Ted stepped back into his apartment, sighing. Shuffling over the the first aid kit, he pulled out some burn creme and, carefully so as to not aggravate his wounds, began applying it to his hands. After, he unbandaged his arm, noting with some concern that the fight had caused his wound to open again. Right. Remember to apply more peroxide tonight.

Ted thought about things. He had...he had enough supplies to last awhile. Maybe he should take a short siesta from scavenging other rooms. For now, at least. Work on raising his skills and stats. He raised his blistered, burned, and creamed hands. Yeah, maybe work on improving himself. After all, the body was the first tool.

Plus, he needed the time to recuperate. Good news was that with this floor of the building free of ghouls, he should have some breathing room. Okay.

First, Ted decided to begin distributing points from his level up.

Name

Level

XP

An average office worker. Suffers from insomnia and slight depression. No other discernable features.

Ted J

3

40/130

STR

INT

AGI

WIS

PER

SPRT

CHA

END

LUK

9 (+)

10

11 (+)

7

17 (+)

1 (+)

6 (+)

4 (+)

4 (+)

Affinities

Black

White

Blue

Red

Green

3

0

1

0

1

Right. Again, the choice was strength or endurance, again. The pan had barely done anything to his landlady and had been, arguably, his most useless weapon. At the same time...

Once more, Ted glanced at his burned hands, his gaze then shifting to his bandaged arm. He was getting hurt very frequently, and while he had intended to AVOID conflict, the latest fight had shown him that that wasn't always possible, and in every fight he had participated in so far, he had gotten injured or, at best, worn out.

With a sight, Ted put the points in Endurance, raising it to 6. Immediately he felt...not BETTER, per se, but the pain was more...ignorable. He touched his arm, and noted to his surprise that under his skin were muscles. Small ones, the ones you'd find on someone who had only recently begun lightly working out, but for someone like Ted who had never exercised a day in his life, it was a major development.

Right, what else. Ted noted that his black mana had risen by one. He still had no idea what that meant, and had no idea how to go about investigating it. Maybe it would become more obvious if he raised WIS or INT?

Something for later, then. Not immediately useful.

He recalled that he had an available perk point as well. He brought up his perk screen, checking what he had available to spend it on.

Perks

Wyld

Rank 1

Increased Green Mana affinity, ???, ???, ???.

Office Drone

Rank 3

Years of working in an office under terrible conditions has blackened your heart. At this rank, you have +2 Black Mana affinity, moderate resistance to tedium and despair, and +5 CHA when dealing with office politics or close analogues.

Educated

Rank 2

You’re well educated, having attained a degree in college. At this rank, skills rank up faster, you gain +5 INT in Academic settings, and you have +1 Blue Mana affinity.

Oath of Care

Rank 1

You’ve dedicated yourself to caring for a particular creature. At this rank, +1 to all stats when acting in the defence of another.

Blackcloak

Rank 2

Darkness is your ally, the people who dwell in it, your kin, and in your wake, you trail shadows. At this rank, you enjoy +7 CHA when dealing with criminals and ne'er-do-wells, and an increase in Black Mana affinity.

Looter

Rank 2

You're a master at lucky finds, to the point where some might think you can smell treasure. At this rank, much better chance of finding better items and resources, and all treasure caches have more loot.

DIY

Rank 1

You're the crafty sort, literally. Items you make are just plain BETTER than they reasonably should be. At this rank, items you create will have a bonus enhancement. Further, you gain the ability to see the status of items you create.

Right. Nothing immediately useful, again. Ted noticed that Blackcloak had leveled up, thus explaining the increase to his Affinity. Interesting. It seemed that the primary source of Affinity was from perks. Something to file away for later.

Ted considered putting the perk in Looter, before dismissing the idea. Last time he had invested in that skill, he had been completely gyped. Wyld was still a mystery, one he had neither the resources or time to invest in.

Well, I don't HAVE to spend it now. I can wait until I have a more immediately useful perk to invest in. He dismissed the screen.

Okay, with that done he had...

Ted glanced at his wall clock. Three hours, before night fell. Right. Time to do some carpetwork.

Goal was simple: raise junk crafting another level. Method?

Well, Ted needed more defence, didn't he? Armor was nice, but he needed something to keep zombies AWAY from him. So, crouched over his table, Ted worked on making a shield.

Take a metal garbage can lid. Some nails. String. Ducktape. Glue. And old cast Ted had lying around from a fracture he suffered from a few years ago. Take the lid. Nail it to the cast. Use the string, ductape, and glue to further secure the lid. And for the piece de resistance? Cut off the end of the cast so that Ted could still use his hands for things.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Ted gazed at his creation. It looked magnificent, like the sort of thing a knight of olden days would have wielded to defend himself against pagan barbarians.

...Okay, no, it looked like someone took a garbage lid and nailed/glued/tied it to a cast, but still, Ted felt a disproportionate amount of pride in his work. Sure, it was junk, but it was HIS junk.

Garbage Buckler

White

LV 1 Junk-Shield

A shield created out of a discarded cast, a garbage lid, string, glue, and nails.

+All Resist. ENHANCEMENT: Durability.

