Jerome was stuck. What to do?

If he ran now then Rikan might give chase. He could bump into some other gnolls and add them to his transformation list, but what good would that do? As long as someone had eyes on him they could keep tracking him. He didn’t know this city, so he had no idea where he could go to hide and transform into someone less suspicious.

If he tried to fight then soon enough the entirety of the town would be gunning for him. In a larger brawl he might be able to slip into another body unnoticed, but whatever he started wouldn’t be a brawl; it would be a hundred-against-one massacre.

That left his last option: going to work. He might learn something.

Or he might spend the entire time demonstrating his incompetence and showing himself to be an impostor. Then, surrounded by people who knew this body and knew each other, possibly locked inside a giant open-office hellhole, he would be pummeled to death by jeering gnolls. They were scientists, so the pummeling might take a while.

Going to work, unfortunately, appeared to be his best option for now.

“Come on, Nak,” Rikan said with exasperation. “You weren’t planning on skipping again today, were you? I know you don’t like what we’re doing, but they’ll respawn you for sure if you keep on making a fuss. Discipline has to maintained.”

Respawned? As in, the thing that happened in games after people died? Krystyna had said there were no respawns here, so either she was wrong or the gnolls meant something else by the word. Perhaps they were believers in reincarnation.

Either way, the threat was clear: death for disobedience.

Maybe slipping off before-hand was the better option…

“Did you hear me?” Rikan said.

“Sorry,” said Jerome. “I was thinking about an errand I have to do. Can we stop by the scroll shop on our way to work?”

Rikan looked at him suspiciously. “Okay, but make it quick. When did you start experimenting on the side?”

“It’s a new hobby,” Jerome said. This gnoll seemed to know Nakat, so it was better to not pretend to a long-term interest. Playing the noob also had other benefits. “In fact, it’s my first time to the scroll shop. Do you know the way?”

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“Follow me,” Rikan grumbled. “If you make us both late I’m going to spike your gruel.”

In just a couple minutes they reached a small shop with a scroll icon etched over the top of the doorway. That was straightforward enough.

“Glory and elevation to our race,” said the shopkeeper. “Do you know what you want or would you prefer to look around?”

“Refill HP and Refill SP,” Jerome stated confidently.

The shopkeeper studied him. “What’s a scientist doing losing HP?”

Damn. Who knew that being a scientist would raise so many eyebrows?

“You know how the ockdine have been recently,” Rikan cut in smoothly. “It’s better to be safe. City guard can’t protect everyone in case of a major attack.”

“Makes sense,” said the shopkeeper. “If worse comes to worse, you’re running out of MP, and there are dozens of wounded laying in the streets…. remember who sold you this scroll. One gold and two silvers.”

Jerome reached into his Bag of Holding and called up that exact amount of money.

Quest completed! Well, kind of. He had the items. Now he had to slip out of Rikan’s sight, get out of town, and make the journey back to Krystyna.

However, while he was here, maybe he should get some things that would be useful to himself. There were hundreds of scrolls stacked up in the shop, sorted by which magic skill they were associated with. Jerome longed to look at all of them and see what he could learn… but there was that problem of work.

“Let’s go,” Rikan said.

He couldn’t stay and browse scrolls, so instead Jerome opted to put his hand on the shopkeeper (in what he thought was a friendly manner), hoping that he could later transform and learn some skills. Surely the gnoll would know a lot, right?

Rikan practically pulled Jerome out of the shop. “I get that you don’t want to do this, but you’re going to get us both punished if you keep dallying.”

You have received the status effect Leash. The farther away you get from the caster (or the designated center) the harder it is to move.

What the hell?

“This is for your own good,” Rikan said. “You’re going to get over this squeamishness and then you’re going to become a productive scientist again. I don’t want you respawned because of this one little issue.”

Jerome felt his stomach drop. His options were killing his ‘friend’ Rikan to break the spell, thus drawing the attention of the entire city, or going and doing whatever job had been brutal enough to make the real Nakat leave town.

Rikan walked forward quickly and Jerome felt the air around him turn suffocating. Staying still felt wrong, going away from Rikan felt even more wrong… the only thing that felt right was to follow.

If the gnoll could cast this kind of magic, who knew what else it had up its sleeve?

Jerome put his hand on Rikan’s back so he could transform and steal its skills later, but that didn’t help his current situation.

This was going to be a long day.