Fallout Wastelander

The moment I got my bearings, I started looking at the information on the holographic screen in front of me.

Ohh my skills are progressing nicely and quite a few of them are close to the 50 mark, nice. I should probably prioritize the skills that are closest to 50 just to even them out. And when that's taken care of, I think I'll focus my attention on lockpicking because the skill is quite useful for getting into any locked-up areas.

It could also use it to grind out xp for level ups by lockpicking different doors. Though it might have some limitations like not being able to gain xp from a door more than once, or not being able to gain xp from locks that I had a hand in creating. I will definitely have to do a few tests when I get the chance to see if it's a viable way to gain xp.

Moving down my status screen to the perks section, I don’t seem to have any perks at the moment. I was pretty sure I would've had at least a couple since some of my specials are sitting at or above 10 right now. Maybe leveling up once will change that. Yeah, I will give that a try once I have enough xp to level up.

Continuing on down the screen further, we have mutations. I don’t ever recall seeing those in the games, so that's new. I wonder how they will work when I do get one. Hopefully; I don't end up growing a third arm out of my belly button or something equally as odd because that would suck, for obvious reasons.

Moving on.

Last on my status screen is quests and would you look at that, I somehow have 1 ready to turn in. I know for a fact there were no quests to complete till you exited vault 101, so there's another change from the games, not that I'm complaining.

Well, while time is frozen, I might as well turn the quest in now to test out whether I have any perks that are lying dormant. If not, at least I'll be able to improve my stats from the skill point distribution and perk selection.

As soon as I completed that thought, I selected the ready-to-turn quests from the status screen and after a moment the holographic screen changed to show the quest's information.

Quests ready to turn: 1

| Everything Starts With The Pip-Boy | Objectives: Obtain a Pip-Boy, any variant.
Rewards: Access to perks, Tag 3 Skills, and 200 exp.

Yeah, I know for a fact that this quest never existed, so I guess the quests in this world won't be the same as they were in the games and will be handled differently... Hmm, when I have some time available, I should probably dedicate some of it to exploring and figuring out how the new quest system works so I can figure out how to best utilize and take advantage of it.

This isn't just a game any longer, thus it would be in my best interest to be as much of a meta gamer as humanly possible. Well, that's enough about that, time to turn this quest in and see if there are any changes to the perk list. Once I have that taken care of along with the distributions of my skills points, I can get back to my party.

Selecting the quest, I turned it in and the very next second, the Fallout 3 level-up sound I hadn't heard in a decade, began playing. Getting hit by a wave of nostalgia, I patiently listened to it and when the sound stopped, the holographic screen changed again to a level-up menu displaying a long list of perks to choose from.

[ Perks ]

Perk Points Left: 1

Level 2 Perks

| Ambidextrous | Requirements Level 2, Perception 8: Gain the ability to use both of your hands as if they were your dominant hand.

| Confirmed Bachelor | Requirements Level 2: +10% damage against male opponents along with similar benefits to the Sex Appeal trait when dealing with members of the same sex.

| Daddy’s Boy | (Ranks 3) Requirements Level 2, Intelligence 4: +5 to both medicine and science while also making your dad more receptive to you.

| Friend Of The Night | Requirements Level 2, Perception 6, Sneak 30: This perk grants low light vision.

| Gun Nut | (Ranks 3) Requirements Level 2, Agility 3, Intelligence 4: +5 to both repair and guns and +10% to accuracy and range with guns.

| Heave, Ho! | Requirements Level 2, Strength 5, Explosives 30: Acquire a 50% Increase in velocity and range for all thrown weapons. This also includes all other weapons that fire in an arc.

| Hunter | Requirements Level 2, Survival 30: +75% more critical damage against animals and mutated animals, and corpse processing is much easier.

| In Shining Armor | Requirements Level 2, Repair 20, Science 70: +2 DT while wearing a metal helmet, +5 DT while wearing metal armor, and +7 DT on top when wearing both.

| Intense Training | (Ranks Unlimited) Requirements Level 2: Gain 1 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. point to be distributed into any S.P.E.C.I.A.L..

| Junk Rounds | Requirements Level 2: You can craft ammo using junk. It doesn't make any sense, but it works, somehow.

| Lady Killer | Requirements Level 2: Deal 10% more damage against females. Along with that, gain similar benefits to the Sex Appeal trait when dealing with members of the opposite sex.

| Light Touch | Requirements Level 2, Agility 6, Repair 45: While wearing light armor, you gain a +5% critical hit chance, and your enemies suffer a -25% critical hit chance.

