Chapter 122 - What Gun?

The day after Afton had killed the stray Powder Ganger bent on revenge he decided to visit the dinosaur, he wanted to speak to whoever had been watching his back.

He enters the door and is greeted by a man sitting behind a front-desk, he was bald and heavily tanned with a bored look on their face. They straighten their back when Afton comes through the door though. "Welcome to the Dino Bite gift shop, my name's Cliff. If you're looking for the Dino figurines then you're in luck, we've still got a few left." the man says jovially.​​

Afton raises a brow at him, "Got a few dinosaur figures left? Don't tell me people actually buy those things..."

Cliff shrugs, "For your information they're the best selling thing I got. People usually want them as mementoes or gifts, not many things quite like them so I think its a good choice."

"Uh huh... You sell anything else or..."

Cliff nods, stands, and unlocks the door behind him. "Depends what you're looking for."

"Well, I'm not actually here to buy anything but if you have any weaponry I might take a look."

Cliff walks out with a wood platter, ontop of it were a few common weapons that didn't interest Afton at all. 9mm pistols, .357 revolvers, 10mm pistols, even some shotguns that look to have seen better days. "If these don't tickle your fancy then I've got one thing I haven't managed to pawn off yet." he says, reaching out and grabbing a strange weapon.

It was black with a wood covered handle, the metal looked weathered but not damaged. It had a small LED light on it that was currently red... Cliff dropped a few 5.56mm bullets on the counter, this was a shock as they were typically only used as ammunition for rifles.

Afton picked the gun up and checked it over, discovering it had a revolver cylinder with five openings in it. He slotted them in and closed the cylinder, causing the red LED light to turn green, signifying that it was loaded. He checked his Pipboy to see if it was actually any good.

[That Gun]

DMG : 30

Crit dmg : 30

Crit mult : 2.5x

Strength req : 6

AP : 19

Value : 1750

In comparison to other .357 revolvers it shat all over them... It was actually almost identical in stats to Lucky, with the exception of the five bullet capacity. Not to mention that 6 strength requirement, the reason for this was probably due to the rifle bullets it used, it'd do hell on your wrists if you lacked the strength. This'd also mean it was better than lucky at penetrating armour.

Due to his Gun skill he was already knowledgable in the typical 5.56mm pistols, but Afton had never actually seen anything like it in his old world. It was like a mixture between old western revolvers and modern weapons.

"How much do you want for it?" Afton asks, not wanting to show that he knew its worth yet. From his time with Karl he knew that Bartering was about controlling the conversation and judging what the other person was willing to endure.

Cliff shrugs, "I've been tryin' to get rid of that old thing for years now... Two thousand caps would be a good price, I've even added a discount for all the work you've done for the town."

Afton shakes his head, "See the weathering on the metal? It might not look to bad to an untrained eye but that causes what you call 'Micro-fractures', this harms the structural integrity of the weapon and will eventually cause it to majorly malfunction. If someone tried to use it without fixing it up first it might just explode in their hands." he explains, adding as much believable bullshit as he can... This was one of the bonuses from maxing out Repair and Guns. You knew exactly what'd cause their value to drop.

"Now just you hold on there, I've shot it many times myself and have never run into a problem."

Afton's eyes go wide, "Then you must be the luckiest son of a bitch alive, I'm surprised you still have your hands." he says unloading the gun and looking inside the barrel, spotting a thin scratch that he could take advantage of. "See that?" he shows Cliff, "That's a compositional fracture, means whoever created the weapon didn't temper the metal well enough, weakening it. Without proper repair it could explode on its next shot."

Of course, the reality was it was just a scratch on the metal, but it wasn't like Afton had to tell the man that.

Cliff paled slightly at the explanation but quickly recomposed himself like any good trader should. "I see.. I didn't know that, I suppose I could part with it for one thousand five hundred caps."

Afton sighs, "I appreciate you trying to bring down the price, but it'd probably take me eight hundred caps to get it fit for use... I'd literally need to rent a forge, deconstruct the weapon and redo everything. If I added in the cost of my own labour it might just be cheaper to make another." he explains.

Cliff chews the inside of his cheek, "Fine. I'll give it to you for a thousand, I can't go any lower otherwise I won't be able to feed myself."

Afton nods, "Deal." he sorts out a thousand caps and hands them to the man, replacing his non-unique .357 revolver with That Gun. He also purchased a good amount of 5.56mm ammo for it before looking up at the stairs leading to the mouth of the dinosaur. "Anyone up there right now?"

"Yeah, Manny's on break so Craig's up there right now... I doubt he wants to be bothered though."

"Who was up there last night?"

"That'd be Craig, man doesn't seem to need sleep. That or he naps most times he's on break." Cliff says with a shrug.

Afton nods, "Alright, thanks for your help." he says, wanting to leave the store before Cliff realises That Gun's weathered metal had begun to repair itself due to his [Mechanicus] Perk.