Both second ranks of Monstrous Physique and Herculean Strength were, without a shadow of a doubt, two broken perks. But they weren't the only perks I've obtained in these years of progress and training. I also gained two decent ones for my constant use of Medstims.
| Medstim Addict | You've abused medstims so much that you've gained a slight regeneration ability. +1 health regen per minute.
| Medstim Connoisseur | You've used so many medstims that you're now an expert in everything medstim-related. Any medstim you use or apply are twice as effective. +10 to health regeneration a minute and +1 to endurance.
Together with those two, I got one from my stealth skill as well for it reaching 1,001.
| Shadow Lurker Rank 2 | Requirements Stealth 1,001: Your ability to remain hidden from those around you has breached certain limits. This has resulted in your stealth attacks dealing 1% more damage for every skill point you have in stealth instead of the previous 0.5%. Along with a boost to your damage, you've acquired a unique ability to manipulate shadows and use them in numerous ways that you will have to discover on your own. Apart from that, your presence hiding field has received a major upgrade in the way of being turned into a stealth field. So, on top of the existing benefits provided from the last rank, this stealth field will allow you to manipulate the exterior of the field to appear as if there is nothing there. However, as strong as that sounds, if someone enters that field, they will still be able to notice you potentially if you are in their direct line of sight and aren't trying to remain hidden. Last but not least, when you are lurking within the shadows, all speed related stats will be boosted by 0.1% per 10 stealth you possess.
Sadly, that's the extent of the perks I've gained in this period, since none of my other skills have reached a point where they will grant me a perk. Despite that, it's not that bad because several of them are on the boundary of doing so. Hence, the moment I turn those quests I've been sitting on all these years and spend my level ups, I will gain another power boost just before I start my conquest of the wastes.
And seeing how I've basically gone through everything on the stat front and brought up quests, I should go over that next. There's not much to cover here, but I did gain a new quest as soon as my endurance attribute went over 101 in total value.
| Exceeding Super Human Limits | Objectives: Reach a value of 101 in every attribute. Rewards: Perk | Evolver |, 100 attribute points, 1,000 Skill Points, and 1,000,000 exp.
The other quest I received was when I began playing around with the idea of creating my future army's structure.
| The Makings Of A New Power | Objectives: Create a military unit that is 5,000 strong with all the bells and whistles. Rewards: Perk | Supreme Commander |, 50 Leadership Points, 250 Skill Points, 500,000 exp.
This particular quest shouldn't take me all that long for me to complete its objectives once I bring that robot plant online and begin pumping robots out. So I suppose I'll be doing quite a lot of leveling shortly after my departure.
Okay, that does it for quests and really my progress in general for these past four years. I've made good progress in magic, but because of my endurance increasing so much and me putting zero work into cultivating, I haven't gone up even one rank in several years. That said, I've increased my mana by 34,272 passively, more than doubling my already massive mana pool, which will increase a hell of a lot more when I actually start pursuing magic seriously...
Whilst I was looking back on the past four years, I began doing the same for the last eighteen years I've lived in this world and kept moving, putting one foot in front of the other. After traveling through the large gray concrete halls of Genesis Foundry for more than a few minutes, I eventually reached my destination, my level up space. Wasting no time, I walked inside and shut the metal door behind me.
From there, I took and injected over a dozen Medstim Mk IIs and sat in the comfy chair I had placed in the small room. Performing the last of my preparations, I injected two syringes of P-Dex and willed my system screen into existence. A split second later it appeared and the instant it did I navigated to the quest section and turned in both quests I'd been holding on to.
| Maxigen Improvement | Objectives: Research, improve, and remove the negative side effect of the Maxigen drug. Rewards: Perk | Drug Researcher |, 5 Medicine points, 5 Science points, 2,500 exp.
| Pablo Escobar Jr. | Objectives: Establish drug production and earn 10,000,000 dollars from the sale of your products. Rewards: Perk | Drug Kingpin |, 10 Medicine points, 30,000 exp.
[Rewards]
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
[Drug Kingpin, Drug Researcher, 15 Medicine points, 5 Science points, 262,275 Exp]
| Drug Kingpin | You've established yourself in the drug and pharmaceutical industry and have made decent profits from your products, but besides that, you've picked up a thing or two in your time in the industry. +100% to drug production yield and your drugs and medicines trade for 10% more.
| Drug Researcher | Your experimentation and research into drugs, medicine, and other compounds was successful, making you a certified drug researcher. Whenever you perform any further research into this field, you will encounter more Ahaa! moments. Plus, your research speed and the positive effects of drug formulas you've created or modified are increased by 100%.
Those will come in hand when I get drug production set up and going at the Cyberdynamics Robotics Facility and begin researching other drugs and chemicals or anything for that matter since it says research speed and not something like drug or medicine research speed.