If his Carpet-Armors screen was anything to go by, the shield resisted most forms of damage, though not to the same extent the armor did. That, Ted considered, was fine. The shield was more intended to help keep enemies away from him rather than block attacks.

Junk-Crafting level up! 100% XP to Scrounger level! Scrounger level up! Gained perk Bag of Holding! Gained 2 Perk Points!

Bag of Holding Rank 1: Any proper looter needs a way to carry his stolen treasures. At this rank, this perk causes one bag or container on the holders person to be able to hold twice as much, without altering its outside size.

Pick an additonal bonus! Trader Rank 1: You were very good at making deals. At this rank, +5 CHA when haggling or performing commerce. Harvest (Rare) Rank 1: The skill governing removing parts from fallen prey. At this rank, you're moderately skilled at identifying and harvesting parts from simple creatures. Scrappy Rank 1: Scavenging was dangerous work: you never knew if there existed hidden enemies or traps. At this rank, you heal slightly faster from all injuries.

Teds eyes bulged. Right. Choice here was obvious. He chose Scrappy. Faster healing? Meant he could bounce back from getting injured more easily.

That, combined with Bag of Holding, would make his life so much easier. He could now carry more AND he bounced back from injury faster!

Ted let out a small giggle. Right. Question now was, what did he put his three perk points into? He actually had OPTIONS. If he put it into the Bag, he'd improve his scavenging efficacy. If he put it into Scrappy, however, he'd need to worry less about getting hurt.

After a moment, he decided to spread the points out. One point in Bag of Holding, two points in Scrappy.

Perks

Wyld

Rank 1

Increased Green Mana affinity, ???, ???, ???.

Office Drone

Rank 3

Years of working in an office under terrible conditions has blackened your heart. At this rank, you have +2 Black Mana affinity, moderate resistance to tedium and despair, and +5 CHA when dealing with office politics or close analogues.

Educated

Rank 2

You’re well educated, having attained a degree in college. At this rank, skills rank up faster, you gain +5 INT in Academic settings, and you have +1 Blue Mana affinity.

Oath of Care

Rank 1

You’ve dedicated yourself to caring for a particular creature. At this rank, +1 to all stats when acting in the defence of another.

Blackcloak

Rank 2

Darkness is your ally, the people who dwell in it, your kin, and in your wake, you trail shadows. At this rank, you enjoy +7 CHA when dealing with criminals and ne'er-do-wells, and an increase in Black Mana affinity.

Looter

Rank 2

You're a master at lucky finds, to the point where some might think you can smell treasure. At this rank, much better chance of finding better items and resources, and all treasure caches have more loot.

DIY

Rank 1

You're the crafty sort, literally. Items you make are just plain BETTER than they reasonably should be. At this rank, items you create will have a bonus enhancement. Further, you gain the ability to see the status of items you create.

Bag of Holding

Rank 2

Any proper looter needs a way to carry his stolen treasures, and you were the type to have a LOT of loot. At this rank, this perk causes one bag or container on the holders person to be able to hold three times as much, without altering its outside size, and provides +1 Blue Mana Affinity

Scrappy

Rank 3

Scavenging was dangerous work: you never knew if there existed hidden enemies or traps, and it payed to be able to bounce back quickly from whatever injuries these cause. At this rank, you heal moderately faster from all injuries, have +2 Green Mana Affinity, and when recently injured gain a brief, small bonus to all stats.

That. Was VERY nice. It also provided Ted enough data to infer an actual pattern to how perks seemed to work, at least up to the second rank.

At rank one, most perks gave a slight bonus. At rank two, that bonus improved, and it gave a point of mana affinity. Three, going by Scrappy, provided another bonus, though he didn't have enough data to confirm it JUST yet.

Ted grinned. This was excellent. He giggled again, before stopping. Right. No time to get giddy. With Scrappy, he didn't have to worry about his wound opening up quite as much, so that left him free do something VERY important.

Work out. After all, he didn't plan to go scavenging again tonight, and sitting idle, while appealing, was something he could scarce afford. So, time to improve Teds first tool. Turning the stereo player on, Ted moved the couch out of the way, and began his exercise regimen.

Through exercise, you've gained 2 STR, 3 END, and 1 AGI!

Ted breathed in, breathed out. Dear lord above, exercise was hell. Everything hurt! His body was covered in enough sweat to put out ANOTHER fire! He could barely breath! And people did this for FUN?!

"Hate. My body hates this. Hates it so much."

Ted breathed in, breathed out. At...at the very least, he had gained a few points. Strength. Endurance. Agility. All good. Very useful. Ted stood up, walked over to his fridge, and pulled out a water bottle, chugging it. He briefly wondered how much longer the power would stay on. The grid itself should last a few weeks, but how long would the power plants feeding it continue to last?

He grimaced. Right. Finish perishables first, THEN move to canned goods. Ted almost crumpled the water bottle, before reconsidering, filling it back up with the sink, screwing the cap on, and placing it once more in the fridge.

With that, he headed back to his room, glancing at Tortoise, who at that moment was lying on his side, sleeping. Ted smiled, before walking to his bed and easing into it. Right. Sleep time. Then, tommorow, more exercise.