"The situation at that ti was actually quite simple," Priest Ethen explained. "You imitated my 'information,' but because you were just a clone at the ti and your own 'information' was unstable, it was overwritten by my 'information'."
"I have already carved my existence into this world, making my Law of [Continuity] one of the world's 'basic common sense.' Just like gravity, birth, aging, sickness, and death are the most fundantal rules of this planet."
Samuel's eyes lit up, feeling this seed like a rather interesting way of putting it.
Ethen's explanation continued:
"What you imitated wasn't , but rather common sense like 'under normal circumstances, things fall from high to low,' or 'an ordinary person in a normal state will get hungry if they don't eat for a long ti.'"
"You imitated the world's rules, so naturally, you were assimilated."
"I call this 'pollution.'"
"Pollution." Samuel repeated the word.
Why does it sound like there's so Lovecraftian stuff going on?
"Yes, pollution." Priest Ethen replied softly.
He said, "Although the word 'pollution' doesn't sound very pleasant, don't worry, you don't have to see it as a derogatory term. I just think it's a more vivid description."
"However, at this mont, there really isn't a need to dress up this word as a 'praiseworthy term' either, since you've just been hard by it."
"Ah, that's fine, no problem." Samuel waved his hand dismissively. "It was actually a pretty novel experience."
"First ti turning into a tree, I thought it was quite fun."
Ethen nodded, his eyes revealing a "I knew you'd think that" expression, and continued:
"You could also use words like 'prompting' or 'changing.' Although less vivid, they're still understandable."
He clasped his hands together and rested them relaxedly on the open Scripture.
"Let's use 'water' as an example."
"The birth of a baby is a pure cup of water."
"And whether it's the first light they see, the first sound they hear, the food they eat, or soone touching them, it's all 'pollution.'"
"It's like dripping pignt into water. If you play them music today, it might be equivalent to dripping in a drop of white pignt. If you show them a book tomorrow, perhaps it's like dripping in a drop of blue pignt. It won't be very concentrated, even diluted to the point of being almost invisible."
"If you have ti, you can try it yourself. Drip different pignts into water, just a tiny bit, don't stir, let them rge and blend on their own."
"It will look beautiful, like the aurora." Samuel replied.
As he spoke, he used Illusion Magic to conjure an illusion of the "aurora" in his hand.
"Correct." Ethen glanced at the illusion Samuel created and continued.
"Mix in different colors every day, making that initially pure cup of water more and more vibrant, more and more rich."
"People call this 'growth.'"
"And as babies gradually grow up, this cup of water that was pure at the start will also, because of seeing different things and hearing different things, slowly beco richer and richer, gradually displaying different colors."
"This is the environnt and the world polluting them."
"You actively imitated , which is equivalent to extracting concentrated ink and dripping it into a bucket of pignt."
"Perhaps you didn't even realize it yourself, but your ability isn't actually imitation or copying. The essence of your power is actively seeking pollution from others, actively letting others pollute you."
"I don't know why you obtained such an ability, but..." Ethen paused briefly, "...in any case, this is also the reason I invited you to visit the church. I hope I can do sothing for you, hope my words can give you so insight."
"I won't urge you to abandon your ability, but I sincerely hope you can exercise restraint."
"Your ability is, in essence, harm to yourself, like a stone that actively lets others carve it arbitrarily."
"But you are too strong, strong enough to ignore this harm and only retain the benefits of the outco."
"Yet, at that ti, you were just a clone, with too few colors of your own, insufficient to dilute the 'ink' coming from ."
"So, you were polluted."
"No matter how colorful the original pignt was, upon contact with a large amount of deep black ink, it would turn black."
"Of course, I'm just giving an example for easier understanding."
Samuel nodded, indicating he understood.
He wasn't bothered at all by being killed once; instead, he was even more curious about Ethen's ability.
"So how did you do it? How did you carve yourself onto the stone?" Samuel asked curiously, pressing further.
Ethen didn't hold back at all as he said.
"Just like I said earlier, Seeking the Law, Inscribing—this is the growth path of a Law Seeker."
"Law Seekers are being polluted from the mont they co into contact with [Law], and upon reaching a certain level, they begin to pollute this world." Priest Ethen's smile was very gentle.
"So you an, as long as you're strong enough, you can do it as a matter of course?" Samuel offered his own thought.
That doesn't seem right either; he certainly didn't think he was weaker than the priest before him.
"Yes, and no." Ethen replied. "You need a thod, but what the specific thod is, you have to figure out for yourself."
"I'm not very familiar with Law Seekers of [Absurdity], so I don't know how you should go about inscribing yourselves onto the world."
"You need to search and contemplate that yourself."
"But before that, perhaps you should first find your own [Law]."
"Although you possess power, by definition, you haven't even beco a 'Law Contemplator' yet."
"I see." Samuel habitually nodded twice.
He thought of the terms "Law Seeker" and "Law Contemplator" he had seen earlier in the Travel Guide on the public carriage on the way here.
Combined with the current talk of 'Seeking the Law, Inscribing,' Samuel had a new idea.
"I heard that the official defines the titles for extraordinary individuals as 'Law Seeker' and 'Law Contemplator.' So, are there also 'Law Inscriber' and 'Law Carver' after that?"
"Excellent." Ethen nodded in reply.
"Law Seeker: seeks power from the Law to transcend mortals and attain the extraordinary. Law Contemplator: begins contemplating their own Law, focusing more on themselves rather than the external world. Law Inscriber carves their own Law into this world, making it one of the basic common senses. And Law Carver carves the world into themselves, becoming the world itself."
"This is the path of advancent for a Law Seeker."
"You can also understand it as: becoming a god."
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