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"Hey! Hey! Wake up!"
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"Hey! Hey! Wake up!"
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"Hey! Wake up!"
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"Wake up!"
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"Hey! Hey! Wake up! Ashen! ASHEN!!"
He opened his eyes to find himself face to face with Dorian, who was snapping his fingers close to his ears, looking fairly worried.
Ashen took a deep breath and checked himself first.
"..."
He was strangely fine despite what he'd just experienced. He even felt... refreshed?
Soon, he turned his attention back to Dorian. "What was that...?"
Dorian let out a breath of relief as soon as he saw he was fine and went back to his usual, cheery self.
"Maaan... this is why I don't like properly introducing myself. It always ends up making a scene."
Running a hand through his blonde hair, he explained patiently, perhaps feeling a bit guilty for what Ashen had just gone through.
"First, you know about concepts, right?" he asked.
"...Yeah." Ashen nodded absentmindedly, still fazed by the experience despite actually being fine.
"Well! Long story short, if you can actually train your conceptual power long enough... it kind of gains sentience...?"
Dorian actually tilted his head by the end of his short explanation, "Actually, even I don't know exactly how it works, but what you've seen is simply my concepts introducing themselves alongside me..."
He shrugged. "Don't worry, even if they're somewhat sentient, they always follow their owner's will, so they'd never harm you..." He paused before carefully eyeing Ashen.
"...Though their greeting was surprisingly enthusiastic." He rubbed his goatee and started pacing around the room in deep thought.
"...And that only happens when the compatibility with that person's Sloth is very, very high."
As he reached this conclusion, his cheerful mood suddenly took on a grim countenance.
He turned around to face Ashen, suddenly looking much more serious. "Kid... how compatible are you with Sloth?"
"Yes...? What..." Ashen was bewildered by the sudden question, not quite following where this was going.
He was still blown away by the fact that a power could actually grow sentience and even greet people alongside you, and now what was Dorian even on about...?
"The percentage! The one that showed up on your system when you were about to pick a Sin," Dorian was suddenly right in his face, two hands on his shoulders as he kept shaking him for an answer. "How much was it...?!"
"Uhh... 97%" Ashen blurted out.
The shaking stopped.
Dorian froze.
"...Fuck."
"..."
'Ah...' Ashen silently lamented as Dorian's reaction all but confirmed his conjecture that compatibility was more of a double-edged sword than a boon.
"...How fucked are we talking about here?" He asked in resignation.
Dorian gave him a sympathetic look. "Kid, you always harped about being a genius and whatnot, but I'm starting to think you might be on to something..."
He sighed in exasperation. "97%... Even I didn't reach that number back then..."
But he soon shook his head, refocusing on Ashen's question. "Anyway, to answer your question, you have to first understand what compatibility truly means."
He leisurely went back to his seat as he talked. "Judging by your reaction, or the lack of it, you must at least understand that being 'compatible' is not all sunshine and rainbows, right?"
Ashen followed and naturally took the seat on his right. "Yeah, I had a friend with a high compatibility with Lust, and she went from an innocent maiden to... You know what, but the change happened really fast, and the only possible culprit I could think of then was this so-called compatibility with Sin."
He then helplessly shook his head. "But I still don't understand how it works for Sloth, because I haven't actually felt anything unusual, even as I embodied my Sin to advance."
He then looked at Dorian beside him. "That's all I've gathered for now... aside from the fact that having higher compatibility makes advancing easier, but I haven't been feeling it, honestly."
He finished in a sulk. "That friend I talked about, she had already advanced, and I'm still stuck at the 7th step..."
But he didn't get to sulk for long, as a hand landed on his shoulder.
"Well, well, well," Dorian had that proud father look as he repeatedly tapped his shoulder, "you didn't let your title down, mister self-proclaimed genius! Color me surprised~"
"Shut up."
"No, no, I'm being serious here. Most people in your place will have their attention stolen by the allure of the Sins at the start, trying everything they could think of to advance as fast as possible..." Dorian spoke with disdain. "Who would have enough mind to care about consequences when they are allowed to Sin, Lie, and Lust without repercussions...?"
Ashen nodded along. "Yeah... the whole place turned into Pandemonium the moment embodying one's own Sin was allowed and even encouraged..."
But he soon put his mind back on the current subject. "So? What's the real deal with compatibility?"
Dorian started unconsciously stroking his goatee as he always did when he went into thought.
Soon, he turned his gaze to his right, where Ashen sat, seemingly deciding what to share. "Well, you're thinking in the right direction, but since you lack examples, it will be long before you piece the whole picture on your own, so let me enlighten you..."
He raised his index finger. "First, every concept interacts with the user differently. And Sins aren't any different."
"You talked about your friend advancing before you, despite her compatibility being lower than yours. That's a perfect example of my point," he pointed at Ashen. "Your Sin is Sloth, while hers is Lust. Who do you think would be faster?"
He didn't wait for an answer as he went on. "Obviously, Lust! No matter how lustful they are, they will never beat Sloth in laziness!"
Ashen held his head with both hands. "So... you're telling me that I'm advancing slowly compared to others, just because... my conceptual power is being lazy...?"
"Well, that's another way to understand it," Dorian carelessly shrugged his shoulders.
"Ah, shit..."
"Hey, hey! Don't be so quick to judge... there's actually some good in it!" Dorian decided to interfere as he saw his depressed face.
"...Oh yeah? Care to 'enlighten me' then...?" Ashen shot him an unimpressed glance.
"Hmm... how do I explain it simply for you to understand..." He stopped to think for a couple of seconds before going, "Ah! I think this could work..."
"You know that children's story about the rabbit and the turtle, right?"
"What has that got to do with anything...?"
"It's actually the same," he elaborated. "Sloth is the slowest, true, but it is actually the least likely of going out of control. Also, there will almost be no roadblocks in its advancement, unlike other Sins..."
"Ooh..." Ashen at least sounded impressed this time, even though he didn't fully get the part about 'roadblocks in advancements.'
'Is it like bottlenecks in those cultivation stories...?' he silently mused.
"Are you getting it, finally? Lust may be fast in advancing, but their hosts are also prone to be easily lost in indulging their carnal desires and losing control... they also often use their genitals to think instead of their actual brains..."
He then went on, "Every Wrath user is an anger issue patient, Envy users are stalkers that can't spare a second for themselves, and don't get me started on those arrogant pricks that have an ego as fragile as a sinner's prayer... real sturdy stuff."
He took a deep breath as if to banish the memories evoked by the last example. "...Greed owners depend on what they are greedily seeking... but look out for those obsessed with knowledge, they can be a headache..."
Finally, he paused for a few seconds before ending with, "Lastly, Gluttony... Well, I don't know much about those guys since it's been a while since I last saw them, but some of them could be really disgusting... Ugh."
"...Now that you put it that way, Sloth turned out to be actually not bad...?" Ashen paused for a beat and then shook his head. "No, scratch that, Sloth is actually the best among Sins, hands down..."
"Uhhh... yeah, about that..." Dorian gave him an embarrassed look.
"What now... I'm feeling a 'but' coming..." Ashen spoke nervously, seeing Dorian's reaction.
"...You remember how we started this conversation, right?"
"...Yeah, you asked me about my percentage... oh," Ashen answered while nodding, but stopped midway as he caught on.
Now that he thought about it, no matter how in control Sloth was, he couldn't possibly not have any related slothful feelings despite being at 97%...