Agosmore

In the middle of a forest, one could see the strange sight of a house being dragged by two beautiful horses, with a man sitting on the driver's seat writing on a black paper.

That man was Sirius, and he was currently trying to find a fitting backstory for the house-carriage.

To use Sentience on something he needed to give it a backstory that would determine its role, abilities, and personality, but he couldn't go overboard either.

It was obvious that writing a description like: "Capable of destroying the world", would end up as nothing but a failure.

After discussing with Nova for a bit, Sirius decided that he would turn the house-carriage into a moving shop of some sort, while also playing the role of a house for all the future Abominations that would become his companions.

/It was a cursed house, the resting ground of the darkest of mankind's emotions. Fueled by negativity, it turned into a very peculiar Abomination that didn't desire to spread destruction but to give a safe harbor for similar existences instead. It became known as the moving fortress of horrors, Agosmore.

Inside it, Eldritches and Abominations could be free from the negativity that shackles them and slowly get stronger. Agosmore is very wise and polite and treats all of its tenants with the utmost care. It's a great cook, host, shopkeeper, a great manager and has a very vast pool of knowledge./

After writing a fitting backstory, Sirius let the horses drink at a nearby water source and stuck the black paper on the wall of the house-carriage.

Sentience used the backstory as a catalyst to speed up the process of anything transforming into an abomination. Sirius theorized that to fulfill the conditions for him to use Sentience, the inanimate object in question needed to have been in contact with negative emotions previously, but he couldn't be sure about it until doing more tests himself.

The black paper slowly merged with the house-carriage, making the reddish wood material that was used to build it transform into some sort of black stone.

Sirius entered Agosmore with an excited expression, wondering about how great the change would be, and stopped in awe the moment he opened the door.

The space inside of Agosmore was at least ten times larger than what could be seen from the outside and Sirius was once again amazed at this world's powers.

He hurriedly established a mental network inside of Agosmore, in case it couldn't speak with its actual voice.

'You hear me, Agosmore?'

Under his eyes, the black stone began shifting into a humanoid form that bowed toward him.

[Perfectly, Master.]

The humanoid shape then looked at the slime on my head and bowed once again. Sirius knew that they talked in the mental network so he didn't think it was strange.

Sirius chatted with Agosmore for a bit, trying to understand its personality and see if anything went wrong with the usage of his power, and after confirming that Agosmore fitted his descriptions perfectly, he asked about more important things.

'What are your abilities?'

Agosmore didn't hesitate and answered his question earnestly.

[First, I can control my own weight so that the horses can drag me faster. I can also hide from any sort of detection and my walls are very resistant to physical attacks and can absorb energy to fill my energy core. Eldritches and Abominations will slowly get stronger with the passage of time and will be able to feel at peace when inside the rooms of the second floor, but other sentient beings cannot live there. As for the building itself, calling me a moving inn would be more appropriate than calling me a moving fortress. The first floor is basically a café, and contain three dimensional doors that lead to individual sub-spaces. The second floor contains ten dimensional doors, with five of them leading to dorms and the other five leading to individual rooms. Unfortunately, aside from showers, toilets, and beds, there's no other furniture.]

'As long as you have materials you can build the furniture yourself?'

[Yes.]

Sirius nodded and told him to use the trees in the vicinity to create some tables, chairs, and other necessities before going to visit the rooms of the second floor.

The five dorms had three bunker beds, which meant they could accommodate six Abominations each, while the five individual rooms were, obviously, made for only one person and were a bit more luxurious than the dorms. Sirius decided that he would give the five individual rooms to his most important companions.

"Nova, you take the first individual room on the second floor. Tell Agosmore to use the second one when he finishes working." Sirius said before going back to the first floor.

He opened the door that was in the middle and nodded in satisfaction.

After walking through the building he had a lot of ideas about what to do with the space. He would make the first floor into a café of some sort, with nice beverages and light dishes. As for the dimensional doors, two of them will lead to mini-shops where he would display his products and the third one will be a staff room.

As for the second floor, it would be the HQ of his group, in some sort of way. He didn't want to be a ruler and have the Abominations he created act as his servants. He felt that making an organization based on merit was a better idea. He wouldn't give them orders but missions and let them have their own individuality and freedom of choice.

Most people could develop faster without being chained by duty, and Sirius himself wasn't used to having underlings doing his things for him and didn't plan to get used to it.

As for the name of the organization...

Acting as the home to both the light and the darkness... Dusk Tavern is a fitting name.

Sirius was very satisfied with the name he came up with and tidied up the staff room before sitting on the ground to add another power to the "III" slot of the Halfclock.

That power was called Equivalent Transmutation.

Each material had a value, and one could use that power to transform a material or a group of materials into another material of the same value.

