The moment after the declaration by Ranthor, a stunned silence fell over the party. No one was expecting the orc to willingly choose to worship the creature who had shattered his pride, but after a few moments of contemplation, each member of the party realized that that shattered pride was probably why it was so easy for the orc to side with the deity.

After a few moments passed Althos nodded at the creature, and then grinned wildly at him. That was his reaction to both the orc's declaration and the statement by M.A. informing him that she could teach him about necromancy. Both of those were wonderful bits of news that the god was quite excited by. But seconds later he quickly regained his focus.

After thinking about the particular circumstances he found himself in, he assessed the situation as holistically as he could. His calm mind and lack of experiences enabled him to do this quickly and granted him the clarity of mind to come up with a decisive decision.

He wanted to finish the quest he was undertaking in this world before going back to the dungeon. His followers in the Tomb of Agowraith were, as far as he knew, relatively safe where they were and if he worked to complete this quest right now he could go back to Infernius with more strength and hopefully with a party of followers who worshipped him.

That would make conquering the tomb easier, and it would allow him to have backup in Infernius, where he needed it the most. Once he made the decision it was easy for him to proceed, so he began to do just that.

He took a second to look out before him speedily looking at his various followers, and then cleared his throat to ensure that everyone was looking at him.

"Alright before we do anything else it's time that we resume the original quest. I want us to tackle things chronologically. There is no need to rush anything... for now anyway. We can just take on the problems before us, before me, one at a time."

And with that statement, Althos turned around and began to walk towards the half of the forest that stretched out beyond the river. The team was taking its first steps into the other half of the forest, the territory of bears and who knows what else. Behind him, Althos's first companions gathered their wits about them and then quietly followed their master.

Althos quietly walked to the corpse of the bear. He stopped by it, and examined it. His powerful vision effortlessly scanned the thick body of the bear that Althos had accidentally killed, an event which to his followers had just happened but to him had occurred over an entire day ago.

He was carefully studying the creature's body, deciding to make use of the deceased bear to learn what bear anatomy was like. He studied the creature's powerful legs, the thick fur covering its body, and the distinctive shape of its head. He took note of the sharp claws that were attached to the edges of each of its digits.

Althos carefully observed the corpse. He wasn't familiar with bears, so he was mostly doing this to satisfy his own curiosity about the creature. He knew that until he encountered another bear this would form an uneducated baseline as to what basic bear bodies ought to be like, so he carefully made mental notes about each detail he observed.

He noted the color and length of the ivory claws the creature possessed. He noted the eye structure of the creature and mentally compared it to that of his allies. He opened the creature's mouth and looked at its fangs. He even touched the legs of the creature, familiarizing himself with the feeling of the fur and density of the creature's muscles.

Althos took his time silently studying the once mighty creature he had very easily slain. In an odd way, it looked almost as if the deity actually respected the creature and wanted to memorize what it was like, even though he was actually just learning about bears using the one he had killed to learn what he could.

After a few seconds physically and visibly scrutinizing the corpse, Althos heard a voice in his head give him some unsolicited advice.

[WHAT WILL YOU DO ALTHOS? WILL YOU ALLOW THIS CORPSE TO ROT? IF YOU DO BUGS WILL COME TO IT AND EAT IT EVENTUALLY BUT IN THE MEANTIME IT'LL BEGIN TO MAKE THIS AREA SMELL QUITE BAD, EVEN WITH THE RIVER SO CLOSE. YOU COULD ALSO USE NECROMANCY ON IT... OR YOU COULD LET YOUR FOLLOWERS EAT IT. IF RAVERANGOS EATS IT, ODDS ARE THE DEMON'S LOYALTY TO YOU WILL INCREASE.]

M.A. offered some handy suggestions to the deity. He spent a few seconds considering each of them, but in actuality, he was most partial towards either using necromancy on the creature's body or increasing his pet's loyalty. It took him a few seconds of internal reflection and debate to settle on allowing his pet to eat the corpse.

Althos's basic reasoning was quite simple. The demon was a creature of brutal violence, and he had already kept it from unleashing violence before. Doing this would probably make the creature more inclined to behave in the future by showing that if he is obeyed the creature will get rewards.

