Humans who managed to enter a contract with mutant creatures were generally labeled as controllers, because the premise of the contract was primarily the control of the human mind over the mind of the contracted creatures.

Naturally, the controllers could be divided into two basic categories– the Ordinary controllers and the Transcendent controllers.

The difference between an ordinary controller and a Transcendent controller lay in their mental strength. An ordinary human who had formed a contract with a grade- 1 mutant would at best be seen as an equal by the creature. As a defeated peer, it would obey the human master's order for a while, until it became stronger and felt that it had a better chance of defeating the peer and gaining dominance over him.

This was a latent danger ordinary humans had to face when they formed contracts before reaching the Transcendent tier. Once at that tier, most humans had a bigger spiritual presence, an overwhelming mental dominance over their contracted creatures. They would never dare to rebel at that time.

However, ordinary humans who had managed to form a contract with a grade- 2 creatures were rare precedents. The number of such incidents in recorded history might not cross a hundred. Mir had only heard of such records in entertainment networks, where concrete details were never present. Different networks published different versions too. The stories were hard to believe.

Murray, on the other hand, told him that he knew of some people who had managed this feat. However, all of them came from immensely resourceful backgrounds and had taken enough precautions to ward off the latent dangers.

No ordinary human like them would willingly take a risk that huge.

The Transcenders who formed contracts with grade- 2 mutant creatures had another attribute, aside from controlling the creatures. This attribute was to not only combine their neural networks, but also the ability to manifest this unification physically to some extent.

A simple example of such Transcenders was the werewolf policemen who had visited Mir's home two nights ago. The law enforcers in the city had a permit to enter all the sacred grounds around the city and hunt as they wished. However, one common creature most of them chose as a companion was the famous mutant creature, the Knighthound.

This creature wasn’t exclusively found in any sacred ground. Rather, it had been born in every human locality where a taboo zone had appeared. Many ordinary household dogs had mutated into monstrosities just like their owners during the first wave of the Sun's curse. But some dogs had retained their sanity and become grade- 1 mutants, which was why the Knighthounds were the most commonly found mutants outside sacred grounds. Over the century, dogs with higher levels of mutation were born. And the law enforcers who could turn into werewolves were all controllers of such higher-grade Knighthounds.

Grade- 2 Knighthounds gave a controller the power to mutate into a half-man, half-hound, in other words, the mythical werewolves.

Grade- 3 Knighthounds could turn their controller into a full-fledged grade- 3 Knighthound himself while retaining some of his human characteristics.

Mir's situation, however, was rather special. He did not form a contract with any of the well-known mutant creatures, but a plant. While there were some examples of such contracts, no one had ever tried it with a grade- 2 plant, which was why the database couldn't provide much information about the Witchweed. One thing was certain, though. If a grade- 1 mutant creature thought of its ordinary controller as a mere peer, then a grade- 2 mutant would obviously have an even lower amount of respect toward its ordinary controller. And this would eventually lead to Mir being assaulted by the Witchweed.

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"The problem is, a grade- 2 mutant creature's attack will not be purely physical. Bonding with a grade- 2 creature means its neural network has been linked to your brain much more intimately than a grade- 1 creature ever could. You can directly skip the controlling part and reach the Hybrid form...except, transforming into that form would mean certain death for you because you're not a transcender yourself. Ordinary people's physique isn't equipped with the capability to undergo physical transformations! So all your Witchweed needs to do now is to activate the Hybrid Transformation command in your neural network through the bond, and BOOM! You'll end up as a dead meat paste within a minute; that is unless you end up as an abomination first– an amalgamation of parasitic plant and human."

Murray looked Mir up and down with a curious light in his eyes.

"Never seen what happens in a situation like that. I'm getting a bit curious, to be honest-"

"Nope, I'm not. Tell me how to avoid it, dammit! Is that the reason why you told me to eat fish while I was on the raft?" Mir hastily said.

Murray groaned.

"I told you to try fishing, not to eat fish, idiot! Do you think you could've undergone hallucination attacks on the raft while they were watching you?"

"Then why did you-"

"Because you need to save up! You need to hurry and reach the Transcendent tier as fast as you can if you don't want to end up as an abomination. All the people who have survived your situation had the ability to devour enough contaminated food to take them to the peak of the Evolution Standard Scale. And they also had the resources to reach the transcendent tier from there, becoming a superhuman faster than their companion creature could hijack their neural networks and turn them into a Hybrid against their wishes."

Finally realizing the extent of the trouble he was in, Mir leaned back on to the rock lifelessly.

"Man, you made a pretty stupid decision back then, trying to make contracts with any random creatures. I guess you never wrote any wish in your diary about controlling your greed! Look where that decision has landed you."

Throwing his hands up in the air, Murray began to shout in a frustrated tone.

"You're in a race now, Mir. Either you'll reach the transcendent tier, or you become a monstrosity when your Witchweed finally strikes back. You can count every second ahead now as a blessing. And just to be safe, keep writing in the diary to make sure that even if your contracted creature activates the Hybrid Transformation command in your neural network, your willpower can hold it off for a while. It'll be pretty similar to the hallucinations, I suppose, at least that's what Father Vincent described the situation as."

"Wait, you talked to your mentor about my issue?" Mir asked in alarm.

Murray laughed. "No, that would be too difficult to explain. No one in the Church is actually aware that I'm letting you use it willy-nilly. It's just that when I realized the danger the Ravensworth Family could pose to us, I asked the Father about this exact method."

Mir blinked, not quite realizing what he meant. Murray noticed his incomprehension and snorted.

"Looks like the continuous series of 'excitements' have been taking a toll on your intellect. I asked the Father if I could make a contract with a grade- 2 or grade- 3 mutant creature if the situation took a turn for the worse inside the sacred ground. I thought that even if I couldn't transform into a Hybrid, I would at least be able to employ those powerful beasts in combat and make a stand against the Transcenders. That's how I got to know these tidbits that weren't taught to us in college."

"Wouldn't using the diary set my progress back? It affects a lot of my stats negatively, remember?" Mir said in a helpless tone. He was beginning to feel overwhelmed with the obstacles that were piling up around him.

"And that's why, I brought you here. No matter how powerful the suppression and cleansing of the diary is, it can't keep up with an endless flow of mutant beast meat, can it?" Murray said, standing up awkwardly. Both of his feet had been injured during his battle against the beehive, it seemed.

"An endless flow of mutant beast meat? From where?" Mir said, following Murray's slow trot down the slope.

Murray pointed at the pitch-black pool at the bottom and answered, "From there. Welcome to the home turf of Glutton Boas, Little brother."