Chapter 8: Unexpected

Anticipating a fight to begin as soon as the door unseals, I trained my weapon on the rapidly expanding gap. However, when the door finally locked into place in the recess above, there was not a single enemy in sight, nor any other kinds of threats to be found. Instead, there was a concrete floor with numerous human skeletons scattered upon it and around the entrance, many of which were incomplete.

What the fuck happened here?

Put off by the dreadful sight, my nerves heightened whilst I observed the surroundings beyond the safety of the massive entry. I watched the darkness wearily, but nothing came, so I grew a pair and approached the skeletons to get a closer look at them to see if I couldn't determine what got them. Remaining weary of the dangers that potentially laid ahead, I closed in on them slowly, crouched down in front, and did my best to determine their cause of death with the knowledge base I gained over the tens of thousands of hours I poured into the Borderlands series.

Examining the bones of the closest human skeleton, first I found a combination of breakages that looked to be caused by a crushing force. Pretty much assured that I was on the right path, I continued my scanning, but this time I was focusing on the whole skeleton. What I discovered in my investigation was even more breakages... However, that was not all, I also found a number of areas on the bones that appeared to have been exposed to some kind of acid if the missing portions and extensive pitting were anything to go by.

I'm going to take a look at a few of the others before I make any judgments.

Having an idea of what creature may have caused the deaths of these miners, I inspected a few more remains and determined who these victims were and who their killers may have been.

Looks like these Dahl miners fell victim to one of Pandora's dangerous native species, the crab worms.

Recalling the large purple colored armored lobster looking creatures and their fondness for rushing into melee range. And when that wasn't possible, their acid spewing, I was quickly beginning to have second thoughts about this excursion into the mines.

Of course, I would have to face one of the tougher, if not the toughest, creatures of Pandora right out of the gate.

... 

Haa, there's no point in complaining, since that's not going to do me any good. At least I'm I know I shouldn't engage them in close quarter combat since they cut a man in two with their claws and how to effectively dispatch them, so I got that going for me at the very least. I just pray I don't encounter anything on Crawmerax's level.

Not thrilled about what I was going to have my first bout of combat with, I stood back up, looked around, and found lights lining the walls of the tunnel, although they were all off. Curious about whether or not I could get them to turn on, I followed the line of lights to a door off to the side.

Let me see if I can't get this tunnel lit.

Preferring to fight in the light rather than the pitch dark, I proceeded over to the door with my gun at the ready and opened the unlocked metal maintenance door. The moment I swung it open, a larva crab worm that was waiting in ambush within launched forward, ready to take me to the ground and make me its next meal.

Unfortunately for it, I had been in a rather paranoid state this entire time, expecting danger to pop out whenever and wherever it could. Hence, I swung my left armored fist forward, which felt just as natural as using my right hand, probably because of my gunzerking skill. Good thing for me I was dealing with a rather large target, so my punch connected solidly with its hard exoskeleton covered head and sent the bugger flying back with surprising force.

Not letting up on the creature, I pushed my advantage further and pursued its flying body now with my knife drawn. I was going to use my Atlas Havoc initially, but I judged it would be wiser to take it down silently instead of producing a whole lot of noise from a machine gun spray. Which may or may not have caused more crab worms to show up while I was messing around in this tightly enclosed space.

So when the creature landed on the ground of the maintenance/electrical room it only had a bit more than a couple of seconds to let out a pained screech from having its head bashed before I ran right up on it and jabbed my newly obtained combat knife right into its critical area, its singular glowing purple eye. I shoved my blade with such force into its eye socket that it breached its exoskeleton and came right out the top of its dome.

Still being the inexperienced fighter that I was, I wasn't completely sure if it was dead, so I followed up that attack by kicking it back whilst simultaneously withdrawing my knife from its leaking skull and sprinting after it at my fastest possible speed to stomp it to death. However, when I saw it remained immobile after I reached about three quarters of the way to it, I stopped in my tracks and observed it for several seconds before approaching it and giving its body a nudge with my foot.

