Chapter 34: Growing Pains

Date Thursday, August 8th, 2261

Today's the day I spend those level-ups I've accumulated. However, because I might undergo some physical changes, it probably isn't the wisest choice to spend them this instant. There is also the fact that I'll more than likely experience an immense amount of pain from having my noggin stuffed to the brim with a massive amount of new information thanks to my skills increasing from the level, so there's that as well.

I don't exactly wish for Alice and my family to come rushing from their beds to find out what's going on if I start screaming in pain. Guess I'll be waiting until I get to the Genesis Foundry before I finally pull the trigger and do it.

Rested and excited to spend my long accumulated level-ups, I ventured downstairs to workout and continue improving my various physical attributes.

…

Hours later, Alice, gramps, and I reached our destination, thus we exited gramp's armored truck, crossed the parking lot with myself leading the way a bit due to my excitement, and entered inside in little to no time.

Once inside, I turned to them and said. "I'm going to spend my accumulated levels today, so there are a few things I want to go over with you guys since I don't know what exactly is going to happen."

"Like what?" Alice asked.

"Fire away, I'm all ears." Gramps said in his usual rough and deep voice.

"The last time I leveled I experienced, for lack of a better word, a shit ton of pain and that was only from one level up. This time it'll likely be exponentially worse with me going through one level up after another so I may or may not black out. If that indeed happens, do not approach me or touch me because I may unintentionally cause harm to one of you unintentionally due to there being a possibility of me not having full control over whatever new strength I've gained."

"Gotcha, Alice, and I won't approach you recklessly. But if there's a need to, I'll be the one to do so. Can't have you hurting your little wife, hahaha." He responded, cracking a joke at the end while Alice nodded, although somewhat reluctantly.

"Thanks, gramps."

"No problem, kid, that's what I'm here for. You want some pain meds before you start?" Gramps followed up.

"No need. I've already made the necessary preparations." I said while we continued to walk to the location I intended to undergo my leveling process.

My group and I eventually arrived in front of a thick metal door that led into a small 10-foot by 10-foot room. Opening the door, I headed inside and walked over to a safe that was embedded into the concrete walls, and after the biometric mechanism scanned me, mechanical noises ensued before it unlocked, revealing its valuable contents. What lay within were many medstims and about a dozen syringes of P-Dex, an extremely potent pain suppressant.

| Medstim |

Weight: 0.05

Value: 1,000

Description: An injector filled with a cocktail of super nutrients and other miscellaneous chemicals and compounds that help facilitate accelerated healing and regeneration.

| P-Dex Syringe |

Weight: 0.025

Value: 2,500

Description: P-Dex is an extremely effective pain suppressant that comes in both oral and injectable forms, though the latter is much more effective and faster-acting.

"Alright, wish me luck, guys. Gramps, can you close the door for me?"

"Sure thing, kid, and good luck."

Before he could begin to close the door, Alice rushed past him and latched onto me one last time to say. "I love you, Dom. Good luck." Suddenly planting a kiss on my lips.

"Ohh, you two lovebirds have reached that stage already." Gramps commented from the door.

The kiss ended several seconds later, and once it did, I replied in kind. "I love you too, Alice. I'll see you in a bit."

Hugging her tight one final time, I sent her out of the room and had gramps close the door sealing me in to undergo my transformation.

Ready to get started, I began taking my clothes off until I was wearing nothing but my jet-black boxer briefs. Moving to the next step, I strolled back over to the safe and reached in, retrieving one medstim.

After injecting one, I grabbed another, and another, and injected them across my body. I followed that up with many more of them until my entire body was filled with a cocktail of chemicals and super nutrients contained within the medstims.

It's a good thing you can't overdose on these. If I did this with P-Dex, I would be deader than dead.

My body loaded to the brim with medstim, I placed the empty injectors off to the side to be recycled at a later date and grabbed a singular P-Dex syringe next. With the syringe in hand, I carefully placed it in the desired area and plunged into my right arm's skin, controlling my body's defenses to allow it to pass through.

