Checking Out Gains

Now free from the clutches of Lady Death for the third time, Ash could finally check his 'rewards' for toying with his life.

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Tier 1

Acid Gut(Giant Pitcher Plant)

A large carnivorous plant that catches and submerges its prey inside an acid pool.

+Symptoms:

-Strong Acid : Acid capable of melting flesh and bones.

+Ability: Plague Bile I (Active) — Can spew an acidic bile. And gave passive resistance to acid.

Sporeblight Crawl (Mushroom Centipede)

A dogcentipede-like creature that releases tiny fungal pods as it scuttles.

+Symptoms:

-Sporogenic Shedding: Tiny spore sacs grow from the infected's skin and periodically rupture.

-Neuromuscular Jitters: The infected's limbs occasionally twitch due to nerve interference.

+Ability: Twitchstep I (Active) — Brief burst of explosive movement. 

Tier 2

Verdant Marionette Parasite

A parasitic vine disease that hijacks the nervous system, suppressing voluntary control while sending commands on its own.

+Symptoms:

-Motor Reflex Hijack: Neural pathways overridden by parasitic vines. Forcing involuntary movements.

+Ability Unlocked: Marionette Doppelgänger (Active)

Grants the ability to summon a semi-autonomous clone composed of vines. The clone mimics his body and movements with eerie precision if not given a specific command.

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The plague bile, or the vomiting acid skill he got, didn't actually come from a disease.

It was the result of Ash's experiment with his steelbark skin and a certain mutated plant.

He saw one of the huge carnivorous plants, just a gigantified normal plant, a pitcher plant.

But of course, the damn thing didn't just emit a sweet tasting fragrance that attracted insects to wait for creatures to go inside its mouth willingly.

No such thing would survive in the Verdant Necropolis.

The large pitcher plant could swallow up several humans into its huge sac using its roots to yank creatures and throw them into its acid vat.

Ash had defeated one and tried putting the acid on his steelbark skin, then found out that his steelbark skin was stronger than he gave it credit for.

So, as an experiment with his ability from the benevolent god, Ash willingly walked to another pitcher plant and let himself be swallowed up by it.

By turning a small part of his steelbark skin on and off for several minutes, Ash found that his body had gotten a new ability.

He even became resistant to acid. 

This made him rethink his definition of diseases that could be made an ability by the god's gift.

Not that poison and venom counted as diseases in the first place.

Ash needed to do even more experiments with long-lasting physical trauma to see whether he could unlock even more useful abilities or not.

Not anytime soon, though, there's a disease that he needed to finish splicing first.

He still wanted to get that creature that would be the ingredient for his perfect disease to splice.

But Ash decided to wait a little longer, just to be safe. 

He didn't want to return so soon to find the stag waiting for him with open arms, ready to give him the deadliest hug of all.

And there's another ability that he got, one that explained what the hell had made his body fall in love with the stag so much to offer himself willingly.

'It's a damned parasitic vine… What's wrong with all the creatures here and their vines?'

The parasitic vine from the stag turned out to be a tier 2 disease, not surprising since it had such an OP ability that could take control of their enemies' bodies.

But now that it's been adopted by Ash's body, he wasn't only immune to the parasite vine, but he could even use it on other creatures.

He had never spread his disease to other creatures since he gained a better ability from surviving those diseases.

But now that such a cheat-like venom/poison/parasitic entity? Had appeared, he would definitely have shared this disease far and wide with everyone.

Moreover, he got an awesome new ability from surviving that monstrosity.

With a thought, Ash activated the new tier 2 ability, 'Marionette Doppelganger.'

Vines grew from his body, each of them twirled and combined to make a humanoid creature made out of vines.

In under 5 seconds, a vine-y creature, similar to the giant stag, stood beside Ash.

When Ash raised his hand, his vine-y doppelganger followed after him without a split second of delay.

As if it were connected to Ash's brain, it could move at the exact same time as Ash.

He tried punching a tree trunk, the doppelganger followed suit and punched the same tree trunk.

Ash then tried something different.

"Go attack that tree trunk," He pointed at the same tree trunk they had just punched before.

Now, without following Ash's lead, the doppelganger moved on its own, attacking the tree trunk as if its life depended on it.

The bark of the trunk began peeling away as more punches and kicks attacked it. 

Even a small part of the woody flesh it had was chipped away by the vine doppelganger.

It continued doing so until a quarter of the trunk was destroyed into wood chips, stopping only after Ash gave it another command.

Being made of vines, no blood flowed out of its hands even when several wood chips stabbed themselves into it.

It also didn't feel any pain. Only loyalty and compliance existed in its being.

Ash began experimenting more, trying to learn more about his new friends to incorporate it into his battle strategy.

Ash summoned his crimson and thorny vines, and the doppelganger followed suit, detaching 4 sets of vines from its own body.

He spewed acid from his mouth, the doppelganger only mimicked his gesture, spewing nothing other than Ash's high expectation out of its viney mouth.

'So it could also summon vines, but an ordinary vine that made up its body, not the special crimson or thorny vines.

It also couldn't use my other abilities. Only mimicking my physical gesture.'

Ash nodded in understanding.

And he decided to do one last test.

Ash smeared the doppelganger with the blood from his cough, pricked the doppelganger with his berserker thorns, and sent out the original venom from the thorn that changed organic matter into the steel bark.

And the result made Ash smile in satisfaction.

The blood cough that contained the blueberry's poison did nothing to the doppelganger other than making it look like a creature from a thriller movie.

The berserker thorns made the vines twice as thick, similar to what had happened to the stag.

And the original venom of the horn made several patches of steelbark on the skin of the doppelganger.

'It can be infected with disease… But only the appropriate ones. It didn't have blood, so a poison that increases blood pressure did batshit.

However, a venom that could turn things into steelbark worked since its whole body was made out of vine…'

Ash balled his hands into a fist, his mind began emulating his next encounter with the vine monstrosity.

'With this… I might be able to teach that stag the power of the benevolent god's blessing…'

With a new plan in mind, Ash finalized the strategy he had come up with in his mind and waited until nightfall.

He would get his catalyst ingredient, and he would make the stag pay for almost making him shit his pants.