Making Up His Own Backstory

The God of Knowledge was the divine persona Noven had come up with for himself.

When believers encountered difficulties and prayed to Noven, Noven could not expend divine power to directly solve their problems, but he could convey methods of solving them or updates on their progress to the believers.

Exactly how to proceed depended on the believers themselves. All Noven did was respond to their requests and provide the information they wanted.

This was the image Noven envisioned for the "God of Knowledge": a deity who governed the pursuit of knowledge and methods of exploring the unknown.

With the persona's character setting complete, the next step was to find a way to draw a clear line between himself and the so-called "evil gods."

Noven began making up his own backstory:

[I have awakened from an ancient slumber. The world of this moment is vastly different from what it was in my time.]

[All things of old have changed beyond recognition, while my former believers have long since become dry bones in their graves.]

[The glory of the past is gone. The splendor of old is no more.]

[Helpless mortals, if you seek direction upon your lost path, then offer up your devout faith!]

The good news was that Pete placing his last hope in Noven could be regarded by Noven's divine authority as a somewhat incomplete prayer.

This allowed Noven to learn some information that could help Pete gain Bahamut's trust:

Besides the orthodox chief gods worshipped by countless mortals and the evil deities that possessed little reason and only knew destruction, there was another kind of existence in this world, known as "outer gods" or "lesser deities."

The divine domains of outer gods were often rather obscure, and there was less they could accomplish with their authority than orthodox gods. As a result, they could gain only a very limited number of believers and found it difficult to establish any proper church.

Without enough believers, even an outer god's name could be lost within mortal civilization, causing the deity to fall into slumber due to insufficient divine power—or even perish in the end.

Of course, compared to orthodox gods, choosing an outer god as one's primary faith also had its own unique benefits.

The difference between the followers of the two could roughly be described as being the tail of a phoenix or the head of a chicken.

Orthodox gods had countless followers. If one's affinity with the deity was not high enough, it was difficult to receive more of the god's favor. In other words, it was hard to rise to a higher level of power, and one could only remain an ordinary believer.

Outer gods were different. Because their believers were limited in number, they often did not care much about affinity. As long as mortals were willing to offer faith, the rewards they gave were far more generous than those of orthodox gods, though their upper limit was difficult to raise to the same level.

Some outer gods' domains might carry certain evil or chaotic tendencies. Their followers might appear somewhat neither wholly righteous nor wholly wicked in their actions, but at least they would not be as extreme as evil gods, directly corrupting and transforming believers into insane monsters devoid of reason.

These traits of outer gods, which lay between the other two, perfectly suited the identity Noven urgently needed to fabricate for his persona.

Above, he could not claim any connection to those orthodox chief gods. Forget a church—he did not even have a decent group of believers. At present, Pete Chinar was his only sprout. Even if he claimed to be an orthodox god, no one would believe him.

Below, Noven did not want to associate with evil gods either. Otherwise, even if he wanted to develop a bit of his own power, he would have to do so in secret. Even if he managed to build something up, his church outposts might end up being raided every other day by righteous heroes as party dungeons. There would definitely be no good ending.

The identity of an outer god occupied precisely the gray area between the two. Noven had set himself up as a deity "whose name had been lost for a long time, who happened to receive Pete's prayer upon awakening, and who displayed divine power to help a mortal overcome hardship."

In the interrogation room, the divine revelation Pete received in his mind eased his tension considerably.

He remembered that when he was young, a priest from the Radiance Church had come to preach and said that evil gods were all malevolent deities filled with mad, frenzied auras. They had no reason and only followed their instincts, continually spreading dangerous powers to their believers until mortals were completely corrupted and fallen.

The "God of Knowledge, Noven," who had appeared in his mind, was different. He seemed to be a rational being who could communicate!

It was only because the wicked ritual performed by those black-robed people and the flesh-and-blood monster it had created were too shocking that his preconceptions had taken over, making Pete think he had become involved with an evil god as well.

It seemed that Pete had not been entangled by an evil god after all. He had merely encountered an outer god willing to help him at a critical moment of life and death. The two events had happened at the same time, leading him to misunderstand!

Pete convinced himself and hurriedly explained, "Sir! Wait! Please listen to me! I'll tell the truth!"

"I really am not a follower of an evil god! What actually happened was this!"

"Back in that cave, I only prayed in desperation..."

Pete quickly recounted how a divine revelation had appeared in his mind and how he had followed the guidance of the God of Knowledge, Noven, to successfully cast the spell step by step. Finally, he added, "The God of Knowledge just sent me a divine revelation, saying that He had only recently awakened from slumber. He happened to receive my prayer and decided to help me."

[Current trust level: 31%]

It had finally gone up!

Pete let out a sigh of relief.

Although Pete could not read Bahamut's attitude from his expression, if the "quest progress" in his mind was accurate, then his words must have worked and raised the other man's trust.

After hearing Pete's account, Bahamut thoughtfully wrote a few more lines on the paper.

"The God of Knowledge, Noven? An outer god happened to receive your desperate prayer and granted you power to survive the danger? Compared to those claims you made earlier about suddenly increasing your affinity with the Goddess of Magic, this is indeed much more believable."

"Tell me specifically: what is the authority of this God of Knowledge? If he truly is an outer god, then accepting his power means you are willing to become his follower. Show me the gift you received."

Pete gathered his thoughts and tried to make his tone sound more sincere. "Um... Sir, according to the divine revelation bestowed upon me by the God of Knowledge, if I understood His meaning correctly, then His authority should be to grant believers the information they need. How am I supposed to demonstrate that ability?"

"The information they need? What does that mean?" Bahamut froze for a moment, and a trace of confusion appeared on his formerly expressionless face.

"It means... His gift does not seem to give me any direct power. Instead, if I encounter something I do not know how to deal with and pray to the God of Knowledge, He will grant me a way to resolve the matter."

Bahamut pondered for a moment. "According to you, because you needed a means to escape danger at the time, the God of Knowledge bestowed the third-tier spell [Hada's Hunger] upon you so that you could use it to eliminate the aberration."

"In that case, pray once more in front of me now."

"If He can grant you another gift this time that proves your words are true, I'll believe you!"

The release schedule has changed. From now until the story goes premium, there will be two public chapters per day, still released punctually at 18:00. Also, I really need recommendation votes. Thank you!