As the party Althos had gathered walked down the tunnel, on their way to what to their second and possibly last hunt as a large party, the party's members quietly thought about Althos as a person.

As they thought about Althos as an individual their adaptability was on full display. Though to Althos the orcs had been with him the majority of his life, the orcs were all in their 30s. They had been with the deity for about two days, yet they accepted his power, accepted his divinity, and two of their members even became his worshippers!

Their lives had changed an astounding amount and their ability to adapt to those changes and be successful in their new environments was a testament to their will. They weren't the sort to be mentally broken by the lunacy that came with being a species whose culture revolved around something as simple as strength.

Althos was beginning to develop a bit of a personality. He was growing, steadily, in his own peculiar way. His party members actually cut him some slack for lacking a defined personality for two reasons. The first reason was that the deity was honest and he had informed them of his divinity.

The second reason his followers cut him some slack was because of his youth. He was a remarkably young creature. Very literally days old. And given that, his growth was positively incredible. He was on the cusp of completing two entire quests! And he had actually completed a quest already, the first quest he undertook to be able to begin the campaign to conquer and unify Infernius. The quest that granted him the power to control soul orbs.

One of the things that inevitably came with developing a personality was the emergence of habits. One of Althos' habits was related to the long stretches wherein the deity would be silent. While silent the deity wasn't lazing away but was actually taking time to review memories, secrets, knowledge, and thoughts that weren't originally his.

Althos was the "deity of fungi", due to a deal that had been offered to him by the system, but that wasn't what the deity himself wanted to be the "deity of". He wanted to be the "deity of knowledge" in all of its diverse forms. And he was setting about to actively make this the case by acquiring knowledge in all of its forms through interactions with the world, and through the acquisition of other people's knowledge.

One of the ways the deity was steadily going about acquiring knowledge was that he required his worshipers to give him a copy of their minds, copies which contained all of their memories, secrets, knowledge, and thoughts, this had given him a fair base of knowledge that wasn't originally his. One of the ways he could be moved to help even non-worshipers of his was if they gave him permission to copy their knowledge, thoughts, memories, and secrets.

The last source of knowledge that was in his brain that wasn't his was the knowledge he had been provided with by the system. A very significant chunk of this was knowledge pertaining to fungi, but even that knowledge was extraordinary and eye-opening in its own way.

As a result of this, the deity had collected an impressive amount of these things over the course of his incredibly short life. He now had centuries worth of knowledge, a very significant portion of which was due to the dark elves who worshiped him, despite being days old. But the truth was that a lot of his more interesting knowledge came to him from the surface-dwelling creatures who worshiped him, and Amelie the goblin whose freedom he had secured and whose worship he had earned from the ambitious creatures.

As he strode towards the exit of the tunnel, his mind was filled with thoughts related to the sorts of memories and knowledge he had acquired. A lot of this was directed towards the diversity of life he had become aware of but had yet to meet.

So there are creatures like trolls and ogres both above and below ground huh? I'd quite like to secure some of their tribes as worshipers and servants. It's a shame that since I'm so close to finishing the first quest I really should be getting back to Infernius once it's done...

Fungi have some really incredible diversity. Not just fungal humanoids but fungal monsters and beasts exist as well... That's amazing! And in a rare few cases, I can even get those creatures ambiently by training and empowering smaller, less mobile fungi. How neat!

Dragons and giants... I suppose those are the strongest common mortal species huh? It's difficult to imagine species as diverse and as ambiently powerful as dragons or giants being commonplace. Especially in comparison to the animals and humanoids who've been the vast majority of creatures I've met so far, most of whom have been fairly weak.

The young deity's mind was filled with thoughts like these as he ventured closer and closer to the surface. Behind him, the orcs were thinking about their strange master and whether or not they felt like staying with him or going out into the wider world once again. It wasn't an easy choice to make, for all but one of the orcs.

Each step they took brought them closer and closer to exiting the tunnel and once again being in the surface world. It would take them another few minutes to eventually reach the tunnel's exit and entrance.

Moments after stepping out of the tunnel Althos quickly checked his radar.

