The Primal Hunter

Chapter im79: Intermission 7/9 - Holyland: All By the Grace of the Holy Mother

Death was inevitable for the vast majority of inhabitants of the multiverse. It was not a question of if but how and when. Often the how would be less than pleasant, and the when was incredibly variable. A D-grade could potentially live thousands of years easily, while a C-grade could live tens of thousands. B-grades hundreds of thousands.

However, this lifespan was not the same for everyone but depended on the race. Some races, even in D-grade, could only live a few decades. These were primarily ectognamorphs, but the same was also true for some odd variants.

A human D-grade could often live up to a thousand years on average, with little variation generally. However, this lifespan was only a minimum. The innate lifespan of a race. A vampire would often live three times longer than this at three thousand years.

Every grade also had a maximum lifespan. One entirely independent of the race, class, profession, or anything else within the system. Only a select few beings would automatically live to their maximum lifespan from birth, with humans generally in the lower end.

This maximum lifespan was absolute. It was not the death of the body but that of the soul. It was the time for the Truesoul to return to the system, and there was no way around that – besides becoming a god, of course.

There were ways to extend the lifespan towards the maximum, though. It partly scaled with the vitality stat, so a human with a high vitality would live longer than one with a low stat. Besides that, there were also many natural treasures to extend lifespans and creations from a variety of professions, such as alchemist.

However, all these products were expensive and rare and were often not worth it in any way. Those who could afford these products would most often be talented and powerful enough to strive for more power anyway to simply extend their lives that way. This meant anything life-prolonging was reserved for friends, family, or valuable crafters.

There was also the option of changing races to prolong life, primarily through becoming an undead or perhaps some kind of spirit or elemental-like being. The vampiric race was also a popular method of extending your lifespan once upon a time.

With all that said, lifespan often didn’t even matter, as the vast majority died not of old age but of fighting. They got killed in battle, went somewhere above their means to try and advance, or just gave up their lives for a cause.

Ultimately, death was inevitable. But there were some who found something after death. An existence after there should be none. Those who could die in battle, die for a cause, or any other reason that wasn’t simply dying a death after extending it to the maximum lifespan.

All by the grace of the Holy Mother.

Joanna weaved the yarn together as she made a blanket. The other ladies with her were doing the same as they laughed and talked in their small crochet club. She was still a relative newcomer to the club but had been welcomed with open arms by the other members after she had arrived, and she had been a member ever since.

Many months had passed since the Tutorial. Many months had passed since her universe shattered, and they were thrown into that cursed forest. She still remembered those days as a nightmare, struggling under Richard, seeing her colleagues die every day, not knowing what would happen in the future.

It was only after Richard died that she saw the light in Jacob, the ever-reliable leader. He had taken up the torch and shown them a way forward. He had entranced them all and spread the words of the Holy Church, and she was ashamed at her critical attitude in the start.

The Holy Church had been their savior. There had been no path of survival back then… everyone would die, slaughtered by a maniac. Joanna had feared never seeing her husband again, never seeing her children. She had tried to be strong, tried to prove herself useful, but she was not a fighter. Jake had been right in many ways back then… she was a burden.

Was a burden.

For the Holy Church needed everyone. Jacob had made her know and believe that. He had promised grand things. The most prevalent of which was life after death, the same as religions and immoral cults of the old world. The difference was that this was no empty promise.