The needle slid in easily, like a hot knife through butter, with my body's defenses lowered in the desired area. Needle in my arm I dumped its contents into it and the instant it was depleted I withdrew the spent syringe and placed it off to the side like I had done with the numerous medstims previously.

All necessary preparations made, I walked over to a comfy cushion chair I had placed in the room and sat down reclining into it.

It's time.

Willing my status into existence, I looked over the hard gains I fought for over the last year.

[ Status ]

Name: Dom Mason Woods

Age: 11

Height: 6 Feet

Body Weight: 230 lbs

Race: Human

Level: 2

Experience Points: 3,000/3,000 | Formula: Next Level# x 1,000

Total Experience Points Earned: 72,277 

Experience Rate: 200% ⇮ | Formula: 100 + (Intelligence x 5)

Health: 1,160 ⇮ | Formula: 100 + (Endurance x 20) + (Level# x 10) x 2

Healing Rate: 0.0933 Health Per Second/5.6 Health Per Minute ⇮ | Formula: (0.2 Health Per Minute x Endurance) + 1

Stamina: 2,240 ⇮ | Formula: 100 + ( Endurance x 20) x 4

Stamina Regeneration: 1.533 Stamina Per Second/92 Stamina Per Minute ⇮ | Formula: (1 Stamina Per Minute x Endurance) x 4

Carry Weight: 0.125/600 ⇮ | Formula: 100 + (Strength x 50)

Critical Chance: 10% | Formula: Luck x 1

[ Effects ]

[ Armor ]

Body Damage Threshold 23 ⇮ | Formula: Endurance x 1

[ Resistances ]

Radiation Resistance: 23 ⇮ | Formula: Endurance x 1

[ Attributes ]

Strength: 10 ⇮

Agility: 7 ⇮

Endurance: 23 ⇮

Intelligence: 20 ⇮

Perception: 16 ⇮

Charisma: 8 ⇮

Luck: 10

[ Skills ]

Ballistic Weapons: 100 ⇮

Energy Weapons: 100 ⇮

Explosives: 94 ⇮

(T)Heavy Weapons: 110 ⇮

Leadership: 77 ⇮

Lockpick: 90 ⇮

Medicine: 96 ⇮

Melee Weapons: 100 ⇮

Piloting: 65 ⇮

(T)Repair: 100 ⇮

(T)Science: 100 ⇮

Speech: 75 ⇮

Stealth: 90 ⇮

Survival: 95 ⇮

Trade: 90 ⇮

Unarmed: 99 ⇮

Skill Points Gained Per Level Up: 22 ⇮ | Formula: (Intelligence x 1) + 2

[ Traits ]

| Gifted | - | Sex Appeal | - | Skilled | - | Take Another Rank 1 |

[ Perks ]

Active Perks: 

Passive Perks: | Bookworm | - | Champion Level Muscle Genetics | - | Human Supercomputer | - | Monstrous Physique | - | Rare Cardiovascular Genetics | - | Talented |

Combo Perks: | All Seeing | - | Devastator |

[ Mutations ]

[ Gear ]

Weapons: 

Weapon Magazines: 

Armor: 

Clothing: Jet Black Boxer Briefs

Aid: 

Ammo: 

Miscellaneous: 

Money: 

[ Other Stats & Bonuses ]

Attribute: +150% to endurance gain, +50% to intelligence gain, +150% to strength gain

Body: +50% to blood circulation, +300% to ligament strength, +300% to ligament growth speed, +100% to muscle growth speed, +100% to muscle density, +300% to tendon strength, +300% to tendon growth speed

Brain: +200% to brain processing power ⇮, +100% to reading speed, +1 to thought processes

Damage: Heavy Weapon Damage +55%

Health: +100% to health, +1 health regeneration per minute

Perception Field: Range 16 meters ⇮

Skill: +25% to skill gain speed

Sleep: Required Sleep 4 Hours

Stamina: +400% to stamina, +400% to stamina regeneration

Velocity: Heavy Weapon Velocity +55%

Kill Counter: 0

[ Items ]

