Chapter 90: Cleaning

I scratched my head vigorously and sighed.

Ah, there's still some use left in Heo Sang-hyeon if you look hard enough.

Anyway, when the Hollow Lord died, Heo Sang-hyeon's soul had taken significant damage.

But it seems that the damage has now fully healed.

If I just leave him alone without doing anything special, he should wake up on his own.

I spoke to the necromancy golem loitering by his bedside.

"Keep an eye on him, and call me when he wakes up."

Creak, clatter.

The necromancy golem made a gesture of understanding and then disassembled into several pieces of junk scattered around his bed.

I went back down to the first floor.

The necromancy golems were still busy organizing and cleaning.

After checking the situation a bit more, I came to a conclusion.

"It looks like I can step back now."

They all function well enough that I don't need to stand by and interfere.

In short, I could afford to leave for a bit.

It would be best to quickly visit my studio apartment now.

I needed to bring back the items I left at my previous home to complete the move.

And while I was out, I should buy the essentials needed for living here for a while.

I also needed to stop by the pawnshop to purchase materials to create an artifact to replace the Ancient God's Mirror that Heo Sang-hyeon had taken from me.

But then again...

The food for these creatures is the problem.

The necromancy golems eat mana, of course.

And all that mana came from my own body.

There were thirteen of these necromancy golems in total.

I spent time improving their formula structure, so using just my own pure mana to operate them shouldn't be a big problem, especially since we weren't in a combat situation.

But even for someone like me, transmitting mana from the city to here is too much.

It's natural that the efficiency of wireless charging decreases with distance.

Of course, if I chose the path of a villain or a madman, I could solve the mana issue quite simply.

Like the previous Hollow Lord, I could just make a pact with a being from the abyss to receive a supply of mana or dismantle the souls of innocent victims to extract their mana.

Regardless of whether such actions were good or bad, engaging in them could lead to serious consequences anyway.

I might be labeled a dark mage or a heretic and attract bounty hunters, or I could end up a mere skeletal undead, just like the Hollow Lord if I followed the demands of a being of the abyss.

I pondered for a moment and then recalled an artifact that could be useful in this situation.

"Using that seems like the best option right now."

Yesterday, I had defeated the stone coffin and received a mountain of rewards.

Among them was something useful.

I looked around briefly.

Only the necromancy golems were moving around and cleaning the area.

Where was that thing now?

"Hey~, Doldol-ah!"

It didn't seem to be on the first floor, and it wasn't on the second floor either... maybe it was in the basement?

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud...!

A heavy vibration echoed from the basement.

It sounded like something large and heavy moving dozens of legs.

"It was in the basement again?"

I went down the stairs and there came Doldol, the hungry stone coffin.

"Hey, wait, be careful!"

Crash!

Doldol slammed into one of the necromancy golems with its huge body.

Clash, crash, clatter!

The necromancy golem shattered and debris scattered everywhere.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud...!

Regardless, Doldol didn't stop and continued running until it reached me.

"This thing... coming in like a wrecking ball..."

Clatter clatter, thud, thud.

Doldol fiddled with the lid of the stone coffin as if peering around me.

It was a motion that could be likened to that of a pet dog responding to its master's call. If someone tried hard enough, they might think it's cute.

"...Yes, good job."

Yesterday, it was certainly a monster charging to devour me.

A box-shaped monster bound to [He Who Comes from the Darkness].

But now that bond had been broken, and it had become bound to me.

After that, for some reason, it took on a personality similar to that of an innocent pet dog.

It seems to be influenced by my soul. And it's changing its personality and tendencies.

The problem is, if we're comparing it to a dog, it would be a large breed.

A large dog unaware of its own size, strength, and weight...

A stone coffin the size of a large dog thrashing around in delight was a sight that was hard to regard as merely cute.

Especially considering one could get seriously injured by its pure but dangerous flailing.

"Anyway, go ahead and open it. Let's just take out one item."

Clank, clank. Creak...

Doldol seemed about to open the lid, then hesitated, closed its mouth, and backed away.

It might be a movement difficult to understand normally, but I could sense Doldol's emotional state, so I knew what it wanted.

"Come here. Here, I'll give you this instead."

I held out a teacup that was nearby.

Clank, clank... Clunk!

Doldol hesitantly opened the lid with a cautious glance.

Under the lid loomed a swirling and eerie darkness.

Whoosh—

I threw the teacup into that darkness and it vanished into the bottomless void.

Thud!

Having swallowed the teacup, Doldol seemed satisfied and wriggled a bit before opening the lid again.

This time, the same darkness was not visible.

Doldol had opened its true storage inside.

"Good job, well done."

The [Hungry Stone Coffin] was a magical box.

This meant that it was an item that applied a similar concept to the limitless pouch that provided unlimited inventory bags, which was commonly depicted in games.

Inside, it was a complex and continuously overlapping multilayered space.

To access a specific storage within these numerous spaces, I needed permission from the stone coffin, or rather from Doldol.

While I couldn't tell where that strange subspace led, if I fed random items into that darkness... Doldol liked it.

This tendency must also be influenced by me.

Do I now have to keep pleasing the whims of a box as I live?

