"Woah, woah, woah, I don't work for Marcus, man. I just moved into town, man."
"Oh, sorry about that then; it's nice to meet you..." The doc said, seeming a bit apologetic for the explosive outburst.
"The name's Victor, but everyone calls me Vic."
"Nice to meet you, Vic. I'm Dr. Zed, but I'm sure you already figured that out with the sign out front."
"Yeah, I've gathered that."
"What can I do you for, I don't suppose you need some fixin up, now do ya?"
"Not this time, but I wanted to see if I could browse your wares and pick your brain about something that I'm looking for a suitable solution to." I replied whilst indicating my interest in the line of medical vending machines towards the right side of the business.
"Yeah, have at them, but what sort of problem are you having? It wouldn't have anything to do with a faulty organ now, would it?"
"Nah, nothing like that. I was just wondering if you had any better ideas one could implement if they wanted to, let's say, inflict a very minor amount of damage at all times and maybe be able to control it on the fly."
"Hmm, that depends on how much damage you want to inflict and who it is for."
"I need it personally for myself, as strange as that sounds, and I'd like the damage to be as minute as I can get it, preferably something that won't have negative long-term effects."
"Hmm, you could use something like poison or venom, though venom would probably be the better option of the two, or you could go another route and use something like an elemental effect such as shock, for instance."
"I don't really want it affecting my shields or want something burning my skin if I can help it, so do you have any weak venoms or poisons by any chance?"
"Aye, you're in luck. I just received some venomous creatures the other day."
"Fantastic, mind if I have a look?"
"Sure thing, just go check out my stock of goods whilst I go retrieve what I have in the back."
"I'll do that." I said last as the doc got up and disappeared through a double door located in the rear of the place.
Walking over to the vendors, I scanned the wares available on the built-in screen. There were five of the damn things, so it took a while to get through all five of their lists. However, the time invested in the task wasn't for naught because I found the holy trinity of elemental resistance shields. More specifically, an epic rarity Atlas shield with extreme shock resistance, a similar rarity Dahl shield with extreme corrosive resistance, and an epic rarity Hyperion shield with extreme fire resistance, all of which can reduce their relevant elemental damage taken to a mere 33%.
They won't grant immunity to any of the elemental damage types, but reducing the power of any of those elements to just a third is already amazing. And if I invest enough resources, maybe that resistance can be boosted even further, possibly to complete immunity... Alright, I gotta have them no matter the price Zed has them listed at.
Set on obtaining those 3 shields for myself and adding them to my collection, I splurged and picked them up from the machine for a hefty $325,000.
That hurts a bit, but it will certainly be money well spent, I'm sure. Now let me pick up that class mod I've been eyeing since I spotted the darn thing.
Following that thought, I bought a rare hoarder class mod with 3 team ammo regeneration, +5 | Lay Waste |, and +3 | Filled to the Brim | for a whopping 139,000. It was an expensive purchase, to say the least, but I knew I would make the money back from just my ammo production alone, so I didn't give it another thought after I traded out my first class mod for this new and improved version. Having looked through the machines thoroughly, I wandered over to a nearby set of chairs and waited for Dr. Zed to return. Luckily for me, I didn't have to wait more than a few minutes.
"Okay, so I went through my whole stock in the back and this what I currently have available-" The doc sputtered off as he came strolling through the double doors with a rolling industrial cart filled to the brim with small alien creatures, plump venom glands, colorful pieces of plants, substances, and all other kinds of body parts of unknown origins.
I listened to Dr. Zed's concise explanation of the cart full of poisons and toxins, and after giving it a bit of thought, I couldn't help making a comment. "This is quite a wide selection you've got, Doc."
"You should've seen it back when Fyrestone was bustling." Dr. Zed replied, seemingly happy about my notice.
"This part from a badass corrosive skag in particular has got me thinking."
"About?"
"About how a regular old skag transforms into such a creature capable of spewing corrosive substances at will and whether or not I can transform one of my own skags into one."
"Ahh, you want to know about that. Well, you're in luck because I dabbled a bit in that area years back before I had my med school degree taken from me by that damn, no-good medical board."
"You don't say? Well, I'm all ears, but I won't be able to hang around all day, if you catch my drift."
"Their way of evolving is rather simple, so this won't take long to explain. However, I wouldn't have minded even if it did because my business isn't doing as well as when Dahl employed the town, as you can see." He gestured with a wave toward the completely empty clinic.
"I can see that... Maybe that'll change soon though."
"I hope so, but I doubt things are going to turn around with the local bandits constantly harassing us... Anyhow, they basically evolve through whatever their diet consists of and the environment they choose to inhabit. For example, if a skag lives around a bunch of shock crystals they'll more than likely evolve into a badass shock skag and if they eat a lot of bones and protein, they'll grow larger and gain those bulky boney plates that Alpha skags are known for, and if they just eat a ton of protein, they'll probably just grow to become a normal badass skag."
"What about the regular variants, like spitters, and whatnot?"
"That's a good question... Well, unfortunately, I have no good answer for that question since it seems to be totally random, at least from what I can tell."
"Hmm, interesting..." I commented, going into thought.