Performing his mental examination of the strange update to his HUD just took the deity wanting to know what the useful power was picking up. When he did that actively instead of idly scanning the smaller form of the power, what he could see was changed.

It went from being whatever was in front of him, in his field of view so to speak, to suddenly transforming into a static image depicting a "bird's eye view" of the region the deity was in, centered on the clearing but also showing the forest that completely surrounded him.

At that particular moment in time what the static image mostly showed him were trees. Being in a forest, even in a clearing, meant that there was an abundance of trees on all sides of him. But what was revealed to him was more than just a seemingly endless sea of trees.

Althos could "see" dots within, or perhaps on top of the sea of trees. He could see "dots" that were a variety of colors. Lots of the dots were green, though those green dots often appeared to be within or very close to the blue dots.

Something that caught Althos' eye was that there was a single green dot in motion. It stood out against a sea of fairly static dots. On the radar this was one of the green dots surrounded by blue dots, but Althos very distinctly noticed that this dot was in motion, traveling in a fairly slow circle. Althos made a mental note to investigate it later.

Many of the dots, a sea of them in fact, were blue. Of these blue dots, only a single one of them was moving. And it was approaching Althos. Alongside a handful of bright, angry-looking, red dots.

When Althos first wished to learn what the colors meant he received a helpful notification since it was the first time he was fully activating his radar power.

[New Divine Power Explanation: Radar.

This is a handy power that allows gods to gain an awareness of their surroundings more readily than through failable senses like vision.

The colored dots that makeup parts of the radar are living creatures. Green dots are creatures with ties to a god's domains, in Althos' case, this presently means fungi. The red dots are enemies, creatures who are aggressive and seek to hurt the person looking at the radar. The blue dots are living creatures who are not automatically hostile.

It is possible to focus on the radar and reveal more information than merely how many living creatures are nearby. If the radar is focused on, then the species of any living creatures within the radar's range will be revealed. This has limits though. If the creatures are of a species that is unknown to Althos, then Althos won't be able to identify them at a glance, and the "species" section of the revealed information will be marked "???".

In a place like a forest, a place filled with living creatures, extra modifications will be made to aid in the process of understanding the radar. A specific modification that will occur in this situation if the radar is focused on is that it will become a 3D model as opposed to being a static 2D image depicting Althos' surroundings in Althos' mind.

The radar operates in real-time so as dots move across the visible portions of the radar that means that they are actually in motion.

Cost: N/A, always active.]

This was surprising and extremely educational to Althos. He decided to try that and focused on the radar. The notification's knowledge proved immediately handy, as the image of the surrounding area's geography immediately changed.

Rather than a static image depicting a bird's eye view of the region he was in, what he could see was suddenly transformed. Now the deity saw a scaled, largely pink, 3D model of the surrounding area.

This visual transformation took the deity into another "new location" and instead of being able to look in a circle like he could previously, all he could see if he tried to "turn around" in this space was a void of infinite darkness around him. He tried to see if he could "see" anything else by spinning. Nothing new was shown to the deity who mentally chided himself for wasting his own time.

Once he finished looking around himself he focused and began to look straight ahead, straight at the 3D model.

The 3D model was infinitely superior to the static image. It allowed Althos to make sense of things like distance, motion, and also identified the creatures that were coming at him, most of whom were represented by red dots. Above the red dots, Althos looked at their species and noticed that they were members of the same species. A species Althos was familiar with: "forest bear (corrupted)".

This snapped Althos out of the semi-daze he was in from having learned so much in such a short time and having spent so much time focused on the radar. The deity immediately willed the power to deactivate. His power deactivated without a fight, responding to his will and intention, and immediately upon the deity being able to see his allies again he began to speak.

When he spoke his voice carried a sense of urgency and seriousness that it didn't always contain, causing his allies to take it seriously.

"Listen up everyone. Ready yourselves. We've got company coming from within the forest. Bears... a lot of them. And they're coming fast. There should be a total of ten of them coming at us, within minutes."

The party heard this and they immediately reacted, tensing up and mentally preparing for battle.

