounds|, |Stimpak Addict|, |Swift Learner|

Mutations: 

Gear: 10,000x 7.62 rounds, 200x .50 MG rounds, |12G Laser Pistol|, |AER 18 LMG|, |Anti-Material Rifle|, 10x |Anti-Material Rifle Magazines|, 2x |Combat Knife|, |Exterminator Armor|, |Exterminator Helmet|, |Guillotine|, 100x |Med-x Syringes|, 20x |MFC Grenades|, |Mulcher|, |Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazine|, 100x |RadAway|, 5 |Serrated Spears|, 100x |Stimpaks|, |War Belt|

Loot: 500,000 7.62 rounds, 20,000 .50 MG rounds, 100 Anti-Material Rifle Magazines Assortment Of Automated Manufacturing Machines, 1 Big Book Of Science, Black Altyn Helmet, Black Hardened Metal Armor, 10,000 Med-x Syringes, 10,000 Bottles Of Modified Buffout, 250 MFC Grenade, 20,000 Microfusion Breeder Cells 100,000 Microfusion Cells, 4 Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazines, 10,000 RadAway, 100,000 Stimpaks, 4257 Duct Tape, 25,815 Scrap Electronics, 154,821 Scrap Metal, 6,892 Wonderglue, 724,892 Other Misc. Stuff.

Robots: Hauling Bots 5, 2 Mining Bots, Sentry Bots Gatling Laser Variants 2, Worker Bots 40

Quests: 2 Ready to turn in, Many in progress, 2 Completed

Quests In Progress:

| Surpass Your Human Physical Limits | Objectives: Reach a value of 11 in every S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Rewards: New Perk?, 10,000 exp, and 10 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points.

| Save dad | Objectives: Prevent the death of your father, James Watson Woods. Rewards: New Perk? and 5,000 exp.

| Mole Rat Exterminator | Objectives: Kill 100 mole rats. Rewards: 1,000 exp.

| Seeker Of Knowledge | Objectives: Continue to hoover up all knowledge in the vault library till there is nothing left. Rewards: 3 Intelligence Points and 2,500 exp.

| Take Over The RobCo Facility | Objectives: Clear out all hostile forces and set up shop. Rewards: Perk RobCo Certified, 5 Science Points, 2,000 exp.

| Take Over Raven Rock | Objectives: …

| Orbital …

Other Statistics:

Kill Counter: 462

Animals Killed: 462

Damn, I've made some serious gains this last year and a half since I hopped on my modified Buffout recipe. I basically look like a Mr. Olympia competitor at this point, which I'm not complaining about since I can still touch my back. Though that's only because of me gaining the perk Gotta Go Fast perk for surpassing 11 agility.

| Gotta Go Fast | Requirements 11 Agility: You've surpassed human limitations for agility. For achieving such a feat you've gained the ability to jump 11 feet which will increase by 1 foot for every point additional in agility after 11, a max speed of 30 miles per hour + agility, and you can now twist yourself into a pretzel, unfortunately not literally.

My agility, endurance, and strength S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s especially. Those three are progressing at such an accelerated rate now that I kinda find it to be a bit ridiculous. But I suppose that's what happens when you modify a performance-enhancing drug that blows all other known compounds from my previous world out of the water. While also combining that with a large amount of stimpak use for accelerated healing and recovery.

Moving on from that, I see I have a new stat called healing rate, which seems to have appeared because of a new perk I got from using so many stimpaks after and during my training.

| Stimpak Addict | You've abused stimpaks so much that you've gained a slight passive regeneration ability. + 1 health regen per minute.

That will definitely be very helpful in any future activities that cause damage to my body, like hard training and combat, to name two. Hmm, I wonder if there will be any higher ranks of it I can get... Well, there's no real reason to put too much thought into it right now, because only time will reveal if there is one or not.

Continuing on to the next thing in my stats, my skills have massively improved over the years as well, particularly repair and science, both of which are sitting right on the border of 100. I could use my big book of science, however I think I'll hold off on that till I get the Comprehension perk.

After spending a bit more looking over my stats and how to best go about using my accumulated level-ups and quests. I settled on turning in the Seeker Of Knowledge quest first to get the bonus three intelligence that will increase my experience rate by an additional 15% bringing my total experience rate from 195% to 210%.

Upon turning that quest in, I received 4,875 experience from the quest gaining another two-level-ups to use. Bringing my total level-ups available to spend to 11 of which 6 will have to be used for the Intense Training perk along with the use of my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Book. The one I've been holding onto for all these years for this exact moment so I could finally meet the requirements of the Surpass Your Human Physical Limits quest.

Ding! New Perk

Ding! New Perk

| Adeptus Mechanicus | Requirements Repair 100: You emit a field of energy that repairs all objects around you in a 10-meter radius. This field grows in size and strength the higher your repair skill is and is controlled via your will. +1 meter and 1% repair rate per 10 skill points above 100.

| Mechu-deru | Requirements Science 100: Grants the ability of intuitive understanding of mechanical systems, and the ability to exert your will on any and all mechanical constructs. Grows in strength and power the more skill points you have in science.

