As a result of his first ever tier 3 disease, more parts of his body had been turned to plant parts.
The slug's regeneration fixed up the melted body parts from the acid.
But because his body had adopted the xylem structures of plants and roots that hadn't been eradicated fast enough by the regeneration, they stayed there.
The slug's regeneration only fixed something that shouldn't be there.
But those plant parts had become a part of Ash's body right now. It was the normal state of his body.
There's nothing for the super regeneration to fix.
Ash's first tier 3 disease was quite awful.
But the immense pain and battle scars didn't mean that Ash would just give up after getting a single tier 3 disease.
The ability they gave was just too good for Ash to shy away from them.
Besides, his mana just skyrocketed from conquering a tier 3 disease.
It was now an amount where Ash could use twitchstep for a couple of hours without stopping if he wanted to and still have some spare mana to use his berserk ability.
The trade was just too good. Despite him feeling like dying was a better choice in the moment when the disease struck.
He then proceeded to try and make his second one, which turned out to be a little more complicated since he didn't have a clear picture of it yet, unlike the Verdant Siege disease.
In the end, he decided to make a disease as a tribute to his first ever pseudo acid trip.
He would make this one a literal unforgettable and a very real experience for anyone who experienced it.
He already had tier 2 disease as one of the components, so he created another one as its pair.
He combined the hallucina plague with the marrowbile venom, and used the OG mushroom as the catalyst, and the result was,
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Tier 2
7.Wailing Bone Mirage
A marrow-weakening venom laced with neurohallucinogens. Causes localized skeletal pain, instability, and light hallucinations of bodily distortion.
+Symptoms:
-Bone Marrow Irritation: The venom irritates bone marrow and weakens structural integrity in targeted limbs. Affected areas develop deep aches and reduced strength.
-Phantom Recoil: Victims experience visual and tactile "aftershocks" of their own movements as if joints dislocate and snap back when they haven't. This disorients balance and causes missteps during combat.
+Ability Unlocked: Ghostlimb Feint (Active)
Excrete liquid venom from skin. Projects a gnarly image in enemies' brain of their limbs rotting and snapping out of place. The image will manifest into reality faster as more venom is injected.
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Fortunately for him, the ability from the original mushroom gave him a significant mental defense against hallucinations.
Other than a few acute aches and weakening in his bones for a whole minute, Ash survived the disease rather easily.
However, the same couldn't be said for the tier 3 hallucination inducing disease.
He combined phantom bloom with the wailing mirage, and used the hallucinogenic mushroom spore sack as the catalyst.
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Tier 3
Wraithbloom Delirium
A cursed neurohallucinogenic plague that saturates an area mushroom spores. Enemies within Ash's afflicted zone experience warped spatial awareness, blending phantoms and real wounds. Some illusions are real. Some real wounds look fake. All of it hurts.
+Symptoms:
-Petal-Pulse Disorientation: Victims experience progressive visual distortions marked by floating petal-like auras around moving objects. Visual tracking becomes unreliable, leading to misjudged distances and motor function errors.
-Somatic Echo Syndrome: Physical injuries feel delayed or duplicated. Victims may react to non-existent wounds or fail to notice real ones until the pain blooms minutes later.
-Neuro-Phantom Blooming: Hallucinogenic spores infiltrate the olfactory and optic nerves, causing hallucinations of body part deformation, false clones, and terrain warping.
+Ability Unlocked: Mirage Bloom Field (Active)
Releases spores and creates a hallucinogenic plague field centered on Ash. Victims inside the zone suffer increasing cognitive dissonance and reduced pain resistance. The spores activate when touching organic matter. Spreading their roots and eating through the object.
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This trip wasn't as beautiful and welcoming as the first trip.
In fact, Ash needed to bury himself in Viney just to make sure he didn't get caught up in the illusions.
With his resistance, he could tell they were illusions, but the feelings were just too real.
His feet would stumble by just barely taking a single step.
Every other second, sharp pains would assault his body before disappearing in the next second.
He could even sometimes see something had attacked him and caused wounds on his body.
Something that he knew wasn't true due to him using his echolocation to 'check' the creature's position.
Besides, there was no way Keen, Viney, Crimsy, and Woody would not react if there were really people attacking him.
Heck, even Verdania would run as fast as she could if any people ever entered the forest.
It was all just in Ash's mind.
Fortunately, the grueling minute ended and all the hallucinations disappeared.
But heck, did several wounds really appear on his body.
He couldn't differentiate them at all when the hallucinations were assaulting, but the spores did real damage rather than just messing with his mind.
Fortunately, his body didn't adopt these scars as his body's new normal, and the slug's regeneration fixed it.
Not that having a few scars would make Ash look less hideous now, with all the plant parts all over his body.
Even if he cut them off, the regeneration would bring them back.
'I could fix them by modifying my gene, but…'
Ash chose a faster fix instead.
Using the chameleon's color changing ability, Ash just modified his peculiar body parts and made them look like normal human skin.
People would notice the unusual shapes and bumps if they looked very closely, but Ash didn't have any plans to get too intimate with anyone while he was in the city.
He would depart tomorrow morning.
And now, Ash was just making sure his preparations to leave the forest for a while were complete.
For example, Ash artificially created more Titanbark in several spots of the forest to help Verdania protect the Verdant Necropolis.
Ash couldn't manipulate their sizes yet, something that he would definitely work on because of Keen's dream of being a huge birb, but Ash could recreate everything else.
The titanbark, the moving roots, and even the titanbark venom.
He also wanted to create several messengers that could quickly get into the city.
He wanted to get more ravens because he thought ravens were cool.
But Keen immediately protested, saying he wanted to be the strongest raven first so he could be the raven boss when he returned.
So Ash chose the ordinary cardinal birds.
He gave them the slug's regeneration to make them able to fly longer and the chameleon's color changing ability to make them stealthy.
Along with the basic 4 diseases enhancement and their innate ability, they would be able to go into the city in less than half an hour and call Ash over in case anything extraordinary happened.
With that, Ash was finally finished.
And the dawn of the day came.
"See you soon, Nia. Please keep this forest safe until I'm back."
Verdania lowered her head, letting Ash's warm hands rub her real head, not the viney one.
She bleated.
"Of course, you can trust me, mast-"
Ash squinted his eyes and curled up his finger, lightly flicking the tip of her nose.
"Yes, Ash. I will make sure nothing invades this place while you're gone."
Ash nodded and waved his goodbye to Verdania and all the other creatures that wanted to see him off.
Seeing all the wolves, deers, and boars present.
He even saw the damned carnivorous tree waving its branches.
Emotions flooded his chest.
Threatening to spill out of the corners of his eyes.
Before that happened, Ash turned back and started walking towards the closest city near the fractured zone.
The city where he was born and raised in.
"Umm… Guys? Did you all really need to walk with me? I can just summon you again once I arrive, you know?"
The doppelganger brothers, Viney, Crimsy, and Woody, all looked at each other.
They did nothing.
Then they all simultaneously looked at Ash.
Caw.
"Can you also summon me? I think my feet will be cramping by the time we arrive there with your slow little human feet."
No words left Ash's mouth.
"Keen… Am I the one walking? You are just perched on my shoulder, how the hell are you the one complaining…?"