Capítulo 457: Divergence
Afton sighs and washes his hands off, he'd just finished operating on Caroline and was mildly enraged by what he'd seen. Aside from the initial injuries she had, the bullet wound to the gut, chest, and limbs, he also found numerous older wounds.
Whip marks, deliberate cuttings of flesh, burns, improperly healed bone breaks, and worst of all, genital mutilation. Afton grinds his teeth as he looks over the document he'd just written, it listed all of her injuries, their causes and his speculations on where she'd receive them. He'd be showing it to Karl once he'd recovered... If he recovers. Having your hand and both legs blown off was enough to put any thoughts of fighting from a regular person's mind... Though, Afton doubted Karl would so easily let bygones be bygones.
Of course, Afton had done the best he could to help Caroline, he'd extracted the pieces of bullets in her body but there was little he could do for the older injuries. There wasn't currently a way to create and attach organic body parts, even Afton's plant arm was more based on luck than actual science.
Afton wondered where the Legion had adopted such horrific traditions... He didn't remember the Romans ever practising general mutilation, perhaps it was brought over from the tribes?... Regardless, any guilt he'd have had after killing so many of them quickly faded. Barbaric pieces of shit like that lot deserves to be cleansed. "Glados, inform me once Caroline wakes up."
"Understood... Excuse me, creator? This may seem unusual, but why does the name 'Caroline' seem so familiar to me? I have never encountered this before, and my processors show no sign of abnormalities..."
Afton raises a brow but coughs into his fist, "No idea... Perhaps you just like the name?" he dismisses the query and quickly heads up to the Sink where Karl was currently being operated on.
He's greeted by all the personalities but ignores them as he heads for Meddie who's still apparently operating. "How is he?"
"He, is one tough bastard. Should've died minutes after being injured like this, but he's holdin' on somehow... Add the rather reckless cauterization and the guy's heart should've given out. Even still, it's beaten strong like a drum. Makes me tempted to pull him apart to see how he works..." Meddie trails off.
Afton crosses his arms, "You still haven't answered my question."
The personality chuckles, "He'll live, I'll say that much. Whether or not it will be a comfortable life is hard to say though. For all I know his damaged nerves could start firing constantly, leaving him in a perpetual state of agony."
Afton shrugs, "Yeah, but that's unlikely. A worst-case scenario... Hey, while you're at it, think you can do anything for his back? Old man keeps moaning about it so might as well get it done now."
"Will do... I'll install a cybernetic spine. You shouldn't wait around for him, he's still got hours of surgeries ahead."
Afton slowly nods, "Alright, have Alfred or Glados inform me when he's recovered or awake." he waves as he leaves.
Another thing that required his attention was the new guests in Big Mountain. He trusted most of his companions, but there were limits to what they would be willing to endure for him, he imagined that fighting gained their homeland and people would be one of them... Which is why it was very, very important that the location of this place is kept hidden from them.
Fortunately, doing this isn't all that hard as the only real map of Big Mountain currently resides on his Pipboy. Tamia's Pipboy might've been able to do something had he not already preemptively fixed such functions from finding too much info about Big Mt... The last thing he wanted to happen was for some NCR Vault Dweller to stumble across the place.
He walks to the front of the Think Tank and sits down on the bluegrass surrounding it. He'd been ignoring the notifications he'd received during the battle for long enough, now was perfect since he finally had some free time.
[Quest Complete : Find Caroline Martin]
[Lord Death v4 1869/2000]
[WELCOME TO LEVEL 50!!!!!!]
Afton grins when he sees the notification. 50 was a good number, maybe his favourite now... He quickly puts all points into Lockpicking, raising it up to 94, after that he enthusiastically moves onto the Perks...
[Level 50 Perks] : Perks at this level are derived from gathered Karma until this point. If you have proved to be monstrously evil you will receive Perks to suit this lifestyle, if you have proved to be Good Personified then you will receive options that help with this.
[Positive Karma : 2630]
[Negative Karma : 1223]
[Result] : Well-Meaning Disaster]
[Title acquired : Well-Meaning Disaster]
[Well-Meaning Disaster] : Despite your best efforts, your actions often lead to the deaths of many innocents. This exceedingly reckless method of problem-solving has made you infamous around the Wasteland. +100% Fame or Infamy gain depending on the results of your actions.
[Well-Meaning Disaster Perks] :
[Hero turned Tyrant] : Your attempts at heroism have failed often enough for you to leave such a life behind. +EXP gain when inspiring fear in others, +3 to Strength and Endurance, you become immune to critical hits. You also gain a mutation that increases the length of your canines and allows you to drink blood of your victims to rapidly regenerate health.
[Hero's Promise] : You have pledged to do your utmost in service of justice and all that's good. +EXP when inspiring hope in others, +3 to Intelligence, Charisma, you become immune to critical hits. Positive Karma grants bonus Health, Negative Karma takes away from this.
[Stay the Path] : You disregard all the deaths you have caused and continue the way you always have, heroes are fools and Villains are needlessly cruel, you are neither, yet both. EXP acquisition does not change, +2 to all stats, you become immune to critical hits. You also gain the ability to see someone's Karma.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Niggross
Niggross Hope you bois like the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
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Capítulo 458: Mutative Properties
Afton's eyes widen at the Perk options before him, these were seriously game-changing... At first he was pretty certain he was going to pick [Hero turned Tyrant], but after thinking about it for a while he realised that it was probably the worst option...