Oh, fuck, those are a couple of strong perks... I wonder if I can repair all those broken armored vehicles that are spread all across the wasteland with Adeptus Mechanicus. It would certainly give me quite a boost in combat power if I can. As for that second perk, Mechu-deru I can see that being exceptionally useful in controlling and managing my future robot army.

Now that I'm thinking of it, I could also use it to take over that A.I. zax unit, John Henry Eden, inside the Raven Rock bunker. Doing that would grant me access to all the data he has stored within his data banks. That most likely consists of a shit load of valuable information ranging from blueprints and technical documents on the various advanced technologies such as the advanced power suits they arm their forces with to the Vertibirds they use to rapidly transport and deploy their troops around the wasteland.

If I get my hands on that knowledge, I could use it to literally make myself into the preeminent force here in the area. Having control of such advanced technology would give me the ability to take over the entirety of the capital wasteland and once that's done I can move on to the next step that will probably be to head southwest to new vegas to take it over. But before I head to new vegas, I think I'll take a pit stop at Area 51 to see if it has any alien tech.

Moving on from Raven Rock, I looked the two of them over again, coming up with several other ideas in the process. I then continued onto my next step and exited out of my Pip-Boy, undoing the freeze on time. The instant the clock resumed, I grabbed my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Book and added one point to charisma, bringing its total up to 9. When that was taken care of, I went back into my Pip-Boy, refreezing time again.

With my stats displayed to me again moments later, I gave them a look over to see if anything major had changed and noticed nothing. Thus, I moved on to spending my stored level-ups, causing the holographic screen to change to the perk selection screen that I've not seen in a very long time.

Once there, I ignored all the perk choices and selected Intense Training 6 times in a row where I distributed 2 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points right away into charisma bringing its total up to 11. Which unlocked another useful perk as soon as the distribution for charisma was finalized.

| Silver Tongue | Requirements 11 Charisma: You've surpassed human limitations for charisma. This feat has given you the ability to converse with all sorts of different animals, such as but not limited to Deathclaws, Yao Guai, and rabid dogs, not that they'll listen if they aren't already pretty tame.

After giving it a look over and finding its future uses very interesting. Such as using it to tame different mutated creatures, I distributed the remaining S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points into luck, bringing its total up to 11 too. Those actions of mine then unlocked another very great perk with a ton of potential for me to abuse at a later date.

| Walking Treasure Detector | Requirements 11 Luck: You've surpassed human limitations for luck, hence you've gained the ability to smell out treasure and situations that should go horribly wrong for you now somehow end up turning around and going pretty well. In addition to that, your base critical chance is increased from 1% to 2% and skill increases gained through luck are doubled.

That crit chance will increase my overall damage potential substantially. I'm sure it'll come in clutch one day. That aside, the ability to find where loot may be hidden will be indispensable in my wasteland exploration.

As I was thinking about the many benefits, this perk brought me two more dings simultaneously, notifying me that I received two new perks.

Ding! New Perk

Ding! New Perk

Hmm, they must've been unlocked from the increase in skill points I got from my luck increasing. Let's see if they're any good.

| Bulletstorm | Requirements Guns 100: You are now somehow able to magically increase the damage of all weapons that fall under the guns category by 1 for every 10 additional skill points you have in this skill after 100 as well as increasing the velocity of all projectiles fired from guns without an increase in recoil.

| Medical Genius | Requirements Medicine 100: You've gained the ability to rapidly regrow the limbs of others as well as yourself once a day. The number of times this ability can be used will increase by 1 for every additional 100 skill points in medicine beyond 100. Alongside that, you've also gained the unfathomable ability to resurrect anyone or any creature, no matter the state of their body, at the cost of half of your lifespan.

Holy, those two perks will be pretty broken later on once I get a ton of points dumped in them. I can already see myself pouring a load of skill points into guns, basically turning my 7.62x51mm minigun into a 30mm GAU 8 gatling cannon, gatling gun go brrrrr.

As for the Medical Genius perk, being able to regrow limbs sounds super useful, even though I doubt I'll be using very often, if at all. That resurrection ability is in the same boat too. I have no desire to reduce my lifespan by 50%, hence, I'd probably never use it seeing how the price for doing so is quite steep after all.

Despite me saying that if someone close to me died like my dad or Amata, I'd 100 percent use it. Although before I pull the trigger, I would do everything possible to come up with some sort of solution to the lifespan reduction situation. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get working on that in the next couple of years, just in case.

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The next releases will be today and tomorrow.

If you want something else to read, that's similar to this, check out my other webnovel Wasteland Conqueror. It has a lot more chapters released.