Ally sighs, ‘I won’t deny. A good elemental focus or intent for a monster will increase the power it has. However, the names can sometimes be almost coincidental.
‘And of course, you can be strong without anything fancy. Even this early on, some of the stats will have gone past what is possible without outside help. Human regeneration being a good example.
‘Unless you have some sweet tech or decent magic, none of those guys out there are regrowing a finger, let alone an arm. Put enough in Constitution though? It might take a while, but that arm will grow back no problem.
‘Because of this, being an adventurer is one of the most deadly professions for a human or any other species with regeneration. Can you guess why?’
Doyle takes a moment to think. ‘Is it because it is inherently deadly to begin with and regeneration gives a false sense of security?’
Ally shakes her head and smiles, ‘Nope! Time and time again, civilizations discover this little quirk. All regeneration does is make it so there aren’t too many injuries that are career ending. That means even age doesn’t require you to retire from adventuring as you’ll heal damage from aging as well.
‘Of course, regeneration doesn’t make you immortal or anything. They’ll still get old and die. It is just that up until their very last day, they’ll be in their prime condition.
‘And considering that the stronger you get, the longer you can live? Few who taste the fruit of adventuring ever truly retire. Yes, crafting and what not can help you level, but deathly danger will always be faster with the biggest boost. So to outrun death, sometimes you have to face it.’
Doyle, ‘And of course as lower case “I” immortals we don’t have to worry about that.’
Ally shrugs, ‘Though we do have an even worse statistic. All un-aging eventually get killed.’
Doyle laughs, ‘Because we aren’t truly immortal and if we can’t die peacefully in our sleep from age, all that is left is for some outside force to kill us.’
Ally nods, ‘Got it in one. It is really fun to watch a civilization find the cure to aging only to become shocked when death by accident and murder suddenly surges. Most eventually figure it out, but political pundits tend to milk it for years.’
Doyle, ‘I am sure once the planet gets its feet back under itself, all these things will end up causing uproar after uproar.’
Ally shrugs, ‘Or maybe not. At least not in the next few thousand years. Well, maybe the adventurer thing. Even if it isn’t becoming a True Immortal, the step into being un-aging isn’t a small one.
‘A race is either naturally un-aging like the fae and dungeon cores or you need some real serious tech and magic. Worse, such things don’t actually cross over that well with other species or even others nominally in the same species.
‘There are un-aging human communities out there. It is just that their method won’t work for any other humans. Sometimes, if the method is particularly sloppy, they even lose the ability to reproduce. Though the stronger you are, the harder that is, so most don’t mind it.’
Doyle, ‘Well, good thing I skipped that step and went right to being un-aging. Though I noticed that while you’re saying un-aging, that doesn’t feel quite like a label. Is there not a specific term for it?’
Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘How in the world did you pick that up?’
Doyle snorts, ‘We are speaking through a link between our souls. If I couldn’t get some kind of feel for this stuff, we’d need to revisit our relationship.’
‘Oh’, Ally sits up, ‘Yeah, you’re right. I guess I just haven’t noticed that part because I already know this type of stuff and you aren’t shy about asking questions first.
‘Anyway, un-aging isn’t a proper title. This is partly because some debate whether each example actually is truly un-aging or if they just have an absurdly long life span. Though mostly because there are so many paths and methods to become some form of immortal, people use the word for everything.
‘I was just specifically saying un-aging, because it described the specific situation we were talking about. I didn’t mention it, but the first level of regeneration that humans unlock isn’t going to make them un-aging. That would be a bit absurd.
‘So instead, normal people find all kinds of other options. From more benign methods like uploading your consciousness to a computer or golem core. To more malicious methods like body hopping into someone else or becoming a lich.’
Doyle nods, ‘So basically there are an infinite number of ways to become immortal?’
Ally nods, ‘And even True Immortals, beings whose minds are already better than the best supercomputers just to be able to remember their life, aren’t sure. Some even theorize that each soul requires a unique method that can change over time and the whole species limitation is because certain souls are attracted to them.’
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Doyle, ‘What about non-sapient immortals?’
Ally shrugs, ‘Eh, they don’t really count? Mostly because part of what makes an immortal isn’t just not dying, but being yourself. If you fall asleep and the next day wake up as a completely new person, I wouldn’t exactly call that being immortal.
‘This, of course, angers some of the non-sapient golem populations out there. Too bad for them. There is a reason a True Immortal has a mind capable of remembering their entire life. Anyway, non-sapient animals and machines might be capable of having their bodies live forever, but without a soul to act as an anchor for their memories and mind they’re a bit out of luck.’
Doyle nods, ‘I can understand that. Now, how have the delvers done? Ace and company have to have gotten further while I was making the floor.’
Ally pulls up a number of screens. On each of them is either Jim or Ace’s team fighting their way through the ninth floor. From left to right, you can tell the delvers are getting better, even so, the Udoroots cause a bit too much attrition.
