The new powers that settled within me were extremely significant. I felt them in my heart, in my soul, as I read through the first notification. I received a second one was a longer, more complex list of synergistic powers.

Not far from me, the spider-like creature I had created was feasting on the corpses of the leaders of the town. It was a messy eater, and it was also having the time of its very short life. As the creature devoured the corpses I watched as it began to change. 

The more the creature ate, the more humanlike it became. At first it was a slow, subtle change, as it began by changing the pigmentation of the creature's chitin. But the more it ate the more pronounced the changes became.

The first real, indisputably noticeable, addition was that the creature grew distinctly human arms. And from there the changes only grew in intensity. By the time the creature was done eating the last of the corpses it looked as human as I had in my very first form.

"So it worked..." I said, beholding the true nature of my creation. I hadn't created any ordinary spider-monster. I had created a terrifying and quasi-eldritch monster-race of shape-shifters. The creature, now eerily human in appearance, looked at me curiously. 

The creature opened its mouth and a strange, clicking sound came out of it. It was speaking to me, in the language of its species. I smiled and listened to what it was saying. 

"Creator... I feel wiser now." The thing remarked, now possessing all of the abilities and knowledge of its victims. Despite the monster's human-form there was something predatory in its voice. I remained silent for a moment, before opening my mouth and releasing a click-like sound of my own, which was me replying to it in kind. 

"You are. When I created you, my child, I bestowed you with a number of gifts. You are, in many ways, a creature like me." I revealed, while also speaking vaguely. The creature gazed at me curiously, its mind filled with wonder. 

"You are the world's strongest predator and parasite. I not only gave an archnid's base form, I also gave you a few other special gifts. The greatest gifts I gave you were the powers to shapeshift and to drain everything from those you devour. Those you eat do not become mere sustenance for you, they become inspiration for you. Their knowledge, memories, secrets and thoughts are absorbed by your mind." I explained, revealing why it was that the creature felt wiser. 

"You are a mortal. Your mind cannot process everything instantaneously as mine can. It takes time for you to absorb what you've learned. But when your mind is done processing the collective knowledge of your victims, you will suddenly understand an incredible amount all at once." I revealed, smiling as I spoke in the click-tongue of the spider. 

The creature fell silent, shocked by the weight of what I had just revealed. I had also bestowed the creature with other gifts, such as immortality, but I didn't need to overwhelm it all at once. For the moment I contented myself with replying to its questions as they came, and not revealing everything to it at once.

The creature opened its flawless imitation of a human mouth and once more clicked at me, after a few moments of silence. This time the click was longer, louder, more emotional.

"Creator? Why was I created?" It asked, as a powerful emotion, curiosity, filled its voice. I looked at it for a moment, and sped time to the speed of light for the briefest of instants. That gave me space and time to internally debate whether or not I wanted to tell it the truth. 

The world around me slowed to a standstill. I felt everything freeze, everything but me. And then I chuckled and began to think. 

The truth was that I created an entirely original species to acquire more power. That was why I had made the powerful monster that I had just finished creating. I would do a lot to acquire more power, to gain more knowledge, and to spread my influence far and wide. But if I told the creature the truth it wouldn't sound particularly godly. Nor would it make the creature want to serve me. 

I could lie to the creature. Lying wasn't challenging for me. I doubted I'd even need to use any of my powers. I knew mortals. Many of them wanted to believe that they were a part of a grandiose design, that some architect created an elaborate scheme that would only work if they played their part.

Truthfully telling them that I was that architect, or some approximation of that basic idea, was something I had before. I was powerful enough and intelligent enough to make it work too. Entire lawful cults of mine venerated me as a grand designer, one who had come to pick up the pieces and fix the broken worlds left behind by my deific ancestors.

That said... There was also a middle ground. I could reveal that in creating this creature I gained more power, while also giving it a purpose. And what's more I could make the purpose I was going to give the creature a real purpose, one worth basing it's immortal life around. 

I quietly contemplated the situation before me. I stood still, in the silence of a nearly frozen world, and I carefully weighed the three solutions that I had come up with to answering the creature's inquiry. After countless moments, ones that the spider-like doppleganger before me would never realize passed, I realized which answer I wanted to give to the creature. I closed my eyes and returned to my normal speed, the world returning to vibrant life around me and my creation. 

I kept my eyes closed as I began to click at the creature. I was once more speaking to it. 

"I created you and indeed your entire species as a means to gain an archivist in this world and others throughout the universe. Your ability to grow in intelligence and wisdom by feeding on other living creatures is invaluable to me, as a god of knowledge and manifests my other powers as a god of parasites and as a shapeless deity." I told the creature, in its anthropoid language. I wasn't done speaking either. 

"I gained power when I created your kind, I want you to know that, but I created you first and foremost to help me in my real mission: gaining all knowledge." I explained, lying to my creation but only a little bit. And before my eyes the creature's eyes widened and its body language changed. 

