AN: Double chapters because I forgot to post yesterday. Sorry.
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POV Rio
After dealing with Sinjin and his gang, I went over the loot I had acquired, and while most of it was the usual fare, I did make a couple of odd finds. The first was a pistol called the Kitchen Gun. It had the very odd effect of cleaning anything in three bullets or less. It also didn't do much damage to everyone else. I had a laser sight and a night vision scope on it as well.
'Who would make this? Better yet, why would you need this?'
Strange gun aside, the other item of note was something that I was certain was made by the same maniac as Kitchen Gun. I got 5 Toilet Grenades. Their purpose was truly baffling. You were supposed to use them to clean a toilet. But from my knowledge of explosives, I knew this would destroy the toilet.
'Why? Just why?'
I set the items aside and just decided that it wasn't worth my time thinking too hard about such a strange find. The last interesting item was Sinjin's Heavy Machine Gun. The man was apparently much stronger than you would think. Then again, the man was really buff, so I guess it shouldn't be that surprising. The weapon was a KPV Heavy Machine Gun that shot electrically charged bullets. The damage it could output was impressive. The gun's name was called Early Discharge.
After dealing with the loot, I decided to distribute my level-ups before I got back to Goodneighbor. After dealing with Sinjin, I boosted my level to 121. This meant I had 354 skill points to distribute, which all went into Science. That got me to 136 Science. After Skill Points came Perk Points.
Temporal Whiplash
You're faster than thought. Time folds around you, and every second is a weapon in your hooves.
Rank 1 (Level 53): +50% sprint/movement speed and attack speed. Your V.A.T.S. costs 50% less AP.
Rank 2 (Level 64): Gain Flashstep: Instantly dodge any lethal attack at the cost of all AP.
Rank 3 (Level 76): You're immune to time-based effects (slow, freeze, suppression) and gain 2x crit charge.
Rank 4 (Level 85): Once per day, activate Chrono Collapse: Freeze time* for 10 seconds. You can move, attack, and loot freely while enemies are frozen. (*You move at infinite speed for ten seconds, but don't have the downsides of moving that fast, nor do you get increased damage for moving so fast. Damage is applied once you resume normal speed.)
Dark Dominion
You are a tyrant of fear and magic. The Shadows serve you.
Rank 1 (Level 70): Dark magic deals +20% damage. You become immune to fear and intimidation effects.
Rank 2 (Level 77): You can summon Obsidian Pillars that block movement and explode on destruction.
Rank 3 (Level 82): Enemies below 25% health are slowed and take +25% spell damage.
Rank 4 (Level 90): You can shift into a shadow form that allows movement through small spaces and makes the player nearly undetectable.
Control the Curriculum
You believe in rules. In forcing excellence, no matter the cost.
Rank 1 (Level 24): Gain +25% effectiveness in Persuasion and Intimidation against intelligent or educated characters.
Rank 2 (Level 36): You can suppress magical effects in a small radius for 10 seconds (cooldown 60s).
Rank 3 (Level 48): Allies/followers gain +25% accuracy and critical chance.
Rank 4 (Level 60): Once per day, activate Academic Authority: pause combat for a split second to grade all enemies: they suffer penalties based on their intelligence while you gain buffs based on your own.
Forget-Me-Not
You control memory and erase mistakes. Maybe not even you remember who you are.
Rank 1 (Level 60): You are 25% harder to detect while sneaking.
Rank 2 (Level 70): You can erase enemy awareness: enemies lose track of you 25% faster after combat ends.
Rank 3 (Level 80): Critical sneak attacks cause enemies to forget the last 10 seconds and enter a confused state.
Rank 4 (Level 88): Once per day, activate Total Rewind: erase the last 30 seconds of combat for enemies: resetting their consciousness*, removing alert status, and restoring your stealth. (resetting their consciousness in this case means their memories are altered. It also means that their perception is altered to make sense of the new scenario. Like if they used ammo, then a memory would be fabricated to make sense of this fact.)
Magic Barrier
You don't need power armor when you have the will to shield your friends.
Rank 1 (Level 36): You can cast a magic barrier that blocks damage for 5 seconds. 60-second cooldown.
Rank 2 (Level 44): Allies within 10 meters gain +25% resistance to damage.
