Experiments
It was on the fourth day that things became worth talking about again. See I woke up and got dressed in my newly tailored suit that fit perfectly now. On my waist was my pistol and shield as I left my room in the manor.
"Hm? Did you need something Baldrin?" I asked surprised to find the man waiting outside my room.
"Yes, Mr. Clay has returned and informed me to let you know that he has your "materials" in the housing ship that the Ratch were stored previously." the butler said calmly.
"Ah! Good news then, thank you for passing on the message Baldrin." I thank him and he nods before leaving to no doubt get back to his normal work.
I head through the wooden hallways and briefly pause as I pass the doorway to the old man's study but decide not to bother him as I continue to the fast travel machine located just outside the manor. I punched in the location of the downed storage ship we used for the Ratch previously and let the machine do it's thing as I broke apart into pure data that was transferred to the ship in a few moments.-
The first thing that hit me when I arrived was the angry banging of the bandits in their cages and the smell of piss, shit and blood. Looking around I spotted Clay leaning back in a chair smoking a cigar as he performed maintenance on one of his guns.
"They didn't give you too much trouble I take it?" I asked as I walked over to him.
"Nah, dumb bastards walked right into the cages after I put up signs that said "free guns" on it." he said with a chuckle without looking up from his gun.
"Did you manage to get any that weren't insane by chance?" I asked amused at the story.
"Nope, got shot at by them though when I picked up their friends here. The guns on my ship ain't for show though so they didn't live to regret it." he said and we both chuckled at that.
"Not ideal but I expected as much. Whats the count?" I asked curiously.
"Used to be fourteen but two of the more insane of them bashed their brains out against the bars so we only have twelve of them." he said with a shrug.
"Explains the smell of blood. Still that's more than enough, thanks for the help. You gonna stick around for this next bit or nah?" I asked and he thought about it for a moment.
"Think I'll stick around to see how this turns out. Not like I'm squeamish and who knows, might even learn somethin." he said casually.
I shrugged at that since it honestly made no difference to me whether he stayed or not. Walking over to the nearest cage after that I took a look at the inhabitant curiously. I had of course seen what a standard bandit psycho looked like from the echonet but it was different than seeing one in person.-
"I'll wear your eyelids to hide the sun!" the bandit yelled as he lunged at me from within the cage while breathing heavily.
I snapped out my arm and caught the lunatic by the throat and hoisted them up easily before looking them over.
'Disgusting sun baked skin, athletic body, chipped nails, ratty clothes and a foul body odor. Also clearly deranged.' I noted mentally before checking the thrashing psychos traits.
{Human(psycho)
Lifeforce: 825
Traits: [Athletic body-Common grade]- 500 units, [Broken mind-Trash grade]- 50 units, [Maniacal creation-Rare grade]- 5,000 units, [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade]- 1,000 units, [Poor smell-Trash grade]- 50 units}
"You'll do well enough." I said calmly before pushing a copy of [clever mind] out through the hand holding the bandit up by his throat.
I casually released my hold on the bandit as I felt the trait leave me and stepped back to watch the results.
"PINK SCREAMS! NO! NO! YOU WON'T MAKE ME WHITE!" the psycho screams while clutching his head and writhing on the ground.
After a few minutes the screams stopped and the psycho lay on the ground shuddering. I reached through the bars of the cage and grabbed the ankle of the bandit to see what the damage was.
{Human(psycho)
Lifeforce: 525
Traits: [Athletic body-Common grade]- 500 units, [Split mind-Epic grade]- 20,000 units, [Maniacal creation-Rare grade]- 5,000 units, [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade]- 1,000 units, [Poor smell-Trash grade]- 50 units}
'I certainly didn't expect this.' I thought surprised by what I saw.
The first thing I noticed was the drop in lifeforce the bandit had. The really surprising part though was the effect that integrating [clever mind] had on the psycho.
