Borderlands: Unnatural selection

Even if I failed to tame the beast I could always just kill it if it became a problem. Anyways I shook my head to get rid of these distracting thoughts as I waded through the green and brown water towards the area that the Edenian Bloodfeather was spotted. I was pretty far from most settlements which meant that I had to stay on my toes as the critters out here were the sort to eat first ask questions never. The knee high water also definitely didn't make me feel safe as there was no telling what was living in it.-

Even on earth there were more than a few large creatures that could move under the water even at this depth without making so much as a ripple at the surface. My senses were tuned in on every sight and every sound for anything that felt out of place. It was thanks to this fact that I was able to react in time when a creature burst out of the water to my left aiming at my throat with it's many long sharp teeth. I immediately leaned to the side and swiped my gun at the creature as it sailed past where I was.-

The head and body landed in two separate spots and I wasted no time at all using my powers to figure out what the hell had attacked me.

{Lurker

Lifeforce: 531

Traits: [Amphibious lungs-Rare grade]- 5000 units, [Anticoagulant coating-Uncommon grade]- 1000 units, [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade]- 1000 units, [Poor vision-Trash grade]- 50 units, [Water resistance-Common grade]- 500 units, [Ambush muscles-Common grade]- 500 units}

'Ooooh now those are new and useful too!' I thought with a grin as I saw the traits this thing had.

All of the traits besides [Poor vision] and [Anticoagulant coating] were very useful things to have. The latter of which was more or less just giving my teeth an anticoagulant film that made it to where anything I bite bleeds out. Not exactly all that fucking useful when I tend not to bite things as a means of attack. Also can you imagine how fucking bad it would suck if you bit your tongue on accident? No thank you, I'm good. Still the rest of those traits were good so I grabbed them for a cost of Seven thousand units.-

That wasn't the only one of these fucking things nearby either, far from it. After that first attack I got ambushed, unsuccessfully I might add, no less than fifteen bloody times. Lurkers as I discovered by recovering the corpses a few times were a weird mix of a frog and a lizard as far as anatomy was concerned. They had short narrow bodies with small weak webbed front legs and huge muscular webbed back legs that were used to propel them rapidly from their ambush spot to their prey. Their heads were straight up fucking nightmare fuel though as they had wide triangular heads that were all razor sharp fang filled mouth and two stunted tiny eyes at the top.-

Coloration wise they were a dark muddy brown which fit since they were clearly adapted to hiding in the muddy waters to ambush anything that came near them. Still I took an extra copy of [Amphibious lungs], [Thermal sensing] and [Water resistance] for my experiment later. I don't half do shit. If I'm going to make a fucking monster I'm going to fully commit to making the best monster I can, consequences be damned. I suppose my only gripe was that the Lurkers were a bit annoying to deal with since I could only spot them AFTER they fucking jumped.-

I thought about integrating [Thermal sensing] to fix this issue but I had learned my lesson about messing around with my senses on Baal 3 and I had no intention of finding out how disorienting adding a new one will be while I was hunting in the middle of bum fucked nowhere. After dealing with these annoying creatures over the span of three hours though lady luck finally smiled upon me as I caught sight of a flash of red that my focus zeroed in on instantly.-

It was weaving through the air in hard to track ways but there was no doubt after I got a good look at it that this was the prey I had been chasing this whole time. I wasn't going to waste my time trying to shoot the thing when it was flying so erratically, a good way to waste bullets. Instead I trailed the avian creature until it finally landed on a tree branch to rest.

"BANG! SPLOOSH!" I blew off the things head and watched it's corpse fall into the water at that point.

Walking within range I activated my powers and took a look at the traits of this creature that Hammerlock swore was worth my time, he was so fucking right.

{Edenian Bloodfeather

Lifeforce: 892

Traits: [Precise vision-Rare grade]- 5000 units, [Aerial expertise-Common grade]- 500 units, [Iron stomach-Uncommon grade]- 1000 units, [Disease resistance-Epic grade]- 20,000 units}

Literally all of these traits were good shit. That last one though was worth a stupid amount of money if I could somehow pass it to another person. It was basically a passive trait that made your bodies natural immune system into the fucking Hulk. While it wouldn't make you totally immune to every disease known and unknown to man it DID make it so you start producing antibodies for literally any disease that you catch at a stupidly fast rate.-

In other words while usually it was a slow process of your body identifying the disease and then slowly fighting it off as best as it can. This trait basically increased this process by several folds so you recovered and gained immunity to the disease in a far shorter time. This shit was practically a cure all as far as diseases went.-

I wasn't even upset at the huge price tag attached to the trait as it was well worth it in my opinion. I grabbed all the traits the avian creature had and only winced a little at the feeling of losing such a massive chunk of my stored up lifeforce. I wasted no time at all after collecting these traits and found a spit of land to open my house on. Walking in I headed straight to the teleporter room and hit the manor destination I had saved for Eden 6. The inside of the house shuddered for a brief moment before my current location displayed changed to the manor.-

I then took off my boots and left my house's archway before compacting and storing it again. I made no attempt at masking my presence in the place as I headed for the study where the old man was more likely than not to be.

