Wasteland Conqueror

Date Friday, November 1st, 2261

Two months later.

Back once again at the Genesis Foundry, I found myself taking a short breather from my workout.

Man, I've been hard at work these last couple of months and the progress I've made really shows it.

Pulling up my stats, I couldn't be any happier looking at all the increases my stats have undergone in this short period. Throwing that to the back of my mind, I began thinking about the other areas that have experienced improvement.

Besides, my stats steadily increasing, the robots and I got that firing range built we'd been constructing for some time in the mine. With its completion, I can finally put the many weapons I manufactured for pops and father-in-law through a multitude of trials to ensure that they'll be more than satisfied with this final shipment. Guess Alice, Bella, and I will be having a range day... might as well call gramps and have him come over too. I'm sure he'll enjoy letting off some steam by firing off a bit of lead down range.

Going back to my progress, I've been keeping an extra close eye on my All Element Core Technique to see if any issues would pop up with it. But nothing has occurred, thus I suppose it's time I impart the magical technique unto Alice as well as all the magical knowledge I've acquired through my magic skill rising. That girl is sure to be more than a little stoked when I give her the news since she has asked more than a few times about how things were coming along, so...

Adding to the magical stuff that cross necklace of mine that my girl gifted me ended up being something pretty amazing. If it wasn't for me taking the mage class, I doubt I would've discovered its effects until much later.

| Ancient Runic Cross Necklace Of Protection |
Ability: Bubble Shield
Class: Light
Weight: 0.15
Value: 100,000,000
Item Description: A magical cross of protection from a long dead civilization. This cross is inscribed with magical runes of protection and when the wearer's life is in danger, the cross will activate and enclose its wearer in a bubble shield that will protect them from harm. The bubble shield can provide a protection of 500 DT for 3 minutes before it is depleted and requires 24 hours to recharge.

The effects are honestly pretty busted. I'm actually half tempted to start pursuing magic right this second, just so I can replicate it and give each one of my family members and friends an item of protection. Aside from that, because of this discovery, it got my creative juices flowing and got me thinking about the possibility of combining magic with technology.

I can already envision myself adding and stacking all sorts of enchantments onto a heavily armored suit of power armor. It would be pretty sick to trick out my robots with it too. However, as useful as this piece of jewelry is and all those ideas of my sound, my plate is already more than full enough, hence I'll have to delay those projects until later, unfortunately. Nonetheless, I can't wait for that day to come. I will certainly see a huge power up when the time comes.

Moving on from magic to the skill books I've accumulated. So I was going to spend them, but on second thought, I decided to delay it for a couple of reasons. One, I've been making decent progress in all of my skills, generally, so why increase that difficulty even a smidge when it's totally unnecessary. And two, why spend them when I can just wait till it's time to depart from the undercity. It probably won't make that big of a difference, but every little bit of advantage I can eke out wherever I can is worth it in my book.

Other than the progress I've been making alongside Alice and her little sister, I've been spending a bit more time recently with my two buddies, Big Tom and the little genius Bob. The two of them both appear to have good characters and with how things are progressing, I've been thinking more and more about adding them to my little group, I got going on over here.

It would be nice to have a couple more people to rely on, but since I'm still not 100% sure as of yet, I'll continue to monitor and feel them out. Hopefully, I can add them to my group and later the entity I will establish years down the road.

That is about all I've accomplished these previous two months. The only other thing of some note was I did try to acquire my own means of transportation. However, I haven't had any luck on that front thus far, so I'll need to put a bit more work into getting mom and dad on board with that idea. That said, it shouldn't take me too much longer to make it happen.

Alright, I've done enough resting and thinking. Time to return to hitting the weights and once I'm finished, I'll give the old man a ring and get that weapon shipment sent off and on its way and collect my payment.

...

Phew, that's the last rep of my workout.

With my extensive all encompassing workout completed, I hit the showers before moving to the planning and relaxation area of the facility to check up on the sisters.

Coming in through the door, I asked Alice and Bella how they were doing. "How are you guys making out?"

"I'm doing just fine."

"Me too." Bella answered happily, clearly enjoying whatever she had been reading about moments prior to me arriving.

"How'd your training and workout go, Dom?" Alice inquired sweetly.

"Pretty good. I've seen another slight improvement across the board."

We chit chatted for a bit following that, and eventually I gave gramps a call.

"Hey gramps we're going to have lunch and later shoot some guns at the recently completed firing range. You want to join us?"

"Sure kid, I'll be right over."

Ending the call quickly with the old wasteland veteran, I turned to my two companions and asked. "Alright, gramps will be here shortly. What do you guys want to eat?"

"I'll have whatever you feel like having, dear."

"And you Bella?"

"... I'm happy with whatever we make, big brother."

