Right as I passed the door's threshold and stepped out onto the metal walkway, I took in my surroundings, looking for any nearby bandits that may be watching.
Looks like the coast is clear.
Having done my due diligence, I shut the door behind me via its control panel and headed off via the rusted steel mesh walkway. Scanning the environment as I walked, I quickly reached the stairs and stepped down to the tan arid dirt of Pandora. The instant I planted both feet on the ground, I eyeballed the region and immediately took note of the dozens of bandits going about their business in the area.
I watched them intently for a couple of seconds and although I was eager to start a slaughter and collect as much value as I could from them; I kept to my plan and held myself back for the meantime and wandered off to get an actual lay of the land for this particular section of the Headstone Mine. Knowing exactly what I needed to do, I used my time wisely and fully explored the outsides of the many structures scattered throughout this zone, and once I was finished carrying out that objective; I returned to the area around my hideout.
Apparently my place is the quietest and least visited spot out of all the places... I guess I'll just start my killing spree here.
Finding my own territory to be the best spot to initiate my cleansing, I called out to one of the solo bandits. "Hey, buddy, let me talk to you for a second."
The weathered mask wearing man heard my deep baritone voice call out to him, so he turned in my direction, looking ready to tell me to fuck off. However, that all changed as soon as he caught sight of me. "What do you want, bruiser?" He asked, obviously holding his tongue.
"A moment of your time."
He appeared annoyed, but he nevertheless yielded to my request. "Fine, I'm listening."
"It's not exactly the kind of topic I want others to overhear, so why don't you follow me, so I discuss the proposition I got for you."
"A financially beneficial one?"
Giving him a simple head nod in response, he said. "Now you're speaking my language."
With the random greedy bandit now following my lead, I began leading him to a quiet area, away from prying eyes.
I was planning on killing him immediately, but it would be so much smarter to extract as much information as I can get from him before disposing of him.
Modifying my original plan ever so slightly, I continued leading the sucker around back and right as we cleared vision of everyone. I performed a 180 and grabbed the normal sized bandit by his brittle neck and lifted him up. "Alright, I'm going to ask you a few questions first and you're going to tell me what I want to know, got it?"
The poor bastard nodded his head as best he could under my powerful grip, so I relinquished my hold on him and reinforced the very real threat I posed to his safety. "If you try anything, you'll be long dead before anyone can even reach you, let alone attempt to save your ass, so it would be in your best interest to cooperate."
"...I understand, so what do you want to know?" He asked whilst rubbing the spot where I grabbed hold of him.
Bringing out my ECHO communication device, I pulled up my map of Pandora, navigated to the Headstone Mine, and inquired about the location of Sledge and many of the other locations around the camp. I didn't expect to get a whole lot out of the guy due to him being all by himself in this loner area, but the man was surprisingly knowledgeable about the camp and informed me that Sledge's personal spot was the large industrial building to the west.
I asked him a few more questions following that, regarding a number of things having to do with this bandit stronghold and the surrounding Arid Badlands, however; he wasn't as informed nor helpful regarding the latter topics I wanted to know about.
I was hoping to ring a bit more info out of him, but I guess that's all I can get out of him... At least I now know where to head when I set off the bombs.
"Alright, that's all I needed from you. Here's a 1,000 bucks for your time."
"It's been a pleasure doing business with you... Am I good to leave now?" The random loner bandit replied, prepared to flee and get as far away as he can from me.
"Yeah, you can scram now." I told him, but just as he turned around and was about to take off, I whipped out my heavy combat pickaxe from my digital backpack and slammed its sharp spike into the top of his skull.
*Crunch*
"Sorry, pal, but I can't leave any variables behind that may make my plans go awry."
[ +20 EXP ]
[ +2 Badass Tokens ]
[ Ding! ]
[ Melee Proficiency Unlocked ]
Cool, a new proficiency to level.
As blood started spouting out from his pierced and partially caved skull, I anticipated a flood of negative emotions to flow over me. But no matter how long I stood there with my weapon impaled in his dome, not a single unpleasant feeling came to me from taking my very first human life.
