Ticking and tocking the grandfather clock went, filling the silent hallway with its noise. The rush hour ended, leaving none within the hallway and myself exhausted. Being forced to work like an undead as someone of the living certainly took a toll on myself. This peaceful silence would be calming for me, if it were not for me being hunted. If anything, it left me unnerved. There was nothing to occupy my racing mind except for the damned clock. When faced with nothing in a dangerous situation, one can only stew on their terror. My eyes darted from place to place in paranoia. One door opening would damn me. If one more intelligent and scrutinizing than the undead (which is quite easy to top) found me, then I would become quite dead and likely served on a plate. Actually, no, the denizens of this place would be much crueler than that.

  Shuddering at that fact, I quickly dived in the darkness behind the pillars, away from the ornate chandeliers of the hallway and darted from shadow to shadow. I did not have a concrete location, I only simply wandered, which perhaps was not the wisest thing, but my mental state was not the most put together. The odd undead servant would pass by in the hall, tending to the inhabitants. Watching the rooms they went in, I made mental notes, designating them as no-go rooms.

  The hallways beget only more hallways, each the same as the last. At last, I found something of interest. Some undead servants dressed as butlers and maids came in and outside what seemed to be a storage room at the end of one of the hallways. They always entered and exited with different tools and materials in hand like brooms and carts. Doing my best to act as an undead (which was not the best but the undead are an easy audience), I found myself in a room with racks filled with objects. There is what you would expect, mops, dusters, and the like, however, there was a box of junk in the corner. It was mostly trash they did not want to throw away, like empty ink jars and worn out books, but there were some things of use for a weakling like me. One man's trash is another man's treasure after all. I fished out a bronze ring and amulet with a sapphire placed within it. In my hands, I could feel faint magic exuding from them, meaning that they were enchanted. Demons are a race that has a strong magical tradition, so even the leftovers they would call failures could be of use for a blank slate human like me.

  When putting the ring onto my left middle finger, the magic within my body felt a tad better. Taking a glance at my stats, it gave me a mere five extra points in my mana stat. Many would regard such an item as useless, for five points is nothing in the big leagues of triple digit levels. But for me, it is like a gift from the gods themselves. Free points? What a steal! Half a level's worth of points for nothing. These small victories are everything to me, especially when I have been going through so many troubles and gauntlets like now.

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  Now past only having one stat point in mana, I could finally take in magic. The feeling of magic was a revolutionary new sense for me. Sure, I could feel magic, but only quite vaguely in the past. It was still cloudy, but I could feel faint wisps of magic in the air around me, something I could not detect before. The magic that collected within the ring fed into my body, filling me with a very slight bit of mana. It was so foreign, yet so familiar. It was liberating, as if I had gained a sixth sense. I only marveled over and took in the experience, not even moving a inch. A certain jealousy collected within my heart for mages and those with magic talents, but it was overwhelmed by the current delight that washed over me. Sure, I did not have anything to use it on like spells and what not, but the feeling was so intoxicating.

  Feeling nothing but joy, I could not help but chuckle, smiling ear to ear as I moved onto the next blessing, the amulet, only to be met with disappointment. Equipping it, I felt nothing. Looking at my stats, nothing changed. Perhaps it had a more skill-like function, however I did not want to test it by injecting magic. Who knows what it would do? For all I know, it could cause an explosion, alerting everyone to my presence. I wished I had an overpowered skill like appraisal. It might be taken for granted by many isekai protagonists and readers, but knowing what something is and its exact functions is a great boon. Testing an item for its function is a dangerous risk to take for it could be anything. If the tester is not careful or is just not lucky enough, they could get seriously injured or even die as a result of the item. Plus, some items have odd, hard to figure out conditions that would take ages to decipher it. I had to just leave the amulet be until I could get it looked at by the appointed appraiser by the Church for the Holy Order. To hide it, I tucked it into the suit I was wearing, since an undead butler with a amulet would raise some eyebrows.

  My good mood tempered by the amulet's current uselessness, I returned to the door of the room. Not knowing where to go next, I followed some servants around, most doing only simple duties. However, one piqued my interest, it was carrying a weapon unlike the others, a dagger to be precise, along with a bucket. Perhaps this could lead to something? Following them along, I came to a set of doors. Waiting for a while to check for any others going in or out the doors to be careful. Caution is always best. However, only servants appeared, which gave me enough confidence to peek to sate my curiosity. Unlike the doors of the rest of the complex, it was heavy and devoid of any flourish. How did those bags of bones and rotten flesh open it so easily while I struggled? The answer was obvious, but my dislike of undead wanted me to deny it.

  Peering in, I could only think one thing: "What the fuck?"