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(BUS)Chapter 49: Out cold
🕑 Added 2024-12-17 16:16:57 +0000 UTC{Skag
Lifeforce: 1,234
Traits: [Alpha muscles-Uncommon grade]- 2,000 units, [Armored hide-Uncommon grade]- 2,000 units, [Omnivore-Rare grade]- 7,000 units, [Strong vitality-Uncommon grade]- 2,000 units}
'Nothing too impressive but it looks like I was right and the price is going to go up the more I take in.' I thought noticing the increase in price for the traits.
"Anything good from this thing?" Lilith asked curiously as she watched me use my powers on the corpse.
"A few decent traits for a normal creature but nothing interesting other than the [strong vitality] trait that I haven't seen any other Skag have, probably why it didn't die after an injury like that." I said with a shrug.
"Sounds useful." Brick said picking at a scab.
"If you want it I can give it to you." I offered.
"You can give traits!?" Lilith exclaimed loudly in shock and Brick was practically vibrating in excitement.
I rubbed my temple in annoyance "I literally said as much when I was telling my story, were you just not paying attention or something?" I asked with a sigh.
"Cut us some slack, it was a lot to take in alright?" Lilith defended herself with an embarrassed look.
"Forget that, trait now!" Brick said shaking me eagerly.
I shrugged his hands off easily "It's not that fucking simple, something you'd know if you had been paying attention when I talked about it. I have to grab the copy of the trait first and then pass it to you along with some lifeforce unless you want your lifespan to drop drastically. Even then it's not a good fucking time as you WILL suffer as the trait makes changes to you, the more the worse it is." I said killing his eagerness with facts.
"What kind of suffering we talking here? The sniffles or straight up torture?" Lilith asked worriedly.
I shrugged "Depends on the traits, [strong vitality] will make you feel like you shot up a whole pot of espresso at first before you crash, HARD. Most of the time though it's closer to torture than anything else, especially traits like [armored hide] and [dense bones], nasty stuff those. All I can guarantee is that you'll survive the process no worse than you started it." I said honestly.
"Yeah I think I'll pass on that thanks." she said clearly disturbed.
"If you can make me more awesome a bit of pain seems like a good trade to me, load me up with that vitality thing already!" Brick said not discouraged at all.
'Welp can't say I didn't warn him.' I thought as I took the corpse's trait and lifeforce before holding out my hand for Brick to grab.
He took my hand without hesitation and I took a look at his traits while I was at it.
{Human
Lifeforce: 3,674
Traits: [Omega body-Rare grade]- 7,000 units, [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade]- 2,000 units, [Thick skin-Uncommon grade]- 2,000 units, [Adrenal rush-Rare grade]- 7,000 units, [Simple mind-Common grade]- 700 units}
'I'ma just grab a copy of that second one and second to last one because holy fuck yes!' I thought excitedly as I made copies of the traits before pushing the [Strong vitality] trait into his body along with all the lifeforce I took from the corpse.
Brick clearly felt this as he looked confused for a moment but didn't say anything, probably thinking it was normal. Once the new trait started to get integrated though a savage grin filled his face showing all his teeth as the high I spoke of hit him.
"I! FEEL! AWESOME!" he yelled as he started to shadow box to blow off some of his newfound energy.
I had to admit that his punches held serious power as I could feel the air being forced aside with each one he did.
"He doesn't look like he's suffering?" Lilith said confused at this sight.
"5"
"4"
"3"
"2"
"1"
"BOOF!"
I counted down rather than answer her implied question and lo and behold Brick stiffened and fell flat on his face when I hit the last number.
"Is he gonna be alright?" she asked spooked by the sudden collapse.
"Oh yeah, he'll be fine after he wakes up. Vitality traits seem to force you to use up all of your energy in a short period of time so you feel great at first before hitting rock bottom suddenly once that high ends." I said with a chuckle as I picked up the dead to the world mass of muscle on my back.
We left Skag gully after that and turned in the quests to Baha who gave us a shotgun with an interesting design as well as a rare quality sniper rifle. There was also some money mixed into that prize pool but I just split it with Lilith since Brick wasn't awake to get his half since I didn't want any of it.-
Walking back to Fyrestone we found Roland and Mordy sitting at the bar of Marcus's vendor shack waiting for us.
"What happened to him?" Mordy asked looking at Brick who I unceremoniously dropped to the ground now that we were it town.
"Gave him a trait, he passed out as a result." I said with a shrug.
