Borderlands: Unnatural selection

"So you want to give up all your memories other than skills, personality shaping and practical ones? Alright I'd say that would let me give you a lower level gift, something like a vault hunters skill tree with all the limitations that come with it. Middling potential and power at best and mediocre at worse" Satan said casually.

'Fuck why is the level so low!?' I thought outraged considering all that I offered was definitely worth a lot to me.

"Key point being to you, to me it's worth very little considering the sheer enormity of the multiverse of you's. You aren't special and what you have isn't special so if you want the top shelf stuff you have to think about what would be valuable to me, I've already told you by the way." The endless said casually.

I thought back to the entire conversation and realized the crux of the issue and knew what I needed to offer to get a much better gift. This being sported a wide smile when I made this realization and it dawned on me that this wasn't some benevolent entity but merely something treating me as a toy to play with.

"I do so love it when a you figures out just the sort of position they are in. Do it, think the words that will give me and by extension you what we want." The blind eternities said with eagerness.

'You may turn me thirteen, you may make me have to acquire the gift with my own effort and the gift has to be something with infinite potential but requires me to build it over time. In exchange I will need a decent gun and shield as well as knowledge about where and how to acquire the gift and if the language isn't english the knowledge on how to speak and read the common language.' I thought placing heavy restrictions on myself.

"MARVELOUS! That will earn you a gift just below the top shelf mostly due to your demands but if you decide to let me make the gift a surprise I'll make it one of the top shelf ones." The presence says excitedly.

'Done, and remember I said a decent gun and shield so nothing shitty like the roughrider.' I thought since that felt important to bring up.

"Not to worry I am not going to cheat you, well anymore than I already have , bye now!" the thing said and before I could ask what the hell it means more than it already had I was sent off.

In a secluded glade of vibrant flora and fauna on the planet of [Baal 3] a small skinny child no more than thirteen with short black hair and eyes in a casual outfit of jeans and a T-shirt seemed to manifest out of thin and and stumble forward. That was me.

My first thought after I had a body again was a single word.

"FUCK!" I screamed in anger and horror of equal parts.

Why you may be asking well that's because of where my gift was and how I was supposed to get it, spoilers I found out what the being meant before it booted my ass here. See my "benefactor" had made my gift an absolute chore to get and I mean in an extremely dangerous way rather than tedious. I got "spawned" in near my gifts location but the thing was that to get it I had to open the vault located in the cave directly to my right.-

'Well at least I should have a decent weapon and shield so it's not totally helpless, speaking of where the fuck are they?' I thought looking all over myself yet not seeing any weapon or shield.

"BLING! BLING!" a loud chime sound rang out from above me and I looked up just in time to see two orange fireballs of light fall onto my face hard.

"Fuck!" I cursed in pain as the items fell to either side of me.

I figured out easily that the being did that entirely on purpose just to fuck with me further. Something I found fascinating despite not understand why exactly that was a thing was that loot glowed apparently when no one was using it. I also discovered that simply by looking at the glow I got this sort of in depth "screen" for lack of a better word that showed me the things stats. For example my two new pieces of equipment that were clearly a set.

[Name: Adaptive Death

Level: legendary/unique

Type: Repeater pistol

Damage type: N/A

Manufacturer: N/A

Affix: Some say death is the end...

If the Adaptive Rebirth is equipped damage changes based on the element equipped to it.]

[Name: Adaptive Rebirth

Level: legendary/unique

Type: Shield

Damage type: N/A

Manufacturer: N/A

Affix: For you it's a new beginning

If the Adaptive Death is equipped shield shifts to whatever element is last used against it and the damage type for the Adaptive Death changes to counter it.]

I lacked context for how good exactly these things were but the screen was quite helpful and I assumed that they were decent at least since I had asked for decent stuff. I should also point out that I had no idea what the fuck a vault was and only knew it was bad news because the being had deigned to add that opening the thing released a monster I had to kill to claim the goodies inside to the knowledge of how to claim my gift

'I have this nagging feeling that giving away my knowledge on this universe is going to come back to bite me in the ass. I already regret doing it since I have no idea what is and isn't normal. What did he say again, a year until I am forced to go somewhere else?' I pecked my memory about it but beyond the timeframe the rest was missing like my memory had burnt out holes in it.