[IN CASE YOU DON'T KNOW THIS YET, DEMONS DON'T ACTUALLY NEED TO EAT. THEY LIKE TO EAT, BUT IT'S NOT ACTUALLY NECESSARY. THAT SAID IF YOU DO THIS... THIS WILL PROBABLY MAKE IT LIKE YOU MORE. PROBABLY.]

Althos actually didn't know that demons didn't need food, and he thanked M.A. for that mentally, while committing to the choice he made.

Behind him his followers quietly and patiently walked over to him, having learned that he was an inscrutable being whose behaviors were quite odd to them. They studied him studying the bear and wondered what exactly he hoped to achieve from such odd actions.

Silander, the only one of his followers to truly notice his burgeoning affinity for nature due to her own particular background, wondered if he was mourning the bear but found that quite unlikely. She knew from what he had told them that he was more than willing to act violently, even if he wasn't in a rush to commit acts of violence, so it wouldn't make much sense for him to be particularly saddened by the bear's death.

After a few moments passed he turned to them and looked at them. His gaze fell over each of them individually and then settled on his own personal pet demon. The hulking creature tensed up, wondering why its master was looking at it.

The demon quickly got an answer, one that it found quite satisfactory and well worth any immediate fear that it might have felt being subjected to a gaze by its master.

"Raverangos, when you obey me, you will get rewarded. As a reward for not attacking Samyaza earlier, you can eat this."

Althos's words were casual and detached, revealing that despite what his followers were wondering, there was no particularly deep reason why the god had studied the bear.

He had ultimately just studied it to see what he could learn from a corpse and Silander quietly realized that. As did the orcish siblings, who had firsthand experience with the deity's willingness to be violent.

The demon was positively delighted to hear this, and beamed warmly at its master, quite grateful for this unexpected treat. It licked its lips, revealing a thick black tongue that slowly and grossly trailed over the creature's thick lips. And then it moved, quite quickly in the direction of the corpse.

The demon launched itself forward through the air and then quickly landed, causing a soft thudding sound, on top of the corpse. It began to greedily consume the remains of the bear. Althos watched it with abject curiosity, even though the rest of his followers found the grisly sight to be a bit revolting.

The demon's muscular arms effortlessly tore the limbs from the body of the bear, while its fang-filled maw bit into the creature's fur-covered hide. The other followers of the deity could understand eating without cooking, but they were less keen on eating something that was still covered by fur.

Althos hadn't really seen his followers eat yet, but he had come to understand that such a thing was necessary for them. His decision to reward the creature caused him to receive a short notification.

[NOTIFICATION: RAVERANGOS THE SENTINEL DEMON NOW LIKES AND TRUSTS YOU MORE. THE CHOICE TO REWARD IT AND GIFT IT WITH THE CORPSE OF THE BEAR INCREASED ITS WILLINGNESS TO OBEY YOU.

REWARD: YOU HAVE RECEIVED A NEW TITLE. SENTINEL DEMON SYMPATHIZER. IT INCREASES YOUR AFFINITY WITH SENTINEL DEMONS.]

Althos grinned at this and was thus reassured that the choice to gift the corpse of the bear to his pet was at least a correct choice, if not the correct choice.

The group of adventurers was silent, and the only noises that penetrated the silence surrounding them were the noises of the river, and the noises of the demon loudly devouring the corpse of the bear. Its countless teeth easily tore through flesh and bone alike and the resulting noises shattered the harmonic noises of nature around them.

Raverangos continued to eat, undisrupted by any of Althos's other followers, for a few minutes. When Raverangos had finished stripping the flesh from the creature's body, it would surprise everyone by tearing off a canine tooth of the bear and silently offering it to its master with its head down, in a gesture of supplication.

Althos looked at his pet, and though he was confused carefully took the tooth from the creature. That was when M.A. chimed in, with a suggestion about the behavior of the creature.

[THIS IS YOUR FIRST KILL ISN'T IT? WELL... YOUR FIRST DIRECT KILL ANYWAY. PERHAPS RAVERANGOS WANTS YOU TO REMEMBER IT AND THIS IS ITS WAY OF COMMEMORATING THAT.]

Althos pondered this suggestion and then figured it made enough sense given the demon's fondness for violence. He shrugged his shoulders and then wondered what to do with the tooth. After thinking about it, he made a public display of grandly showing his pet's gift to his followers before tucking it away for safe-keeping.

Althos looked at the demon to gauge its reaction to his actions and saw that it looked pleased with that reaction, causing the god to smile. After this the group of adventurers continued on, deeper into the forest.

