Chapter 12: Another One

Date February 19th, 2251

Four months later.

"Have sweet dreams, honey." My mom Jane said as she finished tucking me in.

"Goodnight mom, goodnight dad."

"You have a goodnight too, son. We'll see you in the morning." My dad, Robert, followed up before the two of them together exited my room and closed the door softly behind them.

…

Several minutes went by when I used my near super human perception to see if I could hear if either of them was still walking around the house in the general vicinity of my room.

I don't hear any footsteps, so I should be good.

After listening for a dozen seconds or so, I cracked one eye to check my surroundings further to make absolutely sure that I was good.

Looks like the coast is clear.

With my parents gone and off to bed, I was alright to get up and begin my training that I was unfortunately unable to perform earlier thanks to me being brought along to my parents' friend's home, the Undercity's governor's residence more specifically.

Alright, time to get up and get that last bit of exp I need.

As I was about to do just that and begin progressing even further, I caught myself and decided to delay my workout for a bit.

Mm, actually cancel that for the moment. I want to go over my recent progress first. It has been quite a while since I've last done that. Plus, these last 4 months have been quite fruitful for me, so let me go over that before I start my workout.

Changing my plans slightly for the moment, I got into a comfortable position with both hands resting behind my head and began thinking about the decent amount of progress I've made these last several months since I first explored the house.

Where to start… I suppose I'll start from the beginning.

Over the previous months since my first trip to mom's office, I continued my usual routine of training my perception and working out my body whenever I was left alone, usually when I was supposed to be sleeping. But besides grinding those two things out on the daily, I also carried on taking nightly trips to my mom's still unused office to continue learning and gathering as much information as possible.

Because of all of those trips, I've learned and accumulated a large amount of knowledge across a plethora of subjects. Although they mainly pertained to combat, engineering, manufacturing, medicine, science, strategy, various fighting techniques, and other such things that I know for a fact would assist me in reaching my goals.

As a side effect of all that learning and information gathering, my skills across the board have experienced a sizable jump from 4 months prior. Even my strength and intelligence attribute have seen an increase as well, the latter of which increased surprisingly just last night. The reason for its sudden increase, I contribute to my reading and learning since that's the only real intelligence based activity I've been doing these last four months other than my regular planning and reading children's books with mom and occasionally with dad.

Though I have been reading on my own more and more too as of late so there is that. But I don't see how that recent change would increase my intelligence attribute whatsoever when I'm reading about how different energy weapons function and the many manufacturing processes involved with them during the night, therefore that can't be it.

Ohh, that reminds me, I think it's about time I've asked for some more advanced books, the ones that aren't just basically picture books with some small amount of flavor text added in. However, that will have to wait till the morning…

Back to the possible causes for my intelligence attribute's increase. The only other thing I can think of that could've contributed to its increase would be my rapidly growing and developing body. Aside from that, I don't think there are any other factors that could have contributed to its increase... Yeah, I can't really say for sure what the main factor for its increase is with absolute certainty.

However, if I were to bet on what it could be, I would put my money on that it's probably a combination of my nightly knowledge acquisitions and my developing body. Besides those two, I can't come up with anything else.

That about wraps it up on the stat front so continuing onto something else of importance I can communicate verbally. Although I keep myself limited to relatively basic sentences, with the inclusion of some more advanced words sprinkled in here and there.

Very advanced and abnormal for my age, but my parents are more than happy. Thus, I'll probably just continue what I've been doing, 

slowly expanding my vocabulary bit by bit with the increasingly advanced books I get given from time to time. Maybe I should just ask for a dictionary. I know my mom has one in her office, so I can probably just venture off into her office, grab it and come up with some excuse why I want to read it.

Let's see what else… No, that's about all the progress I've made the last several months. The only other thing of note would be that I met the Governor's daughter for the first time today. But only from a distance, since she was being held by her mother the entirety of the time, and given how young she is, it's not really a surprise. She probably hasn't even started walking yet.

Thus, because of that, I was unable to try to start building a rapport with her on my first visit to the governor's residence, unfortunate but it is what it is. That said, I noticed her eyes focusing and tracking me quite a lot throughout my visit. Hopefully, that's a good thing.

The only other thing I got out of that trip to their home was that I found out her name, which was Alice Lawrence Steele. And that she was coincidentally born on August 7th 2050, just the day after my own birthday…

Alright, that should be about it. I best start working out so I can gain my next level and when I'm finished leveling up, I'll take care of my perception training before I head off to mom's office to get some more reading done.

With my recent progress these last 4 months gone over, I got right to it and began working out.

