John took off, sprinting after the nosey guard. They were headed towards the barracks and he could not let the man reach them. He used shift to lengthen his stride as much as possible and started gaining ground. They were barely a meter apart, John reaching his hand out to grasp at the man's clothes.

'Idiot, you have magic.' he thought to himself. He willed the earth beneath the guard to move to trip him but as he did, they burst through the treeline and into the cleared area. The man then started screaming at the top of his lungs as he tripped.

"NECROMANCER. HE'S A NECROMANCER!" the proclamation stunned John enough to allow the man to regain his feet and start running. He took off running after him again, returning his form to the usual gnome shape, being considered a necromancer was probably better than being a monster. With his shortened gait the guard was faster than John and quickly made up the ground to the barracks.

When he got there he was greeted by a crowd of angry looking sword points and spear tips wielded by confused looking guards. Unable to run and more confident in his ability to escape capture than to make it away from that many blades alive, he allowed himself to be cuffed and taken to a cell.

'of course, they would have cuffs that stopped magic' John berated himself. He could still use shift to slip out of them but that would out him as a shapeshifter and he wanted to at least learn what a necromancer was first. Images of an undead horde barreling down on a town filling his head.

After an hour the eldest of the mages entered the room, a sour look on his face. "So a necromancer, never seen one of you sick fucks before and especially never one that could send a corpse that size to their storage. You better tell me why you felt bold enough to take a corpse this close to barracks."

"I...I I didn't want t-the other monsters to eat it and get stronger sir" John stammered, better to appear meek and terrified, he would only be underestimated that way.

"Don't try that with me, it's bullshit and we both know it. And quit that snivelling, you're a shitty actor." The mage sneered. John realised he should definitely try to learn how to act better if this was the life he was living.

"Ok, ok. I never would have been able to take something that big alone, I got too excited." The man's eyes thinned, clearly not believing it to be the whole truth but not finding issue with the statement itself.

"how did you fit that thing into your storage?"

"I didn't, I tried to but the skill failed and it turned to goop." The man's eyes thinned again but just nodded his head slowly.

"I knew there was something off about you as soon as we met, it's gonna be even better hanging you knowing you're a necro freak."

The mage's hand reached down to grab him by the cuffs. At the same time, John used shift to make his teeth longer, sharper and more dangerous in general. Then, as the man's neck drew into range he used bite. A deliciously warm spurt of blood shot into his mouth and his mouth was filled with meat. \wasting no time, he bit down time after time into the mage's neck.

After a short while, the mage was dead and John shifted himself out of the cuffs and used blood manipulation and an assimilate that failed, to clean up the room. He was going to have to kill everyone here, news of a necromancer would travel quickly and whatever that storage skill is might be enough to link him to the murders and disappearances in the city and they might be able to track him down.

He shifted into the form of the mage and exited the room. The two guards outside nodded to the mage as he closed the door. Then a spike of earth went through the base of their skulls. As they slumped to the floor, he repeated his earlier actions, another two failures but Assimilate reached level 3.

Another guard came down the corridor and was similarly dealt with. This time it was successful and he gained some proficiency in his weapons and cooking skill. Several similar encounters later, all failed skill activations, and he was left with the barracks, the mage and the guards on watch.

He decided to start with the mage. They would be the least tough and could easily kill him if they snuck up on him whilst distracted. The other mage was waiting in a small study for news on the necromancer, John knew from the memories he had stolen. He made his way over there.

The mage stood as he entered.

"So? Is he really a necro? what the college wouldn't pay for one of them to experiment on. We're gonna be rich from this!"

John nodded and the man grew more excited. "But there's something wrong. you have to come see for yourself."

The mage looked askance at him for a moment before walking over to the door. John followed behind, After a few steps, the enhanced cone of death hit the mage and he was almost immediately liquified. John tried to use Assimilate on the puddle but it wouldn't activate. Good to know.

The barracks was quiet, all the guards inside currently sleeping. Easy pickings for a rogue monster. As he approached the first bed, he shifted into his base form to have better access to his claws. As he sliced the neck of the first guard open, the mans face widened and he drew a dagger from beneath the pillow but lost his strength halfway and it clattered to the floor.

The noise startled the other 7 guards awake and they all looked at John, wide eyes full of hate, anger and fear.