Peter was running. He was running away. He was running from his hopes and dreams. He was running from the faulty attempt at getting an army.
"Come back here, you! How dare you order me to do anything?"
That was the voice of justice. It was the voice of righteousness. That was actually a gnome who had pretended to be a deer. Such animals who could go from a form to a form were very rare.
Peter knew only one thing: If he didn't make it to Asmodeos, then the gnome was going to use fire magic to turn him into a roasted human.
And Peter, as someone who really didn't want that, ran. He ran with the speed of a fearful chicken.
He ran as if the gnome was going to take all his money, the clothes on his back, and even his soul.
For all that Peter knew, maybe that would have been the case. As he finally managed to get to the camping site, he saw that Asmodeos was sleeping.
For a split second, Peter allowed himself to marvel at the form of his best friend, of his blood brother.
But to call him such when they had not exchanged any blood was a stretch. No, they were best friends even though they had completed their brotherhood ritual.
And maybe, just maybe, Peter told himself, that was just fine.
After all, Asmodeos knew this world better than Peter. He knew that such things couldn't be undone once they were done. And so, Peter went to him, shook him urgently for the gnome was gaining on him, and then looked into his eyes.
The calm amber eyes of the former necromancer were twinkling. It was as if he knew something Peter did not know.
As soon as the gnome managed to reach the clearing and showed himself, Asmodeos took Peter's sword and hurled it at the small creature.
The gnome jumped to the side.
The small gnome, who had fearlessly chased after Peter, looked at the sword, then at Asmodeos, and then turned around and ran.
Turning into a deer, knowing full well that if Asmodeos decided to give chase, the small legs of the gnomes were simply not going to be enough.
"So, you found the shifters?" Asmodeos had always known that his training pendant had shifters in it.
It wasn't a matter of just how intelligent the animals were. It was more of a matter about who tried to get in the pendant and who stayed out of the pendant.
Asmodeos wanted an army, but he knew that the shifters wouldn't be a very good one.
They were jealous creatures and wanted to fight him for control. The former necromancer knew, without a shred of doubt, that he could and would enslave them all if he could have.
But he couldn't.
"What is with those gnomes? And are there more of them?" Peter was like a dog with a bone.
He did not care about the fact that these gnomes... these wild gnomes who could turn into deer, wolves, birds, and what have you, were peaceful.
No, he finally had an excuse to attack something. Those gnomes were evil, or so Peter thought to himself. And since they were evil, he could and would manage to proclaim a holy war against them.
"Oh yeah, the whole pendant is full of them. But you know, I don't think you should be hunting them. They're minding their own business. And if you farm too many bad karma points, you're going to have a bad time," Asmodeos could read Peter's mind, and he already knew, for a fact, that the human didn't have anything good in his mind.
After all, Peter was a warrior.
He was a hero.
And when heroes didn't have anyone to fight, they became villains.
That was a universal fact. And nothing, not even Asmodeos, wanted to see Peter as anything less than a hero.
"Yes but think about it. They can turn into deer. How many people have they tricked?" Peter asked.
Asmodeos snorted.
How many people had they tricked? Here, in the training pendant?
He wanted to ask Peter that question, but he held his tongue. After all, Peter was, and remained, an outsider to this world.
"So, I don't get to fight them?" Peter was disappointed. Deep in his bones, he felt that this holy quest, this holy war he could have led against the gnomes, was not to be.
And yet, he wanted, truly wanted, to simply bash something with a stick.
He had not been an aggressive man, back in his home world. He had been a gamer, yes, but most people would tell you that he was a teddy bear gamer.
Or, as some people also call them, a care bear gamer.
That is to say, he did not partake in PVP. He did not steal when the opportunity presented itself. And Peter didn't exploit the workers by sending them to nodes, like some streamers, he could name.
And yet, Peter wanted something to gnash his teeth around. And that something was these shifter gnomes.
"Come on, Peter. Be a kind man. Be a good man. Be a sweetheart. You don't want to go to war with those gnomes. They're tricky. And if they get out of the training pendant, they might actually take over the world!"
Even though Asmodeos didn't know it, there was someone listening to them.
The gnome who had turned into a deer could also turn into a cockroach and had listened in on them from a bush.
He had never hoped, not even for a single second in his life, that they, the gnomes from the training pendant, could ever get out of this strange limbo they were in and take over the world.
The strange thing about gnomes, however, was that they really, really wanted to take over the world.
It was something linked to their height. They were small, but they wanted to cast a huge shadow over the world.
They wanted that which was denied to them.
Wanted money, wanted beer, and they wanted to dance.
The last part, they could have done without the beer or the money. But every time a gnome danced, people thought they were a dear, and who wanted to be called a dear and to be baby talked to as they danced their little souls away?
The gnome turned around and went back to his gnome village, ready to spread the news, ready to start a revolution.
This was a very strange time for the gnomes, for the gnomes of the training pendant weren't actually a separate species.
All good things came in threes, as anyone would tell you. The gnomes from the training pendant were actually imp gnomes…