"Okay, we'll just throw together a smorgasbord then."

No one having any clear desire for anything in particular. The three of us proceeded to the kitchen and got to work on preparing lunch for ourselves and my grandpa John, who will be arriving here soon enough. Opting for dishes that were easy and quick to make, we speedily had everything whipped up in no time and not long after that, the old man showed up. So, with everyone gathered, we sat down and had a pleasant lunch.

...

"That was a fantastic meal. Thanks for that youngins."

"No problem, gramps. I'm always happy to have you join us. You guys ready to head off to the range, or do we want to take a short break?"

"No, I'm ready to go shoot some steel." The old man answered.

Alice and Bella looked at each other before responding at the same time. "We're ready as well."

"Alright then, let's go have some fun." I said last.

Leaving the mess we produced from our meal for my ever-increasing number of robots to clean up, we sped out of the planning and relaxation area. From there we headed for the armory, where we started gathering the weapons we would be testing out at the range. Rapidly preparing everything we would need for this activity, we departed from the armory with a squad of multibots in tow carrying loads of arms.

Walking through the spacious gray concrete halls of the Genesis Foundry, we neared the giant doors that led into the mine tunnels. But instead of going through them, we four walked a ways away from them and headed down a newly constructed hallway located a couple hundred feet or so away. Proceeding down that freshly built hall, we came upon our destination and went inside.

What came into view as we entered was a large and very long shooting range that was a hundred feet wide and 1,000 meters long. While the group was admiring the sight of the new addon, I had the robots begin laying out the arsenal across the many large metal tables near the shooting stations.

| A-50 Anti-Material Rifle |
Damage: 120
DPS: Variable
Fire rate: Bolt Action
Capacity: 10
Reload: 2.5
Weight: 22
Class: Heavy
Ammo Type: .50 BMG
Value: 150,000
Attachments: 8x Scope
Description: A large 50 caliber bolt action anti material rifle built to stop lightly armored vehicles and punch holes in armored targets.

| AALP-3 Laser Pistol |
Damage: 21
DPS: Variable
Weight: 3.5
Class: Light
Value: 9,500
Description: A laser pistol that was developed and sold across the former united states a few years before atomic annihilation.

| AALR-6 Laser Rifle |
Damage: 30
DPS: Variable
Fire rate: Semi-Automatic
Capacity: 50
Reload: 2.5
Weight: 8
Class: Medium
Value: 25,000
Description: The AALR-6 Laser Rifle is a laser rifle developed for military and police use by the American Atomic Energy corporation and due to its popularity among those two groups it was then later sold to the civilian market as well, though it was quite a bit pricier than compared to its conventional ballistic brethren.

| AAGL-5 Gatling Laser |
Damage: 30
DPS: 2,000
Fire rate: 4,000
Weight: 70
Class: Heavy
Value: 250,000
Description: The APGL-5 Gatling Laser is a five barreled gatling laser that was designed and manufactured by the American Atomic Energy corporation for the U.S. military.

| AK-108 |
Damage: 30
DPS: 450
Fire rate: 900
Capacity: 30, 60, 100
Reload: 2.7
Weight: 8
Class: Medium
Ammo Type: 5.56x45mm
Value: 17,450
Item Description: The AK-108 is an AK style assault rifle developed with a well-balanced recoil system in mind to eliminate felt recoil and to allow for controlled accurate, rapid fire. This particular model can take all standard 5.55 STANAG magazines.

| AKM |
Damage: 42
DPS: 420
Fire rate: 600
Capacity: 30, 40, 60, 75
Reload: 3
Weight: 7.5
Class: Medium
Ammo Type: 7.62x39mm
Value: 12,450
Item Description: A revolutionary rifle developed in the old world many years ago by the defunct Soviet Union.

| CA12 Combat Shotgun |
Damage: 10x8
DPS: Variable
Fire rate: Semi-Automatic
Capacity: 12
Reload: 3
Weight: 8
Class: Medium
Ammo Type: 12 Gauge Shotgun Shell
Value: 11,650
Item Description: A large capacity 12 gauge shotgun with wood furniture that was designed by the company Capital Arms as a home defense weapon but was then later adopted and used extensively by the U.S. armed forces as well as the various police forces around the U.S. before nuclear Armageddon due to it being a very reliable weapon and having a comparatively larger magazine to other shotguns on the market.

| Combat Knife |
Damage: 15
DPS: Variable
Weight: 1
Class: Light
Value: 500
Description: A standard 8-inch long hardened steel combat knife.

| F-60 Flamethrower |
Damage: 15 + 8 for 20 seconds
DPS: Variable
Fire rate: 7
Capacity: 100
Reload: 5.5
Weight: 15
Class: Heavy
Ammo Type: Flamethrower Fuel
Value: 9,600
Item Description: A standard military-issue flamethrower with a small tank of propellant and fuel attached to the underside of the weapon. The weapon also has a port towards the rear of the weapon that allows the attachment of a fuel and propellant pack.

