"There are four crucially important pieces of knowledge that will grant you a sizable boost in your pursuit of power. The first of these is skill merging. The requirements for skill merging vary wildly from skill to skill; however, what does certainly not vary is the fact that the merged skill will be more powerful than the sum of its parts.
"The tricky thing is, you will never know when a skill is ready to be merged, unless you have memorized the requirements for merging beforehand. Though the actual process is simple, just willing two skills to join together while viewing them in the stats display menu, not knowing what skills even can join make experimentation a rather fruitless and unintuitive process. The only specific piece of information I will give you is this: having both the madness and resist madness skills at at least grandmaster level will allow the formation of the unique skill 'Master of Madness,' which may resolve some of your issues. Do with this information what you will.
"Now, that leads smoothly to our next discussion, regarding unique and ultimate skills. These can be obtained through seemingly random tasks, as well as through the merging of other skills. Contrary to their name, unique skills are not actually unique; merely, they are very rare and specific. As for ultimate skills, they generally [are] unique, and are incredibly powerful to boot; I don't know many sure ways of achieving them, and if I did I'd probably take it for myself. Or at least generally that would be the case; you'll understand more later.
"Next, proficiencies. Contrary to popular belief, they are not necessarily static. There are quite arcane methods for acquiring these after one's birth; take Lector's sneaky method as an example. That said, most methods rely upon transferring proficiencies from one being to another, in both willing and unwilling relations. However, it is interesting and important to note that there are methods that allow even the dead to pass on their proficiencies, such as in inheritance to descendants or sometimes just as a way to keep alive one's proficiencies such that they may further impact the world. I must admit, such behavior makes little sense to me; however, I do not know the motivations of mortals, perhaps the knowledge that the source of one's growth and thus their power will outlive them grants one a sense of pseudo-immortality – though really, who can say for sure. By finding these inheritances throughout the world, one can directly benefit from the source of the power of his predecessors, now isn't that wonderful?
"Firthermore, there are other ways to obtain proficiencies after birth other than from the living and the dead; however, I think I'll let you find those out yourself, we wouldn't want to give you too much of a lead over your rival now would we? After all, that wouldn't create the close competition that I desire to see!"
I grind my teeth at this, but I manage to keep my mouth shut, even as the fury of being used in some strange game of a mighty being races through me.
Thankfully, he is not done. "I actually have some unclaimed proficiencies lying around. The thing is, claiming proficiencies of one weaker than yourself cannot increase your own, thus, I have many lying around, just waiting to be passed one, gathered up from the corpses of my enemies. After I bestow that power on you for which you have thus far been so tensely waiting, I will let you pick out a few. I trust that this is satisfactory?"
At this, I nod enthusiastically.
"Good. Now, on to the last piece of information that may assist you on your venture; of course, there are many others I could give you, but too much arcane knowledge may give you too great an advantage over that rival of yours, and we couldn't have that."
Choosing to consider the increased wrath being compressed within me as a benefit, an increase in power down the line, I continue to listen silently.
"Now, evolution. I'm not sure exactly what you know of this topic, so I will start with the basics. All beings, whether mortals, those without lifespans, or the gods themselves, are capable of evolving into a different species once all the criteria are met; in fact, for most power-based gods, they had to evolve from a mortal or a lesser immortal to become such a being.
"These criteria vary greatly, and can range from certain skills, and certain skill levels, to proficiencies and overall level, to certain items being in one's possession. Most often, evolutions will require certain unique or ultimate skills alongside a certain overall level requirement.
"The web of potential evolutions is actually rather immense. For example, there are likely certain combinations of skills and levels that could allow you to evolve into a godlike-being of some sort here and now – yet, neither I nor yourself would ever be able to guess at these. Like merging skills, one usually must simply stumble across the combinations. Though, of course, it is really quite different.
"While the stats menu is open, imagine moving to an 'evolutions' menu – not right now, later! – and in this menu you will find all possible evolutions listed. In this regard, the evolution process is much simpler than the skill merging process, you needn't shove random things together in the hope that something happens, at least. However, in actuality, the extremely random nature of the elements that must combine for some evolutions makes them even more challenging to pull off than skill merging.
"Now, let me provide an example. A well known example of a very easy to pull off evolution is that from imp to lesser demon. All that is required here is that the imp reaches level fifty. And level above this, any collection of proficiencies or skills – none of these will prevent this evolution. The imp will become a lesser demon and will lose all levels, but will keep skills and proficiencies. This is an evolution that has been pulled off trillions of times over the history of the universe, if not exponentially more; it is absolutely certain.
"But what if the imp were to evolve not into a lesser demon but into a greater devil, a jump of six evolutionary stages in only one evolution? This is exactly what happened with Vharghast, right hand man to Kairon and the most powerful demon to actively reside in this world.
"Of course, some more complicated evolutions are not simply just to skip over the stages in between, but rather are simply that rare. For example, before I evolved into a lich god, I was a dread lord. To evolve into a lich god is generally a process that requires a normal greater lich to receive copious quantities of worship – or, at least, that is as it seems – but I was able to skip that step by fulfilling the requirements to evolve from a greater lich into a dread lord, which only required that I reach level fifty afterward to evolve into a lich god. To become a dread lord, I had to be exactly level eighty-six, with a greater proficiency in necromancy and a moderate one in elemental magic, with no others; furthermore, I had to have the special skill, lord of fear. All of these combined, aligning like the stars in the sky to allow me to evolve into the being I am today; truly an event of great luck.
"That said, I have several evolutions that I think you would be interested in pursuing. Again, I'll make my recommendation here after you have your power.
"And that concludes the information I wanted to share with you, at least until I know what direction you intend to go in; as mentioned, at that time I will give you some proficiencies and some evolution tips. So, now to the fun part – the gifting of power! Of course, naming you was already a significant gift of power, and the information I gave you should, when properly analyzed, provide you with access to a path of ever-expanding power. However, I have something far more direct!
"Now listen closely, this is a scene I have desired to play out for centuries, this should be fun!"
[Oh no…]