For example, if a log of oak wood had a value of 2 and a log of mist wood had a value of 200, then equivalent transmutation could transform one hundred logs of oak wood into one log of mist wood.

Sirius didn't think he would need that before, but now that he had Nova and Agosmore that could both make use of a multitude of materials, this power was worth the Halfclock slot.

After settling everything that he had to do, Sirius was finally free to do whatever he wanted.

First, he would try to complete his Aspiration before reaching the border of the empire, make some beverages and light dishes for customers (and himself), have Nova create some weapons for him to enchant then create some potions and explosives and sell them to those in need.

Being an arms dealer was a profitable business so why would Sirius hesitate? Even possessing a whole mine wouldn't be as profitable in a world where multiple sentient species lived. Sirius didn't feel any loyalty toward humankind, so he wouldn't mind even mind selling a nuclear bomb to man-eating monsters if they paid him well enough.

Sirius touched his ring and tried turning it into Azan's scroll to take a look at his and Agosmore's information, but the only things that appeared instead were purple flames that nearly burned him to death. Sirius's flesh constantly regenerated under the effect of the skill he saved in the Halfclock, but he still gasped for breath.

"Cursed flames..." Sirius muttered quietly.

These flames existed only to inflict pain and suffering. They never killed a person directly but slowly burned their energy, life, emotions, only stopping spreading after everything that had a relation with the target burned to ash. He knew their strength very well because he was also someone that used them frequently at a time.

Sirius looked down in pain and saw that there was a half-burnt piece of paper full of messy writing on the ground.

|Sorry, Sirius. I provoked an existence I shouldn't have, but I can't go back in time. Never approach the ��■■■■■■■ ■■■■ He■■■■, and never fall in the trap called godhood, it's not the path you are trying to find! ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■■. If you stay in that world ■■■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■ can happen ■■■■ ■■■■.|

Sirius was currently in horrible pain but he couldn't overlook the signification of this message.

The Thousand Way Hermit attacked Azan? Godhood was a trap? All of this is going too fast!

After living as a lich for a very long time his perception of time was totally twisted, thus he felt that nothing much could happen in a short period of twelve years. But now a god had potentially fallen?

Sirius felt cold and all of his previous excitement disappeared completely. This was a wake-up call for him, and a painful one at that. One of his few friends was in danger, or might even be dead.

He stood up weakly and called Agosmore using the mental link.

'Can you absorb the cursed flame?'

Hearing the pain in his master's voice, Agosmore hurriedly appeared in the staff room and covered Sirius's body in black stone that absorbed the flames. He then answered as fast as he could while checking the damage dealt to Sirius's body.

[As long as my energy supply doesn't run out I can handle the cursed flames without any problem, but a better alternative would be finding a material strong enough to absorb them but that will be difficult...]

'A spine that can regenerate infinitely and get stronger each time it does. Is that enough?'

[Probably, but what do you mean by that?]

Sirius didn't answer Agosmore's question but instead directly inserted his hand in the back of his neck, gritted his teeth, and pulled his spine out of his body. He pushed the salt-inducing regeneration to the maximum of its ability to make another spine grow from nothing. That was how heaven-defying that ability was.

Sirius handed the spine to Agosmore that was still confused and told him in a hoarse voice.

'Use the fire to slowly make it stronger, and when it's able to withstand the power of the cursed flames make it into a scythe. The sooner the better.'

He didn't let Agosmore talk and directly dismissed him before going to sleep with a new conviction.

'Thousand Way Hermit... I will definitely butcher you.'

----

Sirius woke up with a refreshed feeling, probably due to his body that became stronger because of the regeneration.

Before he could stand up, however, he was met with the angry face of Nova in her human form.

"Sorry."

Hearing his apology, Nova's expression softened and she sighed.

She shared his feelings, mind, and memories, but she still had her own individuality. The way Sirius hurt himself shook her to her core and deeply worried her, but she also understood why he did that.

She hugged him tightly without a word and stayed like that for a while before falling asleep.

Sirius carried her to her room then left Agosmore. He woke up the horses that slept near the water, reattached the carriage to their back, and ordered them to go forward.

The complete silence that was sometimes interrupted by the rustling leaves and chirping birds gave him the time to think about his current situation and made him feel deeply conflicted.

"This is going too fast doesn't it?" He said while stroking the back of the black horse.

The black horses merely turned its head toward him before looking away in disdain.

At that, Sirius could only smile wryly.

In a mere twelve years, he remembered how it felt to have friends, and how it felt to have a caring family but he also remembered the value of time and how fast the world moved.

He wasn't alone anymore and couldn't be as reckless as in his last lives. To think something that he could do nothing to stop startled him that much...

"I'm pathetic aren't I?"

This time both of the horses looked at him and nodded as if it was a matter of fact...