As soon as I began walking, I immediately noticed the difference in my movement speed that came with the nearly 2x increase in my agility.

  It would be wise to adjust to my new speed before I go looking for another fight. No need to pce myself in a disadvantageous situation if I can avoid it.

  Acknowledging that my new speed would become a hindrance for me because I wasn't used to the performance upgrade, I took several minutes to practice an assortment of movements intent on getting used to my faster movement speed. As I was progressing through the various movements, I picked up on another change, a minor improvement in my reaction speed.

  Hmm, that's interesting, agility improves both my movement speed and reaction speed from the looks of things… Since it boosts that too I wonder if I pour enough points into it, would I be able to perform something on the level of bullet time or anything else comparable to it? Badass rank never had a real limit, other than its 32-bit game limit (2,147,483,647), so I don't see why I wouldn't be able to if I work on raising it.

  That said, I have no intention of just increasing it alone because being a gss cannon in a world with no New-U Stations sounds beyond stupid for obvious reasons. Not to mention me being all on my own in this new nd with no one else to rely upon... At least at this current time.

  Therefore, it would make the most sense to be as capable of an individual as I can be in as many fields as possible. Pursuing that sort of build in combination with monstrous individual combat power should give me the ability to handle the numerous difficulties I'll no doubt face in the pursuit of my monumental goals… I got a ton of work ahead of me if I want to make that sort of build work, in fact, many times what would be required for others.

  Deciding to pursue a path that combined a jack of all trades with strong individual combat abilities, I remained in a brainstorming state for a while longer, thinking about the many things I would need to invest in and learn about, in the not so distant future. I then came out of it, refocused my efforts on what I needed to do now, in the present, and continued adjusting to my newfound speed and reaction time. The second, I believed I had a decent grasp of my improved abilities; I strode forward with the same caution I had prior to my minor power up, prepared to take on my next battle.

  The minutes ticked on by as I walked further and further into the mine and after venturing even deeper; I came upon a bunch of offshoots that lead off to god knows where. Giving them a good look, I found that some of them appeared to have been mined out by human means. As for the others, they were obviously the handiwork of the creatures of Pandora, if the many cw marks and acid pitting were anything to go by.

  Alright, now that I found several branches, what do I want to do... Well, if I continue down the main mine tunnel like I've been doing up to this point, I'll more than likely end up at some sort of hub or staging area and maybe discover an escape route for myself if shit above ground goes south. I don't know if I'll find anything like that for sure since I'm only just guessing, but that doesn't sound all that bad.

  However, if I decide to do that and don't clear out the side paths and have to beat a hasty retreat for some reason or another, I could end up getting cut off by whatever hostiles may or may not be lurking within those offshoots. That could very easily result in me meeting my maker, especially if I'm unlucky... Yeah, I can 100% see shit hitting the fan, so I'm probably best off clearing out the sides before I continue pushing deeper into the depths of the mine.

  The only issue with doing so is it'll certainly extend my stay here in this shithole, which I'm not all that thrilled about. That aside, I'm sure it'll be well worth the effort since I would be gaining rewards in the way of exp, badass tokens, and possibly even some loot from whatever I exterminate. All of which would benefit and empower me to some extent, so it's not like it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

  ...

  I spent a brief few moments giving my next action some more thought and eventually came to what I believed was the right decision.

  After thinking it over, I know it's not worth the risk of leaving myself open to even more enemies from these offshoots. Hence, I'm going to have to clear them out one by one before venturing further into the main tunnel.

  With my decision made, I slowly scanned the area one st time and as I was about to start wandering off into one of the branches, the beams my two fshlights were emitting hit something reflective a slight bit further in the darkness of the main tunnel. Curious as to what it was, I moved in the direction of the reflective object and found another electrical room. Having already learned my lesson the first time, I positioned my weapon and opened the door swiftly and lit the space within up with my two light sources ready to y out any rva crab worms that attempted to ambush me.

  Upon opening the door, I was met with no armored alien lobsters flying at me, so not finding any immediate threats, I examined the space and when I was absolutely sure the space was clear; I stepped in and began looking around closely. Seconds into my inspection, my eyes nded on an item that I pretty much wrote off on finding.

  "Would you look at what we got here!" I thought aloud excitedly as I stared at the missing piece of my heavy mining suit.

  Letting my high fire rate incendiary Ats machine come to rest against my abdominal region, I picked up the dust covered helmet and brushed the poor thing off revealing its orange iridescent visor. Clearing off the rest of the accumuted dirt and grime revealed two built-in fshlights, one on either side of the iron bck helmet.

  This helmet and armor set is giving off some serious Red Faction EDF vibes.

  Pumped to test this new piece of kit out, I messed around with it until I figured out how to activate the built-in lights. And once I found the activator on the side of the heavy helm, I put my head in it and fitted it into pce. The second I did, a mechanical mechanism in the suit activated and locked the helmet to the suit. Initially thinking that sound was kinda cool, I pyed around with my new head protection and got used to the slightly reduced field of view along with the inbuilt hearing protection headset.

  The field of view trade off is not that bad of a deal, considering the amount of protection this heavy helmet provides. That alone would make it worth it in my eyes, let alone the other benefits it provides, like the inbuilt lighting, communication, and hearing protection.