A couple of hours later.

*Haa…haa…haa…*

That's the last set done. Now I can turn that quest in and get that level up I've been grinding for the last several months. However, before I start that, I need to get my breathing under control.

Following the completion of my last set, I focused on settling my breathing and getting the much needed oxygen to my worked muscles. As soon as I had everything under control, I got into a comfortable position with my head resting against my pillow and opened up my status. 

The next instant, a holographic popped into existence in front of me and after it made its appearance, I glanced through the various tabs before I navigated to the quest section. When I arrived there, I turned in my daily workout quest netting myself 17 exp instead of my previous 16 exp due to my intelligence increasing, which increased the amount exp I earn by an additional 5% whenever it increased.

That's odd, I should've only received 16.5 exp due to my exp gain rate going by what I experienced in the wastelander games. Despite that, I didn't, so I'm guessing it's just going to decrease or raise to the nearest full number whenever I don't gain a full exp point.

That's a pretty insignificant change. I wonder why the system bothered messing with that, but whatever, I'll take another half a point of exp. Can't really complain about getting an extra exp point every time I turn in my daily quest from now on and seeing how my goal is to conquer the wasteland, I'm going to need as much of the stuff as I can get.

The last bit of exp I needed received, I checked my status one final time scanning through all the progress my skills have made over this four-month period.

Very good progress for four months' worth of work. Okay, that's enough delaying.

With my status gone over, I initiated the level up and the next moment the holographic screen changed from displaying my stats to the perk selection screen with the same perks I hadn't taken in previous level up, plus several new ones.

Level 0 Perks

| Bookworm | Requirements Level 0, Intelligence 4: Your reading speed will double and in addition to that, you'll better understand the knowledge you gain, leading to faster skill gain. +100% to reading speed and +25% to skill gain speed.

Level 2 Perks

| Cat Eyes | Requirements Level 2, Perception 6, Stealth 30: Grants low light vision.

| Dad's Mini-Me | (Ranks 5) Requirements Level 2, Intelligence 4: +5 to both your medicine and science skills. Other than that, your dad will be more receptive to you.

| Growth | (Ranks Unlimited) Requirements Level 2: Gain 1 attribute point to distribute freely.

| Mama's Boy | (Ranks 5) Requirements Level 2, Charisma 4: +5 to both your medicine and science skills. Aside from that, your mom will be more receptive to you.

The level 2 perks aren't too bad, especially Cat Eyes and Growth. Cat Eyes would be of great use to me anytime I'm in a dark environment and extremely useful when venturing about at night. The night is also the best time to attack, so I'll add this perk to the list of perks I would like to acquire before heading out into the wasteland.

Growth is another good perk to take if I don't have any better ones to take. But since I'm in my period of easy growth, it's kind of counterintuitive for me to take right now, so I won't be taking it this time around. As for the other two perks, I don't particularly need either of them right now since my skills in both science and medicine are increasing at a very good rate.

Besides that, both mom and dad are very receptive to my wants and needs already, basically making both perks pointless to take at the moment. That said, they will be of use in the future when I start doing things that would be perceived as dangerous by any normal parents, hence it might be smart to pick them up when I need a bit of extra help convincing the both of them.

Okay, I've gone through the level 2 perks. The only perk that really stands out to me at this current moment would be Bookworm from the level 0 perks, simply for the reason that it will increase the rate at which I read and absorb the knowledge... Yeah, that would be the most useful perk for second level since the earlier I get it the more benefits it will provide me in the long run.

With my mind made up, I chose Bookworm and finalized my selection. The next second after my choice, the screen changed again to the skill distribution window.

[ Skills ]

Skill Points Left: 15

Ballistic Weapons: 46

Energy Weapons: 46

Explosives: 37

(T)Heavy Weapons: 48

Leadership: 40

Lockpick: 32

Medicine: 57

Melee Weapons: 39

Piloting: 34

(T)Repair: 50

(T)Science: 50

Speech: 26

Stealth: 48

Survival: 35

Trade: 28

Unarmed: 40

What skill do I wish to dump my skill points into, hmm…

As I was in the midst of contemplating what skill deserved an increase I came up with an idea that will better me in the long run quite a lot.

Instead of leveling up next time, I think I'm just going to delay it until years later so I can grow my skills as much as possible through my reading alongside my training when I'm old enough. And when I eventually reach a point of stagnation, I can just use them all in one go for maximum gains…

As I continued thinking further about that idea, I liked it more and more. However, after thinking about the extreme pain I'll have to endure for using all those accumulated level ups all at once, a sudden shiver ran down my spine.

