The door was open, but all I could see was a whirling pool of darkness on the other side. This was not a very good look, but this was my mind palace after all. It was hard to believe that my very own inner world could be dangerous to me.

  So, while carrying the light Ophelie, I walked up to the mysterious doorway.

  This girl’s spirit was far less corpse-like than those of the quintet. She looked just as lively as she did in life. Her skin wasn’t pale, her eyes weren’t empty like those of a dead fish. All in all, she could probably pass off as a normal, living gal without a problem.

  The only strange things about her were the fact that she had manifested with her long, white nightgown that she had been wearing when the house was falling apart, and most surprisingly, the fact that the wooden stake that had pierced her body had also manifested into her ghostly form.

  It definitely put a dent in her ability to go incognito. A wooden stake and a wide circle of blood tainting her clothes made her a bit too conspicuous, unfortunately.

  Moreover, she seemed to also manifest alongside her deer plush, which was adorable.

  I was already very pleased by how Ophelie had turned out.

  “Mmh… What is this place, big sis?”

  “This is the furnace room. This is where I can turn souls into spirits… Most don’t turn out as well as you did”

  I stepped through the darkness, and in the blink of an eye, I was somewhere else entirely.

  As a matter of fact, I thought that I had been sent outside of my mind palace for a few moments, but no. I was still in my human form and carrying Ophelie.

  The girl had sparkles in her eyes, and so did I.

  The new door had taken me to what looked like the outside world. My feet were upon green grass, and in the distance, I could see the flatland extending before other biomes and areas revealed themselves.

  “Oh, would you look at that… Your sisters are already here. Why don’t you go and play with them, Ophelie?”

  My new ghost nodded enthusiastically as I put her down. She immediately ran up to the quintet to hug them. In my mind palace, every spirit could interact with the physical, though it was dubious if anything was actually physical since it was in my head.

  In any case, it seemed like this place had been created as a place for my spirits to stay and hang out when they weren’t summoned. As evidenced by the fact that all of my spectres were already here, having popped into place as soon as this new area was created.

  There were a variety of areas, and although I wouldn’t claim to be certain about this. I was fairly certain that some of these areas had been made to suit the tastes of my favourites.

  There was a flower field, overflowing with gorgeous, fragrant blooms of all kinds. The flowers were so numerous that one could lie down upon them and have a natural soft mattress.

  This seemed right up Poppy’s alley… As much as it was probably random, it was literally in her name for her to have an affinity with flowers, and from the looks of it, the leader of the quintet was indeed very fond of this particular area.

  It almost looked like she was less corpse-like when enjoying it… Hold on, I think she is literally less corpse-like, actually…

  It would appear that it is indeed having a bit of an effect. Whether these changes can translate over when summoned is unlikely, but I am sure that this will be beneficial in the long run

  As long as she likes it here.

  Then, there were the great, flat plains that I had first set foot in when walking through the door. I didn’t even need to guess on this one. Annie was already running around the grassland, enjoying herself a great deal.

  Looks like this is having the same effect on her.

  Annie was naturally very happy about this. The plains were literally completely flat, perfect for her to run around in for long stretches of time, since they were also rather vast.

  Mmh… If being in these areas and doing what they like has an effect on their looks, could it also have an effect on their abilities? Annie’s whole schtick is running after all. If so, that would be a tremendous gain for me.

  I hadn’t been expecting anything more than a new, cute little sister to add to my roster in the first place. So getting an expansion to my mindscape was already more than I had hoped for. If it actually has a practical use, then I really only gained from this little venture.

  Gigi seemed more interested in a forest that just so happened to be perfect to be hide-and-seek. Of course, the demon girl needed people to play with, but that wasn’t a problem.

  My blue girl could count on her sisters.

  As for Nessa… She was a timid and shy girl, but I had realised that she definitely did find some amusement in stalking and sneaking up on people. This was shown as the area that she instantly found most interesting was a little ghost town filled with small alleyways and dark spots where she could hide.

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  If anything, this town seemed built to be a stalking ground instead of an actual place for people to live in… Nonetheless, the interior of the various houses and other structures was well-furnished and squeaky clean.

  As for Elowen, this girl had been very interested in my knightly form. Clearly, she wanted to emulate me and my capabilities as a knight. As such, the place that attracted her was some sort of cross between a training hall and a colosseum. A place where she could freely perform all kinds of training.

  Most of which were technically useless as a ghost was not going to be gaining muscle mass, but then again… There wasn’t much for a ghost to do anyway, so the tomboy might as well kill time in some way.

  Besides, I found it quite enjoyable to give pointers and advice in this domain. Training had been a big part of my life after all. One does not get my abdominals by just sitting around and doing nothing all day.

  And lastly, Ophelie had chosen her own spot as well. Though that one was a bit different from the rest… It was a large farm, somewhat resembling the place where she used to live with her family.

