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(BUS)Chapter 74: The Nailer
🕑 Added 2025-03-15 16:00:49 +0000 UTCDespite this misleading appearance my order had indeed been followed as the bar was now eight hundred pounds. I pushed up on the bar again and this time I actually felt a bit of strain but honestly not much more than one might feel lifting a cement block.
"Remove the weight and place a single ton on the bar!" I commanded and the weights vanished before two comically large weights took their place with a simple "1,000LB" mark on the inside faces to tell how much they weighed.
I grabbed the bar and pushed up and smiled as I felt a heavy strain on my arms this time and thus could understand that this was roughly my limit.
'A ton huh? Not bad at all.' I thought pleased as I put the bar back and reset the room.
It may have only been five to six hundred pounds above what was considered the unaugmented human limit but it IS a superhuman amount of strength. My only real grip with it if I had to say was that my body weight had grown as well so I now weighed close to five hundred pounds through sheer density.-
Granted about eighty pounds of that came from my metallic bones but the point still fucking stood. It was rather amusing to me how my powers chose to grant me this strength as while my height had only gotten a bit bigger my mass had taken a leap forward. Increased density wasn't all bad though as it also meant I was now even more bullet resistant. Not bullet proof by any means but anything below 45's barely dug under my skin and was outright stopped within my muscles. That particular test was not all that pleasant for me but necessary all the same.-
"So what's the verdict?" L:il asked when I finally rejoined the others.
I grinned "I have finally reached superhuman status, just benched a literal ton and can stop anything below a forty five with just my skin and muscles." I said proudly.
"That's it?" Mordy asked skeptically.
"You seem to be under a slight misunderstanding. This was achieved without any cybernetics or augmentations, pure biomechanical power. It's not all that impressive when stacked against robots, augmented or other species but for baseline unaugmented humans? Superhuman." I said clarifying the matter.
"So what, you are just a bit better than a normal guy who put in a lot of work and won the genetic lottery?" Lil asked and I nodded with a shrug.
"More or less. Still it's a start. Right now I am only at the bottom of what was considered superhuman but with more time and traits that'll change. At some point I'll be so powerful without even a single augmentation I'll practically be a walking vault monster in human form or better. And that's not even counting my siren powers that absolutely place me at a higher playing field than even a vault monster. Shit, once I have a copy of Lil here's powers I'll practically be unstoppable." I said grandly.
"How? Not saying her powers aren't incredibly useful but I don't think they count as unstoppable at all." Roland said with a frown.
"Ah but that's because she's never used them to their apex potential. Not that she could be blamed as she never got taught how to do so and likely thought the way she was using it was it until recently. Isn't that right Lil?" I asked and she nodded.
"Yup, those records you gave me change everything." she said seriously.
"What's the difference?" Brick asked confused.
"Teleportation, like legit teleportation. Instant and nearly impossible to stop. The ultimate expression of movement plus the ultimate expression of control, aka nearly unstoppable." I said holding up a phase lock bubble over my palm.
"Gotta admit he has a point. I can't think of a way to counter something like that at least." Mordy said before taking a swing of his drink.
"Right? With her powers on top of Maya's I could phase lock someone and then blip their ass across the universe if I wanted to. Maybe throw them into a star or something." I said with a chuckle.
"Wouldn't you lose out on the lifeforce and traits if you did that though" Brick asked and I shrugged.
"Yeah but sometimes it might be worth it if the person involved was annoying enough." I said with a shrug.
"What now since you've finished eating those traits?" Mordy asked.
"I'm glad you asked!" I said excitedly before explaining. "See I've got this unfinished prototype gun that I've been working on and I just so happen to be able to finish it up now. It will be the first gun I've ever made from scratch, a drake original if you will." I said with a wide smile.
"What kinda gun?" Mordy asked leaning forward clearly interested.
"It's a mix of sniper and assault rifle if I can get it to work right. The best part though is that it will launch energy bullets instead of normal ones so it will have near infinite ammo. Thinking about calling it "The Nailer" since the projectiles will basically be nails of energy." I said frankly.
