My ears rang painfully as the massive explosion I caused boomed, so strongly in fact that I found it to be nearly debilitating. But no matter how much of a hindrance the sensations were, I had a mission to accomplish, hence I powered through the pain and ignored the constant ringing in my ears as best I could. Remaining strong willed as always, I stood up wobbly only to be nearly knocked back down by my attack's shock wave less than a second later.
I ain't going down that easy.
Unwilling to be toppled, I planted my feet and remained unmoving as the blast wave washed over me. I stood there defiantly, fixed in place, and the moment the forces had passed me by and continued off into the distance, I brought my lighting sniper rifle's scope up to my right eye's view and scanned the camp from left to right, searching for survivors to eliminate. However, I spotted none amongst the rubble nor the plethora of destroyed and collapsing rusted burning alloy structures.
[ Ding! ]
[ Explosive Proficiency Unlocked ]
Another proficiency, huh.
Although I didn't discover a single hostile right from the get go, I still remained in position, ready to kill off the survivors of my explosive ambush. Thankfully, my waiting didn't go unrewarded because I eventually spotted bandits stumbling out from the fringe areas as well as the westside where Sledge's territory lay. Moving my Eridian weapon's scope reticle to a bandit psycho that luckily survived the blast, I centered the glowing light blue reticle on his head and pulled the trigger, firing a bolt of glowing blue lighting.
The bolt arrived at its intended target way before I could register it, pierced through his shield, and blew his cranium apart. And before it could dissipate, it arced to another nearby psycho and electrocuted the unshielded poor sap to death.
Holy shit, this is one powerful weapon.
Enchanted by how strong my new toy seemed, I swiftly put it to work and transitioned to a different set of targets that were still reeling from the effects of my bombs. Taking full advantage of my enemies' current state, I laid out one bandit after the next, leaving their bodies scorched and twitching from the effects of my high-powered energy weapon. Nevertheless, my killing spree quickly depleted my weapon's energy reserves and once I ran the weapon almost completely dry, I stowed it away to let it recharge and brought out my Big Steel Helix Rocket Launcher that I've yet to use.
Time to put you to use, big guy.
Excited to finally use a rocket launcher for the first in my life, I shouldered the darkly colored, almost black launcher and looked down its 4x scope. I then took aim at a group of bandits in the distance and fired right at the center of the group, firing one large rocket that split into three. A blink of an eye later, my three rockets spinning in a helical pattern as they traveled, landed at their intended destination and rocked the area. Watching the explosion's small mushroom cloud rise from the targeted area, I found it left behind nothing but scorched arid land and burning bandit parts.
Those fellas are as dead as it gets.
Following that group's collective departure for the afterlife, I proceeded to fire and annihilate one bandit or bandit group after the next, and before long, I had eliminated every surviving bandit within the region, including the ones that came from Sledge's hideout. Ready to head in and take down the big bandit boss and then take possession of his vault key fragment next, I reloaded my rocket launcher and returned it to my inventory.
From there, I brought my primary machine gun that had been sitting strapped to my wide developed back all this time and dual wielded it alongside my legendary Frenzied Corrosive Bulldog Shotgun that has yet to see any use. The moment I had them both in hand, I took off down the stairs and made a beeline westward, heading specifically in the direction of a large industrial building that I knew to be Sledge's residence. Sprinting through the battlefield, I came face to face with the horrors my actions brought.
What entered my field of vision were tons and tons of ravaged human bodies strewn about the blood-soaked lands. Staring at the many broken and ripped apart bodies for a moment, I felt no remorse nor sadness for the disgusting sight my actions wrought upon this place, not even a hint. Unbothered by the horrifying scenery, I ignored it and kept brokering a path through the destruction I brought upon this bandit base. I sprinted past dozens upon dozens of burning and crumbling structures as well as all sorts of horrors, through this literal war zone as I charted a path, but I nonetheless made it through and arrived in front of my goal.
Approaching the large set of doors, I kicked them open, finding an open space with a decent amount of junk spread about. Cautious as always, I scanned my surroundings for enemies first, however; I found none, so I stepped into the building and began clearing the structure in search of the bandit leader. My search turned up a handful of bandits but no Sledge, so after I put them down with my high tier shotgun, I backtracked to a room with an elevator that looked nearly identical to the one you would take to reach the boss's den.
I guess I'll find him up there.
Coming ever closer to making that vault key fragment mine, I stepped onto the rusted lift and pulled the obvious lever mechanism off to the side. The second I pulled that lever, the worn platform as a whole began ascending at a decent pace and before long, it arrived at its final destination. Stepping off the lift, I strolled by a couple of vending machines for ammo and meds and continued on my way through a sheet metal passage.
