"Thank you and I owe you one," Richard said and thought, "Lazarus is the third person that I will owe. The first one was my ex-wife, the second one was King Yama and the third one is Lazarus."

Lazarus shook his head. "No thanks is necessary and you don't owe me anything. I am not forging you a weapon so that you would thank me or owe me something. I am forging you a weapon because I decided to forge you a weapon."

Richard shook his head. "That's not how the world works, blacksmith. When someone gives you something and asks nothing in return, you thank them and you owe them."

Lazarus chuckled. "Fair enough."

"How long will it take?"

"A lifetime for me and an instant for you. But that is not the question that you should have asked. You should have asked what would it cost. And I am not talking about gratitude, favours or money."

"What is the price then, if it's not gratitude, favours or money?"

"It's blood essence."

Richard narrowed his eyes and searched his memory for the phrase 'blood essence', but nothing came up and so he said, "Blood essence? What is that?"

"It's what makes us true vampires."

A few notification messages flashed.

"Hmm?" Richard thought.

"But as you are now, you would just die if I drew out blood essence out of your body, and that is why you are going to drink my blood first."

"Lazarus is a true vampire?" Richard thought surprised and then said, "You are a true vampire."

"Yes." Lazarus bit into his right wrist. "Give me your palm."

"Thank you and I owe you," Richard said as he extended his right arm.

"So you do."

Lazarus let the blood flow from his wrist into Richard's opened palm, filling it enitrely.

Retracting his arm, Richard raised his palm to his mouth and drank all the blood that was within in.

A few notification messages flashed.

"Just like I thought, drinking blood from only one true vampire is not enough for me to become a true vampire myself," he thought.

"Come with me. I need to extract your blood essence."

"Alright." Richard followed Lazarus through the door and they walked out into a room with a forge, anvil and other blacksmithing tools. They stopped in front of the large metal barrel.

"Goodnight," Lazarus said as he pulled back his arm and extended his fingers.

"Wh—" Richard's words got interrupted and he lost consciousness as Lazarus's fingers went into his chest, towards his heart.

…

Richard's consciousness returned and he recalled that Lazarus struck him.

"Could have at least warned me," he thought.

"You are awake."

Richard heard a voice and from it he knew that it was Lazarus who spoke.

A few notification messages flashed.

"Stand up, I will take you to your weapon."

Richard opened his eyes, rose up from the ground and his eyes widened as he saw countless wounds on Lazarus. They were all over his chest and face. "What happened to you? You didn't cut yourself with your new creation to test out how sharp it was, right?"

"Of course not!" Lazarus angrily shouted out.

"So what happened?"

"Your weapon attacked me the moment I finished her and kept attacking me as I carried to put her down."

"Huh? The weapon attacked him?" Richard thought.

Lazarus let out a heavy sigh.

"This is the first time it happened to me as well… Weapons made from blood essence are not like normal weapons. They have awareness and they hate being handled by anyone else but their masters. And because of that, while in the hands of other people, they are worse than a random stick. But your blood essence weapon, not only was it worse than a random stick in my hands, but it also attacked me like a lunatic bitch. And what's worse, these wounds are not healing and I tried drinking both the blood of another creature and alchemist potions. It must be because of your blood essence. It was unlike any other blood essence that I extracted."

"What do you mean?"

"First, its colour was different from other vampire blood essences… It doesn't matter, I will bring you to your weapon."

"Why your wounds not healing is my blood essence's fault?"

Lazarus scratched his head

"Fine... How much do you know about our history?"

"All of it."

"That's a bold statement. Then, you know what shinso is right?"

"I do. She was the true progenitor of true vampires, the one that created this realm."

"What a surprise, not even that brat Lilith knows that."

"So what does a shinso has to do with blood essence?"

"Everything. Do you know what she created besides this realm?"

"Is it true vampires?" Richard guessed.

"Yes and no. She created ten vampires – the lower shinsos and gave each, ten abilities. And every true vampire and vampire is the descendant of one of those lower shinsos. From them, they inherited their ten abilities, but they can't use them as they are not shinsos themselves. But thankfully, the first generation true vampires found a way to use those ten abilities. And that is by forging weapons from their blood essences. My wounds are not healing, because it's one of the ten lower shinso abilities that you inherited. And the weapon that I forged should have all ten abilities, and its the only blood essence weapon in existence that has all ten abilities of a lower shniso."

Richard nodded his head in understanding and looked around.

"You dumped me in the middle of your shop?"

"I didn't have anywhere to put you. Now let's go, I will take you to your weapon."

Richard nodded his head and followed Lazarus through the door. They walked out into the forge room and stopped in front of the table on which laid a dark-red spear. Richard looked at it and information floated up.

Richard reached out for the spear. But as his finger touched it, it transformed into blood and rushed up his arm. It solidified on his skin, forming an ominous dark-red tattoo.

"What the?!" Lazarus and Richard shouted out from shock in unison.

"Master! Master! Master!" An excited voice sounded in Richard's head and a few notification messages flashed.

"Master, kill him! Master, kill him! Master, kill him!"