Dungeon’s Path
On Regular Immortality – Chapter 307

Doyle, ‘Why maybe? If my growth is slowing down, it would make sense for my skills to slow down as well.’

Ally shrugs, ‘Because you haven’t reached the first major milestone for any of your skills. None of them have hit level 100 yet.

‘Mind you, nothing particularly special happens at 100. However, it is seen as a general mark of competency. For instance, nearly all crafters finally begin to manage a masterwork around the time their crafting skills hits 100. They won’t be able to dependably turn them out and might go a long time before making another.

‘True mastery of a skill and thus one supposed origin for the term masterwork, is when a crafter switches the ratio of masterworks to regular works. Being able to say you consistently only make one regular work for every couple masterworks is a big deal. Grandmastery in turn represents someone who, if they put the effort in, can guarantee a masterwork.’

Doyle, ‘That makes sense. What skill level is that at? After all, if you only make your first masterwork at 100, it must be high up there.’

Ally shakes her head, ‘No set level for that kind of thing. Though even if they manage it early, they tend to end up with a high level in their skill, anyway. Sort of a chicken or the egg type question.

‘What came first? The levels to impart knowledge or the knowledge to impart levels? For instance, that first masterwork will tend to level the skill a few times all at once. Or! Maybe it is in gaining an epiphany and gaining those levels that allows the person to make the masterwork.

‘Kind of hard to pin down and those who manage to keep producing masterworks will find themselves drowning in skill levels because of it. I don’t really know how it works with dungeons, though. No one really does. After all, everything you make counts as a masterwork, no matter how shoddy.’

Doyle nods, ‘That would make it hard. Though I guess I was sort of dancing around the matter.’

Ally smiles, ‘And what might that matter be?’

Doyle, ‘What do I do? I’m weeks out from anything moving forward. Before this all, I read nearly constantly to fill my time. Sure, if I’m focused on something, time has no meaning to me, but I’m not exactly focused on anything right now!’

Ally nods, ‘This rolls back to that whole timeless thing I briefly mentioned losing. It isn’t some fancy flourish or meaningless wording on my part. Rather, it is a recognized state that basically all truly long-lived races end up falling into and why some of the short-lived types go crazy over long periods of time.

‘To be timeless doesn’t mean that you are unaffected by time, but rather that ripples caused by the passing of time are temporary. A person who has the timeless mindset can eat the same meal every day and appreciate it as if it was for the first time. Of course, there is a downside to the mindset.

‘Since time doesn’t ruffle their feathers, those who are timeless can fall into the trap of leaving things off for tomorrow much too easily. Also, they tend to stagnate. In fact, this is part of why deities have a hard time advancing.

‘As a dungeon, you’ll end up in a sort of selective timeless state. New floor to make? Speed things up and get those plans done! No time to waste.

‘Once you’re done with the floor, though? Well, time happens, but it doesn’t particularly matter to you. Whether delvers arrive the next day or not for a thousand years won’t matter to you as long as you have enough world energy regen to support yourself.

‘Few dungeons do, so that can be a problem. Still, at least such a dungeon won’t be agonizing over every moment that passes.’

Doyle, ‘Interesting, but what about me?’

Ally shrugs, ‘You’re halfway there it seems. Able to let time pass you by while focused on something is somewhat of a first step towards what you want. This might even be beneficial for you.

‘After all, beings that fall fully into a timeless state of mind end up growing their skills at a glacial pace, if at all. A timeless crafter may be able to pump out the same masterwork nail design for centuries, but trying to change it or level their skill any further stalls out as they end up putting it off till tomorrow or consider what they can currently make good enough for today.

‘The Fae and the Deities are about the worst when it comes to this. Though I might be a bit biased as I feel the Fae are better off since their nature forces change. Well, except for the winter Fae. Those tend to be unchanging like a frozen lake. A bloody bloody lake, frozen beauty and ugly shards reaching out to expand yet each new drop frozen and unable to truly join.

‘Err, yeah, suffice it to say, those winter Fae, especially the unseelie, are a bit nasty no matter how nice they might seem at times. Worse is the fact that they aren’t the water of the lake. No, they are the frozen nature of it and so if you try to melt them, they won’t survive it, most of the time. Timelessness, both a boon and a bane.’

Doyle, ‘I’d say the same thing about immortality in general. If anything, the knowledge that if you die, it won’t be peaceful would be enough to weigh some people down by itself.’

Ally perks up and laughs. ‘It does do strange things to a culture’s view on death when the only way it is experienced is through accidents and murder. Various races in various places have managed to grasp immortality and the changes forced on them when it happens can warp them in strange ways. At least with how the soul works, death never becomes cheap.

