12 Chapter 12: Fire with Fire
I begin to tunnel toward the next poisonous living corpse. My memory is something a normal human could not compare with. I remember everything from my past exploring.
I know there is a corpse spider nearby. I approach it from the walls of the cave. My Pseudo Serpent Corpse Worm's body can dig through rock now, not just dirt. I draw near its den. Its home is a hole near a corner of the cavern. It's rather deep, and there is a tunnel that leads to towards the main chamber, with a few side tunnels that hold trapped prey. They are all poisonous, which is normal, but they all seem to have stronger toxins in them than normal.
I have seen living toxic creatures before. These all have been fed something to increase their toxicity almost to the point of death. They can barely move, let alone make noises, but I am happy to leave the prey alone for now since they all seem to be living poisonous creatures, and snacking now may alert the corpse spider.
I sneak towards the main chamber afraid the corpse spider still has sensitivity towards vibrations like me. It also seems to be quite the smart cookie since it can farm these poison creatures. I feel no real movement from the chamber, so I creep closer with my soul restrained in case the spider can sense soul. I notice that the spider within has no sensitivity towards vibration, I make a bet that has no soul sensitivity either.
The spider does not react. I begin to examine it as my soul sense begins to scan its body for weaknesses. The spider had a mostly intact corpse, small pure core, and a strange plethora of colors to it. If I had to guess, it looks like it died trying to eat poison, or many it could not handle.
It seems to have absorbed the poison after death and began to cultivate like the snake. It was also channeling the miasma into its body. The spider corpse also has an imbalance in its body. The number of different poisons in its body diverse. The living poisons are fighting the corpse poisons. There is an imbalance between Manny weaker poisons. So the turbulence is stronger than in my body. My corpse wine poison has absorbed the snake corpse poison just fine. The toxic grass I ate seems to have grown on the corpse of something after I had some study it. It has a corpse-like nature, but it's a poison from living nature. The poison is on equal footing with my corpse wine.
A battle of Quantity versus Quality. There is more corpse grass poison in my body, but my corpse wine is stronger. The battle in the spider is a cage match free for all in comparison.
The poisons are trapped in the body of the corpse spider. The corpse spider poison is slowly winning. If left alone it would develop a powerful poison stronger even then my corpse poison. Its soul is the strangest part. It's mostly intact. It must have eaten something to restore its sole strength. I begin to think about whether or not I should attack or not.
My body already has two poisons fighting. If I absorb the corpse spider poison I will have the same issue. I could also leave the spider to do the dirty work, and then the poison, and the spider corpse would be harder to defeat. I notice it seems to increase its resistance to poison as it absorbs the foreign poisons into its corpse spider poison.
I also wonder if I could defeat this spider corpse as I begin to plan how to attack. Then it hits me. If I absorb its poisons, my body be would be in chaos. What would happen if it would get a dose of mine?
I begin to tunnel above the corpse spider. I watch all the while as it struggles with the toxic mix in its body. I doubt the same plan as the corpse snake will work, but a splash of my corpse wine should cause enough damage to kill it. I wait for that moment to happen.
The corpse spider is tiring itself while fighting for control poisons in its body. I wait till it's at a crucial moment in calming the poisons. I open a small hole and release a droplet of concentrated corpse poison, and corpse grass poison. The droplet falls like rain as if in slow motion. The drop is dark green and black. It slashes on to the corpse spider. It's too busy to even notice a drop of poison. I watch as the corpse poison seeps into its body.
The corpse poison and corpse grass seem to create a violent reaction within the corpse spider causing it to make a loud wailing sound. Its multi-colored body suddenly begins to decay at a slow pace. It's soul is in agony as is also is harmed by the corpse poison, the foreign poisons in its body and the corpse grass seem to fight the spider corpse poison. It's in rolling around while trying to control the poison in Its body.
I burst through the ceiling, and latch myself onto the spider corpse. I began to tunnel into its body. it's larger then mine, but I easily tunnel through it's exterior. The corpse fluids begin to leak out of the wound, and unto my body. They are highly corrosive, but my corpse wine seems to able to resist it temporarily.
I aim for its core while it's distracted by the poisons in its body, and corpse wine affecting its soul. The core is drained of manna and poison. The spiders corpse poison, and mix of poison soup has begun to course my scale like acid. I keep draining its manna like a thirsty person who found water. My body wells from the poison and overflow of manna.
My body used the manna to heal like the snake corpse. The poison eats at me, and I regrow flesh that more resilient to poison. This continues as I am slowly being eaten alive by the poisons, but the spider is waring far worse.
The spider had no regeneration ability, and lack control of its body as the poisons rages on. The corpse spider poison venom is easily defeated by corpse wine poison. The violent mix of poisons uses the spider as a pot.
There was once a legend I remember about trapping 1000 poisons insects, creatures, and animals in a jar. The legend says that the creature to survive would be most poisonous. I keep drained the core of the corpse spider. It's weakening as the poisons melt it's insides as it lacks manna.
The mix of poisons from a pool in its body. The core at its center. It's an external skeleton like a bowl. I keep keeping draining its core till it is empty. The soul was eroded by the corpse poison slightly but it's mostly intact. I did not attack it due to wanting to devour the soul of such an interesting spider. I lay in the corpse spider toxins while my body was destroyed, and built again and again. The process was slow but worthwhile.
My once white scales have a now have a tinge of rainbow colors to them if one looks closely. I used the corpse spider poison mix to strengthen my body. It also helped to allow the corpse wine in the mix to weaken the other poisons. My understanding of poisons seems more clear to me now. Each poison has its own unique traits, and can not be mixed randomly.
After soaking in the mix. I have noticed many familiar poisons in this mix. The spider seems to have been slowly collecting manny poison from the cave to create something strong. I was lucky to find it when I did. The spider poison mix has already entered my body when I was refining it using the poison.
The corpse poison in my body was able to protect any vital In my body. My core already has absorbed a small portion of the poison. I follow the corpse spiders actions and sorb the mix of various poisons into my core. I can tell my core is not as violent the spider corpse was after being more careful of when to add a new poison I do my best to keep the mix neutral as possible.
The mix of living and deadly poisons. The warm, and cold poisons. My core is filled with toxins. The spider corpse poisons were easily absorbed into the corpse wine further strengthening it. The rest of the poisonous that are resistant to my corpse poison, have been absorbed into the corpse grass poison. Fire with fire had led to a less violent sea of poison.
My second body's core is a deep black with swirls of dark green. I lay in the poison spider body practicing the corpse snake cultivation method. It does not strengthen my body much, but it does increase the strenth of my scales and helps me heal faster after each time my body begins to melt.
I focus on my full soul til I lose consciousness with both bodies. I may leave my second body unguarded, but anything that can near me, and lives has earned it's right to eat me. I the poison I bath in be its own defense. I leave my main body with some of my soul acting as eyes around a very small area of my body.