The monster before me, the very first of its kind, gained confidence and assurance thanks to my words. I had filled it with a holy purpose, a true reason to exist. I also bestowed it with a holy and zealous appreciation of the gifts I had bestowed upon it. I felt the creature's overall attitude shift in a more positive, self-affirming direction. Before my eyes the creature all gained a class, a pair of them actually. 

The assorted crowd that watched the gigantic man-spider was taken aback when after several moments of eerie clicking, the creature who had been created by the king of parasites began to glow. 

The creature looked human, for the moment anyway, but after hearing the parasite king's latest clicks it was still for many moments. As it did an unusual silence filled the air as creatures atop the hill glanced at each other, confused by the clicking sounds their creator was making and many other events that had happened in the past few minutes. 

After a few moments, the strange human-like being who stood not far from the mosquito lord and creator began to glow. He radiated a faint silvery light for a few moments, before suddenly ceasing to radiate any light. When the light ceased radiating out of the creature, he was changed. 

The creature who had the form of a human, for now anyway, stood taller than he had before. He had denser muscles than he had had a moment ago, he stood up straighter than before, and he had a certainty in his gaze that he had lacked before now. He was himself, but a more confident version of himself. 

The creature's faith in his creator, kindled by his creator's words, had resulted in the creature gaining two classes spontaneously. The first class he had earned was that of a cleric, the most devoted and fanatical servants of the gods. The second class he had earned was that of a monk, devoted archivists and seekers of knowledge who served gods of strength, combat, discipline, and order. 

The mixture of those two classes in particular also strengthened the soul of the creature. It felt the confidence that it now displayed physically well up from within its heart and proudly displayed that confidence. Althos himself studied the creature after the light stopped shining and chuckled. He did not hate the changed monster, indeed he was quite fond of its newfound faith and discipline. 

The spider-human-monster before me had the confidence of someone many years his senior. He had a purpose now, and he had some awareness of his abilities. He was far sharper than he had been before. 

His two classes complimented each other quite well, and they would no doubt enable him to pursue his goals far more effectively than he would have been able too do without them. 

The first few abilities of the monk class were related to physical improvements. They made those who received the class stronger, faster, and more skilled in hand to hand combat. The first few abilities of the cleric class made someone wiser and they gave them recovery abilities, such as the power to pray to their god and receive divine healing for minor wounds once per week. 

I was about to issue my first command to my zealous servant when I received a surprising, but not unpleasant notification. 

Rejection? What an ability... I thought to myself, in stunned silence as I read over it. It was a truly reality-shaking ability. I possessed the second tier of influence over several different domains and subdomains, and with this I could alter reality in galaxies on the far end of the cosmos or in dimensions I had yet to visit since my domain-sense power worked on a universal scale. 

Indeed I had a chance to immediately utilize my rejection ability as someone was trying to heal Agustino. I wordlessly activated the ability, and thus changed the notification I had just received. I grinned when I read that the attempt had failed. 

I could see how incredibly powerful this ability could become as I tried to wrap my mind around it. Someone with this ability and the second tier of influence over the technology subdomain could prevent an intergalactic empire from building something as simple as a music-player ever again, if they were vengeful and angry at the empire. 

At the moment with this power if I wanted too I could permanently change the entire universe and only allow my worshippers to ever experience restful sleep. And with this power once I completed the quest to acquire the second tier of influence over the domain of magic I'd be able to shut magic down for anyone I disliked. 

I could also interfere with attempts to archive knowledge thanks to this power. In this moment I felt incredibly powerful. It took me a second to calm down and recenter myself. I glanced at my servant and began to click again, speaking to my creation. 

"Little one... From here on out your name is Espejo, and your mission is to archive all of the knowledge in this world. To do that more easily, accept this blessing." I declared, speaking authoritatively, and raising my hand in the creature's direction. The creature smiled excitedly as I began to bless it. 

I gave it a blessing of knowledge, boosted its intelligence and wisdom, and in doing so boosted the rate at which it processed knowledge, thoughts, memories, and secrets from its victims. As I did that the creature's eyes widened as it completed absorbing what it had taken from those it had eaten. 

As I did that I turned my mind towards the perpetually increasing number of notifications that filled my mind. And as I did that, I exited the orc I had been possessing. I left him in a rather dramatic fashion and to my servants the next few seconds were filled with the sight of a mass of spiritual darkness rapidly exiting the orc I had been using as a vessel. 

When I dramatically departed from the orc, I found myself or at least my astral body floating beside a collapsed, unconscious orc. He was sleeping on the grassy floor of the hill. I turned to my creation and I gave it a simple command. 

"Collect the orc. There is one more gift I wish to give you." I told the creature, who leaped to obey me. It effortlessly retrieved the orc, and a split second later I conjured a glowing blue portal right in front of us.

On the other side of the portal stood an awe-inspiring view: an incredibly beautiful red-rock canyon. I was taking my creations to yet another part of the world, but this time I was going to set up a base. One from which my minions could get used to life in this world. I wordlessly stepped through the portal. Once my astral form's feet stepped on the stones of the canyon I extended an arm through the portal and beckoned my creations to follow me.