Building a magic system on threat of destruction

Jack turned back to Jeler and his group to see three people trying to pull away from each other as hard as they could. Curious, Jack and his group walked over to the spectacle. A defense screen seemed to be holding three different people by the wrist, one in the middle and two people trapped in its side. Despite the fact that both individuals on the sides should have been able to pull their hands free with only about half of their wrists being contained, they remained held fast.

Jack was surprised, he supposed it made sense that the screen could form around objects but he didn't think that it would hold people like this. Jeler called a halt before releasing the screen, allowing his test subjects to separate and rub at their wrists. "Whew, that's a big drain with three people pulling like that,' Jeler mused. "I wonder what would happen if they couldn't pull on it...Hey Jack, can you make a screen to bind someone's hands together while I make one for the legs?"

Jack was once again glad Jeler was here to help him test. The cat man had good ideas, things that Jack probably wouldn't have ever tried. They asked for a volunteer and then set to work. They had the man raise his arms together in the air and place his feet together. Then they both formed screens, capturing the man's hands and feet with them. The man stood with his limbs bound together, then tried to wrestle free. The man could try to scrunch his body into a ball or push against the two screens that bound him, but Jeler noted that the mana drain was extremely small. It seemed that the man didn't have a good way to leverage his strength in this position.

They released him after a moment, not wishing to subject the man to any more capture. It was an unintended effect, but he would need to decide if it would be a problem. It didn't hurt anyone, and technically it still performed the job the [Point Defense] skill was supposed to do. he would have to think about it. Jack spoke up. "So Jeler, do you like the screen?"

The animalus nodded his head. "Yeah, it's pretty diverse. The old way of using the status had its advantages, but I think that this can more than make up for it."

"Good, I'm glad to hear you like it. It was basically made because of your request anyway." The assembled volunteers for Jack's experiments froze at those words, hunger suddenly gleaming in their eyes.

One of the humans asked a question. "So if we have an idea for the system, you'll ask the High Deity to make it?"

Jack thought for a moment before nodding. "If it's an idea that will make the system better then yes, I'll speak to De-I mean the High Deity about it." He would really have to start using the title for Deis rather than the God's name. Apparently, he had offended some people.

Zrez spoke up at Jack's words. "I would like a way to acquire additional skills, even the system skills that you have granted to those gathered here would be a great boon." The assembled group all called out their affirmation to that before unceremoniously shouting out whatever came to mind.

"I want to be prettier!"

"I want to have skin harder than diamonds!"

"I want to be able to eat literally anything!"

The shouts continued for a moment before Jeler shouted them down. "SHUT UP!" the cat man roared. "One at a time, please."

Jack was taken aback at Jeler's fierceness for a moment before shaking his head. "Right, I guess I haven't really talked about the future of the system in a ton of detail. Let me go over it, then we can take suggestions while we keep testing okay?" The assembled people all called out the affirmation. "Right, so the system is designed to help people track their growth and abilities. Going further than that, it's also designed to help people grow past their limits and become more powerful than they could before. Eventually, the High Deity and I will implement ways for people to gain stats, skills, and other abilities by meeting certain milestones or using the system itself. For now, the system is in its infancy, we have to test everything because there might be unintended consequences like my arms breaking off." Jack chuckled at the memory, not feeling any personal attachment to what could have been the most grotesque thing he had ever experienced.

One of the assembled group raised their hands, one of the twins, not the wise one. When Jack nodded to her she asked her question. "What are the limits? Like how strong could someone become?"

It was a good question but also a dangerous one. The eyes of the group assembled became hungry again. Jack supposed that it made sense for mercenaries to desire strength, it kept them alive and made them relevant. "Well, that's kind of a tricky question. In some of our experiments earlier, artificially increasing my [Power] past a certain point caused my body to break. My working theory is that I needed to increase my [Fortitude] and [Toughness] as well to prevent me from harming myself by accident. The High Deity set the maximum for every stat at forty, so you might be able to get an idea of how much you can grow. That being said, I don't know if we will implement ways to surpass that in the future."

A few eyes in the group looked at him blankly, not quite getting the point he was making, but others nodded and opened their status screens in contemplation. The twin seemed satisfied with the answer. That seemed to mollify the crowd for now, so Jack resumed the experiments. They tested the effects of [System Buff] and [System Debuff] on the other system skills.

