Curse The Mainframe! 332 The Little Mushroom Is A What?

Alec tripped over a tree root, though, by right, he should not have done so at all.

Alec's eye twitched.

He knew he had enough awareness and time spent in various forests that the signal of tripping over a tree root was all too obvious to him.

He resisted the urge to close his eyes as he looked down at the tree root that had the gall to annoy him.

It better be some sort of legendary tree root with medicinal properties.

He looked down, only to find that it wasn't much of a tree root at all.

Instead, it was a rather large mushroom that was currently offending him, and Alec couldn't even muster up the energy to wonder how he missed such a giant mushroom.

Then, of course, the mushroom turned invisible, and Alec eyed the s.p.a.ce, considering what he was seeing.

It was invisible, and he hadn't managed to catch it in his range at all. It had magic, that was for sure. But it was so subtle that it slipped under his radar.

Now, however, when Alec was focusing, the mushroom wasn't as invisible as it previously was to him.

Then, with all the curiosity of a child, Alec reached forward and prodded the mushroom.

The mushroom prodded back.

Despite himself, Alec's lips twitched in amus.e.m.e.nt.

It was rather cute.

And it reminded him a lot of Vi.

The mushroom tried to shrink and escape from him, but Alec just grabbed it and placed it in his palms.

It shrunk a little more in his palms, which just made Alec want to keep it more.

So he did.

Clearly it wasn't a normal mushroom, even though he'd never seen anything similar to it.

It was at this moment that Bunbun tried to eat the mushroom, only for Alec to quickly hold it away from the bunny.

Bunbun turned wide, pitiful eyes onto Alec, only for the System to let out a soft, disbelieving laugh. It was as if the bunny still thought he was susceptible to those eyes.

Well, when you've had them turned onto you for every little thing, you too would grow used to them rather fast!

Not to mention, One had started turning those eyes to him when she wanted something as well, and Alec was doing his best not to crumple like a wet tissue, thank you very much.

Something that Dominique didn't seem to be able to do.

One just had to bat her large, blue eyes at him, and the Sin practically scrambled to fulfil any request of hers.

Alec couldn't help but smile at the thought.

He never expected the rather stoic – outside of Alec that was – Sin to react in such a way to what appeared to be a small child.

Of course, what Alec didn't realize was that it was only because of Dominique's fanaticism towards Alec extending to One, whom he treated as his Boss' child.

If he'd realized, Alec would probably be torn between hopelessness and exasperation.

Then again, Sins did tend to obsess.

Anyway, Alec Awakened the mushroom in his hands, mentally dubbing it Loeri.

The little mushroom shuddered and trembled, seemingly undergoing a change as a higher intelligence was being born in it.

Alec placed the mushroom down, planning to leave the mushroom in the forest like he had with the other Awakened trees that he planted whenever he went into a forest.

It wouldn't be the first time he did something like this.

However, just as he let go, a vine-like thing appeared from the mushroom stalk, attaching itself to his fingers.

Alec's brows shot up in surprise.

He didn't think that he'd Awakened a new ability in Loeri, but it seemed to have happened.

"Don't leave me, master!" the tiny mushroom squeaked out through their bond.

Alec's lips parted the slightest bit in shock.

While Bunbun, Fenrir and Vi 'talked' to him, it was more like feelings through the bond, and vague (though getting clearer) pictures of what they wanted.

It wasn't like the squeaky voice that was coming through now.

Loeri pulled itself onto Alec's shoulder, stationing itself there without another word.

Alec just blinked.

Dominique walked up with One cradled to his chest, and One blinked seeing the little mushroom on Alec's shoulder.

"That's a mythical-cla.s.s magical beast," she said, "it's known for being particularly shy and un.o.btrusive. The Thousand Poison Mushroom you have now is rank six. But it is particularly unsuited for combat. You can recognise it through the small eyes on the mushroom's cap."

Alec's lips twitched, because *of course it was*.

He should not have expected anything less.

Alec peered closer at the tiny mushroom and noted that it indeed did have little eyes that made it cute.

Tripping over a mushroom? A mushroom that could avoid his senses?

What else could it possibly be?

Please note the sarcasm in his words.

"h.e.l.lo master," Loeri says happily, and Alec couldn't even bring himself to hurt his (apparently) new familiar by leaving it somewhere.

"h.e.l.lo Loeri."

The mushroom makes a little squeaking noise as it cycles through a range of colours before moving itself onto Alec's head and camouflaging itself there.

…Alec silently notes to himself not to go through any more forests if he can help it.

He was stringing Dominique along with him to bring back to the Rosier City and see whether he could get Travis to part with information about the clan's most current scandal.

It had been about two weeks since he 'outed' Diane Ross to her clan, and there should have been significant headway in their investigation.

But mostly because he just didn't trust that the Sin wouldn't get into more trouble without him around.

Or, even if they were going to get into trouble, he'd much rather he was there with him.

The only reason why they were in this forest in the first place was because Elysia was rumoured to be hanging around here. That and Alec was just following the direction Fenrir's bond with him stretched, as well as the way the bond with the Spectre mark stretched.

It helped that One was able to pinpoint where one of his Main Characters were.

Somehow, Dominique didn't seem to find anything wrong with One at all, which he found surprising.

Though One now acted very much like a child, she still knew a lot more than she should, as well as things that she really shouldn't know. But Dominique had absolutely zero problem with that at all.

The group moved forward, and they finally found Elysia deep inside the forest with Fenrir, who looked even more long-suffering than before, as well as another new addition.

Dominique's eyebrows twitched when he looked at Elysia's familiar colouring. Sure enough, the hair colour on One was the same shade as Elysia's hair.

The Sin suddenly felt lost. He didn't know what to do with his animosity with Elysia now.

Turns out that she wasn't coveting the top subordinate spot that Dominique occupied, but instead wanted to be Boss' wife?!

And her child with him was already so old?!

But… wait… how old was Elysia?

…How old was Boss now, in fact??

Alec had no idea of Dominique's struggle inwardly as he greeted Elysia normally, shoving all weird feelings aside when he saw her.

One had no such misgivings. She peered at Elysia from Dominique's arms, and nodded a little to herself.

She'd chosen the right colour to make Alec more susceptible to her whims after all.