Though on the screen farthest to the right, they’ve made it to the third ore deposits. Of course, since they don’t actually know how much farther it is till the exit, that is where they stop. Of course, it didn’t help that they loaded up on iron ore. That stuff is a bit heavy, after all.
Ally, ‘I predict that within two weeks they’ll make it to the tenth floor.’
Doyle tilts to the side, ‘That feels a little long. I didn’t take all that much time to make the floor.’
Ally nods, ‘I suspect time slipped by you a bit there. While the actual crafting of the floor didn’t take too long, you spent a good bit of time planning. And that doesn’t even count the time it took you to get the floor up to size.
‘These clips? I’m only playing the highlights. There are a ton more where they came from. Just not as meaningful. I figured you wouldn’t want to see the many daily trips they did at the end of the day to take the fruit of the kobold’s mining efforts.’
Doyle, ‘How are people reacting to the increased supply of ore?’
Ally shrugs, ‘They would need to know about it to react. Remember, the inner circle isn’t open to the public except for the small strip needed to get to the dungeon. Ace just has them using one of the bags of holding which they hand off to someone before leaving out the front.
‘That bag is then transported through a side door to the personal forges. Once the ore is dumped out, it is returned for whoever needs it next. Though speaking of the bags, we have another wave of farmers.
‘All the easy bags are gone and people now know that they drop from the third floor. The only upside is we didn’t account for something when we made it loot. Well, I say upside, to the delvers it is only disappointment.’
Doyle, ‘What happened?’
Ally shrugs, ‘I am surprised you haven’t realized it since last I checked, the third floor isn’t automated yet.’
Doyle, ‘Well, it might not be automated, but I don’t exactly need to pay too much attention. It would be impossible to make new floors if every clear required my full attention. Thank goodness the sixth floor has enough animals in the farm to keep up.
‘Otherwise keeping up with that nonsense would be a pain. Though I need to fully automate it at some point. Way too many people farm it right now.’
Ally laughs, ‘You practically have it automated already. The way you have the floor be able to reassemble itself and pop in monsters means it is only when the farm gets low that you have to be involved.’
Doyle nods, ‘That is true, but I could do better. Anyway, we are getting off track. What is up with the bags of holding?’
Ally shrugs, ‘Not too big of a deal, but if you aren’t putting your full attention on making the loot, they’re smaller. Still double the interior size, mind you, but not like those original four. Ace was partly happy and mostly super disappointed when he discovered this.’
Doyle, ‘That is probably for the best. Too large of a bag on the third floor would just be a pain.’
Ally laughs, ‘You aren’t wrong! Especially once the planet opens up to outsiders visiting. You think people are going crazy over the sixth floor? If they had stayed the same, it wouldn’t hold a candle to what the third floor would become.
‘While not the hardest thing to make, bags of holding are still valuable. And the size? That just magnifies the price! You’d run out of space to spare if you weren’t careful.’
Doyle’s core darkens, ‘Hmm, that could be a problem.’
Ally shrugs, ‘With just the occasional drop on the third floor, you aren’t going to run out.’
Doyle shakes his core, ‘But that won’t be the only place in the future. I’ll need to make a new limitation on them. The only question is what limitation?’
Ally, ‘How often they can drop? Only set the next one up a few days after the previous one was looted.’
Doyle shakes his core again, ‘No, because who knows what might happen to my growth speed in the future. Instead, it should be directly connected to the growth speed.’
Ally nods, ‘Good idea, maybe have the bag siphon off a small portion of the floor’s growth until it has enough?’
Doyle, ‘Perfect! And I have more than enough Wisdom to automate the floor, so I might as well get it over with.’
With that said, Doyle focuses on the third floor and after making sure no one was planning to head there, begins to work. And there certainly was work to do. As it was one of the earlier floors, the farm space it had didn’t cover the entire floor.
In the end though, even the bag of holding automation wasn’t too hard. It just required an extra rule or two. However, while he was doing so, Doyle noticed something strange.
All the previous bags, since they used the space on his floor, still could be felt. Except the oldest bag didn’t feel as real anymore. This could be a problem as Doyle didn’t want to be known for giving fake loot.
Doyle finishes up quickly after that discovery and turns to Ally. ‘So something feels wrong with the older bags?’
Ally takes a look and frowns, ‘Yeah, there’s definitely something odd there. Let’s take a look at Ace and see if the bag is showing any signs of having a problem.’
They both turn their attention to the town. Ace is in his office with the bag on his belt, normal as you please. In fact, Doyle can reach his senses into the bag from that direction and see what is in there. A vulnerability he notes down to fix when he next has a floor with a bag drop.
Besides that, though, he can’t feel anything wrong with it, which in itself is wrong. Quite the conundrum.