See I was sorta correct in that the brain trait tried to forcefully make the mind of the bandit become sane. What I hadn't expected however was that the bandit rejected the new sane ego forming to such a great degree that he developed split personality disorder. There was now TWO fucking personalities inside one body, one sane the other insane. I was halfway tempted to integrate yet another [clever mind] into the bandit to see if that completely removes the insane personality but I decided to repeat the experiment on another bandit instead to make sure this wasn't a one off fluke.-
The rest of the bandits pressed themselves against the far wall of their cages as I approached no doubt in fear after witnessing what happened to the previous bandit. It made no difference to me if they were willing or otherwise and I had Clay open a cage so I could continue my experiment. Like a rabid animal the bandit lunged at me but I handled them with the same ease as the previous one and integrated the trait into them before waiting on the results. When i checked on this new bandits status after they were clearly done screaming I was intrigued by what I found.-
Once again the bandit developed split personality disorder as two egos were now present in one body. With this pretty much now set as the baseline for mental traits going into a psycho I integrated yet another copy of [clever mind] into the bandit to see what would happen. There was no screaming this time but merely some groaning before they went quiet again. I frowned however when I saw that the trait actually showed up this time but the split personality trait remained.-
"So if a brain trait is given to an insane person they develop a second sane personality but if another copy is added on top of the first the two personalities remain but both get the true benefits of the trait added." I muttered calmly.
"What about if you gave it to someone who was sane already?" Clay asked worriedly.
"I don't know, none of these bandits are sane so I can't test the idea but considering that it tried to introduce sanity to them probably nothing beyond what it was supposed to do originally." I said with a helpless shrug.
"So the mind traits might be safe but you can't say one way or the other without testin it?" he asked and I nodded.
"More or less. Time to test the physical traits since those should be more definitive in the results." I said leaving the cage and having it locked behind me.
I then grabbed another bandit and forced [strong body] into them despite their resistance. This time even Clay paled as the flesh of the bandit squirmed and broke apart as the athletic body was forcibly pushed even further in a terrifying display of power.
{Human(psycho)
Lifeforce: 301
Traits: [Alpha muscles-Uncommon grade]- 1,000 units, [Broken mind-Trash grade]- 50 units, [Maniacal creation-Rare grade]- 5,000 units, [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade]- 1,000 units, [Poor smell-Trash grade]- 50 units}
'So the integration forced the fusion of the two like traits at the cost of the bandits own lifeforce. so if I were to inject lifeforce before the integration the recipient would be fine afterwards?' I theorized as I left the cage and had it locked again.
I tested this theory on yet another bandit and confirmed that the integration went smoothly after I injected some lifeforce into them.
"I think I can say that yes as a matter of fact I can give traits to others fairly safely." I said to Clay who was waiting for a verdict.
"You say that but it didn't look safe at all, or pleasant for that matter." he said throwing a look at the now more muscular bandit that had passed out from the pain.
"Okay yeah it's not exactly a fun process but it is safe. Besides it's not like you have to have them, it's simply an option if you wanted it." I say honestly.
"Think I'll pass, but I'll keep it in mind." he said and I didn't push the issue.
I killed all of the bandits after that and took a copy of [Buzzaxe expertise] and the lifeforce but that was it. I didn't bother wasting time and directly integrated it and found the concept simple but genius and insane at the same time. Buzzaxes were a weird hybrid weapon between a saw and an axe as the axe head was replaced by a sawblade that spun rapidly using a very small but powerful motor. They were clearly the product of an ill mind but somehow became the psycho weapon of choice to great and deadly effect.-
The only reason I took the expertise trait for the weapon was that I thought it might possibly be able to fuse with other weapon or item expertise's to create a higher graded trait, [weapon expertise] or something like that maybe. Even if it couldn't there wasn't exactly any harm in grabbing the trait as all it was was an understanding of how to use that particular weapon. With this business taken care of we both headed back to the manor for the day to let the old man know what we found out.
___________________________________________
https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
_______________________________________________
Alexander Drake
Lifeforce: 1,577,319
Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade], [Clever mind-Uncommon grade]X3,[Enhanced senses-Epic grade], [Omega body-Rare grade]x4, [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Bone regeneration-Uncommon grade], [Corrosion resistance-Uncommon grade], [Energy projection-Epic grade]x2, [Superior vitality-Epic grade],[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade], [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Quick thinking], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade], [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [True omnivore-Rare grade], [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X2,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Hyperflexibility-Rare grade], [Strong circulation-Epic grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade]
Stored traits: [Energy reservoir-Epic grade], [Clever mind-Uncommon grade]x4, [Dexterous hands-Common grade]X6, [Strong nose-Uncommon grade]X6, [Strong body-Common grade]X4