[WELCOME TO LEVEL 17]

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 18] ​​

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 19]

Afton raises a brow at the fact there only seemed to be three levels... In the past killing hundreds of ghouls would net him enough exp to advance four times or so, hmm. Each level's requirement is increasing rather quickly. He hoped it wouldn't get too ridiculous before he reached whatever the max level was.

Whatever the case, he currently had 45 skill points to spend. He knew he'd max out his Melee Weapons skill as it only required 9 points, but what to do next? He was tempted to just dump it all in Energy Weapons to see what the maxed out Perk for it would be, but felt that perhaps he could hold off on that for now.

Maybe Medicine or Science? The former would definitely be very useful, maybe the Perk would give him something usable in combat as well?... Alright.

He dumps the 36 remaining points into Medicine and presses confirm, immediately rediscovering the fun sensation of having your skull cracked open with books being forced inside it. Obviously, medicine was a "broad" science, and had a lot of intricacies that needed to be memorized.

It didn't just include knowledge of the human body, he also learned how to create stimpacks, how to create vaccines, and other work that'd confine you to a laboratory. Shaking his head, he focussed on the new things he'd learned from the Melee Weapons skill.

That'd granted him the rest of his missing knowledge on martial arts, breathing cycles he hadn't known before and manoeuvres that previously seemed impossible felt familiar.

[SuperHot Block gained!] : Ability to block projectiles with a Melee Weapon, chance depends on Perception, Agility, and Luck.

Hm, well that might very well make melee combat viable... In this world where everyone carries a firearm, you'd either need to be crazy or ungodly powerful to pull off primarily using a melee weapon. This didn't mean he'd be changing his fighting style though, he found that he liked the gunslinger weaponry and felt it suited him.

Onto the Perks, there weren't actually any new Perks for him to grab... Of course there were the Melee one's he now had access to after levelling the skill, but he didn't really feel like putting points into them.

Shaking his head he looks at the [Intense Training] Perk and decides to try and upgrade his S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats. He looks through all of them for a moment and eventually decides to put a point in Agility. Faster reflexes would always be helpful, especially now that he's gotten [SuperHot Block]. That combined with [John Wick Style] would definitely be a force to be reckoned with.

He nods to himself and takes one last look at his status before allowing time to resume.

Afton Parker

Level : 19

S.P.E.C.I.A.L :

Strength : 8

Perception : 7

Endurance : 7

Charisma : 4

Intelligence : 6

Agility : 8

Luck : 4

Skills :

Barter : 21

Energy Weapons : 55

Explosives : 20

Guns : 100

Lockpick : 10

Medicine : 76

Melee Weapons : 100

Repair : 100

Science : 47

Sneak : 20

Speech : 100

Survival : 30

Unarmed : 30

Perks :

[Trigger Discipline], [Heavy Handed], [Rapid Reload], [Torture Techniques], [Educated], [John Wick Style], [Toughness], [Stonewall], [Bug Stomper], [Lord Death v1], [Spies Guise], [Quick Draw], [Adamantium Skeleton], [Ranger Tactics], [Ranger Targeting], [Ranger Awareness], [Mechanicus], [Jury Rigging], [SuperHot Block]

Companion Perks :

[Old Wisdom]

With that, time resumes and Afton finds himself standing next to Boone as Milo walks away. He'd just been told that he should wait for his bounty reward in Novac. He looks to his temporary partner and nods, "Let's head back, we'll split the bounty when it arrives... Hopefully I'd have completed my 'other' job by the time that happens."

Boone shrugs, "If you want to look then fine, I don't think finding the person responsible is possible though... Otherwise I'd have found them."

"Have faith my miserable friend, me and Karl'll find them somehow or another... Probably." he sheepishly adds the lat part as they start walking back towards Novac.

As they walk, Afton idly notices that the blood covering his body is slowly disappearing... His [Mechanicus] Perk seemed to be regarding it as something that needed 'Fixing', and so was removing it as time progressed. He was hoping Boone wouldn't notice the fact he'd be completely clean by the time they got back to town.

Just to make sure the man knew nothing untoward was happening, Afton occasionally brushed his clothing as if he were attempting to clean it... It was just an act of course, coagulated blood was notoriously difficult to rid yourself off, but it was something to fall back on.

They made small talk as they walked, but Afton felt that Boone was consciously holding himself back from socialising too much. It was peculiar but he didn't pursue it, decided to just let it be.

Once they got back it was the afternoon, the duo split from each other and Afton immediately headed to check on Ada to make sure she didn't 'treat' anyone. Fortunately for her and her victim's health there didn't seem to have been any patients today. Nodding he went to check on how his bike was doing, grinning when he saw that it was coming along nicely. Daisy was obviously very good at her job, she'd probably never fixed up a pre-war motorbike before, but she looked like an old-hand while working on it.

With that sorted he went to check on Karl, he hoped to whatever god's existed that he wasn't still balls deep in a saggy well, otherwise he might just tear his eyes out from it.

He wanted to check if Karl had found anything on the person who'd sold Boone's wife. It was a long shot as he hadn't personally found anything yet, and Karl seemed preoccupied. But maybe the old man had another trick up his sleeve.