"Hey boss, give me your biggest, sweetest, pink, strawberry flavored lollipop!"

I tossed out a silver coin and got back in return a lollipop even bigger than my head. Straight away, I regretted my actions. What was I doing, trying to act cool? Now my retirement fund has decreased by one silver coin!

My heart heavy with regret, I trudged over to Taemin's house. I don't know if he knew I was coming or if he was just enjoying some sun, but when I reached his place he was already outside staring hungrily at the huge lollipop I held. His drooling saliva was enough to fill as many as three buckets full.

He rushed towards me but I quickly lifted it out of his reach, causing the middling necromancer to jump around me trying to reach the lollipop. In the end, he gave up and pouted at me, clasped his little hands together and knelt in front of me, looking at me pleadingly.

"Have you crossed path with the Grey Knight?" I asked, waving the lollipop.

Taemin swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said, "Yes."

"Does he listen to you? Because you know… you’re of the same kind… undead."

"How rude! Don’t call Taemin undead. Besides, Grey Knight’s never listens to anyone other than the one who summoned them. Grey Knight’s are rarely obedient." Taemin pouted.

"Oh yeah! Kris, don't go provoking him, he's really strong right now. You can't beat him."

I looked at him strangely. This indifferent necromancer who's afraid of nothing, is asking me to avoid the Grey Knight?

Taemin mumbled, "If you are cut into tiny pieces by him, even I would have trouble reviving you. Then I won't have my apprentice anymore."

He then tugged at my cloak and asked me eagerly, "When are you going to become my apprentice?"

"When I'm dead."

Don't mistake this sentence for a refusal!

A few years back when I was unable to complete my mission, I had foolishly turned to Taemin for help. Of course, he wasn't going to help me out for free, so I promised to give him things in return for each time he helped - lollipops, strawberry milk, a pair of good looking male and female corpses… I had to go digging around several graveyards for ten nights, looking for corpses fitting those requirements.

In the end when I had nothing left to offer, I actually went ahead and offered my 'dead self'.

Ever since, I hardly dared to ask for his help anymore, afraid that I would lose even my 'alive self' to him.

Deep in thought, I didn’t realize that he already stolen the lollipop from me.

So, the brat was eyeing the lollipop! I had forgotten to hold it up and he had taken the opportunity to snatch it away!

With the lollipop now gone, I wondered if he would still agree to help me. 'Don't tell me I have no choice but to sell off 'my alive self'!' I thought.

Taemin who is now his new lollipop said, “With the Water Knight’s investigative skills, there’s no doubt you two already found some leads. No?”

How sharp, he knows that we already know something. Was he spying on us inside the EXO Covenant?

Still his lollipop, he looked at me with wide eyes and tilted his head on the side, “Your face says ‘I’m spying on you inside the EXO Covenant’ but I’m not.”

Ugh… he read through me.

He shrugged as he added, “The Water Knight is known to not waste time when it comes to these things, so… it was just a hunch.”

I rolled my eyes at him. "It seems that Baron Weston’s third son is involved in it and I can't just go up to the baron’s third son and ask: 'Hey, was it the crown prince who ordered you to summon the Grey Knight?”

Taemin tilted his head again to the other side and thought it over. "Then just kidnap him here, and I'll interrogate him for you for free!"

"…Which do you think would be worse? Torturing a guy to death, or consorting with necromancers?"

Taemin looked at me and shook his head, sighing. "Are you stupid? Can't you just cover up your face and be done with it?"

I was sorely tempted to do as he had suggested, for Taemin could make anyone talk. It would save me a lot of effort…

But wait a minute! That baron’s third son is a pretty strong knight in his own right! With my spells and my blade, I could probably defeat him, but I can't guarantee that I can get him alive!

Besides, someone in the baron’s household would come running to help him. I definitely can't defeat all of them!

"He's too strong, and he's bound to have a lot of guards around him, I can't kidnap him." I said, feeling even more depressed than ever.

"Says who? You're the one person I acknowledge worthy of becoming my apprentice!" disagreed Taemin. He grabbed my arm and dragged me into his house. Now, he may look like a middling frail boy, but he's as strong as an ox! I was unable to break his grip on me and could do nothing but follow him in.

Sob, sob! Being dragged by a middling boy half is horrible! As much as two thirds of my body was being dragged along the ground…

'Bang!'

He dragged me into the house and slammed the door behind us, before releasing me and running to a large chest. As he rummaged through the chest - carelessly throwing around various things - his 'cleaner corpse' dutifully picking up his mess after him.

I stared blankly after him. When a pink feather boa landed on my head, I couldn't hold in my curiosity any longer and asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Found it!" He exclaimed - just after I had asked my question - before removing from the chest a badge the size of my hand.

I then stared at him blankly as he scurried over and slapped the badge onto my chest. I looked down and examined the badge. It was black with silver ts in the shape of a dragon; simple yet beautiful. It made a great accessory.

But from my experience, artifacts from Taemin’s house, that aren’t lollipops and strawberry milk, all tend to belong to varied levels of danger.

There are five categories for Taemin’s belongings: dangerous, very dangerous, extremely dangerous, and even capable-of-destroying-the-world dangerous. There just aren’t any ‘non-dangerous’ artifacts here.

"What is it?" I asked nervously. I still don't know which category this badge falls into!

"Ouch!"

