I read this on the wiki, that as your level goes higher, that individual skills take more effort to build up.

I thought it was related to the level of the skills. As I have been leveling smithing, it takes more iron daggers per skill point, the higher I go. I am at 80 now, and it takes 6-7 daggers for a point.

I'm also level 24. By accepting level upgrades, am I making a mistake? Should I keep building up my skills, maybe pick up enchanting, and NOT take the levels?

It seems like that would be easy street, especially if dungeons are scaled based on character level.

This seems kinda broken. All you need to do is hang out, power level skills and not accept the level-up, and you will grow in power, yet the game will not increase in difficulty? Is this how it works? I hope not.

Either the wiki is wrong or you're misunderstanding it.

Your level has nothing to do with how fast your skills progress. Example: Level 15 Destruction will increase at the same pace at character level 10 and character level 30.

Fixed

i don't think the level your character is has any effect on how fast your skills will level.

i think the only thing that effects how fast your skills level up is how high you are in that specific skill

i.e. a person at level 10 with smithing at 80 will level up the smithing skill just as slow as someone who is level 45 with smithing at 80

By not accepting levels you can't get perks so you can't make the best gear and enchant it the best you can anyways...

But no; from what I have gathered all skills level up the same no matter your level.

He misunderstands.

The higher level you are, the more chunks you need to reach another level. Chunks you get whenever any of your skills gains a level.

For example, going from level 1 to 2 requires only 5 chunks; when you're level 20, it's like 12 chunks or more.

Hovewer you can avoid leveling up by simply not entering the skills menu. That will keep your level constant even though you're gaining levels "in the background".

Therefore the argument is, that as long as you don't level up by entering the skills menu, you will keep the low-chunk requirement of whatever level you're on. For example as long as you stay at level 1, you will need only 5 chunks to get another level, even if you already gained 50 more levels.

Level increases and skill increases work seperately. When you are at a high level, increasing a skill from 15 to 16 will barely advance the bar to your next level, but increasing a skill from 97 to 98 will. So increasing really low skills will barely count towards your next level.

The only way to affect how fast skills themselves level, is by resting (?) or by taking certain standing stone.