"Yup, that fucker is dead." I commented aloud whilst watching blood and other such fluids slowly drain from the lethal wound I opened up.

With my first instance of combat having come to a close rather quickly, I took the chance to take a breather while I examined the space I charged into. What I found was a small concrete room with a few racks filled with dusty miscellaneous items and an electrical panel that had a crab worm sized hole melted right through the center of it.

There go my plans of getting the tunnel lit... Looks like I'm gonna have to come up with an alternative.

Scanning my surroundings for anything that could assist me in navigating the dark, I quickly located dozens of flashlights that had been left behind by the Dahl corporation when they sealed this mine up and abandoned it.

Those will work.

Approaching the stacks of flashlights, I checked to see if they functioned first before I started gathering them up and attaching them to my larger firearms via zip ties.

"There, that should be tight enough." I thought aloud once I had the final light attached.

What I gained from my efforts were two functioning lights on each of my primary weapons and a single light on many of my larger firearms. Satisfied with my temporary solution, my mind went to the fight I just went through and the life of the crab worm I just took.

I wasn't expecting my first kill to be a crab worm, all things considered, but I suppose it's a good thing since it should make it far easier on me mentally when it comes time to take a human life. Which will inevitably happen with me being on a planet literally filled with bandit tribes and corporations that don't take no for an answer.

All that said, I don't feel any different after ruthlessly dispatching that critter, so maybe I won't feel a damn thing when I eventually kill a human. I honestly hope that ends up being the case, because I really don't want to get bogged down by those sorts of feelings and emotions. Second guessing myself out here is the sort of thing that gets you put in the grave early, I imagine.

Having dealt with those thoughts of mine, I turned my attention to my system and called it up to investigate the exp situation. The instant I pulled up the holographic screen, my focus immediately went to the exp bar that had undergone some progress.

Looks like that kill was worth 30 exp. I bag three more of those buggers and I'll gain my first level up.

Moving from the exp bar, I scrolled down a bit and found my badass tokens had increased by 3.

I don't know for sure since I'm working off a data pool size of one kill, but it appears I get 1 badass token for every 10 exp gained. If that remains the case, I'll end up getting monstrously strong in a very short period.

Practically grinning from ear to ear, I attempted to upgrade my agility attribute with the badass tokens I acquired since it was the most lacking attribute I possessed. However, I encountered a roadblock.

[ Ding! Not Enough Badass Tokens ]

Well, that sucks. Let me see if I can afford something else with the limited tokens I have.

Trying backpack space next, I discovered I didn't have enough for it either.

[ Ding! Not Enough Badass Tokens ]

Rats, what about recoil reduction?

The second I spent a token on that specific stat, it jumped up by 0.1%.

Finally, I found something I have enough tokens for.

Happy to have found a stat I had enough tokens for, I placed the other two in gun accuracy and reload speed to see if I could afford them as well.

[ Gun Accuracy +0.1% ]

[ Reload Speed +0.1% ]

Alright, it seems the vanilla stats all cost one token per increase. As for the others, I'm going to need to bank some tokens before I revisit them and find out what their actual cost is.

Finished with my system for the moment, I closed out of it and turned on both of the lights I had strapped onto my machine gun's barrel. Following that, I transferred the loot I wanted from the space to the heavy lift elevator and once I was done there; I returned to the mine and cautiously trudged into the darkness with only two flashlights, lighting my way.

[ Status Changes ]

Experience Points: +30

Badass Tokens: +3 → 0

Gun Accuracy +0.1%

Recoil Reduction: +0.1%

Reload Speed +0.1%

[ Loot Acquired ]

Guns: | Common || Generic | Basic Pistols (2) - | Common || Generic | Basic Shotguns (1)

Shields: | Common || Generic | Basic Shields (1)

Meds: Minor Healing Kits (1) - Minor Insta-Health Vials (3)

Ammunition: 1,333

Grenades: 4

Dollars: 353

______

There will be another release tomorrow.