After making it to the end of that fully covered walkway, I arrived in front of a single large metal door. Having finally reached the door that led into Sledge's lair, I took a deep breath and calmed my nerves, and once they were settled, I stepped up to the door's control panel at the side and activated it. As soon as I pressed the button, the door started retreating into its recesses on its sides and the instant it did it revealed a wide industrial looking space with tall ceilings and open rafters. Smack dab in the middle of all that was the big bandit boss himself, Sledge waiting in anticipation upon his throne.
The brute of a man who was even larger than me stood up and began in a deep, rough voice that quickly transitioned to one teaming with unbridled rage. "Not going away, huh? You must be a bounty hunter! Sledge will punish you like the others!"
Listening to his speech, I couldn't help but be reminded of how dumb his in game counterpart was.
This Sledge doesn't appear to be the sharpest tool in the shed as well.
As that thought passed through my mind, the massive armored bruiser rose from his welded together junk throne with one hand grabbing his massive signature hammer and the other reaching and taking ahold of his unique burst fire shotgun. Not stupid enough to give the massive bruiser the time to start putting out damage nor put up a real defense, I took the initiative and opened up fire with both of my large capacity weapons. Holding down the trigger for my machine gun in my right hand, I sent forth a stream of fully automatic fire alongside clouds of steel shot with each trigger pull of my Bulldog shotgun.
This first move of mine depleted his powerful shield rapidly and once it was down for the count, my weapons' elemental effects started doing their thing and causing him to yell out in agonizing pain. "It burns!"
My sudden attack, although effective, was not effective enough to bring the big bastard down just yet, so as I was continuing to lay into him, he moved his shotgun in my direction and pulled the trigger, firing a rapid burst of shotgun shells. Due to his weapon's unique properties, I quickly found myself being pushed back some and my aim being knocked off target.
I could choose to stand here and tank the hits, but why do that when I can simply take advantage of the surrounding environment?
Acutely aware of his weapon's advantages and particularly its glaring weaknesses, that being its dogshit accuracy and extremely limited ammo capacity, I pushed into the industrial throne room and took cover behind a pillar before really restarting my storm of gunfire. Our gunshots rang out loudly throughout the large space and after going at for a minute or so, I stood before the corpse of Sledge, riddled with burnt bullet holes and peppered with hundreds of openings soaked in corrosive acid that was still eating away at his armor and comparatively soft flesh underneath.
Well, that was anticlimactic and far easier than I imagined it would've been... I expected him to put up more of a fight, but I suppose keeping my distance and not allowing him to get close with his set of close ranged weapons on top of using tactics and overwhelming firepower was a bit too much for his dumbass to overcome. That said, it is better than going up against someone who understands their advantages and knows how to abuse them, although that would have been a hell of a lot more entertaining.
Peering down on the now deceased leader of the Arid Badlands bandits, I replayed my fight with him in my mind. I reran the fight over and over in my head and, after doing so for a few dozen seconds; I snapped out of it and returned to reality.
Following my return, I crouched down and collected his heavy melee weapon, Hammer, that made my savage pickaxe seem like nothing more than a child's toy, his unique burst fire shotty that possessed a hell of a lot of knock back, the sawtooth and spike covered custom metal armor covering his huge muscular body, his odd top tier shield that looked like a combination of a bunch of different shields jury-rigged together, and surprisingly a high end berserker class mod.
This is pretty good but I don't know if I would ever use this since I have no idea what the class situation is going to look like when I completely fill up all three of my skill trees, so maybe I'd be better off giving this to one of the other vault hunters like Brick for instance. He is a berserker, so I'm sure he would love to have this. Having said that, I wouldn't hand it over for free... Now that I'm thinking of them, I wonder what I should do about the vault hunters when the time comes.
Thinking about the future and what actions I may want to take, I moved past the dead oversized bruiser and approached the silver chest that laid in the back of the space. Anxious to get the legendary vault key fragment in my hands, I zoomed over to the chest and activated its opening mechanism. When the silver chest finally opened up, it revealed its content and what it held inside was a third of a conical shaped stone with all sorts of mystical unknown symbols ingrained upon it.
Picking up the vault key fragment that was joined by stacks and stacks of cash on either side of it, I looked the eridian artifact over with palpable excitement. "I finally got my hands on one!"
After looking the alien key fragment over for a while, I put it away in my inventory for safe keeping. "One down, two more to go."
With the relic safely and most importantly securely stowed away in my personal inventory, I began pocketing the stacks of dollar bills one after the next, and before long, I had cleaned out Sledge's stash. Finished looting that, I started scavenging the place from top to bottom and once I had stripped the former head bandit's hideout of all its valuables; I departed for my own domain with my large haul of loot. However, as I was walking home, I thought about the possibility of bandits coming back to the Headstone Mine after performing their raids on the nearby settlements.
Yeah, that certainly is a very real danger, so it would be in my best interest to set up a few traps for any unwelcomed visitors.
Spinning in place, I performed a 180-degree turn and ventured north to the conquered bandit stronghold's gate.