I thought their whole evolution process was going to be one hell of a complicated mess, but if shit is this simple, I can probably have a badass alpha of each element if not something comparable to Skagzilla if given enough time. Though I don't know what caused that skag to grow that large so maybe he's one of a kind... But now that I'm thinking of it, there are massive skeletal bones from creatures that look very skag-like in appearance spread all across Pandora, so there is probably a way to induce that sort of colossal growth in them.
I'll give this more thought in the days to come but for now I'm going to try my hand at raising the pups with a hefty diet of protein, fresh bones, and specific elements for each of them once I get my hands on some... I guess I'll be returning to the Headstone Mine otherwise; I don't know how I'll secure a supply of shock crystals for one of the energetic pups.
Not wanting to spend too much time on my thoughts in the middle of a conversation, I thanked the somewhat unethical Dr. Zed. "Anyway, you saved me a ton of time, doc. I appreciate it. Here's a tip for the help."
As I was attempting to hand the man a wad of cash, he stopped me in my tracks. "That won't be necessary."
"You sure? I'm not exactly hurting for money, you know."
"Positive... Though if you were Marcus Kincaid, I would've ripped that bundle of cash out of your hands the moment I saw it."
"Hahaha, I would pay to see you shake down that money grubber."
"Hahaha, one of these damned days I'll make it happen." The two of us shared a few more laughs before we got down to business. "So what will it be?" The doc asked, directing my attention to the cart full of "mildly" lethal materials.
"I'll take the whole lot of spitter and badass corrosive skag parts you've got since they have a bit of venom in them and may help one of the pups I'm raising evolve into something interesting. How much will it be, doc?"
"Oh, don't worry about it; just call it your first-time customer discount. Plus, you've already spent plenty on the vendors." Dr. Zed replied, waving the cost of the creature parts.
"Alright, but you're gonna have to take my money next time."
"Gladly."
I chatted the doc up for a while longer, bought a compact IV drip system that the Doc recommended would be a good candidate for my suit, and when I figured I'd taken up enough of the man's precious time and it was about damn time for me to take my leave and scram, I was going to end the conversation and head for the door when I had a thought occur to me.
If the doc has corrosive skag parts, he probably has materials for the other elements as well... Asking won't hurt.
"Yo, Doc, I got one last question."
"Ask away."
"You have any incendiary and shock element stuff?" I inquired whilst holding out the bag of skag parts.
"I do, and I'm guessing you want materials equivalent to what you're holding right now."
Responding with a simple nod, he headed off into the back once more and soon returned with two clear sealed bags of body parts, one that consisted predominantly of red and the other blue.
"Thanks, Doc." I said simply before taking the two sacks of parts and transferring them along with the original to my "backpack".
"Alright, I'ma head out now, Dr. Zed. Thanks for all your help."
"Don't mind it, just don't forget to come back to me anytime you're in town, Vic. No reason not to get full healin' before you head back out there."
"I'll do that." I responded with a wave as I headed back out onto the street.
I wish I could've secured some elemental crystals through him but they haven't had access to the Headstone Mine, not to mention access to any mine for quite some time since Sledge and the bandits began running amok and took over the badlands… It's sad but at least I know I can secure all three types of elemental crystals from the Headstone Mine.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'm going to go see if I can track down the local gun shop before I head to the town's bounty board to pick up some missions. I'm working with a limited timeframe here, so I gotta replace the funds I spent and add even more to my reserves if I want to cash in on Atlas's downfall.
Planning on grinding the local bounty board and cleaning up the bandit population, I pushed the door open, but I bumped into something metallic on just the other side.
"Hey watch it, buddy. I'm rolling here."
"Oh, sorry about that, little guy." I apologized to the small, boxy orange robot I remembered fondly from the years I spent growing up playing Borderlands.
"W-who're you calling little? I'll have you know we're quite big for our size." The feisty little guy responded swiftly.
"My bad..."
"CL4P-TP or Mr. Claptrap to you, pal."
"Ahh, you're one of those mighty CL4P-TP general purpose robots Hyperion started producing recently."
"..." The little robot didn't expect to hear those sort of words coming from me, let alone anyone else, so he stood there speechless for a second there, but the chatterbox that I knew he was didn't stay quiet for long.
"Mmm, you've got a way with words, human. Roll with me; I see great potential in you." The orange little guy responded, sounding plenty pleased with the words that entered his... Well whatever this robot had for ears.
Looks like flattery works like a charm with Claptrap... I guess I won't have an issue making friends with this little guy.
Not minding the Claptrap's rudeness, I shrugged my shoulders and followed alongside the little guy, whose fiery speech pattern I found quite charming, as he began rolling forward back towards the center of town.
[ Loot Acquired ]
Shields: | Epic || Dahl | Extreme Corrosive Resistant Harmonious Hazmat Shield - | Epic || Hyperion | Extreme Fire Resistant Alacritous Endothermic Shield - | Epic || Atlas | Extreme Shock Resistant Impenetrable Cationic Shield
Class Mods: | Rare || Vladof | Loaded Hoarder Class Mod
Ammunition: 2,723
[ Loot Changes ]
Money: 2,028,110 → 1,564,110
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Hey, I'm going to be gone for months at a time for work probably for the next year, year and a half, so Patreon is getting dismantled and I will be going back to writing purely as a hobby, so expect releases for the next however many days till you guys are caught up.