"Had a good hunt I hope young master Alex?" Baldrin asked calmly when I ran into him in the hallway.

"Of course, I assume that cleaning solution I gave you before I left was well received given the scent lingering in the air?" I asked with a smirk.

"Perceptive as always sir. Indeed that "pine sol" has been quite a welcome addition as even that grumpy sir is pleased with it." the butler said with a small smile of his own.

"Good to hear, just let me know if you need more. Ah but I suppose I should stop holding you up from your work, I'll be off to see the old man now." I said casually before turning to leave.

"Best of luck sir." Baldrin said as I went before he walked off.

Don't let the polite speech from that guy fool you, he was loyal only so much as it benefited him. It was no secret that he was suspected of recording the conversations around the manor just in case he needed blackmail material for some reason. Still I can't deny that besides that rather nasty method of ensuring his job security he was VERY good at his job. As far as butlers went he was extremely competent as he oversaw the cleaning, informational and employment aspects of the Jakobs family estates. All in addition to personally serving the Jakobs family themselves with whatever they required.-

When I walked into the study I saw the old man with an interactive projection up with paperwork that he was reading over and signing in cursive where necessary. I didn't say a word but casually took out a bottle of brandy from my inventory and set about fixing him a drink that I sat on the desk in front of him before taking a seat myself nearby.

He grabbed the crystal glass and took a sip before sighing "Nothin like a stiff drink to ease the stress of work boy, glad you remembered." he said gruffly.

"How could I forget after you practically beat me over the head with the phrase?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Important things need to be emphasized. You must be done with your hunt if you are here though. From the looks of you it was a decent enough trip." he said calmly.

I nodded "Most of my traits at the moment are Uncommon at minimum and have a heavy amount of Rare traits in there as well as a couple Epics. Even got a tyrant egg that I'm hoping I can give some of the traits I collected to tame and strengthen the beast within." I said honestly.

The old man raised an eyebrow in interest "A tyrant egg you say? Killed the mother already I assume since you aren't being chased across the planet at the moment and I don't have reports of a tyrant going on a rampage. Think that gift of yours will let you keep such a beast on a leash boy?" he asked and I nodded.

"I grabbed a trait from some sort of fly that was buzzing around a jabber I domed that should make the thing see me as family once it hatches. Assuming I can in fact give the unborn creature traits like I hope that is." I said honestly.

"The way you described your gift copying Clay's traits and your ability to stuff that energy into others makes it sound like it should be possible. But why risk the egg and not use a random critter first?" he asked curiously.

"Well I might be able to give traits to already grown things my gut tells me that something still developing like an egg would accept these new traits in a less violent fashion." I explained honestly.

"I'm not one of them damn eggheads but that sounds like something they might agree with. What planet you plan to go to next since you're done here on Eden?" he asked seriously.

"Hmm, it's a bit hard to decide on just the one. I thought about going to Baal 3 again since I'm pretty sure theres another vault there somewhere but without a lead to go off there's no telling how long it'd take to find. Before this years up I was hoping to get at least one Legendary trait but without a monster like that I haven't a clue where I might find such a thing." I said honestly.

"Why do you think theres another vault on Baal 3 for?" the old man asked seriously.

"The description of the key said "vaults" with an S at the end which means more than one, still like I said theres no telling where it might be on the planet." I said with a shrug.

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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro

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Alexander Drake

Lifeforce: 171,677

Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade], [Clever mind-Uncommon grade]X3,[Enhanced senses-Rare grade], [Omega body-Rare grade]x4,[Superior bones-Rare grade],[Armored hide-Rare grade], [Fire resistance-Uncommon grade], [Bone regeneration-Uncommon grade], [Corrosion resistance-Uncommon grade], [Energy projection-Epic grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade],[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Minor regeneration-Rare grade]

Stored traits:[Clever mind-Uncommon grade], [Strong nose-Uncommon grade] and [Imprint-Common grade],[Precise vision-Rare grade], [Aerial expertise-Common grade], [Iron stomach-Uncommon grade], [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs]X2, [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade]X2, [Water resistance-Common grade]X2,[Ambush muscles-Common grade],