Building a magic system on threat of destruction

Opening his eyes to a white void was becoming far too normal for Jack's liking. Maybe he could have Deis make him a room or something. He sat up and saw his workstation was still there. He went over and typed out everything he had learned into his impromptu monitor. It took him a few minutes, and when he finished he turned to see Deis floating next to him.

You've been busy. Why are you back here?

"System changes of course," Jack said, trying to avoid getting frustrated. Deis was annoying to work with, constantly trying to get Jack to leave and belittling him. Honestly, Jack would prefer to do the whole thing himself, but he didn't have the powers that Deis did which allowed the system to exist. So he would have to keep coming back to ask for changes.

"The first thing I want to bring up is Mills. He can't talk, which means he can't use the system."

I am aware of Mills' condition, yet I fail to see the problem. He cannot use magic, so why would he be able to use the system?

Jack was dumbstruck. Deis...knew about the problem? "Don't you care? Didn't you want everyone to benefit from the system?"

Deis grew slightly in size, arrogance and spite in his voice as he spoke. I care for all of my creations. He will benefit from the system, even if he cannot use it directly. Is the purpose not to grow beyond limits? Why should they need the screen to do so?

It...was a slightly fair point. Technically in its current form, a person didn't need to summon the status screen. Jack intended for it to be more interactive in the future, but that was a ways off. But that didn't sit well with Jack, Mills had been helpful and desired to help. "I want to include ways for people like Mills to use the system. I don't care if you need to completely reinvent magic, but all the people of your world should have access to the system."

Jack glared at Deis and assumed that Deis was glaring back at him. Tension roiled in the air, but Jack was sick of getting bullied by a glorified poncho. He would stand his ground here.

Deis turned his head away first. Fine. I will create a method for anyone to use the system. However, you must do something else for me. I will bestow another skill on you, one that you will use on people of my choosing.

Jack grew suspicious but figured Deis wouldn't try to harm the people of his world. "Alright, what is it?"

This

Jack's screen opened and a new skill appeared under the system skills section, [Chosen of the Status].

Jack wasn't sure what to make of this new addition. "What does it do?"

It is similar to [Status Granting]. However, it gives the recipient [Chosen of the Status] and [Skill Granting] as well. It is a way for my priests to spread the system to the corners of the world. You will use it on the priests who will visit you soon, but you are never to use it on anyone I have not approved

A dangerous skill. With it, Deis could let his church control who does and doesn't get access to the system. Jack was the only person in the world who could spread the system currently, meaning it grew slowly and controlled. But if he gave it to others, and they gave it to others, soon the system would spread like wildfire. "Deis we aren't ready for mass implementation. There are still so many things to do."

I know this, but I cannot keep my people waiting. I have promised them a reward, and they shall have it

"Fine, but we're going to have to make some changes up here to be ready for it."

Go on

"I need automation. When we were doing tests on skill learning, skills didn't automatically appear on the status screen. Right now, you have to personally update every single list right?"

I do

"Well, that will spiral out of control when the entire world has access to the system and is constantly learning to do new things. You won't have time to do anything else. So I think we should implement a way to automatically update status screens. It will constantly monitor people and then add the skill once a person has learned to do it."

This idea pleases me

"I also want to add a few skills to the status section. [Appraisal] is a big one, it will let people who have the skill examine other people's status screens. [Appraisal Block] which will let people stop others from examining their status." Then Jack paused, "I would also like to explore the idea of a system combat skill, I don't know what it will look like yet but I think it could be a good idea."

Ah, Jeler's idea? I saw him practicing that. Come up with something concrete and we will see. As for the other suggestion, I will allow them

The skills appeared on Jack's screen. "Alright, I'll work on an automated system. Afterward, I need to talk to you about stats." Almost as an afterthought, he added, "Can you leave me with the status sheets I've given out already?"

Very well

Then Deis vanished, leaving Jack alone again. The seventeen status sheets he had granted so far hovered nearby. He sat down at his blue screen desk and fell into thought. How to automate...his first thought was making a big computer made of screens and having it search through everyone in the world all at once. But Jack wasn't sure how to make something like that. He could make shapes or even things that could interact with other screens, but to make something that automatically tracked everyone in the world was beyond him. Maybe Deis could make him a helper, some kind of super being that could monitor skills? Or maybe a team of people?

It felt cruel to subject people to monitoring the entire world and typing things in nonstop. The simplest thing to do would be to have the system manage itself, but how? Jack idly took his pick off the desk and broke off some corners of status screen. He fiddled with the bits while he thought. He needed something that could go through these sheets up here. They were copies of the status sheets that people had, and hypothetically changing one would change the other. Deis could keep all the sheets up here in a big pile, and something could go over them maybe?

The pieces of screen in his hand vibrated slightly, and he dropped them in surprise. He hadn't been trying to make anything, and no firm image had appeared in his mind like previous attempts. The pieces flopped and floated before coming together. A small blue square, an inch on each side, sat on the desk before him. It had two more screen pieces attached to it, little triangles that stuck onto its sides like wings. It floated up, then flapped its little wings as Jack stared in shock. It reminded Jack a bit of a butterfly.

He hesitantly reached out and touched it. It was solid like the other screens were, but it didn't react to his touch in any way. If floated in place for a moment before flapping its wings over to one of the floating screen. It landed on one of them before stretching its wings out and disappearing. Jack lept up and ran over to the screen, investigating it. He hadn't looked away for a moment, but the butterfly had seemed to merge with the floating blue status. He couldn't see the edges of the butterfly, nor anything raised off the surface. When he tapped where the butterfly had disappeared though, the wings raised off the screen and flapped slightly before settling back down.

Had he just made something alive? Some kind of...he stopped himself.

A system bug.

Jack began laughing, the noise exploding out of him suddenly. He laughed and laughed until he was kneeling on the floor, his sides aching with pain. It was the dumbest thing in the world, but it was the thing that brought him the most joy out of anything that had happened to him here. The best part was that it was unintended, a bug in every way. It had been a random event, and Jack had no idea what would happen if he left it alone. But he couldn't bring himself to remove it, the strange butterfly had brought him a moment of happiness.

Then Jack paused. Something in his mind clicked into place. Could he use these? Could these invisible butterflies somehow be the answer he was looking for? He tapped on the bug again, and it fluttered in place. "Can you see this person? Can you affect this screen?" He didn't expect a reply, it was mostly a mutter to himself, but the butterfly floated off the screen. Then it moved over to the words and landed next to the skills. The word [yes] appeared on the skill list next to the skills, then was erased.

Excitement bubbled up in Jack. This was the perfect result! "Perfect! Okay, you're in charge of this screen, I need to make more butterflies. Don't do anything to alter the sheet without finding me first though. We need to do some tests!" Then Jack ran off to make more bugs.

The butterfly sat on two screens at once. It could 'see' both its birthplace and a strange new world. A world of green grass, a white sun, and so many people. The spirit that had created it told it to not make changes to the screen it was on. So it didn't make any changes. The spirit had talked about making more butterflies though, and it was a butterfly. So it had to...make more of itself?

The small bug broke off a piece of screen from the colorful world and started to make more bugs.