My exp rewards received the amount of level ups I had pending jumped to 8.
Now that I've got those quests turned in, I'm ready to level up.
With nothing holding me back anymore, I initiated the level up and before I knew it; the screen had changed from the previous status one to the perk selection screen I hadn't seen in a long while.
[ Perks ]
Perk Points Left: 24
Level 2 Perks
| Growth Rank 26 | (Ranks Unlimited) Requirements Level 2: Gain 1 attribute point that you can distribute freely.
Level 28 Perks
| Cautious | Requirements Level 28, Perception 6: When not moving, your senses are heightened and you gain +2 perception.
| Grand Slam | Requirements Level 28, Strength 9, Melee Weapons 90: When swinging at an adversary's head with a two-handed melee weapon deal 100% more damage if the swing lands on the desired location.
| Outdoorsman | Requirements Level 28, Survival 45: Gain experience and knowledge of a man who has spent most of his life outdoors. Additionally, when outdoors, your perception and agility receive a boost of +1.
Level 30 Perks
| I Smell Ammo | Requirements Level 30, Luck 6, Perception 7: Gain the ability to detect nearby ammunition and find considerably more of it somehow.
| Mental Pressure | Requirements Level 30, Speech 50, Endurance 7, Strength 7: Your presence is intimidating and has the tendency to terrify. With the increase in your scary factor, you also gain the ability to control it and manipulate it however you like.
| Tech Junkie | Requirements Level 30, Intelligence 10, Repair 100, Science 100: Gain immediate understanding of any technology when touched, no matter its origins.
Level 32 Perks
| Penetrator | Requirements Level 32: Your attacks will have an added -15 DT once this perk is taken.
| Water Breathing | Requirements Level 32: Gain the ability to breathe underwater and no, you won't get gills.
Level 34 Perks
| Armor Smith | (Ranks 5) Requirements Level 34, Strength 8, Repair 100: All armors you've produced or modified are now 20% better across all parameters.
| Silent Steps | Requirements Level 34, Agility 8, Stealth 95: Your steps become silent and no longer produce sound and vibrations unless you wish to.
| Weapon Smith | (Ranks 5) Requirements Level 34, Strength 7, Intelligence 7, Repair 100: All weapons you've produced or modified are now 20% better in all parameters.
Same as last time I'm going to skip Backpacker because it only raises my carry weight by 100 lbs, which I get from my strength attribute every time it increases. So if I wanted to raise my carry weight I would be better off going with Growth and putting the attribute from that into strength since it also provides a damage bonus of 10% to melee weapons and unarmed. This goes for the Strong Back perk as well for the simple fact that it literally has the exact same effect as Backpacker.
Skipping those worthless perks, I picked up everything else that was available, including all five ranks of Armor Smith and Weapon Smith. However, I did not take Dad's Favorite and Mama's Boy, which were only beneficial for the +5 they provided in medicine and science. My reasoning for doing so was simple: why waste perk points on two perks that will only provide a small boost to two skills when I'm going to have over a 1,000 skill points to spend in a second here.
Looking at the perks I had selected, I began thinking of the various benefits they'll provide me with going forward.
The heightened senses from Cautious could prove very useful for discovering hostiles and keeping my life out of danger. I could also see it enhancing my senses for magic. That effect would be especially valuable to me, I'm sure. Tech Junkie is also in that category, since I plan on visiting Area 51 to acquire alien technology that I will definitely have little to no understanding of, so I'm sure I will get quite a bit of use out of it then.
As for Water Breathing, it won't be that helpful to me for a while, seeing as I'm in an arid state with very few water sources. That said, it will certainly be invaluable when it comes time to venture into the oceans and pay a visit to the undercities I found in the surrounding oceans, mainly the Atlantic and the Pacific ocean.
Aside from those three Silent Steps will be a nice addon to my already busted stealth skills. And Armor Smith and Weapon Smith will improve my current kit and all the weapons and armor I've made for my group by a huge margin. It'll without a doubt show its effects not long after we've left the confines of the undercity and found some trouble ourselves to get involved in.
The other perks are pretty good too however, they're not as noteworthy in my eyes compared to the ones I've mentioned already. Like I don't think I'll need any help in the intimidation department when I'm 6 foot six, weigh 450 pounds lean, and will be covered head to toe in an armored suit that will later be replaced by a power armor suit that will be even larger and heavier.
Happy with the 19 points I spent so far, I dumped the remaining five perk points I had available into Growth and placed the attribute points from that into luck, considering that it was the only attribute I couldn't improve other than through leveling, quests rewards, and other such means.
I wish I had more levels to spend, but this is all I was able to accumulate down here with the very avenues I had available to farm exp from.