I expected to feel something along the lines of self loathing and disgust or regret at the very least, but I feel no different than I usually do... I guess I was made for a world like this.
Coming to terms with the possibility that I may have always been a killer at heart, I kept my weapon in this poor sap's skull, retrieved the grand I just gave him, looted his corpse and began dragging his body in the direction of the sheer cliff. The moment I made it to it, I peered over the drop off and thought, this'll do, before tearing my pick from his head and kicking the bandit's corpse off the cliff. Having successfully disposed of my first victim, I turned back and proceeded to find my next prey.
...
It took a slight bit more than a couple of hours and quite a lot of work to successfully clear the entire exterior of this particular section of every single last bandit, but it was certainly worth the effort.
I thought to myself as I stowed all the loot I scavenged from their corpses away in my safe house. Looking over the physical gains as well as the system ones I made from butchering 73 human scum with my own two hands, I decided to stockpile my rewards for the moment since I've yet to encounter any difficulty or even a modicum of challenge over these two hours.
With that step completed, it's time I've moved into the interiors of these structures and began clearing them out one by one. And once I've dealt with the bandit population, including Sledge, I can begin looting my kills and the rest of this Dahl mining facility turned bandit base from top to bottom. As for what I'll do after that, I'll see when I get there, though I think I might try to make my way to Fyrestone. I'm sure a bandit slaughterer such as myself would be more than welcome there.
Ready to head on inside and start clearing the buildings, I proceeded to the structure directly right of mine. Arriving in front of the large warehouse looking structure, I circled around to one of the side entrances and opened the door via the control panel and headed on in. As soon as I entered the place, I performed my usual scan of the new space and found the interior I expected to stumble upon, a typical warehouse stocked with racks and racks of all kinds of equipment, tools, and material, both processed and unprocessed.
Observing the space for a while longer I explored the floor I found myself on and once I was sure there wasn't anything to kill here, I ascended to the next level via a not so worn stairwell that was pretty much the same as the one in my own temporary base. The second I reached the next level, I came across a bandit about to take the stairs himself.
"Who the fuck are you assho-"
Unwilling to listen to the drivel he was spewing, I grabbed hold of him and stabbed my combat knife underneath his jaw, pierced his energy shield effortlessly, and inserted it into his skull. The fucker made some choking and gurgling noises for a handful of seconds before losing all strength. Letting the limp, bleeding, lifeless body collapse off to the side with an audible thump, I stepped onto the second floor and began my search for more targets.
Committed to making sure my plans would succeed without a hitch, I explored and swept the floors of the warehouse thoroughly and eliminated every single enemy I encountered upon them. Once my total kill count for this location had finally surpassed 20 enemies on the topmost level, I knew I had disposed of everyone and was the only individual still left breathing in the building.
Looks like my job here is done. Time to move onto the next place.
As motivated as ever, I strolled down the stairs, exited the warehouse, and wandered off to the next structure, intent on taking full control of this section of the bandit base.
...
I spent my time moving from building to building, clearing them of all hostile forces, and when 3 hours had eventually gone by I could, without a shadow of a doubt, say I was the only living entity left in this zone besides my pups below of course, who were probably hungry and crying for food right about now.
I would like to continue working towards my goals, but I should probably head on back and feed both my pups and myself. I know I'm gonna need the energy for the battle ahead... Yeah, that would be for the best.
Deciding to go grab a meal before I continue my crusade, I hurried on into my hideout and hopped aboard the elevator and rode it down to the bottom of the underground. My time with the k9s was short-lived since I was still just as eager to obtain the vault key fragment as when I awoke, so I once more set off upstairs and to a soldering station that former Dahl miners must've used for putting together their explosive charges.
Taking a seat in the old dingy chair, I brought out a spool of wire, dozens of wireless transceivers, a shit ton of rockets, and my ECHO communication device, which I will be using to teach myself how to make these IEDs.
Alright, I got everything I need. Now let's see how many of these bombs I can churn out.