Rank 3 (Level 52): Your spell casting time is reduced by 50%.
Rank 4 (Level 60): You may now maintain the barrier indefinitely while standing still. Movement breaks it.
Some of the perk choices were less powerful than the others, but I chose them because they improved what I was already good at. But that isn't the case for the first perk I chose. Temporal Whiplash's first rank was good, maybe even great. The speed boost was more than welcome, and the VATS reduction was very useful. The second rank gave me more life-saving utility. The cost of all AP was a bit harsh, but I understood why it was like that. The third rank, however, is something that any high-level player has to have. Chronomancy Immunity. Fighting something that can manipulate time is already something that most people can't fight. As for the secondary effect, it was okay, nice to have, but nothing game-changing. But the last Rank was something I was really interested in. And when I got it, I truly understood what it meant by freezing time. It was more accurate to say that this is the most broken perk I have ever gotten.
To put it into perspective, Infinite Speed meant that there is no resisting it, and no matter how dangerous the enemy I am dealing with, I can go faster than them. If say I fought the Wally West Flash, I could go faster than they could perceive, if only for 10 seconds. And I am free to attack during those 10 seconds. The obvious drawback is that it is only for 10 seconds, or rather 15 seconds, as the Astoundingly Awesome Tales Issue #8, The Man Who Could Stop Time, Perk Magazine, I have boosted the time by 50%. The other downside I noticed was that when I use the ability, I don't move insanely fast from my perspective. I can only go as fast as I would normally, given the circumstances. The best way to describe it is like I was Quicksilver from the X-Men movies. To me, I am not moving particularly fast; it's everyone else who is frozen still.
The second perk choice was chosen for various reasons, the first being that the first rank gave me immunity to fear and intimidation effects. It would mean that if I used Sombra's Door, it wouldn't work at all. The boost to Dark Magic was for Darkness, as in the absence of light, not Evil Magic. The second rank allowed me to summon/create Obisdian Pillars. They were fairly hard to break through, and when they exploded, they inflicted decent damage. Decent enough armor could block the damage, but it would at least blind the enemy. The third rank was not that great if I was honest. The bonus spell damage would only be useful against beings with lots of health. Like the Radscorpion Empress. But those kinds of enemies were rare, and I might have better options. But that was okay, as the last rank more than made up for it. The Shadow Form was what it sounded like. I became a living shadow and could move freely. In that form, I didn't gain any weaknesses, but I gained some good resistances. I was highly resistant to non-magical damage. The only downside is that I couldn't use anything other than skills in that form. Most magic doesn't work, but I was okay with that.
The next perk choice was chosen partially because I thought it was amusing, but also because it gave some good benefits. The first rank would help me when I wanted to recruit new scientists or knowledgeable people. The second effect was quite useful, as sometimes during my experiments, I would make a mistake, and that usually ended with an explosion. So being able to disable magic in a small area was quite valuable. The third rank was okay, but nothing to write home about. The most valuable part is that it affects everyone under me. The final rank was the amusing part of the perk. The idea of just grading everyone in the middle of a battle is just hilarious to me. It also helps that many of my enemies are not the most intelligent, so it was quite useful.
The next perk was one I had been very tempted to get for a long time, but just never got the chance before now. The first rank was just a nice flat boost that was always welcome. The second rank was a bit more powerful than the description shows, as it means that enemies are more likely to ignore any mistakes I might make. Basically, they are unlikely to become alerted to my presence. The third rank was very... odd. It was hard to say what the effect would be in a real fight, as most of the time a critical would kill someone, but I guess it adds some extra leeway in case they do survive. The last rank was a major reason I wanted to pick this perk. Stealth Missions can always be risky, as when you get detected, that usually means you have to fight your way out, but with this perk, I had a single redo. The memory manipulation was also quite powerful.
The last perk I chose was chosen as it gave me more survivability. The first rank was useful; it isn't an unbreakable barrier, but it is free to cast and can take a lot of beatings before breaking. The second rank was useful as it was just a basic resistance boost, but that was it. The third rank was a lot more useful as casting speed is critical in a life-or-death situation. It would be like being the faster draw when in an old western duel. You can have the most powerful gun in the West, but if you can't draw it fast enough, it doesn't matter. The last rank makes the barrier not only stronger, but it lasts as long as I don't move.