It was bothersome but my stomach grumbled which reminded me that I had needs that needed to be met or even without opening that vault I wasn't going to live very long. I fastened the shield to my waist and a blue glow shimmered over my skin for a moment before vanishing. I touched my arm a few times and had no problem at all feeling my skin and even giving myself a bruise from pushing hard enough. I couldn't understand how the shield worked but at least it seemed like it wouldn't get in the way which was good.-

Equipment that hindered movement or your tactile sense I learned from my previous experiences were very rarely worth the added hassle. It was strange remembering skills, experiences and basic practical knowledge like how to count, yet couldn't remember HOW I learnt these things or why. I was simply drawing blanks whenever I tried so I decided to cut my losses and accept that the past doesn't matter anymore but what I do from now on. As I was settling my mind a low growl unlike anything I have ever heard filled the air.-

I quickly raised my black bayoneted pistol that looked comically large in my small child hands and faced the source of the growl. From behind a strange blue leafed palm tree stepped a strange feline creature about twice as big as me and that looked like it was made of wood with green vines and leaves growing out of it's bark-like skin. I somehow immediately knew that this things was called a [Prowler] which I brushed off as a normal thing for this place. I raised my hands to aim the gun at the creatures face and pulled the trigger.-

The ammo cylinder rotated as the hammer pulled back and with a loud "BANG!" the gun went off. The creature snarled as the bullet hit it's head and seemed to cause the bark there to explode as the bullet exploded on impact. It wasn't dead though so I squeezed the trigger another two times which finally seemed to do the trick as the creature dropped. To my surprise ammo popped out of the corpse with a white glow which I must admit was certainly convenient.-

'Now then I hope the red gore and blood means this thing is edible.' I thought as I started used the bayonet of my pistol to field treat the thing with some mistakes since it's biology was like nothing I was familiar with.

For starters it's skin was covered in a hard layer of bark and the vines growing from it fed on it's blood through roots piercing the skin. The muscles were pretty standard for a large feline but I had no idea what to make of the organs so even if one of them was a miracle drug I got rid of it all. No fucking way I was chancing that shit at the start of my new life.-

I gathered some dead leaves and branches from nearby before using the sharp edge of the bayonet to carve off "feathers" from a branch which helped when starting a fire thanks to the oxygen flow and surface area. With my pile of burnable stuff set up I looked around for a bit until I found a iron heavy stone that I started banging against the bayonets side to create sparks which quickly got a fire going. I stabbed some of the meat on a stick and held it near the fire to roast. -

I had to flip the meat a couple times it cook it all the way through but eventually I grimaced and put the stuff in my mouth and chewed before swallowing. It didn't taste great to be honest, really gamey and otherwise bland but it was edible so I sucked it up and cooked some more near the fire to satisfy my hunger and have extra for rations. I didn't get to claim much of the body though as a(I want to say pack?) of cat sized reptile creatures showed up and dragged off the corpse while snarling at me like they were the ones that hunted it.-

I didn't bother trying to stop them as if I rationed right I had about two days of dried meat that should last me until I got my gift. I knew that the cave with the vault in it was nearby and I wasn't planning to waste time planning for a fight I simply couldn't plan for. My knowledge given by that being didn't include information on what the monster in the vault was so without actually fighting it I had no way to know other than that I could kill it with my gun.-

With my hunger satisfied I saw no reason to stick around and got up from next to the fire and headed in the direction of the cave carefully since I knew nothing about this place. A wise decision considering I stepped on a mushroom only for a tree nearby to spray me with a green acid that made my shield glow white as it took the damage for me. Interestingly my shield gained green lines and switched to [corrosive] resistance while my gun gained white glowing lines and gained [cryo] damage.-

'Well at least I now know what two of the possible elements are and hopefully the names aren't misleading about what they do.' I thought once I saw this change.

I was more careful after that and eventually managed to get to the cave that I somehow knew was called [Devils Maw]. Yet another thing that I could only put under the "it is what it is" category and move into the ominously named cave. I was surprised to see that the cave was empty since things like this were usually lived in. I also discovered that the strange piles of rocks could be kicked to get ammo which I was thrilled about and stuffed my pockets with pistol ammo, about fifty shells by my count.