Getting right to work, I began browsing the ECHOnet and gathering all the knowledge I required to bring my plans to fruition. Thanks in major part to my much improved intellect, I now understood and absorbed all the new information I came across as easily as breathing. Literally amazed at how effortless I found learning to be, I began excitedly scouring the net for all things explosive and before I knew it, I now possessed the necessary knowledge as well as the ability to assemble and produce a wide range of explosive devices and related weaponry.
I wasn't entirely sure I was going to be able to make the devices previously, but now that I have this knowledge I'm 100% confident I can churn them out quickly, efficiently, and most importantly, safely.
Armed with my newfound knowledge, I began turning the idea I had come up with originally into an actual functional design and bringing that weapon into reality.
[ Status Changes ]
Body Weight: 395 lbs → 396 lbs
Level: 26 → 28
Experience Points: +5,260
Total Experience Points Earned: 35,365 → 40,625
Health: 6,776 → 7,018
Health Regeneration: 39.48 HP/s → 40.89 HP/s
Stamina: 5,600 → 5,800
Stamina Regeneration: 11.6 SP/s → 11.8 SP/s
Skill Points: 0 → 2
Badass Tokens: 0 → 488
Melee Proficiency: lvl 0 → lvl 7 | Accuracy +7% - Attack Speed +7% - Damage +7% - Durability +7% - Handling +7% - Learning Speed +7% - Stamina Efficiency +7% |
[ Loot Acquired ]
Guns: | Epic || Atlas | Explosive Savage Pearl Masher Revolver - | Rare || S&S Munitions | 6xOPT Enhanced Liquid Thunder Sniper Rifle - | Rare || Dahl | RD Strapped Corrosive Surplus Cobra Combat Rifle - | Rare || Dahl | RD Urban Anarchy Submachine Gun - | Uncommon || Hyperion | Incendiary Substandard Harpoon Rocket Launcher - | Uncommon || Torgue | Hostile Iron Submachine Gun - | Uncommon || Torgue | Steel Stinger Submachine Gun - | Common || Generic | Basic Combat Rifles (84) - | Common || Generic | Basic Machine Guns (15) - | Common || Generic | Basic Pistols (135) - | Common || Generic | Basic Revolvers (18) - | Common || Generic | Basic Shotguns (31) - | Common || Generic | Basic Sniper Rifles (7) - | Common || Generic | Basic Submachine Guns (84)
Melee Weapon: | Rare || Bandit | Brutal Jagged Machete - | Uncommon || Dahl | Old Veteran Combat Knives (7) - | Common || Bandit | Psycho Axes (8) - | Common || Bandit | Shanks (284) - | Common || Generic | Serrated Combat Knives (53)
Grenade Mods: | Rare || Maliwan | Corrosive Contact Grenade - | Rare || Torgue | MIRV Grenade - | Uncommon || Dahl | Bouncing Bettie - | Uncommon || Tediore | Contact Grenades (5) - | Uncommon || Pangolin | Rubberized Grenade - | Uncommon || Anshin | Transfusions (3)
Armor: | Common || Bandit | Basic Scrap Armors (79)
Shields: | Epic || S&S Munitions | Alacritous Acid Nova Shield - | Rare || Torgue | Hardened Tough Guy Shield - | Rare || Anshin | Unbreakable Skirmisher Shield - | Uncommon || Vladof | Balanced Fire Burst Shield - | Uncommon || Atlas | Reinforced Grounded Shield - | Uncommon || Pangolin | Reinforced Unyielding Shield - | Uncommon || Hyperion | Quick Charge Thermal Shield - | Common || Generic | Basic Shields (119)
Class Mods: | Uncommon || Pangolin | Armored Tank Class Mod - | Common || Vladof | Hoarder Class Mod - | Common || Generic | Basic Classless Class Mods (17)
Meds: Super Healing Kit (4) - Super Insta-Health Vials (12) - Greater Healing Kits (25) - Greater Insta-Health Vials (34) - Healing Kits (55) - Insta-Health Vials (71) - Light Healing Kits (86) - Light Insta-Health Vials (117) - Minor Healing Kits (250) - Minor Insta-Health Vials (333)
Ammunition: 57,469
Grenades: 577
Dollars: 237,001
______
Usual plug: if you want to read ahead, you can do so on Patreon.