Chapter 259 - Green Is Good

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Afton slowly comes to, blearily blinking his eyes to get the sleep out. He felt... Good! No longer on the verge of coughing a lung out and dying. Whatever had happened must have healed him, right? He was honestly very, very thankful to whoever had helped him, he was on death's door and almost no one could save him at that point.

He sits up from the rather luxurious bed he currently found himself in and looks around at the room he'd been resting in. It was almost entirely metal, though there were odd gadgets place here and there.

He felt slightly strange, heavier... But perhaps that was just the grogginess speaking for him. Just as he was about to get out of bed, a stream of notifications hit him.

[Quest complete! : Midnight Free Medical Procedure!]

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 36]

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 37]

Hmm, well at least something good came from his near-death experience... Shaking his head, he glances at the 30 skill points he currently has to spend. Not seeing any better options he just puts all points in Explosives and moves onto Perks.

[Lessons Learned] : +1% XP gain per player level. Good, but not really necessary. Afton wasn't even sure what the max level would be, so wasting his Perk points on something that might be useless in future would be disadvantageous.

[Broad Daylight] : No Sneak penalty for using Pip-Boy light. Now, he really could see no reason to get this perk... He didn't find it difficult to sneak around in darkness, and he had no idea how it would actually interact with allies... If people saw him utilising it they'd almost certainly think he was supernaturally influencing enemies.

[Fight the Power!] : +2 Damage Threshold and +5% Critical chance against large factions, this includes NCR, Legion or Brotherhood of Steel. Good, very good... Sure, most people would die from one shot to the head, but if he was ever going to fight people wearing power armour, this would make it easier.

[And Stay Back] : Shotguns have a 10% chance, per pellet, of knocking an enemy back. Afton wasn't sure how this Perk would work... He could probably 'game' it by creating a weapon with thousands of pellets in each shot, but whether or not that would be a good strategy is debatable.

All in all, Afton only saw one good option, he selects [Fight the Power!] and confirms it.

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 38!]

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 39!]

... Hmm, seems like he achieved more than he'd first considered. Perhaps blowing up all the plants in the vault contributed to that? He inwardly shrugs before looking at the new 30 points he had access to, immediately placing them in Explosives. Afterwards looks at the new Perks listed.

[Heavyweight] : Weapons with a weight of more than 10 are cut in half. This does not affect weapons modded to under 10 wg. This would be good, were he not already considerably stronger than the average man.

[Hobbler] : Your chance to hit an opponent's legs in V.A.T.S. is increased by 25%. Again, Afton didn't want to specialise too deep into V.A.T.S as he saw it as a crutch, not to mention what would happen if he somehow lost his Pipboy.

Mmm, not a great deal of Perk this level? He shakes his head, he'd use the Perk point to upgrade his stats, specifically Strength.

With that done, time resumes and Afton slowly gets up from the bed. he was currently dressed in a patient gown? He begins to start panicking at the idea of losing his stuff, but quickly calms himself... Whoever had healed him probably didn't want to steal his stuff... Otherwise why not just steal and leave him for dead.

He spots a large case beside the bed and lifts the lid, raising a brow at the fact that it was bigger on the inside than the outside... Not only that, every item he owned was contained inside. His Anti-Material rifle, Pistols, Laser rifle, Recon armour, the works.

He rubs his face while holding the lid up-... Wait... He robotically turns his head to his right arm, his eyes widening at the fact a new limb was in its place... "W-whaaat the fuck?"

It wasn't all that it seemed at first glance however, below the elbow where his arm had been severed was some kind of plant arm? On top of it was covered in dark bark that seemed pretty tough, on the underside was dark green skin that felt like leather.

He was able to move and manipulate the new limb as if he'd had it all his life, even the fingers seemed just as dextrous as his last set. Frowning at the new changes to his body, he strips himself of the patient's gown and stands in front of the full-body mirror attached to the wall, almost gaping at what he sees.

The first, most immediate thing brought to his attention was the new surgical scars he was sporting... One over his heart, and another on his head, that just so happened to be shaved completely bald. This wasn't too much of a shock as he'd assumed surgery would be needed to save him, but it was still worrying to have had someone tinkering with your body...

The scars weren't the only change however... Where the new limb was connected to his arm, thick black veins could be seen running into his body. Indeed, even his skin had a green tint to it, though most wouldn't notice unless already familiar with him or looking for it.

The black veins were visible across most of his body, but were more apparent from the veins leading from his right arm, to the bottom of his neck. Indeed, there were smaller ones next to his eyes on his upper cheek, where wrinkles would usually appear on older folks... It looked somewhat menacing as if he was wearing delicate but vicious war paint.