Normally that would have been enough to put the deity at ease, but then the deity received a notification that alarmed him.

[Emergency Alert And Quest Update:

The bears you are about to encounter are only 9 of the remaining 11 corrupted bears. The final two bears are gigantic dire bears who were among the last to be corrupted by the filth demon. The filth demon had a special power in place and in play just in case it was defeated and since it fell at your... well your hand, the power is active and controlling the bears.

The two dire bears are heading in a different direction. They were heading towards the wolves who gave you the quest. If either of the wolves dies, you fall the quest.

These are worrying circumstances. As such if you complete the quest optimally, you will receive an extra boost to your reward. Go forth Althos. Save the wolves. Free the forest of the terror the bears have inflicted!]

Althos began to hiss in annoyance as he read through the notification. This sudden change angered the deity and made him feel like the system was changing the rules to force him to take a more direct role than he would have liked. He turned to look at his allies, and then again began to speak.

"I've just gotten more information from the system. The wolves who first gave me this quest are in danger. I'm going to move to intercept their would-be attackers, two 'dire-bears' who are, like the bears approaching us, enthralled to a powerful ability that the demon I defeated earlier had in place just in case someone defeated it. I will provide you with some assistants and guards, and I will have you be in place here to stop these bears."

Althos thought for a second and then added some more to what he had just said.

"Kill any bears who come charging at you. If they lunge at you, strike them down and stay safe."

Althos hesitated when saying that last part, but ultimately thought it was necessary. Given his frustration, he was willing to sacrifice the bonus to his reward that may have come with killing an uncorrupted bear, if that was what it took to complete the quest. He wanted his followers to have no hesitation and felt comfortable with the idea of them using this opportunity to gain experience.

Before anyone had any time to object to Althos' commands he wordlessly cast a necromantic spell that created three short but barrel-chest ghouls, who were created using shadow stuff.

The orcs were shocked to see the three grim creatures seem to step out of the gloom of the night, and because of that when Althos began to move they didn't have a chance to speak out. The deity quietly vanished as he activated the same sort of power he had used to escape from Infernius hours ago.

While he was vanishing, Althos mentally reached out to the ghouls and gave them his commands. They were simple commands but he hoped that the ghouls would be able to fulfill them.

[Protect the orcs and kill any hostile bears who approach. If necessary keep the bears distracted long enough for me to handle the dire bears and return back here.]

In response to his commands, the three ghouls rose their hands as one and let loose a single terrifying roar, a roar which emanated across the clearing right in time for the bears to break out of the wooded part of the forest.

Althos vanished just moments before the bears made it through the edge of the wooded part of the forest, having been just too late to catch a glimpse of their quarry.

The bears were confused for a moment since they knew that they should have been able to see Althos when they burst out of the forest, but their confusion lasted just an instant. They quickly fell victim to the ability used by the ghouls and redirected their rage at them instead of at Althos.

Moments before the bears fell victim to the taunting roar of the trio of ghouls, within the forest itself:

Outside of the tunnel that led into the world beneath the world, there was considerable commotion occurring within the forest. The sounds of forest soil being trodded over, the sounds of grunts of fatigue and exhaustion, and the sounds of bear paws smashing into the ground to propel bears at high speeds could be heard throughout the forest. Ten bears trampled forest undergrowth beneath their weighty paws as they dashed through the forest.

Some odd force was compelling nine bears forward, all of whom were the corrupted and aggressive bears that Althos had yet to hunt down. The corrupted and aggressive bears were filled with an undeniable rage, a rage that urged them towards an unclear destination. All they knew was the basic direction their rage compelled them to go in.

They ignored everything else, all but one of their minds consumed by anger and vicious hate. The final bear was scared of the larger, more powerful creatures and had merely begun running with them so as to avoid provoking them, hoping that joining them would be enough to secure her own safety. So far her plan had worked, the bears quietly accepted her due to the rage that possessed them informing them that the only thing of any importance was arriving at an unknown destination.

