Building a magic system on threat of destruction

The sci-fi-looking robot seemed to notice Jack's self-examination. “Why don’t we step outside? There is much to discuss. Riniox? Jeler? Will you please follow me?” She began to usher the two other robots out the door, along with the big lady and the cat person.

“Jack?” she said, turning back to me. “Why don’t you take some time to get accustomed to your body? One of us will be back shortly. Please don’t touch anything though, we have some very delicate equipment here.”

Saying that she left the room along with all the others. Jack was left alone in the cluttered space to think and examine himself. The sci-fi robot had been the only one to speak, Jack wondered if the other kinds could talk or not, maybe they were older models? The name Jeler also stirred up some memories. Hadn’t he seen a status screen about someone named Jeler? It could be a coincidence, but maybe not. He would have to investigate later.

For now, Jack decided to investigate his body. He didn’t spot a mirror in the room, but there were enough reflective metal surfaces that he could get a good look. His body seemed small compared to the space. The furniture was sized for someone like him, but the ceiling and door seemed too tall for someone of his height. Aside from that, he appeared to be some kind of monstrous mish-mash of parts. He had three distinct sections of body. Split down the middle, he resembled the sci-fi bot, all sleek and silvery until around his armpits. The left side of his body was steampunk, the dull brown covered in pipes and occasionally letting out puffs of steam. The right side was the coppery metal, with gears ticking along in perfect time. His torso was round and wasn’t completely sci-fi all the way across. There seemed to be horizontal lines that cleanly divided where each different part began and ended, though most of his middle was the silvery part.

All in all, he looked bizarre. Like someone had decided to make the ugliest robot possible out of three different genres. Then thinking about it, he wondered if Deis had asked them to make him ugly, that seemed like something the petty god would do.

Well, maybe he could accessorize later. The three robots hadn’t worn much in the way of clothing, but the steampunk one had glasses, so maybe he could try that.

‘Well, no sense wasting time.’ Jack thought to himself. “Status.” With a flourish that was totally unnecessary, Jack swept his hand out and his status screen appeared in front of him. His name was still listed as Jack, and Earth human was still listed under race where he had left it. His height and weight had been filled in automatically though. His new body was 4'2" and weighed a shocking 210 pounds. But that wasn't why he had opened his status sheet. Jack had decided to try a small experiment before coming here and left his keyboard attached to the bottom of his status screen. Sure enough, the keyboard was still attached, and Jack pumped his fist in excitement. Having the keyboard with him would open up so many possibilities. Especially if he could attach it to other people's status screens.

He decided to try an experiment while he waited. He only had two skills listed at the moment, the [Status] spell, and another Deis had apparently given him called [Status Granting]. Presumably, this would allow him to give other people access to their status sheet. Considering he had no one to test that on for now, he turned to other skills. None of the other skills Jack had tested except Deity resistance had seemed to do anything. Now that he had a body in the real world though, he might be able to see some results. He had a few options committed to memory. It had been unrealistic to try and remember the thousands of skills on the list in just a day, but he had thought of a couple that would be easy to try.

The first was the [Walking] skill. Jack had no idea why this was a skill. Presumably, it was because babies could learn to walk, and certain people couldn’t walk. The ducol status he had examined contained no walking skills, apparently able to float or fly for its entire existence. But even with all of that logic being applied…it was a walking skill. Well, he typed it in, then began to walk. He did a few laps around the room, both to get used to his new body and also to see if the skill did anything obvious. Once he determined that nothing was really happening, he deleted the skill from his list.

Now, Jack wasn’t really sure what would happen if he removed this skill from his list. Would he stop being able to walk? His status sheet was different from most people’s, in that Deis had never filled any of his skills in, but he could still do things like think and breathe. Well, he assumed he could breathe. Thinking deeper about it, he had basically been a ghost and was now a robot. But at the very least the thinking skill had been on every status screen he had seen, and he knew that he was thinking. But just because he could do things without having the skills listed, didn’t mean he could do anything he could think of. He wouldn’t be able to summon his status without the skill as an example, so clearly there was some effect in place.

But despite all of this thought on the matter, and even the fact that he expected something to go wrong, it still surprised Jack when he went to step forward and promptly fell over. He crashed loudly into the ground, the three different materials he was made of each making different sounds as they slammed into the floor. The noise he made was so great in fact, that the cat person he had seen earlier burst into the room, apparently having heard him fall over.