"I can see the assault rifle part in that but where's the sniper?" Lil asked curiously.
"That's the accuracy, fire rate and range of course. Since the rounds are made of energy and not metal the drop off over distance will be dramatically less than standard guns without trading power. The lack of any recoil also means the shots are more or less as accurate as you are. The only real drawback is that in order to make the rounds solid enough for this purpose there will be a small window of time between each shot, like a normal single shot sniper but a tiny bit faster. Of course this is all fucking theoretical until I can finish the thing." I said seriously.
Needless to say Mordy rushed me to go finish up the gun so he could give it a try as it sounded like a snipers wet dream come true. I certainly wasn't going to fucking argue either as I was just as eager to finish the thing. Of course I didn't immediately start working on the gun as I needed to practice my fine motor skills first so that I didn't accidentally break something by using too much force. Gunsmithing at this level was a delicate art and not something done haphazardly.-
I instead worked to first disassemble and reassemble a few guns from my armory before I was confident in my fine motor skills and got to work on the real project. I carefully mounted the Eridian energy condensers I had taken from the Seraphs in a spiral pattern with an automated rotational holsters keeping them in place and functioning as I wanted. I had to do this part with tweezers and careful placement as even the slightest misalignment could cause the projectile made by the gun unstable or outright unusable. Still after quadruple checking my work I was fairly confident I had done it right the first time.-
Next came the power core mounting and connection. I had already created the "core slot" of the gun where the recharged seraph core would sit to provide the energy that made the whole thing function. It was a cleverly integrated "ring" shaped area between the but of the gun and the firing mechanism that was precisely machined to hold the core firmly in place without damaging it or letting the user of the gun directly touch it if properly used. That is to say unless you tried to use the gun like a pistol you shouldn't have any part of your arm ever come into contact with the core itself during firing.-
This was important because every time a new round was created and fired the core would light up with enough energy to char normal skin instantly. In the end I chose the bite the bullet as it were and modify the design slightly to cover the core so even accidental contact with that area was harmless. As an unexpected but certainly very fucking welcome surprise this also improved the energy efficiency slightly. Next up was the barrel and scope being taken care of which I needed to wait a few hours for as I needed to wait for my maker machine to get off it's cooldown from when I made my pants.-
Still once that was done I quickly used a steel barrel lined with a thin internal coating of Eridian metal bored with a seven lined bore with extreme rotational torque. The scope was easier though as I just flat out ripped off the Eridians take on that exact thing but modified it slightly with a dial to control the distance it zoomed from two hundred miles all the way down to a mere twenty meters.-
Kinda extreme I know but this gun should have the ability to land a shot from such a distance if the sniper was far enough up in elevation and there were no obstacles in the way. To put it in simple Earth terms you could shoot someone at the horizon from the top of Mt. Everest with this gun. Obviously it wasn't going to be used for such an extreme distance shot the vast majority of times but the potential was there and I refused to half do shit so the option was available if that ever became needed.
_______________________________________________
Alexander Drake
Lifeforce:234,847
Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade]X4, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade], [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade],
Stored traits:
Comments
Man of the lobsters
Understandable
Cmols897
Not gonna lie, I had a crush on Boarderlands 1 Angel when I was a kid
Man of the lobsters
That is what I hope will be happening. Just hope Angel can somehow be saved
Loskro
It's Jack we are talking about here, he's gonna fuck around and find out.
Man of the lobsters
Thanks for the chapter. I was wondering if handsome Jack or Angel is going to try and interfear with Alex shenanigans? Or are they just going to sit back and let him do his thing?
Cmols897
I can't wait till he outfits this group and at least Maya with at least 1 "Drake Original"
malle
Thanks for the chapter
Christian Jeffress
Absolutely, awesome gun design, and looking forward to seeing it used in the story. Thanks for the enjoyable chapter.
