Chapter 489: Mushrooms and the Bed

What a world-class socially mortifying scene this was.

It was exactly like during New Year's greetings, when your parents suddenly burst into your room with relatives and friends in tow, only to find your pants half-off and a tablet in your hand playing a video that would never pass review.

Rod was terribly embarrassed and silently turned his head to look at the sky.

But in his peripheral vision he could still see the smooth, even root-base of the mushroom-person Scarlett.

She really didn't have that part, but her waist and hips were searching the void for a target, unconsciously pushing forward.

Auna's face flushed with a mix of shame and fury; she dropped all pretense of manners and shoved Rod hard out the door.

She hurriedly pulled a long robe out of her spell satchel and threw it over, and at the same time the door was frequently pulled shut behind her.

Rod stood outside the door.

Then he heard Auna's voice coming from the magic log cabin:

"Scarlett! How can you be doing this sort of thing again!!"

"Wh-what's the big deal! I'm not like humanoid creatures with that part, so even if I touch it nothing happens!"

Scarlett's voice was still faintly guilty at the start.

Then she got completely stubborn, looking just like a teenage girl in her rebellious phase who'd found herself a justification.

"It's not the same, Scarlett! What you're feeling now is a displacement of how you felt that day. In your heart you still believe what Rod gave you that day was hallucination spores, so you keep testing and probing out of curiosity. I won't even mention the matter of you secretly cultivating hallucination spores! If you keep going on like this, sooner or later you'll—"

"What?! How do you know that, Auna! You're peeking into my thoughts again!"

"Mmph!"

Auna's panicked squeak from inside the door was, frankly, rather cute.

Also.

Why does this feel like parents sneaking a look at their child's diary.

Since Scarlett said "again," it stood to reason she'd done it more than once, and had been caught before.

Rod scratched his head.

Raising kids is no easy matter.

In the forest there were only two youngsters: the little pony-girl Little Little Bangde and the tiefling Saeliel.

Little Little Bangde, needless to say, had always been looked after by Miss Xiao Ke, and was currently in a carefree stage of life, spending every day running around wildly with a pack of large squirrels.

Saeliel, on the other hand, was a rather sensible girl, though she was somewhat sensitive and insecure—

Still, that sort of feeling would naturally fade once her strength and age caught up.

Thinking this.

Rod suddenly felt that the temperature of the underground cavern seemed a little high, warm.

That wasn't quite right.

It was the middle of winter right now.

And being underground, it should only be damper and colder.

Could there be something strange here again?

The mushroom-people of the Mycelium Clan had once hidden in their lair a flesh-woven golden crown capable of opening an other-dimensional passage.

Scarlett, being a member of that clan, had a prior offense to speak of—

Let's take a look around.

【Insightful Demon Eye】 activated.

He did a sweeping inspection.

Mm… no problems.

But the not-very-large cavern had also cultivated quite a few mushroom-type plants, among them a palm-sized snow-white mushroom that was secretly yet slowly spreading out a pink gas.

If he hadn't activated 【Insightful Demon Eye】, he wouldn't have been able to see it at all.

Rod carefully sensed it for a moment.

His expression immediately turned strange.

—These were aphrodisiac spores, the same product line as his 【Charm Fluid】.

【【Charm Fluid】 has detected special charm particles; upon absorbing a large amount, it will trigger an advanced skill】

【Current progress: 0.02%】

Oh!

The moment Rod saw the words "advanced skill," the first thing he felt was excitement.

But looking carefully — an advanced skill for 【Charm Fluid】?

He couldn't help feeling a bit resistant.

Mm.

He was actually quite satisfied with the current effects of Charm Fluid.

As the girls' tiers rose, their resistance strengthened, and because of the large amounts of growth spirit-nature he'd poured into them—

He could already clearly feel that when they ingested a small amount of the fluid, the girls were able to break free on their own.

Of course, given the volume of Rod's essence, as long as they ingested a full dose in one go, they basically couldn't escape.

But at least before that point, he could give the girls a certain right to choose.

Rod was a dignified man; he couldn't exactly force a girl into it, could he?

—Provided the girl was of the good-aligned faction.

For instance, the tree-spirit Vivienne, the half-deer Miss Xiao Ke, the drider Watching Yuna, the elf Lady Kali.

As for the other girls he'd had relations with — the beastkin Amy, the ghoul Pan Ni, the banshee Chris and the like — they'd all committed some mistake or other.

Whether or not the right to choose was in their hands depended entirely on Rod's mood.

While he was thinking.

The argument inside the magic wooden cabin quickly died down as well.

A rebellious teenage girl was indeed hard to deal with.

But the Tu Ren race was well-versed in spiritual arts and naturally adept at adjusting emotions, and on top of that, Lady Aona was gentle and understanding by nature.

Eek—

The wooden door opened.

Lady Aona wore an apologetic look and invited him in.

"Sorry, Rod, for letting you see an unpleasant side."

"It's fine, she's just a kid. Little Little Bangde is like this all the time too."

Rod stepped past the petite Tu Ren Fa mage and caught sight of the mushroom-person Scarlett standing to one side with her arms crossed.

She was wearing a defiant, untamed expression, and she glanced at Rod as well.

She shot him a vicious glare.

Good, very in character for a brat.

The mushroom-girl had become even more lively after recovering her health.

She had slender legs just like a human girl's, with glowing moss wrapped around her knees and ankles flickering on and off, and on her feet were strap sandals formed from symbiotic amber and mycelium.

The mycelium gathered at her waist into a vine-like natural belt, accentuating the naturally formed curve of her waist and hips.

The spore sac on her chest was covered by a bandeau top woven from mycelium, the pale pink showing through like the blush on a girl's flustered cheeks.

Rod raised an eyebrow.

But he didn't bother with her any further.

Instead, he told Lady Aona about the aphrodisiac mushrooms he'd found in the underground cavern.

After a brief scan, the other party confirmed it was true.

The Tu Ren girl's expression immediately changed.

"Scarlett, did you cultivate these?"

"How could I? Those were waste-material specimens. They were competing with the premium plants in the cultivation area for nutrients, so I weeded them out."

That part was true.

The aphrodisiac mushrooms over there were growing in a messy, haphazard jumble.

It really didn't look like something Scarlett had done on purpose.

Scarlett seemed to remember something: "Oh, no wonder Lady Aona's been tossing and turning all night lately, and even when she falls asleep she lets out a weird cry and wakes up with a start."

"That's not true! Don't talk nonsense!"

Lady Aona stole a glance at Rod, her face blushing red.

Rod said:

"This stuff is useful to me. Can you set up a dedicated cultivation area for it? I can pay you a wage. At least you won't have to go fight Aimi every day."

"Why should I work for you! Who do you think you are!"

"Scarlett! Be polite. Rod is your savior!"

"But he fed me hallucinogenic spores, and now I'm addicted!"

"How many times have I told you, those weren't hallucinogenic spores. Sigh, we'll have a lesson later and I'll explain it all properly to you."

Rod held back hard from showing an awkward expression and said no more.

Lady Aona was getting anxious too.

She took both of them by the hand and led them to the bed.

"There's no time to lose, let's begin, Rod."

"Wait, isn't this your bed? Maybe we could use Scarlett's bed."

"She doesn't have one. Mushroom-people all love sleeping on the ground, you don't need to mind. I washed the bedding and blankets in advance, there's no smell! Let's just do it here!"

"."

(End of this chapter)