Borderlands: Unnatural selection

'Hoo boy that's a hefty list of traits right there! Where to start?' I thought looking over my stored traits. '[Predator muscles]+[Strong body]+[Dexterous hands]+3000 units= [Omega body-Rare grade]X2, [Tough skin]+[Armored hide]+4000 units= [Armored hide-Rare grade]. ' I thought as I paid the price for the fusions I had.

That just left me with the standout [Strong vitality] as well as the three traits that could be directly fused into a trait I already had [Clever mind], [Strong teeth] and [Strong nose].-

After all my fusions were done and I started the integration with all these loose traits into myself things changed immediately. First my already existing [Omega body] fused with the two stacks of the same I had just fused which added an extra two inches of height to myself while not seeming to effect my musculature at all. To my surprise my [Armored hide] didn't get a new name but rose up a grade after integration which felt extremely weird as all of my skin sort of felt like it expanded before condensing.-

The integration of the stacks of [Clever mind], [Strong teeth] and [Strong nose] caused a few different changes. The first was that all of my senses grew sharply superior in an instant as [Sharp senses] got upgraded a bit which was slightly disorienting. The second was that [Dense bones] turned into [Superior bones-Rare grade]. The final change was more subtle but I suddenly felt it slightly easier to grasp knowledge and apply what I grasped in inventive ways. Not exactly smarts so much as being more able to learn fast and apply what I learnt. Oddly the change in my bones trait didn't cause me any discomfort but rather was actually pleasurable to a degree like I had been carrying a Jabber on my back this whole time but someone had shot it in the face causing it to fall off.-

'Were my muscles putting strain on my bones due to being so much ahead of them?' I pondered in surprise after the change was over.

In theory that was possible since I was continuously increasing my musculature but my bones weren't getting the same rate of improvement. I didn't doubt that I was beginning to approach superhuman levels of strength so if my bones weren't ready to handle that sort of thing I would have some serious problems.-

'I'll have to keep an eye on that from now on. For now though I need to figure out how the fuck I'm going to take this pile of parts and turn it into a ship.' I decided with a strange look at the odd mountain of ship parts just sort of sitting casually in one of my rooms.

Anyone who says that a ship was a simple thing to make are lying through their fucking teeth. I pulled the parts blueprints straight from the echonet so I knew that they would work but we are talking about a machine capable of safely sending a person not only into space but also through it at FTL speeds.-

Something like that couldn't just be put together like a fucking Lego set even if you somehow knew where everything went. In the end I contacted the old man through my echo.

"This call got anythin to do with you pilferin the crashed ships and carvin a bloody path while you did it?" The old man asked immediately.

"As a matter of fact, it does. See I recycled those parts since it seemed a waste to just leave them to rot out here and now I've got a bunch of brand new top of the line ship parts and don't got the know how to put them together. Figured I may as well call the one person I know who might be able to remedy this regrettable situation." I said with a grin.

"How "top of the line" we talkin here boy?" the old man asked and my grin grew wider.

I had the foresight to copy the blueprints of each of the parts I made so I just sent that to him and waited for him to respond.

"I want one. If I'm readin these right you got all the parts for a ship no bigger than a dropship with galactic travel. I want one with the Jakobs name on it boy." the old man said firmly.

"You'll need to collect the stuff for the fabricator to shit the parts out but I don't mind." I said honestly.

He agreed and that was that with the ship which left me with hunting to take care of. I opened my notes on my echo and looked over the creatures of note that Hammerlock was generous enough to give me. 

'Theres the Indotyrant , Chonk stomp and Edenian bloodfeather with the Indotyrant being usually spotted out here in the swamp of this area which I am closest to at the moment.' I thought casually before putting away my echo and heading for that spot after marking it on my map. 

The brown muddy water sucked at my feet as I moved through it though not enough to be much more than mildly inconvenient. The Indotyrant was supposedly much like a normal Ravager variant Saurian except with some nifty extra tricks, oh and also being like the size of a fucking elephant.-

It was not hard at all to find the thing considering it was massive and absolutely thought I looked delicious. I drew my gun and squeezed the trigger four times and watched as the bipeds ankles exploded and it fell over with an anguished roar. Holstering my gun I casually walked over to just outside of lunging distance and looked the thing over. It had glowing green eyes and a sort of frill at the top of it's head that wasn't typical of Ravagers at all. It was clear to see that it was also trying to regenerate it's ankles but was being stopped by the ice left by my cryo rounds.-

The big bastard snapped at me and to my shock even pulled a Tyrant move and spewed fire at me which hit my shield and switched my guns damage type to Shock. 

"Tch! that wasn't very nice at all!" I said annoyed and unloaded my gun into it's chest where the heart was.