[Hero turned Tyrant] would force him to cause fear to earn EXP... This doesn't sound all that bad until you consider how much fear would allow you to level up, you'd probably have to nuke a city in front of thousands of people to level up from such a system.
That wasn't to say the things it offered weren't good, but upon further inspection they held more negatives than you'd think... Just the mutation alone would basically force him to become a cannibalistic vampire, if anyone caught him using such an ability his allies and anyone else who followed him would quickly leave.
Had he allied himself with the Fiends or other similar tribes, such an ability might be viable... But in his current situation? Impossible.
[Hero's Promise] is another hard perk to take... Again, such a Perk would force him to go through extreme lengths just to level up. His current reputation wasn't a good one, and changing it after he and his group had just brutally butchered thousands of people wasn't likely at all.
Gaining EXP through Hope would force him to basically become the second coming of jesus... And while that might sound like fun to do for a while, he imagined it'd get bored very, very quickly. The +3 to Intelligence and Charism wasn't bad, in fact, it'd allow him to get the max Perk for Intelligence, but it still wasn't worth it...
The worst thing of all would be the bonus Health for Karma... What would happen if his Positive Karma dipped under his Negative? Would he lose health? The fact that he didn't know made him reject any notion of actually accepting this Perk.
Last but not least was [Stay the Path], which would essentially do nothing to his actions. He'd continue as he always had been without interference, levelling would stay the same, and he'd continue slowly getting stronger without having to deify himself or commit genocide.
The ability to see someone's Karma would also be incredible. It'd essentially allow him to see who was good and who was evil... The morally grey world would suddenly become black and white... Anyone whose Karma was overwhelmingly Negative deserved death, right?
Karma was an enigmatic thing if Afton were honest with himself... Would he lose Karma if he saved a murderer who then went on to kill many? Would he lose Karma for creating a medicine that many people overdose on?
He imagined he'd gained so much Negative Karma due to his various 'brutal murders', murder was 'fine' for Karma, but torturing someone? Definitely not.
He sighs as he looks over the Perks again, he still had no idea what Immunity to Criticals would do... A shot to the head would still likely kill him, but maybe a bullet to the heart wouldn't? Ah, so confusing...
After a couple more minutes he bites his inner cheek and finally decides what to pick... [Stay the Path]
As soon as he picks the Perk he feels his body burning, his muscles were getting denser, his senses were improving, his mental capabilities were speeding up, his heartbeat felt strong, unstoppable. He was THE superhuman in the Wastelands now, he doubted anyone even came close, even with all the mutations around.
He's about to get up from the grass but is interrupted but yet another notification...
[WELCOME TO LEVEL 51!]
[System has updated, Levelling has been updated.]
[Each level will grant one point that can be used in one of three categories, Stats, Perks and Mutations. Skills that have not been maxed out yet can be upgraded as well, one point equals 10 Skill points.]
Afton raises a brow at this, honestly he'd been expecting something to change soon... Skill points became useless once you maxed them out, a couple more levels and he would've done just that... Still, he didn't think he'd be maxing out Lockpicking or Bartering, Perks, Stats, and Mutations would be way more valuable.
Speaking of which, he immediately look at the various categories that'd appeared in his peripheral...
[Points : 1]
[Stats]
[Perks]
[Mutations]
He ignores the first two categories and selects Mutations, a scree appears before him and starts listing off a variety of things... Among them were upgrades to [Beauveria mordicana symbioticca].
[Beauveria mordicana firmissimi anguli] : Enables user to manipulate their arm into a variety of shapes.
[Beauveria mordicana duraferro] : User's arm becomes as hard as steel.
[Beauveria mordicana flagellum] : Enables user's arm to extend, stretch, and flex.
[Beauveria mordicana rasorium] : Enables user to form incredibly sharp blades on their arm.
There were numerous upgrades for his plant arm, each seeming to complement one another... WIth enough perks his arm would basically be the one Mercer has in Prototype... Perhaps with even more options.
Of course, there were more mutations available.
[Beauveria mordicana infestatio v1] : Enables user to manipulate plantlife.
[Beauveria mordicana corpus indiuiduo connexe v1] : Drastically increases the user's body's durability. (May cause physical changes)
Other than the various Beauveria mordicana, plenty of other mutations were more similar to supernatural powers...
[Telepathy v1] : Enables user to communicate with other willing minds.
[Telekinesis v1] : Enables user to move objects with their mind.
[Pyrokinesis v1] : Enables user to control fire.
These mutations were all game-changers... The only problem was that they didn't elaborate how strong they actually were... [Telepathy v1] might force you to touch foreheads to communicate, [Telekinesis v1] might only make you able to lift a feather...
Afton was excited about them, but was more confident towards the Beauveria mordicana Mutations as they had already proven to work... As such, he decides to bite the bullet and try a simple, but potentially useful Mutation, [Beauveria mordicana firmissimi anguli].
He could already think up a few interesting uses for it, aside from morphing his arm into a spear or something, perhaps he'd be able to transform his finger into a key to unlock something... Maybe he'd be able to transform it into tools? Regardless, he'd have to find out later on.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES
Niggross
Niggross
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