The enraged bear's had bared their teeth, and their claws were covered in dried blood that made their natural armaments more fearsome, as they angrily crashed through the forest in search of the cause of the incredible rage that filled them. An ability was affecting those of them that were enraged and it was what drove them towards their destination.

[Ability Description: Rage Of The Banished

This is a "revenge" type of ability. "Revenge" type abilities a rare sort of power that can only activate in response to some massive failure. In this case, the ability is set to activate whenever the ability user is defeated.

Its activation infects anyone under the influence of ability user with incredible, unshakable rage and directs them to attack the source(s) of the defeat of the ability user, including any quest-givers whose quests targeted the ability user.

"Under the influence" is a vague term that can include anyone ensorcelled by the ability user, anyone corrupted by them, or anyone possessed by them.

Cost: 1000 magical energy when activated.

Notes: In the case of a quest leading to the defeat of the ability user especially if the quest directly required the defeat of the ability-user, this ability prioritizes the quest-giver. But what "prioritizes" means in this context depends on a variety of variables. In some cases, this can mean sending the strongest creature "under the influence" of the ability user towards the quest giver, and in other cases, it can mean sending a swarm of creatures towards the quest giver.]

Within a few minutes, the area surrounding the tunnel was home to an explosion of noise as the bears explode out of the forest. The sight that greeted them confused them, as Althos was where their rage was aimed but they emerged in time moments after the deity vanished. Instead, they were greeted by the ghouls the deity had just created and commanded and the rest of his party.

The ghouls, having heard Althos' command and intended to fulfill it, activated an ability of their own. In unison, the three creatures opened their teeth-filled maws and from within them erupted a disruptive, rage-inducing roar. The ghouls had just used a skill to taunt the bears!

The bears reacted by roaring back and charging at the orcs and their ghoulish guardians. Their rage had been successfully redirected. Now all that remained was for the creatures to successfully slay the bears.

Two positively gigantic bears with bright red fur crashed through the forest. They surged forth like a force of nature, snapping and destroying any trees unlucky enough to be between them and their prey. Their maws were large enough to swallow lesser bears whole, and their paws were the sizes of the branches of the trees they crashed through in their mindless rage.

Unlike their fellows, they were raging through the forest in a direction that led them deeper into it, instead of towards the clearing. Their rage was guiding them towards the river that delineated where bear territory ended and where wolf territory began.

Each step they took brought them closer and closer to the area where they would find the source of the rage that infected their minds and filled them with a desire to engage in brutal violence.

In the span of a single second Althos teleported from the clearing to the river's shore where he had first met the wolves who gave him the quest over an entire day ago.

The teleportation process was an instantaneous one that to the deity merely felt like he was just taking a single step. It was an odd sensation since in an instant his surroundings transformed from the lovely clearing to the separately but still, beautiful mini shoreline that caressed the river were Althos first met his wolven allies.

Althos took a second to orient himself with the area he was in for the first time in over a day and a half. He started off by ceasing his movement and silencing himself. Because of his stillness and silence, he could hear loud noises approaching him from the half of the forest that belonged to the bears.

The noises were still faint, but a quick scan of the radar revealed to Althos that the sources of the sounds were the dire bears, as he had feared. They were close, not terribly close but still close.

Althos turned to look in the general direction of the noises, and his incredible vision allowed him to see distant trees over 150 meters away that trembled as a result of some gigantic force closeby.

Althos considered heading towards the source of the sounds to directly and immediately confronting the bears, but after thinking about it realized that he should make contact with the wolves and confirm their conditions before rushing to battle.

Althos once again checked his radar to try and ascertain where the wolves were located. With a fairly quick glance, the deity noticed that wolves were deeper in the half of the forest that belonged to the wolves and Althos was thankful that they weren't close by, in danger of being attacked in the immediate future.

He turned around, facing away from the river and rushed into the half of the forest he had been born in, to try and see how his lupine allies were faring. As he began to bound in their direction he shifted back into the human form he wore so that they may recognize him when they saw him.

He was used to shapeshifting at this point and the process had become something he could do quite casually, He felt his body shift and his muscles creak and move as to give him the appearance of a conventional human druid, not of a handsome and muscular dark elf.