Ahh, actually scratch that instead of using them all at once. I think it will be smarter to use them one at a time instead. Mm-mm, yeah, let's definitely not use them all at once.

Future crisis averted, the only real issue with this idea is that there could be a perk more worthwhile in the higher level perks… Fuck it, I'm going through with this, the skill point gains I could make from delaying my level ups far outweigh what could be possibly obtained. 

I could be wrong, but I think hundreds of skill points easily earned through a ton of reading and other activities that I'm unable to perform currently due to my age is the way to go. And when the time to level finally comes again, I'll be able to raise my skills to a pretty absurd level before even leaving the safe confines of the undercity.

Grinning at the thought of coming out of the undercity as basically a boss level entity in the far future I looked through my skills again and decided to just dump the 15 points into speech since it seemed to be the skill I'll have the most trouble increasing compared to all the other ones I possessed. Besides that point, the skill also seemed more useful for the plans I had for the future in Undercity 7.

Coming to a decision, I dumped the 15 available skill points into speech and completed my distribution. As soon as I finished the skill allocation portion of my level up, the holographic screen changed once again, currently displaying my new and improved stats.

[ Status ]

Name: Dom Mason Woods

Age: 0

Height: 2 Feet 10 Inches

Body Weight: 21 lbs

Race: Human

Level: 2

Experience Points: 9/3,000 | Formula: Next Level# x 1,000

Total Experience Points Earned: 3,009

Experience Rate: 165% ⇮ | Formula: 100 + (Intelligence x 5)

Health: 720 ⇮ | Formula: 100 + (Endurance x 20) + (Level# x 10) x 2

Healing Rate: 0.0533 Health Per Second/3.2 Health Per Minute | Formula: (0.2 Health Per Minute x Endurance) + 1

Stamina: 1,360 | Formula: 100 + ( Endurance x 20) x 4

Stamina Regeneration: 0.8 Stamina Per Second/48 Stamina Per Minute | Formula: (1 Stamina Per Minute x Endurance) x 4

Carry Weight: 0/200 ⇮ | Formula: 100 + (Strength x 50)

Critical Chance: 10% | Formula: Luck x 1

[ Effects ]

[ Armor ]

Body Damage Threshold 12 | Formula: Endurance x 1

[ Resistances ]

Radiation Resistance: 12 | Formula: Endurance x 1

[ Attributes ]

Strength: 2 ⇮

Agility: 1

Endurance: 12

Intelligence: 13 ⇮

Perception: 10

Charisma: 5

Luck: 10

[ Skills ]

Ballistic Weapons: 46 ⇮

Energy Weapons: 46 ⇮

Explosives: 37 ⇮

(T)Heavy Weapons: 48 ⇮

Leadership: 40 ⇮

Lockpick: 32 ⇮

Medicine: 57 ⇮

Melee Weapons: 39 ⇮

Piloting: 34 ⇮

(T)Repair: 50 ⇮

(T)Science: 50 ⇮

Speech: 41 ⇮

Stealth: 48 ⇮

Survival: 35 ⇮

Trade: 28 ⇮

Unarmed: 40 ⇮

Skill Points Gained Per Level Up: 15 ⇮ | 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: 

[ Mutations ]

[ Gear ]

Weapons: 

Weapon Magazines: 

Armor: 

Clothing: 

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

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

Skill: +25% to skill gain speed

Sleep: Required Sleep 4 Hours

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

Kill Counter: 0

[ Items ]

Weapons: 

Weapon Magazines: 

Armor: 

Clothing: 

Aid: 

Ammo: 

Miscellaneous: 

Money: 

Robots: 

Turrets: 

Vehicles: 

[ Quests ]

Ready to turn in: 0

Completed: 0

In progress: 11

(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.

| 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.

| 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 bits 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.

| 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: ???

That was a pretty worthwhile level up. I increased my health a bit, got a perk that's going to increase my skill progress and knowledge gathering speed quite substantially. Other than that, I received an extra skill point to spend thanks to my intelligence attribute increasing the previous day.

My level up taken care of, I closed out the system window displaying my stats and returned to the everlasting grind, though this time I was instead training my perception. About an hour of training later, I was content, thus I got up and scaled the walls of my crib and snuck slash escaped off to my mom's office to further my studies and knowledge acquisition. The minute I made it there and took position in mom's chair and began reading, I instantly noticed the difference from before.

Holy shit, that perk makes a huge difference. I definitely made the right decision.

Practically smiling from ear to ear, I got back to it.