Murray took five days to finish his entire stock of Pocket-Bunny meat. A quick message to Father Vincent allowed him to take a free medical test under the Church's care. The results came back bearing good news.
"It's 39%! Start preparing!" Murray shouted the moment he got home. Thankfully, nobody heard his excited yell except Mir, who had opened the door.
"Didn't father Vincent want to oversee your consolidation?" Mir asked, puzzled. "I mean, you're undergoing the process for the first time. You have very little idea of what you're doing. The Church wouldn't ignore your virgin consolidation even if you're a trainee Deacon, right?"
"What virgin consolidation?" Murray sounded scandalized. "Who the fuck comes up with a term like that?"
"Scientists researching the topic, apparently," Mir replied. Murray nodded with a sneer on his face.
"Nerds and virginity, heh! Makes sense."
"Why are you acting like you're not one too?" Mir said. "Did you lose yours in prison?"
"....I wish," Murray replied, leaving Mir gobsmacked.
"Ey, wh-wha... What did you mean by that?!" Mir spluttered as Murray grabbed the diary from his bedroom.
"Quit getting distracted. Father Vincent will be here by evening. We have a lot to do before that. Come on, let's take a hike."
Murray led him out of the colony, taking a busy route to an area with malfunctioning shades where the sunlight was falling directly, unfiltered. Coming to a stop at the edge of the shaded area, he handed the diary to Mir and started explaining.
"Since we don't plan to rely on the Energy Refinement technique, we have to work out exactly which commands given to the diary can emulate the functions of refinement.
"Now, you already know this, perhaps, but I'll still go through the steps. The first step of refinement is breaking down the viruses outside the Saturated cells. This can be triggered by quite a few methods. Can you name any?"
"Yeah." Mir nodded. "Electric shock, Gene Destabilizer therapy, and the most common– Sunlight absorption."
"That's right, and like 90% Transcenders out there, we can only afford to take the last option. Basking in lethal sunlight will lead to a growth in the reproduction of the viruses. This often results in a small number of dead viruses, which generates the energy we're looking for. Then comes the second step– to control this energy.
"According to the Church's claim, the architects designed the human body and mind in such a way that we have an instinctive response to this mysterious energy. Our cells will be attracted to it, while our mind will be able to influence its movement inside our body. So what we have to do is to guide this energy to the cells that are more attracted to the energy than the rest of the cells. Here is where the third step starts, and the Energy Refinement Technique becomes useful.
"The energy refinement techniques are nothing more than specific pathways and routine movements inside our body to guide the energy in. Every mutation has different functions, and thus targets different parts of the body, which requires the routes taken by the flow of energy to differ. Using a refinement technique is much like running a pre-recorded formula. You don't have to know what you're really doing as long as you follow the pathway set for the energy."
Murray paused here to breathe and gather his thoughts, but Mir concluded the speech for him. "So since we want to rely on the diary, we won't have access to this safe and accurate pathway. We'll have to devise it by ourselves."
"Or," Murray raised a finger, pointing at the diary, "we can ask the diary to devise it for us."
"Is that why we're here? To test out whether it works or not?" Mir asked.
"Oh, it definitely works. Do you think I invested so much into this rogue mutation plan without ascertaining whether the diary has that capability? I tried out similar commands before, just not so specific." Murray chuckled. "We have to make sure that the process is replicable and applicable to you as well. Besides, I didn't really have the luxury to work out the details of the scheme. Didn't have enough information or resources in my hand at that time to devise the step-by-step commands to be given to the diary."
"Alright, then." Mir stepped forward into the sunlit area with the diary, having understood what Murray wanted from him at this point.
"Let's hope the sunlight right now is in its deadly mode..."
"Don't waste time just standing there," Murray said. "We need to brainstorm for the perfect command. Think of the best line to make the diary work. The first step is to break down the virus in the unsaturated cells to generate the mysterious energy-"
"Can you stop calling it a 'mysterious' energy? It has a name, man. Use the scientific term or this whole thing will sound like a fairytale," Mir complained, only to recieve a snort in return.
"The scientific name is too hard to memorize. And I'd much rather prefer the ambience of a fairytale. Makes it seem a lot more fun than it actually is," Murray replied.
Shaking his head, Mir shifted his focus to coming up with commands. Soon, they were juggling tentative suggestions.
"How about this– I can sense the unsaturated viruses in my body," Mir suggested. Murray looked thoughtful.
"Mm, it's similar to what I used before as a test. I'd not recommend this one, too broad and too vague. There are millions of unsaturated viruses in your body. The diary won't be able to create such an alien sensation easily, or effectively. When I tried it, I barely felt anything except a moment of itchiness."
"I see, then let's revise it to– I can sense the dying viruses in my body," Mir said. Murray noted it down in a pad.
"If you put it like that, the next line will be doubly effective if we write– I can sense the energy being generated by every dying virus."
Mir had to agree. "Then we can add a supplementary command. For example– I can fully control this energy. I read in a research paper that rookie Transcenders can only partially control the energy, often leading to mistakes and loss of control while consolidating."
"Yeah, this command will directly affect your brain, though, a lot more directly than the previous two commands. Let's verify the first two and measure their effects before reaching for supplementary commands," Murray said.
Mir looked down at his hands and noticed a small red stripe starting to become visible on the exposed skin. Once again, the sunlight had turned out to be deadly right when he was basking in it; such a coincidence!
Or perhaps the sunlight was almost always in its deadly form these days...
Calming his electrified nerves, Mir spoke.
"Give me the pen, Murray."