Is It Really a Coincidence?

Ever since the previous Fear Demon incident, Hagrid's research direction had undergone some changes.

His magical animal breeding now focused purely on miniaturization, no longer involving cognition.

At first, Hagrid had been rather troubled by this. After all, he had spent a long time searching for small Magical Creatures before, and had only finally found Pestering Mites by placing a reward advertisement in the newspaper.

So after Roger prohibited research on Pestering Mites, Hagrid's breeding progress had stalled for a time—until one of his acquaintances appeared.

Pomona Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff House and Hogwarts' Herbology professor.

The two were fairly familiar with each other. After all, not every herb Pomona Sprout needed could be grown in the school greenhouses.

Some special plants required entirely different living environments.

Hagrid was the keeper of the Forbidden Forest, and some of the medicinal plants she cultivated there required his help to maintain. Since they had professional dealings, their relationship was fairly good.

The moment he saw Pomona Sprout, Hagrid suddenly realized something.

Magical plants seemed to count as Magical Creatures too.

After some discussion, Pomona Sprout, though uninterested in Hagrid's animal-plant hybridization experiments and even somewhat repulsed by them, had received plenty of help from him in the past. So she did not refuse his invitation to collaborate.

Hagrid had told Roger about this according to their prior agreement to report in weekly. But Roger had assumed the result would be something close to a hybrid of a screaming Mandrake and a Bowtruckle, so he had not paid it much attention.

But Hagrid, who had always had plenty of ideas when it came to breeding Magical Creatures, had no interest in making something like that.

As a half-giant who had raised dragons, Three-Headed Dogs, Manticores, and other extremely dangerous species—and enjoyed doing so—and a master of magical zoology qualified to become a future Hogwarts professor, Hagrid declared:

If they were doing this, they were going big! Hagrid had set his sights on an extremely tiny magical plant.

Mushrooms.

Mushrooms could grow enormously large, covering nearly ten square kilometers and weighing over sixty million jin.

Yet their essence was that of tiny fungi.

They reproduced through spores and mycelium, possessed incredible resilience, and could grow large or small... Hagrid wanted magical animals to possess the advantages of fungal mushrooms as well.

Using his own methods and the biological modification technology Roger had shared with him, he began breeding a new Magical Creature.

And the result was the green-skinned creature before Roger's eyes.

Honestly, it looked quite similar to the Orks from Warhammer 40,000 in Roger's memory. Otherwise, he would not have been so startled earlier.

But after testing it, Roger confirmed that this thing was vastly different from the Orks of 40K.

First, it did not have the creator-given technological cheat that let it build powerful, utterly "WAAAGH!" war machines out of a few scraps of metal just by saying, "I reckon."

Its body was not as robust as an Ork's either. It was only around the level of an ordinary adult Muggle.

Though it possessed the ability to reproduce through spores, growing from a spore into a fully mature individual required quite a bit of time and nutrients.

By the Ministry of Magic's danger classification, it should be 4X—one level below the 5X danger rating of dragons and werewolves... And even that 4X rating came from how difficult it was to eradicate them completely. Otherwise, it would be lower.

Of course, this new species still had potential.

For example, if he wrote the Second Brain alchemical blueprint into their DNA, allowing them to absorb materials during growth and automatically form alchemical organs, then figured out how Muggles became wizards so they could link their thoughts to magic and create an "I reckon" field...

Then, once his modification techniques had fully matured, he could strengthen their reproductive abilities a little... Huh?

Wait, why was he even considering this?

Not wanting to become the Old Ones of Warhammer and add a new troublesome DLC expansion pack to human civilization, Roger suppressed his active thoughts.

Most of humanity had only escaped the identities of serfs, untouchables, and tenant farmers a few decades ago. Everyone had only enjoyed a few good years, and Roger had no interest in doing something so ruinous for the sake of a sliver of insignificant curiosity.

Roger was not some Paradox player who, as the saying went, would always leave one survivor if they executed every other person.

...Still, the new species Hagrid had developed was not entirely useless.

If humanity one day ventured into the sea of stars and discovered that "there were enemies across the sea," it might come in handy.

Besides, humans were creatures who found it difficult to unite without a common enemy. If the universe proved too empty and no other life was discovered for a long time, then after a round of enhancements, a limited number of them could be released into space to keep humanity from becoming too engrossed in killing itself.

"Hagrid, what are you planning to name this species?" Roger, who was writing an observation report, turned to look at Hagrid beside him, who was still teasing the green-skinned creature with his finger.

The Fear Demon incident had been too serious before. Roger had kept everything simple, casually slapped the name Fear Demon on it, carried out a round of extermination and disinfection, then began the administrative procedures.

But this time was different.

"I get to name it..." Hagrid pondered for a moment.

A few seconds later, Hagrid slapped his forehead. "Then let's call it the Green Skin Mushroom Beast."

Hagrid was a half-giant who loved fantastic beasts very much. Aside from his extensive hands-on experience in the Forbidden Forest, he naturally also drew knowledge from books in order to become an expert in magical zoology.

However, reading was something he found somewhat painful. Even with his love for fantastic beasts supporting him, it still gave him a headache.

Especially when some fantastic beasts had names that were terribly convoluted and difficult to associate with the creatures themselves.

Thus, Hagrid, who would not tear up someone else's umbrella just because he had once been caught in the rain, generally favored simple and clear names for Magical Creatures.

Either they were named after their habits, such as Blast-Ended Skrewts.

Or they were named after their appearance and biological classification, such as this Green Skin Mushroom Beast.

He wanted to make magical zoology a little easier for those who came after him.

Roger had no objections to the name Hagrid came up with and casually wrote it into the research report.

A name was just a label. As long as it worked, that was enough.

As long as it wasn't something like a certain flashy ninja's "Spiraling Flash Super Round Dance Roar Third Style," Roger could accept it.

"By the way, Roger, what exactly was that Warhammer 40,000 you mentioned earlier?" After confirming that the Green Skin Mushroom Beast wasn't some dangerous species requiring extermination, Hagrid breathed a sigh of relief and remembered Roger's earlier question.

"Warhammer..." Roger's question back then had merely been an offhand remark. Naturally, Hagrid had never played Warhammer 40,000.

Now, faced with Hagrid's curiosity, Roger stared at the half-giant standing over three meters tall and considered how to explain the setting of the Warhammer games in a way Hagrid could understand.

After all, Roger felt that Hagrid seemed to have some sort of affinity with Warhammer. Perhaps it would be a good thing for him to learn more about it.

Then, in the instant Roger was thinking, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck him.

...Affinity? Hagrid had bred Magical Creatures twice, and both times had developed creatures similar to Warhammer monster concepts. Was that really a coincidence?

A certain possibility abruptly occurred to Roger!