The feline quickly ran over to Jack. “Are you okay? What happened?” The cat’s eyes darted to the blue screen hovering in front of Jack, and out of nowhere, knives appeared in his hands. He yelled, “Get back!” and dove forward, bringing his knives crashing into the screen.

The blades promptly snapped into pieces, and the startled cat man smashed face-first into the status screen. Unfortunately, because of the screen's proximity to Jack, that meant that the cat man also then landed on Jack. The two of them became a confused pile of limbs as the cat tried to kick at the floating blue screen, only to push himself away from it and into Jack. This in turn pushed Jack, which made the screen follow and get closer to the cat man. Jack was so disoriented that he couldn’t help.

“What are you doing?” a commanding voice bellowed out. The cat man froze at the voice, stopping the unfortunate situation from continuing. A single huge hand reached down and picked Jack up by the head. The woman he had seen earlier was truly enormous, especially now that he was in a much smaller body.

As he rose the screen came with him, and the cat man hissed at it. “Careful boss, it might be dangerous.” Then he looked sadly down at his hand and mumbled “Broke both my knives too…”

The woman glared at the screen, which followed Jack into the air automatically. She held him for a few moments, before moving him slightly in the air. The screen mimicked his movements exactly.

“This your doing?” she asked Jack, pointing at the screen.

“Oh yeah. Sorry for the confusion. Umm, could you put me down please?”

The woman lowered him to the floor and released his head. Jack went to move back a step and promptly fell over again. “Ah dang it! Sorry, umm, just give me a sec.” He quickly typed the [Walking] skill back into his status sheet and stood up. He tested taking a few steps and, feeling satisfied that he could walk again, cleared his throat.

Jack swept his hand out dramatically, and spoke authoritatively, “Behold! The mighty system! A powerful magic which your god has seen fit to grant you!” He turned to look at the cat man and woman in front of him, expecting them to be impressed. Instead, their faces were a mix of incredulity and amusement.

Jack waited for them to respond to him. He was expecting…questions? Comments? Concerns? But the two figures seemed content to stand there, simply looking at him. He had flashbacks to his early interactions with Deis, where he was expected to act and ask things. So he decided to take the lead.

Closing his status screen, he bowed slightly to the both of them. That was probably a respectful thing to do. “Well, umm. Once again, I’m Jack. I’m here to help integrate a new and powerful magic to the world. It’s nice to meet you.”

The tall woman regarded him for a moment and then stuck her hand out. “Riniox. I’m the leader of the Battered Bracers, a mercenary band. This,” She thumbed at the cat man. “is Jeler. He’s going to take care of you while you stay here.”

Jeler looked miserable at this declaration, his ears low and his posture hunched slightly. His boss didn’t seem to notice, instead continuing the conversation. “So what’s this new and crazy magic that the High Deity saw fit to grant us? Can anyone use it?”

“Oh yes!” This was Jack's chance! An opportunity to start testing the system and begin asking questions. “I can give anyone the ability to use this new magic, though it’s still being developed. There shouldn’t be any harmful effects, to be honest, it’s intended purpose is to empower just about everything a person is able to do.”

Riniox raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Everything? Can you be more specific?”

“Sure! Basically, Deis intends to lend each and every person more power to things they have learned to do. Things like cooking, hiding, fighting-” Jack was going to continue, but Riniox suddenly grinned savagely.

“Give it to me!” She practically leaped forward and grabbed Jack by his arms. “Give it to me right now!”

Jeler suddenly looked very afraid. “Boss, hey maybe we should think about this. It could be dangerous. Let’s just take some time and-” A fist rocketed out and bashed Jeler away. Riniox had hit her subordinate without her eyes ever leaving Jack. Hunger burned in her expression, and her vicious grin revealed sharp, pointed teeth.

Jack was terrified, the woman loomed over him. Her grip was so strong on him that he didn’t feel like he could move. “U-umm, y-yes I can d-do that.” he managed to get out the words, and Riniox backed up less than an inch, her eyes unblinking. She did release his arms though, so he was able to perform the skill.

Unlike the [Status] skill, which was very simple, the [Status Granting] skill was complex. It required him to speak certain words and perform certain actions. He began speaking, feeling himself be pulled along as the skill began affecting him, his mouth moving automatically as his arms moved in complicated motions. It lasted a few minutes, but the skill completed, the final words ringing out.

“Status granted!”