Placing one foot in front of the other, I cautiously proceeded down the tunnel for a couple of minutes whilst frequently scanning my surroundings with my weapon's lights, when I noticed that the tunnel's walls were beginning to show signs of wear and tear. Approaching them for closer inspection, I quickly discovered the same pitting and melting I found in the electrical room, although not as deep or wide enough to hold a larva crab worm.
Looks like I got my work cut out for me.
I thought to myself, as I found increasingly more signs of the armored lobster like creatures the more I inspected the surrounding environment. Pretty much assured that I would be encountering the buggers and probably quite a few of them, I prepared myself mentally and continued descending deeper into the mine while also attempting to be as quiet as one could in a heavy plated mining suit.
...
About a minute later into my travel as I was systematically scanning the tunnel, I saw a dim source of light further ahead. Intrigued, I kept pushing forward and before long the tunnel I had been traveling in transitioned from concrete to raw rock. Not long after passing that point, I found what was producing the light, a line of industrial wall lights that appeared to run the entire length of the tunnel.
How are these guys still lit if the ones back the way I came aren't?
Although curious about how they were getting power, I didn't pay it much mind and continued on my way, following alongside the string of lights. Happy to have my task of keeping an eye out for any and all dangers eased somewhat by the spotty lighting sources on the raw rock walls, I trudged on and eventually began to pick up on what sounded like chittering coming from up ahead.
Remaining ever cautious of the dangers that potentially lie ahead, I readied my machine gun, and approached the sound further in slowly but surely. And after maybe another 60 seconds of creeping; I came upon a group of larva crab worms feasting on a carcass of an alien creature that looked to be canine in nature and possessed a distinctive three jawed mouth.
Hmm, that's interesting. I wasn't expecting there to be skags down here too... I wonder what else resides in these mines besides these two species.
Spending a few more seconds watching the purple lobster looking creatures tear into their meal and rip it to shreds, I took count of their numbers and found there were 7 of them in total... At least from what I was able to see with the intermittent lighting that was being provided by the industrial wall lights.
That's not too many, so I should be able to handle them as long as I target their vitals, i.e. their singular eye, and keep my distance. And if the situation looks like it could start going south, I can toss a couple of grenades, though I'd prefer to avoid using anything explosive in nature, seeing how I'm in an underground mine and all that, but if the need arises, I'll do so... I guess this is where my sneaking ends and the real fun begins. Time to go loud.
Finished with my thoughts, I backed away to a certain distance from the creatures and brought my Incendiary Pearl Havoc Machine Gun to my shoulder and lit the larva crab worms up with my weapon's flashlights, drawing their attention almost immediately. As they were simultaneously adjusting themselves in my direction, I lined up my 2.5x magnification scope's reticle on one of the closer hostiles' eye and pulled the trigger back.
The instant I did that, my weapon's muzzle erupted with fire and sent round after round out the barrel's end and in the blink of an eye the creature's eye burst apart while the rounds I sent forth burrowed their way into its body whilst burning the bugger's insides as they traveled deeper and deeper. Continuing to hold the trigger, I laid into it further, somewhat because of my inexperience but mainly my desire to release some of the stress I'd been accumulating since I found myself dropped into this world. I held the trigger down for a few more seconds before I snapped out of it and realized what I was doing.
That was a nice stress reliever, but I need to focus on actually killing the speeding towards me instead of just spraying bullets with reckless abandon.
Refocusing myself on the task at hand, I was certain that crab worm larva was as good as dead since its head was absolutely mutilated and its hard shell cracked and filled with holes. So I released the trigger, got my weapon under control, and transitioned to the closest target, and pulled the trigger again. Although this time I braced the weapon a hell of a lot stronger to keep my reticle on target and prevent it from bouncing around.
Holding my weapon with a vice-like grip, I tamed my weapon's recoil with my body's powerful strength and released an accurate burst of fire at my intended target. This spray of incendiary rounds caused the rapidly approaching larva crab worm to topple over and collapse on the raw rock of the mine tunnel, leaking all manner of bodily fluids. I would've admired my lethal accuracy, but I didn't have a second to spare, so I continued laying out one oversized bug after the next.