The thought of where my life was headed crossed my mind, but regardless, I inspected the contents of the box.

The inside of Doldol was filled with items that looked like antiques at first glance.

Not all of them could be considered top-quality, but each was an artifact endowed with magical powers or a sinister history.

When the hungry stone coffin was destroyed, most of these items would disappear into some subspace.

Well, some could be recovered with some effort.

Only by subduing the hungry stone coffin Doldol could I claim ownership of all these things.

Moreover, some of the items held value beyond mere artifacts.

For example, something like this.

I picked up an old book from inside the stone coffin.

[Great Yin Water Treasure Secret Scripture

Category: Grimoire

Author: Unknown

Creation Year: 19th Century

Language: Chinese

It is a manual for the followers of the "leader of suffocation".

The original is presumed to have been written in French; this is a translation of the original.

It covers the ecology and history of beings that lurk in the darkness beneath the earth, methods to imprison and control human souls, and techniques for human sacrifices.

Research is required to ascertain the true value of the book.]

The leader of suffocation was an alias for the great old being worshipped by the Hollow Lord, known as [He Who Comes from the Darkness].

This accursed book was the reason this mansion was built and why a monster like Hollow Lord was born.

And thus, the descendants born in this house were doomed to live as slaves to the Hollow Lord, generation after generation.

Of course, due to omissions and deteriorations during the translation process, this book wasn't as valuable as the original, but it was still one of the finest grimoires that could be found in [Cthulhu World].

It seemed wise to check this book first, even if it meant delaying the interpretation of the Silent Scripture of the Dreaming Path

"However... this isn't what I need right now."

After I set aside the Great Yin Water Treasure Secret Scripture, an item hidden beneath it revealed itself.

It was a silver mask with an elaborate design that gave off an unpleasant feeling.

It was an excessively detailed replica of a real human's face.

All items in this mansion seem to follow this pattern, but...

This one looked particularly ominous.

It wasn't just a mask with an unpleasant appearance.

This was a death mask cast in silver from a mold taken from a dead person's face.

It also means there was originally a corpse that looked exactly like this mask.

He was a mad cultist who invoked the influence of [He Who Comes from the Darkness] through vile and filthy rituals... Hollow Lord's father.

Having lost his humanity and become a madman, he created offspring for the abyssal beings and ultimately, his soul was trapped in this mask.

Gulp.

What was that? Did I just swallow my saliva?

It's the influence of mask obsession...

The madness that had taken root in my mind influenced my obsession with masks.

It started simply as a symptom of needing to cover my face with a mask, but now, just seeing a mask-shaped object triggered excessive emotions within me.

Definitely.

I thought this mask was really cool.

It was a mask crafted entirely by imprisoning a human's death.

Despite the eerie mask seemingly still echoing the death throes of a soul, I now wanted to wear it urgently.

Ugh... I did take it out with the intention to wear it...

Let's not think too deeply about it now.

Unlike other mental illnesses, my obsession with masks had lingered in my mind for too long.

It seemed I needed to overcome this mask obsession before it led to more serious problems.

As I took out the [Dead Man's Mask], I spoke to Doldol.

"It's okay to close it now."

Thump!

I patted the top of Doldol's head... that is, the upper part of the stone coffin and continued.

"Good job. Go rest on the second floor."

Thud, thud, thud, thud...!

Crash!

Bang, crunch!

"......"

As Doldol rushed to the second floor, it completely shattered another necromancy golem.

I couldn't help but sigh when I felt a large amount of magical power being drained away.

"Ah..."

Well, that's fine.

I raised my hand and examined the mask I had retrieved from Doldol's body.

[Dead Man's Mask (A-rank Accessory): A mask made to seal the soul and magical power of a dead human.

The longer it is worn, the more the wearer becomes assimilated with the soul trapped within the mask.

Pure Silver Madness: Forces a sanity check when worn. Failure in the check will result in a random mental illness afflicting your mind and you will become possessed by the soul within the mask.

Gift of the Dead: Allows for the storage and retrieval of magical power and knowledge within the mask.

Soul Summon: Enables the summoning of the ghost residing in the mask.]

The [Dead Man's Mask] was an A-rank artifact that could store and release magical power, serve as a catalyst, or act as the core of a magic circle.

If the Hollow Lord had been equipped with this during the attack, it wouldn't have been possible to use a strategy that caused the depletion of his magical power.

The storage capacity of magical power is enormous, making it a remarkable item... but clearly, it's not something to use carelessly because of the penalty.

Instead, the more it was used, the more the wearer risked being consumed in body and mind by the ghost that resided within the mask.

The mask which resembled the face of a dead person looked up at me.

The empty holes where the eyes should have been showed nothing but an empty darkness, yet oddly enough, I felt someone's gaze emanating from the awkwardly gaping hole of the mouth.

From inside the mask, I sensed a look filled with curiosity, anticipation, and a hint of hunger.

"What are you expecting? Not even beings from the abyss can penetrate my mind; try as you might."

However, I was immune to such types of penalties.

I removed [Carcosa's Mask] I was wearing and put on the [Dead Man's Mask] without hesitation.