Interestingly, the most affected was [Point Defense], when the skill was weakened both the accuracy and durability decreased. It could still take a blow or two from something, but Jeler couldn't place it precisely like he had been doing up till now. When strengthened, however, Jeler noted several potential avenues for the power. The first was that he could feel an increase in the range, going from five feet to ten. However, once he made the screen further away there was no additional benefit. When he didn't choose to form it further than ten feet away, he felt as though he could make the screen slightly bigger. Rather than six inches on a side, it was closer to nine on each side. Jeler nodded approvingly at this, claiming it would provide much more defense than the smaller screen. The last change was perhaps the most impactful though, by forming the screen in range and the proper size, Jeler found that he could move it slowly in the air, about the speed a person could walk. It cost him mana and wasn't very quick, but Jeler immediately informed Jack that this was the most powerful effect by far.

To prove his point, Jeler climbed on top of the screen and then caused it to float upwards. He rose into the air, ten, twenty, thirty feet until he stopped. "I can see the whole compound from up here!" He shouted down. "And people will have a hard time shooting at me because of the defense screen."

It was an excellent point. The strengthened screen would allow anyone to become an aerial scout or even to ascend to the tops of buildings with ease. Flight mechanics were always game-breaking, any dungeon master knew that all too well. Coming back down, Jeler dismissed his screen when he touched down. "Honestly Jack, I'm starting to think that we're going to need a dedicated system mage. All of these magics are super helpful."

Jack became thoughtful at the words. A whole branch of magic dedicated to the system? He was making more and more system skills but hadn't intended to go that far. The idea resonated with him though, it would be a way to more fully integrate the system into the world. Instead of being completely alien and isolated, magic that anyone could use to affect the system would be a way to normalize it. A systemancer perhaps? He would need to learn more about the magic of Drowl to really start integrating something like that.

The group continued their experiments, pouring more magic into the skills to try and produce additional effects or even giving another volunteer the buffing and debuffing skills to test how they affected each other. Many of the system's skills were flexible, responding to increased mana or decreased mana. The [Point Defense] skill seemed to be the exception. The only thing that could alter it was the [System Buff] and [System Debuff] skills. Weakening and strengthening it at the same time simply made the screen function as normal, no matter which side pumped the most mana into their spells.

The experiments became playing around at some point, Jack granted a few other people the [Point Defense] skill which quickly became a game about trapping the other person before they could trap you. Once their time was up, Jack thanked all of the volunteers and let them go on their way, new skills still included on their status screens.

Soon it was just him and Jeler left and Jack turned to him. "Hey, any chance you could help me out? I want to study magic and it's processes, it could help me with developing system ideas."

Jeler thought for a moment, "I'm no master mage or anything, most of the magic I can do is simple tricks and illusions. But you have some people you could probably ask."

"Who?"

Jeler chuckled, "The people who made you of course."

Zrez, Skol, and Skirl walked away from the testing grounds. The experience had been fruitful, getting close to their target and learning how powerful he was. Despite their gains though, Skol was annoyed. She hadn't been able to see his status screen no matter how much she had tried to appraise him. The blocking skill was a problem, she wanted more information about the disgusting creature.

Zrez hummed softly in amusement. He could see how annoyed she had gotten when her repeated attempts had failed to deliver.

She wheeled on him, anger on her face even as her twin tried to calm her. "What's so funny you lizard?" she spat, using the highly offensive term to try and hurt him.

He didn't rise to the provocation, instead smiling smugly. "So obsessed with this new magic, these new techniques, that you forget the basics. While you were trying and failing to learn about him, I succeeded."

The hostility vanished from Skol as she instantly became curious. It was something Zrez liked about the human, she was honest to her desires.

Skirl jumped into the conversation, her tone hushed to not be overheard. "What did you learn? Can he be killed?"

"Indeed. I now suspect that we are on the righteous path. Jack has been lucky so far. It seems that he has avoided anything fatal for now, but there are strategic weak points in his body. When I read his mana flow, I could tell that he was placed into a dangerous body. If his body were to be attacked enough for him to perish, the flow of mana would close around his core trapping his soul inside. But it would continue spiraling inward, over and over until his soul is crushed completely." Zrez stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I can think of no other reason for this other than the high Deity wanting him to die."

Skol nodded her agreement before Skirl quickly agreed as well. Jack could die, that was all they needed to hear.