‘I’ve seen more than a few stories from your world where people can come back at the drop of the hat. I can just imagine the kind of nonsense such a thing would cause! Death with no consequences, isn’t really death in my book.’

Doyle nods, ‘Video games really leaned into that kind of thing hard. Though I do have a question related to the other end of things. How does timelessness and immortality work with kids and the having thereof?’

Ally, ‘That is simple enough to explain. If you’re too powerful, long lived, or immortal, the chances to have a kid drops. The more you are one of those things, the less likely. Though it has been observed that after catastrophic events, species survival can kick-start the process to a small degree. Still, after a certain point, you just aren’t going to have a kid unless you specifically use magical assistance.

‘As for immortal children? That goes one of two ways. Either they’re born timeless. In which case, you have thousands or more years of literal childhood as they slowly adapt to growing up.

‘Or they’re born without the timeless mindset and grow up like a mortal child. This tends to depend on how close they are to mortality. So those who gained immortality of an inheritable sort will almost always have kids of the second type, while those who are a part of an immortal race will almost always have the first.’

Doyle nods, ‘That makes sense. Though I’ve got to admit, I don’t think the fact I’m immortal has really sunk in yet.’

Ally shrugs, ‘Most people who gain immortality instead of being born with it, grow into it, or earn it end up with that problem. That is probably half of what keeps you from fully developing a timeless mindset. Give it a couple hundred years and you’ll figure it out.

‘Though I guess your brand of humanity was a bit short lived before magic, so maybe quicker? Humans as a whole tends toward a max of two hundred instead of your world’s hundred to one twenty range.’

Doyle snorts, ‘Well isn’t that lovely.’

Ally smiles, ‘Don’t worry, magic is a cheat when it comes to life span. The reason humans and honestly most other naturally sapient species tend towards it even without magic is because that is about the norm once magic gets involved. Souls attune to that and so end up angling towards living to that age.

‘Of course, if you train enough and keep growing in power, you can live forever even if you never reach any form of actual immortality. Well, at least live until the end of the universe. Though something like that is rare as even without trying to, most people stumble upon immortality after gaining enough power.’

Doyle, ‘Is there a point at which most people become immortal?’

Ally shakes her head, ‘Nope! Now, some specific branches of a race might generally gain immortality at a certain Constitution score or a specific level. However, for immortality, nothing is set in stone except for those who are automatically immortal. One human might need hundreds of thousands of points in Constitution to manage immortality while another might end up immortal after hitting 50.

‘It isn’t fair and even True Immortals have been recorded as admitting they don’t know the answer. Of course, a True Immortal doesn’t have to worry about when someone would naturally become immortal. They can just grant it if they wish. Though at their level of power, such things tend not to be done because if you aren’t already immortal, you likely don’t have anything they would care about, anyway.’

Doyle, ‘What about someone asking to have a relative made immortal? I’m sure more than enough self-made immortals would be looking to uplift their close friends and family.’

Ally, ‘Eh, True Immortals aren’t really the type to do even that. Stuff about not spreading karma and what not. Which leaves the space for selling immortality wide open!

‘So many creatures like to sell pseudo-immortality. Of course, such things tend to be connected to either a contract that is eventually impossible to keep up or connected to the seller in an undesirable way. In the end, all such things are just shortcuts and while you might get lucky, being cursed with immortality can be quite a literal thing if you aren’t careful.’

Doyle nods, ‘There are certainly enough stories and myths about unfavorable forms of immortality kicking around.’

Ally, ‘And magnitudes more of actual examples out in the multiverse. The Adventurer’s Guild has a popular saying to describe their profession, “Immortality or Death, either is fine”. While to some it may seem like bravado, those who truly believe it see either outcome as bad.

‘Sort of like your world’s “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain”. To them, immortality represents an eventual end to their adventure just as much as death. Once you’re immortal, it is inevitable that eventually you’ll be too strong to find a meaningless dungeon dive to go on. Too strong to just get the group together and head off in a direction.

‘Strong enough that either countries won’t let you enter or so strong that even worlds can’t stop you. A point at which every challenge represents a danger that threatens the world or more. This is a real problem in your universe because there aren’t any truly old dungeons here. Since magic was only a recent addition, there are no dungeons from the dawn of time for the truly powerful to play in.

‘As an awakened dungeon, you have a chance to keep up with Ace and the other powerhouses of your world. Otherwise, your world is going to experience a good ol’ fashion talent drain once it opens up to the wider universe. The strong will either stay and stagnate or leave to grow. At the very least, you should aim to keep Ace and company around. Though you’ve got a lot of time to work on that.’

Doyle snorts, ‘So no pressure, right?’