Weapons: A-50 Anti-Material Rifles (100) - AALP-3 Laser Pistols (1,000) - AALR-6 Laser Rifles (1,000) - AAGL-5 Gatling Lasers (100) - AK-108s (100) - AKMs (100) - CA12 Combat Shotguns (100) - Carl Gustafs (100) - Combat Knives (5,000) - F-60 Flamethrower (100) - FBLAR-1 Laser Assault Rifles (2,538) - Grandpa John's Combat Knife (1) - HK416s (100) - M56 Miniguns (100) - M76 Miniguns (100) - M90 Frag Grenades (5,000) - Microfusion Cell Mines (24) - NPDMs (100) - T-4 Plasma Grenades (1,000) - TBT Sniper Rifles (100)

Weapon Magazines: 5.56mm Minigun 500 Round Drum Magazines (500) - 5.56mm Minigun 1,000 Round Backpack Magazines (200) - 7.62mm Minigun 500 Round Drum Magazines (500) - 7.62mm Minigun 1,000 Round Backpack Magazines (200) - A-50 Anti-Material Rifle 10 round Magazines (1,000) - AK-47 30 Round Magazines (1,000) - AK-47 75 Round Drum Magazines (200) - CA12 Combat Shotgun 12 Round Drum Magazines (1,000) - NPDM 100 Round Drum Magazines (1,000) - 5.56 STANAG 30 Round Magazines (10,000) - 5.56 STANAG 60 Round Quad Stack Magazines (10,000) - 5.56 STANAG 100 Round Drum Magazines (3,000) - 7.62 STANAG 20 Round Magazines (2,000)

Armor: Heavy Trooper Set (1)

Clothing: Sets Of Clothes (25)

Aid: Medstims (1,049) - P-Dex Bottles (10) - P-Dex Syringes (50)

Ammo: .50 BMG Rounds (255,216) - 12 Gauge Shotgun Shells (112,894) - 5.56x45mm Rounds (2,942,002) - 7.62x39mm Rounds 1,058,167 - 7.62x51mm Rounds (2,248,356) - 80mm Missiles (1,000) - 84x245R RCL Rounds (1,000) - Flamethrower Fuel (1,000) - Microfusion Cells (1,250,023) - Microfusion Breeder Cells (4,998,265)

Skill Books: All Things Gun (4) - Atomic Power (3) - Bigger Is Always Better (3) - Book Of Engineering (3) - Boom! (2) - Conversationalists Notebook (3) - Drifting & Racing Weekly (2) - Encyclopedia Of Medical Advancements (3) - Entrepreneur (2) - Future Science (3) - Last Man Standing (3) - Leaders Of The World (4) - Martial Master (2) - Martial Weapons Guide (2) - Master Of All Trades (1) - Security Systems Monthly (3) - Stealth 101 (2)

Miscellaneous: A Large Assortment of Automated Manufacturing and Processing Machines - Small Arc Furnaces (2) - Automated Ammo Manufacturing Machines (1) - Automated Weapon Manufacturing Machine (1) - Automated Weapon Magazine Manufacturing Machine (1) - Lockpick Set (1) - Metal (59,952,237) - Stealth Packs (7) - Ore & Other Minerals 154,736,824 - Other Misc Items (47,970,284)

Money: Dollars (25,000,000) - Undercity 7 Credits (53,457,144)

Robots: Crusader (1) - Multibots (35)

Turrets: ZBR-2 Laser Turrets (55)

Vehicles: 

| Production Capacity |

Aid: 

Ammo: 100,000

Apparel: 

Dollars: 

Metal: 500,000

Miscellaneous: 300,000

Ore & Minerals: -600,000

Robots: 0.1

Turrets: 1

Vehicles: 

Weapons: 100

Weapon Magazines: 1,000

[ Quests ]

Ready to turn in: 2

Completed: 0

In progress: 14

(Daily) | Workout | Objectives: Complete your daily workout. Reward: 10 exp.

| Area 51 | Objectives: Gain access to Area 51 by any means necessary and explore the site from top to bottom. Rewards: Perk | Alien Researcher |, 40 Repair points, 40 Science points, 40 Medicine points, 450,000 exp.