  Now, I knew exactly what all the souls that had been pulled in during her transformation into a ghost were… The farm was inhabited by all of the animals that had perished on the farm, and they now existed in perfect harmony. There wasn’t even a need for fences or the like. Everything was now a ghostly being and perfectly content with remaining within this specific area.

  These animal spirits were quite different from what I would have expected as well. In the past, when I had tried to create a ghost using an animal or beast soul, the result would just be slightly different, lesser servants.

  Here, however, they looked exactly how they had in life, and most curious of all. What they produced could be harvested… The wool of the sheep, the milk of the cows and goats… They could be safely gathered.

  I was uncertain about the use of this… Ghostly variations of mundane items, only the wool seemed to be of use, as Ophelie seemed to be meaning to use it to stuff her future creations.

  Although there was an area that each of the girls seemed to prefer, it appeared like the farm was where they, and I, were supposed to converge, as it was where a manor stood as well. Bedrooms for everyone were already decorated.

  Even for me, which was naturally a bit odd, I didn’t need sleep to begin with, and how strange would it be for me to go to sleep inside of my own mind? Pretty damned odd, I would say.

  Still, this new ‘room’ of my mind palace was quite nice to see, and it also told me that there was probably more to come in the future.

  In fact, creating greater spirits like Ophelie might be the way to expand this place. Though finding more people or things that could be made into quality souls wouldn’t be easy. It needed to be something cute or otherwise endearing, as well as something I could convince my little sisters to like, since they sort of filled the gap in the whole process.

  If not for them, the whole affection or bond thing would have mostly been one-way.

  I sat upon the king-sized bed that had been placed in what was supposed to be my room, and taking advantage of my human form within here, sighed.

  What was I going to do now? It seemed like my tunnelling schemes always ended in disaster for some reason, but I really would rather have a place to settle down rather than wander around endlessly… I was bourgeoisie! I was supposed to own property! And yet… My family home had been left forsaken, and every time I tried to find myself a place, catastrophe would strike!

  Nara, is there no ‘summon a nice house’ power that you can give me?

  I am afraid that there is no such thing… Maybe you could create a curse to create something? You are half ‘Living Curse’ after all, once you managed to gain a level of mastery, you should be able to be much more flexible with curses than anyone else

  I appreciate the enthusiasm, but you know that even though I am a literal curse, my talent in curse slinging is basically in the negatives! Seriously, was I actually born with one of those things that make you suck in one thing, but exceptional in another? I know I was a strong human, but that wasn’t exceptional at all!

  It is, unfortunately, probable that your lack of talent was merely a case of misfortune. You were simply born this way

  This sucks… Did I perhaps gain the chance to pick a new upgrade? I know it blew itself up, but I should have still been the one to count as the killer of that thing, right?

  Not quite there yet, but it should not take too long

  I see. Do show me the list of forms that I have a bit of progress toward unlocking, pretty please.

  Mascot Form

  Nightmare Form

  Revenant Jack-Out-Of-The-Box

  Wire Mess Form

  Pure Spirit Form

  Five of them, huh? The ‘Plush Form’, despite its non-threatening name, turned out to be very good. Not quite as strong as the ‘Molten Form’, but unlike it, it has the potential to grow much stronger thanks to some of its abilities… It could make me a true warrior, whilst the ‘Molten Form’ doesn’t have any way of growing stronger, apart maybe if I evolve…

  It did not escape me that, at the moment, my first unlocked form was actually far stronger than anything else I had. Still, the ‘Plush Form’ could offer an array of things and had the potential to grow.

  The only changes that could be made to the ‘Molten Form’ were if I got upgrades that remained whilst transformed, or if I grew stronger as a whole.

  Overall, I was quite optimistic about all of the forms presented to me. Even if the name wasn’t great…

  Mmh… Let me think. The mascot one I don’t have any idea what the requirements could be. The nightmare one probably has to do with dealing lasting fear to cause nightmares. The revenant one might have to do with my music box. The wire one definitely had to do with acquiring more wire upgrades. Lastly, the ‘Pure Spirit Form’...

  The name was actually rather telling. To me, it meant that this form would make me fully into a Vengeful Spirit rather than the hybrid I currently was.

  Mmh… Could there be a ‘Pure Curse Form’ as well, then? I satisfied a requirement of this one by making Ophelie into a superior spirit… So maybe creating a good curse would satisfy a requirement for this hypothetical curse form?

  Whatever it was, the prospect was that a ‘pure’ form would allow me to fully go into one side of my nature, and potentially have access to far stronger abilities relating to that side of me for a time.

  I’ll probably need to complete a bunch more requirements, though…

  No matter. There is no point in thinking about all of this for too long.

  All my forms were unlocked by pure chance until now, and that probably wouldn’t change for a long while. I should just focus on finding something to do. Something entertaining, but different from digging tunnels since it hasn’t been working so far…

  Heh… Maybe I can still be a boogeyman.