[ Status Changes ]
Level: 28 → 44
Experience Points: +60,480
Total Experience Points Earned: 40,625 → 101,105
Health: 7,018 → 8,954
Health Regeneration: 40.89 HP/s → 52.17 HP/s
Stamina: 5,800 → 7,400
Stamina Regeneration: 11.8 SP/s → 13.4 SP/s
Skill Points: 0 → 16
Badass Tokens: 8 → 5,634
Pistol Proficiency: lvl 3 | Accuracy +6% - Damage +6% - Reload Speed +6% - Stability +6% | → lvl 4 | | Accuracy +6% - Damage +6% - Fire Rate +6% - Reload Speed +6% - Stability +6% |
Shotgun Proficiency: lvl 0 → lvl 5 | Accuracy +6% - Damage +6% - Knockback +6% - Projectile Speed +6% - Recoil Reduction +6% - Reload Speed +6% |
Machine Gun Proficiency: lvl 39 | Accuracy +39% - Cooling Rate +39% - Damage +39% - Magazine Size +39% - Recoil Reduction +39% - Reload Speed +39% - Stability +39% | → lvl 41 | Accuracy +41% - Cooling Rate +41% - Damage +41% - Magazine Size +41% - Recoil Reduction +41% - Reload Speed +41% - Stability +41% |
Rocket Launcher Proficiency: lvl 0 → lvl 27 | Accuracy +27% - Backblast Reduction +27% - Damage +27% - Explosive Radius +27% - Fire Rate +27% - Recoil Reduction +27% - Reload Speed +27% - Stability +27% |
Eridian Weapon Proficiency: lvl 0 → lvl 3 | Accuracy +6% - Damage +6% - Energy Capacity +6% - Energy Regeneration +6% |
Melee Proficiency: lvl 7 | Accuracy +7% - Attack Speed +7% - Damage +7% - Durability +7% - Handling +7% - Learning Speed +7% - Stamina Efficiency +7% | → lvl 8 | Accuracy +8% - Attack Speed +8% - Damage +8% - Durability +8% - Handling +8% - Learning Speed +8% - Stamina Efficiency +8% |
Explosive Proficiency: lvl 0 → lvl 67 | Crafting Speed +67% - Damage +67% - Element Effects +67% - Explosive Radius +67% - Shockwave Effects +67% |
[ Loot Acquired ]
Guns: | Unique || Jakobs | Sledge's Shotgun - | Legendary || Jakobs | 8xOPT Skull Smasher Sniper Rifle - | Epic || Tediore | Supreme Carnage Shotgun - | Rare || Hyperion | 3xOPT Incendiary Crimson Cobra Combat Rifle - | Rare || Dahl | HOLO Shocking Shredder Shotgun - | Uncommon || All | Combat Rifles (2) - | Uncommon || All | Machine Guns (4) - | Uncommon || All | Pistols (3) - | Uncommon || All | Revolvers (2) - | Uncommon || All | Rocket Launchers (3) - | Uncommon || All | Shotguns (7) - | Uncommon || All | Submachine Guns (4) - | Common || All | Combat Rifles (17) - | Common || All | Machine Guns (9) - | Common || All | Pistols (7) - | Common || All | Revolvers (3) - | Common || All | Shotguns (14) - | Common || All | Sniper Rifles (5) - | Common || All | Submachine Guns (12)
Melee Weapons: | Unique || Bandit | Sledge's Hammer
Grenade Mods: | Epic || Torgue | Incendiary MIRV Grenade - | Epic || Atlas | Shocking Rain Grenade - | Rare || Pangolin | Corrosive Rubberized Grenade - | Uncommon || All | Grenades (5) - | Common || All | Grenades (3)
Armor: | Unique || Bandit | Sledge's Scrap Armor
Shields: | Unique || Bandit | Sledge's Shield - | Epic || Atlas | Impenetrable Cationic Shield - | Rare || Dahl | Sterling Dilution Shield - | Rare || Anshin | Rapid Skirmisher Shield - | Uncommon || All | Shields (15) - Common || All | Shields (16)
Class Mods: | Epic || Tediore | Berserker Class Mod - | Common || Generic | Basic Classless Class Mods (2)
Artifacts: | Unique || Eridian | Vault Key Fragment
Meds: Super Healing Kits (9) - Super Insta-Health Vials (18) - Greater Healing Kits (25) - Greater Insta-Health Vials (49)
Ammunition: 51,789
Grenades: 144
Dollars: 874,007
______
Just a heads up, I'm almost done wrapping up Volume 2 for Wasteland Conqueror, so this will be getting a lot more releases in the future along with another zombie fic I'm going to start writing in a minute here. Though that won't appear on this site or any other besides Patreon till I have at least 40 chapters written.
Also, if you guys could vote and get this fic into the power stone rankings, I'd appreciate it.