The Spider Queen

Chapter 200: High Expectations

(Zrudread University)

(St. John’s Science Center- Lab Room 302)

Sophie returned to her workstation and took a closer look at the vial of poison in held tightly in her right hand.

The reddish-brown colour and the small bubbles constantly being formed made the mixture look quite grotesque.

Professor Macabre was a tricky woman and deliberately gave the students only a small amount of their assigned poison.

Hence the number of tests that could be performed on the toxins would need to be carefully considered.

Poison Cultivation was unique among the other branches of cultivation as it required a strong theoretical and practical knowledge of chemistry.

Scientific understanding and the ability to use laboratory equipment to experiment on different solutions was necessary.

Sophie was not in a rush to immediately begin the process of testing the reddish-brown liquid and continued to gaze at the substance with a critical eye. 

There was a small notepad and pencil on the corner of her desk, so she reached for a piece of paper and started to write.

The first step would be to write down a list of experiments and see which ones would be appropriate.

Sophie absentmindedly chewed on the corner of the pencil as she muttered quietly to herself,

“Should I use the electrolysis to separate the components?” 

“Maybe I should add some dye and run a chromatography exam….”

“But the addition of dyes tend to cause the break down of any toxins from the Procyon region.”

Sophie rubbed her temples as she tried her best to remember all the various special exceptions and tests that could be performed.

She was very thankful that cultivators tended to have really good memory recall abilities and since reaching the qi tide stage her memory was now practically photographic.

Although this was sometimes both a blessing and a curse… 

Soon a list of twenty different chemical processes and tests appeared on the paper. 

Sophie smiled with a feeling of contentment and stretched out her arm lazily.

Her eyes roamed around the room to peek at the progress of the other students and found that most had already started their experiments.

Cheating wasn’t really possible as each student was given a unique toxin to produce an antidote for.

Celestia was zipping back and forth around her workstation while meticulously reading the numbers coming from the lab equipment she was using.

Sophie inwardly cheered herself up and headed for the back of the lab to pick up the apparatus she needed for the experiments.

This took around ten minutes as some of the machines were a bit cumbersome to move so multiple trips were needed.

It was time for the first test!

Sophie placed a pair of googles over her eyes and slid a face mask over her nose and mouth. 

The fumes of certain poisons could have devastating effects if inhaled and Sophie was taking no chances.

Although the likelihood of this occurring was pretty small as dangerous fumes would diffuse to all corners of the room. 

The top of the vial was unscrewed but after a few tense seconds, Sophie could not detect any strange odours.

She carefully held a tiny pipette in her palm and placed the end inside the liquid to withdraw the mixture. 

Taking out just two milliliters, Sophie then placed the tiny amount in a small capsule made from a plastic-like material.

The capsule was then pushed gently into the entry port of a composite analysis device.

This device was roughly the size of a bucket with two entry ports, one for liquid matter and the other for solids.

Composite analysis devices could break down and match the chemical components of various mixtures to known substances from a database.

The data generated from this device could be further confirmed by carrying out additional experiments.

The monitor of the mechanical device started to flash, and Sophie could see words slowly beginning to appear on the screen. 

[Liquid Input Detected]

[Components Found!]

[Generating List of Components…]

Sophie patiently waited as the composite analysis device continued to flash the last message across the screen. 

She was prepared to endure a slow process.

Maybe it was having to participate in high pace action orientated tests constantly that the poison cultivator exam was a nice change of pace.

Sophie’s thoughts eventually drifted to the naked body of her busty girlfriend covered in hickeys on the bed after a night of nonstop passion. 

It had been one of the most beautiful sights that she had ever seen.

Sophie was so distracted that she didn’t even notice the prideful smirk that gently traced the corners of her lips.

Ding! Ding!

The composite analysis device bleeped twice which caused Sophie to immediately snap out of her musings.

[List Generated]

[Substances found: Solanine, Aconitine, Colchicine, Dimethyltryptamine, Mescaline….]

As Sophie observed the list just keep getting longer and longer…. 

Her optimistic mood about this exam rapidly started to fade away.

And she had to resist the urge to curse!

Professor Macabre had hinted that her exam would be a tad difficult compared to the other students, but Sophie just assumed that the toxin assigned would be deadlier than usual.

Why the hell was the component list for this substance roughly the length of two pages!

Sophie angrily clenched her fists and immediately headed for the reagent cupboard to pick up some neutralising agents.

She had to somehow make an antidote that could neutralise every single dangerous component in the toxin and ensure that these agents did not clash with one another.

Professor Macabre saw her favourite pupil run towards the reagents with some frustration visible on her face and could not help but grin.

When dealing with gifted students…. tough love was always the number one principle in her mind.

On the battlefield only a truly simple-minded poison cultivator would use a toxin that was easily solved.

Her beloved pupil may think that the assignment given to her was tough but skilled poison cultivators would easily create toxins based on hundreds of dangerous substances.

And not all of these substances could be found in Federation databases. 

Of course, students would not typically encounter scenarios like this until they reached third or fourth year but Professor Macabre did not mind giving Sophie a glimpse of the future.

She had high expectations for the hybrid girl and was eager to see if her student could rise to the occasion.