| Little Leaguer | Requirements Level 2, Strength 4: +5 to both explosives and melee and +10% damage to both melee and thrown weapons.

| Old World Gourmet | Requirements Level 2, Endurance 6, Survival 45: +25% addiction resistance and +50% health bonus from food consumption.

| Rapid Reload | Requirements Level 2, Agility 5, Guns 30: +25% faster reload.

| Retention | Requirements Level 2, Intelligence 5: Magazine duration lasts 3 times as long.

| Swift Learner | Requirements Level 2, Intelligence 4: +10% increase in experience points gained and learn at a much faster rate.

| Thief | Requirements Level 2, Agility 4, Perception 4: +5 to both lockpick and sneak and any theft-related activities easier than they once were.

Spoiled for choice, I gave the list of perks a solid look over.

The perk list seemed to have remained mostly the same as it was, except for a new addition of Ambidextrous. Which is one of the few perks that stand out to me because being ambidextrous would be a big help any time I'm crafting or doing just about anything with my hands.

Besides that universal benefit, it would give me the ability to actually dual wield numerous weapons accurately without looking like a clown. I could see myself being able to use all kinds of weapons, ranging from things as simple as knives to smaller ranged weapons like pistols and their machine gun variants. And even light machine guns, possibly as long as I have the strength and endurance to hold them up and keep them on target for any extended amount of time.

It would also help me with any tasks that require hand manipulation and I could also see it being very useful in the bedroom. That is a nice plus, but that won't be happening till years later.

The second perk that stands out to me would have to be Daddy’s Boy, specifically because it'll make it easier to convince my father to let me do certain things. Such as allowing me to do more dangerous activities like going to the vault mines to kill mole rats, one of the very few ways I've been able to come up with to gain xp in my stay down here in Vault 101.

The perk could also make it easier to convince him to change his plans of leaving the vault to continue work on project purity. I've also given that subject a considerable amount of thought and decided to come from a rational angle to prevent him from returning to that project and getting himself killed by the Enclave.

To get him on board, I'll have to get it across to him that just creating fresh purified water, although a net positive for the waste, isn’t going to solve the world’s problems, not even a tiny bit.

When he inevitably asks for me to elaborate, I'll give it to him straight and tell all it would do is just paint a giant target on his back because drinkable nonradioactive water is an incredibly valuable resource out in the wasteland. Which the powers that be will come out of the woodwork to seize for themselves, thereby invalidating all the work he would've put into.

It might take more convincing than just that, but I can think about this further over the many years I still have left. If none of that works, I'll go the forceful route and keep him locked up until the Enclave threat has been dealt with.

Returning to before I got sidetracked by the future project purity debacle, the third perk that caught my attention would have to be Hunter. That +75% increase in critical damage to animals and mutated creatures would be huge for taking out any mole rats I would encounter in the mines.

However, that still relies upon me convincing dad to let me go into the vault mines, which I haven’t been able to do so far, unfortunately. Also, now that I think of it, Heave, Ho! would also work well with it since a 50% increase in velocity and range would increase the damage dealt against mole rats even more.

Plus, making spears and javelins are pretty simple as they're basically just a pole with a sharp metal tip attached to the end. But I think that would be a bit too overkill for taking out mole rats, so I probably won't be taking either of them.

The fourth perk that I found appealing would be Junk Rounds. The reason I found it appealing would be because there is a ton of junk that gets produced and recycled every day in Vault 101 due to there being more than 10,000 vault dwellers and counting.

So if I pick Junk Rounds, I could very easily skim junk off the top and begin stockpiling ammo with this perk slowly but surely. Though that ammo won't be very useful till I get my hands on a firearm, which I will most likely have to create myself. Thus, I'll probably skip this perk as well for the moment.

The final perk that tickled my fancy was Swift Learner. Simply due to that 10% increase in exp gain, that sounds pretty nice and a faster learning speed would be a big help too. Especially with reading the rest of the books in the library, that said Swift Learner will have to wait for now because I don’t currently possess any real way of earning exp right now other than lockpicking.

So if I want to make any sort of rapid progress right now, I would say being able to convince dad into letting me into the mines to hunt mole rats is my priority right now and the perk Daddy’s Boy would be huge in making that happen. I suppose my decision has been made for me.

Rooting out all the other perks, I looked over the perk list again to see if I wanted to change my mind. After I was done looking, I was 100% sure of my choice, thus I selected the perk and finalized my choice.

If you want something else to read, that's similar to this, check out my other webnovel Wasteland Conqueror. It has a lot more chapters released.