The mixed group of adventurers and their master quietly walked through the woods. They all easily strode through the verdant forest, quietly admiring the sight of the trees before them, casually observing their surroundings without any particular concern for their safety. They owed this sense of safety to their new knowledge about their master's powers and his own attitude as he walked through the forest.

The god's enhanced senses told him that nothing was nearby aside from small creatures that burrowed through the earth, or creatures with wings that nested in the treetops and thick branches of the trees that surrounded them. This made him relaxed and as a consequence of that relaxation, he walked through the forest in a rather carefree way.

His own carefree attitude as they wandered through the forest rubbed off on his followers and none of them were anymore alert than they usually were. They heard the ambient noises that typically populated forests around them, and didn't hear any particularly odd sounds, nor did they smell anything particularly unusual.

Ravernagos, the one of them the least used to forests, felt more free to explore the forest than it had in the past due to its increased trust in its master. And so the lumbering demon-beast wandered around them examining objects it wasn't familiar with, which happened to be many things it found in the forest.

The creature lifted various grasses to its maw and chewed on them, tasting them to see if it found anything it liked. More often than not the creature would violently spit out the grasses, and look in the direction it found them in with an annoyed expression. Occasionally the creature would shallow what it had sampled and make a delighted, bestial noise.

Althos's attention often turned to the creature, so that he could keep track of its reactions to the arboreal treats around them. He noted which of the plants the creature seemed to like, and chuckled whenever the creature spat out something it didn't.

Althos's other followers looked around themselves in curiosity and enjoyed the sights that greeted them. This part of the forest felt more vibrantly alive to them than the part of the forest they had previously occupied.

The colors of the tree's leaves were considerably brighter and more explosive here than the trees in the part of the forest Althos was born in. The trees were also generally taller here, though only Althos could notice this.

The noises and smells here, though no different in terms of sheer variety than in the other part of the forest, felt more intense to the god's followers, though the deity himself didn't find this as delightfully distracting as they did.

Althos quietly wondered why this part of the forest felt more alive than the other part did, but didn't particularly pay it any mind aside from hoping he'd eventually find out why this felt to be the case. His servants, the angel, and M.A. didn't quite know why either, so they made the choice to be quiet.

Eventually, after exploring the forest for nearly half an hour, Althos discovered something odd: small footprints in the dirt he and his party were walking on top of. Althos stopped and looked at the prints in the dirt beneath him.

The prints were the most humanoid-like prints Althos had stumbled across in the forest, and they stood out to the curious creature because they were multiple sets in close proximity.

He fell to his knees so that he could get a closer look at the prints, and his companions moved over to him once they noticed that he was staring at something on the ground with a level of visible fascination.

Gallow the rogue was the first to notice the prints the god was studying and let out a muffled sound of shock. He quickly fell to his knees as well and moved closer to his god so that he may also observe the prints. He wasn't under the impression that he could identify them better than Althos, but rather that since his god was a newborn creature, Gallow's wider base of knowledge may prove useful to the deity.

The rogue's focused vision zeroed in on the prints and holistically analyzed them. He was able to identify them as belonging to smaller creatures, wearing localized boots that didn't leave tracks quite like anything he had seen in the various raids he had participated in throughout his life.

The prints were deep enough in the ground that they were noticeable by anyone looking at the ground, and they hadn't been swept away by a breeze or filled in by soil yet. That meant that whoever made them might have been small but it wasn't light.

Upon examination, the prints also had the treads revealing that were likely to come from boots. This coupled with the fact that there were multiple sets of prints that left similar tracks indicated that the boots they wore weren't totally unique but rather were more likely to be from the same shoe-crafter local to this area.

The rogue looked at them for a second, trying to quickly glean what bits of knowledge he could gather from the prints. Then he stood up, while his master and the object of his newfound faith stayed on his knees memorizing the prints. He turned to his fellow followers of Althos and began to speak, his voice carrying newfound authority and confidence.

"I believe these prints are the prints of a gnome or something of similar stature. Something tiny, yet intelligent and strong enough to wear equipment, given the uniformity of the tracks they leave behind as well as multiple distinct sets going in the same direction. It's possible a group of gnomes lairs in this forest."