I kept putting down accurate bursts of fire and before I knew it; I ran my magazine dry and had the very last one laid out 25 or so feet in front of me.
I thought that was going to be a lot harder, but I guess I'm natural... Nah, who am I kidding if it wasn't for this powerful physique of mine, there's no way I would've been able to keep that machine gun's recoil in check and the reticle on the bugs' critical spot. And even with all that, my accuracy could obviously use a good bit of improvement since I did miss quite a few shots there, so I'm going to have to work on rectifying that going forward.
Besides all that, I may want to think about pursuing gunsmithing in the future because that recoil could use some work, to say the least. I mean, I've shot rifles of similar caliber to this in my original world and nothing had as much kick as this weapon here... Yeah, that honestly wouldn't be a bad idea. I already plan on taking over Atlas in the future, which is a major arms manufacturer, hence I might as well see if I can't improve their weapons' recoil with some of the ideas my old world invented. Having arms with minimal recoil would be quite the selling point, after all.
That said, I only possess surface level knowledge on most of the things I'm aware of, and have next to no real experience with engineering. Meaning if I want to implement them in this world, I'm gonna have to perform a ton of research on the subject in addition to a fuck load of trial and error... And now that I've added that to my list of goals, I suppose it would be wise to invest in my intelligence attribute. But that will have to be put on the back burner till I've bolstered my combat abilities massively and find a home for myself, or at the very least, a civilized settlement of some kind to use as a sort of base.
Done making plans for the future, I returned to the present, swapped to a new fully stocked magazine and refilled the magazine I just depleted in that brief battle. Quickly completing those tasks, I scanned the area ahead with my weapon's lights and patiently observed for a minute, waiting to see if any more would show up.
It doesn't seem like there are any more of them coming.
Not finding any additional enemies approaching, I went ahead and checked out the rewards I gained from that fight.
[ Level Up! ]
[ +1 Skill Point ]
[ +210 EXP ]
[ +21 Badass Tokens ]
Sweet, I leveled up.
Thrilled to level up for the first time, I wasted no time navigating to the skill tree section of my status.
[ Gun Lust Skill Tree ]
| Locked and Loaded | (0/5)
Reloading your gun gives you +5% Fire Rate per level for a short time.
| Quick Draw | (0/5)
+7% Weapon Swap Speed and +2% Critical Hit Damage per level.
| ... |
[ Rampage Skill Tree ]
| Inconceivable | (0/5)
All shots you take will have up to a 10% chance per level of not consuming ammo, depending on how low your health and shields are.
| Filled to the Brim | (0/5)
+5% Magazine Capacity and +3% Ammunition Capacity per level.
| ... |
[ Brawn Skill Tree ]
| Hard to Kill | (0/5)
+4% Maximum Health and regenerate 0.1% of your Maximum Health per second per level.
| Incite | (0/5)
Taking damage gives +6% Movement Speed and +5% Reload Speed for a few seconds.
| ... |
[ Additional Information: Only one skill tree can be filled at a time, so choose wisely. ]
Well, that's restrictive, but it's not the end of the world, so let me think about which of them would be the best choice given my current circumstances and what will boost my odds of survival the most. Starting things off, we have the gun lust skill tree. This tree will boost my damage output massively when I eventually get it filled, but the key word here is, eventually, thus I'm gonna have to take a pass on this guy. Moving onto the rampage skill tree, it's mainly a skill tree focused around increasing the duration I can remain in my gunzerking state, which is nice to have. However, that isn't until later, hence I'm going to have to take a pass on this tree as well.
With those two trees thrown out of the race I'm left with the brawn skill tree alone, the tankiest tree in this class and the one that will raise the odds of my survival the most thanks to it providing massive health increases and the ability to regenerate a percentage of my max health a second right out of the gate. And that's not even taking into account the other skills it provides later like, I'm The Juggernaut, which will reduce all damage I take after killing an enemy for a short time by 4% per skill point I have in it. Having that sort of sustain and survivability is hard to beat.