"Oh yeah, what kinda trait?" he asked curiously but wasn't surprised by the information just like Roland.
"At least you two actually listened to what I said. Anyways I gave him a [Strong vitality] trait that came from this big ass Skag Baha wanted us to kill. Did you know the mad chad actually tried to kill the thing with a fucking kitchen knife, craziest shit ever." I said with a laugh.
"Sounds like something he'd want. Want me to fill you in on our side of things?" Mordy asked nodding at Brick.
"Is fixing a busted machine that interesting?" I asked confused.
"There was more to it than that, some bandit holed up near the town nabbed the core Digistruct module and we had to put him and his cronies down to get it back. Then after we fixed the catch-a-ride we had to jump over a gulch in one of the runners to open the way to the next step of our journey to the vault since Sledge had his men block it off with a gate locked from the other side." Roland explained and I whistled.
"Damn that sounds annoying." I said.
"It was." Mordy said.
"So what now?" Lilith asked.
"A few people have posted some more quests on the bounty board right before you guys got here so we can do those to stock up on some funds. Something tells me we'll need it." Roland said seriously.
"Sounds good to me but should I leave the big dude with Zed while we do that or should we wait since he'll probably want in?" I asked seriously and the other three frowned.
"Let's go see what the quests are first before deciding. Might be something boring he wouldn't mind missing." Mordy said and we all agreed.
We walked over to the board and after syncing up our echoes to it looked at the quests. The first one was literally someone calling us pansies who wouldn't run stuff over. It was so fucking on as I and the others all took exception to the taunt. The second quest was an unusual one to say the least as it was both insulting and paid well. See some chick named Patricia Tannis started the details of the quest by introducing herself fully(a fucking weird thing to do) and then immediately putting an insult behind that. Then she actually wrote down what the job was, apparently she had left five echo recordings in the area and left them behind previously but now wanted them back and was hiring us to get them to her.-
The last quest was an assassination mission actually for a bandit named Skinner who apparently skinned people alive to make umbrellas. I'm not fucking joking that is what the mission said. Anyways the poster heard of us killing Nine-toes and wanted us to put a bullet in the bandits skull, bonus payment if we made it painful and recorded his screams for them. It was hardcore shit and I laughed at it. It was clear this was an act of revenge and I couldn't help but applaud it.-
"I guess you want that last one for yourself right?" Lilith asked after seeing my reaction.
"You can't say the guy doesn't have it coming from what this says." I said not denying it at all.
"Nope, he sounds like the kinda person we'd be doing the world a favor by killing but I don't know about that whole torture part." Mordy said and I shrugged.
"No one is forcing you to take part you know. You could just go and slaughter his friends or something while we peel him apart like string cheese." I said casually and they all looked at me weirdly.
Brick woke up about an hour later starving and thirsty all while feeling sluggish as shit. I understood the feeling and passed him a big bag of jerky that he ate ravenously while downing no less than a whole ass gallon of apple juice.
"Feeling better?" I asked with a raised eyebrow once he was done.
"Yeah I'm good now, so who we kill next?" he asked with a belch.
I directed him to the mission board and he immediately called dibs on running bitches over, his words exactly. I took the assassination quest myself with Brick while Mordy, Lil and Roland took the running over and echo collection quests. As I quickly learnt Brick had severe road homicidal tendencies to the point of actively running down any Skag or bandit he saw whether it was on the road or not.
_______________________________________________
Alexander Drake
Lifeforce: 234,956
Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade], [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Omega body-Rare grade]x4, [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Bone regeneration-Uncommon grade], [Corrosion resistance-Uncommon grade], [Energy projection-Epic grade]x2, [Superior vitality-Epic grade],[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade], [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], [Quick thinking], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade], [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [True omnivore-Rare grade], [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X2,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Hyperflexibility-Rare grade], [Strong circulation-Epic grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade]
Stored traits:[Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade]
Comments
Christian Jeffress
Completely understandable, and if it’s not your cup of tea, that’s perfectly fine. Absolutely loving the stories you are writing currently, so what is being written right now is perfectly fine. Didn’t mean to add any pressure to you. Have a great day.
Loskro
Someone suggested that previously so it's something I consider though I am reluctant.
Christian Jeffress
Thanks for another fun and entertaining chapter. You know, another franchise that might be fun to see you right in in the future would be Percy Jackson. Maybe something like the son of Hephaestus, Hecate, or maybe something like the son of the Valar Aulë and sent to earth.