  Overall, very happy with my completed set of armor, I attempted to remove the helmet.

  "Uh-oh."

  Unwilling to give up on removing it just yet, I tried and tried and tried again, but no matter how much force I put into it, the armored helmet refused to relinquish its grip.

  If I can't get this helmet off, how the fuck am I going to eat and drink… And go to the bathroom?

  Instantly fearing the worst, I started sweating bullets at the possibility of being trapped in the suit with no way of removing it, even with my body's incredible strength. I panicked for a brief few moments, however; I didn't remain in that state for long and quickly got ahold of myself and went to the good ole ECHOnet for help. And not long after I began searching, I found the info I was seeking.

  *Phew* "I thought I may have screwed myself there." I vocalized my relief after removing the helmet.

  With the ECHOnet coming in clutch yet again, I re-equipped the armored helmet, turned the lights on and looted the rest of the maintenance space before exiting it and returning to the section of the main tunnel with the several branching paths. The moment I arrived, I thought about which of the offshoots I wanted to explore. It took a bit of thinking but I eventually settled on giving the creature made tunnels the priority for the simple reason that I believed I would encounter more hostiles who would inevitably empower me further once they were sughtered.

  Now that that's decided, what should I do to prevent myself from getting lost in these networks of tunnels... Hmm, I've been removing and tossing aside belts of ammunition as it's generated by my hoarder css mod, so I could y the rounds out in the direction of the way out. I'm pretty limited in terms of options, therefore that'll have to do in combination with marking the tunnel walls with my melee weapons.

  Having come up with a quick and dirty solution, I started my trek into the first creature made branch with my gun ready to y into any poor fel that enters my crosshair. I traveled for a couple of minutes down this tunnel and paid especially close attention to the walls of the tunnel since they possessed many rva crab worm sized holes. My journey continued on like this for a handful more seconds when I suddenly spotted a rva crab worm staring me down and beginning to position itself so it could attempt to unch from its hidey-hole.

  Not so fast, big guy.

  Already prepared and constantly on the lookout for any incoming surprises, I locked onto the rge alien purple lobster looking creature and pulled the trigger, sending forth a stream of incendiary rounds. The burst of bullets flew out the end of my weapon's barrel at over 1,000 rounds per minute and struck the bugger's sole critical area, killing the not so small creature on the spot.

  As my first victim's body went limp halfway out of its home, I started to turn to the opposite side of the tunnel to check it out. However, before I could, a stream of purple-colored acid attacks nded on me and started eating away at my shields.

  It's going to take a lot more than that to break through my shields.

  Confident in my shield's durability, it held up strong against the corrosive damage and although I wasn't in too much danger just yet, I quickly transitioned in my attacker's direction and took aim. The instant I lined up my scope's reticle on the armored creature's singur purple eye, I id into it and effortlessly dispatched that rva crab worm as well.

  All the ruckus I was making stirred up the location's residents and before I knew it, I was taking down one creature after the next as they came pouring out of the various sized holes in the tunnel's walls. Keeping my wits about me, I tried to pay attention to everything going around me, to the best of my abilities.

  It's a damn good thing I did because I heard movement coming from behind me not all that long ter. So with immediate threats approaching from my six, I hastily spun around and held the trigger down whilst sweeping my machine gun from right to left. Luckily for me, my rapid fire sweep nailed all three of the fuckers moving in on my rear in their vitals, pretty much saving me from meeting my end.

  I need to put some distance between me and these oversized bugs before I get overrun.

  Knowing that I could easily get surrounded and overwhelmed where I stood, I whipped my weapon back in the previous direction and held down the trigger, ying down a wall of suppressive fire while I began back pedalling to the main tunnel. The wall of fire I id out kept the beasts at bay and snuffed out a good number of them. So, seeing my chance, I turned round and hauled ass for the main tunnel, not looking back even a single time.

  Once I made it back to the main tunnel, I unloaded my Ats machine gun's spent magazine and loaded a fresh fully loaded one into it. Letting the bolt sm forward, I drew my Vdof machine gun that I had slung on my back and wielded the two of them together. Dual wielding both machine guns at the same time, I waited in anticipation for the swarm of rva crab worms I encountered on the branching pathway to catch up. And not long after I took position, multiple rva crab worms crawled out from the darkness simultaneously.

  This is where the real fun begins.

  I thought stly before bracing both of my machine guns as hard as I could and pressing their triggers.

  [ Status Changes ]Level: 1 → 3Experience Points: +390Total Experience Points Earned: 240 → 630Health: 1,872 → 2,080Health Regeneration: 3.672 HP/s → 4.08 HP/sStamina: 1,800 → 2,000Stamina Regeneration: 5.2 SP/s → 5.4 SP/sSkill Points: 0 → 2Machine Gun Proficiency: lvl 1 | Reload Speed +6% - Stability +6% |Badass Tokens: 1 → 40

  [ Loot Acquired ]Guns: | Uncommon || Dahl | RD Surplus Raptor Pistol - | Common || Generic | Basic Pistol (1)

  Armor: | Uncommon || Dahl | Heavy D.E.D. Mining Suit Helmet

  Meds: Minor Healing Kits (3) - Minor Insta-Health Vials (6)

  Ammunition: 959

  Grenades: 5

  Dolrs: 551

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