Blood drained out of Murray's face upon hearing Mir's description. Grabbing his shoulders, Murray bared his teeth, eyes wide.
"Are you sure that those changes are new? That the Hybrid form didn't look like that from the beginning?"
Mir nodded weakly, realizing the implications of the changes himself.
The worst possible situation was well on its course to becoming true.
The Witchweed had already begun its attempt to hijack Mir's mind. Had Murray not asked him to check the Hybrid image in his undeveloped Soulslot, Mir would have never realized how close his impending doom was.
As soon as it manages to take partial control of their neural network through the Hybrid form, the Witchweed could activate the transformation command inside Mir's brain and wait for Mir's body to fall apart trying to physically transform into the Hybrid form.
Normally, when transcenders died, the creatures inside the soulslot died with them. But as an ordinary human whose soulslot hadn't yet developed to its full potential, Mir didn't have the ability to store the plant inside his soulslot.
Once Mir died, the Witchweed would be free.
"...What do we do?" Mir said, voice weakening. The fear, the helplessness, and the overwhelming number of obstacles closing in around them finally broke through his resolve. Blinking rapidly to hold back tears, he entertained the notion of dying out here in the wild.
It had been the biggest mistake of his life to recklessly make that contract with the Witchweed. If he could go back in time, he would slap his past self for being so greedy. At that time, the diary's influence had really pushed out the most unabashed, fearless part of his personality...
Wait, the diary!
Like a drowning man grabbing straws, Mir instantly chose to make use of the diary. It was worth a shot. Hell, it was his only shot. From the looks of it, there was no way he'd reach the Transcendent tier before the Witchweed took control of his Hybrid form and hijacked his neural network.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
He swiftly opened the first page and uncapped his pen. The moment he sensed any changes occurring inside his body or mind, he would begin writing in the diary.
Murray was still frozen in his position, staring at Mir with a pale face. Seeing him holding the diary on his lap, he seemed to realize what Mir's plan was. And that shocked him out of his stupor.
"How much do you know about the Hybridization process of a Transcender, Mir?" he whispered.
"Not much. I only know what's in the textbooks."
"Well, right now, there are a few things that you need to remember. A transcender cannot control the attributes of his Hybrid form. That part is entirely up to the genetic compatibility between him and his grade- 2 companion creature, as well as the creature's willingness to complete the fusion. If the creature doesn't want to, it'll be very hard for the transcender to shift into the Hybrid form. But like in your case, the creature can also try to infuse too much of its features in the Hybrid form, finally creating something that you won't be able to make sense of or control. That way, either you'll die from a botched mutation, or if you survive, it will be able to take over your out-of-control body.
"Transcenders capable of Hybrid transformations need to have a high density of active viruses saturating their bodies. The only way for you to mimic that right now is to eat a large amount of contaminated food, for example- the meat of these Glutton Boas. Without enough variety of mutated genetic samples and nutrition assisting your body, your own genetic chains would undergo a complete breakdown while trying to mutate into the Hybrid form by itself. Your body will eat itself while trying to fuel the transformation."
Murray threw the bag filled with dead boas in Mir's lap.
"The Hybridization command inside your neural network can be switched on any moment right now. The moment it does so, you know what to do. You cannot stop the transformation without becoming a transcender yourself, but you can stop it from destroying your body. Resist all the destructive, negative changes that the Witchweed is trying to make you undergo physically. In a Hybridization, your will, your command isn't as influential as your companion creature. But you're in the same situation as an abomination, where your body can not properly mutate due to the lack of refinement by the virus. Even the Witchweed cannot force something that's not physically, genetically possible for you. So that levels your playing field. It just wants your mind to collapse when the first uncontrolled mutation begins to make way for the Hybrid form.
"Remember, for humans, their greatest asset in climbing the ranks of mutation is their willpower! Use every idea you can come up with to write in the diary! Keep trying to resist negative changes and negative thoughts, no matter how futile it seems."
Taking a deep breath, Murray stood up. Mir understood that the pep talk had no substantial value. It wasn't possible for ordinary humans to survive Hybridization. The number of people who had turned into abominations every year after losing their mental clarity due to mutations could be counted in millions.
As for humans who had made a contract with grade- 2 creatures without reaching the Transcendent tier, Murray himself had told Mir about the number of deaths in the past taking place in that situation. The casualty rate of such Hybridization was 100%.
"Where are you going?" Mir shouted as Murray walked over to the edge of the peak and began to climb down.
"I'll try to reach the parasite before it can do too much damage. Either it's gonna die, or it will stay obedient like a good pet. You need to hold on to yourself until then. Didn't you say the parasite has healing abilities? I'll rip out a few of its seeds and return after the current danger has been neutralized."