Taemin had pricked my finger with his sharp nails and held the badge under it, letting a few drops of my blood fall onto it. The badge suddenly glowed softly, and I understood that the glow signified the badge's acceptance of my ownership.

There are many various objects which require drops of blood - or in some cases, a magic ritual - to let the object recognize its owner, before allowing you full use of them.

These artifacts all have something in common, which is that they are… unbelievably valuable, precious, and expensive!

Not even a whole vault of gold could necessarily get you one of these treasures, yet here I was, casually given one of them. I had to admit that I felt quite touched by Taemin’s generous gesture.

"All done!" Taemin let out a deep breath and quickly retracted his hand, dropping the badge into my lap. I picked it up curiously and asked, "What is this?"

Taemin looked at me mischievously and instructed, "Shout out: 'Dragon Slayer Robe, in the name of thy ancestors, I command thee, awaken!'"

I looked at the badge a little skeptically, 'I wonder which god invented such an old-fashioned incantation…'

Well, I'm sure Taemin won't harm me. I mean, if he had wanted to, he could have easily done so without needing to go through all this hassle. So, I began chanting, "Dragon Slayer Robe, in the name of thy ancestors, I command thee, awaken!"

The moment the words left my mouth, the badge trembled and floated up, emitting a silvery glow which became stronger and stronger until I had to close my eyes from the glare. Eyes closed, I could feel something - probably the badge - attach itself to my chest before growing bigger and bigger until it had enveloped my whole body.

To be honest, I was feeling extremely nervous. For all I know, this badge could be capable-of-destroying-the-world dangerous, but it was a little too late to do anything now.

"Wow. Wow! Kris, you have such a great body!" I heard Taemin exclaiming.

'Huh? I have a great body? I'm not , am I?!'

I quickly opened my eyes and looked down. Phew! Luckily I didn't see anything that looked like flesh. But my clothes had turned into a skin-tight black outfit, molding to my figure and leaving nothing to the imagination… No wonder Taemin had said that I had a great body.

The black outfit had a light covering of silver armor protecting my chest and other important places, and even the boots were of a silver metal. At a closer look, I realized that the armor was actually made of many interlocking scales as small as my thumbnail, becoming a strong flexible armor that wouldn't hinder my movements at all.

"This is a magnificent piece of work…" I couldn't help admiring. But halfway through my sentence I suddenly realized that my voice had changed, no, more like I was speaking through something.

I curiously walked over to the only mirror in the house and looked at my reflection. A cool looking guy wearing a black skin-tight outfit and silver armor looked back at me. Especially with the streaks of silver in my long black hair, I was dastardly handsome, capable of stealing the hearts of eight year old girls and eighty year old grandmas alike … w-wait a minute! Streaks of silver amongst long black hair?

I was stunned.

"Ahh---!!! My hair, its changed colors! It even grew up waist length! My golden hair! Ahh!! I'm going to lose my job; I can't be the Flight Knight anymore! Nooo--! I don't want to become depressed over losing my job and have to join God so early!"

The handsome man capable of stealing the hearts of eight year old girls and eighty year old grandmas alike screamed while grabbing his beautiful black and silver hair.

"How noisy," said Taemin, calmly his lollipop.

.   .   .

"OK, so its 300 ml of blood to change once, and it lasts for three hours. Every additional hour is another 200 ml of blood. I would advise you to go for five hours at the very most, or else you might very well die from blood loss."

Never thought I’d have to pay in blood to wear clothes…

"However, after returning to your original appearance, you have to wait for another 24 hours before you can use it again."

And I even have to give it break times. Only working five hours a day, isn't that a little too little…?

"After you've changed forms, your defense doubles, your strength increases by 60%, you can jump higher by 50%, and your speed increases by 120%."

What detailed figures, why not just make it simpler and double all of them?

"After adding up all that, Kris, you should be about… 85% as strong as the Water Knight!"

'You could have left out that last comment!'

"However with that ridiculously good recovery ability of yours, even better than the undead, as long as you can drag out the fight for three days and three nights, you'll definitely win!"

"…Have you forgotten that this outfit will my blood? I would have become a drained corpse within a day or two, let alone three days and three nights!"

"Oh, that's right! I forgot about that… it's alright! I'll just show you a few necromancy spells then, watch carefully!"

I don't want to! I'm the righteous Flight Knight; if people were to hear that I knew black magic, I'd be tied to a stake and burned alive!

… Eh? I've learned it? Oh God! I've learnt it just by seeing it once?! Nooo--! Don't tell me I'm a priest prodigy, a magician prodigy, and now even a necromancer prodigy?!

.  .  .

I spent one hour at Taemin's house listening to him explaining the rules of the Dragon Slayer Robe, as well as accidentally picking up a few necromancy spells… Oh dear! I must take extra care not to accidentally use those spells, or I'll be in big trouble!

When Taemin got more and more excited and started breaking out the more advanced spells, I quickly escaped from the little house to avoid becoming an advanced level necromancer.

Sigh… Forget about it! Now, if I can locate the Baron Weston’s third son within half an hour, spend another half hour bringing him to a deserted place, and use a further half hour to force the truth from him with the spells Taemin just taught me, I should be able to change back within the three hour limit and avoid having to pay out additional blood to this blood- outfit!

So without wasting another moment, I rushed off to look for the baron’s third son. By my fist or by my black magic, I will definitely force out the truth from him!