Be wary of those with instruction, as there are a great many perks within that ability for sapping or stealing knowledge from others, even enslaving them or binding them to your will. Most disturbingly, they even work when tuition is provided through datasets – this is why you must trust the source implicitly before accepting their tuition.

- What you need to know to survive the Voidbound System, by &*%:”%^%

The fight with the cyborgs, and their abilities, had Jonathon thinking about new spells. His start with life magic had focused him in terms of repairing damage – could he develop or buy some to prevent it in the first place?

Thinking on his knowledge of life magic, he saw he could create spells to temporarily gift resistances, and boost healing rates, which got him wondering on how fast he could make someone regenerate – a little thought suggested the answer was 'very much indeed' – but it would eat at someone's mana, either his or theirs, to do so.

In terms of generating a shield... that was not in his present purview: He could give people armoured skin, and drawing from some of his other magic he could make some very good armoured skin indeed... But it would emphatically be in the realm of shapeshifting, like his dragon warrior form.

He sat at the table, toying with the idea as he worked on the spell design. Adding in regeneration, boosted resistances, and armoured skin was not cheap, and he wasn't quite advanced enough to do this sort of thing to more than one at a time. The System seemed to cap things from the apprentice level by scope and scale: Affecting groups with the most advanced things, or altering the very small, were as of yet out of his purview.

He looked at the spell schema when he was done, and frowned. It would be a god survivability boost – as long as the subject had mana. Which did nothing to solve the basic problem that everyone's pools and stats were low because only a few people had classes so far. They needed to level.

Now, there was that perk in Destiny magic to help with that: but it made him wonder. It had become clear to him that the perks were reflective of the sorts of spells in that field, typically to enhance them or make them easier in some fashion. So since there was a destiny perk to alter experience gain – presumably there were spells as well?

Opening up the store, he started browsing spells, filtering for those related to experience. Unsurprisingly, there were multiple – spells to increase the experience a given subject was worth if you killed it seemed to predominate, spells to alter how experience was allocated in a group (If you wanted to be a naughty little experience thief, you could: the spell would fake experience rewards to the others in the group!) even advanced spells to convert experience into other things – ways to trade out the experience gain for specific sorts of item drops, healing, even powerful attacks – so that killing one member of a group would spawn a more powerful attack to kill the next in line, and so on: An experienced based chain lightning, he supposed, that would keep on going until it failed to kill something or ran out of targets. He had trouble seeing the point of it, until he he red the description – it was optimised, the creator said, for gathering respawns when attacking newbies. How lovely.

He pruned it down to things he could actually cast, and as expected, the offerings got a lot slimmer: they were all variants on the 'cast on a target to increase it's experience value'. It would help him, but... hmm. A thought struck, and he called out for Jeeves.

“How may I serve, Jonathon?” the AI said, shimmering into being. Jonathon explained the spell he was looking at. “I'm curious how that would interact with the casting chamber. It increases 'spell effects' – how would that affect this spell?”

Jeeves was happy to explain, giving him a bright smile. “The experience increase is capped by the level of the spell, so it would be a mix between duration and affected area.” That was exactly what Jonathon had hoped, but he wanted to make sure.

“So if I cast this through the casting chamber, it would affect multiple targets?” Jeeves nodded.

“Potentially. Why don't you learn it and check?” the AI suggested with a grin. Jonathon promptly did so, spending the sixteen SMU to buy it and learning it the moment the dataset appeared.

Congratulations! You have learned the spell 'Moneypig'

Requirements: Destiny (Initiate 3)

Cost: 3 Mana

Upon casting this spell upon a System subject, the experience rewarded upon killing it is increased by 33%. This effect will last for one Cycle.

That done, he left his room, and wet to the casting chamber to check it out: within it he found Colonel Mitchelson and a few other soldiers, looking over the map: They looked up as he entered, giving him a nod.

“Jonathon.” The colonel said, courteously. “We're taking a look at the surrounding forces, to get a better idea of what we're facing. What brings you here?” His tone wasn't challenging, more curious, and Jonathon just nodded to the table.

“Here to test a theory.” He looked over the map – it gave a glorious view – and zoomed it in on what seemed to be a party out fighting. Members of his guild and a squad of soldiers, apparently, although he didn't recognise their names, up against some skeletal blademasters. Having fought them himself, he winced slightly: they were a tough opponent, and this group seemed to have a commander with them. The home team did not seem to be doing well, and as an initial test, he spammed out Greater Healing on those most affected, two at a time: The soldiers seemed quite surprised.

“How the hell are you doing that?” one of the colonel's aide's asked. Jonathon snorted, focusing now on the monsters, and answered as he threw out moneypig, again twice, over the monsters: He did notice the spell costs were higher to do it this way, but the regeneration provided by the temple made it hard to determine by how much.