✩ | Business Tycoon | Objectives: Obtain 10,000,000,000,000 Dollars worth of assets by any means necessary. Rewards: New Perk?, 15,000,000 exp.

| Harem | Objectives: Enter a long-term romantic relationship with at least 3 women. All women must be aware of each other and okay with the arrangement of sharing you. Reward: 5,000 exp.

| Master All Trades | Objectives: Reach a minimum of 100 for every skill you have. Rewards: Perk | Master Of All Trades |, +5 to all skills, 27,500 exp.

| Maxigen Improvement | Objectives: Research, improve, and remove the negative side effect of the Maxigen drug. Rewards: Perk | Drug Researcher |, 5 Medicine points, 5 Science points, 2,500 exp.

✩ | Molemen Removal | Objectives: Exterminate the molemen from your mine and the connected cave system. Rewards: Perk | Beginner Miner |, 3 Attribute Points, 100,000 exp.

| Nevada Conquest | Objectives: Become the undisputed number one power in Nevada and take control over the state in its entirety. Rewards: Perk | Territory |, 25 attribute points, 250 skill points, 10,000,000 exp.

| Pablo Escobar Jr. | Objectives: Establish drug production and earn 10,000,000 dollars from the sale of your products. Rewards: Perk | Drug Kingpin |, 10 Medicine points, 30,000 exp.

| Power Surge | Objectives: Win the battle for Hoover Dam and become the sole owner of it. Rewards: Perk | Power Surge |, 5 attribute points, 25 Repair points, 250,000 exp.

◊ | Production Underway | Objectives: Start manufacturing and producing the many items you'll need for your dangerous journey. Rewards: 2 Repair points, 2 Science points, 3,750 exp.

◊ | Seeker Of Knowledge | Objectives: Find a way to start acquiring this world's knowledge and accumulate an entire library's worth. Rewards: 3 Intelligence Points and 4,500 exp.

| Suited Up | Objectives: Open up the armories at Fort Kern and acquire a suit of power armor. Rewards: Perk | Mobile Armory |, 5 Lockpick, 75,000 exp.

| Surpass Your Human Limits | Objectives: Reach a value of 11 in every attribute.

Rewards: Perk?, 10 attribute points, and 100,000 exp.

| Take Over The Cyberdynamics Robotics Facility | Objectives: Clear out all hostile forces and set up shop. Rewards: Perk | Certified Roboticist |, 5 Science Points, 25,000 exp.

| Wasteland Conqueror | Objectives: Conquer the wasteland and take over Earth in its entirety. Rewards: ???

It's been a hard year but a very fruitful one, so fruitful. In fact, I'm nearly out of space to continue accumulating resources and items. I really need to get rid of those moles ASAP so I can start extending into the mine for space. If I don't get rid of them soon, I'll be up to my ears in all sorts of shit... Well, best get to it, thinking further on this ain't gonna help me for shit.

With my stats seen and my ideas of extending my facility into the mines for more storage space set aside for the minute, I initiated my level up. After fiddling around with things, I tried to figure out a way to level up one by one. Unfortunately for me, it seems there was another change from the games.

Fuck, why can't I use my level-ups one at a time. I could do it in the game. Why can't I do it here.

Beginning to sweat bullets remembering the pain I experienced in the past from my first level up, I kept clenching and unclenching my fists, imagining the hell I was going to have to experience to gain my new strength.

Fuck, of course, something was bound to go wrong, and it just had to be this.

Whatever, there's nothing I can do about it except power through it and come out on top.

Circumstances changing, I got up and retrieved another P-Dex Syringe and injected it quickly into pumping its contents into my other arm.