Confident about which of the three I wanted to go with, I placed the sole skill point I had available into Hard to Kill. The second I did, I felt a sudden burst of energy appear within my heart and begin to flow throughout my body. As it traveled throughout my body, it brought on all kinds of pleasurable sensations. I reveled in the energy as it constantly expanded from its origin, but as one knows, all good things must come to an end. So when the energy eventually reached every nook and cranny of my body, the pleasurable sensations I had been enjoying these last couple of minutes subsided, for the most.
I don't think I ever felt that good at any point in the entirety of my life... Not even during sex.
...
I wallowed in the echoes of those sensations a bit longer and, after imprinting them to memory, my mind began to return to normalcy.
I hope I get to experience that sort of pleasure again one day, but that may have been a one and done sort of thing sadly, haa.
A bit bummed out that those pleasurable sensations ended so quickly I didn't dwell on it forever and moved my attention to my badass tokens next, ready to investigate the price of a few stats with the haul I had just earned.
I better have enough to raise one of my attributes now or I'm gonna be pissed.
[ Badass Tokens -10 ]
[ Agility +1 ]
Good, now I know how much it costs to upgrade my attributes.
Happy to have finally figured out how many tokens were required to upgrade my attributes, I began weighing whether or not I wanted to investigate the costs of my other badass rank stats.
I don't particularly need the space at this moment so I can hold off on further investigations till later, so I'll up my agility once more.
[ Agility +1 ]
Alright, now that I've raised my agility, what should I spend my final token on… One badass token won't really change anything so I'll save the last one I have left since a 0.1% increase ain't worth a whole hell of a lot.
Deciding to conserve that token, I went and checked my stats out before I continued exploring.
[ Status ]
Name: Victor Atlas Colt
Age: 21
Lifespan: 100
Height: 7 Feet 3 Inches
Body Weight: 375 lbs
Race: Human
Classes: Gunzerker
Level: 1
Experience Points: 140/200
Total Experience Points Earned: 240
Health: 1,872 ⇮
Health Regeneration: 3.672 HP/s ⇮
Shield Capacity: 4,000 ⇮
Shield Recharge Rate: 1,000 ⇮
Shield Recharge Delay: 2.5 seconds ⇮
Stamina: 1,800 ⇮
Stamina Regeneration: 5.2 SP/s ⇮
[ Gear Effects ]
| Uncommon || Dahl | Heavy D.E.D. Mining Suit (Incomplete)
Armor Rating: Level 8 (Resistant to crushing, slashing, piercing and up to rifle rounds)
Shield Capacity Boost: 2,500
Recharge Rate Boost: 700
Recharge Delay Reducer: -0.25 Seconds
| Epic || Tediore | Impenetrable Panacea Shield
Capacity: 1,500
Recharge Rate: 300
Recharge Delay: 2.75 Seconds
Health Regeneration: 3 + Level # Per Second
| Common || Vladof | Hoarder Class Mod
Team Ammo Regeneration: 1 Per Second
[ Attributes ]
Agility: 5 ⇮
Intelligence: 5
Strength: 13
Toughness: 17
Vitality: 100
[ Skills ]
Actives: | Gunzerking |
| Gunzerker |
Tier 1: | Hard to Kill | (1/5)
[ Weapon Proficiency ]
Pistol:
Submachine gun:
Shotgun:
Combat Rifle:
Sniper:
Machine gun:
Rocket Launcher:
Heavy Weapon:
Eridian Weapon:
Alien Weapon:
[ Badass Rank 24 ]
Badass Tokens Available: 1
Badass Tokens Spent: 23
| Bonus Stats |
Agility: +0
Intelligence: +0
Strength: +0
Toughness: +0
Vitality: +0
Critical Hit Damage: +0%
Elemental Effect Chance: +0%
Elemental Effect Damage: +0%
Fire Rate: +0%
Gun Accuracy: +0.1%
Gun Damage: +0%
Grenade Damage: +0%
Maximum Health: +0%
Melee Damage: +0%
Recoil Reduction: +0.1%
Reload Speed: +0.1%
Shield Capacity: +0%
Shield Recharge Delay: -0%
Shield Recharge Rate: +0%
Backpack Space: +0
Bank Space: +0
Ammunition Space: +0
Grenade Space: +0
[ Gear ]
| Guns |
| Epic || Atlas | 2.5xOPTLS Strapped Incendiary Pearl Havoc Machine Gun
| Epic || Vladof | RDLS Strapped Incendiary Havoc Machine Gun
| Rare || S&S Munitions | RDLS Explosive Fury Machine Pistol
| Uncommon || Vladof | LS Shocking Fury Machine Pistol
| Melee Weapons |
| Uncommon || Dahl | Old Veteran Combat Knife
| Grenades |
Incendiary Proximity Mines (10)
Shocking Transfusion Grenades (10)
Sticky Grenades (10)
| Grenade Mods |
| Rare || Vladof | Incendiary Proximity Mine
| Rare || Anshin | Shocking Transfusion
| Uncommon || Hyperion | Longbow Grenade
| Uncommon || S&S Munitions | Sticky Grenade
| Armor |
| Uncommon || Dahl | Heavy D.E.D. Mining Suit (Incomplete)
| Clothing |
Chain Belt - Dark Gray Cargo Pants - Jet Black Combat Boots
| Shield |
| Epic || Tediore | Impenetrable Panacea Shield
| Class Mod |
| Common || Vladof | Hoarder Class Mod
| Meds |
Super Healing Kit (1) - Super Insta-Health Vials (3) - Greater Healing Kits (5) - Greater Insta-Health Vials (10)
| Tech |
ECHO Communication Device
| Ammunition |
600 Rifle Rounds
[ Backpack: 14/21 ]
| Legendary || Dahl | HOLO Frenzied Corrosive Bulldog
| Rare || Torgue | 4xOPT Big Steel Helix Rocket Launcher
| Rare || Vladof | Workers Savage Combat Pickaxe
| Uncommon || Eridian | Lightning Sniper Rifle
| Uncommon || Maliwan | RD Obsolete Shocking Viper Revolver
| Uncommon || Hyperion | Crimson Stinger Submachine Gun
| Uncommon || Jakobs | Swift Revolver
| Uncommon || Tediore | RDLS Cheap Explosive Matador Shotgun
| Common || Torgue | Stock Carnage Rocket Shotgun
Greater Healing Kits (5)
[ Ammunition: 1,300/1,300 ]
[ Grenades: 11/11 ]
[ Money: 326,142 ]
[ Possessions ]
Weapons: | Common || Generic | Basic Combat Rifles (42) - | Common || Generic | Basic Pistols (44) - | Common || Generic | Basic Revolvers (7) - | Common || Generic | Basic Shotguns (29)
Shields: | Uncommon || Maliwan | Balanced Shock Burst Shield - | Common || Generic | Basic Shields (18)
Class Mods: | Common || Generic | Basic Classless Class Mods (7)
Meds: Greater Healing Kits (2) - Greater Insta-Health Vials (9) - Healing Kits (13) - Insta-Health Vials (24) - Light Healing Kits (46) - Light Insta-Health Vials (52) - Minor Healing Kits (95) - Minor Insta-Health Vials (133)
Ammunition: 93,155
Grenades: 244
That's a nice little upgrade for my level up.
Having completed everything I needed to handle in my system menu, I closed the holographic system window, readied my weapon, and continued my trek.
[ Status Changes ]
Experience Points: +210
Health: 1,700 → 1,872
Health Regeneration: 1.7 HP/s → 3.672 HP/s
Stamina: 1,700 → 1,800
Stamina Regeneration: 5.1 SP/s → 5.2 SP/s
Badass Tokens: +21 → 1
Agility: 3 → 5
[ Loot Acquired ]
Ammunition: 1,112