“The map room is integrated with a casting chamber for tactical magic. Anyone I authorise can cast spells this way.” it was interesting to note how the room boosted his spells: Everyone struck by his healing spell seemed to be fully healed, regenerating from the wounds they took with comic-book speed: Moneypig, conversely, seemed to affect the entire enemy squad with two castings, and had a listed duration of 'eighteen cycles' – so almost three minutes: It was quite satisfying to see the tide turn, the team gaining an advantage over the monsters as their wounds healed almost as fast as they had been made, spells and gunfire ripping the skeletons apart.

Jonathon was surprised, however, when the fight was won.

You have Slain Seven Level 14 Skeletal Blademasters!

You have Slain One Level 16 Skeletal Blademaster!

You have slain One Level 18 Skeletal Bladelord!

Your rewards have been split with allied swarm.

You receive 866 SMU credit

10 XP

It seemed that since his healing spell had affected the fight, he was considered part of it. - and had presumably reduced the amount of experience the party received. Still, the amount should have been boosted, and he would know for future – if nothing else, this would help with his levelling. Which led to the question – if he had Frank enhance his cast with a blessing, especially with the temple as part of the structure...

Looking up, the soldiers were in soft discussion, casting glances his way. “I have a new spell, it increases the amount of experience a given target is worth for a few minutes. I'm thinking if Franks and I work together from here, I can increase everyone's experience gain and provide eye in the sky healing – though if I do provide healing, or I suppose help with the fight in any way, I apparently get some of the experience. So tomorrow, let's organise another big hunt, and those of us with classes will stay in here and provide support? Once we have everyone to at least level 3, we can reassess.”

The colonel gave a firm nod. “Helpful. What are the requirements of this spell?” he gestured to one of his aides, making sure the other man was paying attention as Jonathon explained the requirements, the cost, and the ridiculous name. His words made the Colonel most thoughtful.

“I know a fair number of my men meet the qualifications to cast it. I am given to understand you can teach spells in the Instruction halls? Can I persuade you to train my men who qualify for it?”

Jonathon nodded: The more who could the better, and it wasn't exactly a difficult spell. “Of course. This evening, at six? It shouldn't take more than an hour or so.” his words garnered a pleased smile from the army men, and Jonathon smiled in return. “If You'll excuse me, I have a few other things to arrange if we're going to do another mass hunt tomorrow.”

“Certainly, Jonathon. I'll have them waiting for you outside the room by eighteen hundred. Thank you.” The colonel replied, as Jonathon swept out of the room.

Of course, he hadn't made three steps before he bumped into someone he recognised: the muscular, athletic redhead he'd met in the afterlife, Amira: She appeared to have been looking for him, and gave him a bright smile. “Can I borrow you for a few minutes, boss?”

He nodded, and gestured with her to walk with him. “Sure. What's on your mind?” she fell in line with him, long strides to keep up with his own powerful stride.

“When I hit level three.. . I want to have one of the custom classes, If possible?” Amira asked, rushing on before he could respond. “I want to make a magical martial arts class, and teach it to everyone who wants it. More than that – I'll pay for it! I got UMA up to apprentice six, and Michelle helped me with Instruction, so it would help a lot of people!”

Jonathon realised they hadn't actually advertised that anyone in the group could claim anything the group had, and a quick check confirmed they still had six custom classes the gang could use: He nodded to her idea. “Done, if you're doing training. Jeeves!” he paused in the hallway as the hologram the AI used shimmered into being.

“Yes, Jonathon?” he said, sounding very much like a butler. “Can you set Amira up with training authorisation in the Instruction facility? Can she have her own instance of it?”

Jeeves bobbed a nod in the air. “Certainly, Jonathon.” Jon smiled, then paused for a second, indecisive for a moment before gesturing Amira closer. In a very soft tone, he explained that the gang purchases of custom classes were something anyone could grab when they hit level three – so if she wanted it, she'd need to hit that level early on. “What are you on right now?”

“Level two. I'm short seven xp for three.” Amira explained, sounding a mite frustrated: Jonathon nodded.

“Know any Destiny magic?” she shook her head, and he changed course, directing her to follow. “Then let's see if I can train you up to Initiate 4 – there's a perk you can learn, and a spell I can teach you, that should help.”

Setting up the instruction environment, he got to flex his own instruction ability, boosted by the room to Grandmaster: It only took a couple of hours to raise her level in Destiny magic to equal his own, and he pointed her at 'aura of experience' before making her a moneypig dataset. As Amira began to set up her own training environment – he summoned Jeeves once more.

“Let everyone know we're doing a levelling up exercise tomorrow, starting at eleven in the morning, supported from the Fortification this time. Also let them know Amira is offering boosted training in Unarmed Martial Arts in the instruction facility all afternoon, for those interested in improving their combat ability. Finally, arrange a meeting with my team this evening at 7?”

“Certainly, Jonathon.” Jeeves replied. “Is there anything else I can do to help?” Jonathon shook his head, and as the AI winked out, he focused himself on training. He was something of a martial artist himself, after all – why not take advantage of her tuition?