Alright, let's do this.

[Do you wish to level up?]

[Yes] - [No]

Selecting yes the long unseen perk screen popped into existence.

[ Perks ]

Perk Points Left: 9

Level 0 Perks

| Ambidextrous | Requirements Level 0, Perception 8: Gain the ability to use both of your hands as if they were your dominant hand.

Level 4 Perks

| Addiction Resistant | Requirements Level 4, Medicine 60: Half as likely to get addicted to drugs.

| Character Builder | Requirements Level 4: Take 1 more trait.

| Marathon Runner | Requirements Level 4, Endurance 5, Agility 6: +15% to stamina and stamina regeneration.

| Reading Fanatic | (Ranks 4) Requirements Level 4, Intelligence 5: Gain 2 more skill points from skill books and +25% to reading speed.

Level 6 Perks

| Brute | (Ranks 5) Requirements Level 6, Endurance 6: +3 DT

| Looter Shooter | Requirements Level 6, Luck 5, Ballistic Weapons 35: Stumble across significantly more wealth and things you consider of value. Along with that, deal 10% more damage.

| Natural Born Learner | Requirements Level 6, Intelligence 6: Knowledge is power, educate yourself. +2 additional skill points every level up.

| Nature Affinity | (Ranks 3) Requirements Level 6, Charisma 6, Survival 85: Gain an affinity with nature. Animals and various creatures perceive you in a better light and will no longer attack you unless they have a reason to.

Level 8 Perks

| All The Loot | Requirements Level 8: One man's trash is another man's treasure, items with a weight of 5 or lower now weigh half as much.

| Boomstick | Requirements Level 8, Ballistic Weapons 85: +50% damage to shotguns, and when shooting with one, whatever you are targeting tends to go boom and get ripped to shreds.

| Observant | Requirements Level 8, Perception 5, Medicine 50: When looking at someone or something, you will now know how much health the target has and what their DT is, as well as any other resistances they may possess. Additionally, you gain a +1 to perception and your eyesight improves by 100%.

| Heavy Weapon Expert | (Ranks 5) Requirements Level 8, Endurance 5, Strength 5, Heavy Weapons 50: +20% Damage and accuracy with heavy weapons.

Level 10 Perks

| Always Aware | Requirements Level 10, Perception 5, Survival 55: Unlock the ability to sleep comfortably anywhere and remain aware of your surroundings at all times, even while asleep.

| Escape Artist | Requirements Level 10, Perception 8, Agility 5: You no longer set off traps unintentionally, mines, and other related devices. Also, you can slip out of holds very easily as if you were oiled up.

| Knowledgeable Sponge | Level 10, Intelligence 5: This perk lets you obtain knowledge as well as experience at a faster rate. +50% to reading speed, +25% to skill gain, and +10% to experience gain.

| Space Farer | Requirements Level 10, Perception 5: Your map will receive an upgrade now, allowing you to view the whole solar system you're in instead of just your current planet. In addition to that, the local map fog of war for the interior of locations is removed, allowing you to have the entire place mapped out the instant you enter. You also gain a toggleable minimap that you can place wherever you want in your vision. This minimap can display the world map or the local map, but not both at the same time. Last but not least, all locations within your current solar system become marked on your map and when you enter a new solar system, all locations become marked as well, emphasis on the all.

I got nine points to spend and plenty of choices... I wanted Ambidextrous previously, so I'll take that as my first choice since it gives me the ability to use both of my hands as if they were both my primary hands. One perk choice down, eight more to go.

Reading Fanatic would be useful for all the skill books I'm holding onto, however I'm not so sure I need it at this second. I'd much rather take a combat perk that will up my damage over some more skill points. That's not to say I don't want more skill points, it just won't matter if I delay taking it till later.

Hence I'll skip over that perk and grab Natural Born Learner instead because I'm pretty sure it'll raise how many skill points I'll be spending in a minute here, and will definitely affect how many skill points I'll gain every level up from here on out.