| HK416 |
Damage: 30
DPS: 425
Fire rate: 850
Capacity: 30, 60, 100
Reload: 2.7
Weight: 8.5
Class: Medium
Ammo Type: 5.56x45mm
Value: 14,600
Item Description: A well built AR-15 style rifle used by many militaries and special operation units across the world years ago.

| M2 Browning Machine Gun |
Damage: 120
DPS: 1,200
Fire rate: 600
Capacity: 100
Reload: 6
Weight: 84
Class: Heavy
Ammo Type: .50 BMG
Value: 215,000
Item Description: A heavy machine gun that's been serving the former U.S. military since the second world war.

| M56 Minigun |
Damage: 30
DPS: 2,000
Fire rate: 4,000
Capacity: 500, 1,000
Reload: 7
Weight: 65
Class: Heavy
Ammo Type: 5.56x45mm
Value: 100,000
Attachments: Heavy Weapon Sling
Description: A standard military issue 6-barreled 5.56mm gatling gun that excels at taking out and dispatching unarmored targets.

| M76 Minigun |
Damage: 50
DPS: 3,333
Fire rate: 4,000
Capacity: 500, 1,000
Reload: 7.5
Weight: 80
Class: Heavy
Ammo Type: 7.62x51mm
Value: 149,000
Attachments: Heavy Weapon Sling
Description: A standard military issue 6-barreled 7.62mm gatling gun that excels at taking out and dispatching unarmored and somewhat armored targets.

| M90 Frag Grenade |
Damage: 100
Weight: 1
Class: Light
Value: 250
Item Description: An ordinary and very common fragmentation grenade that is mostly green and has a pin that needs to be pulled to arm it.

| TBT Sniper Rifle |
Damage: 53
DPS: Variable
Fire rate: Semi-Automatic
Capacity: 10
Reload: 3
Weight: 10
Class: Medium
Ammo Type: 7.62x51mm
Value: 27,000
Item Description: A lightweight semi-automatic 7.62x51mm sniper rifle that usually comes mounted with a 1-6x magnification scope. The design also features a threaded barrel to allow the mounting of various muzzle devices.

| Z-2 Plasma Rifle |
Damage: 65
DPS: Variable
Fire rate: Semi-Automatic
Capacity: 30
Reload: 2.5
Weight: 8
Class: Medium
Value: 48,000
Description: The Z-2 Plasma Rifle was an energy weapon that was being developed for the military by the American Atomic Energy corporation. The new energy weapon was distributed across the U.S. military shortly before the end came.

"Okay, Alice, Gramps, you two start. I'll take care of Bella and show her the ropes since this is her first time."

"Sure." The old man said before wandering off with an A-50 Anti-Material Rifle in hand.

"You want me to help, Dom?"

"If you want." I responded to Alice. before she joined Bella and I.

She and I then introduced her little sister to the world of firearms. She was somewhat scared in the beginning due to the loud noise they produced. But she quickly got used to them and honestly began to get a little gun crazy with all the firearms she could handle, which were mainly the ones that were stationary on mounts. This impromptu range day went on for the next couple of hours, with all four of us having a grand ole time for ourselves letting off steam.

"Looks like we're out of ammo finally." I commented aloud.

"It would seem so." Bella followed up, sounding a little sad and deflated.

Uh-oh, I think I might've awakened something in her that should've been left buried... I'm sure it'll be fine.

Whilst I was thinking about Bella's newly gained interest in weapons, Alice asked her sister in her pleasant voice. "Did you enjoy your time Bella?"

"Nn, I wish it hadn't ended, though."

"Well, all things must come to an end at some point, especially the fun kind, but we'll have another range day before you know it."

"Really???" She asked her big sis excitedly with bright expectant eyes.

"Of course."

"Yay, I can't wait."

The four of us conversed before I sent my three compatriots back along with my robots, who were going to deliver the weapons to the loading area of the facility while I began handling business. Calling up dad, I informed him that I had everything prepared and once he was told I added my father-in-law Alice's and Bella's dad to the call and gave him the down low. The three of us then arranged the transport of the arms along with the payment and the minute that was taken care of, I got off the phone and rejoined my grandpa John and the two girls who would hold a ton of power in my organization one day.

Swiftly rejoining them, I asked gramps if he could help me out with persuading my parents into helping me get my very own means of transportation.

"Yeah, that'll be no problem, Dom. I'll talk to them when I bring you three home."

"Thanks, gramps. I appreciate it."

The rest of the day was spent like it used to be spent previously, when the old man used to accompany us all the time. It was honestly nice having him around again.

---

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