Althos listened to this declaration and felt the keen sting of lacking knowledge once again. But the deity didn't allow himself to be bitter over his lack of knowledge, instead, he felt the urge to do something about it. He made a mental note of something to discuss with his worshippers later: knowledge and worship.

I should make a core component of worshipping me sharing knowledge or at least create a sort of ritual for me that commands and involves worshippers sharing their knowledge. If I do... then I'll quickly gain significant amounts of knowledge and most likely become more powerful.

This thought was picked up by the pair of voices who dwell in Althos's mind and unbeknownst to the deity they delighted in it. They agreed with this train of thought and were excited to see Althos proactively thinking about how creatures would or should worship him. It was an exciting development for the deity's distinct behavior and traits.

At this point, Gallow turned to his master and waited to see if his master wanted to say anything. When the rogue was greeted by silence he decided to try and gather some favor from his deity by explaining more things about gnomes, correctly assuming that his master knew very little about the little creatures.

"Gnomes are tiny humanoids. As far as I know they like to live in small villages in plains but it's not unknown for them to have lairs in forests. Other possibilities as to whoever made these tracks include dwarves since they are about the same size but dwarves infinitely prefer mountains to forests for lairs and goblins are also a possibility but they definitely prefer shallow caves for their lairs as opposed to forests."

Althos nodded at the rogue, who grinned sheepishly in delight at the acknowledgment by his master. Then the god asked his follower a question.

"What do gnomes look like?"

Althos's voice was calm and curious, seeing this as an opportunity to gather knowledge about a species he had never heard of. Gallow quickly responded, and his voice was as speedy as his reaction time was.

"Gnomes look like humans, just tiny ones. Though where many humans tend to look... clean and well-groomed, at least in cities and in large enough towns, gnomes tend to look wild. They are often covered in dirt and seem to enjoy the sensation of dirt and soil on their skin or covering their faces. They wear unkempt clothes and can but don't always smell of trees and sweat."

Althos quietly played and replayed this explanation, memorizing it and formulating a mental picture of a gnome based off of the humans he watched his followers clash against days ago. Then he spoke again.

"What about dwarves?"

His question was simple, and his roguish worshipper thought about the question for a second before answering. When Gallow spoke his voice was excited and eager to impart his knowledge on his master.

"Dwarves are intelligent architects and smiths. They are short, like goblins and gnomes, but they are above and beyond the most talented populous species of constructors found throughout this continent. They tend to live in or around mountains and they have a preference for volcanoes whenever they can possibly build homes wherever they want too. They look like short humans, but who tend to be dressed in heavy metal armor and with thick hair, be it atop their heads or on their faces."

Althos smiled at this description and pictured a stubby dwarf in shiny armor with a thick beard. This mental picture did dwarves justice, at least male ones. While he was constructing this mental picture Gallow began to speak again.

"If you gained a dwarven worshipper or servant who is a blacksmith you'd gain a skilled follower who might be able to craft some strong weapons or armor. Goblins on the other hand... Goblins are tiny humanoids who are notorious raiders, much like orcs but usually less disciplined, and what few skilled warriors they have tend to be rogues like me. They are thought of as being green-skinned but their skin color can range wildly, usually seeming to depend on where they were born."

Althos reflected on that statement and noticed many things of interest in it. This propelled another question he had.

"Based on what you know, if I gained a gnome worshipper or servant, how would that benefit me and us?"

His question was something he was genuinely curious about. He waited, quietly, while his follower reflected on the question. When the rogue spoke his voice didn't have quite as much confidence as it did before, due to the uncertainty he felt in his answer to his master's question.

"Honestly? Based on the few stories I've heard about gnomes, and the very few I've fought in the past, you'd likely gain either a farmer's worship or perhaps more interestingly the worship of a druid. That would actually be really useful for us, as it'd mean we'd have another creature capable of shapeshifting and talking to animals or plants."

Althos looked at his follower and nodded. He was grateful for Gallow's contributions and grinned at the rogue, causing the rogue to smile happily at the creature who had saved his life.

The godling actually wanted to gain as many followers as possible and didn't particularly care for the species or occupation of whoever served him, but it didn't hurt to gain even theoretical or imperfect knowledge.

He wasn't aiming for any specific type of worshipper, he just wanted worship and knowledge.

He and his crew of servants and worshippers resumed their walk through the forest, but now they were following the tracks they had discovered. Althos intended to find the creators of the tracks.