Gaining two more skill points to spend from here on out, I continued contemplating the choices I had and decided to pick a combat perk this time around.

I'm going to want something to up my damage and since I've already decided that I'm going to be using heavy weapons primarily I'll take a rank in Heavy Weapon Expert for the damage boost and that nice +20% to accuracy. 

Six points left to spend, now what do I want to take next. The perk All The Loot will lighten most of my ammo weight by half excluding things like rockets, missiles, and mini-nukes. That sounds like something I want to have. The perk will even reduce the weight of .50 BMG, and those fuckers weigh quite a bit, so being able to cut their weight in half is a huge benefit in my book.

My fourth perk decided on. I began searching for the fifth perk I wanted to add to my repertoire.

Hmm, Space Farer would help immensely with navigating the mines and the cave system the molemen came from, so that's an easy pick. But alongside that, Knowledgeable Sponge will provide me with many benefits on my excursion into the mines, hence that will be taken as well.

With only three more perks points left, I contemplated my choices carefully and eventually settled on the three I wanted.

Looter Shooter looks pretty good for the extra wealth I'd stumble across with it and the additional 10% damage it'll allow me to deal. Alright, that's another down. Next up I'll be choosing Nature Affinity in case I stumble across some mutated animals in the mine and the cave system so they won't come charging at me immediately.

And if I do encounter one, maybe I could try to tame it. It would be pretty cool to have a pet mutant, although I would much prefer to have a powerful one such as a Giant Mutated Gila Monster or a big ass armored mole like a Tunneler...

Getting back on track, I'll just go with Escape Artist, no longer setting off traps, and being able to slip out of holds easily seems like a potential lifesaver to me.

Looks like that's it. I could have gotten two ranks of Growth to raise my strength and luck attributes above 10, more than likely unlocking two powerful perks for myself. But I don't think it's worth it when I can just raise strength normally through hard training.

Too bad I can't do that with luck, so I guess I'll spend a perk point on that or I could wait until I complete the semi-new molemen removal quest I got a while back. Yeah, I'll go with that. No need to waste a perk point on it when I don't need to.

Happy with the perks I selected, I locked in my choices and as soon as I did, the perk screen disappeared and the next second the skill one came into view.

[ Skills ]

Skill Points Left: 216

Ballistic Weapons: 100

Energy Weapons: 100

Explosives: 94

(T)Heavy Weapons: 110

Leadership: 77

Lockpick: 90

Medicine: 96

Melee Weapons: 100

Piloting: 65

(T)Repair: 100

(T)Science: 100

Speech: 75

Stealth: 90

Survival: 95

Trade: 90

Unarmed: 99

Where to start... Guess I'll begin by raising ballistic weapons to 101 to get a new perk and do the same for the rest of the perks.

That's all of them. Now where do I want to distribute the remaining 72 skill points. It would be nice if I knew what the new skill perks I'll be getting in a moment do. However, since I have no idea, I'll just dump it into heavy weapons to further increase my damage, accuracy, and overall abilities with said weapons.

Quickly getting through the skill section of my level up, I locked in the distribution and patiently awaited the consequences of bulk leveling.

Haa, what I'm about to experience is going to be on another level. I'm sure that with my mind and intelligence coming such a long way from when I first leveled up will make it easier, as for the extent I highly doubt it will be enough to stand up against the 200+ skill points I just spent.

Once the new knowledge started trickling in bit by bit, things didn't appear all that difficult compared to the past level ups I went through.

Well, this isn't so bad.

However, as soon as that thought appeared in my head, the floodgates opened.

Of course, things would change the second after I think things are going to be okay.

The pain that came with the flood of new information was unimaginable, I could do nothing but grip the arms of the chair I was in as hard as I could, to the point the tips of my fingers easily passed through the fabric of the chair. Waves of pain kept coming one after the next, reaching new levels of pain with each new peak. It got to the point where I had to clench my jaw so I wouldn't break my teeth from the strength I was exerting trying to deal with the pain.

------

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