It spasmed heavily as electrical energy ran rampant even when my powers told me it was dead and could take the lifeforce and traits. I didn't however but called up Hammerlock instead since he enjoyed making trophies of great hunted beasts.-

"I would most certainly like to have the head of a beast such as that upon my wall. Please do cut off it's head for me would you?" He said after I asked him about it.

"You got it beast man, I'll drop it off for Wainwright to hand to you next time you see him." I said with a smile before moving to cut off the things head.

{Indotyrant

Lifeforce: 2286

Traits:[Aphrodisiacal sweat-Rare grade]- 5000 units, [ Alpha body-Uncommon grade]- 1000 units, [Tough skin-Common grade]- 500 units, [Poor smell-Trash grade]-50 units, [Strong teeth-Common grade]-500 units, [Flame breath-Uncommon Grade]- 1000 units, [Gigantism-Uncommon grade]- 1000 units}

'This thing is just a really big fucking Ravager, only has one trait worth getting out of the bunch.' I thought disappointed after seeing all these traits being the same as a normal Ravager with the exception of the trait that let it breath fire and the one that made it get so big.

Still the [Fire breath] trait didn't have any real downsides so I grabbed it and the left over twelve hundred and change units of lifeforce.

The fact that [Fire breath] didn't have any downsides came as a surprise since I had assumed that it would barbecue me from the inside when I used it or something like that but no. It was literally just a special bit added to my lungs that created an aerosolized chemical that upon being ejected from my mouth burst into flames. It was quite interesting since I was sorta curious why it didn't ignite in my lungs or throat but who am I to question something that worked? Plus I thought it would be badass as fuck to literally roast a dude to death with my breath.-

Anyways with the head of the beast securely tucked away in my inventory I watched the rest of the body turn to dust after I took the trait and lifeforce. I then checked my map again and marked the next beast of interest, the Chonk stomp. The thing was apparently a Tyrant Saurian that was bigger and more powerful than normal and had quite the nasty list of kills to it's name becoming something of a local legend as a result. Tyrant Saurians were basically T-rexes as they looked like any other Saurian in terms of general shape but were big mofos with hard plated skulls and a general all around bad attitude.-

I had to deal with the fucking platoon of Ravagers, Slingers and Grogs that stood between me and it before i could get to it though as it's lair was rather tucked away.

"BANG BANG BANG!" three shots rang out popping the heads of three Grog as I walked into the Saurian nest confidently.

This drew in the rest of the nest that didn't take kindly to my trespassing. Close to thirty enemies in total but I dashed away to the side and accurately popped the Grogs spitting at me in the head. The Ravagers rushed me and the Slingers also launched their projectiles but I smoothly killed a Ravager and then used it's corpse to shield myself from the bone projectiles.-

I weaved between stones and corpses for cover while draining my kills of their lifeforce remotely. I timed my reloads and shots precisely taking out the slingers first and the chasing and VERY pissed off Ravagers second. The smell of blood was thick in the air after the final Saurian fell and to my pleasant surprise I found something interesting when I was remotely draining on of the Grogs.-

{Mutant Grog

Lifeforce: 1572

Traits: [Aphrodisiacal sweat-Rare grade]- 5000 units, [Projectile gland-Common grade]- 500 units, [Oil production-Common grade]- 1000 units, [Poor sight-Trash grade]-50 units, [Keen nose-Common grade]-500 units, [Minute regeneration-Rare grade]-5000 units.}

There was a mutant amongst the Grog that I killed that had a small but useful mutation trait that gave it increased healing though to such a small amount that it was almost not worth mentioning. I still was more than willing to spend 5000 units of lifeforce to grab that trait though. I had gotten 27,052 from this nest originally but minus that amount still netted me 22,052 so I was definitely not complaining.-

The lair of the Chonk stomp was a sort of big open clearing with bones of various kinds strewn about the place in shit piles and a big cave entrance at the far end. I didn't even hesitate to send to bullets into the cave entrance to see if Mr. Stomp was home, he was. 

"GRRRRRRRRAAAAAA!" The air shook from how loud the roar of anger that came from the cave was but I merely grinned as I felt those danger instincts start giving me the good stuff.

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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro

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Alexander Drake

Lifeforce: 163,627

Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade], [Clever mind-Uncommon grade]X3,[Enhanced senses-Rare grade], [Omega body-Rare grade]x3,[Superior bones-Rare grade],[Armored hide-Rare grade], [Fire resistance-Uncommon grade], [Bone regeneration-Uncommon grade], [Corrosion resistance-Uncommon grade], [Energy projection-Epic grade], [Strong vitality-Uncommon grade]

Stored traits:[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Minute regeneration-Rare grade],