Chapter 214 - Candy Shop

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 30]

Alright, let's just dump all my points into science and check out the Perks available.​​

[Implant GRX] : You gain a non-addictive subdermal turbo (chem) injector. This perk may be taken twice, with the second rank increasing the effect from 2 to 3 seconds and the uses per day from 5 to 10... Complicated, not only that, Afton thought that it was completely unnecessary. If he wanted to implant something like that into himself it would just take a bit of work... No point in using a Perk point that could literally be used to warp reality.

[Burden to Bear] : +50 carry weight. Hm, again, Afton wasn't really all that bothered about his carry weight. Shaking his head he looks to the other potential perks he could get and eventually decides upon one that he'd skipped a while ago.

[Explorer] : All locations are marked on your map. Ye~ep, this was overpowered enough to be viable, even if it didn't directly affect Afton's abilities

Pressing confirm he grimaces as knowledge of Science burrows into his mind, his Pipboy resetting and booting up again with an insane amount of information now on its map. Truly, it shouldn't be possible for his Pipboy to store that much information, must be supernatural...

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 31!]

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 32!]

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 33!]

Another 45 skill points to spend, of course, Afton dumps these into Science to max it out, all the while wondering what Perk he'd get for it.

[Science maxed out! Perk rewarded : Eureka!]

[Eureka!] : You are far more likely to discover scientific breakthroughs! That is interesting? Not something that could be used in combat, but Afton supposed not everything had to be. Though, he was amused by the Vault Boy who accompanied the Perk that looked like David Tennant in a suit and glasses standing outside a Police Box...

Hm, now he just needed to decide what skill to start putting points in next... He was honestly running out of useful skills, Lockpicking, Barter, and Survival were all quite situational skills.

Lockpicking was useless when you could just brute-force your way through doors. And unlike the Fallout games, he wasn't limited in that regard.

Barter was useful at helping you trade, granting knowledge of the value of things... But Afton doubted if he'd truly be needing it anytime soon, eventually he'd get strong enough to where he could just take what he wants. Not to mention you needed other factions willing to trade with you, his plans for the future might make that difficult.

Survival was essentially just advanced bushcraft for the wasteland, now that he had good weaponry and enough caps to avoid sleeping outside it was somewhat pointless... Even if it did give him knowledge on weak points of Deathclaws and other similar knowledge. He could just work that information out for himself without relying on the skill to tell him.

There were two other skills that he hadn't mentioned. Unarmed and Explosives. To be honest he was more interested in putting points in Unarmed than Explosives... The reason for that? The Nuke he'd set off earlier in the day.

Explosives increased his knowledge of weapons categorized under the same name, but it also somehow increased the flat amount of damage they'd do, as well as their area of effect. Afton couldn't imagine how destructive the Mini-Nuke would've been with all those bonuses, even with the Explosives resistance the skill would grant him, he'd likely not survive. Though, with the Skill he probably could've inferred how powerful the nuke would've been.

Afton wanted to use Mini-Nukes in the future, so unless he had no other choice he was going to leave this skill as low as possible... Unless a more powerful bomb was needed of course.

Unarmed would complement his skillset... And that's not just because he had literally been 'unarmed'... His Weapons Skill had given him all the knowledge he needed to fight with knives, swords, etc. But he could probably take melee abilities to the next level by level this Skill, he was also curious at what Perk he'd gain by maxing it.

He put all his remaining points into Unarmed, putting it to 71, two levels away from maxing it out. He moves onto the next selection of Perks that were available, hoping that there'd be something new. Once he sees it though he's surprised by the number of new options... He wondered why after level 30 had so many more options?

[In Shining Armour] : Grants +5 DT against energy weapons while wearing metal armour, with a further +2 DT while wearing reflective eyewear or helmets. This Perk could potentially be really good, combined with Power armour it'd make him incredibly hard to actually damage, not only that, he could probably modify armour to suit the Pekr, utilising its refractive properties to reflect attacks back at the enemies... Of course, this would only be possible against laser weapons. Something to think further on in future.

[Grunt] :25% more damage with 9mm pistols and SMGs, .45 pistols and SMGs, service rifles, assault and Marksman carbines, light machine guns, frag grenades, grenade rifles and launchers and combat knives. This would have been excellent had Afton not received the [Uncivilized Weapon] Perk as Energy Weapons was so heavily incentivised that it'd be silly for him to try another route.

[Atomic!] : In irradiated areas, +25% move and attack speed, +2 DT, +2 ST. With excess rad level, AP regen scales from 1.1 times to 1.5 times normal. This was an incredible Perk now that Afton had [Rad Abosrbtion], in any irradiated area he'd be unmatched in combat. And combined with [Solar powered] his Strength would reach a rediculous 12! SuperHuman levels!

[Alertness] +2 Perception when crouched and still. This Perk would be completely broken with his current fighting style, it'd make his abilities with a sniper more terrifying than they already were, and would allow his Perception to reach superhuman levels once he upgraded it with [Intense Training]. He'd grab this Perk once he had the chance.

Afton was like a kid in a candy shop, so many good options yet so little points. Three of the four Perks presented to him were incredibly useful, but, in the end, one beat out all the others.

[Atomic!] was simply too good to ignore. Of course it was situational, but in the Wasteland there were an overwhelming amount of irradiated places... Not to mention he could probably just create a device that'd apply radiation to himself to boost his abilities. The only Perk that came close to its usefulness was Alertness, and he was going to pick that next level.

He chose the Perk and clicked confirm... Only afterwards realising that this may affect him physically... Shit! Not again!